Fifty Shades of Submission (31 page)

I add my own meagre bundle of clothing
and toiletries to the rest of the luggage, close the trunk, and go back into the house. It is dark, and cold now that the last rays of the hopeful spring sun is fading. The stars are already beginning to tremble faintly in the darkening evening sky. It is going to be a cold night.

I
go upstairs and pass through the little sitting room, and hesitate at her bedroom door.

Why
is my heart beating so fast? Am I not happy? Did she not swear to me that she loves me? Has she not promised to marry me and bear my child?

I open the door softly. Saski
a is lounging on the chaise longue in her bedroom. She does not hear me enter and does not notice me at first. My heart skips a beat at the sight of her. How beautiful she looks leaning back with her fiery red hair cascading about her perfect, flawless face. She has changed and is wearing a long silvery grey dress which fits snugly over her hips and breasts, accentuating her voluptuous body.

I am surprised to see a
fire burning in the fireplace, and she has turned off the lights and has lit candles all about the room. The candles cast a warm reddish glow, as though bathing the room in blood.

"
Saskia," I say at last, softly.

She notices me
and smiles. "Oh Julian, I have been waiting for you so impatiently. What took you so long?”

I smile. “I wasn’t
that long. Anyway, I’m here now.”

"
Come and sit down here next to me by the fire,” I sit beside her but the chaise is uncomfortable so I slide down onto the floor at her feet and lay my head in her lap.

"
I’ve been thinking about you all day,” she whispers, stroking my hair. “Do you have any idea how much I love you at this moment? How beautiful your eyes are, my love. I have always thought they’re the best part of you. So expressive, so sensitive… Hold me, my love, let me feel your passion once again."

I
sit up next to her and put my arms around her and hold her, but she pushes me gently to arm’s length and looks at me from beneath her long lashes. "What’s the matter, my love?” she murmurs. “Why are you acting so cold toward me? You’re holding me like a block of wood! Don’t I please you any longer?” The tenderness drains abruptly from her face. “Do you want me to be cruel towards you again? What shall I do to arouse you? Shall I whip you?"

I begin to protest but she places a finger on my lips, quietening me. "I want to, Julian – for old time’s sake. One last time. Let me bind you.
I need to see if you still love me. I need you to prove it to me one last time.”

I get a sickening feeling at the pit of my stomach.

I’ll get the ropes,” She says cheerfully and goes to her bedside cupboard and returns with a roll of nylon rope that I don’t remember seeing before. Had she brought it back from town with her?

She laughs girlishly
, almost nervously. “I wonder if I can still do it? Get undressed, my love,” she whispers seductively. “You know I love it when you’re naked.”

I
hesitate, but the eager almost childlike look of excitement on her face disarms me completely and I get undressed. The moment I’m naked she begins to tie my hands behind my back, and then my feet.

"
There!" she says with breathless anticipation. "Can you still move?"

"No."

"Good!” She smiles happily. “Come, let me tie you up like we did last time.” She fashions a hangman’s noose from a long length of rope and slips it over my head. She throws the other end over the heavy ceiling beam above and pulls the noose just tight enough around my neck so as not to choke me and ties the end of the rope to one of the burglar-guard bars on the window so that I am held securely in place, effectively unable to move in any direction without choking myself.

My heart begins to hammer wildly and a cold chill
of fear seizes me. It suddenly occurs to me that I am alone in the house with her and she can choke me to death and leave my handwritten suicide note next to my body to be found by the next occupant of this hellish house.

"
Am I to be executed tonight?" I say in a low, dull voice.

"
Executed?” she laughs gaily. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. We shall have to wait and see. One thing I
do
know is that you will be thoroughly punished tonight!" her eyes are on fire with excitement.

She stand
s in front of me and looks at me unhurriedly. "It was you who made me aware of this side of myself, Julian. It was you who opened Pandora’s Box. It was you who unleashed the cruelty within me. If you hadn’t come along I would never have known this dark side of me even existed. I
enjoy
having a human being in my power and making them suffer. It’s like a dangerous drug and I have become hopelessly addicted. You have no idea how much pleasure I have taken in torturing a man who is not only physically stronger than I, but also intellectually superior - especially a man who loves me. Do you still love me, Julian?"

I can’t bring myself
to speak. My heart is in my throat and my mouth is dry.

"
I hope will you will truly enjoy what I am about to do to you now. You see, I am about to make your worst dreams come true."

"What’
s the matter with you?" I manage to say at last. "I don't understand! This morning you loved me and now you hate me again. Now you want to inflict pain on me once more.
I don’t
understand
.”

Without replying
, Saskia puts her arms around my neck and kisses me. “I do it because I
can
,” she whispers in my ear.

It
is the end for me. Within minutes she has succeeded in pushing me back into the black bottomless pit from which I thought I had escaped. I’m falling once more, my heart in my throat and a sick horrible feeling at the pit of my stomach.

“Very well,
” I say dully, “do with me what you want. Where’s the whip?"

Saskia
steps back from me and tosses her red mane back with a flick of her head. Suddenly her face becomes completely transformed, disfigured by brutal cruelty.

"
The slave’s ready!” she calls over her shoulder.
“
Whip him!"

I have no idea who she is calling to,
and then suddenly the Russian’s handsome face appears between the closed curtains of the four-poster bed. He pulls the curtains aside and swings his athletic legs gracefully over the side of the bed. His feet touch the floor and he stands in front of me, completely naked, his huge penis flaccid, holding the cat-o-nine-tails casually in one hand.

I am
speechless, horrified.

The Russian sees the look of fear on my face and laughs. He turns to Saskia with admiration.
"You’re the cruellest bitch I have ever come across. A bitch after my own heart!” He leans into her and kisses her, sticking his tongue down his throat and at the same time grasping her breast roughly and squeezing hard. His penis begins to stir and grow.

By the time
he pulls away from her his cock is rock hard. He grins at her. “You’re a whore, you know that? You give me a hard on just thinking about what a sadistic bitch you are.”

Saskia
smiles at him adoringly. “I enjoy making slaves of weak men. I love making them pay for my pleasure with their blood and pain. I used to make my husband suffer too – especially after he became a cripple and was confined to his wheelchair. I used to bring men home and fuck them in front of him. I knew it drove him mad. In the end I’m not sure whether it was his illness or his grief that killed him.” She laughs malevolently.

The Russian’s grin widens.
“Pleasure and pain, freedom and slavery, love and hate – they all go hand in hand. If you and I were gods we would have had hordes of slaves at our disposal to do with as we pleased. We would have tossed them to the wolves to be eaten alive, and we would have owned gladiators who would have done battle on our behalf and spilled their blood while we watched and banqueted.”

Saskia’s eyes are wild with excitement. “Yes,
we would have hurled our slaves to their death in the colosseum, to be devoured and torn limb from limb by the lions. What do we care if their blood bespatters us while we feast and engage in an orgy of sex and lust and pain and death?"

Her words
to the Russian are like a dagger in my heart. She has at last revealed herself to me.

"Untie
me!" I shout angrily.

She turns on me venomously.
"Aren't you still my slave, - my property? As my property I have just given you away as a present to my lover. Now that you are
his
property he can do with you as he pleases!"

"
Untie me!"

"Can he
get free?" she asks her lover. "He has threatened to kill me."

The Russian tests the
tight noose around my neck. “No chance. You’ve done a good job.”

"I’
ll call for help," I threaten stupidly, knowing that we are alone and isolated in the middle of nowhere.

She smiles coldly.
"Shout as much as you like, slave. In fact, you will be
screaming
in a moment. No one will hear you. The women are gone. There is no one here but the three of us. No one is coming to save you. No one is going to stop me from torturing you to death tonight.
No one!”
Her eyes gleam demonically.

I marvel that it has taken me
so long to see her for the devil she really is. Perhaps that’s what drew me instinctively to her in the first place – her natural born talent for evil.

"Do
you still love me, slave, or have you grown to hate me?” She laughs coldly.

Her lover
steps closer with the whip in his hand, black eyes burning.

"Don't you
dare
!" I shout ferociously. "I won't permit it—"

"You won’t permit it?
” he repeats mockingly. “Why? Because I have a cock and she doesn’t?" He pushes his face up close to mine. “You’re not in any position to
permit
anything you weak pathetic fool!” he snarls.

Saskia laughs and he glances at her.  “I have your permission to
whip him?" he asks.

"Do with him as
you please. He’s yours. A gift of love from me.” She blows her lover a kiss. “Be harsh with him. I told you this morning when we were in town - he raped me yesterday. He almost tore me in half. I had to pretend to love him once more in order to calm him down. I had to sleep with him again last night and pretend I enjoyed having his cock inside me and all the while I was gagging with loathing. His touch disgusts me.”

"
Bitch
!" I shout, enraged. “
Liar! You’re a lying bitch!
You
loved
my cock inside you!”

The Russian
glares at me. “Lying bitch? That’s no way to talk to a lady!” His muscles flex and swell and he draws back his arm, making the cat-o-nine-tails hiss through the air.

I wa
it for the blows to begin, staring fixedly at the Rubens painting on the wall. It is a metaphor for passion, lust, love and betrayal. It is the story of the blinding love of a man for a worthless woman who betrays him for a paltry sum of gold.

"Now
we shall commence the first phase of your punishment," the Russian says. His face has acquired a hard, brutal expression.

Saskia yanks the rope that i
s tied in a noose around my neck and draws it tighter, choking me. I look into her eyes and I am looking into the soul of a she-devil. I have seen those eyes before – it’s the eyes of Aunt Sophia. I am suddenly struck by how remarkably similar they are, these two women. They both have the same green eyes.

The Russian begi
ns to apply the whip with frightful force and terrible precision. I shudder and gasp
under each blow.

Saskia
draws the noose tighter still, her face flushed with excitement.

The
act of being whipped by the naked lover of the woman you love cannot be described in rational words. I felt as though I was losing my mind.

Her lover
whips on and on, blow after blow. My skin bursts open and blood spurts and flows over my skin. He carries on relentlessly, his body glistening with sweat, his big cock erect and swinging with each blow - while Saskia hangs onto the noose and drags it ever tighter, while laughing insanely.

Finally he grows weary of the sport and
flings the whip away and takes the rope out of his lover’s hands and curls it around his fist and tightens it further so that I have to stand on my toes in order to breathe.

Then she approaches me with
her small dagger, her eyes gleaming with bloodthirsty lust. “I am going to leave you with a special souvenir, slave, as a permanent reminder of the time we spent together.” She looks at her lover and laughs. “Doesn’t he look like a broken, frightened rabbit?”