She moved like a cloud, inconspicuously sailing on pins so fair, so utterly pallid, they were scarcely visible beneath her dusty violet dress of many layers. Any paler, they would have resembled dragonfly wings but without the charm of the rainbow iridescence evidenced by natures very own stained glass windows. All of this deemed her gossamer light in terms of presence yet ironically this did little to preserve her from notice.
'I see 'The Mouse' has been shopping at Audrey Lockhart's Granny boutique again,' smirked an impeccably dressed woman, sipping on a generous serving of Sancerre. 'How very insipid.'
The group of women she was with eyed Paige of the violet dress with crystalline eyes bejewelled by permafrost.
One of their number however was not so inexplicably consumed with avarice.
'That's not very fair Kenisha. I think she looks lovely. She seems like a sweet girl,' the outlier said.
Kenisha scoffed and flicked ebony hair.
'Maybe you should go speak to her then Charlotte. Because I certainly won't. I only invited her because her husband is hot.'
The other women feigned shock and giggled into their glasses of bubbles, leaving sticky smears of lip gloss around the edges.
To their consternation, Charlotte actually did approach Paige, who was standing by the drinks table trying in vain to open a bottle of beer.
'Oh! You scared me!' she cried jumping with a start. The bottle dropped to the grass fizzing and frothing wastefully into the multitude of criss crossing green blades.
Charlotte crouched and retrieved the bottle then grabbed some napkins to wipe off the foam that had spattered Paige's lace ivory flats.
'Good as new!' she smiled, standing up.
Paige looked awkward, hands fiddling, restlessly playing with her oversized collar.
'Thank you.'
'Not a problem.'
'I take it the beer was for your husband? Why don't I help you open a new one? Those caps can be tricky.'
'You're very kind,' Paige murmured, noting how pretty Charlotte was.
They opened several beers in fact and took them over to the men standing beside what now remained of the barbecue. Paige had one in each hand. Charlotte somehow, magically managed to carry six.
'Well would you look at that,' said Simon, who was Charlotte's partner of seven years. 'Angels bearing gifts.'
He planted a kiss on Charlotte's forehead and handed out the amber coloured bottles.
'Cheers!' they shouted raucously, tapping the necks together. Obviously these were not their first beers of the night. Nor would they likely be the last.
The other women came over too and although Paige was standing right there, a torrid exchange of flirtatious behaviour between her handsome husband Lorcan and the ladies bloomed. Primarily, it was conducted by Kenisha, who flashed gloating looks at the apparently humiliated Paige.
'Be a sweetheart Paige and fetch me another beer would you?' Lorcan said, momentarily halting his discussion regarding Kenisha's breast size following her recent surgical augmentation in California.
'Of course,' replied Paige meekly.
Charlotte trotted after her, repulsed by her submissiveness.
'Why are you letting them away with that?'
Paige grabbed a bottle from the ice bucket and as before, struggled earnestly with the cap.
'Letting them away with what?'
Charlotte rolled her eyes, hands on hips.
'Here. Give me that.'
She popped the lid and tossed it over her shoulder.
'Letting them disrespect you. It's gotta hurt.'
Paige smiled shyly and bobbed her head, her soft brown eyelashes fluttering against her milky cheeks.
'It's fine. Really. Thank you for your help Charlotte.'
And with that she returned to the group proffering her husband an icy beer, which he took without a word of gratitude.
Over the course of the evening, numbers were exchanged. Jokes rolled, drinks flowed but Paige as ever remained on the periphery. She never complained. She never spoke up. She just stood at Lorcan's elbow, invisible.
At 2am that evening, less than an hour after the party had ended, she received a text from the only person she had exchanged numbers with -- her shadow and her protector for the evening, the kindly Charlotte.
'I know tonight must have pained you hunny. They weren't nice. Not nice at all. Women can be such bitches. If you need to talk anytime I want you to know I'm here ok.'
Panting hard and wiping sweat from her brow, Paige smiled and typed back...
'Pain is not the enemy.'
The response to that was swift.
'What? Paige...please tell me you're safe? Please tell me everything is ok? Is Lorcan there?'
'Yes. No need for worry. Everything is perfect.'
'I don't understand.'
Her next reply was not a text message, it was a photo of her husband Lorcan, naked and fastened to a bench.
Then a second message arrived -- a text.
'Don't trust everything you see Charlotte sweetheart. Even salt can be confused with sugar.'
That had been the last thing Charlotte expected. For a few minutes her mind scrambled to understand.
'What's going on?'
'Nothing currently. I've taken a break from disciplining Lorcan to text you.'
'Wait, what?'
'Charlotte. Lorcan is receiving his punishment, like a good sub. At least he will be in a minute when we've finished talking. It won't harm him to wait.'
'Holy crap Paige! Are you saying you're like a Domme or something? You were faking tonight with all that humble shit?'
'Yes. And Lorcan is my secret bitch.'
'Oh. So all sugar on the outside and habanero salt on the inside?'
'Something like that.'
'Oh my wow! I can't believe this. You are full of surprises girl. I'd better let you get back to it then...and be sure to give him a smack on the ass for me. A hard one. He was an insolent swine to you tonight.'
'You can count on it, I assure you. Night Charlotte.'
'Night Paige.'
Paige put the phone down and stared at Lorcan's prone body. She read him. His signals. Even the ones he didn't intend. With his jeans and boxers puddled around his ankles and tied at every limb, the sight of him exhibited thusly moved her in ways she didn't even fully understand herself. The nervous blinking exhorted her to resume his punishment and make him moan for her breathlessly. The quickening breath, the eyes darting towards her, his tensed thigh muscles, the slight tremble of his body and that little sheen of sweat, all caused a fast growing euphoria in Mistress Paige.
She wasn't in her dowdy lilac dress now. She was stepping to a very different tune; one where she wore a purple from the darker end of the spectrum. A latex bustier of deepest amaranthine gripped her waist and pushed up her below average size bust. Its straps held up sheer black stockings and the little inverted v at the pelvis revealed Domme knickers with a convenient zip for subs to do obeisance of the oral kind.
She approached with a slow swagger, holding an ice cold beer in one hand and a whip in the other.