Jared slept only fitfully. First of all, his backside still stung quite badly. Secondly, he was worried equally that he would sleep beyond the time he would need to get breakfast ready for his mistress and about how he was going to make it with the hood blinding his sight. Laurel, on the other hand, slept wonderfully again, the last two nights having been more restful that any she'd had in years. When her alarm went off at 6:30, she awoke, not groggily as usual, not lying in bed hoping for a few more minutes of warmth and comfort, but eagerly, refreshed and ready to face the day.
She felt a bit cruel, both for having whipped Jared so viciously and for her parting comment the night before, which she rightfully thought had negatively impacted his sleep. But she didn't feel bad for feeling cruel. Quite to the contrary—it sent a little charge through her that radiated outward from between her legs. She put on her robe, grabbed the balm she had used on him before bed, and went to his room to wake him.
She caught him in one of the brief periods of sleep he had enjoyed since finally dozing off around two in the morning, though of course he had no idea what time it was when he finally managed to drift off. She unlocked his hood, which was enough to wake him, and then pulled back the covers. She was pleased to see his limp penis immediately begin to swell.
"I'm so glad, slave, that my mere presence arouses you. Now roll over." He did so, at which point she applied more of the balm to his damaged skin. "There. I hope it's feeling better. Though not too much better, as I want there to be no mistake as to why you hurt. Something light for breakfast this morning. Toast, a grapefruit half, and coffee should suffice. You will get some groceries today. Please check for anything I'm almost out of and get whatever you see fit for meals for the next week. Your keys will be on the counter. Please return them to the safe when you get back. Be gone no longer than ninety minutes. I've also thought about your contact with the outside world. Please continue to correspond with friends or family electronically, by e-mail or on Facebook or whatever you normally do. However, no mention will be made of me or our situation. Before I leave for work, you will write your passwords down for me so that I may keep tabs on your communication. Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, Mistress," Jared replied.
"Good. I have a cellphone for you as well. I'll put it on the kitchen counter before I leave. It is to be used solely for communicating with me. I am the only one who has the number, and you will give it to no one else. You are only to receive calls or messages from me; under no circumstances will you contact me unbidden except in the most dire of emergencies. Primarily this is so I can let you know if I am running late, or if something has come up that will keep me away in the evening. I also may have tasks for you from time to time. Any failure on your part to respond to a text, when requested, or to answer a call, will result in punishment. I'll see you at breakfast, slave."
Her control over this man was becoming more and more exciting for her, to the point that she was in an almost constant state of arousal throughout the day. Jared was as well, as she could tell from the way his cock never dropped much below half-mast, at least when she was around. In fact, this state continued for him even when she was away. He'd been used to masturbating at least a couple of times a day, certainly since the divorce but even during most of his marriage—some days even four or five times. With the inherent eroticism of his current situation and his mistress's restrictions on self-pleasure, he was rarely not at least somewhat turned on, even while cleaning the house. And despite the four ejaculations he'd had in the last two days, he was feeling the dull ache of unrequited arousal.
Laurel's workday went from bad to worse. Several meetings with normally-difficult clients went as expected, but even clients she enjoyed seemed to be going out of their way to make her life difficult today. One meeting went so poorly she dropped the client on the spot in a fit of anger, saying goodbye to nearly $40,000 in annual billings. After she stormed out of the conference room and slammed her office door behind her, Laurel fell heavily into her desk chair, seething inside but trying to regain her composure. After a few minutes she heard a quiet knock on her door.
"Ms. French?" came a tentative voice through the door.
"Come in, Jessalyn," she said.
Jessalyn, her young secretary, entered, shutting the door behind her. Jessalyn had proved quite an asset to the office in her relatively brief tenure, rising from receptionist to Laurel's personal assistant in less than a year.
"Is everything ok?" the younger woman asked.
"It's fine," Laurel said. "Just...having a bad day."
"Is there anything I can do?"
"As a matter of fact, there is." Laurel pulled out a file from her desk drawer and slid it across her desk. "I'm stuck on this one. Take it home and look it over and see what you can come up with."
"But...I'm just a secretary, Ms. French," Jessalyn said.
"You've been working here long enough to have a pretty good understanding of what it is we do. I've been impressed with your work. Consider yourself promoted."
"I...I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything. Just rise to the challenge. I'm going home early." Before she left she sent a text to Jared's new phone that read simply, "Bath in one hour, dinner to follow."
The traffic on the way home was atrocious, even though it was well before rush hour. This soured Laurel's mood even more. By the time she got home, she felt like beating her slave's ass just to vent her frustrations; but, given its condition from her attentions the night before, she knew she couldn't, not unless he gave her a very good reason.
He didn't, somewhat to her disappointment. But the steaming bath, which had been scented lightly with lavender bath oils (not because of her direction, but quite pleasing nonetheless) made a tremendous difference, and she once again felt immensely satisfied at having a legitimate slave, quite apart from the sexual elements of the arrangement. Another outstanding dinner removed much more of her tension, as did the foot massage she received, at her command, while she ate.
She retired to the living room to watch a movie while her slave cleared the table and washed the dishes. When he was finished, she called him in.
"Slave, fetch your hood. There's also a mouth panel with a gag built in. Bring that as well."
"Yes, Mistress." When he returned, she noticed his cock had gone from semi-rigid to almost fully erect. She paused the movie and smirked up at him.
"Do you think this is for your enjoyment, slave?"
"No, Mistress."
"Then why is your pathetic little slave dick getting hard?"
"It's involuntary, Mistress."
"So in other words, you can't control yourself?"
"No, Mistress. You control me."
"So I do. In that case, make it limp."