Life in our apartment went on as normal, if that were possible, for a week or two after the party at Mandy's. Laura and I spent the following weekend with Gary and Louis, during which Gary persuaded me to have a ring put in my clitoris-hood. He called Talia, who took me to her tattoo-shop the following evening to have it done. In truth, it hurt quite a lot, but having Talia there with me was a comfort, and the process gave me a strange surge of excitement, even though I knew I should have to eschew any sexual activity for a few days, at least, until the soreness subsided.
When we were having dinner one evening, I said to Laura, 'Can we talk?'
'Of course, darling,' she said, a sliver of pizza poised halfway to her mouth.
'Look,' I said, 'this is a bit difficult, but there's something I need to talk about, and you're the only real friend I've got.'
She smiled, and said, 'Name it.'
'You know I'm a submissive, and.......'
'And,' she interrupted, 'you need to be dominated. Darling, do you think I haven't thought about it? I know you by now, almost better than you know yourself. I love having you here, but all good things must come to an end, and we must find you a Master. I shall talk to Louis - he knows a lot of people.'
We left it at that, and I heard Laura having a long telephone conversation later on that evening.
Next day, in the office, my intercom buzzed, and it was Louis, summoning me to his palatial office.
'Come in, Diana, and take a seat,' he said, from behind his huge desk. He regarded me quietly for a few moments, and then said, 'I shall be sorry to lose you.'
'But...but....,' I started.
He put a hand up to silence me, and smiled.
'I know, I know, but you are not leaving the firm. Laura has spoken to me, and I have made an arrangement for you I trust you will like. This afternoon, you will be sent for.'
'Sent for!' It sounded chilling. I hardly knew what to expect, and ate my lunchtime sandwich in a state of nervous excitement. Neither could Laura enlighten me - or maybe she didn't want to - as to what was to happen to me.
About three-thirty my buzzer sounded, and a voice told me to put my coat on and report to Reception. I did so.
I was met by a liveried chauffeur, who showed me out to a large black Lexus with smoked rear windows, and opened the rear door for me in silence. He closed the intersecting window, precluding conversation, and I was driven for not more than ten minutes, to somewhere in the City, I guessed. We drew up outside a large glass-clad edifice, and the door was opened for me. I got out, and walked in through electronic doors, and straight into a lift, up to the twelfth floor. I was in a state of nervous tension when I was shown into an office bigger than that of Louis, and infinitely better appointed. Expecting a man to greet me, I was more than a little surprised when the most elegant lady I had ever seen stepped out of a closet in front of me. She was tall, about 1.75 metres, and slender, and had platinum blonde hair swept up in a French knot, accentuating her classical, high-cheek-boned features. She wore a plum-coloured business-suit with a pencil-slim skirt, and a simple white silk blouse. Her slim nylon-clad legs were supported on elegant heels. Diamonds glittered unostentatiously - but unmistakeably - from several fingers, her ear-lobes, and a pendant at her swan-like neck.
'So you are Diana,' she said, sitting down behind an enormous desk, and regarding me coolly for perhaps half a minute without saying anything further, while I shuffled nervously from one foot to the other. Her steel-grey eyes bored into me like gimlets, and then she continued, 'I am Helen Barrington, owner and managing director of the company. Louis is my branch manager, and has sent you here - that is all you need to know about me, I think. I can see you were surprised to find yourself faced by a woman - I know why you are here.' She almost smiled as she said this, but paused again, to let her last remark sink in. I was, indeed, taken aback, and couldn't imagine being dominated by a woman, but this was about to change, dramatically.
Suddenly standing up behind the desk, she said harshly, 'Undress!'
I was shocked by her sudden change of attitude, and fumbled as I struggled to rid myself of my jacket, then even more as I fiddled with the buttons of my silk blouse. I felt more embarrassed than I would have thought possible as I bared my breasts in front of the watching woman, but she tapped her desk impatiently as I was again all thumbs trying to release the waistband of my tailored, pleated skirt. I was of course wearing no panties, something I was by now well used to, but, as the weather had now grown cooler, I had taken to wearing stockings and a satin suspender-belt. My naked, hairless, pussy was, however, completely exposed, when I dropped my skirt, and I was left standing in my stilettos, black stockings and garter-belt. I had never felt more vulnerable in my life.
She regarded me critically, sitting back down as she did so.
'Turn around!' she ordered, and I obeyed.
'Bend over!' she said - again I did as she instructed, wondering if she was about to strike me, but she said, 'Stand up, and get dressed.'
Her unblinking grey eyes were still on me as I did as she told me, and I was more nervous than ever.
As I finished buttoning my blouse, she came around her desk, and motioned me to sit in a leather armchair, then sat down herself in its twin, facing me, her eyes still unnervingly on mine.
'I make you nervous,' she said. It was a statement, not a question.
'Yes,' I agreed.
'Why?' she asked.
'I don't know,' I confessed, 'but I'm scared of you, I think.'
'Then we have the basis of the kind of relationship I have in mind,' she said.
I was less sure. I could envisage myself being enslaved by a dominant man - in fact, it was what I had been dreaming off, but a woman? Then again, this was no ordinary woman - her eyes, her very presence, had an effect upon me I couldn't begin to understand.
'When were you last whipped?' she suddenly asked.
'Oh, two weeks ago,' I replied, hardly able to remember when Gary had beaten me with his belt.