The Collectors (16 page)

“Can I come now?” I was panting.

“Yes. Come to me,” she said putting two fingers into me. “Come now.”

The boathouse was an acoustic nightmare, and the sound of my cries must have scared the fish below us. In the aftermath, I had my arm draped across my eyes as I tried to swim back up to real time and space. I felt Jeanne move so her face was resting on my belly.

“Wow,” I said, vocabulary eluding me for the moment.

Jeanne was quiet.

“Are you there?” I raised my head and looked down at her, and she lifted her head to look back at me.

“I’m here, though I’m sure that didn’t seem like me.”

 “It did.”

“Really? Because it’s been a long time since I made love to a woman that way.”

“You seemed to remember how just fine.”

She sat upright and straightened her clothing. “Well, don’t get your hopes up. I don’t think I’ve changed.”

“I hope not. I loved that, but it wouldn’t be you if it’s all we did.”

Another long pause. She gazed straight ahead, toward the lake, though the door to the boat house was down and there was nothing to look at.

“Why do you think that happened?” she asked.

 For the first time I was seeing Jeanne as a bit confused, less in charge than was normally the case. It didn’t fit with what attracted me to her as a dominant, but it made her all the more human to me as a woman. The question I struggled with was whether I wanted to encourage her vulnerability or discourage it. Did I want to know her, or did I want to just play with her?

“Why would it be strange for you to have a desire to be tender?” I asked.

“I don’t think of myself as tender.”

“You’re complex. That’s partly why I love you.”

The words hung in the air. I hadn’t yet told her I loved her and I could see it startled her. She helped me on with my clothes and we left for the main house, where I followed her to the west wing of the property. I was trying to hold my tongue.

“I’ll see you this evening when we gather for cocktails,” Jeanne said. “Your bag is already in my room, but you will find you have everything you need for this evening in the west wing. I believe Denise is here. She’ll help you get acquainted with everyone.”

Before she could leave I took her arm. “You’re not upset with me, are you? For saying I love you? I don’t expect anything from you.”

“I know you don’t.”

“It would be impossible for me not to love you.”

“Well, I’m not mad. I just have some things to think about.”

“Will we be able to talk when I see you tonight? I don’t know what the protocol is.”

“We won’t be talking like this until we’re alone again. They’ll explain it to you in here.” She opened a door to a hallway and ushered me in. I stood in a breezeway leading into another section of the house. It was very quiet. At the end of it was another closed door and Veronica answered it when I knocked. I had not seen her since the evening she’d done the makeover on me.

“I heard you would be here!” she said, giving me a quick hug. “Jeanne asked me to keep a special eye on you.”

“Is that a good thing?”

Veronica laughed. “A very good thing. Clearly, you’ve got her full attention.”

We were standing in a living room, its windows also looking out toward the lake. There was no one else about. Veronica led me across the room and into a small kitchen, where she handed me a bottle of water. We sat at a table.

“There’s only a few of the girls here, and they’re all taking naps. More will be arriving soon. We’ll go into the spa around six and start getting ready.”

“Why did you say that, about me having Jeanne’s full attention? What was that based on?”

Veronica looked curiously at me. “Just what I said. Jeanne called me especially about you. And I know that Adele was asked to leave Jeanne’s house, which has to mean something.”

“I took it to mean something too, but I don’t know what. Jeanne won’t talk about Adele.”

Veronica laughed. “Typical. The doms like to think all the subs are fighting over them, but they don’t want to become involved in any of the details.”

There had been no sign of Adele since she trashed my apartment, and I was not nearly as concerned about her as I had been. It was hard for me to keep her in mind when there was room for little but Jeanne and the new life she was introducing me to.

“Jeanne wasn’t happy that Adele tried to warn me off.”

Veronica drank from her water. “I’m sure if Adele was exhibiting any signs of jealousy Jeanne would shut her down very quickly. That doesn’t fly around here. It doesn’t pay to be possessive of a dom, especially Jeanne. She’s the one who wrote the rules.”

Denise came into the kitchen and gave me a big hug. I hardly knew her, but watching each other at the mercy of a dominant as we had at Jeanne’s was a bonding experience. I felt happy to be with two friendly and somewhat familiar faces. I felt I’d found a home and that was almost as exciting as finding Jeanne. Denise offered to take me on a tour and we headed up to the bedroom level of the wing. Here I could see another long hallway filled with shut doorways.

“These are all bedrooms,” Denise said, “where most of the girls stay over the weekend. Here’s mine.” We went into a small but very nice room with tall ceilings, big windows, and a comfortable bed and easy chair. There looked to be six or seven bedrooms on this floor, with another floor above us. “Sometimes I stay with Pat, but she wanted to be on her own this weekend.”

“I like Pat. She’s very down-to-earth.”

“Yeah. I adore her. But I adore a lot of the doms. That’s partly what makes this so much fun.”

“Is Heather here this weekend?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah. She wouldn’t miss it. She and Kevin get in soon, I think.”

“Are you and Heather good friends?” I wanted to know if I could speak freely with Denise. “I get the feeling she doesn’t like me.”

Denise scrunched up her face. She had freckles, even in November, and she was very innocent looking, unless you’d seen her slung over a pommel horse, as I had.

“I think it’s very hard to be friends with Heather. I’d say I get along with her as well as anyone does, which isn’t saying much.”

“Why is she like that, do you think?”

“You mean other than she’s just unlikeable?” Denise laughed. “Some people just are.”

“What about Adele?”

“I don’t know Adele well. She’s just been eighty-sixed from the Society. She and Heather were best friends, so I guess they at least liked each other.”

“Wait. I’m lost here.” I sat on the easy chair and motioned Denise to sit on her bed. “I do know Adele, because she’s the one who introduced me to Jeanne. She and I were in the same art class. But Adele was unhappy when I started seeing Jeanne.”

“Yep, and I think that’s Heather’s influence. Everyone here knows a submissive must keep any signs of jealousy strictly in check. It’s in the oath we swear. I think Heather put it in Adele’s mind she could hang on to Jeanne and perhaps profit more from their relationship if she made it a little more exclusive. Heather has complete control over Kevin, so you can imagine what kind of advice she was giving Adele. But Adele was a fool if she thought she could make any demands on Jeanne. They were doomed to failure.”

I thought about this for a moment. “You know how I mentioned Adele told me about primaries and what they were in the Society?”

Denise laughed. “Yeah, definitely a no-no. I know Jeanne was angry about that.”

“She also told me she hoped to be Jeanne’s primary one day. I’m sure that’s why she was so upset when Jeanne and I started to spend time together. I don’t know about the rules of primary relationships, but my guess is the doms would continue to have multiple sex partners but spend social time only with her Primary. Is that right?”

“Essentially. Again, Adele’s plan was doomed to failure. If there’s anyone less likely to have a Primary than Jeanne, I don’t know who it would be. We were all shocked when she agreed to have Adele stay in her basement apartment. I hope you aren’t getting your hopes up about Jeanne.”

“No, of course not. I’m just trying to get through the day without falling flat on my face.”

“Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll keep an eye out for you. Has anyone told you what these parties are like?”

“Not a word. So far, I’ve learned everything right before it happens.”

“Well, it’s not complicated. Cocktails, dinner, sex in the dungeon.”

I’m sure my eyes lit up. “There’s a dungeon?”

“Oh, yes. Huge, fully equipped, plenty of room for everyone.”

“Okay. I know how to do cocktails and dinner. And I’m dying to see the dungeon.”

“Just remember when we see the doms you must be in full submissive mode from the start. This isn’t a cocktail party where we giggle and flirt with them. They may grab you and have you over a knee. They may pull your tits out of your robe and hang ornaments on them. You don’t say a word and you don’t resist. Can you do that?”

“Yes.”

As in love with Jeanne as I thought I might be, it was this kind of experience that had inflamed me in the books I read in my pre-Jeanne life. I felt ready. I couldn’t wait to do it.

Denise patted me on the knee and stood. “And your initiation tomorrow is nothing to worry about. If you already like what we do, you’ll love it. I can’t tell you about it, but it will only make you glad to be part of the Society.”

“What’s the name of the Society, anyway?”

“I don’t think it has one. We just call it the Society. On paper, it’s capitalized, so I guess that’s its name.”

What kind of organization with oaths and initiations and voting doesn’t have a name? Maybe one that doesn’t want to call attention to itself. Or maybe Jeanne just couldn’t think of one.

Denise and I went into the back of the west wing, behind the kitchen, and found six or seven women already gathered in the spa there. Denise introduced me and everyone was very cheerful and friendly, except for Heather, who was not hiding her dislike of me. While all the other women gave me a hug, Heather did not. While all the others asked after me, Heather walked away. It was painfully obvious, but I decided to not react and concentrate on the positive reception I was getting. I was led through several pre-evening rituals: a group steam bath and shower, and then, with everyone robed, a gathering at makeup tables to start putting on faces. Veronica oversaw all and helped me with my makeup from beginning to end. The women chattered and gossiped, and it could have been a group of women gathered anywhere—washing clothes on the banks of a river or having lunch at the country club. Or preparing to turn ourselves over to the mercy of a randy group of female dominants.

In the wardrobe room we replaced our bathrobes with long, flowing silk robes, each tied with a matching silk belt and open above and below it. I was given a light blue robe, the same color given to one other woman, Nan. I was told that she too was here for the first time. The other women wore robes in many colors, making for a subtle rainbow flowing into the main gathering room as we made our entrance. The dominants looked up, but none came forward to greet us. They continued their conversations, made their drinks. I stood next to Denise and scanned the room. The doms were dressed without uniformity as we were, but they were dressed up in their own ways. Pat had a tie on and black trousers instead of her usual black jeans. Kevin had a suit on, emphasizing her stout, fireplug appearance. Jeanne looked like the androgynous beauty she was. She wore a tunic over very skinny black pants, with elegant flat heeled shoes, a scarf wound around her neck, large watch at her wrist, and gold hoop earrings.

The doms began to approach the submissives, sometimes in pairs, and I could hear them laugh together as they began to handle them. The submissives kept their eyes cast to the floor. I saw Mrs. Kirchberger surveying the room before retreating to the kitchen. 

Jeanne appeared next to us, seemingly out of nowhere. She glanced at Denise and said, “Leave us.” The tone of her voice left it clear the dominant Jeanne was back. I didn’t say anything as Denise quickly left and I kept my eyes cast downward. I could see Jeanne was holding a collar and leather leash in hand.

“Hold your hair up,” she said, and I quickly gathered my hair and held it out of the way as she attached the collar and snapped on the leash. I fell to my knees when she pointed to the floor.

For the next half hour I scrambled behind Jeanne as she moved through the large room, pausing at each group to tell the dominants who I was. These were not introductions as much as a display of goods. A dominant might reach over and grab me by the chin, turning my face back and forth, raising or opening my robe to examine my body in an almost clinical way. I was half expecting them to open my mouth and check my teeth. When we got to Kevin’s group, which included Heather sitting on the floor by her side, a dominant named Murphy asked Jeanne if she could take me by the collar for a moment. Jeanne nodded and handed the leash to Murphy, who yanked on it to get me to stand up. Murphy was tall and thin and had hair that fell into her face. I couldn’t tell what she looked like. Like most of the doms in the room, she appeared to be in her late thirties, early forties. She quickly tied my hands behind me with the leash and then reached into the robe to take my breasts out, one by one. She grabbed me by each nipple, first one and then the other, and twisted, lifting my face to stare into my eyes, almost daring me to cry out. I didn’t. Kevin was standing next to Murphy, watching intently. I did not want to give her the satisfaction of seeing me uncomfortable.