Two Three One Ch. 05

5. Evolution

Keri was far from pleased with the way that events have gone with Sam and she made her displeasure evident to Victoria on their 'walk in the park'. While she had reluctantly acquiesced to the outcome she had not done so because of any prearranged 'deal' with Victoria, but more because she couldn't bring herself to cause Sam any further pain or humiliation. He had laid himself fully open and bare before them, and she had just known at that point that any rejection, even of this, would have been devastating for him. She still didn't understand why he felt that he had to take this particular path ... to do it this way. But she had agreed, and she would make sure that he wouldn't be further debased or degraded by it. She made this clear to Victoria.

For her part, Victoria was chagrined by the reaction of her mate and sought to reassure her, but also to persuade her that it might not be all bad.

"Of course I made it sound horrific. I was trying to convince him to give it all up." she countered. "But he didn't, despite all that. I think it's pretty obvious that there is a part of him that really wants to be dominated. By us. And isn't that what you wanted. For him to be around and happy."

"I didn't want it to be like this." Keri replied.

'Well that seems to be the way he wants it. Look, we said that we'd give it a trial for a month. I'm sure at the end of that we'll all be tired of it and have a good laugh and get on with our lives. But why not give it a try for now. He definitely wants it, and it certainly would be nice to have someone else be responsible for the housework for a while." When Keri didn't answer right away, Victoria forged ahead. "Love, I know that you would find it difficult to boss him around, but he's made it apparent that he needs that." she said soothingly. "So we can play good cop/bad cop. You can be however you want to be with him, and I'll be the one to be the stern taskmistress. I think I can handle that."

Keri shot her a sharp look and Victoria rushed to respond. "I promise I won't be cruel or overly harsh, but I'm sure he would want me to be firm and demanding. That must certainly be part of the allure."

"I don't want him to be hurt or put down in any way." Keri insisted.

"I have no desire to do that, you know that. And you'll be there to make sure of it, my Love." Victoria assured her. "But he WILL need to be a slave. Our slave. He's made it plain that that's what he wants, with all that it entails, and I think we should see it through as such. At least until we've all had enough of it."

Keri couldn't come up with an effective counter argument. She suspected that Vicky was more right than wrong. She only knew that she was drawn to Sam in some way. Not in a romantic way. Not the way she felt toward Vicky, her one true love. But in the short time that she had come to know him, she had come to enjoy being around him, and really care about him. She had come to relish his innate goodness and savor his gentle playfulness and sense of humor, but she also sensed his intense shyness, lack of confidence and aching loneliness. If this is what it took, if this is what he needed, she would try to play along. For as long as was necessary. Hopefully that wouldn't need to be too long

"Okay Vicky. We'll try it this way for the time being, but I'm going to hold you to your promise."

Victoria readily agreed.

********

When they arrived back at the apartment later that afternoon they were greeted with a delectable aroma. As he had been ordered Sam had a sumptuous dinner waiting for them. The table was set but Keri immediately noted that it was only for two. She made her first command decision and declared that Sam was to eat with them, this night and always. Though Victoria silently wondered at the propriety of a slave dining with his betters, she did not object. She did insist however that he serve them, both initially and throughout the meal, and he jumped up frequently to offer them seconds, refill their beverage glasses, and take care of any other need that they might have.

As he cleaned up after dinner the two women retired to the living room, and Victoria set about inspecting Sam's other mandated assignments. The carpets had all been vacuumed, and, surprisingly, all of the furniture appeared to have been dusted and polished. When she went into the bedroom, not only had the bed been made with fresh linens as directed, but the entire room, which had been in total chaos, was now set back in perfect order. Clothes which had been flung about all over bed and chairs were now either put away or in the laundry. Several pairs of shoes for both of them that had been strewn about the floor and even under the bed were now neatly stacked with the now carefully rearranged jumble of shoes that had been piled haphazardly in both of their closets. And he had made no mistakes as to which belonged to whom.

"This is amazing." Keri murmured after she followed Victoria in.

"Yeah." Victoria had to agree. "But we don't want it to go to his head. Let me handle this." She half grinned. "This could be the start of something really enjoyable."

Returning to the living room they found Sam anxiously awaiting them.

"Well slave," Victoria observed diffidently, "your initial efforts certainly leave a lot of room for improvement." She could almost feel Keri's eyes burning into her from behind. "But since it's your first day, and your dinner was passable, we've decided tho cut you a little slack. This one time."

"Thank you Miss." Sam responded sincerely.

"Alright then." she continued. "Do you still have the extra key Keri gave you before?"

"Yes Miss"

"Tomorrow it's back to work for both of us. We get up to get ready about 6am. Have our breakfast prepared for us by 7."

"Yes Miss"

"And after we're gone and you've cleaned the morning dishes the laundry needs to be done, including ironing any of our blouses and pants that need it. Also, the bathrooms haven't been scrubbed and cleaned in a while so see to that as well. We should both be home around 6 for dinner."

"I'll take care of it all, Miss Victoria."

"Yes. You will."

'Wait a minute Sam." Keri interjected. 'When do you do your own work, your stock trading? And how much time do you need for that every day?"

"I usually spend about four hours every morning on research and actual trading, Miss Keri"

"Well then, you're not to neglect that under any circumstances." Keri commanded. "After we finish breakfast and leave you're to march right back to your own place and get your own work done first, before you even think of coming back here."

"Whatever you say, Miss Keri."

"It certainly looks like you're going to have a very tight and busy schedule every day then, slave," Victoria added, "so you might as well go home now and get as much rest as you can tonight. There won't be much time for that for you from here on out."

"Yes Miss. Thank you Miss."

And with that apparent dismissal Sam bowed to each of them and left for the night.

********

The next morning the two lovers were presented after arising with a breakfast of western omelets, buttered English muffins with jam, freshly squeezed orange juice, and steaming cups of coffee. After making sure that they were both properly taken care of, Sam was ordered by Keri to join them, which he promptly did, but only for coffee as he explained that he almost never ate breakfast. After they left for work Sam cleaned up the breakfast leavings quickly and then, as instructed by Keri, went back to his place to take care of his own business before returning in the early afternoon to begin what he now considered to be his real work.

Keri arrived home earlier than Victoria, which was almost always the case, just as Sam was putting the finishing touches on the evening's dinner. She was astonished at all that he had accomplished during the day. All of the laundry was done, with all, not just some, of their blouses and pants ironed and put away. And the bathroom floors, tubs, sinks and toilets were all spotless and sparkling. She made sure to compliment him lavishly and her heart gladdened as he beamed and uttered an emotion laden "Thank you, Miss Keri."

Victoria made so such attempt to acknowledge his work when she got home but neither did she find reason to criticize it. She did once again comment on her enjoyment of the dinner, but other than that she mostly ignored Sam until he had finished cleaning up after and she gave him a verbal list of chores for the next day before dismissing him home.

And so a routine began to be established. Sam would arrive early every morning to prepare their breakfast as Keri and Victoria were getting dressed and ready for work. After they ate and left he would rapidly clean up that mess before returning to his own place to take care of his own business. Even in this he derived a new sense of excitement and urgency, more than he had ever had before as he now felt that he was performing his own work at Miss Keri's behest and order and no longer just for himself. After completing his self imposed four hour limit on his own work he would rush back to their apartment to complete his daily chores for them in time to also have dinner going and ready when they got home.

Early in his second week with them Keri found that she had to impose her authority a second time. Arriving home earlier than usual, just as Sam was beginning to make dinner, she went into the kitchen to watch and help out. After several minutes she could sense that he was unsettled.

"Is something wrong Sam?"

"No, not at all Miss Keri." he assured her. "It's just ... " he couldn't help himself from adding.

"Just what?"

He had had no intention at being so brazen as to complete his original thought which he had begun to blurt out, but now that she had asked he had no choice but to answer.

"It's just that you shouldn't have to be doing these things Miss Keri. It's what I'm here for, to do them for you, so you can rest and be taken care of."

This then was the crux, and she knew that she had to settle it with him right away.

"Look Sam." she started, not unkindly, "You're going to have to understand that I like being with you and doing things with you. You have a lot of amazing talents, not the least of which is cooking, that I want to learn from you, and I can only do that if you let me and teach me. So you're going to have to get used to having me be around and in your way whenever I can be, so I can most benefit from your many outstanding abilities."

Sam stood there absolutely dumbfounded. No one had ever said anything like that to him before.

"And can we drop the Miss Keri thing and just be Keri and Sam like we used to be? I'd really like that and it would make things a lot easier for me. And one more thing." She was on a roll now. "When we're alone together I don't want any of this 'don't speak unless you're spoken to'. I want to know what you're thinking and what your opinions are. How else am I going to learn from you. Okay?"

"I ... ah ... whatever you want ... always ... Keri." After a second he bowed his head. "But ... "

"But what Sam?" she asked a little more sharply.

"Do you think that maybe ... when Miss Victoria is around ... that maybe then I should still call you Miss?"

Keri paused. It was a reasonable thought and request. It would serve no purpose to take any chance of ruffling Victoria's feathers, particularly when it would be Sam who would bear any brunt of her displeasure.

"A good idea," she conceded, "but only then, when she's around. Clear?"

He grinned widely. "Crystal ... Keri."

********

The next few weeks flew by. Working very hard on a difficult case, in which she hoped a successful outcome would secure her chances of finally being made a partner in her law firm, Victoria now more often wouldn't get home until very late. Knowing this beforehand Keri would arrange with Sam for the two of them to make dinner together and they would spend much time enjoyably experimenting with any number of exotic concoctions before they would come up with one with which they were satisfied enough to eat, and then save the rest for Victoria when she got home. Through these efforts with Sam Keri was beginning to learn the rudiments of good cooking and fine cuisine, and she was also very happy to have Sam's company on those nights when she would otherwise be alone until very late. At her request she also had Sam begin to explain to her how he worked the stock market, and when she appeared to be truly interested, with his advice, they began making small trades and purchases for her.

Even as this was all developing Sam continued to make sure to be especially diligent in performing the duties and chores that Victoria continued to set out for him daily. He tried very hard not to give her any reason to be dissatisfied with him and jeopardize what he still feared was his precarious and fragile position, however low it might be, in their household.

Victoria herself had quickly grown tired of playing the mean ogress role. It didn't take her long to realize that Sam never needed to be told to do things twice and that he rarely if ever gave her any cause to complain. She was secretly impressed that he frequently found things to do on his own initiative. She no longer thought it was necessary to be unpleasant with him, but she continued to make sure that he understood that he was nothing more than a slave and that they were his Mistresses. Exhausted as she often was with her increasing workload at the firm she came to greatly, if silently, appreciate that they now had someone to deal with all of the domestic drudgery.

So when the one month trial period was approaching its end she found herself urging Keri to continue things as they were for the time being. While Keri was still not enamored with the underlying premise of the 'arrangement', she sensed that Sam seemed not only content but enthusiastic about it. And she had to admit that she shared these feeling when she was alone with him. She thus agreed, and when the month ended Victoria solemnly announced to him that although his progress had been barely adequate over the first month, they had generously decided to give him another chance by extending his slave probation period for another month.

Sam couldn't thank them enough.