Chastened Ch. 04: Humiliation

Content Note: Incest

"The spinball pitch is possible only in space," Charlie explained to the twins. Mara and I exchanged a glance of weary amusement. "It is cylindrical, some twenty metres in diameter and twice that in length, and spins once every six seconds."

It is, in truth, dizzying to watch, with players literally at all angles to each other. There is some seating behind the goals at either end, but it can of course be watched at home or down the pub in glorious, fully immersive 3D. I have watched it a few times, but for some, like Charlie and his best friend Hayden, it's practically a religion.

"The rules are simple," he continued. "Kicking and throwing are both allowed. The object is to get the ball into the goal." He pointed at the circular nets, positioned high above the ground in the zero-g zone, guarded by weightless goalkeepers with long sticks that served as much for propulsion as for stopping the ball. "The tricky bit - and this is what makes the game so exciting - is how the spin affects the ball's path. Kicked spinwise, the ball bounces like a stone skimming water. Thrown anti-spinwise, the ball flies high. The slightest misjudgement and your team can lose control of the ball."

"I love when they throw it and it spirals," Helen said.

"That's the helix-shot," Charlie said, "and if you judge it perfectly it will have the goalie spinning, although it usually ends with the ball in the crowd."

The girls' new fascination with the sport had less to do with the game itself and much to do with a certain captain. I'd been having a nice, relaxing morning, curled up in front of the fire with a pot of tea and a book of Shelley's anarchist poetry (with many scribblings in the margins), when Charlie, Hayden and a third burst in on my isolation, followed quickly by a very excited pair of twins.

"Ana!" the girls chorused. "This is Captain Winter. You have to meet her!"

And indeed, the third person was Freya, dressed like the two men in a spinball outfit. My heart nearly stopped. For the first time in eight years, I was face-to-face with her, and so completely unprepared that my voice sounded strangled as I struggled to form words. "Captain," I managed to say, the heat of embarrassment rising in my cheeks.

There was no warmth in her expression. She faced me as she might face an enemy across a battlefield, and said merely, "Miss Elliott."

I studied Freya while Charlie instructed the twins on the rules of spinball. No one returns from war unchanged. The Ensign Winter I had known had been full of youthful optimism, but in Captain Winter that energy was contained. Spinball outfit aside, I could imagine her at the helm of a starship, ready to charge into battle. "I didn't know you played," I said.

"Yes," she said. "We have no libraries or pianos on our ships and must make do with simpler entertainments." Freya kept her tone light, but the words still hurt. She painted a picture of me like my father and my older sister, too concerned with an archaic lifestyle and its privileges to ever know what real love could mean.

The twins, bless them, had eavesdropped on our short exchange while missing entirely how wounded it left me. "You know each other?" Lucy asked, with as much anxiety as amazement in her expression.

"We met briefly when Miss Elliott was at college," Freya said, casually missing out every detail of a passionate and too brief love affair.

"We're going to watch them play," gushed Helen.

"And tonight we're having a party, here, with dancing," Lucy added. "You can play the piano for us!"

I wanted to decline, but suddenly no one was paying any attention to me. The men and Freya were leaving, and the twins rushed out after, and I was left sitting alone in a state of near shock. I still clutched Shelley's poetry in my hand, but the words no longer held meaning.

*

It was an ordinary piano, and yet more. The soundboard connected to neural stimulators in the stool, so that the strike of the keys against the strings sent subtle vibrations coursing through the performer. The higher octaves excited the arms and chest, and certain arpeggios guaranteed to harden the nipples as if a lover sucked on them. The lower octaves thrilled through the thighs and awoke a yearning emptiness within.

The twins loved it, of course. As soon as dinner was done and the boys sent to bed, Lucy and Helen rushed to the piano. "Come and listen to us play, Captain," they called, and launched into a version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. What they lacked in skill they certainly made up for in enthusiasm. Lucy, taking the Primo position on the right, playing the high notes, giggled frequently, while Helen, the Secondo on the left with the deeper octaves, developed a pronounced flush.

Freya and Hayden, both now dressed smartly and looking relaxed and content in the wake of the day's sport, were happy to keep the girls company as they sipped whisky and discussed gameplay. I sat with Charlie, unable to stop myself watching the seductive tease. I told myself firmly that I loved both Lucy and Freya and therefore would be happy to see them together.

"It seems Helen has her eye on Hayden," I observed quietly.

Charlie smiled like a proud brother. "She has liked him for a while, but seeing him play today - the man has raw talent - has certainly rekindled her interest."

"I'm surprised you never hooked up with Hayden," I joked.

Charlie laughed loudly. "We both enjoy pussy too much for that. It won't surprise you to learn we've shared on occasion. Isn't that right, sweetheart?"

This last was directed at Mara. She'd put the kids to bed and had just returned wearing a glossy red rubber bodysuit that sealed her entirely below the neckline. It was so perfectly fitted it had had to be printed onto her bare skin - I'd watched the machine work on her during the afternoon. The suit was like a second skin, tight everywhere except for two rubber tubes that were left dangling from her crotch. "Push those in for me, will you?" she'd asked, and I had spent a good half hour inverting the tubes as I worked them securely into her cunt and ass with the aid of a dildo and plenty of lube.

Mara had concealed the red rubber beneath black silk at dinner, and afterwards clearly enjoyed the lustful glances in her direction once it was revealed. "I'm dying for a pee," she whispered in my ear before deigning to notice her husband. "Hmm, what was that, dear?"

"I was just telling Ana your cunt can handle two cocks together."

"Well, of course it can," she said. Whispering again to me, she said, "Actually, I think I'll just do it." Her face took on an expression of intense concentration, and I couldn't help staring at the hole that marked her rubber-sheathed cunt - but nothing could be seen, and after a minute, Mara relaxed with a wicked grin. "Dance with me, honey," she said, holding her hand out to her husband.

They danced together to the erratic and discordant music of the piano, kissing hungrily, Charlie's hands gliding possessively across the red rubber, Mara's hands extracting her husband's hard cock from his trousers and stroking it.

Freya had brought up a chair to sit beside Lucy, and having exposed the girl's breasts to general view seemed content to kiss Lucy's bare neck and brush her fingertips across Lucy's swollen nipples. None of which improved Lucy's playing. Helen soldiered on too, banging out chords as Hayden kissed his way up between her wide-stretched thighs.

An undeniably erotic scene playing out before my eyes, and an acutely painful one for me too. I had been miserable all day since my awful reintroduction to Freya, and seeing her lips pressed against another woman's neck, her hand cupping another woman's breast, was a torment - made worse by my having no one to distract me. Made still worse by the chastity belt that I wore and was still determined to keep secret.

"Play for us, Ana," Lucy said suddenly. She and Helen stood and led their respective partners onto the makeshift dance floor.

Glad to have something to keep me from looking at Freya, I took my place at the piano and settled easily into a nocturne by Chopin. My hands knew it well enough to find the correct notes despite Mara being abruptly pushed against the piano, Charlie's cock easing into the rubber sheathe in her ass; despite Helen's loud moan of guttural need as Hayden thrust into her cunt; despite the vigorous bouncing of Lucy's breasts, pressed firmly about Freya's hard shaft.

Vibrations played along my nerves as if I were the instrument. I resisted the impulse to crush my breasts and squeeze my nipples, and I knew the futility of attacking my hidden belt in a quest for release. I switched to Schumann and played on, ignoring Mara's laughter, ignoring Helen's loud profanity, and ignoring Lucy's scream of delight as Freya's cum burst out across her neck and chest.

I had no choice, after all. I had broken Freya's heart, and this was punishment well deserved.

*

Of course, the person inflicting the worst punishment on me was myself. Both physically aroused and mentally exhausted, I craved sleep but instead tormented myself with the memory of my awkward humiliation in the morning and the memory of Freya's developing intimacy with Lucy. I sensed that for Freya it was still an idle diversion while Lucy was clearly infatuated, but the potential was there for something deeper.

Sleep did eventually claim me, and it was with the greatest reluctance that I awoke at all the following day. I could hear the voices and excitement downstairs, the men and Freya preparing for another day of spinball, the twins arguing over who was the better player, Hayden or Freya, with the eventual compromise that Freya's throws were indisputably the best but Hayden's footwork was dazzling.

This time Mara insisted on going with them. "I've had quite enough of staying at home," she said, ushering her two boys in. The Musk family tradition of naming the eldest son Charles had skipped a generation. Our father had given Mara permission to marry Charlie, and had given her a suitable share of the dwindling Elliott fortune too as a dowry, on the condition that she name the eldest son after himself. Mara had agreed quickly and had rushed to get married before there could be any change of heart or additional conditions placed. In doing so, I often thought, she had proved herself the wisest of us three sisters.

Little Walter was six, and little Charles was four, and in the way of young children they were full of energy and excited about spinball. In the garden they played a version of the game with much shouting and arguing and only one scratch and some tears. It was impossible for me to concentrate on the book I was reading, but also they kept me distracted from thinking and worrying about the previous day.

After lunch, I took them for a walk through the woods. It was early winter, the ground a soggy carpet of long fallen leaves, the air cool but without the morning's frost. The boys had laser guns (with narrow torch beams rather than coherent lasers, of course), Charles taking the role of the Terran Union and Walter being the Xanadu Empire, so while I was walking, the boys charged about me, taking cover behind trees and filling the calm air with simulated sounds of destruction.

Until, abruptly, and far from home, their wild energy gave way to weariness. "Carry me, Aunty Ana," Charles pleaded, and that much I could manage. "I'm too tired to walk," Walter whined, clearly envious of his brother. With much cajoling and begging I got us a little closer to home, but soon I too was exhausted and worrying about the temperature dropping.

"I'll carry you," Freya said, gathering Walter into her strong arms with ease.

She had appeared out of the trees so suddenly and so unexpectedly that I had nearly squealed in fear. But I had recognised her immediately and, despite my anxiety at being in her presence, I was grateful that she was there to help me. I opened my mouth intending to say something witty about this being the second time she had rescued me, but then I saw the coldness in her eyes and the impulse died. "Thank you," I said merely.

"Mara said this had probably happened," Freya said, "and that you probably hadn't thought to bring your phone." Speaking into her own, she said, "I have them."

It was true, I hadn't, and it was clear that Freya considered me a fool for it. We walked back to the house in silence, my heart hurting as much as my arms and feet. With the boys given into the arms of their parents again, I escaped once more to the solitude of my room, and yielded to tears in bed beneath the covers.

*

I cursed Fate for the cruelty of bringing Freya back into my life only to torture me. My heroic Captain Winter, on much deserved shore leave from a brutal interstellar war, was spending her freedom in front of my eyes but not in my arms. I had to listen to Lucy's endless admiration and adoration of her, while I reminded myself bitterly that I had had my chance, and that it would be wrong to deny Lucy hers.

Still, there was one desperate thread of hope left to me. "I think it's sweet, in a way," Lucy said, "that Freya wants to take her time. That it's not straight to fucking."

The spinball arena had been shut down for emergency maintenance, so the day's plan had changed. The twins had suggested going for a walk, and Lucy had invited Freya and Charlie, while Helen had proposed heading over the hill to Hayden's place, and that might have been that except Mara had wanted to go too and had insisted - despite my firm offer to look after the boys - that I should go with her and Charlie remain at home.

It was a pleasant walk too, with some shuffling of company. Which is how I ended up talking with Lucy and Helen while Mara and Freya trailed behind. "I mean, I love sucking her cock," Lucy continued with a sly smile, "and I come so hard when she returns the favour... but I can't help wishing she'd just hurry up and fuck me."

Freya had taken her time with me too, all those years ago. I was pathetically grateful that Freya wasn't fucking Lucy. Yet, anyway.

"Hayden wants to try anal," Helen announced, "and I'm thinking today's the day. What do you think of my new jewellery?" She lifted her skirt and spread her cheeks briefly, revealing both a lack of underwear and the presence of a buttplug with a large crystal base.

"Very pretty," I said.

"See," Lucy said. "It's not fair. Helen and Hayden are practically married with kids, and I'm still a virgin!"

I resisted the temptation to point out that, by the same metric, I also was still a virgin - and years older too. My ass, it was true, had been well used by Rosa's dildo, but I was yet to be properly fucked by a real cock.

Rosa had phoned me that morning. Her cruise ship was in-system but not yet at O-Stred. "I'll be there this evening," she had said. "Here's a little something to get you ready for me." Even from millions of miles away she could control my belt. With the press of a button on the key she kept, the vibrations awoke within me, a constant teasing of my clit, punctuated at irregular intervals by a mild but painful shock.

So of course I hadn't wanted to go for a walk, not with that vibrator winding me up and denying me release. Lucy and Helen talking about sex was not helping at all.

At the top of the hill overlooking Hayden's house, we stopped for a picnic. Helen waved to us and went on alone, an eager bounce in her steps, while Lucy led Freya aside, kissing her passionately. "My pussy's so wet, Freya," she said. "It needs some loving attention."

Freya grinned and swept her off her feet. "I am thirsty after all this walking," she said, and carried Lucy into the bushes - although not so far away that Lucy's murmurs of delight and words of encouragement could not be heard where Mara and I sat.

"Everything all right, Ana?" Mara asked, munching on a sandwich and observing me closely. "You seem even more distracted than normal."

Of course I was. The vibrations were holding me so close to the precipice I was almost willing to confess all to Mara in the hope she would help me to a climax. "I'm fine," I whispered. "Call of nature," I added. "Back in a minute."

I left Mara alone with the picnic and wandered away on trembling legs. It wasn't my intention to follow Freya and Lucy, I just wanted some privacy to massage my breasts and pinch my nipples and to concentrate on those sweet, tormenting vibrations. I found somewhere soft and secluded to sit, and caressed the steel shield over my pussy with frustrated fingertips. Rosa was on her way. I would survive until then.

I hid quickly as Lucy and Freya walked by. "Thank you for your patience with me, Lucy," my love said. "I do not give my heart easily. Too many women care too much for appearance to be honest in love."

She didn't say my name, but didn't need to. Her words cut right through me.

"Indeed," Freya continued, "even some you call family are guilty of such cruel deception."

Lucy laughed. "It's true, Mara's entirely too obsessed with herself to care much for others, but Charlie adores her and she does make him happy."

"No," Freya insisted. "I mean Ana. She may seem nice and is always polite, but you see how she always keeps herself apart and never joins in the evening pleasures, as if she thinks herself morally superior to us." They were walking away from me and I was struggling to hear this dreadful condemnation of me.

Lucy laughed again. "There you could not be more wrong. Ana is the sweetest young woman I know, and is shy because she wears a chastity belt. She thinks we don't know..."

They knew. Of course they knew. All of them. I could see it in their eyes when I returned to the picnic spot, and by the heat in my cheeks I knew I had turned bright red. But still they said nothing - and even knowing that they knew, neither did I.

I poured myself a cup of tea from the flask with a shaky hand, and stayed quiet as a mouse throughout lunch. The vibrator continued its long tease, oblivious to the deep humiliation it was party to.