Ch 2: The Ground Beneath Her Knees

That would mean explaining what she, or rather Robert, meant by property, and how that affected them. She loved the feeling of possession, of being Robert's property to take care of and control. During the week she'd been thinking about coming home to him, letting everything go, shedding all the weight, slowing down, and being an object. She didn't want to be completely passive, but she wanted so badly to be able to let go in a safe place, while keeping control as she always had everywhere else.

And Robert was very clear that controlling her, sexually and otherwise, turned him on. Being his meant that he could use her however he liked, whenever he wanted, without her having any say in the matter. Thinking of being available for him, of knowing that she might be spread or knelt down at any time, made her very wet. When she'd shaved herself in the shower this week, she had enjoyed thinking that she was taking care of his property. He'd decide how she was dressed and what she was allowed to do. She reminded herself to stay focused and think.

Does this mean he'd taken something from Chloe? Had Chloe ever "had" her? She'd been there for her, sexually available mostly any time Chloe wanted, but the reverse was also true. Chloe had never controlled her, so as long as Robert allowed her freedom with Chloe it wouldn't be any different. He would have the right to control her, as his property, but he was promising not to exercise it in that area. So she could be free with Chloe as she always had been, albeit not as often and perhaps with some changes. She'd be dressed to Robert's instructions, for instance. She liked that idea, but would Chloe?

3

Dearest Chloe,

My love, I have been thinking about you and I miss you so much. Robert and I talked, and I told him I would not give you up, that you were non-negotiable, and he understood. So I have given him my commitment to be his property, and he has accepted me as his slave. That means that he owns my body and controls any access to it, including my own. I know this seems strange to you but I need to you accept it, to accept me. I want this. I think I have always wanted it, but until now had never found it in any of the people I'd met.

But I want you too, and I would not do this if not for the fact that we can be together as we always have. Robert has given me permission to be with you, and has promised not to interfere or exercise any control over what we do.

I love you, Chloe, and I always will. I love Robert too, and I love being Robert's. I was so mean to you last weekend because I was too eager for this, and also because it gave me pleasure to think that I was property, and that it was not my choice whether I could be with you or not. It is still not my choice, but knowing that, and having Robert's permission to be with you anyway, feels best of all.

Can you be with me like this? Can you accept that you're kissing and touching someone else's property? Robert knows how important you are to me, and he has allowed me privacy and control with you, and has promised not to revoke that. I am always required to follow his rules and to answer his questions, but I believe he respects you and respects us, so we will have what we have always had.

All my love,
r

Chloe read the letter over and over, lying back on her bed, her jacket still on. The envelope had stood out from the usual junk mail and catalog, with her name written in her friend's strong handwriting.

She'd put her bag down and carefully slit the envelope, extracting the single sheet of paper with words flowing down the page in dark blue fountain pen ink. Rachele had the handwriting of a designer, precisely and perfectly formed, and Chloe's heart leapt at the opening.

But her brow furrowed as she continued, and by the end, she wasn't sure how to answer her friend's question. Her friend who was now a slave, who no longer signed a letter with her name, but with a single lower-case letter. Chloe lay back and read the letter again and again, savoring some parts and worrying over others.

--

"Help me understand," she said, a few days later, sitting at Rachele's kitchen table, hunching forward with her arms folded. "You're his, but he's letting me have time with you?"

Her friend leaned against the counter, cradling a mug of in her hands. She had hoped Chloe would welcome what she thought was good news.

"It's me he's allowing," she said. "He has no say over you, and he's allowing me to be with you on my own."

"For me to be with his property," Chloe said.

"Yes," Rachele said. "That's what I am, what I've wanted. Why are you saying it like that?"

"It feels strange, Rachele, I'm sorry," Chloe said. "I've admired you since I met you. I've read your blog and stalked your YouTube and I love how you are and the way you talk and I can't imagine being like you in ten years, or twenty for that matter. This thing is a surprise..."

"My slavery," Rachele said.

"Yes," Chloe said. "Your slavery. I still can't really believe that you're ... that. Hearing you talk like this."

"'Like this'?" Rachele said. "You don't approve. You can't even say the word."

"It's a big word to say!" Chloe exclaimed. "I don't get it. I'm not judging but I don't understand. It doesn't sound like you."

"I suppose it would surprise anyone who knows me," Rachele said. "But I am thrilled to be Robert's slave. You're the only person I've trusted, that we've trusted, with this, and you need to trust me as well. Please don't act like it's something shameful or that I'm doing something beneath me. If you can't accept who I am then how can we be friends, never mind more than that?"

"I'm trying, Rachele," Chloe said.

Rachele took her friend's hands. "You are the only person I can talk to like this. And when you get that look in your eyes it hurts me and it makes it hard for me to be real with you."

Chloe started to speak but Rachele interrupted her.

"No, listen, please. I keep saying 'Robert' to you but in my heart I'm saying 'Master' or 'Sir' or 'my owner.' And I see your face when I use those words. My words. I want to use those words without you recoiling. And I need to be sure you will love 'r,' the slave, just as you love Rachele."

Her voice broke. "Chloe, there is no one else I'll be able to talk to about this."

Chloe pulled her close and hugged her. "I'm trying, Rachele," she said. "I want to be here for you and I do want you, so much."

Rachele kissed her, and Chloe kissed her back, but then pulled away. "Do you have to report back to him?" she asked. "Is he going to summon you whenever he wants, or tell you that you can't have an orgasm? Do I make plans with you or with him?"

"Chloe, stop," her friend said, taking her hands, but Chloe folded her arms again and wouldn't meet her eyes. "You make plans with me. Just me. It's just you and me. I don't have to report back -- I wouldn't violate your privacy like that. This is for you and me only. He's promised not to interfere. He won't make rules about what I can do with you. I told him I couldn't have that."

Chloe's hands were in her pockets now, and she was shaking her head as tears ran down her cheeks. "I missed you, Rachele, I missed you so much," she said. "I couldn't believe you sent me away. I couldn't believe you liked doing that. How could you like doing that to me?"

Rachele put her arms around her, but Chloe brought her hands up and crossed them over her chest, keeping Rachele away. "How could you do that?" she demanded. "How could you enjoy that?"

"I am so sorry, Chloe," Rachele said. "I know how wrong it was. I didn't like hurting you, I felt awful." Chloe fought against her embrace but Rachele didn't let go and Chloe didn't break free.

"I went overboard with the feeling of being owned and controlled," she continued. "I loved feeling like it wasn't my decision what I did with my body. But I didn't think what that would mean for you and I regretted it as soon as you left."

"What changed?" Chloe said. "How do I know that won't happen again?"

"I'm telling you it won't," Rachele said. "We've talked about it."

"But you're saying he owns you!" Chloe said, now fighting free of her friend's arms. "He could tell you tomorrow you aren't allowed out of the house, or put you in a chastity belt or something. And then I'm out in the cold again. I can't take that!"

"That's not going to happen," Rachele said. "There are parts of my life that he does not and will not control. You are one of them, just as much as my career. If he told me to quit my job, I wouldn't. And if he told me to quit you, I wouldn't."

"Not ever?" Chloe asked.

"Either one of those things would break the relationship," Rachele said. "You've seen what happens when I let things happen that I shouldn't. I talked to him up front about these things and he listened."

She reached for Chloe and this time her friend let Rachele take her into her arms, putting her head on her taller friend's chest "When I'm with you, I'm with you," she said, her lips in Chloe's hair. "I'm with you right now. Just you. I'm yours right now."

"Not his?" Chloe said.

"I'm always his," Rachele said. "But that doesn't mean I can't be all yours right now."

"I missed you," Chloe said without raising her head. "I wanted you so much. I kept thinking of you by yourself in the bed and I wanted to be the one making you come. I missed the taste of you."

Under her light blouse, Rachele was not wearing a bra, and Chloe felt her nipples hardening. She moved her head to take one into her mouth, sucking it through the thin fabric. "I can do this?"

"Ohhh, yes," Rachele said, her voice losing its precision.

"Even thought they're his?" Chloe murmured, taking the nipple in her teeth.

"They're his," Rachele said. "But I'm all yours here, Chloe."

"I can have you?" Chloe asked, biting harder and pulling.

"You've had me for a long time," Rachele said, stroking Chloe's hair. "You always will."

Chloe's fingers reached inside her blouse for the other nipple, then she unbuttoned it urgently, her mouth moving from nipple to nipple, then over the curve of Rachele's breast to her mouth. They kissed urgently, Rachele rubbing her bare nipples on Chloe's flannel shirt. Chloe unbuttoned it and stood on tip-toe to brush Rachele's nipples with her own. Her small breasts were striped with the recent marks of a whip or a cane.

"Yes, oh god, yes," Rachele moaned. Chloe hand moved down under Rachele's skirt, finding the thin g-string panties underneath.

"He told you to wear these?" Chloe asked.

"He did," Rachele said. "He always does."

"But I can take them off?" Chloe teased, her fingers sliding under the thin fabric to touch the bare wet lips beneath. Her friend moaned assent. They continued to kiss. As much as Chloe missed the taste of Rachele's pussy, she missed her lips more. She'd ached for this closeness, her smell, the feel of her body along the length of her own.

Her hand between Rachele's legs stiffened and lifted, and she leaned her weight forward, until Rachele was bent back onto the kitchen table. She slid backwards and raised her skirt for Chloe, who knelt between her legs.

"This is his?" she asked, stroking the length of Rachele's pussy lips.

"It's yours right now," Rachele said. "His property is all yours."

"I'm allowed to have you?" Chloe said.

"Only you," Rachele said.

"He wouldn't let you be with anyone else?" Chloe asked.

"I'm his, but not his to share," Rachele said.

"I"m the only one allowed to do this to his property?" Chloe asked, sliding her fingers into Rachele's opening.

Rachele had no response other than a long moan.

"It's hot, I have to admit," Chloe said, her fingers moving slowly in and out. "Knowing that, but still having you."

"Knowing what?" Rachele asked.

"Knowing you're..." Chloe's fingers were deeper in Rachele.

"Knowing I'm his slave," Rachele said. "Please say it, Chloe."

"I love having you, knowing you're his slave," Chloe said. "I love that you have surrendered so much to him, but you didn't surrender me."

"Never," Rachele said, trying to move herself onto Chloe's fingers.

"You gave this to him," Chloe said, turning her hand inside Rachele. "It doesn't belong to you any more but I can have it."

"Please," Rachele said, trying to move her clit up to Chloe's hand. The kitchen table creaked under her weight and her movements.

"You're giving me that too?" Chloe asked, sliding her fingers out of Rachele and up her lips to just barely touch her clit.

"It's not mine to give," Rachele said. "But you can have my clit, please."

"No one else can have this," Chloe said, finally applying the pressure Rachele was desperate for.

"You are the only one who's allowed," Rachele cried, her voice rising along with her orgasm. The table rattled dangerously as she thrashed.

--

Later, Rachele was sitting on the couch, looking at her two lists. She heard Chloe stirring in the bedroom, and then she came into the living room rubbing her face, dressed in one of the new nighties Rachele had bought, warm things to sleep in that would leave her accessible the way Robert wanted. Chloe had laughed at them at first but admitted they were cozy and comfortable and subtly sexy. On her smaller frame, it hung below her knees, reducing the effect somewhat but increasing her adorableness.

She sat down next to Rachele, and then lay down, snuggling and worming her way into enough space that she wouldn't fall off the couch. Rachele straightened her legs, put the notebook on the coffee table, made room, and put her arm around Chloe. Chloe took her hand, sniffed her fingers, then snickered. "Couldn't wait til I woke up?"

She squeezed Chloe and they lay for a while, looking out the window. As it started to get dark, Rachele sat up, saying, "I really need to pee." Chloe sat up to give her room, and Rachele ran to the bathroom. She finished, went into the kitchen, and called "Do you want some water or something?" Chloe didn't answer.

She filled two glasses anyway from the fridge tap and walked back into the living room, then stopped. The notebook, which she'd left open on the coffee table, was in Chloe's lap, and she was crying. Rachele put the glasses down and sat next to her.

"I'm a KEEP," Chloe sobbed, smiling and punching her fist gently into Rachele's side. "I'm a KEEP!"

Rachele kissed her head. "I told you I couldn't give you up." Her heart felt lighter than it had in weeks; now she knew this was right. She held Chloe tightly.

"These are the ground rules," she said. "We will work this out."

"And I'm not negotiable," Chloe said, without raising her head.

"You're not negotiable," her friend confirmed.

--

"You are sure about all this, right?" Chloe asked later.

"I am," Rachele said.

"I worry about you losing yourself," Chloe said. "I worry about losing you."

"Then don't make it hard to talk to you about it," Rachele said. "I know you don't get it, but I don't get things about you either." She stroked the whip marks on Chloe's breasts, touched the small puncture wounds on each side of Chloe's nipples, then kissed one.

"This used to scare me," she said. "Sometimes it still does. I still feel you recoil when I say I'm a slave, but it's not easy for me to think about your pretty little nipples with needles through them."

"But you know I like it," Chloe said.

Rachele pulled Chloe's nipple out, then lifted and turned to see the marks more clearly.

Chloe caught her breath. "Easy," she said.

"That hurts?" Rachele said. "But needles through them feel good?"

"It's the buildup, like anything else," Chloe said. "You wouldn't like it if jammed my fingers into you."

"I can't imagine anything that would build up to that."

"You know that horse we have, with the movable arms?" Chloe asked, holding her arms out straight like she was making a snow angel.

"Yes, I've seen it," Rachele said. "Or one like it, at the club."

"I was bent over it, face down, with my wrists locked to the arms, straight out. He'd extended it so that there was a space between where my shoulders and my hips were resting, so my tits just hung down," Chloe said, getting excited as she spoke. "He teased me a lot, touching me, walking around me, slapping here and there, stroking my pussy lips real soft, using the strap on me here and there."

Rachele was touching Chloe's pussy lips, feeling them get wetter as she talked.

"He started focusing on my breasts," Chloe said. "He used the strap on them, not real hard, but enough to get them smarting and to get my mind focused there instead of on my cunt.

"Then he started on my nipples. Stroking them, playing with them, pinching them, starting to pull and twist them, harder and harder. He sort of kept time with his other hand between my legs, so every time he pulled he'd press my clit or my asshole, or stick a finger in."

Rachele's fingers did the same.

"It got harder and harder. He was pulling them down so hard it felt like they were going to come off, then slapping them," Chloe said. "All I could feel was my breasts and my nipples. At some point he was using two hands, pulling them both at the same time, and I hadn't even noticed he wasn't touching my pussy any more.

"Then he'd pull one down and stretch out my tit, and smack it while he was still holding the nipple. They were throbbing by this point, they felt like they were on fire."

Rachele licked one of her nipples feeling with her lips how hard they got as Chloe talked about them being hurt.

"He knelt down next to me," Chloe said, "And it got gentler. Just his fingers, not pulling, but stretching it out, folding it. And when I feel that, when he's folding it so some of the nipple sticks out between his fingers, I know what's going to happen. Then the alcohol, it's so cold and the smell even turns me on now.

"Then I felt the needle touching my lips," Close said. "Real gentle. I stuck out my tongue and he poked it, enough to hurt but not draw blood.

"He kept touching me with the needle, on my neck, under my arms, along my back, scratching me," Chloe said. Rachele's fingers felt Chloe get wetter and wetter.

"Then the needle is on my breast, and he pulls my nipple and folds it and holds it tight, and I know," she said. "I know it's coming and I want it and he pushes the needle through and I almost came I wanted it so badly."

R lifted her head to look at Chloe's nipple again, and, seeing two sets of puncture marks, said, "Did he do each one twice?"

"It was the same needle going through twice," Chloe said. "He did that to each one and then he was holding my head and I could feel blood running down and his fingers were in me again.

"And then he put a light chain through them, through the spot where the needle stuck out," Chloe said. "He released my hands and bent me back the other way, over the tall horse, so I'm lying back with my breasts up and my hands shackled over my head.

"And he lifted the chain enough to raise my breasts, and then he used the cane on me, very carefully and precisely the way he does."

"He did that with the needles in your nipples?" Rachele exclaimed.

"Yes," Chloe said. "He knows what he's doing. He didn't hit them, he followed the blows so they didn't tear or anything, but it was so intense." She was squeezing herself around Rachele's hand. "I don't know how long it took or how many times or anything. I was in another world. I don't even remember him releasing me. At some point I was on the bed and he had some cloths and ointment and ice. He sat next to me and kissed me and made me drink water and stroked my hair until I fell asleep on my back."

"I honestly don't understand how that can feel good," Rachele said, continuing to stroke the healing nipple. "But I can see how you talk about it. I don't like the idea of him doing this to you. I couldn't watch it. But I know it's good for you. That's all I want, Chloe. I want you to be happy for me the way I am happy for you."