The Retreat Ch. 04

Violet was escorted back to her room by a make-up artist assistant.

She was exhausted and felt like she had just been put through a cram session for her Master's mid term. She had been putting on makeup since she was a teenager but after she had applied her take on 'goth' make-up, she had been shown, told, and ultimately taught just how much she didn't know about make-up and how to apply it. She had learned more about different foundations, application techniques, how her concealer shouldn't be lighter than her skin tone, and just how differently different brushes and beauty blenders applied the make-up, and how each had a very specific facial zone and type of make-up to be applied by each.

She was mentally exhausted and dropped off in her room. It was late and neither James, Madame Alexandra, or Eva hadn't been in the beauty parlor, or in her room to greet her. She fell face first onto her little bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

Her dreams were strangely erotic. She felt horny and she dreamed of images that she couldn't quite make out; half whispered voices and she saw herself in her 'wait' pose specifically. This should have horrified her, and there was a bit of disbelief there, but her body was turned on, not by seeing her in her pose but by something else.

She woke up the next morning in a sweat. She felt like she hadn't slept well at all, but she wasn't groggy. She didn't need to touch herself to know she was wet as she tried to think about what the hell had gotten her so excited. Her fingers traced the shock collar around her neck and she shivered. She was not turned on by that, what had caused her to have such erotic dreams?

With no one there to greet her or give her any instructions she thought about what might be in store for her today. If this had been a normal vacation, she knew she would be checking her emails, or opening her laptop to get some work done, but since she had nothing like that to occupy her time, she decided to make her way to the bathroom and get cleaned up.

After a quick shower and cleaning herself, she picked out the basket of toiletries with her name on it. She found that the small makeup pallet had been replaced with a much more comprehensive and extensive make up pallet with a jar of liquid foundation and a dozen different make up brushes. She looked at herself in the mirror and after everything she learned yesterday, she found herself following what Pierre had taught her, clean and dry her skin, add moisturizer, foundation first, concealer second, apply make-up using three different brushes, which she had never done before, and blend in tones around her "T" zone and neck. Eye shadow was next, a soft violet to go with her light blush, with a soft fading out to the sides of her eyes giving the hint of cat's eyes. Then midnight blue mascara to make the soft violet eye shadow pop.

She spent more time on her makeup today then she had in a long time. She looked good and decided that she should take more time on herself in the mornings. It wasn't for anyone else; it was for her. She liked looking good and she looked better now than she had in a long time and with that, she felt amazingly confident. Then she remembered where she was. She grabbed her items, put them back into her basket, and put the basket back on the shelf and hurried back to her room. She was here for another twelve days. If nothing else she had learned something about herself.

She hurried into her room and found it empty. She breathed a sigh of relief, for some reason, and with nothing else to do, she found herself assuming her 'wait' pose against the wall.

It wasn't long, at least it didn't seem that long, before James walked into the room. He smiled seeing her, "Well good morning. I'm glad to see you made your way to bathroom and put yourself together, good girl".

Violet felt the familiar warm buzzing deep within her from the vibe that had been set into her yesterday. The waves of tingling washed over her causing her eyelids to blink sensually as she enjoyed the warmth that spread through her. It didn't last nearly long enough, but her body tingled after the vibe had ceased.

"I see that you remembered and put your lessons from yesterday to use. That's very good. It's not the direction I would have gone but a very welcome improvement. How do you feel about it? Did you have to think about what you were going to do, or did it just come to you?" James asked seemingly genuinely interested.

Violet almost shook her head but stopped herself instead replying, "I looked at the color pallet that I had and made the decision to work around my light violet eye shadow, so I did have to color coordinate, but it was not something I thought about beforehand, no."

James smiled and nodded, "That's very good. I'm glad to see you are putting your lessons to good use. Since we have started you on this path of learning, you will be required to go back for at least four more sessions with Pierre before you leave us."

Switching gears, James took a long moment to look around the room. He softly shook his head and inhaled deeply, "You haven't done your morning workout routine, or cleaned this room this morning, have you?"

Violet was a little shocked. Shocked that she had completely forgotten about cleaning her room, or working out, or that James was asking her like she was expected to do both before he had arrived. "I didn't have time I only just got back from the bathroom a few minutes before you got here."

James touched his fingertips together in front of his chest in a very patient pose, like a parent speaking to a child, "And do you always clean yourself and do your makeup before you exercise, or clean? You think that after exercising and cleaning that you wouldn't need to bathe and redo your makeup afterward? Do you not sweat like every other person on the planet?"

Violet felt bad that she had forgotten about her daily chores, and she felt a little bit ashamed. At least she would have, but James just kept going. It was bad enough she was being chastised but she didn't need to hear it twenty different times.

"I'm sorry James but you don't need to treat me like a child, I'll do mmyeeiiiiiighhhhhhhh!!"

The hot electricity shot through her body and stunned her into silence. She stood there as the jolts shot through her body leaving nothing but pain and heat in their wake.

The shock ended and she was left to raggedly try to catch her breath and recover. When she could see straight again, James had a sad look on his face. It was one of disappointment. He didn't say anything but turned around and left the room.

Violet felt horrible. If she hadn't felt like a child before, she did now. She wanted to chase after him and apologize for being rude. She couldn't even bring up the feelings she had towards him when she snapped back at him for what he was saying. All she wanted to do was apologize, but he was gone.

Standing in her bare empty room, she saw a piece of paper on her dresser that she hadn't noticed before. She picked it up and started reading. It was a to-do list and instructions. Like a cheat sheet for her morning chores. It had a list of all her exercises and how long it should take for each one, and a brief checklist for the cleaning of her room. There was also a schedule. The dresser had a small battery alarm clock that she hadn't noticed before. She had already figured out this wasn't any normal vacation, but now she had a schedule and wake up time too?

With no one there except this piece of paper and seeing that she was already an hour behind schedule apparently, she got to work on her exercises.

After the hour it took to go through her entire workout, she got out her cleaning supplies and cleaned the room. She tried to hurry, but the work was tedious and her body was sweaty and tired from the workout, so the cleaning took longer than she would have liked, but somehow she kept to the schedule. The piece of paper said three minutes to clean her window, and using the techniques she had learned the day prior, it took almost exactly three minutes.

After all that her schedule gave her forty minutes for bathroom time. Only forty minutes?! She had to hurry, even though she was already an hour behind schedule, she wasn't going to let herself fall any more behind. She felt her management and business skills reassert themselves in her mind. She had earned her position by being able to meet and exceed the expectations placed on her by her job, after a few months she had figured out ways, or worked additional hours to exceed the expectations of her bosses. Here would be no different.

She quickly showered, took care of hygiene, reapplied her make up and did her hair, in record time. Her makeup wasn't as exotic as her first application, with less flourishes, but no less skillfully done, just as she had learned.

When she got back to her room James was standing in the middle of the room waiting for her.

He didn't smile, he didn't say anything but looked her up and down before motioning her forward into the room. "I'm disappointed. I thought we were over this, but I guess not. Contrary to popular belief, I don't like doing this, but we both have a job to do and I won't fail you."

He pointed to a new addition to her room, a heavy-duty steel hanging bolt. "Stand under the ceiling bolt."

Violet stood looking at the bolt in the ceiling. James had never been so dismissive of her before, and he hadn't even used her name. This was not lost on her and she thought about disobeying, but the look of disappointment he had when he saw her this morning still cut her and she moved to the indicated position under the ceiling bolt, and assumed her 'wait' pose.

James stepped behind her and Violet felt strong but somehow soft ropes, get wrapped around her arms, locking her wrists and palms to her arms behind her, making it impossible for her to unfold her arms from behind her.

The rope was tightened and she felt her hair tugged back till her head was tilted back and held in place. She didn't dare move too much, but when she tried to lean her head forward, she felt her arms tugged up, which pinched her shoulder blades and back uncomfortably. She could hold her head looking up like this but she knew that it wasn't going to be too long before she stared to feel sore or her neck would get tired.

While she was staring up at the ceiling wondering how long she could stay in this position, she felt rope wrap around her ankles and tug them together. He feet came together and almost put her off balance. With her head and eyes being held up like this she was off balance as it was, now that her feet were being held together she had to really focus on her balance or risk falling over.

Her mind felt sluggish, because even while she was focusing on not falling over, she felt rope wrap around her breasts and torso. The soft rope squeezed her mid-section making her focus on her breathing. The rope wasn't so tight it was hard to breathe, but it was impossible to ignore her breathing. She felt James' hand guide and position and move the rope against her skin even though he stayed behind her. The ropes squeezed and cupped and framed her breasts. She had never been tied up like this but it wasn't an uncomfortable feeling. Not something that she would call nice, per se, but it wasn't terrible either.

Just as she was getting used to the rope framing her breasts and body, she felt her arms lift and with that her body was lifted. It was only a few inches, and she could still support her weight on the balls of her feet, but she couldn't stand on flat feet. Her body weight was now lifted and held up, by a rope through the ceiling bolt, she felt pressure and tightness all through her body, but especially her shoulder blades. She tried to look down to relieve some pressure, but all that did was lift her arms behind her even more and caused more tightness in her back, so she tilted her head back, going back to looking up.

She never saw James, and he didn't say anything as she was being tied up and strung up like a fish on a hook. She almost wanted to ask what was going on, and just when she was about to say something she felt a rich but amazingly soft velvet slide over her eyes, blocking out all sight. There were weights wrapped in the velvet eye mask that weighted softly against her eyelids that made her eyes stay closed. She felt herself smiling at the rich feeling of the eye mask. She found it not unpleasant even though she was completely helpless, blind, and very naked.

She hadn't really thought about the fact that she wasn't wearing clothes, not until that moment. That shocked her into awareness. She had gotten so used to walking around naked she had almost forgot that she was naked, or at least the fact that she was naked had become so mundane she hadn't put any thought into it.

It was time to stop this.

"James, I made a mistake. I'm not ok with this, please untie me."

There was no response. There was only quiet in the room. Violet thought that maybe she hadn't been heard, or that maybe she was alone in the room.

"I thought that you were a bit stronger than that, but I do understand," James's voice sounded... tired almost. "Per the agreement you signed you will have an hour to change your mind. But it is your right, you will be charged the full amount for your stay and you will be banned from ever coming back here. It is your right though. I will return within the hour for your final decision."

James left the room. Violet was left hanging there in total darkness from the sleep mask over her eyes and her body tight and squeezed by the ropes that held her up so she barely reached the floor with the balls of her feet.

That was it. He just left. No begging her to stay, no questions about her comfort or if anything needed to be changed, it was a simple, stay or go. But the facts of what it would mean if she did leave, the loss of money wasn't a major concern. Yes, this pace was expensive, but it's not like her bank account couldn't afford twenty of these vacations a year. No, it was the thought of being banned... from anywhere. She had never been banned from anywhere in her life. Not even her father's den had been off limits to her. She had never been told that she couldn't go somewhere she really wanted to go. This was a really nice resort/ retreat. She might want to come back and experience the "Domme" side of things next time.

She hung there, softly swaying as the rope tied to her chest and arms and hair swayed her back and forth with every breath. In the darkness she lost track of time. Had it been fifteen minutes, or only five? What had really made her ask James to stop? He hadn't hurt her, not in any way that she would say so. Having some pain inflicted on her as a lesson, and being hurt were two very different things, at least to her, and James hadn't hurt her at all.

Her mind pictured a single wine glass on a lonely coffee table. And with that wineglass memories of the old arguments. "You're a control freak, and that's not all bad but I can't live like this when I don't have a say." "You're a workaholic and there's no room in your life for me!"

Workaholic, control freak, that was all her failed relationships had to say about her. And when she really looked into herself, she knew they were right.

James wasn't hurting her; it wasn't the idea of being tied up. What had made her panic was her loss of control. And wasn't that that the whole reason she was here? To learn to give a little and not be the final total authority in all things? She had never given up on anything and these thoughts and arguments had played themselves out in her mind dozens of times since she found the website for this place. She knew what she was, a person who took charge and knew how to get things done. Great for the corporate world, not so great for relationships.

Floating in the darkness of her bondage she didn't feel unsafe, she knew nothing would happen to her. She felt a little ashamed at her moment of weakness, but she had nothing but time to bounce the two sides of her argument off the insides of her brain like a wild ping pong match.

She came to realize another sensation, a soft warmth that was starting to build from the vibe that was inside her. This could be called coercion or something worse. On some level she knew that she was being conditioned, but for what? It couldn't be something as simple as association between pleasure and being tied up. Was this supposed to help her decide to stay?

The warmth spread through her body sending tingles up and down her spine and she found that she was panting softly as the pleasure built inside her. She had never quit anything before. Her stay here was only another week and a half annnd... she shook herself trying to think clearly through the pleasure haze that was building through her body, she had never quit anything. She had always seen things through to the end, she would do the same here.

Time passed so weirdly for her. The pleasure built up and ebbed like somehow the vibe could sense when she got close and then backed off, it was edging her and she was starting to feel frustrated but then the tingles would come back and she would bask in the pleasure... until she got too close to orgasm then the vibe was slow, leaving her wanting. It went on like this for an eternity.

"Have you made your final decision?"

The quietly spoken words were so hard to understand. She understood them, but the meaning behind that particular sequence of those specific words was almost completely lost on her.

"mmmmm whaa..?"

Her voice sounded sluggish and, to her ears, she couldn't even be sure it was her voice at all.

"Do you want to end your experience and stay with us here at the Retreat?" The voice wasn't unkind or impatient, it was very neutral.

"mmm nno I..I don't want tt..to leave..."

"I'm very glad to hear you say that. But that doesn't mean that you will get out of your punishment from your mistake this morning."

Violet had a hard time making sense of anything that was being said. What mistake? What was he talking about. She knew she needed to focus and bring herself out of this... whatever she had slipped into. Was this that sub space place she had sometimes read about?

She felt a sharp sting across her breasts and a multiple slap sound met her ears.

It took her a moment through her pleasure state to realize that she had been hit by something. The pain she felt across her breasts and the sting that was left in its wake wasn't something she was used to and she jerked softly in her bindings. The pleasure from deep within her never stopped and between the pleasure and pain, it made it hard to decide which sensation to focus on, and they seemed to mix in her mind.

She felt another slap and sting, and another, and another.

The stinging was getting worse with each slap, and the pain was growing and mixing with the sting, and that mixed with the pleasure, making it such a strange sensation. Then she felt leather gloved fingers move over her breasts softly caressing and rubbing her breasts.

"I don't mean to hurt you. And it is not my intention to cause anything permanent here, except the lesson of punishment when you don't act as you are supposed to, and get your chores done in a timely manner. You understand, don't you?"

She did understand, at least she thought she did. It was so hard to focus on anything and with that nice, soft leather rubbing the sting away from her breasts it was impossible to do anything but just agree with him.

"There's a good girl. I hate to do this but you did fail in your duties and so I must punish you. I hope that you don't make me do this again." James's voice had a touch of sadness to it, like he really didn't want to punish her, but she had failed. She knew she failed and she felt bad about that, but something about making someone punish her when they didn't want to also made her want to not fail again.