Anjali's Red Scarf Ch. 04

Her story was a catalogue of mishaps and nuisances. She was supposed to be writing an academic presentation, but couldn't get guidance from her advisor; she needed to put in an application for a possible flat, and was intimidated by the paperwork involved; the landlord at their current place was claiming they were behind on their rent; half a dozen other things that I don't now remember.

None of them were major in their own right, but multi-tasking is not our strong point, and their combined weight had brought her to a minor meltdown. She had been sick for a couple of days—I suspected the stress had contributed to that—and had stayed in my apartment instead of going in to the office. With every day she stayed home, going back in seemed more intimidating, and so she had lost a week without making progress on any of the things that she'd been worrying about.

I clasped her hand with my own, soapy water and all, and I reminded her that none of these things were the end of the world, and that she could deal with them one by one. Here and there I was able to give more direct advice.

"So instead of asking Professor Cheng if he's okay with you presenting these slides, you can word it like this: 'Dear Professor, here are my slides, please let me know by Friday if you want me to make any changes.' That way, if he doesn't reply, you're good to go."

"Oh! I see what you mean. That's very clever, I think I can use that a lot."

We talked through the other issues, and then eventually I said, "Water's starting to go cold, I suppose I'd better get out."

"Of course." She stood up and gave me my towel, looking away once more as I dried myself again, eventually turning back once I'd wrapped the towel around myself. "Oh dear," she said.

"What?"

"Sarah, you have glitter all over you."

I'm pretty blind without my glasses, and I hadn't noticed it in the water, but as I brought my hand to my face I saw the shiny flecks catching the light. "Oh, for crying out loud."

"It suits you."

"Hah. Oh, that reminds me, I have something for you."

Once I'd tied on my dressing gown, I gave her the small box that the gift-shop lady had wrapped. Anjali untied the ribbon, lifted the lid, drew out the silk and held it out; then she closed one hand until her thumb and fingers formed a loop, and drew it through, feeling it slide over her skin.

"Oh, Sarah, this is beautiful. I adore tulips. Do you know they're the most romantic flower?"

"Not red roses?"

She shook her head. "Tulips. Two-lips. Get it?"

I groaned. "You're terrible. Now go to bed, it's one in the morning. Are you okay with the sofa?"

"I've been sleeping there all week. You weren't here, so." She leaned in and suddenly hugged me. "Thanks for talking, Sarah." Then she went downstairs, and I plodded off to my bed.

For once, thanks to jetlag, I woke before Anjali. I sat up and read for an hour or two. When I heard her moving about downstairs I came down to say hello, and we breakfasted together.

"Sarah," she said, "I wanted to ask you about that scarf..."

"Oh?"

"Is it for me, or for Lily?"

That caught me unawares. "I'm... let me think... I'm really not sure, to be honest. Whichever you'd like, I guess."

She nodded. "I have some idea what it might have cost you. I think perhaps it might be more appropriate for Lily. Besides, tulips are a kind of lily."

"Really? I had no idea."

"Family Liliaceae, tribe Lilieae."

"Impressive."

"The Girl's Encyclopædia of the Garden, 1927 edition. I read that one a few times. It had lovely colour plates... Sarah, you said before, you needed to know when you had my permission?"

It took me a moment to realise she wasn't talking about the previous night, but an earlier conversation. "I remember."

"Allow me to propose an idea. When I am wearing that scarf, you may consider me to be Lily, and I am at your service. The rest of the time, I'm Anjali, and we are friends."

"Huh." I gave that some thought. "Okay, yes, that could work."

"Splendid. Well, I suppose I'd better pack my things." She checked her watch. "I should be able to make the nine-thirty train."

"How are you feeling this morning?"

"Much better, thanks. I feel a bit silly about everything."

I shook my head. "I promise I don't think you're silly."

She smiled. "Now, speaking of Lily, are we still on for Friday?"

"Oh, yes. I haven't planned anything yet, I'll let you know, but definitely Friday."

"Looking forwards to it!"

She left soon afterwards, and at last I was alone. That's when the emotional hangover really started to hit, a week of high-power social interaction working its way out of my system. I left my phone on silent, let Martin know I was jetlagged and wouldn't be in on Monday, and settled in for a couple of days of absolute solitude.

On the Tuesday I was feeling recovered enough to go in to work for half a day. In the evening Anjali messaged me:

AK: Hi Sarah, how are you?

PrincessOfParallelograms: not bad, mostly over the jetlag. Caught up on laundry. Still picking glitter out of my hair. You?

AK: Good, thank you. We sorted out the rent situation, the landlord forgot to record our payment but we found the online payment.

AK: I have a question for you

AK: last week, when I was procrastinating at your place, I checked out your library

AK: I noticed some books

AK: the ones with naked ladies. And ropes and so forth.

PrincessOfParallelograms: Ah.

Welp. She'd found my small collection of bondage art books. I didn't exactly lock them away, but I kept them discreetly towards the back of the library, on a high shelf and sandwiched in between some larger books so the casual observer would never notice them.

Of course, as I'd realised in hindsight, Anjali was the last person on earth who'd be content with observing a library casually.

AK: An interest of yours?

PrincessOfParallelograms: ...I suppose you could say that.

The notification showed me she was typing, typing, but it was a very long minute or two before she sent her reply.

AK: Sarah, is that something you would like to do with Lily?

Suddenly my heart was thumping, hard.

PrincessOfParallelograms: what would she say if I did?

AK: I think she might be willing to try some of it.

AK: Not all the things in those books. Some of them looked a bit impractical.

PrincessOfParallelograms: ...you read all of them?

AK: Oh yes.

AK: BTW, did you decide what you would like to do for Friday night?

PrincessOfParallelograms: well, I hadn't, but I have NOW.

AK: ;-)

AK: oh, real estate agent calling, gtg. Later!

It was a long three days before our date night.

We met at a tapas restaurant; they were brand new and trying to attract clientele, so I'd scored a discount coupon. I arrived five minutes early; fifteen minutes later, Anjali walked in.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, although by my standards ten minutes was the height of punctuality. "It took me a while to get away from the office, and I wanted to change."

She was wearing a rather splendid-looking dress, yellow and orange with some fancy box-pleating, but what really caught my attention was the sash she wore around her waist.

A red silk one, with tulips on it.

"That's quite all right. How's it going? Did you get any feedback from your professor?"

"Oh, yes. Today, at eight minutes to five. That's why I'm running late." She shrugged. "But my slides are all ready. Now I just have to deliver it."

"You'll do fine. I know what you're like when you're talking about something that interests you. Just remember not to go too fast."

She smiled. "Thank you for the vote of confidence. But I'm stressing out about it. Could we please not discuss it tonight?"

"Sure thing."

After we'd placed our orders, Anjali reached into her bag and pulled out some folded sheets of paper. "I don't know how you want to do it, but I thought perhaps it would be useful to work through this..."

I opened it up and chuckled, then checked around us to make sure nobody was looking. It was a printed list of about a hundred different BDSM activities.

"So we go through it," Anjali said, "and each of us says how interested we are in each thing."

"What, here?"

"Unless you'd rather have a bit more privacy," she said. The place had been filling up as we talked, and just then another couple sat down beside us.

"Oh, I think we'll be okay." I took out a pen and pointed at the first item on the list. "So, what about this one?"

"Tried it once, didn't enjoy it, but that might have been the situation. I could give it another go if you want to."

I shrugged. "I've had fun with it sometimes, but it's not something I get hugely excited about. Okay, this one?"

"Scary."

"Good scary or bad scary?"

She considered. "Bad scary, sorry."

"No need to apologise. There are no wrong answers. And it's not really my thing either. Okay, so if that one's out I'll assume this next one's also out... how about this one?"

"Yes, within reason. Visible, erm, b-r-u-i-s-e-s might be hard to explain. You?"

"Receiving, sometimes. I love giving." I smiled at her, showing my teeth, and she smiled back. Then I jumped, just a little, as I felt something brushing my calf. Something very like her stockinged toes.

The couple next to us were talking. I could hear every detail of their holiday plans, so no doubt they could hear us just as well.

In the margins on the first sheet, I wrote: bad girl.

Anjali reached for a pen of her own from her handbag.

What happens to bad girls?

Spanking, for starters.

She nodded, then turned over to the third page of the checklist, and drew a large smiley face next to "Spanking" before flipping back to page one. Her toe stroked upwards to the back of my knee.

We worked through the list item by item. Yes, no, yes please, maybe, need to think about that one, need to look that one up, and all the while Anjali's toes caressing my legs.

You are being quite distracting.

Oh! Am I?

She didn't stop, though, so I just soldiered on as best I could. "Next one?"

Anjali squinted at the list. "Not applicable, I would have thought...?"

"Oh, no, it's quite possible, it just takes some artificial help. I've dated a couple of ladies who were very much into that."

"Oh. Well, all right, then. I think I'd be okay with that."

"Cool."

And so on and so forth, with Anjali continuing her surreptitious distraction until at last I darted my left hand down under the cloth and caught her by the big toe. She could've pulled free, no doubt, but she didn't try very hard.

This little piggy came back to my place.

"I'm quite attached to that little piggy."

Well, then...

We didn't stick around for dessert, and I had some difficulty keeping my hands off her on the way home. Neither of us had been drinking, but she was giggly enough that I'd have taken her for tipsy if I didn't know better.

I walked into my apartment ahead of her, and as soon as she was inside I turned and pushed her back against the door, my hands on her shoulders. She squealed in surprise, but I swiftly silenced her with a kiss. As she brought up her hands instinctively, I grabbed her wrists and pulled them up above her head.

"Oh my," she said, when at last I let her breathe again. "You know how to make a girl feel wanted."

I kissed her again, nipping at her lips, stroking her cheek and running my hand back to catch her by the hair. "You've been teasing me all night. Now it's time to deliver." I dragged her towards my couch.

"Ooh, ow! Wait, let me get my shoes off before I twist my ankle!"

I paused, just long enough for her to kick them off. "Now, Miss Lily, off with your things."

"Won't. You can't make me."

I yanked her hair.

"Ow! Okay, okay. You don't have to be so mean about it."

"Don't have to. But I want to. Now, hurry up, girl. You can keep your underwear, for now. Everything else off."

I tugged the scarf loose from around her waist and draped it around her neck, so it wouldn't get in the way as she shed her dress. She obeyed, shedding her fine clothes, and I wondered once again whether it would ever stop seeming magical, that such a marvellous and unique creature should be at my command.

Soon enough she stood before me in her bra and panties. Perhaps remembering our first time together, she'd taken off her stockings, but...

"Everything off, I said. Everything but the underwear."

She looked confused, flustered, just how I wanted her. "But I've taken everything—"

With my forefinger, I tapped my own glasses.

"Oh. Sorry." She took hers off, put them down on my coffee table, and stood there blinking the way we myopes do. I picked them up, careful not to smudge the lenses—I may be sometimes a bitch, but I'm not a barbarian—and strolled over to one of my bookshelves, stretching up to place them a few inches out of Anjali's reach.

"You're evil," she said.

I bowed, straightened again, and strode towards her. "Turn around." I drew her hands behind her back, then slid the scarf down from her neck and looped it snugly around her wrists. "Pick a safeword, if you please."

"Oh, gosh... what about 'Schwarzchild'?"

"Ha. Yes, that will do very well." I knotted the scarf, firm but not too tight; the last thing I wanted was to stretch the silk. "How's that? Not too tight?"

She wriggled her hands. "No, that's good."

"Excellent." I sat on the sofa, pulling her down to lie across my lap. "Guess what happens now, cutie?"

There was a tremor in her voice. "You're going to spank me."

"Mmm-hmm. Do you think you could get away, if you tried?"

She wriggled, but I had one hand on her back, the other on her thighs. "...no."

"No—what?"

"No... mistress?"

"Good girl." With my left hand I ran one finger up her spine, tickling the back of her neck, and with my right hand I stroked her bum, beginning to pat her lightly. "Now, do you know why you're about to be spanked?"

"Oh... because I was bad, and I teased you?"

"Uh huh. Why else?"

"...because it was on the checklist?"

"That also. And?"

She hesitated, no doubt distracted by my fingers, which were dawdling at the juncture of her buttocks. "I'm sorry, I don't know, mistress."

"Because it pleases me, sweetie." I stroked her face, ran my finger over her lips, slipped a fingertip between them. "Because I want you to squeal... oh, by the way, Lily, any time I put something in your mouth, you have a job to do."

She pursed her lips around my finger and sucked it into her mouth, warm and wet and yielding.

"That's a good girl. You want to be my good girl, don't you?" I was stroking down her perineum now, and she flinched, and my fingers slipped down between her thighs. I could feel her heat there, and the cloth was getting damp. She mumbled "mmm-hmm".

"Bad girls get punished, Lily." I squeezed her in a very sensitive location, and she squirmed. "But you know what? It's just as much fun to hurt good girls. I don't need a reason." I wiggled my finger against the tip of her tongue, and then I withdrew it, clamping my left hand over the back of her neck, pinning her face down, as I raised my right. "Let's begin."

I brought my hand down with a crack, and she squealed and jumped, every muscle stiff, then softened again in my grasp. Again, on the other buttock, and again, and again, and every time she gasped and struggled for a moment before giving in once more.

After a few minutes of this, I paused the spanking in order to unhook the clasp of her bra. With her wrists bound, I couldn't get it all the way off, but that didn't matter; her breasts were exposed, to rub against the sofa's suede every time she moved, and I didn't intend to let her keep still for long.

Next I tugged her underwear down, halfway to her knees, exposing her buttocks -- I took a moment to appreciate their blush -- and I ran my fingers up between her legs. Yes, she was quite wet, and I made sure she knew I'd noticed, working that slickness around a little before slipping two fingers into her. She sighed.

"Something wrong, dear?" I asked, fingers curling and stroking.

"N-no, mistress."

"Good." I drew my fingers out of her, sliding them over her clit—she gasped again—and then twisted around to run them over her lips and slip them into her mouth. Obedient to my previous instruction, she promptly began to suck them, running her tongue around and between them.

"Good girl." I stroked her hair with my other hand. "So good." Then I began to play between her legs again, just long enough to get her wriggling once more, before I resumed her spanking. The raised hand; the smack of skin on skin, and a soft cry; the handprints on her body, changing colour as briefly-displaced blood rushed back. Between blows I teased her mercilessly, sometimes toying with her breasts, sometimes with her clit, sometimes finger-squirming inside her, always with the goal of bringing her almost to the edge before easing off, and returning to the spanking.

"Oh, please, Sarah, I can't take much more of this."

I paused again, stroking her backside, which was now quite warm to the touch. "You want me to stop?"

"No, not stop, let me... let me finish. I'm so close."

I brushed her face, and felt something wet. A tear? But she didn't seem upset, just dishevelled. "I think you've earned it, darling."

I slid my fingers into her one more time, then out again, and back down to tease at her clit. Her thighs squeezed me as if she was trying to break my wrist; thankfully I have strong fingers, and even with my hand held captive I was able to work her, methodically and ruthlessly, gauging my movement by the sound of her breathing.

She started to shudder, and her body arched. "Oh, oh, oh... OH! OH!" Then she trailed away into silence, melting into me.

I rubbed her arse gently, soothing the hurts I'd inflicted, and stroked her hair. "How are you doing?"

"Mmm." She stretched, as best she could in her predicament, and relaxed again. "Very nicely, but my shoulders are getting a bit uncomfortable."

I untied Anjali's wrists and helped her stand. She stood there, a little wobbly on her feet, rolling her shoulders. Her bra still hung loosely around her; I helped her out of it.

"Glass of water?"

"Oh, yes please." She followed me over to the kitchen and I filled a glass for each of us.

When she'd emptied her glass, I held out the scarf to her. "By the way, you're not finished with this yet."

"Oh." Was that amusement in her voice? She accepted the scarf, held it in both hands. "What did you have in mind?"

I reached out and stroked her forehead, ran my fingers down her cheek. "I thought you might use it to tie back your hair. Now, I expect you're still feeling a bit sore?" I slid in close, took a handful of her backside, squeezed, and she winced.

"Ra-ther."

"So I thought instead of having to sit, it might be nice for you to spend some time on your knees."

It took her a moment -- I think she was still a trifle dazed -- but she figured it out. "Yes, mistress." Then she leaned in and kissed me, and I led her up the stairs to my bedroom.

* * * * *

As always, thanks to my beta readers LaRascasse, LesbianChickLit, and my partner.

Next time: Sarah and Anjali talk fashion and go to a concert.