Elliot became terse, firm. “That will never do. When I speak to you, you will kneel, in slave position, and address me as ‘Master.’”

  She immediately knelt back on her haunches, her knees spread apart as far as possible, her head bowed. “Yeth, Mathter.”

  He walked over to her and stood above her. “Please me.”

  “Yeth, Mathter.”

  She reached up to grasp his penis in both of her bound hands. She placed it reverently in her mouth and began to suck on it while her tongue played with its tip. It became large quickly, then swelled to its fullest. She continued to arouse him until he told her to stop and lie on the bed.

  She immediately did as she was told. Elliot unlocked the chain binding her wrists, and she lay on her back with her arms spread above her, the chain from her collar to the bed to one side, and her legs spread wide apart. He quickly unlocked her pussy, unlaced it, and started to enter her. The unlocking and unlacing was tremendously sexual and arousing to Claire. As the tip of his manhood spread her lips and probed between the rings, he withdrew it.

  “P…Pleathe, Mathter.” Claire begged. “Pleathe take me. I ache tho much for you!”

  “I will have you in my time, Slave. Don’t speak again unless I request you to.”

  Using gold handcuffs, he fastened each wrist to a brass bedpost. He then tied her ankles to the lower bedposts with nylon rope. She lay on her back, spread-eagled on the bed. He began to lick her pussy.

  Elliot’s tongue slid slowly from within her vagina to between her lips, flicking each ring in turn, causing the fleshy folds of hypersensitive skin to broadcast pleasure signals throughout her pussy. Her inner lips were fully healed thanks to the magic salve, as they had come to call the gypsy ointment. The holes that held the rings were permanently opened and clearly defined. He’d actually wanted to remove the rings so he could study the holes, they were intensely erotic to him in themselves, but, of course, there was no way to do that without cutting the rings apart. At some point in the future, he thought, he might get Claire several sets of rings to wear and have these removed. Or perhaps not. Having them permanently embedded in her was too delicious.

  His tongue slowly licked her between her pussy lips and all around them but avoided her clit. He knew that this toying with her drove her into fits of frustrated passion so deep that she was unable to focus on anything else. He was very good at it. Claire writhed in sweet agony. Slave or not, he intended to give her great pleasure and to do it without the gypsies’ tea or any other aids.

  The taste of her pussy was delicious to him. He marveled at how sweet she was, how remarkably without any unpleasantness of smell or flavor. Perhaps it was because they were so intended for each other that their body chemistries blended perfectly. Elliot had never believed that, out in the world, there was one true love for him, just one true love for every person. He’d believed that one could make a decent life with any of a number of compatible people. He’d believed that a satisfying, long-term relationship was possible as long as the two partners worked at it. That was before he’d met Claire. Ever since, he felt that the fates had smiled on him, bringing them together under the most accidental of circumstances, from quite different backgrounds and experiences, including far more past unhappiness for her than for him. Somehow, they’d managed to blend those experiences into a bond that held them tightly together, that gave them each other to depend on when life was difficult, to boost each other’s happiness, to fulfill each other’s lives. They’d managed to merge their separate, different worlds into a new one that was far more fulfilling for each of them.

  They’d both known love before. But there was something about the way they fit together, in body and spirit, which was new to them. All of Elliot’s most important desires were shared by Claire. All of hers were deeply meaningful and arousing to him. Day-to-day, that made their lives exciting, fun, satisfying, erotic. They could no longer imagine life without each other. In his mind - and in hers too, he was sure - they secretly expected to be together for all time. Elliot had come to realize that it was only a matter of a short time before they shared those desires openly with each other.

  His mouth left her pussy and he sucked at her nipples. His hands reached behind her to scratch at her back. As his hands slid along her they dropped down to cup her bottom and he pulled it up to him as his mouth found her center of passion again.

  Once the ring binding the heart of Claire’s clitoris had healed, he’d found their lovemaking to be both easier and more challenging. It was easier because arousing her now required almost no effort. It was more difficult because he had to exercise patient restraint in order to extend the arousal and make it even more dramatic and satisfying for her when he would finally choose to take her over the edge.

  He took her clit into his mouth and sucked it, running his tongue lightly over it. She made little pleasure noises. He told her to be quiet or he would stop, and then sat back on his haunches until she made no more sound and lay perfectly still. He resumed working on her. She tensed her body to try not to move. The intensity of the pleasure was driving her wild. For what seemed like forever to Claire, he avoided her clit and its ring again, licking around but not touching them. Her pelvis moved involuntarily. He sat back and stopped, waiting for her to be still. Her eyes pleaded with him to do her.

  “You must have discipline, Slave.” He started to get up from the bed.

  “Pleathe no, Mathter. P…Pleathe. Your thlave’th needth are tho great!”

  “Then be quiet and still. I’ll do you at my own pace.”

  “Thank you, Mathter. Oh thank you! Pleathe don’t thtop. Pleathe don’t thtop!”

  “Quiet!”

  Claire became very still as he began sucking her nipples. He ran his tongue down the center of her chest, licking the area around her navel jewel. He returned to kiss her nipples as his hand reached down to her pussy. His finger probed her vagina and slid up along the wet insides of her labia to her clit. He massaged around it and then reached into her opening again. Removing his finger, he brought it to his lips, into his mouth, and sucked her juices off of it, marveling again at the deliciousness of her. That gesture increased her passion.

  He now began to fondle her clit, first with his hand, then again with his tongue. She was at the brink in short order and came violently. No longer able to control herself, she shook the whole bed and screamed with pleasure.

  Her orgasmic spasms passed and Elliot began to bring her up again. Her response was almost immediate this time and she came quickly. After she relaxed he began to toy with her again, then walked out of the room, leaving her turned-on but unable to satisfy herself.

  He returned a while later and again worked her into a frenzy. Stopping with her again near her peak, he switched her wrists and ankles so she was now lying on her stomach. He slid under her, his penis at the position of her mouth. He demanded that she please him again. She began to carefully give him oral sex, gradually taking more and more of him into her mouth, eventually even past her uvula, suppressing her own gag reflex as she’d learned to do. For him, the feeling was incredibly pleasurable. Unable to hold back any longer, he came deep within her, down her throat as she suckled his penis, receiving her own pleasure from sharing the intimacy with him.

  Awash with the relaxation of after-cumming, he forced himself not to stop but to continue to pleasure her. His hand was positioned under her, on her pussy, and he commanded her to “Do it.” She came again, twice, and collapsed in utter satisfaction. He unfastened her from the bed but re-bound her wrists together behind her and allowed her to fall asleep with her head resting on his shoulder.

  * * * * *

  A few days had passed while they explored the island, shopped for jewelry and makeup for Claire and lightweight casual clothes for both of them, and explored each other. For the most part, Claire’s lisping disappeared, although once in a while it would comically reappear from nowhere for a short while. It worried her, but it made him laugh so she blew it off.

  Claire’s smooth scalp was an intense turn-on for Elliot. In fact, except for her eyelashes, she was totally hairless. Jean-Pierre’s magic potion had rendered her hairless everywhere else and its long-lasting effect would keep her that way for some time. Claire had already decided that she would continue to use it on her arms, legs and private area so she wouldn’t have to shave them again. She was, however, anxious to have the hair on her head and, perhaps, the thin line of her natural eyebrows back. She’d gotten used to drawing on a thin brow line, usually in the Jean-Pierre style of a smooth curve above her natural eyebrow line, and admitted that Elliot might be able to persuade her to keep them off. But she wanted the feel of her natural hair back on her head, even though she planned to keep it short because Elliot loved it that way.

  One morning over breakfast on their veranda, they both simultaneously recognized the need to be with some other people. As so often happened with them, they turned to each other at the same moment and raised the idea at the same time.

  “Do you know anyone on the island we might get together with for a party?” Claire asked at the same time he said, “I think a few people I know are going to be here for several days, do you want to get together for a bit of fun?”

  Laughing, he picked up the mobile phone and called a Greek fellow named Ilias with whom, he explained, he’d been in graduate school years before. As it turned out, Ilias and his current girlfriend were on Santorini with four other couples and were expecting additional guests the next day. They agreed to a few days out for the group of them, starting with a barefoot cruise around the island two days hence, some beach time, a private dinner Ilias would arrange to be catered from a local restaurant, and a costume party on Ilias’s yacht. Ilias also promised a surprise guest whom Elliot hadn’t seen in a long time.

  “Don’t tell me,” Claire remarked afterwards, “Ilias is a big Greek shipping magnate, I’ll bet.”

  “Actually, he’s into electronics. I guess that makes him an electro-magnate.”

  “Aarrgh!” She threw a pillow at him.

  He ducked, not in time, and took the blow right in his laughing face. “I think the only things Ilias has ever shipped are occasional gifts to his string of ladies all over the world. He’s never really settled down, you see.” His tone made his comments sound disparaging.

  “And you have?”

  “My dear Claire, there is no other woman who interests me in the slightest but you. Darling, you fill all my needs. Now if you really want to know, Ilias is a chemist, with a specialty in instrumentation for scientific research - probably the most famous scientist in Greece. The funny thing about it is that he never even got a Ph.D. He quit after getting his Master’s degree in the US and went to work on the East Coast, then returned to Greece. He has a lot of practical knowledge about using electronics in the laboratory, and a real talent for applying it. Thus, he made his fortune.”

  “Am I going to look out-of-place with this rich Greek and his retinue of trophy chicks and hangers-on?”

  “Don’t be so judgmental until you’ve met him. And no, of course you’re not going to look out-of-place. You’re chic and sophisticated enough for any occasion, with any group of people.”

  “I’m … er … rather hairless ...” Seeing him raise his eyebrows to protest, she hurried on, “And I have piercings in lots of unusual places. And tattoos too. In fact, I’m rather customized for your particular fetishes.” She smiled, but uncertainly.

  “And would you take back anything that you’ve done, or that’s been done to you?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Then, Claire, you are who you are. In addition, you’re not among what might be called the common folk. I’m not being disparaging, only implying that most people do have more pedestrian tastes. You should realize that the people you’ve been associating with are quite open to the uncommon – a good word, that. In fact, they most admire women who’ve shown that they have the confidence to be themselves, as you have.”

  She thought about his words for a moment, trying to decide if she’d become the woman she really wanted to be. He saw her introspection play out across her lovely face. He saw her nod, acknowledging the truth of his words. She was whom she wanted to be.

  “Okay.” She’d already moved on. “So how does this costume party work?”

  “My friend, Ilias, sort of copied a party idea I had some years ago. Each couple is assigned a genre within the movie category. So you might have action, drama, 1950s Sci-Fi, B-movies, various kinds of porn, horror, comedy, etc. You pick out a movie from within your designated genre, and come as two characters from the movie. You also bring a Blu-ray of the movie. The movies are played on multiple screens during the party.”

  “Sounds like fun. How do we pick a genre?”

  “We don’t. Ilias has already given us one.”

  “And it is …?”

  “1960 to 1999 Science Fiction. And I have the perfect idea for the movie and the characters we’ll dress up as.”

  Chapter 9: I Kissed a Girl

  They had several delightful days of rich, warm sun as they sailed around the blue-green water surrounding the Greek islands, and then further up into the Adriatic. Elliot’s friend, Ilias, was a tall, handsome Greek with a penchant for showing people a good time. His other guests were fun-loving and easy. As a result, everyone got along, and genuine friendships were forming.

  Claire particularly liked Vara, the partner of Ilias’s cousin, Achilles. She had a spirited personality, with an evident though understated sexuality about her. Her intelligent brown eyes were animated, yet somehow calming and reassuring at the same time. Vara seemed interested in everything about Claire. Claire, reserved around strangers, found herself telling her life story to Vara within a few hours of first meeting her.

  Claire couldn’t put a finger on what was different about Vara, and mentioned it to Elliot one morning.

  “Well, she has remarkably long hair, for one thing,” he noted. “Could you be jealous of it?” Vara’s center-parted, straight, medium-to-dark brown hair hung in luscious, shining splendor well down her back.

  “Of course I’m not jealous. You like me this way, hairless, so we’ll both enjoy it until you ask me to grow it out, or it finally does so on its own. No one here yet knows I’m bald anyway. I’ve been wearing this dark, curly wig since we came on board.” The wig surrounded Claire’s head in a mass of short curls. It had been unexpectedly hot to wear at first, probably because the thick curls essentially insulated her head, but she’d adjusted to it. She’d decided the well-designed, expensive wig was no hotter than real hair in the same style.

  “No,” Claire continued, “I wasn’t talking about her hair, or even the way she looks, although she is beautiful. She has a way of looking at me that’s very different from other women. Gives me goose bumps sometimes. Obviously, she’s not gay, or she wouldn’t be with Achilles. I don’t know what it is.”

  “Do you like her?”

  “Oh, for sure. She’s wonderful to be around. Talkative, genuinely interested in me, fun, and becoming a good friend.”

  “Whether you realize it or not, Claire, she’s triggered your bidar.”

  “My what?”

  “Your bidar. You’ve heard of gaydar, right? You know, that feeling you get whenever you see Jean-Pierre? Bidar is the same thing for women who are bisexual.”

  “Bullshit. Are you telling me Vara is gay?”

  “No, she likes men and women. At least, occasionally, she likes to play around with a woman who interests her.”

  “Uh … huh-uh … not gonna happen. Besides, I’d never be unfaithful to you.”

  He laughed. He came across as indulgent, and Claire didn’t like it. She felt belittled, as though he thought her hopelessly naive. Seeing her expression darken, he tried to explain.

  “I don’t want you to be unfaithful to me, and I wouldn’t be unfaithful to you. But I don’t have a problem with you experiencing something new. Once in a while I suppose I can be controlling …”

  “Gee … do ya think? But that’s okay, I want you to be controlling, sometimes. Maybe a lot of the time.”

  “Yes, I know. But I wouldn’t get in the way of an erotic experience with a woman, were you so inclined. At least so you could say you’d tried it.”

  “I’m not interested. Would you ever be with another man?”

  “No, I really, really have no predilection in that way.”

  “Yeah, that’s kinda obvious.”

  “But it’s sometimes different with women.”

  “I’ll concede that, but I don’t think that’s me. At least, now, I understand why Vara rings little bells in my head when she looks at me or touches me a certain way.”

  That afternoon, Ilias and Elliot had taken a launch to pick up several large screens to display the videos during the costume party that evening. Claire and Vara lay side-by-side on two lounges on the deck, clad only in thong swimsuit bottoms. The sky was cloudless and the sun shone brightly above the blue Aegean. The others on the yacht were taking a siesta before the catered, early-evening dinner. Many others would join them aboard the yacht after dinner for the movie-themed costume party.

  Vara had a tattoo of a yellow sun surrounded by dark orange flames in the small of her back, just above the band of her thong bottom. It was a striking contrast on her tan skin. Claire liked it and said so. In particular, she liked the symmetry of it.

  Vara seemed far more pleased with the compliment than Claire expected. She reached over and Claire felt her fingers lightly trace the sea horse on her left shoulder. Vara’s touch was strangely soothing and stimulating at the same time. Claire felt an involuntary “Mmm …” escape her lips. Vara was enthusiastic with her admiration of the colorful tattoo. She asked Claire about the intertwined initials on her breast. She seemed more subdued in her praise of that tattoo.