Violin Lessons

"Be here at 6 this evening," then he hung up.

She stared at the phone. In a way she felt relieved. Spending the week thinking about that last Saturday with the one to come advancing inexorably upon her had been difficult.

Things were difficult at the apartment too. Jill was really mad. "That was a rotten thing to do!" she'd shouted at Adrienne that Saturday when Adrienne'd gotten home. "Derek's a great guy!"

Jill's anger had allowed Adrienne to rush to her bedroom without Jill getting a good look at her.

Since then there'd been a stony silence between the two women.

In another way she certainly felt no relief. If she went back there, without the excuse of a lesson. What did that say about her?

He called again. "Bring your violin of course." Then he was gone.

When he opened the door, she was relieved though surprised when he emerged carrying his own instrument. He had a knapsack slung over one shoulder. "Come on," he said and led her to his car which was parked in the narrow driveway. A pair of garages, his and the neighbors, separated the townhouses.

Sitting in the car, he opened the knapsack and handed her a small stack of music. "Learn this," he said, "We're playing a wedding Sunday afternoon."

"What?" she asked.

"Maybe you have trouble understanding the words themselves and that's why you are so bad at instruction," he said. "Two to four. While the food's being consumed at the reception. Then the real band comes on for the dancing."

"This is kinda sudden," she said.

"Rebecca, you remember her? has an audition in Boston on Monday and's left me in the lurch."

"Maybe I have plans."

"Do you?"

"Beyond recovering from my lesson? No."

She looked at the music. It was neatly hand written.

"Arrangements for two violins of Jerome Kern show tunes," he told her. When she clearly didn't recognize the name he added, "Old guy. 1920s. 1930s. Great guy. The music's beautiful. The second violin part's not hard."

"Who did the arrangements?"

"Friend of mine," he said dismissively.

He backed down the drive.

It was only as they were driving that she remembered that before their break-up, she'd been supposed to go to the wedding of one Derek's cousins that Sunday afternoon. She thought about it uncomfortably. "What are the odds?" she asked herself.

Rafael surprised her by taking her to a Chinese restaurant. When they'd been seated and were waiting for the waiter, she asked "What is this?"

"What is what?"

"This."

"There you go again. Was English not your first language? When two people go out, what's it called?"

"A date? Is that what this is?"

"Think of it how you like. I am bent on amusing myself."

Then to the waiter, without asking her, "We'll have the buffet. I'll have a beer, Tsingtao, and she'll have a glass of white wine."

Just then her phone rang. She'd forgotten to turn it off. She extracted it from her purse and looked at the number. "Sorry," she said to Rafael and answered it.

"Hey mom," she said. She pursed her lips as she listened. She looked away from Rafael. One wall of the place was mirrored and she could see their booth with the two of them sitting like normal people. She looked away from that quickly and gazed at the kitchen door. It swung open and offered a glimpse of steamy activity.

After a moment she said, "Mom, mom. I was going to call. I'm surprised Dad ratted me out."

There was a squawk from the phone and Adrienne had to hold it some distance from her ears.

"Don't be hard on Dad, I told him not to tell. Who told you then?"

"Derek?" she said with some surprise, "He called you?"

After a moment she broke in, "Look. I'm sorry you're upset. I'll call later. I can't talk right now. I'm on a date. Right. You don't know him. Bye."

Her eyes met Rafael's and she blushed. "My mom is a bit of a terror," she said, "My two older sisters recently got married and she's set her sights on me."

They had the sort of pleasant meal that made that last Saturday morning and afternoon seem impossible.

"You know I saw you at the concert," he said, when their plates were cleared.

"What?" she asked, surprised.

He shook his head, "Simple language does pass you by. Your Dad got good seats. You were like in the second row?"

"Third," she said.

"Whatever," he waved away the detail. "When I play a concert, especially when I'm the soloist, I try to pick out one person in the audience who looks like they're enjoying themselves and're not just there for social reasons. I only find such a person maybe half the time? When I spot them, I play for them. I let their enjoyment be my guide. That concert I saw 2. You and your Dad. I played for you of course because you are quite pretty."

She looked down, feeling pleased.

"Why wasn't your mother there? Or I'm sorry, are your parents divorced?"

"No no, they're together alright. She keeps Dad on a short leash. If Mom'd been there it'd've been purely because she couldn't get out of it."

When they'd opened their cookies, he asked, "What's yours say?"

"'You will have a pleasant surprise'," she read. "Yours?"

"'You enjoyed your meal and will buy one to go.'" he said and crumpled it.

As they were standing, she managed to pick up his bit of paper. "I need to use the facilities," she said.

In the ladies room she read, "The object of your desire comes close."

"What now?" she asked when they were back in his car. With him, she had no doubt what she'd do if he drove her back to his place and asked her to come in.

When he didn't answer, she asked, "Did you put that student of yours, Rebecca, in that cage?"

"No," he said, "She took one look at it and said 'No way.'"

Adrienne frowned at the thought that she could've done the same. Except, she wasn't sure she would've spoken up even if she had known it was an option.

"Who then?" she asked.

"Who then what?"

"People don't have cages like that for no reason," she said.

"My girlfriend."

Adrienne felt suddenly truly rotten.

"In New York," he added into the silence.

"Do you still see her?"

"No, she left me for a hedge fund hot shot."

"Is that why you moved here?"

"No, it's cheaper here. I make almost the same amount of money but things aren't so expensive."

"Don't you miss New York?"

"No, things are the same here, just downscaled. I'm achieving exactly the same thing. My amusement."

He took her to a suburban house. "Bring your violin," he said as he got out of the car.

A woman, somewhat older than Adrienne, maybe early thirties, answered the door. She was slim and tall with maybe 3 inches on Adrienne. She wore a tank top and shorts. Her feet were bare. Her hair was red and her skin was very pale.

"No Rebecca?" the woman asked.

"Nope," said Rafael.

"I'm Adrienne," Adrienne said when it was clear Rafael was saying no more. "I saw you a couple weeks ago. You play cello."

"Yeah. I'm Willow. Rafael is one lucky jerk. Do you know what you're getting into?"

"An evening of quartet playing," said a man who'd just come from the kitchen. "I play viola," he added, "Let's go downstairs."

"This is my husband Steve," said Willow dryly.

In the basement in the middle of the room were four chairs arranged in a circle each with a music stand. Along one wall was a comfortable looking couch with a sturdy coffee table before it. On the wall opposite was a large flat screen.

"We'll start with the Lark," stated Rafael. He set music on two stands, "I brought a copy for you," he said to Adrienne.

Willow, as if it was a matter of course, pulled her tank top over her head. With her small breasts, she needed no bra. After her cut-offs and panties had fallen onto the carpet she was naked.

Seeing Adrienne just standing there, Willow said to Rafael, "You be quiet." Then she went to Adrienne. "Listen honey, if at anytime you want things to stop, just say 'stop'. Or 'I won't do that.' Or 'No way.' These two are jerks, but they understand English. OK?"

Adrienne nodded. Her face red.

"Here, I'll help," said Willow kindly, "I'll ease you into it and give them something to watch."

Adrienne still had on the dress she'd worn to work. A flounced chiffon thing with a red black and white pattern. Willow stepped behind her and undid the hook at the neck and then pulled the zipper down. She pulled the dress over Adrienne's shoulders and let it fall. Adrienne caught it half way down. Willow smiled, reached around and gently opened Adrienne's fingers. The light cloth floated the remainder of the distance. Adrienne's sandaled feet vanished from view.

Adrienne stood before the two men in her bra and white slip.

Willow pulled the slip over Adrienne's hips and let it flutter down.

Adrienne flushed looking down at her white underpants.

"We'll surprise them a little," Willow whispered, "We'll do these next. Men like the sight of a bottomless woman, though why they call her bottomless is a mystery". She slid her fingers between the panties' elastic and Adrienne's burning flesh and pulled the white things down Adrienne's thighs and let them fall on the pile at her ankles. She touched Adrienne's rear, "You are anything but bottomless, dear."

Adrienne put her hands between her legs, but Willow touched her under either arm and gently lifted them up. "You have to get used to it honey, if you're going to hang out with the likes of them."

Willow put her hands on Adrienne's hips and rotated her. When she'd turned Adrienne all the way round, she undid the bra's clasp and with one hand held it together and with the other encouraged Adrienne to turn again. The hand behind her back followed her round.

When Adrienne again had her back to the men and her face with it's wide stunned eyes to Willow, Willow released the bra. "Turn the rest of the way, honey," she said. Adrienne stood in her naked beauty before the two men.

"Enough of this," said Rafael. "Let's play some music."

Adrienne was grateful to sit. With her thighs closed all that showed below was a pale thatch. Willow had to spread her legs and grip her cello with either knee. She looked very lewd. Her sex was shaven and wide open. It could have been used as a sex education illustration.

"Pay attention Adrienne," said Rafael, "Tune."

She looked at the music in front of her. She had never played it. It looked to be something she could've handled when she'd been at the top of her form, her last year in High School. Now it looked hard.

She found it difficult to concentrate. Being one of two naked women with two fully dressed men made her feel very hot and bothered.

Rafael raised his bow. They were off. She messed up almost immediately.

Rafael shook his head. He set his violin down. From a bag by his side he took something. He reached over to her. He only needed to bend slightly. She saw he held a clothespin, the kind with little jaws to bite a shirt and hold it on the line.

He pinched the side of her near breast and let the clothespin grip her.

"OH!" she gasped, surprised.

"Each mistake needs to be punished," Rafael explained.

Adrienne looked down at the yellow plastic thing clinging to her flesh. It reminded her of a suckerfish on a shark. It didn't seem so bad.

"That's not that the punishment, dear," Willow said, reading her expression. "That's the tally." Then she added, "Maybe not so fast this time, Rafe."

With a slower pace, Adrienne was able to play more creditably. Willow and Steve played well and of course Rafael! Getting carried away by the sound and forgetting herself earned her her second pin, a missed entrance.

At the end of the piece, after trashing her part of the raucous finale, both her breasts were festooned and one sex lip, the right, sported four plastic hangers-on. The pain caused her to bite her lip and she now had to keep her thighs open. Though Rafael did not seem to look at her, the viola player Steve clearly liked what he saw. He missed an entrance himself.

"Hey," Adrienne protested when all that happened was they stopped and started up a few measures back.

Her protest earned her her first marker on left cunt lip.

"What did you expect, honey?" asked Willow. Willow had picked up a couple clothespins herself.

After another quartet, also by Haydn, the two women were dispatched upstairs for provisions.

Adrienne felt indescribably depraved, walking naked, with a strange woman through a strange house, decorated as she was.

Adrienne stood still in the the kitchen while Willow assembled a tray with a box of white wine, a bottle of gin and a bottle of tonic and ice and a bottle of ale and glasses.

"We have a refrigerator in the basement," Willow explained, "But somehow I keep forgetting to stock it. I find that the occasional break from those two, or from just my husband when we're by ourselves, is quite essential. How are you holding up, honey?"

"Ok," Adrienne managed. Away from the basement she could think. She wondered exactly what she wouldn't do. She wondered if she would let Willow's husband fuck her. Who had the say? Would he just do it and assume she and his wife were OK with it? Would Willow be OK with it? Would he ask Rafael for permission? She flushed even more. Would Rafael give it? She thought of asking Willow what was likely to happen, but couldn't manage it.

"You play quite tolerably," Willow said, compiling a second tray of chips and sundries. "You need to practice more of course. It's obvious that you're rusty. You'll find that evenings like these are wonderful motivators. When they started these up, they were really Steve's idea, the shit, but Rafael needed no convincing, I wound up looking almost like you. Now I can get through an evening without a single mistake. Of course that only makes them mad, so I concede them their little triumphs." Willow smiled and touched the hard red plastic thing that clung to her left nipple.

"Come on dear," Willow said. "There'll be some bad bits but hopefully you'll enjoy at least some of the remainder of the evening."

"I love the music," said Adrienne, "And I love playing it."

"Of course you do, dear," said Willow, "And so do I. Let's descend once again to their level, shall we?"

They played one more quartet. Then without prompting Willow rose and helped Adrienne to her feet. The men moved to the couch. "Help me with the chairs, dear," said Willow.

They folded the chairs and moved the music stands next to the wall.

"Stand as I do, honey," Willow instructed. She stood in the center of the room with her legs spread and her hands behind her head. Adrienne copied her.

Steve rose and went to his wife. He held a little black plastic thing that looked much like the mosquito killer except that the swatting surface was smaller and stiffer and was shaped like a small hand.

Adrienne saw Willow bite her lip. The woman watched her husband carefully. He brought the swatter down hard where the pin bit Willow's right nipple. It snapped and spun off.

"Oh fuck," cried Willow and she jumped up and down.

"Losing them is the punishment," Willow told Adrienne.

Adrienne found that this was very true. The first, one that hung on the flesh of her upper arm, hurt like hell when Rafael struck her and it and it snapped with a wicked sound.

Sometimes he missed and hit the same place twice, thrice. She whimpered and stamped and swore at the pain.

As Adrienne had three times as many markers as Willow, Steve was soon at loose ends. "It's not fair," he complained.

Rafael waved him to Adrienne. Adrienne's eyes grew wide at what this promised.

With each man taking a side it went faster.

When only the clothespins that festooned her sex remained, she couldn't take it anymore. "No, stop," she said.

Willow came to her with a glass of ice water. Adrienne drank it in long chocking gulps. "That's enough," Willow said to the two men, "We'll be gentle with these."

Adrienne looked at Rafael's face. She could not read his expression. "If I lose him," she thought, "What would be left for me?"

"No, it's alright. Finish it."

She cried out quite heartily as the last of the clothespins were struck off.

Willow took her in her arms and helped her to the couch. She forced a glass of cool wine into her hand and helped her drink.

What Adrienne wanted then was for it to be Rafael next to her. She wanted him to take her home and take her to bed.

What happened was that after a glance at her husband, Willow cooly rose and lay down on her back on the coffee table.

Steve touched Adrienne's shoulder and said "Lie on top of her, put your head between her legs and bring her off".

Adrienne stared at him then at Willow. She looked at Willow's cunt, as hairless and as soft as Willow's mouth. It did nothing for Adrienne. The thought of what she was to do disgusted her.

On her other side, Rafael pulled her arm, "You have to work on this weakness of yours."

She let herself be guided by him. She put her knees on either side of Willow's head. She bent and put her lips to the other woman's sex. She could taste excitement and soap and sweat. A firm hand pushed her own crotch down towards Willow's face. She resisted. She really didn't want that. Her ass was stung and when she looked around she saw that Steve held a cane.

She lowered her hips and felt the other woman's tongue.

"OH," she said. It felt very nice and she flushed hot all over.

She tried to imagine it was Rafael beneath her but that was difficult with him in plain view leaning against a wall, watching. He sipped from the water bottle he always carried.

Her bottom was stung again. "Get busy," Steve instructed.

"Steve will certainly fuck me," she thought unhappily.

There was another stinging strike.

She got busy and found it wasn't so bad. She tried to copy what she felt Willow doing to her. Her eyes widened and her breath got short when she felt wet fingers come into play. She copied that and felt her partner start beneath her. She tried to ignore the taste.

A microwave dinged and Rafael said, "Stop."

"Straighten your back," Steve instructed. Steve set something that rattled on the small of her back.

From beneath her Willow said, "It's an old fashioned cup and saucer, dear. Corning Ware from my childhood, quite indestructible. The cup is full of very hot water I expect. It usually is. If you bounce too much it'll spill. The saucer provides a rattle that they enjoy."

"Back to work," instructed Steve.

As her pleasure built, (the excitement mostly came from being in such a perverse situation with Rafael watching, she assured herself), the cup rattled and threatened to slide. Every time she tipped, Steve swatted her. The first time he did that she bounced in pain and the cup spilled. "Shit," she cried.

With the refill, she was more careful. She heard herself moaning. Willow sang a similar tune. She came suddenly and hard. She felt Willow buck beneath her. The cup tipped and she jumped from the sting of the heated water.

Rafael yanked her arm hard, pulled her up and then pushed her down onto her hands and knees. He slammed into her and she squeaked at the sensation. He came almost instantly.

Adrienne slumped onto the carpet, red with shame. She had been fucked, even if it had only lasted an instant, with others watching. She had wanted it more than anything.

She looked over at the couch. Steve had Willow on his lap. She had her back to him. She had helped him enter her. Her long legs were spread and her narrow feet pushed down on the couch on either side of her husband. They were both looking at her, Steve with his chin on his wife's shoulder.

Adrienne felt weak and sick.

Willow, with lazy grace, rose off her husband and went to a cabinet along one wall. Steve rose also, pulled his jeans back up and walked the couple steps to where Adrienne lay. Adrienne watched him with tired trepidation.