Bound (3 page)

“I’m scared; doesn’t that matter to you?”

“Don’t be scared. You don’t have to choose anything, you know that. If none of them appeal to you, then all you have to do is tell Laura. There’s no pressure on you, Gracie, it’s only that…”

Trembling, Grace looked at him, and saw the regret in his eyes. She wanted to go on, to take the final step into the unknown, but the descriptions on the cards didn’t give her enough of a clue for her to dare to choose anything with any confidence.

“The tiramisu should be nice,” murmured Amy, leaning close to Grace so that no one near could hear. “Choose that. You’ll be fine.”

As Grace hesitated, Amber came to their table. “Is there a problem?” she asked.

Looking up, Grace saw that Amber had guessed what was happening and was enjoying it. She also noticed that Amber had rested one hand possessively on David’s left shoulder. “No, I’m spoilt for choice, that’s all,” she said brightly. “I think I’ll go for the Tantalizing Tiramisu. It sounds fascinating.”

Laura wrote it down and went away and Amy smiled and touched Grace’s arm encouragingly while Amber merely nodded before walking off. All around them groups of three were getting up from their tables and making their way out of the dining room.

“Well done,” said David. With a sigh of relief he pushed back his chair. “We’re in the study for dessert tonight aren’t we, Amy?”

Amy nodded.

“Aren’t you coming too?” asked Grace.

“No, I’m hardly ever involved at a guest’s first trial. My skills are for the higher tables. Good luck though,” she added more quietly, “and try to enjoy it. It’s one of the best choices you can get.” With that, Amy hurried off to join another group.

Grace felt bereft as she watched her go. Now she knew that whatever lay ahead she had to cope with it on her own, because she was certain that no one else was going to help her in any way at all.

Silently David guided Grace out of the dining room, down the hallway and along a short corridor. He then opened a concealed door and she stepped inside.

“Hello,” said Amber, getting up from a chair to greet her. “Do come in. Andrew and I are both so pleased you chose the tiramisu.”

Grace took a step backwards, feeling her heart racing and aware that the palms of her hands were damp with fear, but David was standing behind her, and before she could say anything he’d locked the study door and dropped the key into a jar on a high shelf.

“Welcome to your first trial, my darling,” he murmured. “I’m sure we’re all going to have a wonderful time.”

The lighting in the room was turned off, leaving it in darkness apart from the light provided by the many jasmine-scented candles, whose perfume filled the air. Flickering shadows moved on the walls, and Grace stood motionless, wondering if this was how a fox felt when it was caught in the headlights of a car. She wanted to run, and yet she was hypnotized by the all-pervading air of sexuality that filled the room.

Andrew held out his hands. “Come here, Grace,” he said, smiling at her. “Don’t be nervous. This will be a wonderful evening for you. Tantalizing Tiramisu is one of my favorite scenarios, because it gives the woman so much pleasure.”

Pleased to see him, she allowed him to draw her close, and then as he turned her round and his lips caressed the sides of her neck in tiny, circular motions she jumped with shock. It felt all wrong. She only wanted David to kiss her in that way. She shivered, and his hands moved to the tops of her arms, as he drew small circles with his fingers, while his tongue continued to move over the delicate flesh of her neck.

Grace was mortified to feel her body start to soften, and she was very aware of David standing on the far side of the room, watching her keenly. When Andrew began to unzip the back of her dress, kissing each bone of her spine as he peeled the top down, she felt heat spreading between her inner thighs.

Someone gave a tiny moan, and it took her a few seconds to realize that the sound had come from her.

Reaching in front of her, Andrew spread his fingers over the undersides of her swelling breasts, and he scratched lightly on them with his nails for a few seconds before cupping them again.

Grace was shamed by the speed with which her body was responding. She looked apologetically at David, but it was clear from the rapt expression on his face that he didn’t mind in the least. He was enjoying seeing Andrew give her pleasure. She felt that this was wrong, that if he really loved her he would be jealous, and was deeply ashamed of the way her body was responding to a stranger’s skilled touch while the man she loved was watching.

“That’s enough,” said David as Andrew finished unzipping the dress, easing the cloth bracelet section down her arm, stroking the soft flesh of it as he did so, until the dress fell to the ground round her ankles. “It’s time we explained what the trial is all about.”

Standing alone and naked except for a pair of cream-colored French knickers, her breasts tight and her nipples rigid, Grace waited, trembling, to hear what he had to say.

“Since you chose the Tantalizing Tiramisu, I’m sure you’ve already guessed that this evening you’ll be teased and tantalized sexually,” he said with a brief smile. “It’s something you’re almost certain to find exceedingly pleasurable, judging by your response to Andrew taking your dress off. From the point of view of the trial, it’s an interestingly quick and encouraging response. You see that illuminated clock on the wall, opposite the sofa?”

Grace hadn’t noticed it in the semidarkness before, but when she looked she was surprised by the size of it. It was very large, and each minute was marked with a bright red line. She nodded.

“We’ll be in here an hour,” continued David. “In that time we will all, plus Laura who will join us later, take it in turns to give you pleasure. However, you’re only allowed two orgasms in the hour. The minutes are marked very clearly so that you can see how well you’re doing, and you’ll hear each minute click by if you listen carefully.

“If you climax more than twice, then you will fail the trial. You can’t control what we do to you, nor can you stop us unless you want the trial to end. It’s not as easy as you might imagine,” he added, “especially as we don’t tolerate disobedience. If we tell you to do something to yourself, then you have to obey.”

“What if I don’t have two orgasms?” asked Grace nervously.

“I don’t think that’s something you’re going to need to worry about!” replied David. “If you’ve no other questions, we’ll start the clock now.”

“But that’s not fair!” she exclaimed.

His brow darkened. “What do you mean?”

“Andrew’s already aroused me before the clock has started.”

“He was merely relaxing you,” said David. “Amber, start the clock now.”

With a brief glance at Grace, Amber did as he’d ordered, and before Grace knew what was happening Andrew had lifted her up and placed her facedown on the large sofa, which was covered with soft downy pillows.

“Rest your head on your arms,” he said quietly, “and close your eyes.”

Grace’s mouth was dry with fear. Her naked breasts were squashed against the soft pillows, and her lower body sunk into the bolster Amber pushed widthways beneath her. She waited, eyes closed and body tensed, for something to happen.

A sudden drop of warm liquid on her spine made her jump, and her eyes flew open.

“Keep your eyes closed,” David reminded her sharply. She realized he must be standing in the nearest corner of the room, watching her intently.

“Apologize,” said Amber.

Grace’s body stiffened. “Why should I? I wasn’t expecting…”

“Obedience at all times, Grace,” murmured Andrew, and then his hands began to massage the scented oil into her body.

“I’m sorry,” she said, as her breathing quickened.

His fingers were spread out, so that he covered the maximum amount of skin possible, pressing firmly with every upward stroke and then more lightly as his hands returned to their original position. When his fingers covered the sides of her body she moaned with pleasure, and felt a soft tingling begin low down and deep inside her.

“Turn over, but keep your eyes closed,” said David.

She started to move, but Andrew flipped her over in one swift movement before letting his oiled fingers glide down the sides of her neck and along the tops of her breasts. Her whole body felt hot and restless, and she moaned with the pleasure of it.

“She’s certainly responsive,” said Amber, and Grace could hear the satisfaction in the other woman’s voice. It was then she realized that she must try not to become aroused so fast, or she would never last the hour with only two climaxes. She knew her own body, and that she was multiorgasmic. It would be easy to fall into the trap of letting herself be carried away far too soon. Desperately she tried to distance herself from the wonderful sensations.

David saw what she was doing. “Can’t you keep your thoughts to yourself, Amber? You’ve ruined all Andrew’s good work now,” he said, but he sounded amused, and Grace heard Amber laugh quietly in response. She hated her then, for her obvious closeness to David, and her casual dismissal of Grace’s desperate efforts to discipline her own body.

“I don’t think so,” said Andrew, spreading Grace’s arms and legs out until her body formed an X-shape.

Grace could smell the scent of sandalwood as he continued his massage. Now he concentrated even more on her breasts and also the top of her stomach. Because her eyes were closed the sensations were all the more intense. By the time Andrew started to vary the pressure as he stroked her, Grace’s whole body was tingling and hot.

He molded his hands around her breasts, lightly at first but then more and more firmly until the pressure was too much and she made a small sound of protest. Ignoring this, he continued to grip the burgeoning flesh tightly and her hips started to move restlessly on the bolster.

Only then did his grip loosen, and now his hands moved to her belly, where once again he pressed very lightly at first but then harder, his long, lean fingers digging into the mound of flesh just above her pubic bone.

Grace groaned as the first darts of hot pleasure began to spark, and she felt the familiar coiling sensation between her thighs that preceded her orgasms. Now his hands were on her thighs, parting them so that her sex was fully exposed.

Gently, stealthily, his hands gripped the tops of her thighs, his thumbs splayed out so that they could tease at the most delicate area of flesh at the very top of her inner thigh. Despite herself, Grace arched her body upwards, suddenly frantic for a more intimate touch as her swollen, aroused body longed for some kind of stimulation between her thighs that would release the pent-up tension.

“Stop!” she protested. “Please, just let me have a minute’s respite.”

“Be quiet, Grace!” said David harshly. “Don’t try to change what’s being done to you. That’s not allowed.”

“She doesn’t really want him to stop,” said Amber. “She’s desperate to come.”

“That’s true,” agreed David. “Tell us if that’s true, Gracie,” he added, with a touch of such calculated cruelty that Grace wanted to weep. “Tell us,” he repeated more firmly.

“Yes,” she sobbed, hating herself and them for what was happening to her body. “Yes, it’s true.”

“What is?” he persisted.

“I want to come,” she admitted, and hearing herself say the words served only to increase her longing for release.

She could hear herself whimpering with a mixture of pleasure and frustration, and heard too the sound of Andrew’s breathing and Amber’s soft laughter.

“It’s only been fifteen minutes,” said David, yet even his warning couldn’t stop her overwhelming need for satisfaction. Tiny cries escaped from her mouth as she moved her hips around, but Andrew was skilled at this game and never went near the hard, swollen nub of pleasure that Grace wanted, needed, to be touched.

For several more minutes he continued to stroke, press and caress her body and then, just as she thought she couldn’t bear it any longer, something light brushed against the creases at the tops of her thighs. It felt like a piece of silk, and again her hips jerked upwards.

This time Andrew’s hands parted her sex lips and someone else—she had no way of knowing who as her eyes were still closed—drew the silken cloth upwards against her clitoris so that it was brushed three times with the softest of touches and then Andrew pressed down hard with the heel of one hand against her pubic bone while his tongue swirled around the frantic center of her pleasure.

Grace’s body jackknifed in a spasm of intense, almost overwhelming release and she cried out with pleasure as her long-delayed orgasm was finally allowed to explode. As it slowly died away her body continued to shudder, because the soft silken cloth was still being trailed between her thighs and it seemed as though the hot, sweet rush of release would never end.

Finally Andrew moved off the sofa, Grace lay still and the room fell silent. “Twenty minutes,” said David calmly. “You can open your eyes now.”

Feeling exposed and ashamed, Grace decided to keep them closed.

“I said open your eyes,” instructed David.

Reluctantly she obeyed him. He was standing at the foot of the couch, looking down at her sweat-streaked body with detached interest. “You enjoyed that didn’t you?” he asked.

“Yes,” she whispered, unable to make out his expression in the shadowy light from the candles.

“Good. I’m not sure you’re totally satisfied though. I think you’re going to find it very difficult to last forty minutes with only one more chance of release. What do you think?”

Grace knew that he was right. Now that the last tremors of her climax had died away, she still felt aroused and receptive. She knew that David would be well aware of this, as he had often pleasured her multiple times before having his own orgasm. She bit on her lower lip. “I don’t know,” she lied.

“Oh I think you do,” he said, then sat beside her on the couch, his long, familiar fingers brushing her dark hair off her hot forehead. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, “beautiful and insatiable. It’s an irresistible combination.”