Chapter 31: "I ... I love you, Mistress."{/b

Angique heard the scraping of the door on its hinges. She pivoted on her sandals' heels to see who entered, her heart racing in sudden anticipation.

It was Alicia — naked, oiled. Her hand clutched a black riding crop against her breastbone. The cold winter light sparkled off the jewel dangling from her tit. The girl took only two, three steps, before sinking to her knees on the chilly marble floor, sliding forward on her elbows until her brow touched the stone. Her ass rose high; her shining curls spread around her head like a fan.

"Alicia," Angique whispered. "My delicious, treacherous Alicia." She walked closer, reaching down to touch the girl's creamy skin, tracing it with her fingernails. The bruises had long since become faint bluish traces, like veins in ancient marble. She delighted in the smooth, soft yielding of the flesh — and in the girl's moans as she intensified the probing.

"Please rise," she whispered. "I need to see your jewel."

The girl rose hesitantly, presenting her chest by pushing back her shoulders. There was a deepening blush on her cheeks and throat. Her eyes turned away.

Angique watched her and frowned. Then she touched the lily, dangling from a chill-stiffened nipple. She pulled on it, making Alicia lean forward to alleviate the sudden stretching. Angique looked closer, noticing the telltale tiny gap where the ring closed — slightly askew. She looked up, catching the girl's gaze right before it tried to escape.

"You removed it," Angique said — it was not a question. Tears welled up from Alicia's eyes.

"I am so sorry, I... ," she mumbled.

"You didn't want Pam to see it," Angique said, not angry, but coldly accurate. "You were ashamed of it." Misery bled from the girl's eyes. Angique took her jaw in the vice of her thumb and fingers, demanding attention.

"And you would not have told me," she went on, "if I hadn't seen it." Not able to look away, the girl's eyes closed.

"Forgive me," she said, her lips fighting the fingers' pressure. "I am weak. I'm not worthy."

The slap rang against the vaulted ceiling.

"Leave the judging to me, slut," Angique said, repeating the slap with her backhand. "And the punishment." She took a step back; the girl stood with sagged shoulders, sniffling.

"So you forgot already what it stands for," Angique went on. "I wonder — did you ever know?" The girl shrunk even further; her fingers traced her face where the hand had struck.

"That I am yours?" she murmured. Her eyes wandered off.

"Are you?" Angique asked. "Were you ever?" The girl was silent.

"You still don't know?" Angique insisted. Another silence.

"Look at me, girl." The chocolate eyes returned — hesitantly. Angique suppressed her impatience, knowing it was her main flaw. She forced a smile to her lips.

"It's a hard question, I guess," she said.

"It..." Alicia started. "It is such a difficult question. I came back here determined to be yours. On the day you gave me this," she went on, looking down to her pierced nipple, "I would have cried YES!" Her face glowed with sudden passion; her hands grabbed Angique's, holding them.

"Yes," she repeated. "I was all yours then. It is always like that; I didn't need to think. I just..." Her voice petered out into a mere whisper.

"You just?" Angique asked, holding her breath. The brown eyes returned; eyebrows rose into little steeples.

"I just... , " she said, sighing. "I got scared. I lay on my bed at home, feeling the numbness of my bruises, the throbbing of my — uhm — tit. When darkness fell, my demons gathered around me. You know of my demons. They were mocking me, scolding me ... telling me to be ashamed of myself, scaring my certainties away. They leave me confused. On my own I am lost."

Angique just looked on, waiting for Alicia to proceed. She ached to hug the girl, imagining her struggle. But she knew she shouldn't.

"And then," Alicia said, looking up, blushing fiercely, "then I met Pam." The name hung between them, untouched.

"It was for work, in New York. She impressed me right away. She was so real, so easy to be with. I melted ... I became a child, an excited child. And my body responded..."

Angique held her tongue, fighting the flare of sudden jealousy. Alicia bit her lip.

"We never, uhm, did anything, really, okay," she went on. "After work she took me to have a bite. She also had these tickets for a pop concert in Central Park. It was a fairytale; I floated..." Another awkward silence.

"After returning home," Alicia said, "my mind was totally captured by her." She looked up, checking Angique's reaction. "I'm sorry," she added. Angique shrugged.

"I ... I told you how she got to me; how I'd never ever felt about anyone as I did about her that day." The words were obviously hard for her to repeat while standing in front of Angique.

"I now see how it must have hurt you," she said in a low voice, fidgeting. "I ... I guess I am like that ... insensitive — so full of myself. I'm sorry."

"Stuff the damn sorry's," Angique growled through clenched teeth. "Get on with it; what next?" Alicia's eyes were everywhere but on Angique.

"Next time I visited her, I had removed the lily. I'm so..."

Angique cried out, stomping her foot.

"One more sorry, you slut, and I'll kill you! I promise I'll kill you!" The outburst made Alicia cringe, raising her hands before her face. It took her minutes to resume her story.

"Anyway," she said, "it was of no use. I still feel so ashamed of the way I threw myself at her the moment we met again. She turned away her face when I tried to kiss her. It was all a mistake ... such a shameful mistake." An almost purple blush spread on her chest, clawing at her throat.

"She said all the nice things to let me down. She really is a sweet woman, you know? She said she liked me a lot and that she too had looked out for my return, but she wasn't like that and blabla bla ... Oh God, I could have sunk through the floor!"

Alicia's lips started to tremble and a new flood of tears sprang from her eyes.

Angique watched her; then she said in a level, unemotional voice: "And then, after you were all cried out, you considered returning to good old push-over Angique. Anything better than being alone."

Alicia wiped her eyes with an angry, backhanded swipe.

"You are right, of course," she said, trying a forced smile. "I guess I should leave."

"Maybe yes," Angique agreed, but she stopped the girl when she turned to leave.

"Before you go, though, please answer me. Why did you come back here in the first place, honey?" she asked. "Why bother to get over here, naked, freshly shaved and oiled? Just to tell me 'you don't know' and then run off again?" The steel in her voice made the girl flinch. Their eyes met and locked.

"Why would I take you back?" Angique then urged. "I'm just your second hand choice, aren't I? Until the next Pam or Carmela comes along." The girl looked utterly lost; she turned left and right, her thighs pressed together.

"Do you need to piss, girl?" Angique asked, grinning. Alicia looked away, her head blushing like a pink light bulb.

"I ... I don't know what to say," she then mumbled, both hands sliding between her thighs. "If I say I'm unworthy, you hit me. If I say: 'I don't know, ' you scold me. I just want you to take my confusion away, my weakness, my demons..."

Angique kept staring at her.

"You ask a lot, slut," she at last said. "You sure must be desperate." Alicia didn't answer; she churned her thighs around her hands. "Don't dare lose a drop," Angique added.

The next minutes of silence must have been hell for the girl. Angique just looked, imagining the waves of painful need whose shadows washed over Alicia's face. She now danced on her feet to force back the urge, catching the drops slipping out with her hands — praying that the woman wouldn't notice.

Angique smiled, watching.

"So you want me to continue training you?" she finally asked. The sound of her voice after the long silence hit Alicia and made her squirt.

"Please," the girl begged. It wasn't clear if it was an answer to the question or a plea to let her go and relief herself.

"Honey," Angique went on. "You remember when I told you I can only train girls who love me?" Alicia nodded.

"Well, you obviously don't love me. Not like you love Pam," Angique said. The girl started crying, but maybe that also was because a new wave of need hit her.

"All the girls I trained loved me, you know?" Angique went on. "You obviously think you can get a free ride? Have me relief you of your hang ups and get a nice string of orgasms into the bargain? Not going to happen."

"Please?" the girl asked again, dancing, feeling a small, treacherous rivulet running down her thigh. Angique turned away from her. The scent of urine made her nostrils flare.

"Go to the toilet, slut," she said.

When Alicia returned, Angique had retired to her club chair near the fire. Alicia walked to the center of the room, where she stood, changing the weight from one foot to the other and back again. Angique ignored her, reading a magazine. When the girl cleared her throat she looked up.

"I thought you left," she said.

"I ... I have questions," Alicia said. She nervously brushed hair from her eyes, but they kept their focus on the reclined woman.

"Questions?" Angique said, immediately hating the brainless repetition. "About what, honey?" The added endearment seemed to ease the girl down.

"Questions about slave girls," she said. "Your slave girls."

"Okay, now, what questions about my slave girls?" Angique asked, after the girl knelt in front of her. She'd had her pour hot tea for the both of them. Alicia sipped, holding her mug with two hands.

"I am not sure," she said. "Can I ask anything? Will you answer whatever I ask?" Angique smiled.

"If I won't, you'll be the first to know." Alicia's mirroring smile was fleeting, hesitant. She blew on her cocoa before starting.

"Why did you dump Anna?" she said. Angique frowned.

"Next question," she said. Alicia's lashes fluttered.

"But I could learn from her mistakes," she protested. Angique rose, dropping the fur that warmed her legs. She walked over to her suite's entrance before turning around.

"If this is all you came for, don't bother, girl. Don't bother ever again." Alicia rose too, raising a hand.

"Please no!" she cried out. "I'm sorry. Please, I won't ask about Anna anymore."

Angique looked at her in silence, her gaze travelling up and down the naked body.

"Why are you still standing, silly girl?" she said. Her voice was cold, so were her eyes. Alicia stuttered a few unconnected syllables. Then she put down the mug and sunk to her knees, sliding forward in her required position — ass up, brow to the floor. She heard Angique's heeled slippers clicking closer before she felt a kick to her side.

"Are you a mean bitch, Licia?" the woman's voice said. "Or are you just a stupid girl who assumes I am stupid too?" Alicia moaned when a second kick hit her.

"But I thought..." she started, only to earn a third kick.

"Never use the word 'but' with me again — never ever. And for heaven's sake stop thinking!" Angique bent low to reach her ear. "Thinking is just not your thing, honey." A hand grabbed Alicia's hair, pulling her up, painfully.

"Eat my cunt, slut, so you know what you're good for," Angique hissed.

Alicia's face was pulled into a soft, silk covered crotch.

As always the shock left her helpless. Her hands fumbled at the robe, finding Angique's bare slit. She pressed her lips against it, extending her tongue to find the hidden clit. Hands on the back of her head pulled her into the bare flesh, smearing her face up and down on it. There was heat and moisture. There was also a wave of sudden comfort — of peace, wellbeing ... happiness? She licked and suckled the pink insides, her nose rubbing the nub right on top. An exotic cloud of musk and female perfume took her in.