AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The bamboo sizzles. It strikes its mark. I gasp for air, and another lands.
Twelve times, he wages battle on my ass. Twelve times, he wins.
There’s no drifting out of consciousness here, no spasming gut, or orgasmic satisfaction.
This is all in the mind, a psychological riddle I cannot explain. But thereafter I am washed clean.
Bernard leaves me bound and alone. I wonder where Makaila is. I haven’t seen her since before he began with the strap. The emptiness of the dim room gathers around me, so it gnaws at my insides—as if whispering the truth about my current predicament—husbandless, masterless, living lies with the man I say I love. Bernard’s schemes have their purpose, and having drilled his message into me, I begin to cry.
Makaila appears out the dark shadows. I don’t know whether she entered the room or was here all along—I heard no door open and close. Then too, she’s a quiet and mysterious woman, who might even walk through the doors without them opening at all.
With the deft movement of genteel fingers she opens buckles, releases straps and unlocks the cuffs that bind me. As I begin to stretch the life back into my limbs, she toys with the bulbous prick in my ass—the one I’ve almost forgotten. Once my ass is finally empty, she pushes me through the chamber door into Bernard’s private den.
He waits for me there, with three other men—all lighting cigars. I almost choke as I breathe too deeply the thick smoke that moves languidly my way. I stand before him, my nakedness appraised by them all. The three take their time inspecting my punished ass. I have little idea what they see, but I can assume it’s well striped from the cutting cane.
“For your lover’s sake, I’m letting you go tonight,” Bernard tells me.
Hearing this, I don’t know whether I’m relieved or disappointed.
“You’ll go home and tell him the truth about you. I suppose showing your ass should be enough.”
“I can’t do that. What if he thinks you’ve abused me?”
“I have. And you will show him how much.”
“What if he thinks…”
“Don’t think, Anna. You think too much. It had been my plan to give you to these three men tonight. And they’ll be disappointed to learn they’ll need to satisfy their libidos elsewhere. I think, perhaps, your present reality is more important than immediate passions. Take care of it.”
I’m thinking calmly, everything in me wiped out but the clarity of an empty mind. There is no emotion. What little is left is just the raw stuff of sexual passion, and that is not some turgid roar as it’s been for countless weeks. It settles in me sweetly.
“I can go then?”
“You can go.”
/>
I think it would be fitting to turn about and stalk off, but here I stand naked before the three, suddenly quite embarrassed. My clothes are on a chair nearby, so there’s nothing to do but dress before the leering eyes that stare my way. Bernard busies himself with other things, but the cigar smoking three enjoy each move I make to get dressed. They’ll manage to glimpse every feature they’ll miss tonight, including my cunt. I could make a grand show of getting dressed, but I really want to leave while this feeling of peace is still intact. It gets more difficult as my anxiety about Ian increases.
Finally dressed, I turn to Bernard. He’s pouring brandy for his friends, but seeing me finished, he leads me out the door into the foyer.
I turn to him imploringly as I’m about to leave, “Why is it so important to you that I disclose the truth to Ian?”
He eyes me as sternly as he has all evening, “your poor ethics cost you your marriage to Heinrich. I think it’s wise to consider the price you pay for dishonesty.”
“But it was much more than my affair with Ian that spelled the end of my marriage.”
“It spelled the end, trust me. You wouldn’t be in the position you are now if he hadn’t caught you fucking your lover. You would never have had the courage to end it otherwise.”
He’s not going to change his opinion no matter how much I plead my case. “No, I suppose you’re right. Perhaps it was divine intervention that brought Heinrich home that night.”
“Perhaps,” Bernard says with a nod of his head, an inscrutable barrier closing our conversation.
I leave Bernard’s house with that thought in mind wondering exactly how I managed to have my husband discover me with Ian. In one respect, I was perfectly happy with the situation—a husband to master me and a lover to love me.
When I reach Ian’s apartment, it’s nearly eleven. I can’t believe so much time has passed, but then, I wandered for a bit before going home, afraid of what I’d find there. It’s surprising that in all the time we’ve been lovers Ian’s only glimpsed a few small remnants of a scene with Heinrich. No cuts, no great welts, none of the deep bruises I’ve suffered. I take great pains to prevent his knowledge of my darker side. Oh, yes, I thought I was being causal, waiting for him to ask me about certain mars in my complexion. But there have been many times I begged off seeing him, waiting for the worst to clear, and even then, hiding myself in the dark afraid of what he might say. He’s the kind of man to be shocked by these extremes and have no idea why any woman would put herself through such mistreatment. This will shock him.
He’s in his study on the computer when I arrive home. I wait calmly at the door for him to acknowledge me. When he finally looks up, I smile.
