Subculture (6 page)

‘You okay?' he murmured.

‘Why shouldn't I be?' The hostility in her own voice surprised her. He'd just given her the best orgasm of her existence and her body felt incredibly indolent and relaxed. Yet her mind suddenly longed to hurt this man, to destroy the languid atmosphere. ‘Can I go now?' she asked in a ridiculously formal tone.

Sensed Michael's slow nod. ‘If that's what you want, my dear.'

‘What else did you have in mind?' she muttered, flexing her wrists against the couch.

‘I could have shown you round the island. I've a boat at the Marina.' She felt his palm slide over her hair. ‘The water is perfect today.'

‘No thanks. I like my own company and I prefer dry land,' Lisa lied, rejecting the attractive aquatic image and starting to push back on to her hands and knees.

Her crotch was far from dry. Her labia peeled reluctantly away from his leg when she moved away, the tissues making a small slurping noise. Wincing, she again clambered gingerly from the medical couch feeling a strong sense of deja vu. The sense of discord was even stronger as she mused over his invitation. Why was he suddenly being so friendly, so nice?

‘Well, if you change your mind my offer still stands,' Michael Landers said evenly as she started to pull up her panties. ‘For the next four days I've deliberately kept my consultancy time light.'

Lisa refused to answer his hopeful smile. Instead, she reached for her olive shorts and started to edge them carefully over her punished haunches. ‘Really, I like my own company. I'll be fine.'

‘Well, enjoy your travels. If you want directions or anything don't hesitate to knock on my office door.'

Nodding, Lisa made for her room. Her red bottom was tingling and her vulva was sated. For now, her body felt completely right. But the man had said that he took his employees to the limits of sexual pain and pleasure, so she didn't want to think about the direction he might have in mind.

 

Later that same morning the herbalist tiptoed down the stairs again, intent on leaving Vitality for a few hours in search of the enchantments of Malta. She didn't want Michael to see her. She couldn't face anyone just yet. Her clitoral pulsing had ebbed away and the sizzling of her buttocks had faded to a glow that was embarrassingly pleasant. But she still felt hugely transparent, suspected that the other servants in the house would look at her and somehow know, Not that she was a servant, she reminded herself quickly, she was a valuable employee.

An employee with several days' exploration time, thank goodness. Glad that her ankle-length pinafore and underlying long white T-shirt covered her recently-spanked curves, Lisa began to tiptoe past the door leading to Reception.

‘Ah. I've been looking out for you.' Marie-Rose came hurrying into the foyer, her round face lit with a motherly smile. ‘Dr Landers asked me to give you this Guide Book,' she continued. ‘He said that Achille the chauffeur will drive you wherever you wish.'

Lisa beamed back at her. ‘Really, no - I'll do the free spirit bit and take the bus.' She hated the prospect of being cooped up with any man for the next few hours, had to regain her composure, find her own space.

‘Dr Landers will worry about you being alone.' The Receptionist licked her full pink lips.

‘Tell Dr Landers that I'm a big girl now.' Lisa winced as the words left her. A couple of hours ago she'd felt very small indeed.

‘I'll give you a bus timetable, then,' the stockily handsome older woman continued. ‘But be at the stop about fifteen minutes before the bus is due. They're variable in when they arrive.'

Everything was variable here, Lisa thought as the woman went into the filing cabinet and produced a list of bus departure and arrival times.

‘We'd love you to join us for dinner at eight,' Marie-Rose added, pressing the pamphlet into Lisa's right hand. ‘Carmen enjoys trying out fresh recipes for a new guest. She'll cook whatever you like.'

Lisa thought of Michael Landers presiding at the top of the long polished dining table, and her nipples tingled nervously. But she had to face him some time...

Three minutes after leaving Vitality, Lisa found an English-style bus stop. She'd go to Valletta, the Maltese capital. Would stroll about in the sun and check out the shops. She felt her happiness increase as a creaking coach came trundling round the corner. Then her smile faltered; Bedford Dominant was printed on the front. The herbalist grimaced at the unintentional irony, and smoothed her pinafore dress more firmly over her hot small buttocks. For the next three months she wanted to be in charge.

And she would be from now on. She'd simply refuse to make any errors. That way she'd avoid the man's cane and just taste his medical knowledge and his bounteous hospitality.

‘One to Valletta, please,' Lisa told the coach driver. He was as remote as bus drivers seem to be the world over. Dropping the few cents he requested into his outstretched palm, she made her way down the half-empty bus. She'd been prepared to spend much more than this on transport - on everything. Michael was paying her a generous salary and had already left a crisp thick bundle of Maltese pounds in her room. Lisa stared eagerly out of the window as the coach drove past crop-heavy farmyards. Didn't the Maltese keep animals? There wasn't a cow in sight.

When the bus reached Valletta she alighted into a boisterous modern part of her new world. She followed the guide book, till she came to the Sunday Market. Stalls stretched out for as far as her widening eyes could see. There were so many different tourists and accents and goods on offer, so much to study and ultimately understand. For wasn't that why people travelled? To get to know the Bigger Picture in the hope that it would help them study the smaller but complex canvas that was themselves.

She understood now that a spanking could make her wet. Lisa forced her slender limbs further into the crowd. She felt strangely safe in its midst - unwatched, completely anonymous. Was half-carried past the stalls of cassette tapes, candies, paperbacks, wood and brass. Feeling guilty about orgasming over the doctor's suited knees, she bought an Aran jumper for Reece.

Back at Vitality that night she napped, showered, changed into a dusky pink skirt suit that she hoped warned don't touch me. Don't put a hand on my shoulder, far less spank my seat. She brushed her silky hair till its auburn highlights shone in the evening sunshine. Then she applied a little diluted rose oil to her pulse spots and stared at the clock. She didn't want to go down before 8pm, for that might look too eager. She didn't want to go down afterwards, for the bastard might try to penalise her for being late.

At a fraction before the allotted time, Lisa left her room and traipsed slowly down the stairs and along the corridors. Only her heart was beating fast.

As the grandfather clock in the dining hall chimed for the sixth or seventh time, she made her entrance, took in the long rectangular table - Michael, Marie-Rose and Jamilla were already sitting there. All three were leaning forward, obviously caught up in some animated discussion, but broke off to smile at her. Lisa smiled back, and forced herself to keep smiling as Michael pulled out the seat across from his.

‘I hear you took the bus to Valletta,' he said casually.

‘You seem to hear a lot,' Lisa replied. She kept her voice equally light for the benefit of the others. Looked up, glad of the interruption as a Maltese youth of around nineteen walked in.

‘Ah Bakar - just in time,' Michael said with a very slight edge to his voice. ‘Glad that we could drag you away from exercising the horses.' He turned back to Lisa. ‘Bakar can groom a chestnut roan till it shines; can tempt the tiniest foal into eating to get its strength up. If only his gifts extended to punctuality.' He looked at the antique gold watch on his strong wrist, and Lisa shuddered involuntarily as she remembered his palm lifting and falling. ‘Well, we can't wait any longer for dear Dania to arrive.' He pushed a buzzer that presumably alerted the kitchen staff, for Carmen hurried in.

‘Dania hasn't graced us with her presence yet. No, just put her starter out. She'll need all the energy she can find to get through the thrashing which will follow,' Michael said casually. Oh God, he wasn't going to thrash another servant, was he? Lisa felt the blood rush to her face and to her pubis at the man's words.

Hastily she spooned up a firm King prawn and put it to lips which felt numbed and strangely slackened. Surely he wouldn't cane an employee's bare bottom at the table? If he started to chasten anyone, she'd get up to leave. She wondered who poor Dania was, for it was the first time she'd heard the name mentioned, but didn't dare ask for fear of drawing further attention to the girl's absence and buttock-based fate.

All five of them were halfway through the main course when a fair-haired girl in a knee length floaty lemon dress rushed in.

‘Problems with the marketing budget figures... Forgot about the time.' She looked pleadingly at Michael.

‘Eat your starter. You can have your main course sent up to your room after you've had your arse tanned,' the doctor said.

‘But I've never been late before,' the girl muttered, her face turning the same hot shade that Lisa's was.

‘And you'll never be late again if you're retrained by a thorough whipping,' Michael Landers replied.

‘It's just that I couldn't find the receipts book...' the twenty-something female stammered.

‘And Carmen couldn't serve your meal. And Lisa couldn't be introduced to you at the start of dinner. And the rest of us couldn't relax because we didn't know where on earth you'd gone,' Dr Landers said.

‘I took the Accounts into the Conservatory and sat by the open door,' Dania muttered. All the fight seemed to have gone out of her. She spooned up a slice of avocado and nibbled at it dully. Her eyes were downcast for a while, but when they finally looked up they were suspiciously large and bright. Could the girl actually be excited by this public shaming, Lisa thought, forcing down another tender flake of spicy grilled swordfish. Was that why she was squirming in her seat?

Silently the staff finished their main course and Dania finished her prawns. Michael buzzed the kitchens and Carmen brought in a trolley laden with wine, brandy and champagne.

‘Bring herbal wine and cider for our herbalist friend,' Michael said, smiling at Lisa.

Lisa sucked in her breath. ‘I'd rather have a brandy.' God knows, she needed a strong nerve-steadying drink.

Her first brandy warmed her mouth, throat, chest and belly, went down fast. Michael raised an eyebrow as she leaned forward to pour herself a second.

‘Let's all take our drinks into the sitting room,' he said, then slapped Dania's hand away as it reached for the champagne. ‘Angel' he told her, ‘you know that when you're due a hard spanking you're not allowed an alcoholic drink.'

‘Not fair,' the girl muttered, pouting. ‘I'm feeling tired.'

‘Well, a hot sore rump will soon revive you,' the doctor added, picking up his own glass. ‘Maybe then you'll start acting like twenty-four instead of six.'

Lisa walked behind Dania into the sitting room. The girl moved with easy confidence. She spoke well, looked good, was representative of the educated English middle classes, was obviously bright. Was she really going to allow herself to be spanked by Michael Landers in front of the assembled staff?

In the sitting room Lisa took the armchair nearest the door. Her heart beat fast and hard, her calf muscles restless. She had to be ready for a verbal sparring, ready to flee.

‘Right, Marie-Rose, will you do the honours?' Michael Landers asked. Lisa stared at him then at the Receptionist, not quite sure what he was implying. Watched the forty year old woman roll up her full length dress sleeves.

Then Marie-Rose patted her lap. ‘Come and lie across Auntie Rose's knee, my dear,' she said looking fixedly at Dania.

The younger girl sat back further in her chair and glanced frantically around the room as if seeking an outlet. ‘Dr Landers. Aren't you going to...?' she muttered at last.

‘Not this time. I want to relax awhile and finish my brandy,' the former surgeon said.

Lisa felt her own features freeze in dismay and shock. She'd been shamed enough being spanked in private in his surgical examination rooms. Surely he wasn't going to let the Receptionist spank the Accountant in front of the other employees? She looked at Bakar the gardening boy, only to find his gaze fixed challengingly on Dania, who remained mutely seated and seemingly immobilised.

‘Get that unpunctual little bum over Marie-Rose's knee right this minute or you'll never work for me again,' Michael Landers said.

‘It's not right.' Slowly the twenty-four year old got to her sandal-clad feet. Heels trailing, she made her way across the large square room, hesitating as she reached the stockier woman, then bent over her lap in a series of jerky movements. ‘Please let me keep my pants on,' she whispered to no one in particular. ‘Oh please!'

‘She's especially shy because you're here,' Michael Landers said conversationally to Lisa.