Peter Jensen - The blackmailed wife

Max rang for Sidney and he wheeled in a large table of delicious delicacies that caused Ann's mouth to water as she thought of tasting it.

"Just leave one chair, Sidney, Mrs. Morrow will be eating on the floor," Max said slyly with a wink to the butler.

"What-what-do you mean?" Ann stammered.

"Just what I said, my dear," as he sat down at the lone chair. "This is part of the game. Sit here beside me on your knees and I'll feed you. No hands," he chuckled, "if you do, no more food."

"Aren't-aren't you going to start the clock now?" Ann looked at him pleadingly.

"No, my dove, this is practice to see if you've really repented the way you say you have. Now crawl over here like a good little girl."

Ann slumped to the floor from the chair and began the seemingly endless crawl to the table. It was the most monstrous humiliation she had been subjected to yet. To have to sit on her haunches and beg for her food from this vile creature was worse even than physical abuse. Nevertheless, her hunger overcame her fierce pride and she made her way to him slowly. She could see his beady eyes playing with sadistic glee on her large breasts as they danced beneath her.

He cut into the pheasant and crammed his own mouth full with bite after bite. After what seemed an eternity to her, he took a small scrap in his greasy little fingers and threw it over on the floor some distance away. In her scramble for it, she could hear his lewd clucking in the background as he watched her exposed buttocks swishing tantalizing back and forth in the air as she greedily lowered her face to the floor and quickly gulped the morsel down. He continued this torment throughout the meal, making certain each time he threw a scrap that he had a good view of her both crawling after the bits of food and then crawling back beside him before he would throw another.

"I'm giving you practice, my dear, for a friend who's coming shortly. He likes his women crawling on the floor. As punishment for your uncalled-for outburst last night, I'm going to let him amuse himself with you for a few hours."

Despite her still unsatisfied hunger, Ann leaped to her feet beside him.

"You-you mean another man?" she blurted in horror.

"Of course, my love, I told you I would have to discipline you. Besides, I'm certain you want the clock to start again. Look, you haven't even begun to earn your little keepsakes back." He pointed to the envelope which had hardly begun its long descent down to where Ann could reach them.

"But I'm just supposed to please you," the stunned girl whimpered. "You promised, you promised if I just pleased you."

"Ah, my dear, but it does please me. You see, I'll be watching it all both for my own enjoyment, and also to make certain my friend is happy."

"You mean you're going to be in the room too?" Revulsion mushroomed inside her unbelieving mind.

"No, of course not. Nothing so crude. I'll be behind there with some other friends." He pointed triumphantly to the mirrored wall.

It was with a sudden shocking realization that Ann remembered the two-way mirror in Tijuana. He had them too!

"Oh no," she moaned sinking limply to her knees beside him. "Please don't nuke me do that, I just can't, knowing other people are watching. I just can't." She sobbed hysterically.

"Ann my dear, you did a beautiful job in Tijuana, there were at least ten people in the room when you performed so well."

"But I was drugged, that wasn't me, I didn't know what I was doing," she defended, tears streaming down both cheeks.

"I've left you some help in the dressing room. I'm certain you've seen them."

"No," she protested, "I won't ever smoke one of those horrible things again."

"That's up to you, my dear, I thought you just might appreciate the help until you get over these silly inhibitions you've been brought up with. I must go now and I want you to be ready in one hour. I can control the clock from the other room and when I feel you are earning it, I will start it. If you let me down then our little game is over for good and you can go home – without the pictures, of course – they will go in the mail," he added with an evil grin.

He left Ann crumpled on the floor in a sobbing heap and went out the door.

Shortly afterwards, Sidney came in, he stood over her shaking form for a moment and then gently lifted her to her feet by one arm.

"Mr. Schroeder has asked me to prepare you," he said, a little more warmth in his voice than usual.

"Oh, Sidney, I can't do it," she moaned as he led her into the small room with the dressing table.

"I don't think you have a choice, Madam," he answered as he sat her at the dressing table and began combing her long blonde hair out into its full length beauty again. He worked with her for about a half an hour, even applying her make-up for her, until she was presentable again and the marks of her crying had disappeared.

"Mr. Jason, the man who is coming enjoys this perfume, Madam," he said as he dabbed it lightly over the critical places on Ann's body. She noticed that his touch was almost womanly and her nudeness didn't seem to affect him as it did most men. He maintained a aloofness that could only lead Ann to suspect that he had other tendencies than a desire for women.

"What – what shall I do, Sidney?" she asked, her own mind empty from the constant humiliations she had been subjected to.

"I would suggest that Madam goes along with the desires of the gentleman, I would not risk displeasing Mr. Schroeder again if I were she."

"But I just can't, knowing other people will be watching. Does Mr. Jason know it too?"

"Certainly, Madam, Mr. Schroeder has brought him in to teach you a lesson. He uses him often to punish those who have been uncooperative. Mr. Jason is not a kind man. I would suggest that one of these might help," he said pointing at the tray of hashish. "The gentlemen is, to be quite frank, a brutal pig and Madam may need the consolation."

With this intelligence Sidney completed her toilet and left her alone, reminding her that Jason would arrive within fifteen minutes.

Ann sat before the table for a long moment looking at the thin brown cigarettes and pondering Sidney's words. "The gentleman is a brutal pig… you may need the consolation," kept spinning through her confused mind until she reached slowly forward and picked up one from the small silver tray. She knew better than to stop and think about it – she would never be able to go through with it – she would suddenly give way to revulsion as she had done with Max last night and her last chance of getting that envelope would be gone forever and with that all her chances for a decent life again with Dave.

She lit one and took a deep, deep drag, feeling again the familiar sweet pungent taste, the biting in her throat, and the deep burning within her lungs. She held it long until the burning sensation gradually changed to one of soothing calm, slowly relaxing her tense, frayed nerves. She still sat before the mirror as she smoked, and with each pull from the thin, burning tube, she could see her own vision becoming more clear. Sidney had done her hair well and she studied the long soft strands that he had combed out to fall so loosely to her shoulders. It was fascinating to study it in detail she had never seen it quite so clearly before.

She had never really seen anything so clearly before except the last time in Tijuana. She could sense ecstatically the smoke going deeply into her when she inhaled. Her chest expanded to proportions she had never thought possible. She placed the cigarette in the ash tray and cupped her hands under her breasts. Pushing them up so she could see them closer, rolling the nipples between her thumbs and forefingers, tweaking them into hardness in spite of a slight soreness from Max's attack. They were beautiful, more beautiful than she had really noticed before and her gradual massaging was causing them to rise into creamy white firmness that would not have looked out-of-place on a marble Goddess. The nipples quivered before the attack of her rapidly teasing forefingers and protruded high and proud from the quivering orbs held into the air by her palms.