Unicorn Ch. 04

"That isn't BDSM though," Lauren shook her head. That was something very familiar actually. The bath ritual, the concubine fantasy and the touch of women. It was soft, beckoning fingers to tease and torment and keep a girl wet and ripe until she was ready for the sultan.

"It is if you're the bath slave," Victor said with the pipe clamped between his teeth as he pointed her out. "Do you see her? That face," he sounded as if the sight of the bath slave simultaneously excited him and tugged on his heart strings. "That yearning," he whispered. The bath slave was a small woman with dark, curly hair, pulled back to bare one pale shoulder. Her skin was the color of milk and her nipples were squeezed tightly between two clamps. There was a chain that dangled between the clamps and swung with her breath. "That reverence," Victor said with a long drawn out sigh that seemed to suggest that he could understand it.

"Are you a dominant, sir?" Lauren asked him, caught up in the sight of him. Victor was handsome in an understated way. Nothing about him drew attention, just his arresting eyes and Lauren was sure that he didn't just know that but that he used that to his own purposes.

"Oh I'm past all of it now," Victor said as he set down the pipe. "I am the Master of the house, so as you might imagine, I am considered dominant. Those are just titles," he smiled. "But, oh to be a fledgling submissive once again. Is anything sweeter than that rush of fear and want as they collide? Is there anything more passionate than giving oneself over to a dream?"

Lauren eased back onto the sofa and her fingers wound through his once more. "Can you be submissive and dominant at the same time?"

"What do you imagine makes a true dominant, my dear, other than having tasted the need to submit?"

Lauren couldn't think of anything better actually.

"Can you be both?" Lauren wanted to know. Yes, she thought, yes, she could at least. She was submissive to the Prestons but dominant with Adrian as well as other lovers. She liked both and could ease into either.

"I feel like you know the answer to that," Victor told her with a kiss on her hand. "A true unicorn. What a mistress you would make."

"Me?" Lauren murmured.

"Beautiful and intelligent, bisexual and soft while simultaneously being quite fierce. You are a force of nature, Lauren. I can feel sex radiate from you," Victor's voice trembled and for the first time, betrayed a bit of the man behind the façade. "It's almost overpowering and I'm," he paused and crinkled his brow, "well I'm me."

Lauren wasn't sure what to say as a whole new world suddenly twinkled and shone between the cracks. Something inside that she never dreamt of. The glass was just her reflection, there was so much more beneath the surface.

"Something to think about," Victor's voice sounded far away and Lauren roused herself and came back to the present. "If, when, you think about what happens after the summer of love," he placed his cool hand on her cheek again. "Will you indulge me in one thing, just a small thing?"

It was the voice, it had dropped an octave. It was a velvet voice, a voice that made so many people obey so many commands. Lauren could only nod her head and just barely, she trembled more than anything else.

"Take the hat off," Victor murmured and nodded as Lauren did as he asked. After setting the hat on the side table, Victor added, "now, let your hair down for me."

She followed instructions once more and Victor watched. He appeared to be captivated at the tumble of Lauren's hair, wild and free, down her back to her bottom. She glanced over and saw the outline of his thick cock through his pants. It was hard and trembled up against his right thigh in the pinstriped pants. He wanted her. He could do things to her that Lauren couldn't even possibly imagine.

There it was, the glimmer of fear and lust and it engulfed her. It consumed her for a moment as she pictured herself bound to a wall in a dungeon with a wizard who tortured her with love.

"Are you sure you're not French?" Victor asked.

Lauren just giggled.

"And where does my beauty want to go this evening?" Victor asked. "You'll be properly escorted to wherever you choose."

Lauren smirked and wondered if it would even be a surprise. "Do women go to the game room?"

Victor looked pleased. "Yes, my dear, they do. But only when the playing field has been leveled a bit. Sit here for a moment, I've got just the thing."

Victor left the office and Lauren folded her hands in her lap as she surveyed the room. She was fascinated, much more fascinated than she even wanted to admit. Part of her wanted to look at every book, sit in every chair and feel the magical essence of Victor seep into her body.

He returned with a black harness and the largest cock Lauren had ever seen. It was at least twelve inches long and as big around as her forearm. "You'll be a champion, which would only be befitting of your beauty," Victor handed her the strap on with a gesture.

"Won't they be scared of me with this?" Lauren asked in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

"Fear and lust. The combination is the most addictive substance in the universe," Victor whispered.

Lauren decided that she was ready to try yet another addictive substance.

***

The slave auction was to start promptly at ten o'clock and Lauren had been in the shower at 9:45. There had been no time to wind her hair back up into the careful coil that she had kept under her hat before the festivities began.

Lauren looked at herself in the mirror and thought now she knew what having stars in your eyes meant. There were lights that radiated back from the depths of her sometimes blue, sometimes green eyes. There seemed to be a new depth to them. She knew things.

She glowed and it wasn't just the warmth on her skin from the shower. It was the heavenly waves of delight that she could still feel that still buzzed under her skin. She had fucked and been fucked until her legs could no longer keep her upright.

She'd fucked Mr. Preston with the strap-on. She'd fucked him deep and hard. She'd been vicious with the almost punishing blows with the dick. Lauren had sunk her nails into his backside and left him with the bloody traces of her fingers as a reminder. Her queen would see them later if she hadn't already, along with the other bites and scratches her husband carried. He was the most beautiful that Lauren had ever seen him like that. Spent and torn and drained down to his bones, Mr. Preston had been a sacrifice to the gods.

Even though Lauren had just washed all of the debauchery from her skin, she was almost sure she could still feel it, underneath. She was wired and she'd never been so alive.

Maybe Victor was really right about her. He seemed to know everything, Lauren told the woman in the suit who stared back at her.

That's what had happened, wasn't it? Lauren gasped at the realization. She'd become a woman this summer and the eyes held some secrets that a girl just couldn't have.

Well fuck.

Lauren made her way quickly then, she almost ran to the auction. She opened the door to the grand ballroom and sighed with relief. Everyone was still talking, the hum of conversation was in the air. Even if Victor wasn't standing right there, he might be watching and for some reason that she couldn't explain, Lauren didn't want to disappoint him.

She headed to the table where Mrs. Preston sat alone. Her dark haired queen was perfect, as always. Her hair shone in the light and her fedora was tilted at the perfect angle to throw a deep shadow across her cheekbones and simultaneously illuminate her blood red lips. Lauren bent to kiss her because she couldn't stop herself.

"There's my love," Mrs. Preston murmured after their soft, delicious kiss. "I was starting to wonder if maybe you got lost somewhere." Mrs. Preston radiated an orgasmic bliss. Lauren was sure that she was wet for more between her legs. Her lover was a bottomless well of bliss that Lauren could hardly wait to sample once they returned to the Four Seasons.

"No, I just took a really long shower," Lauren told her as she took the next seat so that they could hold hands. "Who are all these people?" Lauren asked.

Mr. Preston appeared to her left, carrying three glasses. "Bourbon for my lady, whiskey neat for me and Coke for a barbaric, little girl." He set the drink down in front of Lauren and kissed her head. He winced as he took a seat on the other side of Lauren. "These people are Masters and Mistresses who come to La Maison to purchase the very best slaves," he proceeded to inform her.

Mrs. Preston sounded suspicious when she asked, "What happened to you, Mark?"

"Do you really want to know?" he asked with a low chuckle. It was a good question. There were times that one had to assume the worst, or maybe the best, depending on how you looked at it. "Lauren raped me," he whispered and then gave them both sad eyes as his big body shook with suppressed laughter.

"You went to the game room?" Mrs. Preston took Lauren's hand and held it tight.

There was no time to tell Mrs. Preston about all of her conquests. Lauren had wrestled and fought in the game room as fiercely as any of the men. She would have to wait to tell her stories though because the lights had dimmed and all conversation stopped.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," a man with an English accent greeted the crowd from a podium at the far left of the stage. "Let's begin this evening's bidding."

The stage was black and the only light made a halo around the auctioneer. He looked very solemn as he began. "Lot 24, to my right, is our first showing of the evening." As he spoke, the lights came up and cast the empty stage in radiance. From under stage, the floor parted and a dais raised up. At the center of it was a lone girl. She was small and curvy, she was completely bare and the glare of the stage lights lit her body up for inspection. "Trained for three years in the House of Diablo, this slave is a masochist and pain slut. She speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese fluently. Twenty two years old, she is perfectly suited to be used as a house slave or circuit slave. I'll start the bidding at five hundred."

Lauren leaned in to confirm. "She can't be five hundred dollars?" she asked Mr. Preston, shocked. It was absolutely shocking that this lovely girl in chains was so cheap. She was perfectly ripe and had golden skin. Her hair and eyes were a gooey, melted chocolate color and her nipples were lush, pink buds. They looked mouthwatering, even with the piercings that the silver chains fed through. Even with her mouth like that, pulled apart, pried open and saliva dripping on the black ball that silenced her. Her full lips were as kissable up top as they were below. If she was only five hundred dollars, then Lauren wanted to buy her.

"Five hundred thousand," Mr. Preston told her. "Do you want to buy a pet, my love? The fuck boy isn't enough for you?" He was pleased about it though and Lauren could tell by the gleam in his eye that the pet was very pleasing to him as well. He could already think of a thousand different things to do with her.

Jesus, Lauren thought to herself, that's just the starting bid? The auctioneer called and paddles were raised and someone on the phone bid eight hundred thousand and the grand ballroom was silent.

"I have eight hundred going once."

"Going twice."

"Lot 24 sold to the gentleman on the phone."

The girl disappeared back beneath the floor where she came from. Lauren let out a rush of air and felt like she'd held her breath all the while. She thought about what it must be like for the small girl with the melted chocolate eyes. She was down below, somewhere in the dark. She knew that her life was no longer her own and she belonged to a man on the phone.

It was terrifying. And exhilarating.

The slaves kept coming. There were beautiful young men and women. All of them were exquisite and yet unique and all for sale to the highest bidder. Mr. Preston had explained during the breaks, "It's not exactly like they're strangers. I mean the slaves don't know the buyers but Victor knows them. You have to be approved by Victor before he would entrust you with his precious merchandise."

Lauren nodded and wondered if that was part of the life that Victor envisioned for her. Mistress Lauren? She bit her bottom lip and rubbed her hands down her thighs. It would be easy to lose herself altogether in this place. Look how quickly the summer had gone by.

"Where is Adrian?" Mrs. Preston wondered. The queen had a look of concern and she placed her left hand on Lauren's cheek. The ring made a flurry of lights on Lauren's skin and her touch was cool on Lauren's cheek.

She hadn't remembered Adrian. Oh god, Lauren felt the pang of it in her chest. Her black haired boy, her beast from the woods, she'd never checked on him since Victor spirited her away to the room. Funny, he'd never told Lauren where he was playing either. "I don't know," Lauren told her. She felt the anxiety rise up from her chest and all she wanted to do was go and look for him.

"A late addition to this evening's proceedings ladies and gentlemen," the auctioneer had returned to the podium and cleared his throat. "Lot 77."

Lauren felt the churning in the pit of her stomach as the dais raised and she knew, she knew before she saw anything but just a wisp of black hair.

"Lot 77 is an untrained male, comes as completely raw material, sold as is. The only guarantee, of course, that the merchandise has been met with Sir's approval."

Adrian stared defiantly into the crowd. His blue eyes were two stones that glistened with tears, river rocks that had known all the stories that Lauren would never know. He was chained like the rest but he was cuffed since his nipples weren't pierced. From his plugged bottom, the chains ran to his ankle cuffs. His cock was free, unlike the other male slaves. It was free and it danced and spit and trembled with glee. Lauren wondered if that hadn't been Victor's idea, to let them all see just how glorious the merchandise was.

Adrian met her gaze and Lauren felt him telling her. This is what I want, to belong to someone, to be owned. Didn't he say he came from everywhere and nowhere? The bidding started at three hundred thousand but it quickly rose to almost eight. The black haired boy stood, frozen, he didn't even blink as the numbers swirled around. He was like the statue that his body resembled.

The sheik in the front raised his paddle and offered a cool one million.

The auctioneer asked for a counter and the eyes on Adrian could be felt. The desire was palpable, the overwhelming heat for the boy and his luscious cock was a pulse of energy. The auctioneer felt it too and he hovered. He wanted a counter offer but now the crowd seemed to be as frozen as Adrian.

"Sold to number 32," the auctioneer nodded politely to the sheik and Adrian disappeared into the bowels of La Maison. He belonged to a real sultan now. Lauren clutched her chest as the pain welled up inside.

She never even got to say goodbye.

"I don't feel well," she whispered to Mrs. Preston.

***

The weather had been in the eighties and nineties while they were on the road. Once they were back in Chicago, there was a strange cold snap that came out of nowhere. Even though Labor Day was still a week away, Lauren felt like fall was in the air.

They had just flown home on Thursday. It was Sunday and Lauren had stayed in the second bedroom since their return. She needed time to think. Mr. Preston had told her with a pat on the head, "take all the time you need."

Lauren hadn't expected this. She wasn't sad and that seemed to be so much worse. Lauren hadn't cried, she just withdrew and wondered for days now, what was it that she'd felt for him then, if it wasn't love?

Had she tried to make her heart too big? Was that what Victor had really seen in her? Something separate and under lock and key? She wondered if she was ever going to be normal.

Lauren stood in the Preston's enormous shower and felt the piping hot water cascade down her body. She wasn't normal though, she shook her head as she thought it. Even the word sounded much too small to encompass what she felt. She didn't want to do normal things. She didn't want a normal job or a normal boyfriend or any of those other things that the McCullums had said that she should strive for.

She wanted to make love. She wanted to see everything. Go everywhere. She wanted to really live and she wanted to start right now. As she turned the faucet to the off position, Lauren's hand trembled as a wave of understanding washed over her.

That's what Adrian had done.

Full immersion, everything, everywhere, right now. He couldn't tell her because he knew that she'd never understand and he was right. She didn't, not until right now. Lauren closed her eyes and sent Adrian her love. Somehow she knew that he could feel that.

She wore an old tee shirt and wrapped the towel around her head as she came to the kitchen. "Good morning, honey," Mrs. Preston greeted her. The queen was baking and she wore a pink apron and nothing else. Her dark hair was in a sleek ponytail and she looked a little sad through her smile. "I hope you're hungry. I made cinnamon rolls."

"And there's leftover pizza from Pizano's," Mr. Preston told her. He sat at the breakfast bar, wearing just a bathing suit as he'd done while they were on the road. He had the circles under his eyes once more and Lauren wondered if that was more to do with her than anything else.

"Can I have both?" Lauren asked and took a seat.

"You can have anything you want," Mr. Preston told her as he wrapped one arm around her neck. "And since you've come out of your room, I think it's time that we talk about the future."

Mrs. Preston opened the oven and reached in with the oven mitt. "There's plenty of time for that later, Lauren. I mean, we don't have to talk about anything right now. Unless you want to," Mrs. Preston finished and placed the rolls on the counter. She let out a long sigh that sounded like she was afraid of what Lauren would say. She added in a voice that shook a little, "it feels like everything is changing."

Mr. Preston took his wife's hand and whispered, "Sharon, come on. It's going to be okay."

Lauren reached out and placed one hand on the king and the other on her queen. Everything was changing and the summer was almost over. She knew in her heart that she'd always been more than just their summer unicorn. Even though she wanted to go everywhere and do everything but this place would always be home.

"Can I decorate the second bedroom? I mean, I don't always want to sleep in there but sometimes, I do like having my space. And I'm going to need a place to study when I go back to school."

The Prestons exchanged quick glances and Mrs. Preston finally smiled. It was the same smile that she'd had for Lauren since the first meeting at the salon, a lifetime ago. "Of course honey, it's your room. You can make it into whatever you want."

Lauren decided that was exactly what she would do.