Page 33 of Be Careful What You Wish For

clanged shut behind him. Feeling already the cramps kicking in to his side he crouched and swivelled, cracking his head on the unforgiving bars, trying to find a position with some degree of comfort. But it was hard. Everything about it was hard. And he had no idea how long he might be left alone.

‘Master, you don’t have to do this. I mean, we can talk about things, share the way we used to. I’ve missed that so much. I guess you have too. It hasn’t been the same since...’

He was talking to thin air.

Secrets

Richard felt good. It had been a while since he had felt so good. Suddenly he felt truly Master again, back in control of his own home. The more he thought about things the more he came to realise that he had been taken for a fool. Shadow wasn’t stupid. They had been friends for many years, but always there had been this need, this untapped source of energy within his friend to dominate, but also to be submissive.

He was a conundrum. He had always tried to hide his feelings, to hold them in check. But Richard had found him out. It had happened quite by chance.

They met at university. They had known of each other in their school years as they’d played on opposing teams in football and cricket. But finally they came together to marry two best friends, Sheila and Beth. Those years were good. Money came in like there was no tomorrow as his chain of hotels and restaurants grew and flourished. And of course there was the acquisition and development of Hartington Hall, where he now had an experienced team offering a range of health and beauty services, creating bridges of wellbeing between him and guests. It had worked well, being able to send Pandora there in the beginning to prepare her.

Shadow, in his own professional field within the medical fraternity in those early years, had become more and more respected as a surgeon. Often they would spend weekends away together with their wives. But more and more through the week they found Sheila and Beth had been feeding their own perverse pleasures, sowing the seeds of visiting a swingers party, ‘just to look’. Then one evening over dinner together plans were hatched, and they found themselves in the house of a wealthy businessman in the middle of the countryside.

It had been dark when they arrived, but the blazing lights and sound of laughter and music attracted them. Men and women of all ages clustered like moths around a flame, displaying a peculiar manner of dress. It was a fetish party, and yet in amongst them had been the swingers. And in rooms set aside at the back, glasses in hand topped up at intervals by a transvestite maid, they became a part of the scene. It was a monthly event. The house had been bought to hire out to such groups, and the owners made such a mint of money that Richard seriously considered taking the same course of action as an investment.

They became regular attendees, but then more and more Shadow crept upstairs while his wife Sheila was involved usually with Dave, a favourite. One day Richard followed him, curious, and in a room at the top of the stairs a man stood naked, fettered to a cross hanging from the ceiling, feet spread, arms stretched, crucified and yet with such a look of ecstasy and devotion it was easy to tell he was savouring the experience. Opposite, through a doorway, a girl rode bareback, a hood covering her head, arms tied tight behind her. A dark-haired Domme gripped her long hair to yank her forward and then twitched a short wooden handle to send a whip lashing across her buttocks. He’d stayed awhile, fascinated by the complex pattern of red stripes crisscrossing pale flesh. The need within him grew, and he wondered what it meant, where it might take him.

Shadow had been in the farthest room. He was splayed full length on a bed, naked, being flogged by a tall bronzed Dom. Richard vaguely recognised him as one who used to bully his friend at school. It was shocking, especially as Shadow’s whole demeanour was about authority and control, and yet at the same time, knowing them both, it made compulsive viewing. Standing to one side of the doorway he remained out of sight, and yet able to see every bit of the scene being played out in front of him. Following the flogging Shadow knelt before the Dominant as if it was the most natural position in the world.

It wasn’t the only time. Again and again Richard discovered him in all manner of submissive positions, and not always with the same Dom, but obviously thoroughly enjoying himself and relishing this secret side of himself. Richard decided then that, rather than reveal the fact he knew, he would keep this newfound information to himself, at least for the time being.

Then came the car crash. The suddenness of it all still made him wince as the pain of losing his wife cut through him, slicing his emotions, leaving him with the same sense of acute loss and panic and dread he experienced at the time. It seemed Sheila and Beth had discovered a new venue. They were checking it out when the car skidded out of control. They swerved to avoid another car on the road, drove over the edge, and far below in the ravine the vehicle caught fire. Almost nothing was recovered. At least, that’s what he’d been told. He’d been overseas, about to close the deal on a new investment, when the news came through. Immediately everything had to be put on hold while he travelled back. He didn’t remember the journey. Only the words; brutal words which cut deep, making him gasp for breath, taking away the best thing to have ever happened to him... Beth.

He missed her. Oh, how he missed her! She would have been so proud of him, his success. And then there was the island. They had dreamed of having somewhere like this, completely cut off from the outside world, theirs to open and shut the door to depending on who they chose. Wishes, dreams, shattered in moments. Every morning still he woke to stretch out his arms, devastated not to find her at his side. Pandora reminded him of her and their beginnings. With her he was certain he could have the same again.

Pandora.

The woman in Greek history who had dared to open the box of secrets, and at the bottom had been Hope.

His feet were already treading the stairs before he properly realised where he was heading. He made no sound on the thick carpets, and when he reached the archway he was able to stand and admire her gentle curves, the long lashes that fluttered, hands moving as if in time to an unheard melody.

‘Pandora...’

The name drifted from between his lips, a murmured whisper mirroring his thoughts. And then, on impulse, he entered the room and, moving softly to the side of the bed, took up the blindfold from the chest of drawers and placed it over her still closed eyes.

‘Shadow?’

It was always Shadow who came to collect her, so why would she think any different? And how would he explain his presence to her? The change in what had always been? But then, it didn’t matter. He was Master. He could do as he pleased.

She allowed him to lead. Even when the path seemed unfamiliar she accepted. Her trust was complete. Only when they stood a little apart in the oak-panelled library did he remove the blindfold and watch her confusion grow.

‘Dream Catcher...’

He watched her confusion grow. She hadn’t been in this part of the house before. He had been saving it until after the Ceremony. Her gaze fell on the switch she had made earlier and he cursed himself for not having hidden it away.

‘Where is this place?’ she asked. ‘And where is Shadow?’

How easily one lie led to another! It was too easy to enter a labyrinth of deceit and struggle with the need to remember the way he had come. ‘A change is called for, I think. Something different. Shadow will join us later... or then again, perhaps not.’

She heard the decisive derision in his voice, and yet sensed something he wasn’t saying. The mood had changed. The room was different. She was out of her comfort zone. She wasn’t sure what might happen next. And suddenly she wasn’t sure.

With a firmness of hand, and yet with great gentleness given her uncertainty, he led her to the sofa. She was naked. It was easy to make her kneel and bend, pushing her milk-white cheeks towards him. She was wet. The unexpectedness of her situation was working well.

‘Now relax, Little One, this is

a treat, something which should give us both pleasure, and you some much needed pain also.’

---