"The question before me," said Ethan as he strode back and forth in front of them, "is what am I going to do with you two?"
Ethan turned to them, seated at the table in the kitchen; his handsome face marred by a glower. She could tell by looking at him that considerable anger lay just below the surface. The only question was whether that anger would engulf them.
They had pushed things too far, she realized. They had let their own rivalry upset the larger order, and by doing so, they had challenged his authority.
Jen and Kami sat in silence, their legs touching one another underneath the heavy wooden table. Neither woman said a word; the ticking of the clock on the far wall filled the room with ample sound.
Things had reached a crossroads of sorts; their months-long unspoken war for dominance had finally surface to the detriment of all three. What was supposed to have been a night's pleasure had turned into hours of torment for both women, and a not inconsiderable amount of embarrassment for Ethan.
Not that he hadn't recovered handily, Jen thought, as she sifted in her seat to ease the burning welts on her buttocks and thighs. The blonde who'd flogged her the night before certainly knew her way around a whip.
But the simple fact that the seeming perfection of Ethan's household had been so publicly exposed as a façade had caused quite a stir. For all the accolades his performance that previous night had won him, there would be talk.
Even Jen, in her relative naiveté as the newest addition to the household, knew that.
Jen sat there, her body gripped by anxiety, waiting to hear his judgment.
He'd ordered them both to put on clothes – real clothes – and that command alone had put them on edge.
Not that either of them really owned any 'real' clothes. For Jen at least, all of her original garments had long since been destroyed or given away; she could only imagine how little Kami owned after years of submission to Ethan. Everything they had – from the gowns they wore to events to the t-shirts they h sometimes let them wear around the house if they were cold – he'd picked out. To a garment, the governing logic behind every purchase he'd made was the drive to wantonly expose their bodies in a public setting or to emphasize some particular aspect of their bodies, thereby reminding them of their highly sexualized roles in his life.
She had to admit it worked; since coming to his house, her self-esteem as a woman had risen. To be so constantly reminded that she was there to pleasure him had the secondary effect of making her feel that desirable, the more so since she was desperately attracted to him as a man, not simply as her Master.
So, for the moment, they simply sat next to one another, each wearing a long terrycloth robe, their hands resting on the table as they watched him. Her curls were pulled back and bound with a sky blue satin ribbon, while Kami's auburn locks hung loose. Kami had a mug of coffee in front of her, and Jen watched the steam drift lazily up toward the kitchen's ceiling.
For a long moment he said nothing, then he turned away and resumed his pacing again, only to pull up short after a half circuit.
"I want you both to understand one thing: This rivalry must stop. I simply will not have this kind of disorder and competition in my household."
His face was deadly serious, which made the anxiety that the pacing suggested slightly comical. Jen realized that while he knew that there was a problem, he didn't necessarily know how to fix it.
A sign that her Master was fallible?
Surely not.
"Kami, you are the first in this household. You have been with me for years, and you gave yourself willingly to me even after I granted you freedom."
The redhead nodded, a faint smile appearing on her lovely face.
"And yet, when I take a new slutslave, you become jealous of her and actively work to undermine her training. Why? Did you think you would be displaced? Have I given you some indication of this? Or are you simply that insecure, that petty, that you would seek to wreck what I have created here for us?"
Kami lowered her head in shame, her fair skin coloring with embarrassment.
"And now, look at yourself. I've had to put you back in a collar. Your own actions have forced me to demote you from concubine to a mere slutslave. Your own insecurities have cost you all those rights and privileges. Not least the exclusivity of my bed."
Jen winced at this, knowing how much Kami valued that. To think of it, Ethan had never taken her in his bed; it was a purview he'd granted entirely to Kami. She smiled with the knowledge that that had changed.
The little redhead snapped her head up in indignation, her fiery pageboy haircut whirling around her face, "But, Master, I was only ..."
"No buts, Slave," his voice was sharp, and the redhead flinched before it, "No buts and no more talking. Your actions have done terrible things to the equilibrium of this household. You can either submit to my judgment in this matter, or you may leave."
Jen reeled at the thought of this stark choice. Ethan may not have known an exact solution to his quandary, but it was clear he was going to brook no dissent. That much was clear from his face.
Kami lowered her head again, tears welling in her green eyes.
Jen watched her in silence, unable even to feel any sense of guilty pleasure at what her Mistress was experiencing. To have one's life so totally upset by the introduction of rival, and then be totally overturned in your actions to restore your standing must be a terrible thing, she realized.
It was not a predicament she ever wanted to be in. At least as the apprentice submissive her she had no substantive standing to lose; she had no rights or privileges, not even any real sense of pride, and so only her deep yearning for Ethan could be injured by his judgments.
"Well," he asked, the hard edge to his voice cutting into the silence, "what shall it be? My judgment or your freedom?"
A long moment passed as her companion choked back a sob. When she looked up, her eyes were bright with tears, but she forced a smile.
"I choose you, Sir. How could I choose otherwise?"
He smiled, and the tension faded suddenly.
Jen marveled at how mercurial he could be sometimes; so terribly consuming in his anger, and yet so easily moved back to the warmth and joy that she found so addicting.
"Come here."
Kami stood slowly and pushed her chair away from the table. She walked over to him, into his waiting arms. He kissed her lightly on the lips, one hand on the small of her back, the other cradling her neck.
After a moment, he released her.
"Excellent. You will wear that collar for one year. When that time is completed, we shall revisit the question of your status. In the meantime, however, you are no longer my lover. You are simply my slutslave."
Kami nodded meekly.
"Now that that is settled, strip."
Without a word, Kami doffed her robe.
"Now suck my cock."
Jen watched her sink to her knees without a word, kneeling before him to unzip his pants, and then reach within to pull out the heavy length of his penis.
Jen was duly impressed at how smoothly she did this. Either she'd known this moment was coming or she was that highly skilled as a submissive. In the span of 30 seconds he'd demoted her and then ordered her to service him. And she did it without so much as a murmur, without even a break in the smile on her face.
What power did he have over Kami?
Was it the same power he had over her?
The though suddenly struck her – did he 'fit' Kami in the same way that he 'fit' her? She'd always assumed that that union that they enjoyed was unique to them, but something in the way Kami so readily acquiesced suggested that her rival was every bit as addicted to Master Ethan's pleasures as she was.
If her rival was addicted, then she could certainly understand, for the simple thought of thinking about his cock inside her had her heart racing and her pussy throbbing.
She licked her lips at the sight of it, momentarily losing her focus as the mass of auburn began to bob back and forth with that most intimate rhythm.
"Jen." Ethan's voice snapped her focus back to him.
"Master?"
"You have also brought discord to this house through your own actions."
She had? When all she had done was to acquiesce to his every whim? To endure the cruelties of the same slut who even know was sucking on his cock?
"Sir?"
"Don't play coy with me. You and I both know that you long to be more than simply a slutslave. That you hunger for me; that you hunger to have me all to yourself."
"Yes, Sir, I do." Her voice was barely a whisper.
He took a moment to run a fingertip lightly across Kami's cheek, hollowed as it was by the excellent suction she was applying. She purred, and he shuddered suddenly, leaving Jen to wonder what oral talents her rival could truly bring to bear.
"Ah, so you admit it."
"I do, Sir."
It was so strange to be sitting in a bathrobe at a kitchen table having this conversation. She was admitting to her master that she had actively sought to push out her mistress; shouldn't she have been bound to the X-form and whipped for such an admission?
For that matter, wasn't the proper setting for this conversation one that required a flogger, and not a kitchen?
