Under My Thumb

I liked Lisa this way, slightly plump and buxom. It had softened her features and rounded her figure. Yes, buxom and voluptuous definitely suited her at forty-one... going on forty-two. What I didn't like was what she had done to her hair. It was no longer her beautiful natural shade of red auburn. It was jet black, the same color as Luke's. It was styled in tight frizzy curls of different lengths. Lisa's hair was shorter around her face and longer in the back. Even her bangs were curled. At it's longest her hair barley touched her shoulders. In fact it looked like an afro-mullet or if you prefer an afro-shag mistake. This had to be Lisa's fop lovers doing. Either by preference or malicious design, Luke had ruined her beautiful red auburn hair.

We stood there and looked at one another for a time. Finally, she broke the silence.

"I came here to ask you something, Adam."

I just looked at her, not knowing what to say next. The last words that I spoke to Lisa were in the bedroom when I said, "I will deal with you later".

"Do you hate me, Adam? I can't blame you if you do, but I need to know. Do you still hate me?"

"Did you come all the way from California to ask me that question? I was starting to get angry.

"You committed adultery! You filed for divorce and took damn near everything that I ever worked for. I gave you everything, including my love. Do I hate you? I said, raising my voice. You want to know if I hate you?" I replied, almost shouting at her and then catching myself, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I remembered Lisa as a young woman and how she loved me and how happy we were then. Nothing good would come from berating or brow beating her.

When I opened my eyes she was starting to cry. "Stop that will you, Lisa? I said, quietly, and then I walked over to lock the door and reverse the open sign. Please stop crying and then I'll answer your question. No, I don't hate you. I'm over those feelings now. I have moved on with my life. Is that what you needed to hear? Then I'm glad I made you feel better about yourself. You now have your closure. Now you can go back to your handsome lover. I wish you well Lisa, I really do and I hope nobody ever tears a hole in your soul. I unlocked the door and then I turned my back to Lisa, dismissing her.

Then the floodgate of tears really broke loose.

Lisa started crying uncontrollably and that wasn't like her. Soon she was hyperventilating as well. The only other time she acted like this was when her father died. She was in bed for a week. This wasn't an act. Something was seriously wrong. I did the only thing I could do. I carried her up to my apartment and let her lie down on the futon. I gave her a glass of water and some ice in a washcloth for her forehead and sat with her, holding her hand. When Lisa calmed down, I went downstairs to the bookstore and telephoned her sister, Janice. Janice would come and take her home with her.

To make a long story short, and yes I realize that sometimes I am long winded. The short version is that Luke convinced Lisa to let him invest the money for the sale of the house and divorce settlement. On paper the investments were making fabulous dividends. Janice and her husband, Mark took a second mortgage on their house and let Luke invest their money for them as well Luke and Lisa lived lavishly until her money ran out. And then Luke left her taking literally everything and leaving her with insurmountable debt.

"I can't come and get her, Adam, my husband won't allow her in our house. I have my children to think about."

I went back upstairs to my apartment and found Lisa quietly waiting. I informed her that Janice had told me everything and I offered to let Lisa stay, temporarily. Lisa's face lit up at my offer.

She got up off the futon to hug me and I folded my arms, preventing her. "Thank you for the second chance, Adam." She said, taking a step back.

"You know of course that you will be working in the bookstore?"

"I will do anything you say, Adam."

"You will not be getting a salary, just room and board."

"I understand." She replied.

"You will have to keep the apartment clean...no, make that, you will keep the apartment spotless."

"Anything you say, Adam."

"I have no great expectations that your cooking will ever improve, Lisa."

"Yes, Adam."

"Lisa, as I said before, I will take you back temporarily and give you a second chance. However, if things work out, I will never remarry you. We may live together, but never again will you be my equal. You need to understand that right now.

She started to speak and I stopped her by gently putting my hand over her mouth.

"Be silent, Lisa Marie. I'm not done speaking yet, little girl." I enjoyed the shocked look in her beautiful green eyes. I had never talked like that to her before.

"You will do as I say in all things, without reservation or hesitation. Further more, you will always tell me the truth. Your life will revolve around me now. You will submit to me totally. Those are my unconditional terms. I'm going for a walk now. If I find you here when I return, I'll have my answer."

When I returned 2 hours later, and I found Lisa sitting on a kitchen chair with her hands folded on the table, waiting. I thought to myself, this just might work out after all. I have Lisa exactly I want her now, under my thumb.

I walked up and placed my hands on her shoulders to prevent her from standing.

"Are you afraid of me now?" I asked.

Looking down, she whispered. "Yes, Adam."

Letting her stand to face me, I gently took her chin between my thumb and forefinger. I lifted her head to meet my eyes, and said.

"Look at me and tell me the truth. If you are afraid of me, why did you decide to stay?

Swallowing, then licking her lips, she said. "You...you beat and humiliated him, and had him crawling on the floor. You were so angry. I didn't know what to think. He bragged that he had a black belt. He didn't fight back much and was crying.....................................

"What else? Finish your sentence." I said.

"I was terrified that you were going to kill him." She was trembling and looking down. "I never realized how dangerous you were until then. You were always such a gentle and mild man. In all the years we were married, you never even raised your voice to me. When you were angry with me, you always went for a walk. When you took that big knife out of the drawer, I thought for sure that you were going to kill both us.

"You were willing to fight for me. You gave Luke a chance to be a man and I left you... for him? I'm so ashamed, Adam.... I am so ashamed. How can you even look at me now, and yet you are taking me back."

"That is still tentative. I tugged Lisa's over processed hair to annunciate, the word "tentative."

"I am ready to submit totally in every way." I have nothing, Adam, nothing! No money, no credit, no possessions, nothing, Adam...only you.

"You do not have me. Do you really think that you can just walk in here and cry on my shoulder and then things would be as they were? I'm not that same man, but then I'm not a bitter man either. Let me show you a print I have hanging in my study. I purchased it after you left me to put things into perspective."

I led the now buxom Lisa into my study and made her kneel on the oversize sheepskin rug by the fireplace. The print was hung above the fireplace mantle.

"This is a full size print taken from a painting by John William Waterhouse. I had it framed in oak to match the furniture. Are you familiar with the subject, the theme? Do you know who the woman is in this print?"

I knew the answer from her silence.

"Of course you don't know whom Waterhouse is. You are a progeny of the liberal and sensationalized popular media/pop culture components of our society. I lament many of the youth growing up today. If the current media talking heads were to disappear, who would tell them what to think? For the present they are so cocksure in their beliefs that the lessons of history are lost to them.

Your choices in television and reading material for example: Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Springer or Rick Lake and their ilk; the National Enquirer, Vogue or the Star...PABLUM! You tried so hard to emulate those pictures of shallow young woman and became a slave to fashion. You lusted for those trim, handsome young men on television, in magazines or in the tabloids, when my eyes were only for you. My eyes were only for you, my fallen angel. You broke my heart, and tore a hole in my soul. I blame myself for that. I let you, and allowed things to get out of hand and I know better now. I am not telling you this to hurt you, only in reflection to tell you how I feel...to make you understand.

"But I regress. The woman in the print is Pandora. Pandora as envisioned by Waterhouse is very beautiful. Wearing the simple yet elegant Greek woman's dress of her time, the "chiton". Pandora's long hair is pulled back in a chignon. As I recall you would never wear your hair up for me, saying the style was for old women. When in fact it, these types of hairstyles are elegant and timeless."

"Beautiful Pandora is sitting on the marble bench, just a little peek she tells herself. All the plagues and sorrows known to humanity were released once Pandora opened the jar. There was one little sprite trapped within the jar as well. The Sprite was called Hope, and hope has sustained mankind against the evil that Pandora had wrought. Pandora opened the jar betraying the trust of the gods."

"Your Marriage Vows were the spiritual equivalent of Pandora's jar. Your tryst of deceit and the betrayal of a sacred trust was the same as the mythological Pandora's. Do you remember your vows, Lisa, to love and to cherish and to forsake all others? Like beautiful Pandora you released the scourge of adultery upon yourself. And like Pandora's husband, Epimetheus, your scourges stung me as well. First and foremost of the scourges, was your deceitful heart."

"I only want you to love me as you once did. I am drawn to your strength and passion. It compliments your gentle ways. I was so spoiled and stupid, I mistook gentle for weak and uninteresting."

"And now?" I asked.

"I am terrified of your subdued rage. Just under the surface and yet I am aroused by it. I will be happy to take whatever you give me, whatever you decide. Please forgive me?"

When I placed my hand over her mouth earlier, Lisa meekly complied. I suspected that she would eventually submit.

Her confession confirmed and defined her position in my life. She would remain my chattel by mutual consent.

"Do not move from this spot, little girl." I went downstairs to my bookshop going to the counter on which the cash register sat. I returned with the antique green glass quart mason jar full of stones and brought it back upstairs. I use this mason jar, the kind with the glass top and wire clamps as a paperweight for the days receipts.

When I returned, I dumped the small, marble sized stones into a pile on the floor in front of her. I could see her bottom lip start to quiver. Obviously she remembered and recognized the water washed lake stones.

"Do you remember when we were courting, Lisa? Of course you do...those summer days on Lake Ontario and Lake Erie We hiked along the deserted beach shores searching for pretty stones. How you delighted when we found one together and our special kisses? One stone for each special day, and then when we were first married? When we made love on the nearly inaccessible and sheltered deserted beaches not apparent from the shore. And the fires we built at night with driftwood while we watched the stars. Then we traveled and visited all of the rest of the Great Lakes? On our honeymoon, I rented a sailboat and we sailed to the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Did you ever wonder what happened to those stones?" I said, getting down onto the rug next to her. "Do you think that that you can put everything back in the jar? I placed one stone into the mason jar and said. This stone I am putting in the jar is adultery, and we are locking it away. Pick up a stone and put it into the jar.........very good, put the cover on and lock it tight. What did you place in the jar?"

"Hope?" she asked, hopefully.

"Very good, hope." I replied. "Were is your luggage and your purse." I asked her.

"I have no luggage, just the clothing that I am wearing." She replied.

Please get your purse, because we are going to the basement." I said to her.

Once there, I grabbed her roughly and kissed her mouth long and deep. I stepped back to enjoy the shocked look on her face. She still tasted the same.

I took large piece of cardboard and said.

"Stand on the cardboard, and strip little girl, and I mean everything, jewelry as well."

She quickly complied, taking off her, slacks, blouse and sandals. Her bra and panties soon followed these items.

I unzipped my fly, exposing my manhood. I grabbed her hair firmly at the back of her head, burying my fingers in her dry over processed curls and forced her to her knees. She began sucking and licking, looking up at me for my approval.

"You're doing fine." I assured her as I removed a pair of barber scissors from my pocket that I purchased during my walk.

"Your present hairstyle doesn't suit you and I will soon change that" Taking my time as she sucked my cock, I grasped each frizzy curl between my fingers. I pulled it straight and cutting it free from her head. I dropped each of the shorn curls to the floor, the pile growing with each snip.

When I had finished taking my pleasure with Lisa's mouth, her haircut was completed. Extending my hand to her, she took it and I helped her up.

"It's almost midnight. Please clean up the mess." I said, pointing to her pile of shorn hair. "Manners aside, from now on, when I say please to you, don't assume it a request. You will do what I ask promptly and cheerfully."

"Yes, Adam!" She said, gravely. I rubbed her head, the remaining hair about an inch long and somewhat softer. I could see hints of her natural red color at the roots.

"I was never verbally abusive to you, and I am not about to start now. I remain a gentle and polite man, and starting now a firm disciplinarian as well.

I watched my naked buxom chattel clean the basement floor and then dump everything. Clothing, purse, hair, everything into the incinerator. I then filled the incinerator with garbage and waste paper and cardboard from my Bookstore, before firing it up.

Pointing to the cardboard on the floor, I politely asked Lisa to go down on her hands and knees. "Good girl, now lean forward and put your head down. Perfect, now lift your ass higher, a little more...stop, hold that position and don't move until I tell you otherwise"

I enjoyed the feeling of her plump ass cheeks quiver as they met my palm. The sharp slapping sound was music to my ears.

"You had had this coming for a long time, little girl. It has nothing to do about money. Luke did not swear an oath before God and witnesses in church, you did!"

I continued talking to her, while slapping her bottom. "While you are here, you will get more of the same for disobeying me. If you act like a spoiled little girl, I will punish you like one. You are free to leave at any time. Do you want to leave?"

"No, please, Adam, I..."

"Do you deserve to be spanked?"

"Yes, Adam?"

"Ask me to spank you."

"Please, spank me, Adam?"

"Ask me, again"

"Please spank me, spank me hard. I deserve to be punished."

She was soon sobbing, her tears soaking the cardboard. Lisa held her position like a well-trained Irish Setter bitch from impeccable bloodlines.

When her buttocks were beet red, it was time to stop. I had no intentions of leaving bruises. Warning her to hold point, I went into my bedroom to get undressed and took a leisurely shower.

I returned with a jar of cocoa butter that was chilling in the freezer. I gently rubbed it on her sore bottom and exposed pussy lips. I probed Lisa with my fingers, playing with her flower until her vagina was swollen and dripping. I caressed her clitoris until I sensed that her orgasm was starting to peek. I then took her from behind, ramming hard and deep, paying no mind to her freshly spanked ass. Lisa's momentary cries of discomfort were replaced with squeals of pleasure, followed by the loud moans of orgasm.

"Your adultery has been locked in the jar with hope. If you do as you are told and please me, I will allow you to place another stone in the jar. When the jar is full, you may share my bed. For now, you will sleep in my study on the sheepskin rug by the fireplace.

In the morning she was given the task of cleaning the apartment from top to bottom. Not that it needed to be cleaned as I keep on top of things. She needed to learn to clean a house properly once and for all.

Besides, it was a pleasure to watch Lisa clean in the nude. If I found the smallest thing wrong, I made her do the job over again. I made a mental note to remodel and tile the bathroom and kitchen in all white.

That evening after supper, I had Lisa kneel before me in the empty bathtub. Using my clippers, with the 1/4"(6mm) guide comb in place, I clipped her hair to the same length all the way around.

Then I had her stand while I shaved her pussy bald with the clippers minus the guide. I lathered and shaved her pussy twice, until she had a smooth hairless pubis mound. "You will be required to keep your pussy shaved from now on. I want it done at least twice a day."

She then cleaned the bathroom again leaving it spotless. I praised her for a job well done. She came out of the bathroom with a towel around her middle fresh from the shower. Lisa didn't need one for her hair.

I gently pushed my thumb into her mouth and she began sucking. I shook my head, frowning and looked down. She immediately went down on me and began sucking hungrily eager to please me. This was the same woman who never gave me head the entire time we were married. Lisa was looking at me with her beautiful green eyes, those same eyes begging my approval. I rubbed her head to soothe and assure her that everything was fine. I told her that I would keep her hair clipped to 1/4"(6mm) until her natural red auburn color grew out. Then, in time, if she was a good girl, I would let her grow her hair out.

Next we sat in the kitchen drinking tea until bedtime. I quietly told Lisa some of my plans for her. I explained to her that I would talk to her sister's husband, Mark. I would try to broker a compromise so that she could spend time with Janice and her nieces. "I will do my best, Lisa, but I make no promises."

"What will I do about clothing, Adam? We need to talk about that, don't you think?"

"No, not at all." I replied.

"But I thought...."

I reached across the table and put my hand gently over her mouth. I then removed my hand from her mouth and started stroking her breasts, playing with her nipples. I had so much lost time to make up for.

"Yes, Adam."

"Tomorrow I will go shopping to get everything you will need. Your clothing will be what I prefer. You no longer have any real say in that department. Therefore we do not need to talk about it. You may make suggestions of course and I will listen. Until the jar is full, I suggest that you refrain from making any suggestions about that subject.

"You want me to learn to clean the house properly first, don't you?" Lisa asked.

"I do, that and maintain it as I have always told you too in the past. If you keep up with things, there will be less work for you in the long run. Then I will allow you to work beside me in the bookstore. Go into my study to the bookcase on the north wall."

"Which wall is the north wall?"

"The wall with the bookcases having books on poetry. Please select a book from those cases and bring it here."