The Sisterhood of Braddon

Claire eyed her surroundings awkwardly as her boss Peter criticized her draft contract. A new associate at Braddon, one of New York's top law firms, she had, she thought until now, barely put a foot wrong. A petite French 25-year-old who had moved to the US as a teenager, she quickly ingratiated herself in the largely male workforce. As was custom in the profession, she dressed conservatively, always wearing a long-sleeved shirt to hide the dozen small tattoos from her college years.

Her one possible misstep was that she had started casually dating a fellow new associate. It helped relieve the tension to share this stressful experience in a new city, and Austin had seemed to have settled in much more comfortably than she did, but she worried it would cause tension in the office. Surely that wasn't why Peter was yelling at her? She stressed at the thought and her eyes darted around the room as he read another paragraph.

Anna, her assigned mentor just four years her senior, was watching from a nearby desk. Their eyes met and Anna rolled hers as if to say not to worry. Peter complained about having to stay late to check this more carefully. Claire apologized profusely and Peter carried on. Anna caught Claire's eye again and raised her right hand in front of her face, then, maintaining her stare, very slightly wiggled her little finger, the universal sign for small penis. Claire's eyes bulged and she stifled a giggle. Did that really just happen? She was still struggling to regain focus when the company's boss walked by and interrupted.

"What's going on here?" he demanded as he took the draft from Peter and gave it a once over. Warner Braddon III, son of the firm's founder, had a formidable reputation but he had softened with age. "Oh this looks very good," he said. "It's Claire, right? Peter sometimes forgets how he was when he started here. Take the evening off, Peter, let your other new guy, uh, Austin? Yes, let him check this over tonight and I think it will be ready to send out tomorrow. You've made a fine start, Claire. What sets us apart at Braddon is we take care of all the small details, and I'm sure you'll be with us soon. You're doing fine!" With that, Peter left her alone; she texted Austin to cancel their evening plans and looked over to Anna for feedback, but she had buried herself in her own reading.

It wasn't until the following week that Claire had a chance to learn more, when Anna invited her out to dinner for an informal review. "I should have warned you about office relationships," Anna apologized, "but truth is I did the same when I started." Unlike Austin, Peter had been a couple of years ahead of Anna and already a rising star; now, at 31, he was one of the firm's youngest partners. "It worked out well for me. Sadly, when there are consequences, they are usually harsher on the woman," confirming Claire's fears. "But you picked a good one to take a risk on, you know. You do know who he is, right?"

Claire knew the basics of Austin's life, as much as one would about someone that one had known for a few weeks, and nothing too remarkable. "He's Warner's nephew!" Anna exclaimed conspiratorially. "I think they're keeping this quiet so Austin can forge his own reputation, but he's got the inside track here." That explained the confidence, Claire thought, setting aside the question of whether this changed her view of him.

"It was the confidence that attracted me to Peter too, I think, and the sex was pretty good, but I wasn't lying the other day. Thin as a stick and short too, like four inches short." Claire giggled again, more openly this time. "So, how does Austin measure up? How's the sex?"

Claire was shocked that a professional meeting was taking this turn and surprised at herself that she answered. "Um, you're right, I like his confidence, and that helps in bed. He's, uh, pretty normal, I guess?"

Anna laughed. "So you've had worse, but you've had better. You've had smaller, maybe, but you've had bigger. What are we talking, six inches and change?"

Claire smiled cheekily. "If you were hoping for six, he'd be the one fishing around for change, and I'm not sure his pockets are deep enough," prompting a delighted shriek from Anna, while Claire pondered if she had in fact had smaller? She gave a Gallic shrug.

"Very good," Anna continued, satisfied. "I should ask: do you have any concerns? Anything from your time at Braddon so far that you'd like to discuss?"

Claire did have one concern. "Last week with Peter, that wasn't anything to do with Austin, was it?" It had, as far as Claire knew, been shortly after their relationship became office gossip.

"Oh no," Anna reassured. "Peter is married with two young kids, well past the point of thinking with his penis, thank god. Men like Peter are more vulnerable than you know. And sometimes he just has something up his ass."

Claire's idiomatic English was near native and she didn't think this sounded quite right, but accepted the explanation. "In fact," Anna continued, "we're going out to Denver to complete that contract in a couple of weeks, and I expect Peter will invite you to come with us. Let him think it was his idea."

Claire was happily settling into New York life and she was very tired, but Anna insisted. "You must take the opportunity. Trips like this hold the key to success at Braddon. You don't need to do anything much, just help carry the bags and look out for any small details we might have missed. And bring something sexy to wear in the evening, we should have a chance to let our hair down, maybe have some fun teasing Peter. He deserves it."

So that was how, two Tuesdays later at 6am, Claire found herself in a town car to JFK with Anna and Peter on a trip that, though she didn't know it yet, would lock in her future at Braddon. In the terminal, Anna nudged Peter and suggested he use the bathroom before they go through security, which he did. Claire looked quizzically at Anna but neither said anything.

Once through security, Anna and Peter had lounge access and let Claire in as a guest, so they grabbed breakfast and sat down to do some preparatory work for their afternoon meetings. After some twenty minutes, Peter again excused himself to use the restroom, and, on his return, he and Anna excused themselves to discuss a different account, taking their briefcases into an office in a corner of the lounge.

They were gone just long enough for a quickie, Claire joked to herself when they returned, and that office had just a small high window that someone would have to deliberately peer into, but surely not? They returned and continued as if nothing had happened. Peter did adjust his crotch and pants as he sat down, but neither looked like they had exerted themselves, so Claire dismissed the thought.

After a boring series of meetings and successful completion of the contract, during which Claire noticed nothing to contribute, they went to dinner at a fancy sushi restaurant near their hotel to celebrate. Anna told Claire to "dress like you want to be undressed," and Claire obliged, donning a short sleeve shirt opened two buttons at the top to offer glimpses of a lace bra, with skirt short enough that she had to pull it down each time she sat and dainty three inch high heels. Claire worried at first that this was too far from her conservative office wear and that her tattoos might cause offense, but Anna's admiring looks at several points during the meal reassured her.

After dinner, Peter excused himself "to use the little boys' room" and Anna grabbed Claire's arm. "Do you want Peter in the palm of your hand? You must seduce him tonight," she said urgently. Claire looked skeptical but was keen to do anything for her career. Her relationship with Austin was casual and open, and Peter was married but she didn't consider this her problem. That's what many powerful men did on business trips, married or not, right? Besides, she was French. "Surely you've seen how he's been looking at you this evening?"

Claire hadn't, if she was honest -- she had been focused on the attention she was getting from Anna -- but she accepted the possibility. "Don't worry," Anna reassured, "I'm sure it won't be hard." Just then Peter returned and sat with a raised eyebrow; Claire wondered what he had heard, but again nothing was said. Shortly after, the check was settled, Anna made her excuses, and Claire and Peter moved to a high-top at the hotel bar for drinks.

Claire let her skirt ride higher, undid a third button to expose more of her bra and bosom, laughed at Peter's jokes and squeezed his bicep with a "you're so good to me" after he complimented her work, noting from its firmness that Peter clearly kept in shape. Anna was right, the seduction proved all too easy. A couple of times Peter fidgeted with his crotch, and Claire saw what looked like a protrusion, but that was surely not all... surely it was too small? She was by now certain that she would find out soon enough. At last call, Claire suggested they "get one more to take upstairs," which Peter quickly agreed to, insisting they go to his room.

Once there, the drinks were set aside and Claire splayed seductively on the closer of two queen beds. She motioned Peter closer and unbuttoned his shirt, feeling the smooth skin on his pecs and bringing her head close to his chest to inhale his odor. She threw his shirt onto the other bed, then repeated the process with her own, keeping her eyes on him as, one button at a time, she revealed her bra and tattoos in full. She stood and pushed Peter to sit down on the bed, feeling his abs and then crotch as he fell back. There was definitely something hard going on there. She stood over him and started to unbutton her skirt, but Peter stopped her.

"Wait. Before that, you should... I assume Anna told you about my little problem?" Claire said nothing but gave a thin-lipped faint smile. "You should see for yourself before we go any further." Peter shifted back on the bed in order to lie down and Claire leaned over him. He raised his legs as she undid his belt, helping her ease his pants down and off. The moment of truth, Claire thought, eying his tight boxers and brushing her hand over his crotch as she reached for the waist band. Whatever he had was rock hard, but it was so small a tent; had Anna possibly even oversold it? She slowly pulled her hands towards her.

"What the hell?!" She exclaimed. Where his cock should be -- and probably was -- she saw instead a small metal cage with a lock attached. Sure enough, on closer look, she saw his penis straining in gaps between the bars. His balls stuck out ridiculously relative to the cage size, held in place by a metal ring at the cage's base. "You wear a chastity device?!" Without thinking she pulled his boxers all the way off.

"I do, and I can explain, but it will make more sense if Anna does," Peter said.

"I'm not sure I want any part of whatever sex game you have with her," Claire huffed, as the door unlocked and Anna entered. She has a key, Claire realized, then remembered her state of undress and vainly held her arm across her bra, too frozen to retrieve her shirt from the other bed. Abandoning hope of modesty, she bent her arms palms up toward Claire with a gesture and face that said what the fuck?

"I'm sorry for the drama," Anna said as she walked across the room and sat on the far bed. She tossed Claire her shirt, who started to put it on, fumbled unsuccessfully with the bottom button, and decided to leave it draped open. Anna herself had changed since dinner into a black leather dress, with heels even higher and more pointy than Claire's. Trying to outdo her for sexiness? Claire looked her up and down appreciatively despite her anger and confusion at this turn of events. "We owe you an explanation." Too damn right, Claire thought.

The Sisterhood of Braddon, Claire learned over the next several minutes, was a secret society at the firm that consisted of two types of members. The first, all women, were the controlling members; the second type, by contrast, were caged members. Years ago, Braddon's lawyers had of course been all men, and the Sisterhood was formed by several of their wives to exert proper control over the firm's finances and strategy, not to mention their men. Now the controlling members were a mix of wives and some of the female lawyers, and Claire was invited to join. Questions rushed through her head but Anna mostly answered them before she could speak. One she managed to blurt out:

"How big is this thing?" She paused. "You know what I mean."

Anna smirked. "Indeed! Bigger than you'd think. We are about half the employees at Braddon, and mostly, for our caged members, of those who have wives, the wives are involved. A few of them aren't interested in the chastity games but happy to know their husbands are being kept under control; they just ask that the cages be removed occasionally when they want attention at home, which the husbands are of course then happy to give, not that they really have a choice. Some wives, like Peter's, participate enthusiastically in all of our activities."

"And this goes how high?"

"To the top."

"Warner?" Anna nodded. He was a caged member, as his father had been. Claire's mind was racing. "Does Austin know?"

Anna laughed. "No, he doesn't. Hardly anyone who is not a member knows about us. We keep it strictly professional in the office and membership is not required to advance in the firm, though it can help. Occasionally we ask someone who is not interested, and this causes no problems; it will be your choice to make too. But we are careful in our recruitment and that rarely happens. Some people, you know, are clearly just vanilla and not good candidates. We don't have that concern about you."

Claire blinked at this and wondered what she had conveyed, but, she had to admit, Anna was not wrong. "So, if I were to join, what would I do?"

"We sisters hold the soft power at Braddon. We let the men occupy most of the senior roles -- it satisfies their egos and keeps us out of the limelight -- but what power they seem to hold, if they are our members, belongs to us. Over time your role will grow, starting small to ease you into this. I told you the other week that travel held the key to success at Braddon. More precisely, with travel, you hold the key. We can't have this" -- the feeble wave Anna gestured in Peter's direction befit his situation -- "set off the metal detector at the airport."

"Don't they make plastic ones?"

"They do, but without a metal lock they don't feel so secure, and they could still show up on millimeter wave detectors. So he needs a keeper with him on his trips. Recently this has been my job, but I'm gaining in seniority and am needed elsewhere. Should you choose to accept, this will be your first role as a sister, starting on your return trip tomorrow as I have to stay here until the end of the week. He could of course put it on himself just as easily as he took it off yesterday at JFK, but, well, why should we trust him?"

"How... how does it work?"

"I'm glad you asked! I'll show you." She pulled a small key from her purse and joined Claire on the bed next to Peter, one either side of him. "First, we release." This was easy: she twisted the key and the lock snapped open, separating the cage from the ring; the former slid off Peter's slightly wrinkled penis and the latter separated at the hole the lock went through. Anna gingerly released Peter's balls. Claire watched with amusement. "The cage shrinks him a little when worn for a long time, if you were wondering, but not by much. How big were you last measurement, Peter?" Anna asked with a twinkle.

"Uh, like four and a half inches," Peter ventured. Anna furrowed her brow and gave him a slap on his briefly free but never safe balls.

"No lying." She turned to Claire. "It was four and a quarter, at most. You'll have to wait to see that. If he gets an erection, it has to go down before we can lock him up again, and we don't want to do that by giving him some relief, do we?" Claire looked bemused and decided no, they did not.

"For putting it on, we need this," Anna continued, reaching into her purse and retrieving a bottle of lube. She squeezed a dollop on the ring, slid it over Peter's balls and pulled the ends together. The lube helped avoid any pinched skin. Holding the ring in place, Anna guided the cage over Peter's penis. Joining the two parts and holding them between thumb and forefinger on one hand, her other hand grasped for the lock lying nearby and she deftly joined the pieces, securing the lock and removing the key, which she handed to Claire. "Now you try!"

Claire duly removed it, paused to inspect both the device's parts and Peter's parts, then started to replace it. She fumbled a couple of times with the cock ring, letting it slip through her fingers after applying too much lube. "Stop fidgeting," Anna helpfully contributed, giving Peter another slap. Claire got the hang of it, then repeated the process to be surer, except this time, after unlocking, she took some time to play with Peter, stroking his shaft, stretching the skin, rubbing around some of the residual lube, squeezing his balls. Slowly he hardened, not to fully erect but to a point where Claire saw it would indeed not get much bigger.

When Anna warned they'd have a situation if it got any stiffer, Claire stuffed the penis back into its cage. Peter sighed. Finally, Claire closed the lock again with a loud snap and lifted the key. "So this is mine now?" she asked Anna rhetorically, as she slipped it into her shirt pocket.

"What else should I know?" Claire wondered. Peter spoke up.

"Like Anna said, in the office we keep it professional. Besides helping me at the airport, you have a lot of flexibility. I'm sure Anna will share some ideas, and soon I will introduce you to Emily, my wife, too. But the key, and the control, are yours for now. I'll tell you if you're pushing my boundaries."

Claire turned to him and glared. "You will just trust me to be nice enough? I don't know how, in your predicament, you can act with such insouciance." At Claire's fluent enunciation, Peter's cock twitched.

Anna laughed. "His what?!"

Claire looked at her. "You have this word in English, no? A lack of concern or care, a lightness of being. Insouciance," she repeated. Peter's cock twitched again. This time Claire noticed. "Ah oui, tu aimes que je parle français?" She dragged her nails between the slits of Peter's cage as she went on, feeling him straining more with each syllable. "Mais en même temps, je n'aime pas ton in-sou-ciance."

Claire recalled a movie she had long ago enjoyed, a female-led revenge thriller, and channeled one of her favorite scenes. "So that you understand how serious I am, I'm going to say this in English. You think this is a game you will enjoy, and perhaps to date you have been lucky. But what I hear is that it is my role to ensure you do not. The way things stand, I like my odds." Claire traced her fingers around the cage and switched her focus to Peter's balls, digging her nails in around the ring and compressing with her palm. Speaking as softly as Lucy Liu's O-Ren Ishii with just as real a threat, she concluded. "And if you ever disobey or disrespect me, I'll take your fucking balls.

"I was asked on this trip to watch for details you two might have missed, and I see now that this was a pretense, but in truth I did notice something at the airport. I say this, Anna, with the utmost respect for you and your style. Peter had entirely too much free time either side of security at JFK. Something bad could easily have happened, if he got excited. He even went to the bathroom unaccompanied!" To Peter, she said "Tomorrow, you will not leave my side, and I will cap your freedom at ten minutes."

Anna smiled widely then interjected. "I love the idea, but the line for security at Denver is often half an hour."