The summer was almost over. Emma, to her surprise had enjoyed what was left of her summer vacation.
After the traumatic, terrifying and exhilarating start to her marriage, she and James settled into a delightful routine, spending time in Scotland, London and the villa in Corfu.
Emma had asked to be allowed to study further at university. She was waiting for her exam results, due in the middle weeks of August. One night, in early August, she and James had dinner in his flat in London and she asked him how he had come to be a part of the Order.
'I was at a strict Catholic boarding school until I was sixteen and had no idea of the existence of the Order of Saint Ishmael. My father took me to a club in London and he introduced me to one of the submissives. He told me that I would have to wait until I was eighteen, despite the age of consent being sixteen and that the wait would do me good.
He gave me a copy of 'The Story of O' and didn't mention it again until the end of the holidays.
He offered me the chance to attend a sixth form college that prepared the young men for life in the Order.
As soon as I read the book, I realised that I wasn't a submissive. It wasn't for me and I knew that I wanted to have a woman -- or women to wait on me hand and foot -- and mouth.
I was taken to The Castle at eighteen and through a disturbing induction.
You were locked in a cell and taught submission, but I was taught that sexual arousal is deceptive. I was blindfolded several times and had my dick sucked and once I came, I was shown that it made no difference if it was a man or woman doing the deed. I wasn't happy about this, but what can one do?'
Emma smiled, remembering Adrian, her jailer and steward and instructor telling her of this.
James continued, 'I became more relaxed around other naked men, but I'm heterosexual. I'll go along with a threesome if there's no other option, but to be honest, I prefer women.
There's a concept called 'cognitive dissonance'. You'll learn about this, my darling and come to recognise it. As a heterosexual man, I've fucked women and they are what I desire, but I can have sex with men, even though in my head, it feels wrong. Not sinful, but just not what I really want to do. If you manage to reconcile the subtleties of sexual desire and can write about them, then please help me to do the same?'
Emma was astounded. James was opening himself to her as an equal. She nodded her head and leant forward to kiss him, as she couldn't think of anything to say in return.
He kissed her back and pulled her towards him and into the bedroom.
They had been having a lot of sex. One day, as Emma knelt in front of James, he'd pulled her up and kissed her hard and something flared between them.
They'd been unable to keep their hands from each other after that. Each kiss was heady and rich with desire and they always ended up having completely (as James called it,) vanilla sex afterwards.
No spanking, no anal sex, no submission, just a lot of fucking.
Emma and James had discovered that their favourite position was her straddling his hips, penis buried deep inside her, face to face and kissing for as long as they could, until orgasm robbed them of conscious thought.
They would collapse onto the bed, bodies covered with a glimmering sheen of sweat and James would kiss Emma's nipple and it would start all over again.
'I wish I'd never had your nipples pierced. It feels wrong somehow, with us sitting face to face, talking and fucking and kissing. I did something to you because I thought I owned you.'
Emma silenced him with a kiss, a slow tender kiss. She took a risk and said 'James, we could just take the rings out if we want, but right now, I'm okay with them. They are pretty sexy.' She kissed him again.
He kissed her right nipple and she moaned with pleasure and off they went again. Slippery, sensual sex, with both reaching climax at the same time, the rise to orgasm taking both of them to another level of intensity.
As James' heart rate slowed, he raised an eyebrow and smiling said, 'by the way Emma, I did notice that you missed out the 'Sir'.' He suddenly looked very serious and said, 'it's okay for now, but we can't behave like this when anyone else is here. Do you understand?'
Emma, her face solemn, nodded.
'Are you scared of the Order?' she asked.
James was silent for almost a minute before he responded and all he did was nod his head and pull Emma close to him.
One day, towards the middle of August, Emma received her exam results and discovered that she had A stars for her four subjects.
She said 'let's celebrate! We could go out for dinner and just for a change, go to bed and celebrate all over again, long and slowly.'