Attitude Adjustment

All characters are fictional and over 18 years old.

Juliet drummed her fingers against the edge of her desk. It was 4:30 p.m. on a Friday. and frustratingly, no one had left the office yet. She craned her neck over the cubicle to see if anyone was looking like they were going to head out, but everyone was stuck into mindless tasks. Did no one have anything better to do?

She reached into her purse and felt for the small piece of cardstock she was checking for all day. Juliet felt her thumb catch on the edge of the business card and pulled it out of her purse. She felt something within her ignite just looking at it. It was cream-colored with thick black lettering that read: "Nightbound Professional Development - Mst. Lillian Kingsley - 259 Main St."

Juliet brought it up to her nose and inhaled. It was perfumed with an earthy, intoxicating scent of oak, coffee, and... something else. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it was almost pheromonal. Juliet felt silly for how obsessed she was with a woman she met for only a few minutes, but she was the closest thing to a perfect woman. She was tall and seductive with thick, luscious...

"Hey there, Juliet. Got a new client there?" Her coworker Franklin appeared at her desk and looked at the business card. Juliet felt her stomach drop.

"Oh, this? No. I mean she could be, I suppose," Juliet stuttered, her words like scattered leaves.

"Gotcha. Cool," Franklin said. She saw him watch her tuck the card away with a confused look on his face. "Doing anything fun this weekend?" Franklin tried once more at small talk. Juliet felt her mind melt a little more thinking about all the work she had put into the upcoming session. The STD tests she had to submit. The multi-step background check. The cold survey of her fantasies, kinks, and fetishes.

"Honestly, I haven't thought that far ahead yet," Juliet said dishonestly.

"Well, me and some of the other reps were gonna go to Quicksilver tonight. I mean, no pressure, it would just be cool to see you..."

"Wow, that sounds awesome," Juliet said. She looked at the clock. Fifteen more minutes. "You know what? I just remembered that I have a date, I'm sorry," she tried to look apologetic.

"Oh yeah? Well, have fun," Franklin did his best to hide his crushing disappointment and shuffled back to his desk. Juliet looked over at the clock again. She felt a nervous energy throb in her veins. This evening was all she could think about, all she could feel. Normally she would feel bad when rejecting someone, but she had no time for such silly thoughts. Juliet eyed the card again. It was taunting her. She could hear Lillian's silky voice speak to her through it, saying, "Don't be late. Or do. How I love starting a session with some discipline..."

Juliet looked at the clock. 4:58 p.m. Close enough. She grabbed the card and her purse and walked quickly for the exit, praying that nobody stopped her. Luckily, for once, she had a clean path to her car. She got into the driver's seat and immediately started driving, not bothering to put music on or adjust the heat on what was a very cold day. Juliet drove fast, her head clouded with fermented nerves and excitement. Rationally, she knew that it was stupid to work herself up like this, but she just couldn't help it. Every minute she waited was torture, and not the good kind.

Finally, she saw a sign so small she almost missed it: "Nightbound Professional Development." She whipped her car into an empty spot and walked up to the door clutching the business card. This was it. If she wanted to turn back, now was the time to do it. Juliet thought back to when she met Lillian at the conference. She was like a planet with her own gravitational force. She spoke with such clarity and held herself with a distinguished poise that towered her above everyone around her. But when she came up to Lillian and opened her lips to speak, she felt like an old friend, a warm and kind soul that legitimately cared. Maybe it was all an act. Maybe what Juliet felt was a distortion of reality, but she had to at least see it though.

She opened the sleek glass door and walked into a modest-looking, but empty lobby with a bubbly, red-haired secretary sitting behind a desk. She had a small metal name tag engraved with "Mst. Sadie Luxon."

"Hi! Can I help you?" Sadie turned away from her computer and looked up with a smile. Juliet walked up to her and slid Lillian's card across the desk. Strangely, the secretary brought the card to her nose and inhaled deeply. Sadie had a far-away look on her face for a moment before returning to reality and smiling at Juliet.

"You must be Juliet," she said, sliding the card back. "I have you down for a 5:30 with Mistress Lillian... and it says here that you don't plan on any anal play today?"

"No, thank you," Juliet said. She looked around the lobby with humiliation spreading across her cheeks. Hearing her preferences out loud was deeply embarrassing, but she told herself that here, it was normal.

"Great! Have there been any changes to your health since you sent in your preference forms?" Sadie typed a quick note about Juliet's response to the anal question.

"Um, I don't think so?" Juliet said. It felt like she was at a doctor's office with how cold and clinical she was being questioned.

"Great! And are you interested in an extended aftercare session following your appointment? There's 30 minutes built into your time slot for restraint removal and relaxation, but we can extend it to an hour if you anticipate needing some extra time to wind down," Sadie explained.

"What do most people do?" Juliet asked. She was beginning to feel like she was in over her head.

"I always recommend that first-timers take advantage of the entire hour. The emotional effects of our practice can be heavier than anticipated, especially with Mistress Lillian," Sadie said.

"Yeah, sure. I'll do the hour, then," Juliet said. She had even more questions now, but the secretary made a final note and stood up.

"Great! And you're aware of your verbal and nonverbal safe words?" Sadie dropped her smile and gave Juliet a serious look.

"Yes," Juliet said. She felt her nervousness reach a boiling point. This wasn't her first time experimenting with BDSM, but she wouldn't consider herself a professional. Most of her experience came from reading smut and imagining herself in complex, humiliating scenarios. It never occurred to her that she might need to get out of one.

"Great! In that case, you can head on down the hallway. It's the last door on the right," Sadie pointed to the end of a long corridor. "You'll find a changing room around the corner in case you want to store any valuable belongings or clothing." Juliet looked down at her outfit. She was wearing her nicest cashmere sweater, a black pencil skirt, and sheer nylon stockings.

"Thanks. Should I take all my clothes off there?" Juliet asked. She was still speaking in a hushed tone as if there were invisible people in the lobby listening in on the conversation.

"Well, it says on your intake form that you're interested in having clothing forcibly torn off your body," Sadie adjusted her glasses and squinted at her computer screen. "Should I make an adjustment to your sexual preferences, or are you still interested in forcible clothing removal?"

"No, no. Keep it as is, thank you," Juliet said. Her cheeks were a deep red now. She should've assumed that there would be someone who would process all of the deeply personal information she submitted about herself, but she didn't think it would be recited back to her.

"Sounds good. Have a lovely session!" Sadie beamed. Juliet was increasingly less sure about how "lovely" it was going to be, but she tried to let the positive energy reassure her.

"Thanks," Juliet managed a weak smile. Her heels echoed loud clicks as she walked down the hallway. She could feel the secretary's eyes burn into the back of her head as she walked down the sterile, brightly lit hallway. Each door she passed was marked with a brass plaque containing a woman's name and their role.

"Mst. Ruby Onaki - Shibari Specialist... Mst. Clarissa Waters - Impact Therapist... Mst. Lillian Kingsley - Chief Executive Officer," Juliet read each name softly to herself, stopping at Lillian's door. Honestly, the Shibari Specialist and Impact Therapist positions made more sense than Lillian's CEO title. What did owning a business mean if all of the workers were experienced dominatrixes?

Regardless of the lofty role, Lillian clearly ran a well-organized company, from the detail of the intake forms to the pristine polish on the floor of the hallway. Juliet was expecting Lillian's building to be a bit more medevial in its design, but she admittedly didn't have much experience in the world of sex dungeons. And it wasn't a sex dungeon, Lillian made a note of emphasis in her pitch to Juliet, it was a, "Center for physical development and exploration."

Juliet gathered her courage and knocked twice on Lillian's door, as ready as she was going to be for her "physical development and exploration." She felt her stomach flutter as she waited for a response. Agonizing seconds passed, each dripping anxiety straight into her veins. What did Sadie mean when she said that Lillian's practice was emotionally difficult? Juliet was physically prepared to be stripped, tied up, whipped, denied orgasms, and humiliated, but she began to question how she would feel about it. This session was all she could think about ever since she watched Lillian walk away from her at the sales conference. But her pent-up anticipation was about to be released, turning dreamy fantasies into hard realities.

Before she could question herself further, she heard a door open behind her. Surprised, Juliet turned around from Lillian's door to find Sadie, the secretary, standing in the empty doorway with a bundle of rope and a black leather sack in her hands. She still had the same eerily welcoming smile on her face. Juliet wiped her clammy palms on her skirt and looked down the hall nervously.

"Oh, there's nothing down there, don't worry," Sadie said. She took a step closer to Juliet, who instinctively shuffled back against Lillian's door. Sadie's name tag glinted in the bright fluorescent light, "Mst. Sadie Luxon." A sinking revelation washed over Juliet. All of the plaques she passed were labeled with the same honorific. "Mst." meant Mistress, and that meant...

Lillian's door opened behind Juliet, making her stumble backwards and slip on the polished floor. Before she hit the ground, she felt two gloved hands catch her upper arms and watched as Sadie stepped forward and pulled the sack over her head. Her entire vision went dark and she could feel her panicked breath warm the air inside the hood.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Juliet yelled, her voice distorted by the heavy sack. She tried to struggle against the grip on her arms, but she was roughly pushed face down against the floor, each limb held in a vice-like grip. Her arms were held firmly at the small of her back by the gloved hands while Sadie quickly bound them together with tight knots at her wrists and elbows. Juliet breathed heavily, adrenaline coursing through her body.

"Oh, fuck," Juliet said. Was this part of the session? She tried to wriggle out of the grip, but her arms were completely immobile. She felt one woman push her skirt up past her knees and the other tie her thighs together with a long length of rope. The same treatment was given to her ankles despite her best attempts to throw her captors off of her.

"Anything else, Mistress Lillian?" Juliet could barely hear Sadie's voice through the sack.

"No, thank you. Could you cancel my 8:00 dinner reservation? I think I'm going to stay late tonight," Lillian's voice floated above Juliet. She felt Lillian pat her lower back in emphasis.

"Of course. Also, Mistress Clarissa mentioned that she won't be using her floggers tonight. I know you're fond of her German nine-tail, so I'd be happy to bring it to you," Sadie said. Juliet swallowed hard, feeling a deep humiliation settle within her as the two women planned her torment while she was face down and helpless.

"That would be wonderful," Lillian said.

"I'll get right on it, then," Juliet heard Sadie's heels click as she walked away. Lillian and Sadie's conversation terrified Juliet, but it did help to settle her back into reality, even if that reality was tight bondage. The gloved hands returned to her shoulders and with a bit of exertion, Lillian dragged Juliet out from the doorway into her room. Juliet winced at the tight grip and the animal-like treatment, but she focused on her breathing and kept herself composed. She heard Lillian's footsteps pass by her as she walked back to the doorway, where she had a short, muffled conversation with Sadie that Juliet couldn't hear. The door slammed shut and the sound of a thick, metal deadbolt sliding in place echoed in the room. This was it. Juliet was locked in a room with an almost complete stranger who knew every one of her darkest fantasies.

Juliet felt a pressure in her wrists and realized she was being lifted off the ground. She struggled to get her bound feet underneath her as her arms, still tied behind her at the wrist and elbow, were being pulled towards the ceiling. Painful tension surged in her shoulders as her arms were forced into a cruel strappado with her back arched and her butt exposed. Her heels scraped against the floor as she tried to get them underneath her. It didn't help that her balance was thrown off by the sack over her head. Lillian laughed an enchanting laugh watching Juliet struggle into a somewhat comfortable position.

Without warning, Lillian pulled the sack off Juliet's head and grabbed her ponytail, forcing her head up and back. Before Juliet could blink her vision back into focus, Lillian had a tight knot tight from the base of her ponytail to the same anchor her wrists were tied to. Juliet's senses were immediately overwhelmed by the room around her and the woman standing in front of her.

Lillian's office, if one could even call it that, was decorated as if royalty lived there. The floor was solid hardwood, polished to an almost reflective shine. Expensive-looking rugs decorated the floor and beautiful paintings covered the walls. A massive mahogany desk with a tall leather chair sat at one end of the room, worthy of a ruler, or a CEO. Behind her, Juliet could feel the heat and hear the sound of a crackling fire in a fireplace. But she wasn't staring at the intricate patterns of the rug underneath her, she was hypnotized by the perfection standing in front of her, arms crossed under her chest.

Lillian looked like she dominated other dominatrixes, and judging by her interaction with Sadie, she probably did. She wore a skintight latex catsuit that covered her curves from neck to toe, save for a diamond-shaped cutout on her chest, showing cleavage so deep Juliet's gaze got lost in it. Lucy's body shone with the flickering light of the fire, brightness glimmering on the void-black material. Tearing her eyes away from her body, Juliet looked into Lucy's eyes. She wore a touch of makeup on her brilliant blue eyes and dark red lipstick on her full lips. Her dark chocolate-colored hair was tied up in a tight bun, giving her the look of a strict disciplinarian. Beneath the domineering exterior was a captivating warmth that shined in her eyes and in the curve of her cheeks.

Juliet opened her mouth to say something, but no words formed on her tongue. She stood there, her limbs bound impossibly tight with her lips parted in a transfixed stupor in front of a goddess among women. There was a visceral humility to her situation that overrode all reasonable thought. All this, and Lillian had hardly touched her.

The dominatrix walked around her desk and sat down in the massive chair. She steepled her gloved fingers on the desk and leaned forward as if considering a business deal.

"I'm pleasantly surprised that you made it through my screening," Lillian said. "I met dozens of beautiful, talented women at that conference, and you're the only one who passed the tests. What makes you so special, Juliet?"

Juliet swallowed hard, her heart skipping as she heard Lillian say her name.

"I didn't realize I was being tested," Juliet said. It was the truth. She didn't realize there was a wrong answer to the question, "What restraints do you prefer?" Apparently rope was the right answer.

"Of course you didn't. That's by design," Lillian laughed. She opened a drawer on her desk and pulled out a large leather wrap. Juliet felt fear bubble in her core as Lillian unfurled the wrap across her desk, revealing an impressive collection of sex toys and torture implements, some completely unknown to Juliet. Lillian thumbed through the tools, each held in place by a leather loop, before settling on a pair of safety shears. She took a few steps towards Juliet, maintaining eye contact. Juliet breathed slowly, taking in her scent. It was similar to the perfume on the business card, but mixed with oak from the fireplace and high-quality latex.

"You didn't answer my question," Lillian said, a hint of disapproval laced in her warm tone. She dragged the shears up Juliet's sweater until the cold, hard steel pressed into the base of her throat. Juliet held perfectly still and watched Lillian make a small slit in the top of her sweater. Lillian grabbed each side of her sweater and pulled hard, ripping it straight down the middle in an angry tear. Juliet gasped, her breasts rising and falling with her steady breath. Lillian smiled and quickly cut the sweater off her shoulders, tossing it to the floor as if it were a piece of trash.

"Why are you worthy of me?" Lillian's voice dripped like honey. She slid the shears down her stomach and opened the blades around the waistband of her skirt.

"I'm not... you're so... um..." Juliet murmured. Her voice trembled with anxiety and turned into another gasp as Lillian cut her skirt straight down the front. Her body was almost completely exposed, save for her bra, underwear, and stockings.

"You disagree with my judgement? You think I have poor taste, choosing an unworthy woman?" Lillian spoke with a dangerous tilt, dragging the shears to the underwire of Juliet's bra.

"No, of course not. I've been dreaming about this since the day I met you. I just..." Juliet trailed off, barely holding her composure. Lillian snipped the underwire. Her breasts fell out of her bra, which were lewdly pushed forward by the behind-the-back bondage.

"You just what?" Lillian asked, quickly snipping the straps to completely remove the bra from her body.

"I just felt obsessed with you. It's embarrassing, I'm sorry," Juliet admitted. She felt more embarrassed by the admission of emotion than her nudity.

"That's sweet," Lillian said with an evil smile. She grabbed the waistband of Juliet's underwear. She twisted hard, bisecting her pussy with the lacy material.

"FUCK," Juliet yelled, which earned a sharp smack against her exposed ass. Stinging pain spread like spilled water across her naked cheek. She breathed heavily to steady herself and looked back at Lillian.

"You'll learn to control yourself," Lillian said. She tugged on her underwear, which was cruelly digging into her clit, to emphasize her point. Juliet nodded as much as the tight rope binding her hair would let her, afraid to earn further punishment. Lillian gave her a warm nod and made three quick cuts on her underwear before peeling it off her arousal-slick pussy. Juliet felt grateful that her pain was eased, but she felt helplessly exposed with all of her nicest clothing in tatters on the floor.

"I always love going to those silly little sales conferences. There's so many eager, fresh-faced women like yourself with the burning desire to prove something," Lillian said. She circled back around to her desk, pulling a ball gag out of the leather wrap and grabbing the German flogger Sadie left for her.