Chapter 14: If You Become a Teacher, By Your Pupils You’ll be Taught

The apartment was looking presentable, Allison thought. It was five to eight. He was almost due. She looked at the bottles standing on the sideboard. For a moment she thought a drink would be a good idea. She dismissed the thought, though. The conversation with Lionel was going to need all her attention.

She’d decided that a rather formal, business-like look was probably the best for their initial meeting so she’d put on an outfit that she might well have worn to the office. The white shirt with its loose sleeves always felt comfortable and the straight black skirt reaching just to her knees was ideal too. Her one concession to the role she was playing was a pair of black boots with pointed toes and quite spiky heels.

The buzz from the door stopped her in her tracks. She looked at the clock. Eight o’clock exactly. Allison imagined that June Calloway probably encouraged promptness in her clients and Lionel was, it seemed, extending the same courtesy to her. She took deep breath and stepped into the hall to greet her visitor.

Their first exchange was uncomfortable, each saying “Good evening” simultaneously. Allison ushered him into the living room and sat down. Lionel, evidently uncertain of things, stayed standing. Allison, reasoning that it was good idea to keep him on the back foot, left him standing while she crossed her legs and looked out at him from the comfort of her armchair.

“Well,” she said, “Let me just say again what I said yesterday. This may go somewhere or it may not. This is something I have decided to try but there is no commitment on my part to anything more than that. I take it you agree?” Lionel nodded, perhaps, Allison thought, rather too eagerly. She went on, “I suggest you start by telling me about your experiences with your mistresses to date. I assume that Ms. Calloway is not the first?”

Lionel blushed, a little uncertain of Allison’s direct manner. “You’re right. She wasn’t … isn’t. There have been a few. More than five, less than ten, over the years.”

Allison noted that Lionel was standing with his hands clasped behind his back. “All, can I say, professional relationships?”

“Yes,” Lionel paused. “Of course, if you wish…” He made to reach inside his jacket, looking for his wallet.

Allison was taken aback, she had not imagined for a moment that Lionel would offer to pay her but of course, she reasoned, he might well have thought the contract was something that a professional domme might use. “No,” she said, “I don’t think that will be the basis for us. I am doing this because I am intrigued by it and I might easily decide that it no longer interests me.”

“Of course.” Lionel looked more than a little disappointed at the prospect.

“Besides, I think things will be a little less orchestrated with me, a little less scripted than you might expect in a professional situation. After all, as I said, I am doing it for my own amusement.”

“Ah,” Lionel’s quiet intake of breath betrayed that he had not considered that Alison’s approach might be more capricious than that of the professionals he had experienced. It wasn’t clear to Allison whether he thought that a good thing or not. He probably doesn’t know himself, Allison thought.

“So, tell me of your particular interests. Your fetishes, the things you enjoy. I take it your session with Ms Calloway was typical.”

Lionel looked thoughtful and replied slowly, conscious that every answer was likely to condition how his new mistress would treat him. Allison watched him, fascinated by the way in which his desires seemed to have taken him over completely. “Yes,” he said, “I like to be bound, to be forced to worship at a mistress’s feet. Or simply to wait on and serve the mistress.”

“Good. I like the idea of you being useful. Worship is all very well but there is always work to do around here. Can I ask your view of punishment?” There had been one point in the session where June had taken a riding crop to Lionel’s buttocks. Allison had found it difficult to watch and she wasn’t sure whether Lionel had enjoyed it or not.

Lionel bit his lip. To Allison he was obviously choosing his words carefully. “I know it may sometimes be needed, deserved perhaps as a consequence of failing to meet my Mistress’s expectation, but it’s not something I seek out.”

Allison was relieved. She wasn’t sure how she would cope with hurting someone, even of it was for their pleasure. It wasn’t just a concern about causing pain. It was more that she could imagine that it was quite possible to do a lot more damage than intended if you didn’t really know what you were doing.