Chapter 3B

Sherri blushed deep red, and began to remove her torn clothing from her upper body. She reached for her slit sweatshirt and T-Shirt, and Bra in her hands. This was humiliating. She had been naked with her last couple boyfriends, but never in the light, no man had ever seen her in the light. Well, a couple doctors, but that didn't count. Her mind raged at this and she grew defiant. Even as part of her mind warned her she suddenly threw off the cut and torn clothing covering her upper body, and staring at him asked "Satisfied?"

There was no warning tone, no alarm tone, no sizzle, Robert leapt forward and grabbed her by the hair. She had started to raise her hands to try and block the blow she imagined was aimed at her face. Instead she found herself taken to the ground with her hair being tugged out by the roots. She cried and screamed in pain and shock. She reached up to try and free her hair.

"Put your hands behind your back Slave." Robert said in a commanding and apparently very angry tone.

Sherri hesitated only a moment, and then put her hands behind her back, the grip on the hair relaxed a bit, and some of the pain subsided.

"Let's get this clear Slave, since you apparently need things spelled out. You have a couple choices here, you can choose to have your hide blistered off you every fucking day until the two years is up, or you can choose the easy path, obey me, open your mind, and listen and consider what I have to say." Robert didn't soften his tone. "You need to choose soon, I tire of this constant back and forth Sherri. One moment it's "I'll be good, please don't hurt me" and then the next it's fuck you or something else I would expect from a petulant schoolgirl."

"Yes Master, your slave will try harder." Sherri said with tears rolling down her cheeks. What was this nonsense? The easy path, what about this was easy?

Robert released her hair and said "Stand up."

Sherri stood up quickly, and rubbed her head where her hair had been so close to being torn out. She stood submissively and covered her breasts with one arm.

"Hands at your sides Slave." Robert commanded, and was gratified to see her immediately mover her hands.

"Now, I was about to say I kind of like those jeans, they appear well worn, and comfortable. Are they slave?" asked Robert

"Yes Master" Sherri said, confused.

"Ok, when you take them off, put them in the hamper, and the rest of it goes in the trash." Robert pointed to the trashcan.

"Yes Master, jeans in the hamper, rest in the trash." she said.

She was really scared, her courage in the last episode had nearly cost her dearly, that was evident, she considered his commands as she undressed quickly, without covering anything lest she upset him again, and put the items where instructed. She hesitated with her shoes, they were Nike's, and very comfortable. Turning towards him, but keeping her head down, she asked "Master, may your slave keep her shoes?"

"No, you will find other shoes available here." Robert replied.

Sherri quickly tossed the shoes away and turned to the workout leotard. She started to put it on, got it halfway up her legs before realizing she didn't have it on right, it was backwards.

She looked up and Robert was shaking his head and frowning.

Sherri blushed and tried to turn it around and Robert walked to the other side of the basement dungeon and sat on the couch, apparently deep in thought.

Sherri got it on, and yes, it did stretch, but my God was it tight. She put on the workout shoes, which she was annoyed to find were better and as comfortable as her well worn Nike's were and they weren't even broken in yet.

She hurried over to see him still considering, staring at the wall. She hesitated, she was supposed to be working out, so she stretched a little, he had said something about stretching.

Robert finally spoke "Sherri, please join me on the couch, sit where you would like."

Sherri hesitated again but she sat on the couch, about halfway between him and the opposite arm.

"Sherri, I have been considering, and we have a problem." Robert rubbed his neck for a moment and then continued. "I have been operating under the assumption that I could break your walls, your defiance, and so far I have failed. The reason is that your defiance and resolution are apparently much stronger than I suspected, although I should have seen it." He paused again, still thinking "I should have suspected it because you have been alone for five years. You are without friends, without someone to confide in."

Sherri gaped at him, how had he known that? "How do you know it's been five years?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"I studied you, and can tell you that it started within two weeks of your turning in the paper to your Constitutional Law Professor." He turned to face her. "That took guts by the way, it showed great insight, and I think you were absolutely correct. Your friends or so called friends, deserted you, after giving you a warning to keep your head down, or perhaps leave the school. Over the next two years you struggled against the flow, fighting the system the whole way, because you knew you were right. Then this job, which wasn't your dream by any stretch of the imagination, and still no friends, because you resent being here so much you can't relax enough to see any quality, presuming that there is some, around you."

Sherri stared at him, and then asked the obvious question. "How long have you been stalking me?"

Robert smiled, and then chuckled. "I never saw, nor heard of you until last Friday. I have seen you once since Saturday, when I admit I was watching from a camouflaged position, to take a video of you walking to lunch."

"How did you find out about law school?" she asked.

"I sent off a request for all your writings, and then sent a $5000 donation to the Alumni Association. They called the registrar for me to hurry the request up. The completed writings of one Ms. Sherri Samantha Chenowith arrived on Thursday and I have been reading them since." he told her.

"I could see your resolve harden, and erroneously believed it to be brittle too, but I was wrong, and apologize." He sighed, "I should have known that the metal you are made of would have become harder in the fire, not more brittle."

She didn't believe him, couldn't believe him. "So you have been waiting for someone, or me, to come to this room?" she asked.

Robert laughed again and gestured around at the room, "I did this all in a week." he admitted.

"What?" she asked him, "A week, that's impossible."

Robert laughed, "Impossible, no just difficult. The new account your boss Carl is so happy about, was a move of mine, to set you up to shine like the star you are. However that is now going to fail. I need to remember to send Mike that case of whiskey I bet him." Robert frowned and continued. "This was going to help you, but with you resisting the whole way, every step of the way, unwilling to trust me in the least, it's all futile."

Sherri looked at him, he was lying, he had to be lying, this room in a week, no way. "Your lying, this room couldn't be done in a week, how long have you been stalking me."

Robert stood and went to the shelves that the computers rested on. He brought back an accordion folder, and a document box similar to what stationary is put in. He presented both to her.

"The folder contains the receipts, the box the information I got from the law school registrar. Please note the dates of the items in question, and then ask if I could have faked all of that in a week too." Robert shook his head. "You won't trust even the easiest of truths to prove until you examine each one, so gaining your trust is impossible. It wouldn't have mattered how I managed to arrange it."

Sherri glanced at the receipts, then looked closer, and examined each one in turn, going faster the further down the pile she went. She then went to the documents box, and looked. He even had a copy of her rejected article to the Law Review. The letter from the registrar on law school letterhead was dated this past week, the letter said that the registrar hoped that he found it useful.

"This can't all be faked, but it's impossible." she said.

Robert laughed again, and told her "Impossible, I overpaid for most of this stuff" He chuckled "I told the electrician and carpenter and locksmith that I was going to store a dark ages collection that was very valuable."

Sherri raised an eyebrow at that, Inquisition torture tools collection perhaps.

"Sherri, I don't want to flail the skin off of you for the next two years, so I am at a loss what to do. You need to learn, to be exposed to certain people, and you need to get comfortable with yourself. Also we need to get that demon out of your head, so you can live your life happy." Robert told her. "This was the best I could come up with, and it was doomed before it started."

Sherri looked at him, and saw only genuine regret, and emotion. He wasn't insane, he was sorry he had failed her. It didn't make sense, he was a sadistic lunatic, well perhaps sadistic, but no, he didn't want to torture her for the next two years. "I don't understand" she told him truthfully.

"You realize that is the first true thing you have said voluntarily since you came down here?" he asked her smiling. He continued. "Sherri, someone fucked your mind up and you have been paying for it ever since. I doubt that it was one person, probably many people." He waved an arm at the room "This is only pleasurable if you trust your partner, but you are incapable of trusting anyone, so it will not work. Domination is about symbiosis, a lifestyle of trust and faith." he shook his head again, "However without trust, it won't work. Even the simplest tests you ignored, failed, or refused." He frowned "I can make you go through the motions, but you will never learn, and the demon in you will maintain control forever."

He looked at her, into her eyes. "I am sorry, but this is going to fail. I can't silence the demon."

"What demon are you talking about?" she asked.

"Who ever told you that the pussy is ugly, is dirty, because they found you playing with it once. You were probably about 9 years old, and they never let you forget it." Robert told her simply.

Sherri gaped at him, no one knew that, no one but her sister, who wouldn't talk about it ever, her Grandmother, who was dead, and couldn't talk. "How did you find that out?" she asked.

Robert laughed again "That was the easy part, everybody discovers their own body at about 10 years old or so, and most of them get caught. The thing with you was the hair, you didn't even trim it. That means the shock of being discovered was hammered home in a extremely vicious manner, far more vicious than I am capable of being towards you." He sighed, "Probably not your mother, but someone, an aunt perhaps, or grandparent." he paused narrowing his eyes, thinking again. "Grandparent right?" he asked her.

Sherri just looked stunned. She made no motion to answer him.

Robert nodded again, "It was my mother, she told me to stop that and slapped my hands when I wiggled it around. It was like one day, it was suddenly there."

Sherri smiled at that thought, and giggled a bit. She then got serious. "No one told you, how did you know?"

"Sherri, your writings are passionate, even at the end, even when you have taken ridicule and derision for two years, your writings are still passionate. You try to be cheerful, which is why you chose the yellow car, but it's failing, and you know it." Robert gazed into her eyes "I have studied you for a week, and other than this, I can't think of a thing to help you."

Sherri continued looking at him. Trying to understand. "You said you sent the new client, how did you do that?"

Robert shook his head. "I told you I wouldn't lie, and I won't, I own stock in Cenotaph, and know the board and the corporate council. I pulled a dozen strings to get your firm this test file, and knew that if I could break down your walls, get to your core, you would be successful. If I could show you a path of trust, at least in yourself, and one other person, then you would have the confidence to beat the file sent you. Right now, I am willing to bet you go through the motions at work too" Robert said looking at her again. His eyes revealed a sadness that Sherri hadn't seen in him before. He then looked back at the walls. "You are probably miserable, and eat alone every day because you hate where you are, and hate what you are doing. A slave takes pride in everything she does, no task is too little, nothing beneath her. She serves the Master, and reflects that sense of honor and pride in her service. If I was very lucky and took you that far, which is doubtful, then you would crack that file wide open, and I would bet find a new twist too."

"So the purpose of all of this is to turn me into some sort of masochistic Stepford wife?" she asked.

Robert laughed and said, "No, not really, but in a way, I suppose yes. You would learn to be submissive here, to me alone, and to show confidence to the entire world because you are submissive to one and one alone."

Sherri didn't know what to think. It was impossible to think he had done this all in a week, but it was there. She looked at the receipts again, trying to find something to prove her right, that it was a lie. "You're a sadist right?"

Robert laughed. "No I was fortunate enough to be trained as a Dominant some years ago, great education I might add."

Sherri looked at him askance. "Great education? Learning how to whip someone better?"

Robert shook his head. "Introduction, orientation, but not anything that scars. There can be no scars when a trained Dom does the work. Education on female anatomy, for example, did you know there are 32 erogenous zones on the female form? Normally there are a few that are personal quirks, but always there are 32 which when played by a Master" he bowed his head slightly "can bring a woman to a height of ecstasy she has never dreamed of." Robert shook his head. "You could use some pleasure, you are the tensest person I have ever met."

Sherri certainly didn't believe this. "Bullshit, you are making that up. There isn't any such number, and I am not that tense."

"Sherri, if I told you the sun rose in the east, you would be out there at dawn with ten compasses to prove that it didn't." Robert told her. "That is why we will never make any progress."

Sherri felt her face flush, she wasn't that bad, was she? "I don't understand, are we quitting?" she asked.

"No, we are changing course, the education and introductions will have to wait." he shook his head "It will put you very behind in your career, but it can't be helped. Those whips are for pleasure, and I won't use them for torture, OK, the initial orientation, a bit more pain, but after that, pleasure only. You would require me to beat you half to death every day for the next two years, and I won't do it." Robert told her.

"Sherri, if I wanted to fuck you, we would have been doing it by now" Robert told her astonished face. "If that was all I wanted, it would have been a breeze, I could tell you to stop by everyday after work and blow me, but it wouldn't solve your problems. It won't quiet the demon, it would make it worse, and I don't want to make the demon any stronger."

Sherri looked at him. She didn't understand, all day he had been torturing her, and at the same time he claimed to be trying to help her. "Why all of this if you wanted to help me?"

"Sherri, these implements are intimidating, and when your Master assures you that nothing will happen until you are ready, you should trust him. You don't. You are waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for me to betray you as your friends did in college, waiting for me to stick you in a shit hole like the one you are in." Robert paused considering. "I'm going to tell you what we are going to do for the next two years. We're going to drop the toys" he gestured back at the area with the throne "and move on to the other things. They are superficial, and don't address the core problem, but perhaps you can do some of that yourself." His frown grew more serious "I don't know, it's tricky and it's been a long time in festering."

He sighed and said "New rules, you wear the clothing I tell you to, no sex, not until you are ready, if you ever are. I am not a rapist either. No kissing, You try and behave as though you are a lady, and we work on your etiquette and confidence without the trust." He smiled slightly as though admitting it was nearly impossible. "Perhaps you will gain confidence when you trust me a little." He continued "I will pay off your house this next week, and you can put the money you would have spent on the house payment in savings, I know a couple good CD's right now, so you can get decent interest. I will, with your permission, also move your stuff into storage, and you can rent out the house and bank that part too. Everything here is paid for. Your clothing, and other needs are paid for guaranteed for the next two years. You will have a private room, a safe room I will not enter unless invited. Granted, I don't see that happening anytime in the next two years, unless you decide your soul needs a good looking at, and see that you want to trust someone again."

Robert wondered for a moment, and then asked her "Is that agreeable?"

"This Inquisition like torture is intended to give me confidence? That's insane."

Robert shook his head. "Sherri, have you ever seen a General? They walk into the room like they own it, because they are confident. People defer to them not because they are Generals, but because they exude confidence. That confidence, like the pride and self assuredness I was hoping to place in you comes only from enduring a difficulty that most don't. In other words, a Soldier stands tall because he is proud, proud to have survived the training, to have conquered the training. The General stands taller, he has conquered the career."

Sherri considered, wear what he tells her, safe room, banking money instead of suffering through for the next couple years. "what kind of clothing?" she asked.

He laughed "I said act like a lady, do you do that includes miniskirts and halter tops?"

Sherri blushed, and shook her head no.

"Sherri, I don't know what happened, and one day, perhaps you will do me the honor of talking to me about it, and I can tell you it will go far in silencing the demon, however I won't insist you give me anything, I won't take anything from you. I haven't and won't OK?" Robert told her in obvious sincerity.

Sherri considered that, he hadn't penetrated her, he hadn't forced her to suck a cock, or anything else. He bragged about his prowess, all men did, 32 erogenous zones? He had to be lying right?

She nodded her consent, and then said, "OK, I'll agree. Where do we begin?"

Robert sighed. "The hardest part for you my dear, you have got to take a weed eater to that bush of yours. It's the 21st Century, and you look like you are posing for 19th Century Victorian porn." Robert told her.

"Take a shower, you will find clothing, acceptable for a lawyer and a lady, hanging up and on the shelves. There are all the hygiene items you will need, including an excellent electric razor just for women." he paused and then continued. "Sherri, that is the portal of life, all life is beautiful, all life is wonderful, and to hide it behind that bush means you think it's ugly and disgraceful. How can the portal of life be anything but beautiful?" he asked her.

Sherri blushed more deeply. The portal of life, she looked down and saw a great deal of hair pushing out of her skimpy workout outfit. Well, ok, babies came from there, but beautiful? Was it beautiful to this man? Was he lying to her? When would he betray her, or would he? He had saved her ass already, and given her an outstanding car, could she trust him? "Yes Master" she replied.

Robert sighed, "I would like to keep using those words, but it would mean that we keep pushing your limits, but right now, I figure we have hit a major wall, and that is a problem." he said.

Rising he waved to the shower and clothing. "After dinner, we can move some of this stuff upstairs, you will find everything you need here Sherri." he then went up the stairs, and out into the kitchen. It was time for the next phase. It was time to win her trust, he had gone far with the discussion he had just had, and now it was time to open her eyes the rest of the way.

He waited forty minutes and then went back down, stopping on the stairs he said "Sherri, I'm coming down." and then proceeded the rest of the way.

Sherri was dressed, and he assumed shaved, in a white silk blouse, all of them were silk or silk blends Sherri had discovered, and a black pair of pants. There were several different shoes, all with 3 or four inch heels, she had chosen the 3 inch he noticed. A pair of designer slacks, not jeans. Sherri realized as she looked at the clothing that it was what he had asked her to wear Saturday morning. Look nice he had said. He had specifically mentioned a pantsuit as an option. She wondered if she would have been whipped like that if she had just done what he asked.

Robert nodded and then pointed "A lady always checks her lipstick, at every opportunity. There is some very good color's selected for you."

Sherri looked and saw three tubes of lipstick on the makeup shelf, and then taking one assuming it was slut red, was surprised to find it was a dark maroon. Of course she found it was an excellent brand, one of those upper end brands.

Robert nodded and then walked to the video area, grabbed several and asked Sherri to follow him.

They went upstairs, and into a room Sherri hadn't been in, an entertainment room, with an even larger television, and several comfortable chairs and couches. Robert asked her to sit, and she found refreshments where he had said they would be. She selected a diet coke.

Robert put the first video in, and began to talk. It was one of the ones with a number, the number one she realized. It showed women eating, elegantly dressed, expensively dressed, and Robert used a laser pointer and the pause button to describe the way a lady eats in society. Sherri was amazed, he noted the smallest detail, and explained it all to her. Drink from the same side of the glass, never leave lipstick all around the glass, one area only. Smaller lipstick stains were better. Sherri watched and knew her own eating habits were nothing like this.

"If you go out into the social world, and don't behave like this, they assume you are a barbarian, and throw you back down to where you are now." he explained. "Elegance and grace flow from within, from the pride and confidence you feel within. Or perhaps I should say, we hope you will feel within."

Then he showed her street scenes. People walking, he paused the video and showed her the differences between people, those who were confident, who walked with purpose, with their heads up, those who walked with anger, those who were essentially prey, waiting to be taken advantage of. He showed the usual runway models striding, and he pointed out how they seemed to command the area. That he explained was natures way too, first you obey, then you command. Sherri was amazed as he explained it all to her. She then saw herself leave work, it was the light blue shirt and pants combo she had worn Wednesday, and she walked. She saw it then, he had to say nothing, she had learned. Head down, back hunched, angry, resentful, and absolutely no confidence was shown to the world.

Finally she spoke. "How do I?" she hesitated "How do I do it? I can't change overnight, even if you beat me all weekend, I couldn't do it."

"You could as a slave, you see, a slave serves her Master, and everything she does reflects on her Master. She reports to her Master, I wouldn't have to spy on you again like I had on Wednesday. She notices the smallest violation of his rules, and reports it to be punished. Some punishments are like you saw, the small riding crop, which I also saw you enjoyed." Robert told her "Then there are the torments, the torment of pleasure, of hot, of cold, all designed to give you pleasure, and give you pride and give you the confidence to face the world."

Sherri frowned. "I didn't enjoy the riding crop" she said automatically,

Robert shook his head, and sighed. "Sherri I can spot the smallest sign of arousal, and there are more than you think." He rose and changed videos to one numbered 7. It showed women, some nude, and Robert pointed out the signs of arousal in them. The nipples were almost invariably ignored in his discussions. Ones in cocktail dresses with flushes, those whose eyes sparkled. "The make up industry makes hundreds of millions of dollars making women appear aroused, or ravished. That is what make up is, the rouge makes a woman look flushed, like she has had good sex recently. The lipstick makes her lips appear puffy and flushed with color. The eyes are made to appear sparkling by adding eyeliner and color. If you won't be honest with me, and can't discuss even simple arousal, then the awakening of your sexual animal is going to be a long and difficult path. Tell you what, let's eat dinner, and see if you have learned that task yet."

Sherri followed him, she was starving, it had been a long and difficult day, and she was very tired. She was also amazed, his first video had been number one, that was simple enough, but it wasn't until 7 that he had short clips describing arousal, and Sherri knew she was aroused before, knew she was aroused now, and knew he saw every little bit of it. He was amazing, and astounding. He was handsome, and obviously very intelligent and extremely well informed. No school she had ever heard of taught this kind of education, where had he learned it? Who had taught him that there were 32 erogenous zones on the female body? She hesitated to think that no other man she had dated knew where more than one was, most men knew only the vagina, and didn't know that well she thought.

They sat and began eating after Robert pulled the dishes from the oven, where they had been "gently warming" according to Suzanne's directions. He turned on a small shelf stereo near the dining room, and she heard more soft music playing. Sherri focused on doing as she had seen, what Robert had told her was needed, expected, in the social set she hoped to join. In the meantime, her mind was in turmoil. She carefully sipped her water or wine always placing her lips at first hesitantly, and then with more confidence on the part of the glass she had already drunk from. She ate, she was hungry, but Robert told her there was plenty, and she could enjoy all that she wanted.

"How would I be eating as your slave now? If we hadn't changed course?" Sherri asked, confused.

"You would be on the floor, kneeling, at the feet of your Master, eating from a bowl right now. You would be demonstrating a submissive nature, and willingness to serve your Master and accepting the gift of his food."

Sherri stared at him, it was a degrading image he painted. "I'm not a fucking dog." she said with anger in her voice.

"Sherri, we could still be doing that, if I had beaten you, you would have done it, eventually, resentfully I grant you, but eventually wouldn't you?" he asked in return.

Sherri hesitated, and then admitted she would have, just as he had indicated, resentfully, but she would have done it. She blushed and said "Yes, I would have."

"That is the problem, you would have resented your training, and never accepted it. You would have fought me the entire way, and we would have maintained an adversarial relationship, and that would have gotten us nowhere, you nowhere in the two years." Robert told her.

Sherri considered, and then surprised herself by suddenly wanting to obey him, wanting to kneel at his feet, he was trustworthy because he wouldn't harm her. He had stopped whipping her when she had given him no reason, no behavioral change. "Master, what do you require of me?" she asked with her first sincere voice of the day.

"That you open your mind, and consider what I have to teach, and that you try to accomplish the tasks given." Robert answered.

"I don't know, I haven't ever done anything like this. It's frightening." Sherri admitted.

"I know, which is why you must trust the Master. He is the one who watches you and will only push you to where you are ready to go, never past that point. When you are ready to train in a task, he takes you there, not at the end of a whip, but with love, firmness certainly, however the Master loves his slave, and the slave should trust the Master." Robert told her.

"The slave doesn't love the Master?" Sherri asked confused.

"Sherri, that is why you aren't allowed to kiss, because it's a symbol of love, it's what you withhold from the Master, you don't give it up and he can't force you to give it. Love is freely given, and gratefully accepted when given, however it's never required, and can never be demanded." Robert told her.

Sherri was confused. "So it's ok to force me to suck a cock, but not kiss you? That is insane." she said.