Chapter One-2
2003 Words
“We’re free most days,” said Lou, looking up at me now. Jesus, those eyes! Dark blue eyes – they were quite extraordinary really. It was a shame about the rest of her look. Her hair was so dull. I assumed it was all the coloring and loads of split ends. I stifled a laugh – it struck me that I could be quite a b***h when I wanted to be!
“We’re doing Art and Design,” she continued. “We only have eight hours of lectures a week and we don’t really need to go to most of them.”
“Eight lectures!” Dave cried in mock outrage. “Bloody Hell, we have thirty five – and a lot of them are double or triple lab sessions.”
“We’re doing chemistry,” I pointed out to Lou. She smiled at me sweetly.
“Oh,” she said. “That’s really bad luck.” I noticed a twinkle in her eyes as she said it. And she was suppressing a grin. Maybe she wasn’t on something – she was just kind of weird, but in a nice way.
Angie stood up and offered me one of the address cards she’d given to Laura. “If you change your mind, John, my mobile number’s on there. And I don’t have to use a stick – not unless you want me to anyway!”
We managed to say our goodbyes to the girls and Dave and I headed out of the Union building towards our next lecture.
“Well that was somethin’ out of the fuckin’ Twilight Zone, wasn’ it?” he asked once we were out of earshot of the girls.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well since you’ve been lettin’ the world know you’re into kinky s*x you’ve been chatted up by a beautiful Ergonomics girl. Who is nuts about you, in case you didn’t realize it. And who appears to be rather normal. Then we get approached by a pair of fuckin’ art student aliens who look like they’re brides of Dracula for f**k’s sake. And I think they might be lesbians by the way.”
“You reckon?” I asked sarcastically.
“Bloody Hell, John, you seem to be some kind of babe magnet these days. I know you’ve been workin’ out and stuff, but Amy is the most beautiful girl I’ve seen in ages. And she’s so nice with it. Why aren’t you beggin’ ‘er to go out with you?”
“Possibly because I’m engaged to Laura?” I suggested. “Anyway I’m not good enough for Amy. She deserves a lot better than me,” I replied before I’d even thought about it.
“And you let Laura hit you with a fuckin’ rubber strap?” he queried incredulously. “What’s wrong with you? Are you fuckin’ mental or what?”
“Dave, it’s complicated,” I said.
“Yeah – you keep sayin’ that.”
Another two hours of seating hell in the lectures and I made it to lunch. I’d bought some painkillers at coffee break and they did seem to be taking the edge off. I’d slipped into the toilets and reapplied some of the sunburn cream too.
At twelve thirty Christine called me. “Hi!” I said. “I was really looking forward to talking to you.”
“Hi, John, how are you feeling? And you know what I mean!” she chuckled.
I gave her a ‘bottom update’ and we got down to business.
“So the way I understand it,” I said. “Laura wants to pick up some random bloke and give him a blow job!”
“I’m sorry to say that’s pretty much the story,” Christine sighed. “I’ve told her what a fool she is, but she won’t listen to me. And of course you’d like to be the bloke on the receiving end of that blow job, wouldn’t you?”
“Is that unreasonable of me?” I asked.
“Of course not and frankly it’s about time you asserted your rights in your relationship.” Christine’s voice was firm. “I think you’ve fallen into a trap with this submissive role. You think it really does extend 24/7, don’t you?”
“Wasn’t that your plan all along? I mean, especially for me. I’m the one who’s locked up.”
“Look. That’s what people in the scene often see as an aspiration. I’m going to be honest with you, John. When Laura tricked you into putting on the chastity device I honestly thought you’d run to the nearest hardware store, buy a hacksaw and cut it off. Why didn’t you do that by the way?”
“Well…” I stammered. Come to think of it, why hadn’t I done that?
“Do you mind if I make a suggestion?” Christine asked.
“I’m sure you’re going to anyway!” I chuckled. Christine ignored the sarcasm.
“You knew that your relationship with Laura was stagnating. I suspect you wanted it to move to the next stage, but I bet you didn’t have a clue what that next stage was supposed to be, did you?”
“I…well I suppose you’ve got a point. But I didn’t think the next stage would be to be locked away and beaten up!”
“I saw the opportunity with you, John,” she said passionately. “I’ve wanted to, and tried to dominate a man for so long! And whenever I tried, something went wrong. Basically they’d always run away. But you didn’t, did you?”
“But you expected me to…” I started uncertainly.
“I suppose I did, yes.”
“Jesus!”
“But don’t you see? Because you stayed – because you endured your new situation – a whole new set of possibilities has opened up,” she said, sounding very enthusiastic.
“As long as I agree to be deprived of s****l pleasure, and suffer whatever humiliation and pain you choose to inflict on me?” I asked, pouring the sarcasm into the phone. There was a pause.
“Exactly,” Christine said firmly. “So how do you feel about that?”
“Right now I feel like I could have made you happy with a lot less discomfort!”
“That’s so typical of you!” she chuckled. “You always see the pessimistic side.”
“You mean there’s an optimistic side?” I asked, genuinely puzzled now.
“I’ve had better looking boyfriends than you,” she began, “and richer boyfriends. And boyfriends with nice cars…”
“Err, this is supposed to be making me feel better, is it?” I asked.
“i***t!” she said, laughing at me softly. “I’ve never had a boyfriend who’s so willing, and eager to please me. And I mean please me on the deepest level of my desires, John. So let me ask you again, how does that make you feel?”
I paused; suddenly the consequences of what she said seemed to hit me.
“I-I suppose it makes me feel special?” I suggested, tentatively.
“I think ‘special’ is an understatement, darling,” she whispered softly. I hesitated, not knowing what to say in response.
“Hello?” Christine said at last. “Are you still there?”
“Yes. I’m thinking.”
“Does it hurt?” Christine chuckled.
“Ha Ha,” I said flatly.
“And how do you feel about Laura?” she asked. It occurred to me that this was a loaded question, if ever there was one! For some reason it seemed that I should say the ‘right thing’, even if that meant upsetting Christine.
“Christine, I’m engaged to Laura. I asked her to marry me because I believed I loved her. I still believe I love her!”
“That’s good,” she said softly. “I’m glad you love her. I love her too.”
“Oh God, now I’m really confused,” I told her. She chuckled into the phone.
“Seriously, John, you’ve ended up in a crazy situation with Laura. Part of it’s your own fault. I think there’s a huge, pent up frustration, for both of you, because she’s never let you have proper s*x with her. And all that was happening way before I got involved. While she was claiming to be ‘saving herself’ you could rationalize that you love her, and that you’re making a sacrifice for her. But now she seems to be turning into a slut in front of your eyes. I know it upset you when I screwed her with the strap on, but you have to agree it’s not the same as another man putting his d**k into her p***y – or into her mouth. She’s long forgotten whatever Jesus Freak notions she had. Her s****l side is beginning to light up. You’re the man she loves, and you need to be a part of it.”
I tried to put in my side of the story. “When you told me that you’d screwed her – and when you screwed her again right in front of me. God that was an amazing turn-on for me! Then she told me about Tony, and at first I was gutted. The images of them just flashed through my head, but I turned it around again into an act of submission, and it became even more of a turn on. I thought that was part of the process.”
Christine sighed. “Of course it is. But from time to time you need to step outside this scene and look back to see if you’ve gone too far if you’ve become too yielding – too submissive. You know that this slut phase isn’t going to stop at blow jobs, don’t you? She’s already mentioned to me that she wants me to screw her up the backside with the strap-on. She’ll soon want these guys she’s planning to pick up to screw her and bugger her; I think it’s only a matter of time. It’s hard enough to keep this relationship stable with just the three of us; can you imagine what it would be like introducing another man? She’s lost her sense of perspective and you need – we need – to reel her back in.”
“OK, I understand what you’re saying,” I agreed. “I need to be assertive. But is that going to work with our current problem? How do we stop Laura just going out and picking up some bloke?”
“I can hide her leather jeans for a start!” Christine joked. “Seriously though, I’ve got an idea, but I haven’t worked out the details yet. Laura’s visiting you this weekend, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she’s arriving Saturday and we’ve got a formal dinner in the evening, it’s a Chemistry Society thing.”
“OK. I assume you won’t be able to keep her away from men, so just try to keep her away from the booze. She seems to go off sideways when she’s had too much to drink. Otherwise, try not to rise to the bait about this blow job thing – if you show that you’re pissed off by it, it’ll just encourage her. Tell her how much she means to you, and how much you like being her slave. I’ll use delaying tactics here to stop her just heading out one night this week – she’s already talked about it and tried to get me to come along. In the next couple of days I think I’ll have my plan sorted. But you need to trust me.”
“I do trust you, Christine,” I said sincerely.
There was a pause. “Do you think you should?” Christine said carefully.
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, come off it, John! On Saturday I told you how I’m starting to feel about you! Do I really have to say it again, outside of the heat of the scene? I’m starting to fall in love with you!”
I knew Christine had whispered it to me at the weekend, but I thought she was just getting carried away. She really did…
“Well!” she shouted. “Still thinking?”
“Y-yes actually. It’s an important thing you said; I don’t want to say anything stupid.”
“There’s an obvious response,” she snapped.
“Jesus, Christine. You’re asking me if I love you, I don’t know that! And more importantly how can you expect me to know if I do or not? In the past few months you’ve played the role of my torturer, and the girl who stole my fiancée from me. And yes, frankly I have begun to have very strong feelings for you. Is it love? I don’t know! Maybe it’s that syndrome that hostages feel towards their captors…” I paused.
“Stockholm Syndrome,” Christine interjected.
“That’s it. Maybe that’s what I’m feeling,” I paused. “So I don’t know if I love you but I do know that when we kissed on Saturday it felt wonderful and not just sexually. It felt good. It made me feel fantastic.”
Now it was Christine’s turn to pause.
“Thinking?” I asked. Christine laughed on the end of the phone.
“Trying to,” she said and sniffed. Was she crying? Apart from when her dad passed away I’d never seen Christine cry. “I’m sorry, John,” she said at last. “It wasn’t very fair of me to put you on the spot. You’re a lovely guy, and that was a very honest answer. Thank you for that.”
“Christine?” I asked tentatively.
“Yes, John?”
“There was a great TV series – Boston Legal – anyway one of the characters found himself unable to say the words ‘I love you’ to his girlfriend – he was kind of emotionally screwed up.”
“I love Boston Legal, and I know the part you’re talking about. Alan Shore and Tara, he’d say ‘you smell good’.”
“That’s right.”
So she was a Boston Legal fan, eh? Good taste.
“I was thinking that when we’re with Laura,” I continued, “if I want to tell you how I feel about you – you specifically – I could say that you smell good. It’d be our secret.”
“That’s nice. I’d really like that. I need something to say back. Let me think. Errr, it has to be something dominant. How about ‘I’m watching you’, or ‘take that look off your face’ or anything to do with looking or watching.”
“That’s a great idea!” I said. “Better than mine actually because you can vary the phrase and she won’t notice there’s a pattern. Gosh, you’re good at this Christine.”
“Thank you.”
“I mean it. I can’t believe how good you are at this whole domination thing.”
There was a pause.
“I assume we’re both thinking,” I said at last, and Christine burst out laughing again.
“I’m thinking of you,” she said.
“Thinking of what you can do to me?”
- Writer
