Alternative Ending

Her Butler Alternative Ending © Pat Annon 2020

[This is an alternative to part 4 of the story series, Her Butler. It is an exploration of consent and non-consent in a long term D/s relationship.]

Jennifer was at his bedside when her butler died. "Complications following his stroke." Memories of a life well lived flooded the room as she processed his final words. Back 40 years ago, when she was not yet 30, she posted her ad on Craigslist.

He was not the first to answer that ad. He was not the first she tried as a roommate. When she first signed on as a junior associate in her law firm, she shared an apartment with another young attorney. Both were beginning their career, but the other woman wanted to party instead of building her resume.

That first roommate did not last long at the firm nor in her apartment. Over the next four years there were a succession of three other young attorneys, none of whom as driven as she.

She had enough powerful men in her life. She could bring one home anytime she wanted. She decided she did not want to live with someone full of himself. She began looking for someone she could shape into the person with whom she could live.

The first one she chose, who answered her Craigslist ad, was talkative. The bigger problem was, after a couple of months, he began to see her as a potential lover even though she clearly stated otherwise. She did not want to have to repel his advances. He was not trainable, he cared only about himself.

The second she tried was a young woman who had a lot of growing up to do. While compliant, this one proved more needy than useful. She lasted three months.

Then Jim showed up. She knew right away. There was no question. He was the right one. He didn't recognize her, but she met him once before. He had been a client of one of her associates. She recognized him, yet, over the decades, he never seemed to recollect having met her.

In high school, Jennifer was sexually active. Actually, that may be an understatement. Better put, Jennifer explored as fully as possible her sexual identity while in high school. As soon as she came of age in her state, she went beyond boys learning about their own sexuality, to men who knew what they wanted. And she gave them what they wanted. She also learned that they would give back, when she asked.

In the spring of her senior year in high school, a gentleman admirer gave her an expensive necklace. That set up an exploration of ways she could pay for college as an escort on weekends. Her freshman year at college, Jennifer got really good at sucking dick and earned enough to pay for her first two years.

She advertised on Backpage, but found she got a better response, at that time, from an ad on Eros. She was busy most weekends and, with experience, found she could sort out those who would not generously support her. While engaged in the world of sex work, she maintained boundaries with her life as a college student, keeping her identity secret.

In the spring of her sophomore year, she met a client who asked for a spanking. Not little love taps as a prelude for sex, but a full-out over-the-knee spanking with a wooden hairbrush. Jennifer never looked back. His struggle to stay over her knee while his bottom turned pink then deep red then white in spots was as exciting to her as all the sex she ever had.

She signed up to work at a local commercial bdsm dungeon and found her calling. She loved dominating men. And she was good at it. In her junior year, she gave up advertising as an escort and immersed herself in professional domination as "Mistress Agony." Beyond her fascination with the varieties of submission, she enjoyed being with those who would suffer for her, and suffer they did.

She soaked up the wisdom of the head mistress, working with her as often as she could. That is how she met Jim. He was a client of the head mistress: his preferred session corporal; his preferred instrument the paddle. Jennifer never had a session with him, but she saw him at the dungeon. Once she greeted him at the door in her role as Mistress Agony. He didn't seem to make the connection when they met in her office for the interview. Why would he?

Jennifer graduated college and law school near the top of her class. More importantly she graduated debt free with money in her brokerage account. She snagged an excellent offer from an international law firm. On her income from the law firm, without the debt that burdened so many junior law associates, she could afford a nice apartment in a great neighborhood.

She left sex work behind. With hard work and clarity on her goals, Jennifer began climbing the ladder at the firm. Initially, to manage costs, she shared her apartment with other associates. But each proved difficult. That's when she had the idea that changed everything. What if she could find a submissive? Could she find a submissive who would share some of the cost of her apartment, help with everyday tasks and defer authority to her?

When Jim walked through her door to interview, she knew that if her idea was going to work, it would be with him. Already on his third day with her, when he handed her a mug of coffee, her smile was honest. "This is the way it will be," she thought. She could tell he liked her smile.

It didn't take long, just a few weeks, to train him to clean and take care of the apartment for her. She never used an angry word, just her smile. She found he responded to encouraging gestures. His most enthusiastic service was when he thought it was his idea. She directed his thoughts rather than his behavior. The single most important thing to her was respect for her boundaries. And, while his consent to her process of training was never explicit, his unique joy derived from her smile gave her the permission she desired.

A look of disappointment was seldom necessary. When he overslept one day, she thought, at first, she may have overdone her disapproval. [Her Butler part 1] He became sullen and unresponsive. Knowing that his preferred sessions at the dungeon involved impact play, she decided to offer a spanking. It made all the difference. His attitude improved immediately. And a wholly new level of relationship formed.

Jennifer loved spanking Jim. Her grandmother's hairbrush was the perfect implement. She dug it out of a box in her apartment storage area long before he gave her a reason to use it. She waited for the right time and when that time arrived, the hairbrush made its appearance. The story of its use on the women in her family provided the perfect level of connection for him.

With spanking their only act of intimacy, Jennifer and Jim made their home together. It remained her apartment with Jim the renter, but it was more than that. Jim found the purpose for his life in her apartment. His happiness became connected to her wellbeing and her pleasure. For him an hour cleaning when she wasn't there was an hour close to her. But when she was there, he took pains to be out of the way. Odd how this contradiction made perfect sense to both of them. He fulfilled her expectation of him and she his desire to serve.

Jim gave her space to live while taking care of the apartment. He enjoyed doing what he could to make her life easier. No one couldn't ask more of a submissive. His financial contribution was not as great as her former roommates, but he more than made up for it in his willing service to her. While he never explicitly expressed consent to her dominance, he gave his submission without her consent as well. It was their way.

And those spankings! Jennifer reveled in spanking Jim. His delicious squirming aroused her; his timing uncanny. She might have a particularly difficult day preparing a legal brief, or with an obtuse client or with office politics, and her hairbrush would appear on the chair by the window. It was his sign he was ready, or was it he sensed she needed to spank him?

He always seemed to know the perfect moment to ask. And for the days leading up to their Sunday morning encounter, that antique hairbrush on her chair evoked, in her, the arousal to come. He offered his bottom. She took advantage of his offering. She delighted in his suffering even as he coveted standing in the corner of her room.

When she made Junior Partner in the firm, they moved to an upper floor condo purchased with her savings. Her investment paid off when later she made full partner. She used a cash out mortgage on the condo for her partnership buy in. Then, after her second-year distribution, she bought a home in Kenilworth, just north of the city. Jennifer made shrewd choices.

James was one of those shrewd choices. When he lost his job as a warehouse manager, she lowered his rent to something he could afford as a Starbucks barista. He had more time to think up ways to support her, becoming her cook, house maid and maintenance man, all in one.

The tranquility of her home life balanced the intensity of her law office. Jim make their home a place of peace. He absolutely never complained to her about anything. He did the shopping and took care of her household. He gave her the receipts and she reimbursed him. It was their way.

Saturday evenings Jim would vanish. She could bring anyone home with her and there would be no sign of Jim's presence. She wondered if he could hear her love making, but he said nothing. Unless they had a date with her hairbrush, she would not see him on the weekend until Sunday evening.

Often, in contract law, her work involved creating compromise solutions. Bending her client just enough to make the transaction happen, with profitable result. Until both sides signed, the negotiations were often tense. Like a high stakes game of chess, she had to plan several responses to the next proposal from the other side. She was good at it, this negotiation phase, and she was promoted to ever more intense situations.

Having a peaceful home was a godsend to her. She never felt the conflicts in her personal life others experienced. Because of Jim, Jennifer's life was free of drama. She was able to focus on her clients and their best interest; often understanding their best option better than they did. She developed a reputation for positive outcomes when others could see only a stalemate.

When she discovered Jim going through her underwear drawer, she was a little angry. [Her Butler Part 2] He had violated the implicit boundary between them that made the peace she enjoyed possible. Her first impulse was to end their relationship. But she had invested years in training him. She decided this was an opportunity to take their relationship to a new level. That's when she thought of JoEllen.

She knew JoEllen had a great commercial BDSM facility on the south side. It was in an old medical building with a warren of rooms for various themes. Jennifer contacted her and set up a very special session for Jim. Jennifer designed it all. Of course she knee Jim's history. She knew his appetite for corporal punishment from years before. She engaged three of JoEllen's house dominas to play the part of the receptionist, nurse, and corporal punishment specialist.

It was JoEllen who came up with the idea of chastity and washing underwear, but Jennifer loved it. Putting the two ideas together, corporal punishment and long-term chastity, was perfect for Jim. His submission complete; satisfying both to him and to her.

The room in which Jim received his paddling has a wall of two-way mirrors. Behind the mirror wall is a small lounge for the staff. From there they can view sessions and learn from each other. Of course, Jennifer attended and watched Jim's session from behind that mirror. Later, when she was available, she would watch his canings. His suffering pleased her no end. She kept the video of his paddling and sometimes watched it on her smartphone while waiting in airports.

The most difficult part of Jim's punishment scene to produce was the orientation video. Jennifer knew a kink-friendly videographer from her time in the commercial dungeon. She wrote the script and had a graphic artist make a storyboard to go along with it. They filmed the storyboard and the woman who played the receptionist did the voiceover.

All in all, that Friday morning and the four Thursday evenings cost more than fourteen thousand dollars. But it was well worth it. Even the actor who walked out to his car with the help of the nurse was paid. Jennifer scripted Jim's experience from beginning to end. She had given him the gift of an experience he would never forget. And in return she had the key to his chastity cage.

Locked in chastity, Jim became even more attentive. He was the one who suggested that he might cater a dinner party for one of her clients. She was concerned, so she set up a dinner with some of her staff. That went so well, she agreed to Jim's plan.

Her clients were Jewish, conservative but not practicing. Jim decided on a slow braised brisket with new potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts. He kept the menu kosher even if his kitchen was not. His brisket braise was red wine based with rehydrated wild mushrooms. He used the same pinot noir that he planned to serve and added roasted garlic and fresh rosemary in the braise.

The dinner started with savory asparagus spring rolls with a kosher anchovy-based fish sauce. His salad was simple and lightly dressed. He added dried cherries and walnuts to his balsamic reduction. He offered for dessert, his own baklava with a filo dough made with oil. He served a sweet Turkish coffee.

Jennifer was pleased and she let him know it. He took the initiative and worked hard at making things right for her. Her guests asked if he was a private chef and could they hire him. She said no, he was a good friend who liked to cook for her.

Until that very moment, she had not considered the future of their relationship. He was submissive to her, and she enjoyed both his submission and the good things that came to her because of his submission. She felt he gave his consent in his willing participation, enjoying the purpose in life he found in her. From time to time she liked putting him over her knee and he asked to go there. Videos of the canings he received were unusually satisfying to her. It was all good.

Far and away the most gratifying part of their relationship was his chastity cage, both to her and, as she understood, to him. She kept the key locked up in a box on her nightstand next to her bed. Sometimes, when she brought a date into her bedroom and her bed, she touched that box. It heightened her pleasure.

He had become something more than a roommate or a friend. Her usual answer to the question about him no longer made sense. She had invested too much time and money in him for him to be her friend. When she worked long into the evening, he brought her a dinner he prepared for her. He took care of her home, her clothes, her shopping, her life. He had invested too much in her.

She prepared herself for the day Jim expressed regret or a desire for a different relationship, an end to his implied consent, or a desire for exclusive commitment. But it didn't happen. Instead, he suggested she call him her butler. [Her Butler Part 3] She understood the importance of his request: her butler, her servant, his life devoted to her. Greater commitment framed in submission to her.

The idea that Sundays would be on the honor system was hers. She wanted him to learn to defend himself and her. Security became a concern at her firm as they were embroiled in international conflicts over water rights and contractual obligations. James spent Sunday in martial arts and self-defense classes. Jennifer enjoyed feeling for his chastity device on Monday morning.

As an attorney, Jennifer often found herself defending positions with which she did not agree. Her sanctuary, her home, was there for her because James kept it that way. When they moved to Kenilworth, she had the means to make his job as her butler full-time. He took great pride in his position as her servant. She compensated him well.

The opportunity to lead the Strasbourg office was too good to pass up. The years in the EU were some of the best in her life, largely because her butler went with her. Besides their regular over her knee spankings, she enjoyed taking up the task of caning him. In return, he made her home an elegant oasis.

In the sacred moment of their only kiss at his bedside in the hospital, she told him she was glad she chose him all those years ago. For one awesome, holy moment, Jennifer was filled with love for this man whose gave her a lifetime of enduring desire, submission and unspoken consent.

He whispered to her, "Thank you, Mistress Agony." He smiled. She liked his smile. They were holding hands when he died.