Part 7: Pay Attention to Me Please
Feeling neglected
May has a mental crisis
and needs attention
May woke up the morning after the party expecting to snuggle into her master and then maybe wake him up with some deep-throat fellatio, but her bed was empty. Wiping the sleep out of her eyes, she slipped back into her orange heels and went out of their private bedroom to find her Duke. She called out and the only response she got was from Karl and Vince who were both there waiting for her. Apparently, Jackson and Brigit didn’t spend the night either.
“Duke sends his regrets, but he’s going to be in meetings all day with the full groom corps. He did make sure we’d be here to keep you company. You look different. What did you two do last night?”
“We played Harlequin, M’Lord Grooms.”
“Played Harlequin?”
And May showed them her bruises and explained the game to them. Both were very impressed about the thought behind a game like that.
“Duke’s a genius when it comes to pulling the most out of his women,” said Vince. “I wonder if it would be as intense with a black and white side?”
“M’Lord Groom Vince, do you mean beat only one side and leave the other side untouched?”
“Yes, that’s what I meant. What do you think?”
“Well, it would make the same effect as far as pain on one side and skin hunger as the other, but it seems a bit too goal oriented to me. I mean women like the process you men do to us. I think we like bondage because it’s a process. Sure, we would be just as helpless if you just used handcuffs or zip-ties on us, but the process of laying the rope on us, looping the wraps, snugging them up, cinching them and then knotting them before going on to another area is the process we find so erotic and so personal. It would be the same with the one side versus the other side. I think a man would commit much less of his mind to just beating one side black and blue than the process that was involved with doing a harlequin the way Duke and Jackson did. What they did was so delicious and today it feels so good to remember what all they did to me. No, I think the harlequin is the more intense of those two choices.”
“Thanks, just checking.”
“So, I’d better get going with my exercises, unless M’Lord Grooms have a better use for me?”
“Now that was a loaded question,” said Karl.
“Duke warned us you’d be extra randy this morning and that we shouldn’t let you tease us too much. He said to just tie you up, gag you and throw you in a cage somewhere if you got too out of control,” and Vince just broke up laughing at the expression on May’s face.
After her morning ritual of pilates, yoga, a soak, a sweat and a shower and then selecting and getting into her uniform, the two beginner grooms tied and fed May. While Vince fed her, they got a phone call.
Karl took off and May wondered what was going on until he showed back up a little later with Brigit, who was carrying her photography bag and her computer bag, which was bulging. She was wearing a teal camisole over a very short tight white mini-skirt and some 4-inch teal pumps.
“Oh my god big sis, how does your skin feel this morning? I’ve been so jealous of what they did to you. You were so out of it last night it was like your motor nerves were cut. That harlequin was so hot it was all I dreamt about last night. I got some great pics last night, and I can’t wait to start editing the raw footage. Would you like to help with that? You won’t know what to think when you see how freaking hot and erotic you were last night. We have got to cancel everything today and start watching the replay of last night. Can you imagine what these two will do when they see the workout you took last night? Can I see the aftereffects or is that uniform on until Duke gets back? How do you feel this morning? Want to talk about it or are you still processing? I ...”
And May held her finger up to Brigit’s lips and then cupped her chin and kissed her on the lips.
“I would like to talk about it, Honey, if I could get a word in edgewise!” and she laughed as Brigit’s face got beet red.
“I know I talk too much sometimes, but I’m so excited I could just wriggle out of my skin.”
“That much is obvious Honey, but let’s take this one step at a time. M’Lord Groom Karl, would you please cancel my dancing class today? I’m going to spend time with Brigit and get this raw footage cut up and edited so that we’ve got something to show our High Lords when they get back tonight.”
“Even if we work all day big sis, we won’t get finished today. The process just takes too long.”
“Well, we’ll have at least shown them that we made an effort at it today, and I don’t think we have an agenda or anything. As far as the cancellation goes, I’ve spent years dancing and Bethany is just fine tuning the skills I already have, so missing one or two lessons won’t really matter to Duke. He hasn’t mentioned any dancing goals for me to attain, so for now it’s all freestyle and fun, for his entertainment. He liked the idea of me learning photography with you and will probably arrange to put my art classes on hold and fill that time slot with these new lessons.”
“That’s great news. I’ll talk to Renee about taking you on as a new student, and maybe doubling up on your classes long enough for you to catch up to me and then we can work on projects together. I know, I’ll film you getting worked over, and then you can film me getting my hyde tanned and colored up and then we’ll mix the two so they won’t know which one of us is which,” and Brigit just laughed and laughed at her absurd idea. She knew that no one would ever confuse her for May.
The first thing they did was to look through the stills that Brigit took of May. Then, from her MacBook she put their favorites up on the big screen in the refresher and narrowed the field down to their favorite 20 or so. Sitting on the couch with a laptop between them, they critiqued the pictures, talking about angles, and pics that just jumped out at them because of something in the picture. The grooms were fascinated too, and their comments fueled the girl’s enthusiasm.
“Is this the shot where you were squealing ‘I got it, I got it’?”
“Yes,” said Brigit, “Look at how your ass holds on to the paddle as my master pulled it away! I thought that that was what I saw, but until I got the photographic proof, I couldn’t be sure. I guess that the plastic sticks to the skin a little when it impacts that hard.”
“I never knew,” and they both laughed.
Working diligently throughout the morning, by lunchtime they’d cobbled together a very rough compilation of May’s harlequin session from the different camera angles that they had. With nine different angled views of the same scene up on the big screen they could pick and choose the best one for the master tape. There was a lot of pausing, examining, discussing and then choosing, but this method of editing was very efficient for the rough draft cut. Most of the time a good shot was blocked by someone getting in the way, but they still got some good angles of what was being done to her.
The grooms tied and fed both of them, and after lunch they went right back to the editing process. Overall, May seemed much more fascinated by the overhead angles, while Brigit liked the straight-on angles that she’d set up. Before all was said and done, many angles were stitched together so that they gave the effect of the watcher being right there in the middle of the action.
“I do so hope that Duke likes what we put together here today. Do you think he will Honey?”
“Of course, big sis. Duke loves you and seeing his handy work on your beautiful hyde will give him wood. That is one of the desired aims in all this. To give our masters enough wood to inspire them to use that wood on us,” and they broke up laughing again.
When the phone rang, Brigit instantly knew that she had stayed too long. She gave a quizzical look at Vince, who had answered the phone and he nodded. She quickly hit ‘save all’, and started packing everything up. She kissed May on the cheek and with both of her bags bulging from being hastily packed she was escorted out of the door.
By the time Vince got back, Karl was already fixing them some grilled chicken sandwiches and fries, so May waited to be tied and fed, assuming that Duke was going to be a little later than normal. As the hours crept by, May began to wonder if Duke was coming back tonight or not. Finally, a call to Karl confirmed her disappointment. May was told that Duke would be out in the field for at least two more days and that she would be left in the hands of her two beginner grooms. They were given specific instructions and dispensations for May’s training so she could work with Brigit.
That night May watched a movie with Karl and Vince and then was taken to her cell where she stripped down and was tied for bed. Karl had been told to just tie her for sleep, so he tied her with her wrists in front of her and then tied her ankles. When they closed and locked the door to her cell, May cried herself to sleep.
The next morning Vince woke her up and untied her. Except for a “Good morning M’Lord Groom Vince,” May silently went through her morning exercise ritual, her soak, sweat and shower, and after she put on her uniform, she went in to be tied and fed. This morning, because she missed him so much last night, May chose one of Duke’s dirty, stinky T-shirts to put on over her corset. Duke knew what it meant to her to wear his scent all day, and that was never so true as the morning after being separated from him for a full day.
When Vince got the call that Brigit was in effect grounded and could not come over that day, May was seriously disappointed. Not wanting to see Gina, her art teacher, May asked Vince to get her out of it and to schedule another type of training for her. She explained to him the state of mind she was in, and that drawing for most of the day would just sink her deeper into the blues. He called up May’s training schedule and discovered that she was still not trained in massage. This shocked Vince because he would have thought that Duke would have scheduled this training much sooner. Vince checked the list of available massage coaches and when one became available, he called for her to be delivered. Vince also called Karl back to Duke’s place.
Karl showed up with Toni, an Italian beauty who was trying her best to look like one of the Hollywood bombshells from the 50’s and 60’s. Her master was older, and Toni was his last before he died. She was a good 35 plus years younger than he was and was rarely put to use in her full capacity, so she taught massage and belly dancing. After talking to her to get acquainted, May decided she would eventually schedule some classes from her. Toni checked May’s abdominal muscles and assured her that belly dancing would come easy to her. Then they all went into the refresher.
By the end of the morning, May’s hands were already starting to ache, and after they were fed, the afternoon session just got them cramping. Toni massaged the ache out of them and told May what kind of dexterity exercises to work on before their next lessons. By this time, both Karl and Vince were in various stages of putty, because they had been the ones May had been working on. They fed her after escorting Toni back to her master’s condo. They watched another movie with May and then helped her get ready for bed in her cell again. May was getting sadder by the hour, lying there wishing for something of Duke’s to curl up next to. Finally, she got another one of Duke’s dirty shirts, wrapped it around her pillow as best she could with her hands tied and then lay down on it, trying to inhale every molecule of his residual scent that was left. May’s dreams that night were fitful and full of senseless fears that Duke didn’t want her anymore.
On the beginning of her third day without her Duke, Karl woke her up and assisted when needed during her morning ritual. Again, all May had to say was a perfunctory ‘Good Morning’ to her groom and didn’t smile at all.
Her lessons with her hair stylist, Nora were blasé and uninspired at best. It was a good thing that May was still working on dummy heads of hair, because if she’d been working on real hair Nora would have had to step in to avoid a disaster. Nora was a kind-hearted young woman of 26, with bright-red short hair. She was only 5’3” and weighed no more than 105 pounds.
Nora had been one of the exceptions to the rule, having been kidnapped and enslaved because her master had wanted her. He had just wandered into the shop she was working at one day, for a quick haircut before a meeting, and became immediately infatuated with her. He got her number and she got sucked up into a whirlwind romance with him for a couple of months. When Nora became too shy to accept his proposal of cohabitation, the High Lord just placed her name on the list and Nora was kidnapped a month later. Once on the Estates she adapted well, especially considering that she was still doing what she loved but was leading a better lifestyle and was with a man that truly loved her for who she was and not for any other reason. Nora always bragged to others that he loved her so much that he just had her taken off the face of the world for his pleasure, and that she was proud of that status. She’d been given low protocol training and was quite happy with her new station in life.
Trying every trick she knew to brighten May’s day up, and failing, Nora cut the lesson short, figuring that no lesson was better than a bad lesson. She then tried to engage May in some girl-to-girl chit-chat, but that fizzled out when May only wanted to talk about Duke. Apparently maudlin was the color of the day, so Nora took her leave when an escort groom showed up to take her back.
After lunch, May spent the rest of her day giving massages to either Karl or Vince, at least until her hands gave out. May did work hard at her new skill, but she still needed to work on her hand strength if she was going to give multiple massages.
Over supper she asked, “Any word from my master yet?”
“No May, we’re still under the same orders that we had for you for the past couple of nights. So, it’s your turn to pick the movie tonight, what do you want to see tonight?”
“You mean besides my Duke walking through the door? I guess some kind of Rom-com that’s more funny than romantic. I could use a good laugh. What’s the latest thing in the library that meets those qualifications?”
They watched one where the leading lady was learning to be a bounty hunter and was involved with an old flame she was trying to catch. It was funny enough and got May out of her funk for almost two hours. After the movie, May just went into her cell, stripped off everything and cried herself to sleep.
Karl came in before she actually got to sleep to tie her and said, “He’ll be home soon.”
“When M’Lord Groom?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how can you tell me he’ll be home soon?” she said a bit testily and then continued to cry.
The morning of the fourth day without Duke started the same as the other ones did. Vince woke her up and May just started to cry. He calmed her down enough to do her exercises and get through the rest of her morning ritual, but when the bald chattel showed up with Karl to clean the apartment, May broke down again. Before the day got too involved Karl made a phone call and Timothy came by about a half hour later.
Timothy was a tall man, over six-foot but couldn’t have weighed more than 160 pounds. He had light brown hair and the bluest eyes. His voice was very similar to Duke’s in that it was a deep bass and crystal clear with none of the usual scratchiness that some voices have. He was in his late thirties or early forties, but you really couldn’t tell just by looking at him.
“Now what seems to be the problem guys?”
“Well, Duke's been gone, and May just won’t stop crying. We’re a little new at handling this, and you’re one of the only full grooms left on property, so we’re asking. What can we do to calm her down?”
“Hello May, my name is Timothy. I’m your master’s personal tech-groom and one of the few that knows exactly where he is and what he’s doing. So, let me guess, is this the first time you’ve been separated from Duke for more than a day?”
“Yes, M’Lord Groom Timothy. Even after he’d been shot, M’Lord Groom Paul would take me to the hospital to see him for a little while. This is the first real separation we’ve had.”
“Okay, now that we’ve established that you know the protocols, let’s skip the M’Lord Groom stuff and you just call me Timothy. I’m too close to your master to sweat the formalities, Okay?”
“Yes, Timothy.”
“Good girl. Now, you’ve been crying yourself to sleep at night, and I’ll bet you’ve been sleeping with one or more of his old shirts, right?”
“Yes Timothy.”
“Okay, I’m on a roll, so let me continue with the fact that you and Duke had a very significant personal session right before he left. Is that fairly accurate?”
“Yes Timothy, the night before he left.”
“And other than getting tied for meals and for bed, no one’s touched you, tied you or beat you, is this correct?”
“Yes, Timothy.”
“And you and Duke were doing something almost every night since you arrived here, right?”
“Yes Timothy.”
“Okay Karl, Vince, this is nothing to worry about. This is just classic slave drop. When someone’s been playing for long periods of time, especially if they’ve been on regular endorphin highs, and then all of a sudden their fix just gets cut off they have a pendulum swing from good to bad or should I say sad.”
“Then this is normal?”
“For someone like May, yes, and if you’d known what to look for you could have prevented it. This is all part of your training though. Want me to show you how to cure this?”
“Yes, please Timothy, is there a pill or something I can take to ride this out until my Duke gets back?”
“Yes Timothy, I’m curious how you do this. That’s why we called you.”
“May dear, there are pills that would calm you down, but they would just be a band-aid on an arterial bleeder. Doctor Timothy has the cure you need though. What you need is a good beating.”
“A what? From you?”
“Yes, let me get your master on the line and he’ll verify my judgment.”
Timothy pulled out his iPhone, entered a very long sequence of numbers, and started talking directly to Duke.
“Hey buddy... yes, it’s May... yep slave drop. She misses you. ... Yep, that’s my diagnosis. ... No, neither one of them knew what was going on and they didn’t call for help until just about an hour ago. ... Naw, no problem, I’m going to show them... Okay, here she is... May, he wants to talk to you.”
“Duke? I’ve missed you so much. When are you coming back to me?”
“Okay calm down my little endorphin junkie. All is well, but I apologize for not being clearer when I gave those two their instructions. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was taking off. I’ll explain more when I get back.”
“When are you coming back my Duke?”
“Well, depending how things go, either very late tomorrow or no later than noon of the following day. To be safe let’s just say the day after tomorrow.”
“Okay my love, I really miss you.”
“And I miss you too May, very much, but...”
“Oh, thank god.”
“... but you need to do what Timothy tells you to do now. Is that understood? He knows what’s best for you, and he has my absolute trust. He’s been my good friend for a long time now and he’ll help you through this. Okay?”
“Okay my Duke, my love, I miss you and can’t wait until you’re home again. I love you.”
“I love you too, May. Now go get beat darlin’, I’ll see you in two days. Goodbye for now.”
And the call disconnected. May smiled and handed the phone back to Timothy who already had rope in his hands.
May got beat that day
long and hard by Duke’s good friend
and she felt better.