Chapter 40

"Head for the tree, Kelly, head for the tree," Patricia shouted.

"I wouldn't, unless you want to expose yourself to the whole neighborhood," Eddie said, calmly and implacably stalking the scampering Kelly. "C'mon my little ebony vixen, you planned the crime, you did the crime ... you know what comes after that."

"Yeah, yeah I do ... I planned the crime, I did the crime, it's party time!" Kelly proclaimed as she ducked around several chairs.

Kelly leapt up onto a low hanging branch as Margo dove for the switch that controlled the backyard lights, turning them off just in time. The waxing half moon provided more than ample illumination for the assembled party guests to watch as she stood up, grabbed another limb and swung out over Eddie, coming down and tucking into a roll as she hit the grass. Laughing merrily she ran into the house and could be heard heading upstairs.

For some of the party guests, resting their arms on the edge of the pool where they'd returned after the women had performed their choreographed aero-aquatic ballet of ballistics or lounging around it, equally wet now that they'd been doused by the splashes, this was their first taste of House Chorale at play.

Eddie turned and then slowly paced in to follow Kelly into the house.

Harry, noticing his slow, steady and unstoppable pace asked, "Eddie, do you ever feel like Yul Brynner in that movie, 'Westworld'?"

"Nope, more like Boris Karloff in "Frankenstein"."

"Oh cool!" Tamara squealed, "That makes me Elsa Lancaster!"

"Wrong film, my love ... that was "Bride of Frankenstein" ... besides, she was repulsed by the monster," Eddie replied, his smile not hiding his insecurity from Tamara for a second.

"Well then, you feel like Karloff in "Bride of Frankenstein" and we are DEFINITELY rewriting the script, sir ... in this version she falls in love with Karloff's character at once, and refuses to leave his side, no matter what," she answered, giving him a hug. "Now Edward, go capture that young woman and punish her."

Eddie looked at his love, a solemn, stone-like expression on his face, nodded and lurched into the house after Kelly.

"Very nice, how you managed to avoid referring to him as 'the Monster'," Carol observed in a whisper as she stood next to her old friend.

"Yes ... although sometimes it's harder than others to avoid playing into his pain," Tamara replied, sotto voce. In a louder tone she continued, "But you, and the rest of your vile cohorts, are to be taken into the living room to await Master's passing of judgment on you. Now move ... all of you!" she said, lightly slapping Carol's butt for emphasis.

A quick glance passed between Li Kuan and Madame Cornelius. Then Li Kuan joined the others in heading indoors.

"Getting a bit pushy, isn't she?" Li Kuan asked Carol, smiling.

"Oh, when it comes to 'her Edward', she's been pushy," Carol replied.

Even with the best cleaning job Ophelia had been able to manage, her leathers still reeked of alcohol-soaked vomit. Tied back in position around the tub, she was forced to endure the worst torture the day had brought her.

She knelt, full of anger, and listened to the laughter and excited babble of happy people.

"Well, I hate to leave before we get to see what the punishment is for splashing most of the water out of your pool," Hal Stallings said, "but I've got early appointments tomorrow and the kids are pretty much demanding some play time."

"We understand Hal, it was great to see all of you again, so glad you could come," Harry replied, shaking the family psychiatrist's hand.

"Now Margo," Hal added, don't forget, we have an appointment sometime Wednesday ... I'm sure Helga can find some time to fit you in."

"Thank you so much," Margo said, hugging her old friend gratefully. "I ... really need to talk."

"I understand. Don't worry about it ... sometimes patients need three or four, even five sessions a week, if they're in crisis. Just make sure you call the office by 4 tomorrow afternoon if you haven't gotten a call from us."

As the Stallings family left, Margo knelt down beside Carol, whom Tamara had positioned with the other 'cannonballers', on their hands and knees, bare bottoms up in the air. Li Kuan snarls could be heard throughout the room.

"I know we've played some incest games-" Margo began.

"And some of us more than games," Carol interjected, looking at Nicki across the room.

"And some of us more than games," Margo agreed, "but damn ... watching the four of them together is scary. If I didn't know better..."

"You'd swear they were parents and children ... albeit parents and children that swim and cuddle together in the nude," Carol finished. Margo nodded and watched out the window as her friend, his wife and... 'family' ... walked to their car.

"You know ... I never would have believed a few months ago that one of my colleagues had such kinky fantasies ... of course, I never would've believed I had them either," Marg said, staring out into the night.

"Well thank God you do," Carol replied. "Makes life ever so much more interesting."

"Do you wonder if maybe ... well, if maybe someday the fantasy will get too real, too all encompassing for them?" Patricia asked from the comfortable pile of pillows she sat on.

"No, not much worry of that," Carol answered. "Dr. Stallings is smart enough to recognize the problem if it starts developing, and even if he should get so lost in it that he doesn't, the kids will. Their fantasy is a family scene ... their reality is that they're pleasure sluts, just like me. If the dream becomes too real, too consistent, then it starts to give rise to the same problems that a real pair of siblings and their parents would have, and that's a level of play no one would enjoy too much. I have faith that they'll keep it light enough to avoid that, even if Dr. Stallings fails to do so."

Tamara leaned in. "You think they'll try a role reversal?"

"If they haven't already," Carol snorted. "That's something I'd purely love to see ... Sam and Jessie playing some major parental games on Hal and Tori ... damn, getting moist just thinking about it."

"You, my beloved one," Margo said, kissing her, "are a wonderfully perverted little beast ... and that's how we love you best."

"Oh I'm so glad," Carol replied, squirming seductively, "it's good to be appreciated."

The chasing down of the ringleader had reached a sticking point upstairs. Kelly had locked herself into the upstairs bath.

"Margo, I'm gonna break down this gawddamned door if she don't open up!" Eddie called down.

"Edward Janak, the door you break down tonight you'll be replacing tomorrow!" Margo replied, climbing halfway up the stairs.

"It could probably stand replacing. Hey, Lisa, Jackie ... y'all mind bein' doorless for a day?" Eddie asked.

"Won't be exposing any secrets everyone in the house hasn't already seen," Lisa replied.

"Yeah ... but would it be too much to ask you to put a sheet up over the doorway before you leave tonight, I feel kind of odd ... you know ... going to the bathroom..." Jackie answered.

"Not a problem. Okay, Kelly, I'm coming through that door on the count of three!" Eddie yelled.

"ONE!"

"Is he really going to go through the door?" Li Kuan asked of Carol.

"Don't doubt it for an instant," the curvaceous beauty replied.

"TWO!"

Madame Cornelius leaned down and softly whispered into Li Kuan's ear, then stood up and walked back to where she'd been sitting with Puppy.

On the stairs Margo mentally prepared herself to perform first aid on Eddie ... or more specifically, Eddie's shoulder.

"THREE!"

"Eddie, hold it right there," called Harry. "KELLY ... DOWN HERE, NOW!"

The house was quiet, out of surprise and anticipation for perhaps twenty seconds, then from upstairs, the sound of an unlocking door, an opening door, and bare feet beating a hasty path down the stairs. Before anyone knew it, Kelly was kneeling at Harry's feet.

"Yes, sir," she said in a small voice.

"Enough of this foolishness, my love. You did it, time to pay for it."

"Yes, sir."

As Eddie descended he took Tamara by the hand and the two of them walked into the corner, talking quietly.

"What did she tell you, if you don't mind me asking?" Carol whispered.

In the same barely audible tones Li Kuan replied, "That I was to accept discipline from your House as if it were our own." A snarl, short and soft, escaped her lips. "It isn't something ... I gave..."

"It's okay," Carol replied. "I think I understand. You bent the knee to Madame Cornelius and to no one else."

"Exactly," Li Kuan growled. "But ... I follow the instructions of my Madame in all things."

"You're an odd kind of submissive," Carol said, chuckling.

"And you and your crew are not?" Li Kuan replied.

After some apparently rather intense discussion, Eddie and Tamara returned. Eddie could be heard faintly muttering "I don't know who the hell's in charge around here but it sure as shit ain't me."

He stood in front of the line of women, kneeling on the living room floor. "With the exception of Kelly, as far as I'm concerned Tamara could take care of the rest of y'all's punishments an' I'd be happy. But I've been..." he turned and glared at his petite love, "convinced ... that that'd be a bad idea where Li Kuan is concerned. Might cause some hard feelings."

"She would endure it because I have ordered her too," Madame Cornelius pronounced, as if a proclamation from the Lord God on High.

"Yes ma'am, I'm sure she would, but it might cause some hard feelings where none are necessary." Eddie shifted uncomfortably. "So I'll be handling hers and Carol's discipline, and Tamara will be handling Carol, Lisa, Jackie and Sheila ... unless the fuckin' plans change again. An' I need to talk to you, Margo an' Harry, about somethin' suitable for Kelly."

The old friends stood together for a bit talking amongst themselves.

Eddie squatted down and said, "I don't suppose I need to worry about how hard I lay into you, do I?"

"No, sir, you do not," the oriental beauty replied.

"In fact, I reckon the harder I hit, the more likely you are to enjoy it ... am I right?"

Li Kuan's head jerked around and she glared at him. "Yes sir, that would be correct."

"So give me one reason why I should make you happy instead of punishing you in a way that would really be uncomfortable for you."

"There is no reason, sir."

"There is no reason, sir ... that's the best answer you've got for me?"

"Yes sir, it is."

"Well, I guess that means you're sitting this one out, forced to see it, hear it but denied what'd make you feel good." Eddie raised his voice, "Same goes for you too, little Miss Happy Butt Carol. Get over here, you and Li Kuan get to watch, but not participate."

"Eddie, you're mean," Carol said. She smiled as she went and knelt by Li Kuan.

"No argument there, Short Stuff, been that way all my life. Now then," he said, turning the remaining three accomplices, "did Kelly make it an order, from her as your Mistress, for you to join in the fun?"

A chorus of 'no sir's filled the air in the living room.

"Good, your honesty will be rewarded. Three spanks each..."

"Is 'spanks' even a word? Shouldn't it be like, 'strokes' or 'swats'?" Karen asked.

"It's a word now, Dyke-a-saurus. Now, as I was sayin' before I was so rudely interrupted, to hell with it, I'll handle spanking the girls myself as well. Tamara, you're off the hook."

"Oh good, sir, I'm so glad you're taking advantage of the situation and laying your hands on all those beautiful bottoms!" Tamara chortled.

Eddie rubbed his eyes in feigned weariness. "I am blessed with a little freak in my life."

"Yeah, ain't it grand," Harry cracked as he cuddled with Margo. "We're very fond of ours ... I think everyone should have one."

"No, Master Grimes," Madame Cornelius said, "only those families that deserve one and can properly take care of one." Her fingernails raked across Puppy's shoulder as they sat together. The young woman winced as Madame Cornelius let her fingers drift down and cruelly pinched one of Puppy's nipples, but the wince was outshone by the blissful pain-born smile on her face.

"I sit corrected," Harry replied, caressing Margo's belly, "only the deserving and able."

As Eddie very gently gave Lisa, Jackie and Sheila three swats each on their bare bottoms, amidst much giggling, Li Kuan glowered and Carol squirmed.

When Eddie was finished, grinning with honest enjoyment of the task he'd just completed, he scooted over to Margo and Harry and began speaking with them in a low voice.

Alone in the middle of the floor, her co-conspirators no longer around her, Kelly knelt, her head bowed to her chest, hands crossed at the wrists upon her lap. To anyone who didn't know her, she might appear honestly repentant but no one watching her in that room believed her pose of contrition. She was quietly reveling in her devilish reputation and planning the next antagonism of her large friend. Her bottom might hurt by the end of the evening, but it'd been worth it for the look on his face as the six of them crashed into the pool.

"Princess," Margo called, "go into the bedroom and bring the whipping post out."

For the first time, Kelly showed a measure of fear in her features. She had expected a spanking, perhaps even a cropping, but the whipping post was rarely used for anything that light.

"Yo, Neanderthal!" Karen called from where she was cuddling Patricia. "That's a little extreme, don't you think? Not the whipping post..."

Eddie smiled as Karen played into his plans. "Yeah, I'm fuckin' sick an' tired o' not bein' able to relax around here for fear o' some naked woman makin' my life too interestin' for words. Besides, someone coulda got hurt in that little stunt o' hers ... Tamara mighta gotten hurt an' that will just not be tolerated."

"You got a point," Karen replied. "Go ahead then."

Eddie couldn't help but notice that Kelly's knees appeared a little weak as she headed for the bedroom.

"Margo," he muttered softly, "thank you ... will you brief the girls?"

"Sure will," Margo replied, just as quietly, "and no problem, no problem at all. Glad we could help."

"Well, while the Head Bitch in Charge marshals the troops," Harry said, neatly dodging a half-hearted slap from his wife, "I think I'll get ready to lend a hand."

"The more the merrier, in fact, this wouldn't play right without you," Eddie answered. "Just wait for my signal."

Kelly carried the whipping post into the living room, putting it down and resting frequently, using the breaks to reset her grip on the unwieldy piece of furniture. "I'm sorry, sir," she said, "I'm not trying to delay the inevitable, it's just this damn thing is cumbersome."

"I understand," Eddie replied, smiling beneficently. "Once you've got it somewhere roughly in the center of the room, go get the furry cuffs and anklets ... don't want this to hurt anymore than it should, and bring out y'all's cat o' nine."

"Y-yes sir."

Kelly didn't see where what she had done merited such punishment but was fighting back the urge to say anything. Her husband and wives were going along with it, she knew they wouldn't let anything happen to her that she didn't deserve...

"That fucking rat," she muttered as she dug through the boxes of toys and accoutrements in the closet. "He's setting me up, getting me good and scared, then he's gonna barely spank me at all. Asshole!" As she found the furry manacles, she smiled. "It worked though ... might as well give him his satisfaction and play along."

Going back into the living room she handed over the requested items and once the usual manacles were switched out for the fur-lined ones, found herself facing the pole, stretched out, arms high over head, almost having to stand on her tiptoes to be comfortable. As Eddie tied a blindfold over her eyes, looking quite serious and for all the world like he was going to lash her, Kelly found herself doubting the conclusion she'd come to in the bedroom. And when he put the ball gag in her mouth, buckling it tightly behind her head, muttering "Wouldn't want the neighbors to hear you" she began to get worried again.

For a moment, the entire roomful of people, everyone still at the party, looked at Kelly, tied to the whipping post, her breathing revealing her concern, and admired the sight. Her breasts seemed to hug the post, the lines of her back flowed smoothly down to the delightful curve of her hips, her legs were stretched tautly, parted just enough to expose a good-sized tuft of pubic hair, her head hanging to the right, hair down around her face like a hood.

Breaking the spell, Eddie walked up to her and lightly touched her butt with the cat. "For once, I've got this little troublemaker tied down and quiet ... I wonder, should I just beat her ass," the cat moved down to the sensitive back of her left thigh, "or spread the love to here?" He ran the head around to her front and raised it to her breast. "Perhaps I should whip her here," the head slid down and around the lower curve of her ass cheek, coming back up between her legs, "or maybe here." The head crept around to her belly. "Perhaps here," Eddie moved it up the right side of her body, caressing the inside of her arm as it hung, completely exposed, "or maybe up here."

Kelly trembled, whether solely from fear or from fear mixed with excitement, she couldn't say.

"Oh hell, I'll just start whippin' and wherever it lands is where it lands," Eddie said, his voice cold and harsh.

And with that, those in the room who had wished to participate began to tickle Kelly Culberson.

Everywhere.

It seemed a million fingers were crawling all over her body and the relief Kelly had felt at escaping a lashing dissolved in the space of a second or two. While she'd long before developed the ability, as many ticklish people do, to 'turn it off', that was against one or two assailants, not a room full. She cried out against the gag, tears beginning to leak out of her eyes under the blindfold as the torture turned even more cruel ... for in the tickling there were hands stimulating her as well, touches she knew and loved. She was reasonably sure that Harry was playing with her clit and gently fingering her ass ... she knew her husband's touch, and if it wasn't Margo that was playing with her nipples, then Margo had a twin. The fingers on her neck, more caressing than tickling, were almost certainly Carol's.

So in the midst of the sheer hell that was the mass tickling of her body, the people who knew her, and her responses, best in all the world were doing their utmost, with only their hands, to excite her.

Kelly tried to clamp her legs shut, to either trap the teasing hands where they would do her the most good or to drive them away and protect her crotch and bottom, but her legs were securely shackled and there was nowhere near enough slack to close them more than a fraction of an inch. She tried to draw away from the post enough to put her breasts, to put even one breast, somewhat behind it but there was no way she could do more than to tremble against in her chains, growing ever more tired with each passing instant. She did manage to fend off the fingers at her neck for a moment, till another hand grasped her by the hair and forced her head high, leaving her neck once again exposed.

She bounced up and down upon her toes, trying in vain to shake her tormentors off, her body contracted and spasmed like an epileptic's as the torture continued. Time became meaningless as she hung on the edge of complete overload, a fate only avoided by the wonderful sensations her lovers' touches were giving her ... and although she'd never admit it to anyone but those same lovers, the overload was also avoided with the help of the feeling of complete and total exposure. The mixed feelings of shame and exhibitionistic glee as her limbs were spread wide and she was free to be touched by any and all.

That sense of exposure led her thoughts down paths completely predictable to anyone who knew Kelly, and she tried to lock herself into a small corner of her mind and imagine that the fingers tickling her were really lips that were kissing her, heating up her skin with feverish touches, then the lips became cocks and cunts, rubbing up against her, poking and caressing. Kelly wondered what it would be like to be put out as a party favor, the way Madame Cornelius' niece was going to be, had sort of been ... and Kelly thought of her own body, wrapped in leather, the smell of it surrounding her, as she was restrained and open to anyone and anything. She thought of herself staked out in the yard on a chain, her family watching as Harry rammed his cock down her throat, not really caring that she was occasionally gagging on it, saliva pouring out of her mouth and bathing his shaft, Margo with a large strap-on driving in and out of her aching cunt, pulling almost all the way out with each stroke before jackhammering back in, their thrusts slamming simultaneously as her head and bottom were driven towards each other, filling her mouth with cum and pulling out of her, almost at the same time, leaving both ends drooling, to dribble down onto the grass, right out in front of God and everybody. At that thought Kelly mentally retreated even further and her body collapsed to hang against the post, insensate. She trembled in the grip of an orgasm that had her nerves a-tingle from her cunt to her fingertips, from her ass to her toes ... every sensation was pleasure, every sensation drove her harder and faster towards another climax.

"I cannot believe this little bitch just came," Harry said, "and I mean came damn hard!"

Kelly was jolted from her mental refuge as he spoke, her head shaking as she fought to think through her orgasmic haze, unhappy to be drawn back towards her tortured reality.

"Well then," Margo replied, "I suppose we'd better remind her she's being punished. Plan B, Grimes family!"

Kelly's back arched as far as it could when the hands that had been stimulating her sexually began with a different form of stimulation. Harry's fingers pinched the delicate skin around her asshole while the fingers of his other hand practiced the same maneuver on her swollen clitoris. Margo's nails gently bit into her nipples, the pressure slowly increasing. Carol's nails began to slice along her sensitive neck, feeling like ice skates ... ice skates that were gradually being enveloped in flames the more they slid up and down.

All those sensations served exactly the purpose they were intended to — Kelly was completely locked out of her nice, sexual bubble of fantasy and trapped back in the living room, where she was being tortured by tickles.

Eddie removed the ball-gag and let it fall to the floor, to be shortly followed by the blindfold.

"God ... damn ... you."

"Love," Margo said, "it's not punishment if you can hide from it ... but do be sure to share with us a little later what got you off so wonderfully."

As her body spasmed in the restraints, the fierceness of her smile let all and sundry know that "Kelly the Devil Woman" was still very much present. "Oh ... I will ... and if you ... don't get wet ... I'll eat ... well ... something."

"Looking forward to it," Carol said as she continued to use pain to keep Kelly from escaping into her mind.

After a few moments more, Kelly blurted out "Guys ... I'm about ... to wet myself ... maybe ... more."

"Alright," Eddie said, "the tickling's over ... no need for her to get any messier than she already is."

Everyone backed off and Kelly allowed herself to hang by her wrists, slumped against the post, covered in sweat, pussy drooling down her legs.

"What is it ... you people have ... about tickling ... me?" Kelly murmured.

"Just gettin' even, darlin'," Eddie growled, smiling at the effect his punishment had had on the woman. "Besides, it works so wonderfully."

"Bastard ... vicious bastard..." Kelly spit, the tired smile on her face giving the lie to her words. "If y'all ... don't mind ... I'm gonna hang here ... for a bit."

"Not a problem sweetie," Eddie said. He squatted down and whispered, "you okay, darlin'?"

"Just fine ... you big hairy brute..." she whispered back.

Eddie turned his gaze back to the room and took in Li Kuan's condition. The woman had evidently been aroused by Kelly's punishment and was covered in a fine sheen of sweat, her inner thighs visibly trembling. He smiled to himself, happy with the unexpected side effect.

"Uh, Madame Cornelius, would tomorrow morning be a good time for Kim to begin receiving her attentions from you and yours?" Margo asked, having finally caught her breath.

Madame Cornelius looked at the seething frustration of her submissive. "No, no Madam Grimes, I'm thinking tomorrow evening might be a far ... safer ... time. I'll have Andre pick her up from Master Janak's at five?"

"Fine with us," Margo replied. "Is that acceptable to you, Kim?" Margo asked, turning to see the small Chinese woman squatting before Li Kuan and wiping the moisture from her face. Kim took her wet finger, put it in her mouth and smiled. "That would be most wonderful, Madam ... if Master Janak and Mis ... Tamara ... would not mind watching the twins. I know what Tamara has told me, but-"

"And I tell you again, Kim, we have no problem watching your adorable children," Tamara replied.

"Alright then, it's settled," Madame Cornelius said, taking Puppy's hand. "LI KUAN, quit loafing on the floor and get up. It's time for us to go. Andre! Put that scratchy rope rug down for Li Kuan to sit on as we ride home. Perhaps that will help make her a little more ... tractable. Hans, go fetch ... it ... from the bathroom!"

And with a few more arrangements, hugs and some kisses, Madame Cornelius and her retinue had swept out of the house, into the Bentley and were on their way home.

As the family returned inside, they found Kelly chuckling to herself as she hung at the post."

"What's funny, my love," Carol asked as she unfastened the manacles that were holding Kelly's arms up.

"Someday ... someday Li Kuan's going to get even with Eddie for turning her on like that," Kelly chuckled. "I only hope I'm there to see it."

"Yeah," Eddie said as he straightened up the living room, "and I kinda wish I could skip it."

A majority of the guests had made their farewells and the only ones left were House Hurley.

"You're a most interesting group," Marcia Hurley said as they were saying their good-byes and getting their gear together.

"Yes, yes you are," Laurie Hurley agreed as she finished the round of hugs. "It's been ... well ... it's been a wonderful afternoon and evening ... so different from a party at Laney's."

While the family stood on the porch, waving to the Hurley's as they walked over to Karen and Patricia's to pick up their children, Margo caressed Kelly's shoulder and said, "Do you think Laurie could've been a little more subtle about her desire to spend some quality time with you and Carol?"

"You noticed that too?" Kelly responded, slipping her arm around her wife and hugging her.

"Oh, no doubt," Margo replied. "You Carol? Wait, what am I asking, of course you noticed."

"Yes ma'am," Carol said, "and while it might be acceptable for me to be underneath her ... well, I'm not sure Kelly needs to 'bend the knee' to anyone not in our House."

"What's your feeling on her, little hoodoo woman?" Kelly inquired.

Carol looked at her wife with a frown on her face. "She's a very nice person ... and I don't get a good feeling from her." She held up her hands. "Now, I'm not saying I get a bad feeling from her because I don't ... I just don't get a good feeling either." She studied the Hurley's retreating backs as they approached Karen and Patricia's door. "I think I'll pass," she turned and smiled at Margo, "and leave it to Madam to smooth out any difficulties that might cause, should the matter ever arise."

"You are too good to me," Margo replied, laughing. "Well, I know that at least Harry, Billy and I have an early morning ahead of us, so I think it's bed time." She paused, looking somewhat confused. "Come to think of it, where is Billy? I haven't seen him in quite awhile ... hours, I think."

"Oh, uh ... Billy's already in bed," Nicki replied, smiling, as she gathered up her and Sheila's things. "He ... uh ... retired early."

"Is he alright?" Carol asked, concern for her old friend plain in her voice.

"Oh, quite alright, last I heard," Nicki answered, smirking.

"And where's Helen?" Harry asked, seeing her mat bag and equipment carefully arranged in the corner of the living room.

"That would be why he retired early," Nicki replied, "With all the racket we've made ... well, I think they're probably awake, but ... busy."

Smiles, raised eyebrows and knowing looks filled the assembled faces as Nicki said, "My slave has something she wishes to ... give us ... some evening soon. When would be convenient?"