House Rules (3 page)

He dried himself on her towel and put it into the basket of things to be washed before going in search of his clothes. He remembered Helena undressing him in the bedroom but couldn’t find his clothes there. Puzzled, he looked into her wardrobe, in case she had hung them up. That seemed unlikely, since she had left her own things lying around. There was no sign of his clothes anywhere in the bedroom, so he wandered out into the living room. They weren’t there either. Could they possibly be in the other bedroom, the one she had turned into a work room? They weren’t, although Richard spent a good deal of time there both looking for his clothes and studying the drawings Helena had made of her fetish fashions. As on the previous evening, he felt a stirring of excitement as he looked at the drawings of the male and female chastity belts she had designed. He thought again how exciting it might be to be locked into one of them.

After he had looked all around, he reached the only possible conclusion: Helena had taken his clothes with her, stranding him there. He recalled the canvas hold-all she had carried, which had seemed so incongruous with the way she was dressed. He had no idea why she had done this, and he felt a flare of resentment. They had seemed on the brink of a relationship, of exchanging confidences, maybe even of becoming partners. And now this. But in spite of Helena’s playing this trick on him, he could see the funny side. He could think of a lot of men who wouldn’t mind being stranded without clothes in the apartment of a beautiful young woman who had showed a sexual interest in them. And now it had happened to him. Richard wasn’t afraid of being stranded permanently. This was Helena’s home, and she would be back eventually. It was merely a matter of being patient until then. Then he could take any measures he thought appropriate. He toyed with the image of turning Helena over his knee and spanking her until she sued for mercy.

But suppose Helena returned without his clothes? There was nothing he could do in that case. Spanking her, or doing anything else along those lines, would not produce the clothing he would need when it came time to leave the apartment. He shrugged the thought away. There was nothing he could do except wait and see.

Richard wandered around the apartment once again, looking into wardrobes and drawers and reading Helena’s bookshelves. He turned on the television, but there was nothing on except the bland daytime fare. It was no better in German than the programmes he had seen in English. For want of something to do, he brought Helena’s basket of washing to the kitchen and sorted through it. As he put her underwear into the washing machine, he could smell the faint odour of her that clung to it.

While the washer was going through its cycle, he settled down with one of Len Deighton’s Berlin spy thrillers. He got up to put the damp washing into the dryer and returned to the book. When he looked up again it was nearly one o’clock. His stomach said it was lunch time, so he explored Helena’s refrigerator. There was
schinkenwurst
and cheese, from which he made sandwiches.

Helena had still not returned by two o’clock, when Richard went back to the kitchen with the dishes. He washed them in the sink and left them on the drainer to dry. He took Helena’s clothing from the dryer, folded it, and put it away in the drawers in the bedroom. Then, having nothing else to do, he set about tidying up the apartment. Helena didn’t appear to be especially untidy, but there were things to put away and others to replace in their proper places. The workroom alone he did not touch. He thought she would probably have arranged things in there to suit her work habits, and would not appreciate his efforts to rearrange them.

As he was putting the vacuum cleaner away, he heard the key turn in the door. A moment later Helena entered, calling over her shoulder to an unseen companion to come in. She noticed Richard with the vacuum cleaner. So, a moment later, did her companion, a statuesque blonde in a dark, severely cut pinstripe suit of the type worn by lawyers and bankers. Helena smiled mischievously at him. Her companion looked at him with undisguised astonishment, turning in a moment to outright appraisal.

Richard was embarrassed, of course, but Helena seemed not to be. To his further embarrassment, he felt his cock stiffening as he looked at the two beautiful and stylishly dressed women who stood looking at his nudity.

‘Margaret, meet homo erectus. Richard, this is my aunt, Margaret Wagner. I’ve invited her round to look over my drawings and discuss my business venture. If she likes what she sees, she may be persuaded to lend me enough capital to start making a few things to display in the shops.’ Helena smiled brightly at him and then, somewhat more tentatively, at Margaret.

It was apparent from the way Margaret was looking at him that she already liked at least part of what she was seeing. Richard was flattered at her interest, but taken aback at his abrupt inclusion in Helena’s social circle. He tried not to let his surprise show. He didn’t want to do anything to upset her plans if he could help it, but he was not at all sure he was ready to handle this complication to his fledgling relationship with Helena.

‘I see you’ve trained him well,’ Margaret said, with a gesture that included both Richard’s nudity and the vacuum cleaner he still held. ‘That’s a good sign. One’s associates should be able to work on their own without continual supervision,’ she continued, with the ghost of a smile that betrayed irony and interest in equal measure. ‘It looks as if he has made a good job of the place in your absence. Has he been with you long?’

‘About twenty-four hours,’ Helena said with a straight face.

Margaret crossed the room to take a closer look at Richard. He heard the faint silken rustle of nylon as she approached him, and he found himself wondering if she was wearing stockings. Her faint perfume smelt expensive. Richard felt his cock grow stiffer and tried to avoid looking down at himself. He kept his eyes on Margaret’s face, in particular her eyes, which were a startlingly deep shade of green. Like a cat’s, he thought. She moved with a feline grace as well, unusual in a woman of her size. In her high-heeled shoes she stood as tall as Richard, so that their eyes were on a level. Richard imagined a canary might feel the way he did under the steady gaze of those cat’s eyes.

In order to make the bizarre situation more normal, he set the vacuum cleaner on the floor and held out his hand to her. Instead of shaking his outstretched hand, Margaret reached out and grasped his cock, enveloping him with the warmth of her hand. He felt a shock pass through his body as she took him. His first reaction was to jerk away, but he managed to stand his ground and even to look again at her face.

He thought Helena might be feeling jealous or angry, but then he remembered she had brought Margaret back to the apartment knowing he would still be there and in the nude. The only thing she couldn’t have anticipated was Margaret’s intimacy. Or maybe she had, and had relied on it as part of her plan to interest this tall, beautiful woman in her business. Richard could see a certain logic in that. If Margaret liked what she saw and held, as she evidently did, then she might like the rest of the plan as well. He wondered fleetingly if prostitution, of which this was a form, should make him feel like an object, as many women had argued. Instead he felt excited. Maybe he wasn’t a prostitute.

Still holding Richard’s cock, Margaret asked Helena, ‘Would you consider lending him to me for a while? My house is in need of a good cleaning too. I would be able to return him to you even better trained than he is now.’

Although Margaret could not see Helena’s face, Richard could. He caught the spasm of anger in her glance, followed by the mute appeal to him. Helena gestured pleadingly at him behind Margaret’s back before she replied, ‘Of course.’ Obviously she dared not ask Richard what he thought about the bargain.

He thought it might be impolitic to deny her, for reasons he would have been hard put to explain had an explanation been demanded of him just at that moment. Such a refusal might even be considered impolite in some circles. He imagined his acquiescence would make the matter of starting-up capital easier for Helena. Also, he reflected, it is hard to refuse the request of a beautiful woman who has hold of your cock. Let’s see where this goes, he told himself.

‘Thank you,’ Margaret said. Still holding Richard’s cock, which she seemed to regard as her personal property now, she asked Helena to show her the rest of the proposition.

Helena led the way into the workroom, and Margaret followed, pulling Richard along in her wake. Even leading him by the cock, Margaret lost none of her feline grace.

Helena began setting out her drawings for Margaret’s inspection. To Richard she looked nervous, moving quickly and jerkily around the drafting table she used as a work surface. Once she snatched a drawing so hastily the corner tore off. Richard could see the effort it took to control herself. Even with Margaret holding him so intimately, he had enough wit left to wonder if Helena was feeling jealous at the way Margaret had moved in so quickly to make him her own prize.

When the drawings were laid out, Margaret led Richard over to the table to inspect them. When she squeezed his cock he shuddered with excitement. She noticed, and smiled at her power over him. Then she turned her attention to Helena’s designs.

Richard admired them as well. Helena had a good deal of skill and imagination, he decided. If these designs were made to measure, rather than merely bought off the peg in a sex shop like those on the
Reeperbahn
, they would be truly stunning. At the same time, he couldn’t help noticing that all of Helena’s designs incorporated some degree of restraint for the wearer. She must be deeply into bondage, he thought with another flare of excitement. Margaret squeezed him again, believing no doubt that he was reacting to her touch.

Richard saw again the sketches of chastity belts that Helena had shown him, but there were other sketches too, as well as many fully executed drawings, of full face masks, helmets both with and without eye and mouth holes, gags, leather belts and straps for restraining one’s partner, even some hastily drawn designs for custom-made high-heeled shoes, most of them with exaggeratedly high heels and many with straps going around the ankles and insteps.

Margaret picked up one and then another design, considering and then rejecting them, before she came to a drawing of a pair of leather pants. In the margin of the drawing there was a note, which read, ‘Can be made with one or two dildoes. Laced on or zipper fastening, lockable, with or without reinforced waist and leg bands. May be made in rubber as well.’

‘I’ll have one of these,’ she said decisively, tapping the paper with one of her immaculately shaped and polished fingernails. ‘I want two dildoes and the reinforced waist and leg bands. Zipper fastening. I think I’ll enjoy being able to wear this secretly all day at work. And I’ll be better able to evaluate your product before making a decision.’

Helena made a note of the design. Somewhat diffidently, she asked, ‘Do you want me to take your measurements here? Now?’ She gestured at Richard, as if suggesting that Margaret might want more privacy while she was being measured.

‘Of course we can do it here. And now. But he will have to be restrained during the process. You have the facilities, I believe.’ Margaret squeezed Richard’s cock once more and released it. She turned away and stood looking out of the window, leaving Helena to deal with Richard as she thought fit.

Helena walked across to the table and looked at his face with an expression of doubt and mute appeal. ‘Please,’ she mouthed silently.

Richard looked down at her, vulnerable in her anxiety. He nodded silently, knowing she didn’t want Margaret to suspect that she had to ask him. He liked Helena a great deal, despite the situation she had landed him in. And, he told himself, he was already too far into the situation to back out gracefully. Or maybe his acquiescence had as much to do with his lack of clothes and the possessive way Margaret had handled him.

He wondered what ‘facilities’ she had referred to. He watched, fascinated, as Helena opened one of the desk drawers and withdrew a bag of short, wide nylon cable ties. He didn’t resist when she pulled his arms behind his back and looped one of them around his wrists. She pulled it tight, the locking device purring along the strap until it could go no further. With a pair of dressmaker’s shears she cut off the protruding end.

When she moved around to face Richard she mouthed ‘I’m sorry,’ with an infinitesimal nod of her head to where Margaret still stood with her back to them. She shrugged her shoulders resignedly. Richard shrugged his own shoulders in reply.

Helena turned to Margaret and said, ‘Are you ready now?’

Margaret moved away from the window to stand near Richard and Helena. She turned him slightly by the upper arm so she could see what Helena had done. She nodded slightly, but looked unsatisfied. She picked up her handbag from the drafting table and produced a chain-type dog collar, with a larger ring at each end. She took a second cable tie from the bag and threaded it through one of these rings. Then she knelt before Richard and passed the cable tie around his scrotum, pulling down on his balls to ensure both were below the nylon band. Then she tightened the tie snugly around his scrotum.

She motioned for Helena to hand her the shears. Richard stood very still as she cut off the end of the cable tie. When she was done, he was left with the chain hanging down between his legs. Margaret stood up and handed the shears back to Helena with hardly a glance in her direction. She grasped the chain and tugged sharply on it. Richard was pulled slightly off balance. As he recovered, Margaret gave a smile and said, ‘That won’t slip off now. Come along.’

She led Richard towards Helena’s industrial sewing machine standing near the wall. He followed perforce. Margaret looked for some way to fasten the end of his lead to the machine. When she discovered no ready way of anchoring him, she frowned and reached for her handbag once more.

While Richard was wondering just what else it might contain, she produced a dog lead with a leather loop at one end and a swivel snap at the other. She passed the lead through the lattice work on the machine’s leg and threaded the end through the loop. She then snapped the lead to the end of the chain dangling between Richard’s legs, and he was tethered to the machine. With his hands fastened behind his back there was no way for him to reach the snap and free himself.