Bound (2 page)

“I’m a theater director.”

“That’s cool,” said Laura, still basking in the afterglow of her orgasm. “Do you work in London?”

“Yes, fringe theater mainly.”

“You’ll be used to scene setting, improvisations and that kind of thing then,” mused Amy. “I imagine that will help you here.”

Grace, whose body was feeling restless after playing with Laura’s breasts, nodded. “You make it all sound fascinating.”

At that moment she heard the sound of a gong being struck. Immediately the twins got out of the chair and straightened their clothing. “We have to go now,” they said, speaking in unison once more. “There’s a lot to do before tonight,” added Amy.

“Good luck tonight,” said Laura, as the two of them walked slowly toward the door.

“Will I need it?” asked Grace, half-laughing.

Amy turned to look at her, her light-blue eyes glittering in the shadows. There was something catlike about her now, a feline quality totally at odds with the almost childlike persona she’d displayed earlier.

“That’s a secret, and anyway, only Amber knows about tonight. ’Bye!”

“Wait! Who’s Amber?” cried Grace, but she was too late. The twins had gone, and she was now alone in the room, with only the memory of how she’d felt when her teeth had closed around Laura’s exposed nipple to keep her company. As she sat waiting for the men to return, little did she know that in a small office at the back of the house, Andrew and Amber were watching the film of her with the twins, as they worked out the final, sophisticated details of Grace’s imminent first trial at the Dining Club.

“I hope the twins were good hostesses,” said David, when he and Grace were finally back in their suite. “You hadn’t been alone long before I got back had you?”

She shook her head. “No, they’d only just left, and they were very…”—pausing for a moment she tried to think of the right word, knowing as she did that their time together was on camera—“interesting,” she said weakly, still unable to believe all that had happened to her while she was with them. Remembering what she’d done to Laura’s pliant young body she swallowed hard.

“Good. Amy’s a bright young thing; she’ll do well. She wants to be a solicitor, but chose to have a year out first. Laura isn’t quite as academic. Her ambition is to travel and marry a rich man.”

Grace smiled. “A nice rich man, or any rich man?”

“Any rich man I imagine. Niceness isn’t something most girls worry about if money is their first concern.”

“They should, it’s very important.”

“Of course it is, but people’s ideas of niceness aren’t always the same. Some men think a ‘girl next door’ type of young woman is nice. I prefer women with edge.”

Grace shook her head. “You’re deliberately being obtuse. I meant nice as in thinking about the other person, caring about their feelings, and making them feel loved and cherished.”

“There are other ways of making a woman feel loved and cherished,” he said gently, “as I hope you’ll come to understand better after your visits here. If you care about someone, it’s wonderful to teach them new pathways to pleasure. It’s exciting for a man to watch a woman he cares about discover things about herself that she would never have dreamed of if she hadn’t met him.”

Grace’s dark eyes, which were usually sparkling, as though something had amused her, lost their animated look. “You’re just talking about sex!” she exclaimed.

Running a hand through his wavy brown hair, David shook his head. “Don’t you feel loved and cherished after sex?”

“Yes, but there’s far more to it than that. Women need tenderness; desire comes through feeling that you’re cherished, not the other way round.”

“How do you know that, Gracie? How can you be so sure that what you’ve always been led to believe is, in reality, the only way women can start to feel desire? Society often makes women feel guilty about their own sexuality. It’s more accepting when it comes to men, but why? I want you to forget everything you think you should feel, and be open to new experiences.

“You work in the arts, you like to push the boundaries with plays you put on. If you direct a Jacobean tragedy, you try to do something new with it, play up an aspect of it that’s been missed before. Don’t you see, that’s what we try to do at the Dining Club? I want you to discover things about yourself that you’ve never even considered before. You can experience pleasure such as you’ve never imagined if you allow yourself to. It’s only society that’s dictated what should and what shouldn’t feel good to you. Here you get the chance to find out for yourself, and find the aspects of sexual pleasure that you’ve been missing out on.”

“But what about love?” asked Grace.

“How can anyone define love? It means different things to different people, and at different stages in their lives. I believe that love, if it exists, comes through physical and mental closeness, and the ability to share moments of pure, unadulterated sexual ecstasy.”

“Don’t you believe that love exists?” asked a shocked Grace.

“I hope it does, which is why I’ve brought you here. I want to experience love, love as I understand it, and I believe you can help me through your experiences at the Dining Club.

“I want to love you, Grace, but if that’s going to happen I need you to have absolute trust in me.”

Grace was sure she could hear a note of underlying sadness in his voice, a tiny speck of vulnerability that he’d never revealed before, and moving across the room she put her arms round him. He quickly gripped her tightly too, so that they were locked in an embrace.

“You do trust me, don’t you my darling?” he said softly.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“And you understand what I’ve been saying?”

“I understand it, but I don’t know if I agree with it all,” she confessed.

“That doesn’t matter. As time passes, and you experience the trials, that’s when you’ll be in a position to discover whether you agree with me or not. As long as you understand, I know that the rest will follow.”

“I hope so,” she said softly.

“So do I,” replied David, and Grace could tell that he really meant it.

They stayed locked in their embrace for a long time, until Grace realized how time was passing and that the evening would soon be upon her. Swiftly she collected all she needed from her suitcase and went through into the bathroom, leaving her lover standing by the window, lost in his own thoughts.

* * *

It was six-thirty. Amber and Andrew took one last look round the dining room before Andrew went to strike the gong for dinner.

“Perfect,” said Amber contentedly. “This is a beautiful room. So calm and relaxing.”

Andrew smiled. “I always think that it’s rather cruel on the newcomers, so misleading when you think about what’s to follow.”

Amber nodded. “That’s what makes it so perfect. I hope Grace enjoys the meal, because I doubt if she’s going to enjoy her first evening as David’s special guest.”

Andrew frowned. “I hope she does. She might resist a little at first, most people do, but I know he’s very keen on her and I doubt if he’d have made a mistake.”

“He’s been very keen on other women, but they didn’t come here very often. The second one only ate here once. I’ll never forget her face when she had to…”

“Amber,” said Andrew gently, “you can’t keep him to yourself forever. One day he’ll fall for someone who likes it here and fits into his whole life. Then I hope he marries her and they’re very happy. He’s a nice man, he deserves to be happy.”

“He’s not the marrying kind. He needs the stimulation of the Dining Club to stop terminal boredom. He’s said as much himself. You can’t honestly imagine him marrying can you?”

“Maybe not marrying, but wanting to be with one woman all the time would suit him. He’s said as much.”

“Only one woman?” she asked sharply.

Andrew shrugged. “Probably not, but he’d like to live with a woman full-time. I suppose he’d use the Club when the need arose, or rather the two of them would use it.”

“I doubt if any woman would want to come here knowing I’m in charge,” Amber pointed out.

“True, but then you won’t be here forever will you? None of us will be. I’ll go and sound the gong.”

Alone in the room, Amber realized that she was shaking with fury. Andrew was wrong, she knew that really, but his words had scared her. No matter how involved David became with other women, he’d always need her specialized skills and abilities as a hostess. No one could replace her at the Dining Club, and certainly not the admittedly lovely but clearly relatively sexually unsophisticated Grace. Why, she’d even turned up this morning in jeans and a cropped top. Clearly she had no idea of how important clothes were when it came to keeping a man like David keen.

Running her hands down her black dress, she then checked that there weren’t any stray strands of hair falling from her French pleat before moving gracefully to the top table. Tall and curvaceous, with her fair skin lightly tanned she was, she knew, a truly beautiful woman. If she had her way, in a few months’ time Grace would be nothing more than a distant memory to David.

* * *

At the sound of the gong, Grace took a final look at herself in the long bedroom mirror, as David adjusted the knot of his dark blue tie, which he was wearing with a white shirt and blue Armani suit. “Are you sure this dress isn’t over-the-top?” she asked anxiously. “It’s not something I’d ever have chosen.”

“I know, which is why I chose it for you. Your dresses were nice, but I realized I hadn’t explained quite how formal dinner is here and brought this along in case of emergencies. You look beautiful in it, truly beautiful,” he added.

Grace blushed. She felt beautiful. The pale lemon chiffon dress, with lace over the bottom half, fitted her like a second skin. Thin spaghetti straps exposed her creamy shoulders, and a small piece of trailing lace encircled the top of her left arm, like a bracelet made out of material. She thought it looked as though she was about to undress, but on the other hand it was also very sexy, and made her feel sexy too.

“It’s amazing,” she admitted. “I look…”

“Ready to be ravished,” murmured David, standing close behind her so that their eyes met in the mirror. “Unfortunately we have to eat first, but I doubt if I’ll be able to control myself after that!”

“I thought that the first trial was after we’ve eaten?”

“Yes, that’s what I meant. Now, let’s go down shall we?” He ran one finger across the exposed, sensitive skin of her chest, pushed the lace arm bracelet a fraction lower and then, with an arm round her waist, guided her out of the door. “At last the evening begins,” he murmured to himself, and hearing his words Grace’s pulse quickened with a mixture of fear and excitement.

The dining room was almost full when they walked in, and Grace realized that David had been right. The dresses she’d bought wouldn’t have been right, but the dress he’d bought for her was perfect. Because of the cut and fit it even made her walk differently, and she loved the sensuous feel of the material against her skin.

David led the way to table one, where Amy was already sitting. Her dress was the same color as the one she’d worn earlier in the afternoon, but it revealed more of her legs, and round her neck she had a matching fabric collar, studded with tiny diamond chips.

“Gorgeous dress!” exclaimed Amy, as Grace sat down. “Where did you get it?”

“David bought it for me,” said Grace, and she saw a look of surprise cross Amy’s face for a fleeting second, before her expression changed to one of amused understanding, which made no sense at all to Grace.

A tall blonde woman then came over to them from the top table, introducing herself as Amber. “I’m in charge of this part of the Dining Club,” she explained, “and it’s always a pleasure to meet a guest of David’s. He so rarely brings anyone here. I hope you enjoy your evening. You’ll find everyone is very friendly, isn’t that right, David?”

He nodded. “Oh yes, extremely friendly!” Grace didn’t miss the brief, knowing glance that passed between the two of them before Amber glided away again, and there was something about it that increased her nervousness.

“She’s beautiful,” said Grace. “A classic beauty too, like one of Hitchcock’s heroines.”

“I hope not, they either end up dead or half-dead with fear!” replied David. “Now, shall I order some champagne?”

The three of them chatted quietly during dinner. David surprised Grace by feeding her olives and tiny slivers of smoked salmon from his fingers at the start of the meal, and later on did the same with the asparagus tips that accompanied the lamb cutlets.

The subdued lighting and quiet murmur of intensely private conversations in the dining room were an arousing background to these small acts of sensuality, and Grace was thoroughly relaxed and enjoying herself when Laura, Amy’s twin, arrived at the table with some cards in her hands. “The dessert choice,” she explained, handing them to David.

Amy sat up very straight, her eyes on Grace. David glanced briefly at the cards, put three down on the table and passed the rest back to Laura, who then stood waiting for their order.

“Grace, these dessert choices are coded,” he said quietly. “Each of them hints at the type of trial you want this evening. Here, look at them and you’ll see what I mean.”

Grace’s stomach tightened with fear. For a short time she’d forgotten what lay ahead, but now there was no way out. If she wanted to keep David, and after their conversation earlier she knew without doubt that she did, then she had to go through with this. All around her other women were also looking at cards and making choices. One looked excited, but the others looked as nervous as Grace was feeling.

“Tantalizing Tiramisu, Obedient Orange Sorbet or Controlled Chocolate Delight,” she read aloud.

“I think you should leave the Controlled Chocolate Delight for another month,” said David quietly. “Choose from the first two.”

Grace began to tremble. “I don’t want either,” she whispered. “I don’t know what they mean. I don’t think I can do this.”

“Then you simply refuse the dessert, my darling, but of course you know what that will mean for us.”