House Rules (11 page)

Perhaps that was why he was clumsy with the tea things when called upon to serve Margaret and an unknown man, to whom she was more than usually deferent. They had been discussing some financial transaction, when Richard entered the room without knocking. Margaret looked up in annoyed surprise, and he stumbled and spilt sugar on the floor. The visitor took no notice of the accident, but they both stopped talking at once as if unwilling to have their conversation overheard. Richard noticed one of the same suitcases he had seen earlier. He guessed that another cash transfer was being arranged. Margaret glared at Richard and signalled for him to withdraw. From the hall he heard their voices resume in the sitting room.

When Margaret sent for him later, Richard saw that she was still angry. He thought her anger made her more exciting. Wordlessly, she beckoned him into the long dining room and closed the door behind them.

He had never been inside the room properly, only catching glimpses of it through the open door in passing. Now he saw that it contained a long table with seats for perhaps sixteen people. One wall was entirely of glass, allowing the sunlight to enter the room whenever the heavy drapes were pulled back, as they were now. French windows opened on to a patio, and there was a long view across the side garden to a distant line of trees. There was no one in sight in all that open land.

But it was not the view that held Richard’s eye. In the corner farthest from the door was a whipping frame. That was obvious to him, even though he had never seen one before. It consisted of three wooden upright posts joined at the top, their feet resting on the carpeted floor. There were horizontal poles just above floor level fitted into the uprights in order to prevent them shifting. The device had been made with some care. The joints were carefully fitted, and the wood had been polished so that it was almost a part of the room’s furnishings. But it stood apart from the table and the chairs, its purpose entirely different from the rest of the furniture.

Margaret rang a bell, and presently Marie appeared at the door. She still wore her leg-irons, but seemed unselfconscious about them. Margaret ordered her to fetch rope from the basement. When she had gone, Margaret turned to Richard and ordered him to take his clothes off. He managed to unzip the dress on his own this time, and he stepped out of it to stand before Margaret in slip, tights and corselet. She motioned him to hang the dress over a chair and to get out of his underwear as well. Soon he was naked before her angry gaze.

His cock, taped to his belly as Ingrid had shown him, nevertheless began to stiffen. Margaret noticed but said only, ‘We’ll see how it feels after you’ve been disciplined.’ They both stood silently until Marie came back with a coil of rope and a kitchen knife. She handed these items to Margaret and withdrew silently, but not before she had caught Richard’s eye and made a mock grimace of sympathy for him.

Margaret closed the door and beckoned Richard to follow her to the whipping frame. She tied his hands together in front of him and had him stand on one of the horizontal base bars so that his feet were off the floor. Then, standing on another of the same bars, she lifted his bound wrists and tied them to the apex of the triangle. She spread his ankles and tied them to adjacent poles. Richard found that he could stand comfortably enough but of course could not free himself.

Only when he was secured did Margaret offer any explanation for her anger. ‘I never allow the servants to overhear my business affairs. You should have knocked before entering the room. The man I was entertaining is very important to my business, and he wishes to remain anonymous. You will not do that again.’

Richard started to say that he had not known the importance of anonymity, but in the end remained silent. Ignorance was no defence in Margaret’s eyes. Nor was anything else, once she had decided to assert her dominance. This much he had learnt from casual conversation among his fellow servants.

Margaret left the room and returned shortly with the bamboo cane she often used to emphasise her instructions. Richard glanced once over his shoulder as she approached him, admiring once again the feline grace of her movements. He would never be able to learn to move as she did. Then he looked away, out to the garden and the tree line as he waited for her to begin.

He didn’t cry out as she struck him. That was his way of letting Margaret know that there were some things she couldn’t make him do – an assertion of his own essential independence, even as he submitted to her will. His silence may have prolonged the beating. But he didn’t think so. If he had cried out or begged her to stop, she would only have struck him harder, he believed. He had learnt from the others that Margaret was never moved by pity. Heidi told of being beaten harder the louder she screamed. She also gave it as her opinion that Margaret enjoyed making others beg her to stop.

Yet even as she whipped him he was conscious of a stirring of excitement. His cock, stiff before she began, remained so throughout the beating. He even felt he was on the verge of orgasm at several points. What was the protocol about that, he wondered? Would Margaret regard it as a victory if she made him come? He wondered if he would be able to stop himself, or if he wanted to. In the end, Margaret decided the issue by stopping before he came.

Richard hung from the ropes that bound him to the frame. His back, bottom and legs felt as if they were on fire. But he had remained silent. Despite her best efforts, Margaret had not been able to break him. When she moved around to stand in front of him, he saw that she was breathing heavily from her efforts. He raised his head and looked into her eyes before lowering it again. She knew that inside he was still untouched. He knew that she would have to try again.

But when he looked at her again, he saw that she was excited too. Margaret’s face was flushed and her breathing more rapid than her exertions warranted. Clearly, she got a sexual thrill from hurting and dominating others, as Heidi had intimated.

Nevertheless, what she did next took him by surprise. Ingrid had said that her sister was very private about her sexual indulgences, but Margaret moved directly in front of Richard and raised her skirt around her hips. She wore no pants, and Richard wondered how much planning had gone into that.

Margaret’s legs were long, full and shapely, accentuated by the soft sheen of the stockings she wore. Richard felt his cock move against his belly where the tape held it.

Margaret noticed his erection too. She prodded his cock with the cane, enjoying his sharp intake of breath. But she was more interested in her own reaction. Satisfied that she had Richard’s attention, she moved her feet apart so that her thighs were parted. Margaret moved the cane between her own legs, touching her crotch with the stiff bamboo and running it back and forth against her labia. As she did so, her breath became more ragged and rapid. Clearly she was arousing herself and enjoying his inability to take part in the act, very much as she had done in Helena’s apartment.

Richard watched her autoeroticism and did indeed regret his inability to join in. A waste of a beautiful woman, he thought. And he wondered what had made her this way.

Margaret removed the cane and held it towards Richard. He could see that it was wet with her juice. She moved the cane under his nose, and the scent of her arousal was unmistakable and very strong. She smiled at his reaction.

‘Would you like to make love to me?’ she asked with a distant smile.

This time Richard allowed his feelings to show. He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

Margaret’s smile grew wider, but she made no move towards him.

‘Well, you can’t,’ she told him. ‘But you can watch,’ she taunted him. ‘I imagine you won’t be able to look away.’ She put the cane back between her legs and continued to arouse herself.

Richard watched as she moved the rod faster and faster between her thighs, pressing it harder against her cunt as she did so. The flush deepened and spread down her neck, until it was hidden by the neckline of her blouse. Margaret used one hand to cup her breasts, teasing herself through the fine silk.

Richard could only watch helplessly as her excitement mounted. He knew that much of it was due to his presence and his obvious desire to have her. He wondered what she would be like if she ever allowed him – or anyone else – to make love to her.

Margaret’s excitement grew. She breathed more rapidly. The rod moved faster between her legs, and her fingers now squeezed and twisted her breasts as she approached climax. Her hips moved slowly, sinuously, in time with the thrusts of the cane between her legs. Her eyes lost their focus. She seemed to be looking through Richard. Abruptly she jerked her hips and moaned loudly. Her back arched as she came.

Richard was excited by her display. His breath was short, and he felt the familiar tenseness in his groin and cock. But he could do nothing about that.

Margaret clearly had no need of any help. She was lost in a series of shattering orgasms. She moaned continuously now, her hips moving and her thighs quivering as she came. He might as well not have been there for all the attention she paid him.

Margaret’s excitement fed on his presence and his helplessness. She needed an audience to reach these heights of pleasure. Too bad she didn’t seem to need his active participation. Involuntarily, he thrust his own hips towards her.

Margaret opened her eyes at the same moment, and she smiled as she recognised the signs of his arousal. She moved the cane from between her legs and regarded him with flushed face and heaving breasts. She lashed his cock lightly, and he felt it leap from the blow before the pain struck him. Margaret enjoyed his reaction, leaning against the frame to which he was bound as excitement ebbed. She smiled slightly at him as she allowed her skirt to drop back into place. ‘You are learning,’ she said, as she turned away and left the room.

Richard looked out at the trees in the distance as he waited for the fire in his back and in his cock to die down. Then he closed his eyes and dozed.

* * *

The cool breeze woke him. He saw that the French windows were open, and that both Heidi and Marie had come to him. Marie told him that they didn’t dare untie him: Margaret would only find out, and they would be beaten.

He nodded his understanding.

She offered him a glass of wine, and he took it gratefully. Then she told him that they had come to offer what comfort they could, knowing what Margaret was like. She raised her short skirt to let him see she was still locked into her chastity belt. Heidi made a ‘me-too’ gesture. Then Marie knelt before him and freed his cock from the surgical tape. The two women, one blonde and the other dark, then took turns caressing and arousing him. Perhaps it was their way of demonstrating their power over him. Everyone here seemed to be playing the power game.

But after a while that didn’t matter very much, as the two women vied with one another to arouse him. They seemed to enjoy giving him pleasure after the suffering. Kneeling before him, Marie took him into her mouth, and he was engulfed in the warm wetness, in which her tongue was a magical serpent winding itself around and around him. Heidi stood behind Marie and toyed with the other woman’s breasts, unbuttoning the top of her maid’s outfit to expose them. Heidi unbuttoned her own top as well, so that Richard could see her rounded breasts as he was aroused by Marie.

He could only stare helplessly at her nakedness as Marie used her mouth on his cock. Heidi cupped Marie’s breasts in her hands, as if offering them to him. Marie groaned, the sound muffled by the cock in her mouth. When Heidi squeezed the taut nipples between her thumb and forefinger, Marie arched her back with a loud moan of pleasure. Her hips began to thrust slowly backward and forward as her orgasm built.

Richard too was thrusting as Marie’s tongue teased his cock. He felt himself sliding in and out between her lips, his cock alternately warm and then cool as he moved in the slow dance of arousal and pleasure. Marie followed him, never letting him slide out completely, her groans counterpointing his own deeper grunts. He was pulling involuntarily against the ropes that bound him to the frame, wanting to use his hands to hold Marie against him as his excitement grew. Some part of him realised that his added excitement was at least partly due to his helplessness.

Marie held him steady with her arms around his waist, trapping almost the entire length of his cock in the warm wetness of her mouth. She nipped him sharply with her teeth as another orgasm racked her. That was too much for Richard. He could hold back no longer, and with a low groan he came. Marie gasped with her own pleasure but managed to swallow his semen. None escaped to stain her uniform or the carpet.

When Richard had spent himself, the women turned to one another. They began to kiss and rub one another’s breasts. Had it not been for the chastity belts each wore, he was certain they would have gone straight for one another’s cunts. In the aftermath of his own orgasm, Richard wondered idly if they were lovers. Each seemed to know what would arouse the other. For a long time he watched the play of hands and fingers on breasts, the teasing and pinching of engorged nipples, and the kissing and sucking of eager mouths, as they took what pleasure was allowed them. After what seemed hours, they were done. Both women kissed him as they left the room. Once more he stared out at the distant trees as he waited for Margaret to release him.

Night was falling when she came for him. Wordlessly she untied him from the frame and watched as he stretched his cramped muscles. She ordered him to get dressed and then go help in the kitchen with the evening meal. After Margaret had eaten, the servants gathered in the kitchen for their own meal. Richard ate standing up. Marie and Heidi said nothing, either about the beating he had received or about their later visit to him. The cook was not reliable, he had learnt, and was apt to carry tales to Margaret. Raymond was absent, and Richard learnt that he was away. Probably carrying a suitcase full of cash, Richard guessed, and wondered when he would be sent on a similar errand. The idea of travelling disguised as a woman excited him.