Chapter 9

Zoe

This was wrong. That much I knew. I also knew what was wrong. But I didn't know why it was wrong. Well, I knew why it was wrong on my side: Because I had been too overwhelmed to think straight, or think at all, and hadn't found the right moment to say the right things or ask the right questions. Of course I didn't know what would have been the right things to say either. But I didn't know why Ann had put me in my bed. Well, it was her bed too, of course, but the one in the second bedroom. Did she simply want to give me time on my own? Or wasn't she sure whether I wanted to be with her? I didn't know, but I knew that I preferred the former.

And so I was lying in bed, alone, tired but wide awake, wired even, confused about a lot of things, mostly about myself, my feelings and emotions both during the time at the studio and after, but also a bit about Ann.

"Your place is in my arms, when you are ready." Her last words before she switched off the light and left for her bedroom. Was I ready? Ready for what? I knew that I was ready to be in her arms, but I also suspected that this wasn't what Ann had been talking about. Ready to get my butt whipped again? Ready to kneel at her feet? Ready to ... what had that girl said in one of her stories? Serve? Yes, serve, that was it. Was I ready to serve? I didn't really know. But I knew that I wanted to find out. And I knew that I wanted to be in her arms.

So I switched on the light on the nightstand and noticed the poster on the wall for the first time. Pushing away the bedspread I knelt up and looked at it. Two more questions popped up in my mind. First, I wondered why she had picked this picture. To me it hadn't stood out when we had looked at them. But apparently there was something about it that had caught Ann's attention and I wanted to know what it was.

The other question was just as important. What would happen with the pictures she had taken tonight? As much as I loved Ann and as much as I wanted to see those pictures, I wanted to be sure they didn't get seen by the wrong people.

But that could wait until the next day. I couldn't wait to be in her arms, though. It was that easy. I couldn't wait to be in her arms and if that entailed to kneel at her feet or serve her then I would try to do that.

I don't know why but the moment she pulled back the covers to let me slip into bed and I realized that she had been waiting for me I broke out in tears. Not what I had wanted to do, not at all. I would have preferred to slip under the covers, say how much I loved her or maybe something a little bit teasing, don't know really what. Sobbing and shaking hadn't been on my mind. Yet sobbing and shaking was what I did as I crawled into the bed and when Ann wrapped her arms around me and held me tight, her lips on my neck soothing, her body following mine it got even worse. Or better, rather, because the tears felt good, cleansing, as if a dam had broken and a lot of stuff I had been carrying with me was being washed away.

Finally I wriggled out of her embrace and turned around, her lips already waiting, still no words needed, not before I had tasted her and felt her for a long time. After a lot of kissing and whispering "I love you" in each others ears I pulled back and laid my head on the pillow, her face only inches from mine, but hidden in the shadows.

"Why have you put me into bed in the other room?" I asked eventually, hoping for the right answer.

She didn't reply immediately. Her fingers trailed over my flank and lightly brushed the bruises on my butt, the touch sending a shiver through my body. When she finally spoke her voice was soft, completely different to the tone she had had while at the studio. "I didn't want to put pressure on you. I wanted you in my arms, very much so, but I needed to be sure you are ready."

"Ready for what?"

"Ready to accept who I am. Ready to accept what I do. Ready to come to me. Ready to be a part of my life and let me be a part of yours." She paused, fingers still feeling my buttock, caressing it gently.

"I think I'm ready for all that." Another long kiss followed.

"Are you ready for this too?" she asked giggling and slapped me, right where the whip had met my flesh earlier. Not hard, but enough to let me feel it and make me gasp.

"Aww. Yes, I am. But do that one more time and I ... won't hit back." Now I giggled too.

"I know, sweetheart. And now it's time to sleep." After a last good night kiss I turned once again and felt her hand once more reach out beneath me and cup my breast. I hesitated for a moment, then I took hold of her other hand which still rested on my butt, turned a bit and put it between my legs.

"Let me feel that I'm yours," I whispered. "Please." Her two fingers buried inside me and my body snuggled tightly against hers I laid beside her. Safe in her arms, at ease with myself, happy.

But sleep was elusive. Too much had happened in the last hours and I knew I had to rethink it all at least once before I could even think about sleep. And so I went through everything again, the walk to the studio, how I had felt standing naked before her, the harness she had put me in and how she had held me by my hair, steered me towards where she wanted me, then her commands as she directed me in all those positions.

I felt myself getting wet as I thought about how it all had made me feel. Back then I was too busy doing what I was told to do, my mind too occupied with the moment to think about it. Now I had time, now I wanted to know how I had felt. Safe, kinda. Free, as perverse as it may sound. Free as in there was no need to think, no need to be in control, just doing what I was told to do. Yes, that had been liberating.

Later, as I lay over the padded horse that so much reminded me of the dreaded vaulting horses from high school, and after she said that she was going to hurt me I realized of how naive I had been when I had thought that I was ready to let her show me. I had expected she'd show me her studio, maybe take a couple of pics, maybe tie me up. That she would whip me had come as a complete surprise, yet it had also made perfect sense. I had asked her to show me what she did, and that was what she did.

Plus I had accepted the condition that I would have to see it through and not chicken out and I'm not one to easily break my word. Of course there were also the restraints which kept me in position, but I think I would have remained still even without them.

And so I had kissed the crop, wondered what a flogger might be, waited, my body tense, my mind racing, yet enjoying the feeling of vulnerability, sensing that this was just as important for Ann as it was for me. And then my butt had exploded in pain. Well, no, actually it hadn't been that painful, but it had completely come as a surprise. The pain and heat had spread out from my ass as Ann had taken pictures and I had concentrated on her, or at least tried to.

Then I had found out what a flogger is, had had a first idea of how ... arousing pain could be and then it had been over. Well, it hadn't, not by far, but she had released me from my bonds, once again pulling me after her, but this time with two fingers hooked in my pussy and wow! that had just been hot!

Once again she had commanded me to assume various positions, I had felt myself getting very aroused, had even felt a trickle of my juices running down my leg, had wanted her to join me, to touch me.

But it was still Ann who was in control and she let me feel it and so my need had remained unquenched. If I had to pick one thing that I had liked the most I'd say it was that feeling of her being in control, making me do what she wanted me to do, leaving no doubt as to who was in charge. Yes, thinking back that was what I had enjoyed most.

She had remained in control until she finally, after a shower and a long massage that left me aroused and needy and wanton, had said "I release you my love, you may do as you please."

Back then I had been glad, had immediately wrapped my arms around her, had pulled her down onto me, had wanted to feel her body, her lips, taste her and smell her and I had screamed my pleasure into her mouth as we kissed and her fingers brought me the release I had needed so badly.

Now, lying in her arms, her fingers still inside me, reminding me that I was hers, feeling safe and at ease with myself, being happy, I wanted her to never release me again.

Ann

The dawn light woke me as usual, the sun's rays seeping through the window, creeping closer and closer, edging up onto the bed to dance in a tangle of auburn strands. I lay still, only my eyes moving, Zoe's body pressed against my own, my hand cupping her breast, my other hand still cupped to her sex, two fingers still buried in her wetness, her own hand upon mine. The light spread out, chasing shadows across her face, the face of my love, I wanted to kiss those lips, but held back, unwilling to awaken my sleeping beauty, not yet, so I lay still, thoughts drifting back to last night.

The tears that I had kissed away, her shivering body warm in my embrace, safe, cherished, mine.

Of all the things Zoe might have said or done, those few simple words meant more to me than I could ever express... "Let me feel that I'm yours," she had whispered. "Please."

A kiss on the street as we parted, brief yet intense, her body pressing against me, conforming, another sign. Zoe heading to her college, whilst I had a few things to do before I was due at the studio. Later my girl would meet me there, for now we both had a new day before us, a new day and a new future. Her words echoed in my mind, embedding themselves deep in my subconscious, "Let me feel that I'm yours ... Please."

Dee had been busy when I slipped through the gallery and down the corridor to the studio, too busy for a comment, only her eyes flashed in recognition, she knew, Dee always knew.

First the mundane, messages, email, diary, bookings, calls. As I worked, Zoe's soft voice whispered over and over, the soundtrack to my day, "Let me feel that I'm yours ... Please."

"Ground control to Major Domme, you tea's gone cold and that's just dumb, can you hear me Major Domme? Can you..." Dee's singing dissolved into giggles. "Here O evil one, I bring fresh EG to trade for lusty tales of wickedness and seduction." She held out my favourite mug, her eyes sparkling, smiling, one eyebrow raised questioningly, no doubt wondering if I'd actually reply. "The 'after hours' light on the alarm was flashing, I checked the video..." No trace of smugness.

Poker faced I sipped my tea and forced her to wait. Putting my mug aside I picked up a pencil, the doodle forming without conscious thought, a cross-hatched rectangle formed the handle of a bull-whip that snaked upwards, curving to form a heart, a second heart entwined the first ... as I sketched, the voice grew louder, Zoe's sigh drowned by the words, those simple words, "Let me feel that I'm yours ... Please."

The pencil fell to the desk as I sprang to my feet. "Mistress Veronica and her pet are due here at two o'clock, if I'm not back, take care of them, I'm going out." For once Dee made no response, not that I'd have heard it anyway, by the time I'd finished speaking I had already grabbed my coat and was halfway down the corridor.

I let myself in through the side door with ten minutes to spare, just long enough to slip off my coat and check my camera, open a fresh memory stick and switch the lighting in preparation for the shoot. My call had alerted Dee that I was going to be ready and as expected, Mistress Veronica led her pet into the studio precisely at two.

When I first met Veronica, I took one look and thought, bitch! Her looks and demeanour combine to give that impression, in fact Roni is one of the most loving Mistresses I know, even though she can indeed be a bitch when she chooses. At six foot one without heels she dwarfs her pet. Kat or Yekaterina is barely five foot and as sleek and supple as only a former Russian gymnast can be. As her Mistress greeted me she curled around our legs, back and forth, careful not to pull on the chain than ran from her collar to her Mistress's left hand.

Unusually, my model was my client, Roni wanted a series of photographs and characteristically knew exactly what she wanted, thus the studio was already prepared. We started over in one corner where the cage occupied a bare area, brick walls and stone floor, a few rings inset into both surfaces, two bowls placed to one side.

Released from her leash, Kat obediently 'walked' into the cage, her body motion fluid, extraordinarily feline. As the cage door swung shut she curled up and seemed to go to sleep. A minor adjustment to the lighting and I began work, moving back and forth to capture the scene as it unfolded, careful to never show Roni's body above hip level, not difficult as her skin tight patent leather thigh boots were all that showed, only an occasional glimpse of smooth tanned thigh indicated the reality of those unbelievably long legs.

Roni followed the script she had proposed exactly, no surprise there. Opening the cage she reached in, grasping her pet by the back of the neck, half pulling, half guiding her out, only to press her face to the twin bowls as the leash's snap-link clicked to the ring in her collar. Kat lowered her head, daintily sniffing the food before delicately taking a piece in her mouth, a flash of pearly white teeth and pink tongue as she ate, then lowered her head to drink from the other bowl, lapping up the water with practised ease.

As they moved away from the cage towards the central area I was as always stunned by just how realistically Kat moved, her body faithfully replicating the characteristic grace and flow of a true feline, her manner at once obedient and aloof, her body sleek, her hair cut in a style the French refer to as "Le Coupe Sauvage".

I knew from experience that even still pictures would capture the feline grace and supple movement, due not to my skill but to Kat's, a true pet in every sense, house-trained but not broken, she obeyed her Mistress yet maintained a truly cat like aloofness that permeated everything she did.

Roni removed the leash and watched as Kat leapt up onto the balance beam, her body arched, remaining true to form as she played, free-styling around the dungeon with such speed and agility I flipped the camera to auto and simply aimed, the shutter rapidly eating up the memory stick, but catching everything.

Later, her body glistening with sweat, Kat lay on her back, curled at her Mistress's feet as Roni sat playing with her, teasing and tormenting her, nails clawing, fingers pinching, squeezing, caressing and impaling, until the soft purring gave way to wails of ecstatic agony, my camera catching everything but the sound, and judging by what the viewfinder revealed, those sounds could easily be imagined.

It was then that a movement caught my eye, Zoe. Standing silhouetted by the light from the make-up room, eyes wide, one hand held to her lips as if to hold back a scream... ? A sigh... ? A moan... ?

I raised my free hand, smiling and pointing to the couch, then turned back to capture the rest of Roni's scene, her pet writhing in pain and pleasure, hissing as her Mistress granted her relief by driving her into orgasmic convulsions.

When finally her pet's body lay limp at her feet, Roni lifted the diminutive girl up into her lap, cradling her, the soft endearments and soothing whispering seemed out of character, unless you knew her, knew them, then it made perfect sense.

Leaving them I turned away to face my love, still sat on the couch, squirming, a hand still held to her face, blushing, seemingly transfixed, eyes wide, her expression changing as I approached, pausing only to set my camera aside before lifting her to her feet and wrapping her in my arms, kissing her before she could speak, kissing her even as she quivered, her breath hot and fast, fast as her heartbeat that seemed to hammer her rigid nipples into my breasts.

One kiss, however deep, however passionate, was never enough, but before continuing I took Zoe's hand and led her across the studio and into my office, guiding her to sit in my chair.

"That girl ... you ... her ... needs..." Zoe's voice small, breathless, questioning.

"No sweetheart, her Mistress will take care of her." I smiled, seeing the questions still crowding those emerald windows to my loves depths. "I only take care of you, never the models, they have their own special ones to care for them." I held her tight, kissed her forehead, "I photograph them, pose them, bind, whip, control them, make them hot, wet, make them cum if needed. But only to get the picture I want. No more, no less." I felt her freeze, her breath held in, heart racing as my words sunk in...