Rule of Thumb Ch. 15

She smiled. "Devilish, isn't it? Cunt! You will stop that jibber-jabber this instance. Now, your Master is unclear about your interests in...Shelly, is it?" She turned to me to confirm. "Shelly. He thinks you enjoy being the top with her, is that true?"

Loren squeezed her eyes shut as an intense pulse went through her, struggling not to cry out. She nodded and gasped. "Yessss..." it came out as if a balloon had been punctured. "Mistresssssss..." she added with the next breath.

"Ummhmmm. And we'd both like to know a little bit more about that...why do you want to torment poor Shelly?"

She took a deep breath, the pulsing apparently subsiding enough for her focus. "I...fuck fuck fuck...I...she just looked so...so, fuck me, shitshitshit..." she gasped for breath. "Vulnerable" she practically shouted as the waves all came together across her entire body. "FUCKKKKK!" She arched her back, rubbing her lips against the rod but not able to find any relief, the trainer hitting her in all her sensitive parts.

Anna turned back to her food and continued discussing business. Mamiko was silent, slowly eating and ignoring everything other than the plate in front of her. I tried to concentrate on Anna's words, Loren's gasping and low moans, interrupted by a breathy curse, providing the sound track to our conversation. Every now and again, I would adjust my control, Loren's response was a direct stimulant to my stiffening cock.

"I can see how this could become addicting," I commented to Anna. "So little effort for so much impact. And the group thing – it's a completely new dimension." Again, the clinical feeling, the deconstructing of the scene, even as Loren's torment filled the room. I could smell her now, the perfume from her arousal adding a green grass floral note to the aromas from the food. I looked closely at the rod, seeing it had become slick with her juices. "Do they cum from this, really?" I knew she was close, her noises becoming more high pitched – a continuous humming as the pain from each point merged together.

She took a sip from her drink, nodding slightly. "Of course. It's particularly fun to deny them the release, or to make their release a punishment. You know the drill. Anyway, I know this one from experience." She went silent, her eyes looking inward. "He had me on this too many times to count."

Whatever combination we'd come to, its effect on Loren was purely pleasurable. She had closed her eyes, moving her hips along the rod, pulling on the cuffs behind her head, trying to jiggle her breasts, whether to loosen the clips or increase the feeling I couldn't tell.

"And, cunt," Anna asked, "is there more than a need to dominate Shelly? Is there an emerging...romantic interest, perhaps?" She said it as a taunt, looking over at me with a wink.

My heart seemed to stop. My breathing did for sure, as I waited for Loren's answer. Was it just a shot in the dark, was it a natural taunt to make, or did she know something? In any event, here was that little moment of truth I had promised Loren, she had known was coming, and that I'd hoped would have been mine to extract. Still, I didn't want to miss her response – that would have been a tragedy. I turned to look at her, away from Anna, both to capture Loren's response fully, and to hide my reaction as much as possible. Mamiko sensed something had changed and looked up as well, waiting.

Loren's eyes popped open, the next wave of pulses hitting her and she shouted in pain and pleasure. "YES!!! YES!! MISTRESS!! FUCK FUCK FUCK!! GODDAMMIT, yes..yes," she began to sob, her chest inhaling deeply, only to exhale as she cried. The pulses diminished, leaving her gasping and crying for more. "Yes, yes, yes...please. I'll do whatever you ask. I'll tell you whatever you want to know. Yes. I want to do this to Shelly, to make her do what she watched me do for you. Yes, I...don't know...I want her...I don't know!" She pushed against the rod futilely, struggling for release.

Anna finished her dinner, suggesting I do the same, leaving Loren to moan and cry softly or loudly as the pulses changed intensely. Anna continued to pry about the prospects, but I begged off knowing much more than I'd already offered her. When we had finished, Mamiko cleared our plates and left with the cart.

"And, cunt," Anna turned again. I watched as Loren's eyes popped open, preparing for the worst. "Do you relinquish all independence from your Master, place your full trust in him, and only do as you are instructed?" She must have had an insight into the timing of the pulses, because again, they hit Loren hard, forcing a scream of anguish and curses. Her eyes squeezed out tears, her mouth opened and closed until the waves of pain passed and then she stared at me, looking for me, her head nodding, her eyes filling with an emotion I hadn't seen since that first day, just a few weeks ago. That sense she had arrived someplace she'd been searching for her whole life.

"Yes," she moaned, staring at me, hoping I could read her thoughts. "Yes. I am yours, Master. You are my everything...FUCK...you..." she took a breath, a small pulse train moving through her... "Yes, I'm yours...I'll do anything you ask...just let me cum, let me cum, let me cum..." She continued to plead, her words an almost unintelligible stream.

Mamiko returned with the cart, filled with after dinner liqueurs and four small fruit tarts. I looked at the fourth place setting on the table and didn't put it all together. If they knew she was going to be tortured, why did they set a place for her? My confusion must have been obvious.

"One never knows, Richard. The evening could have gone, and still could go, any number of ways. Personally, I'm still not satisfied with your cunt's response. Cunt!" she turned back to Loren. "You'll say anything to get release won't you?"

Loren shook her head, tears flying. "No, Mistress, no. Not anything. I'm begging you. I'll do anything to make this stop, to let me cum...I mean it...I meant what I said...Master! Please, believe me...You know I'm your slave. I'm your slave, I'm your slave! OHHH!!! FUCKKKKKK!"

I smiled at her knowing she was lying and happy for it. We had an agreement, and while I knew I would have to punish her even more for her outright, bold-faced lies to me and Mistress Anna, I also silently thanked her for keeping our bond of trust stronger than her punishment. Besides, I knew she must truly be enjoying this, otherwise, why not use her safe word???

I turned to Anna. "What are you serving for dessert?"

She smiled, appreciating I felt no compulsion or need to intervene on Loren's behalf. "You have truly come a long way in a short time, Richard." She put one of the tarts on a plate. "It's one of cook's specialties – a recipe she claims has passed down several generations. It's best with the pear brandy, I think." She poured me a glass. All the while, Loren moaned quietly, now joined by a squishing sound from her pussy against the rod.

"So, cunt. Here's the deal. You want to cum?" Anna looked positively evil with her broad smile, like a hyena.

Loren looked up, her head heavy. "Yes. Please. Please let me cum, Mistress. Please."

"Of course, pet. Very soon. Let's just get one little thing out of the way. Well, two. One small, and perhaps one a little larger. First the little one: next week, you'll bring your little plaything over to the house to get her properly introduced." Anna paused, waiting for her response.

Loren jerked her head up, fear and...something else...in her face. The pulses started in again and she screamed, pushing hard against the rod. "YES! OKAY! YES! I agree. I agree. I agree." She breathed hard, panting from exhaustion.

Mamiko had stood up, taking with her a small box sitting next to her plate.

"Richard, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I believe your cunt and your relationship would be improved if you made a permanent adjustment to her."

It was my turn to look up, surprised and suspicious.

Anna held up her hand. "Before you interrupt, I ask only that you hear me out. I think you'll find my intuition makes a lot of sense. It has been clear to me, since the first time I saw you two together that if your relationship continued down this path, the two of you would be best served with something more than words to bind you. Given Loren's desire for pain and punishment, it would only be fitting, pardon the pun, that this permanent "bond" be a way to help inflict future pain and punishment." She paused.

"Go on..." I licked my lips and looked over at Loren, her head hanging down, her breasts rising and falling with her panting breath. The pulses must have been quiet at the moment.

"You may remember I recommended a small shop downtown that has some simple versions of my little toys? Jordan, the proprietor, and I have had a long-standing relationship." She stopped for a moment to sip her brandy, but I got the feeling it was to collect herself. Could their relationship have extended back to when her husband was running the show? A shiver ran down my spine. "Jordan's machines, while not nearly as sophisticated as the trainer, do a pretty good job. As part of his kit, he often pierces submissives with gold-plated electrodes – making the effect far more efficient and powerful."

As she mentioned the word piercing, Mamiko opened the box revealing a velvet lined set of depressions, each filled with an elongated gold pill of varying sizes. Some were almost needle thin, while others were fatter, like a pain killer tablet. My breath caught in my throat as I considered what she was proposing. Loren and I had never discussed anything permanent – piercings, tattoos, brandings – the subject hadn't come up in all of her research or questions. I didn't know where she stood or what she would want, but I knew we couldn't expect a rational decision from her in her current state.

"I would like to offer you Mamiko's services in piercing your cunt's cunt. She is certified and the procedure is quick, sterile, and as painful as you'd like." She took another sip and stared at me, waiting.

I jerked my gaze away from the open box to Loren's whimpering, rising in pitch until she cried out again – the pulse wave forcing its way from her breasts down to her hips. I could practically see its progress by the way she moved.

"I..." I considered my response carefully. "Mistress Anna, this is an amazing offer. It's just that I've not discussed this alternative with L...my cunt at all." I took a sip. "I think it's too important of a decision to make without her true consent." I had hoped my meaning was clear enough.

Anna smiled thinly. "I already know her answer, and so do you, but you think it will be more...sincere?...if you ask her when she's not begging for release?" That laugh like breaking glass made me wince. "Okay, we'll play it your way...but give me the pleasure of trying a small experiment, yes?"

I shrugged, not knowing what she had in mind.

"Cunt!" She waited until Loren looked up at her, her eyes glazed and red-rimmed. "Did you not just agree to do whatever your Master instructed you, to place your full trust in him?"

Loren looked over at me, confused and slightly panicked. "Yes, Mistress." She barely whispered.

"Your Master has decided to permanently mark you with a piercing through your labia majora – the outer lips of your cunt, so that he can more easily punish you in the future. Mamiko is prepared to pierce you right at this moment, and with it, you will cum like you've never cum before. You are begging for release, here is the second thing your Master expects of you. You know how to tell him 'no.' What do you wish to say?"

Loren's eyes widened as she stared at me for my reaction. I kept my face passive, letting her decide which way to go. She breathed in and out, her stare unfocused, first looking down at her vagina splayed across the rod and back to me. She moved her head back and forth, barely perceptible, swallowing. "Master Rick...is this what you want?" Fear and trust in her voice.

It was put up or shut up time. I'd already extracted an agreement to not proceed this evening – it wasn't something Loren could take back tomorrow if we went through with it. The thought of having some medieval marking on her, the conversation with her gynecologist, random thoughts raced through me with each heartbeat. "Yes," I said quietly, looking directly in her eyes.

She closed hers and dropped her head, nodding in agreement. "If that's what my master wants, then that is what I want."

My cock, already hard from the constant rising and falling of her cries, stiffened at the corner we had just turned.

Anna just looked at me and smiled, shrugging. "Your choice, Master Rick. Your slave has given her consent." She looked at Mamiko holding the open box.

"Cunt," I turned to her. "Piercing you tonight would be too easy. I want you to think about it over the week, to live with your decision, but to experience it only when Shelly will be present to witness it."

She looked back up in alarm and cried out in protest, even as the pulses peaked, triggering additional cries of pain and pleas to cum. When they had passed, she looked at me tearfully, shaking her head, begging me to not do it then, but to do it now. To give her release and do it now.

"I think it's time to take those off her, and let her down, Mistress Anna." I said it as neutrally as I could, the implications clear. Loren wouldn't climax tonight. At least not here and not now. I felt a rush adrenaline flow into me as I considered her declaration of complete submission. I needed to talk with her, to assure her this wasn't what I wanted if it wasn't what she wanted. But at the same time I wanted nothing other than to exercise this newly granted power over her.

Mamiko set down the box and quickly removed the clips from Loren's body, rubbing her nipples and lips to ease the pain. She whispered something again, and Loren could only whimper, standing on her toes as best she could as Mamiko removed the clamps from her ankles and wrists.

"Please, Master Rick, please?" Loren stepped off the platform to kneel in front of me, her face even with my raging erection, rubbing her wrists. "What must I do to cum? I've done everything you've asked. What must I do?" She reached her hands up, to gently cup my balls, rolling forward to kiss my cock. "I am your slave. I am yours. Please grant your worthless slave this small request."

If she was acting, she was doing a great job. I so wanted her to be acting. I so wanted her not to have given her freedom up. We had discussed this much at least. I went with my instincts.

"Enough. I've had enough. You will not be permitted to climax tonight. But I will be lenient and not punish you for your clumsy attempts at flattery. Get on your hands and knees like the dog you are and eat your dinner. We'll be leaving shortly."

Anna looked surprised but directed Mamiko to do as I had asked.

As Loren ate, using only her mouth as Mamiko had a couple of weeks before, I retrieved my trousers and got dressed. Anna accompanied me.

"An interesting choice, Master Rick. I'm beginning to see your style emerging." She brushed her hands across my zipper, pushing on my erection. "Perhaps she can give you some relief, even if she is denied hers, eh?" She turned to look at Loren eating as best as she could. "You'll let me know what night next week, yes?"

I nodded, smiling grimly, trying to maintain as stoic a presence as I could. I grabbed Loren's clothes and returned to the dining room watching her finish up. Mamiko had packed the fruit tart in a small bag, a strange gesture given the past hours' events.

"Okay, cunt. Let's go. You've had enough and it's time we left before we try our gracious hostess' patience." I lightly touched her ribs with my toe and she looked up, shocked and angry, quickly suppressing it when she realized her mistake. She stood, keeping her eyes down, waiting.

It was after 10:00, the neighborhood would be quiet, if not deserted.

"Thank you Mistress Anna. Mamiko. It was, as usual, an enlightening and educational experience. Once again, you have shown us how much we still have to learn." I walked to the door with Loren's clothes and the dessert bag, Loren following me, a step behind. "You'll get me Jason's number, yes?"

Anna gave us both quick hugs and opened the door. "The pleasure was ours, Richard. Loren, you did well tonight. Good luck on your walk home."

Loren held her arms across her breasts and looked at me as if I was crazy. Taking her elbow, I led her out onto the porch and proceeded to walk her toward the street.

"No, Rick!" She hissed. "Someone will see us! You can't be serious!" She was whispering and in a panic. I didn't let up.

"Didn't you just commit to being my slave? To doing whatever I instructed you?" I stopped her in the shadow of a tree, the streetlamp's halo edge several feet away.

She looked up at me and saw I was serious and the trouble she was in. "But...you...you knew I...I wasn't serious!" She whispered hoarsely. "I had to get out of that place. If I'd used my safe word, it just would have happened next week, or the week after. She wouldn't have stopped! You know that!" She kept her arms across her breasts, her eyes pleading. "Please, come to your senses, Rick and give me my clothes."

I reached over with the hand holding the dessert bag and gently took one arm off her breasts, slipping the bag into her hand. "You lied to her. But more critically, you lied to me." I forced her to look me in the eye. "Your punishment will be to walk home, naked, and we'll discuss what else is in store for you when we get there." She was about to protest when I held my hand up, and peeled her other arm off her breasts. "Don't. Say. Another. Word. Unless it's going to be 'Basket.'"

I turned and began to walk away, hearing her hiss and then her footsteps padding behind. "Not another word, cunt. Until we get home. Naked. Arms away from your breasts." I toyed with walking through the pools of street lamp light, but decided to be merciful and navigated as lightless a path as I could. With only a couple of blocks, the chances of being seen were practically nil, and even if a car drove by it was unlikely either the driver or the passenger would catch a glimpse of us.

"Fuck, Rick! What the fuck was that all about?!!" We had barely closed the door before she started in. "Holy shit! Are your fucking kidding me? Marching me through the neighborhood naked? After what I've just been through?" Her voice cracked and she suddenly cratered, bending over and crying her eyes out. I put down her clothes and went to comfort her, my hands sliding down her naked sides, palms on her ass cheeks. As she crumpled to the floor, I followed her, landing on my knees., my arms draped across her back, her vertebrae pushing up along her rounded spine.

"That...was...so...fucking...awful...." She could barely get the words out between wracking sobs. "Oh....my....fuck...ing...god..."

I had nothing to say. She knew what she had to do. She could have put a stop to it, just like the week before. She had to have wanted it. There was no other explanation.

"Basket, basket, basket, basket." She repeated the word over and over again between her gasps for air. "I..hghup...I...hckgup...I tried...rpp...Rick...I really tried!" She put her arms over my shoulder and cried.

It seemed to go on forever, but I didn't care. I didn't have any place to be, any appointments. I had had a fine evening, eating, drinking and watching her get tortured. Only it didn't look like she was being tortured. It looked like she was getting pleasure from the pain. As she sobbed and gasped for air, I let her just get it all out. She had to make a decision. She knew it and she didn't need me to tell her. We'd had that conversation last week and nothing had changed. Except she just swore to be my slave. Except for that.