Marketplace (7 page)

“You’ll never make it if
you’re that shy,” she said, shifting from foot to foot.

“Hey, sweet tits, you
better be nice to him,” Brian said, punctuating his words with a
flush. He went back to the shower to wash and rinse off. From under
the water, he continued, “Because I sure as hell ain’t giving you
my stuff to help make you all nice and spanking clean. You’d better
charm the socks off these two shrinking violets, so they’ll be nice
to you.” He stepped out, shook the excess water off and began
toweling himself down. Deliberately, he let his towel drag along
the floor.

“Bastard!” Sharon
spat.

Claudia ignored both of
them as she went about her humiliating duties. She washed her
cleaning implements out in the sink with very hot water, and then
brushed her teeth. When she was finally finished, she dried herself
off and looked forlornly around for grooming tools. The only one in
her bundle was the toothbrush. There was no hair dryer, no brush,
not even a comb. And there was no cream rinse, and no conditioner,
and no styling gel. No soft creams to rub into her skin and make it
velvety and sweet smelling. She ran her fingers through her hair,
trying to get it to fall attractively, and then stowed her
toothbrush, the two nozzles and her soap and shampoo on the lowest
shelf.

“I still don’t hear you
begging anyone for their stuff, Miss Thing,” Brian taunted as he
picked up his supplies and put them away.

“Just shut the fuck
up!”

He shrugged. “Suit
yourself.”

Sharon closed her eyes and
tried to count to a hundred. She was exhausted, stiff, and despite
the steam in the room, still chilly. And her arms were beginning to
hurt. And her feet. But she would go to hell before she asked any
of these assholes for anything. She looked around. Were they
finished? Chris had said that she only had to wait until they were
finished. But Robert was still washing, back under the shower like
Brian had done, to rinse off. She ground her teeth.

The bell went off and
Claudia and Robert scrambled for the door without looking back.
Brian sauntered, blowing a kiss to Sharon on his way out. With a
heavy sigh, she shook her arms out and dashed for the shower. She
purred under the steaming water. There, she thought, reaching for
the soap that Robert left behind. I didn’t need to ask any
slave
for permission to
do anything.

She took her time, running
the bar of soap over her body and luxuriating in the feeling of
heat that ran through her limbs. Then, as her hands slipped across
her beaten ass cheeks, she realized that they might be waiting for
her. The image of Chris with that damn strap flashed into her mind,
and she rinsed off. All of the towels were damp, but Claudia’s had
been folded neatly, so she used it to dry off as well as she
could.

When she got to the dorm,
she had to smile. Not only wasn’t Chris there yet, but the other
three looked unhappy and uncomfortable. And no wonder.

Cute little Claudia was
wearing a simple gray cotton dress, with no frills and no real
decorative elements. Flat shoes were on her feet. Brian was wearing
a gray T-shirt and plain cotton pants. His feet were bare. Robert
had the pants but no shirt. His arms were crossed over his
chest.

“Great fashion sense,”
Sharon said as she walked over to her bed. She didn’t expect to
find anything there. After all, she was going to be a pleasure
slave. And she was beautiful. When you have beautiful things
around, you show them off. No problem with that. But laid out on
the bed was another gray dress. She sighed and picked it
up.

Well, she thought, while
pulling it over her head, at least I’ll look better in it then miss
French maid over there does. She barely has any tits. But instead
of clinging to her body and falling to mid-thigh, like she expected
it would, the shapeless frock settled over her body like a tent. It
fell below her knees. It was unmistakably hideous.

Brian smirked and started
to say something, but Chris suddenly appeared in the
doorway.

“Knees up against the edge
of the bed, backs to me!”

They moved into position,
and he passed between them, touching as he went. He saw all of
them, telling them to move or drop or raise clothing as he desired.
He poked and ran his fingers along their bodies, made them bend and
twist to offer themselves to his observation. When he finished with
Sharon, he walked back through them and turned to face
them.

“Disgraceful,” he snapped,
pulling his pen out. “Your backs and the backs of your calves are
still damp. Your hair is tangled, matted, and unevenly dried. One
of you failed to conduct a thorough cleansing. Another didn’t brush
his teeth. None of you is in any shape to meet your trainers, let
alone eat breakfast with them. I think you’ll break your fast alone
this morning.”

Claudia and Robert both
lowered their heads. Brian stiffened.

Sharon’s stomach growled at
the word ‘breakfast.’

“When you are given an
opportunity to help one another, I suggest you take it. If you had
done so instead of wasting time in meaningless modesty and
pointless chatter, you could have dried each other’s backs and
examined each other. Now. Who loaned their cleaning supplies to
Sharon?”

The question was fired off
as strongly as the criticisms. Brian’s mouth twitched into a slight
smirk.

“I asked a question!” Chris
tucked the clipboard under one arm and reached for the
strap.

“No one!” Brian said
immediately.

Chris’s eyebrow edged up
over the rim of his glasses. “No one? Is that so?”

“Well, uh, oh dear, I
didn’t tell her that she couldn’t use mine,” Robert said, his voice
slipping further into his falsetto.

Chris nodded. “I see.
Sharon, report back to the bathroom at once. I will come and get
you after breakfast. The rest of you will follow me. In silence,
please. You have made enough noise this morning.”

“Wait...
wait.
” At the sound of Sharon’s voice, the three other applicants
sighed. Brian rolled his eyes back. How much trouble was this bitch
going to get them in?

“What do you mean, after
breakfast? Don’t I get to eat?”

“Eat?” For one second,
Claudia saw a gleam of pleasure in the majordomo’s eyes. “Oh yes,
my dear. You’ll eat.”

The three followed Chris to
the stairway, where he stopped to signal Ms. Rachel to his side.
She was carrying a box of supplies in her arms. Chris said, “I’ve
sent you a little helper, Rachel. Have her clean that room from
corner to corner. Feel free to use whatever means necessary to get
her to behave.”

The woman nodded seriously,
but all three slaves could see that she was pleased.

“Oh, and Rachel?” Chris
hooked a finger into the box, rummaged around, and pulled out a
round ball of decorative soap. “Don’t forget her breakfast.”
Pleasure turned to cruel delight. Rachel smiled sweetly and dipped
her head courteously before going down the hall.

Chapter Three

It was hard to believe that
after all they had gone through, that the day was still very young.
They blinked in the sunlight as they followed Chris out the back
door of the house, through a roofed courtyard and into a formal
garden. When he pointed, they obediently preceded him to an open
area of flagstones, and then turned to face the owners of the
house, who were seated. A coffee pot and two cups were on a table
between them, and each of them held a clipboard.

Alexandra raised her head
inquisitively toward Chris. Her blonde hair shimmered in the
morning light. “Where is Sharon?” she asked.

“She has been delayed,
Ma’am.”

“Discipline problems
already?” Alexandra smiled.

“Didn’t you hear her
serenade this morning?” Grendel asked. He poured himself more
coffee. “Go and get her, boy.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“All right now.” Alexandra
glanced at her notes. “Since my two are here, I’ll begin. This is
the official start of your evaluation period at this house. From
now on, everything you say, do, and are will be noted. Before we
cover some basic rules and explain what’s going to happen, does
everyone understand why they are here?”

Robert and Brian nodded.
“Yes, Mistress,” Robert added, his voice pitched high.

“I’m not your mistress,”
Alexandra replied. “Ma’am is good enough for the queen, it’s good
enough for me. What about you, Claudia?”

“I... I think I understand,
ma’am,” Claudia said. “Mistress wants me to receive further
training.”

“Good enough,” Grendel
murmured. He turned when he heard the sound of Chris’s boots on the
stone walkway. Chris appeared, pushing Sharon ahead of him by a
firm grip on her upper arm. Her shapeless gray dress was so wet in
so many places that she left a trail of drops. There were still
bubbles evident around her throat and in several places on the
dress. She looked even more exhausted than before, and very, very
angry. Chris pushed her to stand with the others, and she gasped,
choked, and expelled a small bubble from her mouth.

Brian barely managed to
suppress a giggle. Alexandra caught his eyes.

“I hope you receive equal
commiseration when you find yourself being disciplined, Brian,” she
said.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Brian
managed.

“Getting back to what I was
saying. I’m sure Chris went over some of this with you, but there
are some fine points you need to hear from us. During the next
week, you are required to maintain absolute respect and obedience.
We have all your records, we know what you can and can’t do as well
as what you can take. You are not allowed to ask questions unless
given direct permission to do so. You are not allowed privacy, the
freedom of discussion, choices in anything, or pleasure, unless it
is directly given to you. You may not touch yourselves or each
other without permission. Is this all understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” they all
chorused.

Grendel continued.
“Furthermore, you are under strict discipline. Anyone in this
household has the right to correct your behavior in any manner
appropriate.” He glanced at Sharon. “You have no rights. At the end
of the week, if things work out, we might permit you to try and
earn some. But don’t count on it.”

“You’ll have chores to do,
practical ones.” Alexandra handed a sheet of paper to Chris, who
studied it. “You will also be tested in a number of ways, and
trained and tested again. This isn’t a fantasy-land, kids, this is
a vocational school. Think of it that way and you’ll do much
better.”

“When you’re given an
opportunity to do things which are forbidden, take it,” Grendel
advised. “In a moment, we’ll let you ask us some questions. Think
very carefully about what you want to ask.”

Alexandra touched the back
of his hand gently. “Let’s get the questions over with now. Chris
can fill them in on the rest of the rules during the
day.”

“What a good idea.” Grendel
turned to the applicants and picked up his coffee. “I’m
ready.”

“Look, master, I think
there’s—” Sharon began.

“Address me correctly,
Sharon. Especially when asking questions.” He sipped, and Sharon
wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

“Right,” she sighed. “Sir.
Look,
sir,
I
think there’s been a mistake here. Can we talk about this in
private?” She jerked a thumb toward the house.

“That’s an easy one. No.
Next question?”

Alexandra
laughed.

“Hey, wait a minute!”
Sharon’s voice scaled up slightly. “I mean it! I mean—this is not
what I signed up for, OK?”

Chris began to come
forward, but Grendel held up one hand. He gestured to Sharon to
continue.

“Look, I understand why
you do a lot of this stuff. But I am not in this to become Suzy
Homemaker slave, OK? I am a
pleasure
slave, and I’m not used to
this stuff. I thought we had a deal. And you never said anything
about getting up at five in the morning and cleaning bathrooms, or,
or...” She wiped her mouth again. “Or anything!” She brushed back
her thick hair with one hand, trying to find some pose that made
the sack she was wearing seem even vaguely flattering. Grendel
noted that despite the difficulty of the task, she did manage to
retain some measure of beauty.

If we can train her, he
thought, just a little, she can move out of here like an Armani
suit at Barneys during the warehouse sale. He turned to Alex. Did
she want to field this one? No way. She was taking a little
pleasure in the fact that he accepted the woman for training. Now,
he was stuck with her.

“First of all, Sharon,
those were not questions, they were comments. But seeing as you
don’t have the wherewithal to form them into questions, I’ll
discuss the matter with you anyway.” He stood up. Might as well
make this good.

“Whatever you were before
you came, whatever roles you played, who you lived with, what you
did, doesn’t matter here. You are here to be improved, not
entertained. What you want to be when you leave here, or what your
owners may want you to be, is also irrelevant. Right now, you are
nothing. Do you understand that?” He stepped closer to Sharon, and
she gulped. And nodded.