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“It takes a man like him to bring out the woman in me, Randall.” Gabriele ran her own eyes up and down Randall’s body, her lip curled in revolted disapproval. “And you were never man enough.”
The wind seemed to gush from Randall like he had taken a heavy blow. Gabriele saw the arrogant confidence drain from his eyes. She strode conf
idently past him towards the bathrooms and his shoulders slumped like a collapsing empty shell.
Gabriele reached the bathroom shaking from the confrontation, but puffed with satisfaction. She stared at herself in the mirror. Her face was flushed, and there was a touch of hectic mayhem still in her eyes that was the after-effect of her shock. She dabbed at her lipstick and then went into a stall. Her panties were like a wet washcloth. She peeled them down over her thighs and stepped out of them. She felt a wicked thrill of mischief to be out in public and not wearing underwear. Somehow she sensed it perfectly suited her newfound self.
Gabriele scrunched the lace panties into a tight ball and was going to stuff them into her purse. Then another devilish idea struck her.
Gabriele came out of the ladies bathroom and pressed into the milling throng of hotel visitors. Randall was leaning sullenly against a wall, standing over the blonde on the sofa, while his two companions sat either side of her, each with a casual hand in her lap.
Gabriele strode across to them.
“I hope you’re being well paid,” Gabriele bore the woman no malice. In fact, she felt sympathetic. “Because this one,” she gestured to Randall with a nod of her head that shook her lustrous mane of black hair across her shoulder, “is a real disappointment.”
She turned on her heel. Randall came after her, just as Gabriele knew he would. His face was swollen with impotent embarrassment. He snatched at Gabriele’s arm and she turned on him, snarling like a big jungle cat.
“Here,” she stuffed the damp panties into Randall’s grimy palm, whispering her venom. “This is the closest you’ll ever get to me. I figure you’re going to be spending a lot of nights alone with your hand while my Master is repeatedly fucking me. He did this to me in the parking lot, Randall. I hope these remind you of how inadequate you are in bed.”
The restaurant lighting was so subdued after the bright sterile glare of the lobby that it took Gabriele’s eyes several seconds to adjust. It was like stepping back into a movie theater after returning from the candy counter.
She stood just inside the glass doors, light with relief at how she had left Randall mute and gawking. Her heart was still fluttering in her chest, but she felt a sense of closure. It broadened the smile on her lips as she peered through the spot lit tables, seeking Joshua.
He was sitting back in his chair… and there was a very tall and willowy woman standing beside him. She had her hair up in a bun, and Gabriele could see the dark band of a leather collar clasped around her swan-like neck. Gabriele watched in slow uncomprehending horror as the woman smiled sexily into Joshua’s eyes and then leaned across the table. She was wearing a long shimmering red dress, cut low at the neck so that her cleavage bulged. Gabriele felt a slow creeping sense of despair wrap its tentacles around her heart and begin to relentlessly squeeze.
Joshua was smiling up into the woman’s sparkling eyes. She looked to be Gabriele’s age. She carried herself with elegant grace, her weight on one long leg and the fabric of her dress drawn tight and revealing across her ass. She wasn’t wearing underwear.
Gabriele heard the woman laugh and the sound was a flirtatious tinkle, like the sound from a delicate crystal bell. Then she reached into her purse and handed Joshua some kind of a card – or perhaps it was the keys to her hotel room.
Gabriele closed her eyes, feeling dread and despair drain the blood from her face. Her heart stopped beating, and she made a gasping sound of pain as she clutched to cover her mouth with her hand.
Joshua saw her, and knew instantly the expression on her face. He came out of his chair, dismissing the woman beside him without another glance. His mouth was open, his eyebrows knitted together in concern and alarm. As he rose to his feet, Gabriele turned and burst through the restaurant doors. She was crying, and gasping for breath. Her heart ached with a pain greater than she had ever known before. She felt betrayed. She felt foolish.
She ran across the lobby and saw the front doors gliding open. A cool breeze and a snarl of traffic noise washed across the room.
Gabriele turned towards it and ran out of the hotel, down the steps, and onto the crowded city sidewalk.
Joshua came out of the hotel, and ran into a crush of bustling pedestrians. He couldn’t see Gabriele. There was a throng of people at the next corner, waiting on traffic lights. He pushed into the tide of bodies, looking for a beautiful woman in a short white dress. Most people were dressed against the chill of the night, their coats drab dark colors. They stood with their eyes fixed on the blinking traffic lights with bovine patience.
“Gabriele!” Joshua cried out.
No one even turned their heads.
The street was crushed with traffic across every lane; cars speeding up to get through the intersection while the light stayed green. Joshua could hear the angry snarl of car horns above the undertone of revving engines.
He stood on the corner and turned his head in every direction, his eyes narrowed like a hunter seeking elusive prey. Overhead, there was a rumble of thunder, and then a soft spatter of rain. The crowd at the lights turned their faces to the sky and then turned up the collars of their coats as the traffic lights suddenly turned red. The crowd moved across the intersection in a dark mass. A rent of lightning lit up the sky, jagging electric blue between the skyscrapers.
“Gabriele!” The sound of Joshua’s voice was snatched away by a gust of wind and a long rumble of thunder. The breeze lifted litter off the sidewalk and carried the smell of smog to Joshua. He cupped his hands to his mouth and bellowed again.
“Gabriele!”
Instinct told him to follow the crowd crossing the intersection before the lights changed again, and he turned to go that way when he caught a flash of white from the corner of his eye. He snapped his head around and saw a figure running along the sidewalk, parallel to the hotel block. It was Gabriele. Joshua felt a lift of relief, and then grim determination. He started to run.
The traffic was moving in a steady stream again, sweeping through the intersection and turning onto the street Gabriele had fled along. Joshua ran alongside the traffic, trapped on the opposite side of the road. Another jag of lightning tore across the dark sky, and then the wind came like a slap across the face with an ice-cold hand. It buffeted Joshua so he staggered for a moment. He stared across the street and saw Gabriele again. She had her heels in her hand, and she was running blindly. Then she disappeared into a dark alley.
Joshua dashed onto the street, and the passing drivers pounded on their horns and shouted abuse through their windows. There was the loud screech of brakes, the scream of rubber on the blacktop. Joshua ignored it all. His eyes were fixed on the dark mouth of the alley where Gabriele had disappeared. He zig-zagged through the cars and finally reached the opposite sidewalk. He was panting. He ran headlong into the entrance of the alley and heard Gabriele’s pounding feet against the pavement somewhere just ahead. He started to run again, then caught a flash of Gabriele’s white dress as she turned a sharp corner.
“Gabriele!”
He reached the corner of the alley and found Gabriele standing, exhausted, on the sidewalk. She was leaning against a set of apartment block steps. She was bent over and gasping. She was sobbing. Joshua could hear the painful rasp of her every shuddering breath. Her head was bowed, her hair hanging like a veil across her face. Her whole body was shaking.
“Gabriele…?” Joshua slowed, then stopped just a few feet away from her, fearful that if he even reached out to touch her, she would break into flight again. His voice was a soft question. “Are you okay?”
“Stupid!” Gabriele sobbed. “I’m so stupid!”
Joshua’s face showed his own agony and bewilderment. “Why? Why did you run?”
Gabriele shook her head. She wouldn’t look at Joshua. Her eyes were down on the cracked pavement. It began to rain.
“I have been so stupid,” Gabriele’s voice was low, like she was admonishing herself. “I became so wrapped up in… I let myself get swept away… I
thought we…”
Joshua reached for her at last. He put his hand on her arm. Gabriele was cold and wet and shivering. She flinched to his touch, then seemed to go soft and unresisting.
“Say it,” Joshua insisted.
Gabriele looked up into Joshua’s eyes at last. Her makeup was smudged, her eyes hollow and haunted. Her hair was wet and hanging in ropes. “I thought that we might… that you might want me…” she choked off the words and her frustration came back to overwhelm her. She hooked her hands into claws and began to tug at the dress. “But I was so stupid! You’re right, Joshua. I am naïve, and I do have a head full of silly, stupid romantic notions. I can’t believe how I let myself…”
“What?” Joshua insisted. “Tell me.”
Gabriele threw back her head, and the rain splashed into her face. “I’ve fallen in love with you,” she said. “And I thought that maybe – after the night we kissed – that your feelings for me might grow to become something more if I could just keep you interested in me. I thought that… that maybe you would want me as your submissive, and that one day you might even love me back. See! See how stupid I am!” The torture of her pain was raw and wretched on Gabriele’s face. “But I forgot what you do with your time. I forgot about all the other women who want you to train them to submit – women just like that one back at the restaurant who will all beg you to touch them and lick them and fuck them!” Gabriele shook her head in deep despair. She felt nauseous. She felt like the whole world was off balance and that she must surely fall at any moment. Her legs beneath her buckled, but she clung to the wrought iron railing of the apartment steps.
“I can’t compete with beautiful women like the one who was propositioning you tonight, Joshua. I can’t. I’m not beautiful enough. I’m not sexy enough… and I know I’m not skilled in bed enough to stand the comparison. And after Randall betrayed me… I know… I just know in my heart that my jealousy would tear me apart. I’d be forever scared of losing you to their charms, their seduction… their bodies. Every time a new woman came to you for training, a piece of me would die a slow agonizing death.”
