To Seek a Master (20 page)

‘True enough. So you’re saying all women should like a good spanking?’

‘I’m saying all women are physically capable of enjoying a spanking. Whether they would be able to accept it mentally is a very different matter.’

‘And the cane?’

‘The cane is far more painful, as you found out yesterday. The principle is the same, but very few women could get past the initial pain.’

‘I couldn’t have done, not without being in the straps, and gagged.’

‘There we are then. Most women, if not all, enjoy their bottoms patted as part of foreplay. Spanking takes that a little further, and the cane further still, but you each have your limits.’

‘Fair enough, I suppose, but what about my sense of embarrassment? I mean, I ought to hate having my knickers pulled down to expose me for punishment, shouldn’t I, and it is deeply embarrassing, but I love it?’

‘That’s rather trickier to answer. Exposure is all to do with social conditioning. It’s natural for women to enjoy sexual display, which is all part of the urge to reproduce, but as we normally wear clothes nudity itself becomes sexual display. Then we’re taught it’s wrong by various idiotic institutions, and so it becomes embarrassing, even humiliating. Why you find that embarrassment exciting I can only guess. Perhaps if being naked is embarrassing then growing aroused when embarrassed gives you a better chance of reproducing?’

‘Why?’

‘Well, not to put too fine a point on it, the girls who get embarrassed and turned on get fucked, the ones who get embarrassed but don’t get turned on don’t get fucked. No fucking, no babies. But that is just a guess.’

‘It makes sense, I suppose. So how about being helpless?’

‘Perhaps a man who can hold you down is likely to be a better protector and provider than one who can’t?’

‘So it’s all in my genes?’

‘I suspect so, although no doubt your environment has some
effect.
You were saying that you didn’t want to be spanked before reading about it in a novel?’

‘Pretty much so. It still seems unacceptable, but now I realise it was what I needed all along, or at least, part of what I needed. I always liked my men to be in control.’

‘You’ve come a long way, and much faster than most.’

‘I’m like that, impulsive. But what about you, have you always liked to be in charge, and when did you find out that you got off on spanking girls?’

‘I’ve liked to be in control for as long as I can remember, and I suppose my desire to keep my partners disciplined is part of that. As to getting off on it, show me the man who doesn’t get turned on by having a wriggling, bare-bottomed girl over his lap.’

‘Most men wouldn’t dream of spanking their girlfriends!’

‘More fool them, but I didn’t say anything about spanking, just enjoying a girl’s bare bottom. But the power is intensely erotic as well. Just as you enjoy feeling helpless, so I enjoy having you helpless, whether I’m holding you down, if you’re tied up, or simply because you’re too excited to resist, like last night.’

‘That was nice.’

‘Yes it was. I thought you might appreciate being made to use crude language.’

‘I never do, but it really got to me.’

‘Exactly. Just as with exposure, so with crude language. You find it exciting to break your social conditioning. There are other ways of doing that too.’

‘Such as?’

‘You’ll learn.’

‘You seem to know so much. I like that, but it makes me feel a bit small.’

‘I’m experienced, it’s true, but if I’m to be your mentor that can only be a good thing.’

‘That’s true. How many girls have you trained, if you don’t mind me asking?’

‘From scratch? Just two, but I’ve helped many more along the way, and learnt for myself in the process.’

‘How do you get to meet the right girls?’

‘I’ve come to recognise the symptoms, as I did with you, but there are internet sites, and clubs, mainly in London but there’s one in Peterborough.’

‘Will you take me?’

‘Once you are collared, yes. Meanwhile, there’s something that needs attention.’

‘What’s that?’

Charles didn’t bother to reply, but took her by the hand. They had reached a sluice, now closed so that the concrete channel was dry. Laura realised his intention immediately and allowed herself to be helped down out of sight. Nobody had been visible on the bank, leaving them safe for at least several minutes and probably a great deal longer. She made no protest as he peeled her dress up and off to leave her in nothing but her shoes, nor when he turned her to face the sluice gate.

‘Take hold of the frame and stick out your bottom.’

Laura obeyed, setting her feet a little apart and arching her back to give him the best possible view from behind her. He gave a pleased nod, then planted a hard smack on her bottom.

‘Ow! I thought you said I’d only get spanked when I deserved it?’

‘No, you only get punished when you deserve it, but do you really think that calling me a dirty pig is acceptable?’

‘You stuck your thumb up my bottom!’

‘That’s no excuse. Stay as you are.’

‘Yes, Mr Latchley.’

Laura hung her head, her hands gripped tight to the iron
frame
as her bottom was firmly and methodically smacked, making her already bruised flesh ache and sting. After just twenty slaps he stopped, ordering her to her knees, and fed his cock into her mouth. Laura sucked willingly, her eyes closed in bliss and her hand already between her thighs, revelling in the warmth of her bottom and doing her best to ignore the slight chill in the wind that signalled the approach of evening and the end of her time with her lover.

18

WHEN SHE WOKE
on the Monday morning, Laura’s first thought was that she would be visiting Charles again the following weekend. Her second thought was that she would be seeing him again within a couple of hours, which produced a sharp thrill. She bounced out of bed and began her morning routine with an energy she hadn’t felt for years. The shower seemed more refreshing, her coffee delivered a better kick, while her enthusiasm infected Smudge so strongly that he was behaving like a puppy.

She had been forbidden to wear knickers until further notice, an instruction that kept her obligation to obey Charles firmly in her mind as she dressed and as she walked to the station. He now came first, before work and before her home life, her feelings for him so strong that she realised she had never really understood what love meant before, while all the unpleasant aspects of her life she had previously struggled so hard to put from her mind now seemed trivial.

The train was full as usual, but she found herself smiling brightly at Hovis Boy and Mr Brown, and avoiding Darcy’s eye just in case he got the wrong idea. When Charles got in she immediately embraced and kissed him, now keen to show that they were together and no longer obliged to pretend she didn’t know him. He returned her affection, even patting her bottom and briefly moving her skirt over her bare skin to check that she was knickerless.

On reaching Cambridge she walked a little way with him
before
a last kiss, then hurried to work. Even there she felt a new enthusiasm, applying herself to the presentation they were putting together for a Spanish firm with such efficiency that Mr Henderson complimented her on her work. At lunch she was able to give several of her friends a carefully edited version of her weekend, provoking both excitement and envy for her experiences. The inevitable result was that the entire office knew that she was in a new relationship by the end of the day, and she was able to snub Brian and Dave with a new assurance.

Tuesday was better still, as she’d managed to tidy her flat properly and was able to invite Charles back in the evening. Just to be with him felt wonderful; walking the dog, eating and talking together, then christening her cane with two middleweight strokes put across her bottom as she knelt on the bed. They made love twice that night, to leave her with a warm glow in the morning, but also a little tired. It had been after two o’clock before they’d got to sleep, while she had woken early to the feel of her hand being placed on his morning erection.

She was smiling sleepily as she sat down at her work station, and hoping that Mr Henderson wasn’t going to demand anything that would require her full concentration. He didn’t, instead telling her that he would be entertaining the head of purchasing from Barrington Barnes to lunch and leaving her in charge of the office.

The day passed as lazily as she had hoped, with only one curious incident. An email came through to confirm an order, which she was obliged to discuss with Mr Bannerjee. She put her chin up as she entered accounts, as usual, intent on conveying her utter contempt for Brian and Dave’s remarks. This time they had placed a litter bin in the centre of the aisle, forcing her to step over it, but Brian paid no attention to her whatsoever, apparently intent on his computer screen, while
Dave
let out a muted but distinctly dirty snigger. It was the same when she came back, only this time she allowed herself the luxury of calling them a pair of juvenile cretins as she stepped over the bin. Both of them sniggered.

Their behaviour was still preying on her mind as she walked to the station, and she was pleased to see Charles already there, with his briefcase on her favourite window seat in order to reserve it for her. He listened sympathetically as she explained what had happened, finishing with an appeal to his understanding of human nature.

‘You always seem to be able to read my mind, so what do you think?’

Charles gave a thoughtful frown before replying, his voice low to avoid any risk of being overheard.

‘I think they are a couple of dirty little urchins, and that you would do best to ignore them.’

‘I’ve been ignoring them for years. It only makes them worse, particularly Brian. I’ve never been nasty to him. Even when he tried to chat me up at my first Christmas party I let him down gently. He seems to resent my existence.’

‘There we are then. You rejected him and instead of accepting that the two of you are incompatible he grew resentful. Typical behaviour of the beta male.’

‘Beta male? More like zeta male.’

‘The last letter of the Greek alphabet is omega.’

‘Omega male then, but my version sounds better.’

‘More rhythmic, certainly. Tell me something, Laura. How would you feel about one or both of these men seeing you naked, or catching some intimate glimpse of your body perhaps?’

‘I’d feel sick, and angry.’

‘And yet you enjoyed the moment when a complete stranger caught you bare chested at the weekend?’

‘That was different. They’re creeps. No, men never seem to understand that. It’s … it’s hard to explain. I like to feel attractive to men, but they’ve put themselves outside the box.’

‘Because they are unattractive to you?’

‘No, it’s not like that. The guy who passed us the other night might have looked like Quasimodo, but it was still exciting. If he’d been Brian I’d have wanted to curl up in a ball.’

‘I see. So is it that you don’t see them as men, in the sense of your sexual opposite, that they’ve betrayed their role as men.’

‘Yes, I suppose so. Something like that.’

‘I think I understand, in which case I really do urge that you ignore them, for your own peace of mind.’

‘I can’t! You might be able to do that, because you’re so in control. I want to know what’s going on. You know something, don’t you?’

Charles drew a sigh.

‘No, but I suspect something. What was in the bin?’

‘I don’t know, rubbish. Why would I look in a litter bin?’

‘Exactly. You wouldn’t think of inspecting the contents of a litter bin, ever, which makes it the perfect hiding place.’

‘What for?’

‘A camera.’

It took Laura a fraction of a second for what he was saying to sink in before she spoke, aloud.

‘But I’ve got no knickers on!’

Her face had begun to colour even as Darcy, the Grey Man, Mr Brown, Miss Scarlett, Hovis Boy and several others turned to look at her.

Charles had insisted that he was only guessing, but Laura was convinced that he was right. Not only did his theory fit the facts to perfection, but it was all too easy to imagine Brian and
Dave
planting a camera to peer up girls’ skirts. Her first thought, at least once she had got over the first agonising embarrassment of revealing that she had no knickers on to an entire carriage of commuters, was to report them for sexual harassment. Unfortunately she had no proof, as they were far too sneaky to leave any incriminating evidence around.

Yet the thought of them gloating over pictures of her naked bottom and sex was enough to make her grind her teeth in anger, and made worse by an unpleasant certainty that merely looking would not be enough. Once they were alone they would be pulling their dirty little cocks over her body, and no doubt imagining themselves taking out their lust on her. Something had to be done.

Charles had suggested that she attempt to rise above it, but had refused to make it an order, which she would have tried to obey. As it was she found herself scheming from the moment he got out at Ely. Somehow it had to be possible to catch them red handed, or to find the picture and take it to Mrs Jeffries, the head of personnel. If they tried the same trick again it would be easy, a simple matter of picking up the litter bin and showing the camera to the rest of the accounts department. Otherwise it would be more difficult.

The following day she put a pair of knickers in her bag and put them on when she arrived at EAS, just in case. It was easy to contrive an excuse to visit accounts, but while Brian gave her a look that sent the blood rushing to her face, the litter bin was where it belonged under his desk. Frustrated and embarrassed, she returned to her office, now haunted by the look in his eyes, not of mischief and lust as usual, but of a dirty, squalid longing, while Dave’s snigger had seem disturbingly meaningful. Evidently they’d seen what they wanted, and would not be caught out so easily.

Laura returned to her scheming. Brian would be the ringleader,
she
was sure, and the one to keep the picture hidden, because both she and Charles had been sure it would not be destroyed. The camera would have to be quite advanced if it could be operated remotely and was almost certainly digital. That meant that the image would be stored electronically on at least one device, but probably not the network at EAS. She had also seen Brian using a laptop in the canteen, and there had to be a good chance that the image was stored on that. It was tempting to accuse him and demand to inspect the laptop, but if the image wasn’t there she would just look ridiculous. First she had to make sure it was there.