The Pleasure Boy 26 1

The Pleasure Boy 26

No matter what you plan or worry about, life keeps on happening. Less than a month after this conversation with mother, Natasha Sorkin was run over and killed instantly by a drunk driver as she was walking home from a late night at the library. I got to see him flogged in our city's Punishment Park and then enslaved and sold at auction for impaired driving under the terms of the terms of Canada's Indenture and Penal Servitude Act, (corresponding to the 34

th

Amendment, familiar from Joe Doe's and Carl Bradford's stories). Accustomed as I was to corporal punishment, both giving and receiving, it was a wrenching experience to witness this punishment. Judicial CP is now administered most scientifically - at the neuronal level, so that a naked culprit is made to feel the agony and shame of public correction in every fibre of his being, and for as long a time as wanted to teach an unforgettable lesson, without being physically damaged or reduced in market value in any way.

The culprit danced and howled under a simulated lash. Through tricks of make-up technology and lighting, an audience could watch and find some closure in his suffering. He would be thoroughly punished in ways he would remember and dread for the rest of his life, but no physical harm at all would come to him. Ten minutes after it was over, the executioners unstrapped him from the whipping frame and helped him walk, past all the spectators, back to a cell at the training facility where he'd be schooled to instant and automatic obedience to every order given him. Witnessing and contemplating this criminal's fate was an education for me, in its contrast with the joyful and pleasurable service that I'd been trained to give. For the next 30 years or more, until his amnesty at age 75 if he behaved well, obedience would be a torment of constraint for him, not the privilege of known and voluntarily accepted duty that it was for me.

On another level, though I took a grim satisfaction in watching this idiot pay for his crime, I felt guilty myself for the relief I felt from my advisor's untimely death. Much as I had respected her, appreciated her as teacher and thesis advisor, and enjoyed sexually pleasuring her and teaching her to Domme, I had not allowed myself to love her, and had been losing interest in the petty pedantries of academic life. When Sorkin had set me to work on a sound, safe thesis topic, I had gone along against my real inclination to write a geisho's book on "Fun and Comfort in History." I knew she was giving me good career advice - if what I wanted was an academic career - but my heart was not really in it. It had become clear to me that I could have more freedom and fun as a geisho than as a college prof, and that Eurasian history would be more rewarding for me as a hobby than as professional expertise.

And there was more. As I'd discussed with my mother, Natasha Sorkin had been falling in love - though not so much with me, as with my services as her submissive - and she'd been hoping to keep me around as a permanent assistant and life mate. While I could have welcomed such a life under the right Mistress, even in the academic world, there had been a coldness in her that had repelled me. I had been eager and happy in our contract as we'd written and signed it, but not in its implications for a long-term relationship. Not as these ran in Natasha's mind, at any rate.

For the rest of that semester, I mostly moped, going through the motions while thinking as little as possible. I turned down escort gigs from Monique Allard, telling her that I was mourning a loss and not yet ready to offer proper service to her clients. But I resumed spending a few hours a week as a professional sub at Master Thomas' studio. When he asked me once why I was letting his clients spank or cane me much harder than before, I told him that I felt guilty about something and actually welcomed the punishment. He frowned but said nothing further, allowing me to mourn Natasha and atone in my own way for declining to love her.

My academic career did not end abruptly, but it began to peter out. As Sorkin's assistant, I had had access to her teaching notes; and when I turned these over to her department head, he'd asked me if I'd be prepared to take over her classes for the rest of that term, until she could be replaced. I agreed, and made a competent job of it, but my heart wasn't in this work. By the time summer came, I knew I had no further interest in an academic career and would not be continuing as a graduate student in Central Asian studies. What would come next, what I now wanted for myself, I had no idea.

With her accustomed tact, my mother had left me alone to recover from the death of my teacher, pupil and thesis advisor in my own good time. She had attended Sorkin's funeral when I invited her, and I'd continued to visit my family almost every week; but she'd refrained from asking questions about plans that she knew I did not have and was not ready to make. It was only at a Sunday dinner in mid-August, with Dad and Lisa at the table, that she finally raised the subject of my future. "Are you planning to finish your doctorate?" she asked me, bluntly. "Or, what do you have in mind?"

"Why do you ask, Mom?" I responded. "I think you know that I've made no decision yet. Writing a thesis now is easier said than done. I'd need to build a relationship with a new advisor, and agree with him or her on a new topic. And I've lost most of my interest in an academic career. One thing I learned as a grad student is that if you're not a narrow specialist at heart, the university has drawbacks along with its advantages as a place to think and learn. I'm still fascinated, as I was three years ago, by Russian and Central Asian history, but lack the patience, the detachment, to think and write about it for academic credit, in a neutral, scholarly way."

"I'm thinking of falling back on my geisho credentials, earning my living with those, and doing history as a hobby in whatever free time I have. But, truth be told, Mom, as I think you know, I'm not really thinking of anything yet. Mostly, I'm drifting, living on money I earned this Spring by teaching Sorkin's courses while knowing I'll be going back to escort gigs soon unless something else comes along. The truth is, I've been postponing all the decisions that I'm not ready to make."

"Yes, I did know you were drifting," my mother said, "but that's why I'm asking - like this, at our dinner table, with Lisa and your father listening. We're all concerned about you, and we want to help."

"Mother, I don't think I want your help now, much as I value the advice and assistance you've given me in the past. Mostly what I need now is just time - free from external pressures to figure out who I really am and what I want to do with myself. Both as a geisho and in the academic world, I think I know what my options are. But I don't know which one (or ones) I want to pursue. Until I know that much, help from others is just a distraction. When I know where I want to go, I'll know whom to ask for the help I need."

"Then you'll be the first I come to, as you always have been. But, until then, what I ask now is that you leave me to find my own way."

"Dearest son," my mother answered, "We understand that pressure to make decisions is the last thing that you need now. You should know that your family has talked about your situation, and are completely agreed: We love you no matter what. Any assistance or support you need will be available on your own terms, whatever you decide. Please feel sure of that."

"But our lives have been changing as yours has, and some of the changes might affect you. In particular, they allow us to offer at least two options, not previously available, which might help you recover and get on with your life. Just let me mention them. Then file them away for future reference, if and when you wish to discuss them - either one of them - further. We promise not to bring them up again unless you do."

I said nothing, just looked at her, and waited for her to continue. Mom just smiled and gazed back, waiting for a sign of permission. Lisa and Dad were silent too. Finally, I nodded at her and she went on.

"First," my mother opened, "you must hear Lisa's news."

"Dear Jim," Lisa began. "You and I were close when we were training with Mistress Lotte, but she set me up to Domme you as an exercise for both of us and we never developed a romantic relationship. Then you got involved with Natasha Sorkin and I helped you write a contract with her when I went to work for your mother. I'm sad for you that she was killed and that you find yourself without a mistress."

"I'm getting married in a few months to a young man whom you've never met. Frank Morris (that's his name) is a tax lawyer, working very hard and doing very well. He was just getting into BDSM as a Dominant when, as your Mom's employee, I was assigned to train him for lifestyle D/s; and I became for him something like what you were for Natasha Sorkin. The difference was that I loved him, and I accepted when he proposed to me. I want you to meet him soon and be friends with both of us. You will, of course, be invited to our wedding. He accepts my work and relationships as a geisha; and, like you, sometimes plays with other men though he is basically straight. I think you'll like each other."

"Both of us are Dominants and switches, so in our sex life, we take turns as Top and bottom. That's been working very well, but we've agreed that as a working couple, both Dom and with a double income, we need two live-in submissives - a houseboy and a cook - to run our home and serve us both. Subject to his approval, I'd love for you to be our houseboy - under a contract to be negotiated among the four of us. It will be a real job for a real salary with room and board thrown in; but it will not be terribly onerous. So long as you and the girl keep our home comfortable and are around when we need you, you will be free to do other things."

"Just one more thing. You don't need to decide anything yet. You can meet Frank; play with both of us if you want to; maybe help us find a house and suitable female submissive - and then accept the job if you want it, or help us find someone else. It's summer now, and we don't plan to marry until early next year, so you'll have lot's of time to get involved with us - or not."

"Lisa, congratulations!" I answered her. "I don't think I want to be your houseboy, but I'd love to meet Frank and help you both any way I can. And I'll be glad to play with the two of you if you want me. I'm not in mourning now, and there's no way I'm giving up sex."

"My problem is deciding what I want to do with my life, having lost my teacher and Mistress, and become somewhat disillusioned with the academic life. But it still has its attractions and advantages, and I may still go back to it. Though if I stay in Central Asian studies, it probably couldn't be at McGill. I'd have to find a new teacher and thesis advisor elsewhere, unless McGill hires someone to replace Sorkin. Much as I love you as part of my family now, I know I can do something more interesting than keeping someone's home."

"Mom! If you're losing Lisa, what about taking me on as your apprentice, or whatever you want to call it? I'd love to train with you or with Myrna Stiles, training subs and Dominants as lifestyle couples. That's not something I'd need to think about. I'd commit to it in a heartbeat."

"We can discuss it," my mother said. "But I want you to hear your father's offer first, because if you came to work for me, the first thing I'd do is send you to work for him."

I was about to object, but Dad spoke up before I could open my mouth. "I can offer you a good job at my lectronics firm as a professional BDSM geisho," he said. "If you don't go back to academia, you could do a lot worse. Woodruff Electronics just won a bid that will require us to expand the company at least six-fold over the next ten years, helping to design, manufacture and test AI-driven robots and instrumentation for unmanned missions to Mars and beyond - to the asteroid belt and to the moons of Jupiter. Please don't talk about this with anyone," he went on. "It's public knowledge that we won the contract, but only the contracting authorities at the space agency know for sure what we'll need to do to meet it."

"How would this contract make work for me?" I asked him. "For a geisho in BDSM? This doesn't sound like anything I could contribute to."

"There's work for you - a lot of very interesting work - because I have a problem in human resource acquisition and management long before it becomes a set of problems in electronics. I need to hire and manage a lot of brain-power - not just warm bodies - who could also get hired, or have already been hired, by my competition. That means I need to make a lot of very attractive job offers, many of which will be accepted, to a lot of well-paid and very busy people."

"Of course, money will be a big part of those job offers, but to run at a profit, we can't win these people over with higher salaries alone. The working conditions and fringe benefits will also need to be outstanding, and that's where you'd come in. To my brightest, most productive or most senior employees, I want to offer lifestyle assistants, housekeepers and sex partners. Along with my VP of Human Resources (who would be your immediate boss), I've discussed this problem with your mother; and she has explained to us the kind of training and management that would be required. It would take a trained geisho, specialized in BDSM and with a special interest in lifestyle D/s relationships, who would also have to master the intricacies of HR law and management. It would take someone very much like you."

"And you're offering me this job? And Mom, you're saying that if I came to train with you, you'd send me to Dad to do it?"

"Almost but not quite," my mother answered. "First, Lisa won't be leaving me any time soon, so I don't need a replacement for her, and she doesn't need an assistant yet. Most of our income now is still from subcontracting to Myrna Stiles to help in training her clients. At this time, I wouldn't hire you to assist or replace Lisa in any case. I can't afford to yet, and you're not ready. It would not be a sound business decision."

"Second, I couldn't just hire you and slot you into Dad's job. He won't hire you directly himself. If you want the job, you would be interviewed and hired (if you are) by his HR vice president, to whom you would report, who would train you to do the work. Hiring you directly, over her head, would be a sure way to piss her off, and maybe lose a senior executive of Woodruff Electronics. When your father discussed the matter with me and I suggested you for the job, he told me straight out that he could never just order that you be hired for it. The most he could do would be suggest that his VP take a look at you. Maybe he would also help you tailor your resume. But that VP would surely see other candidates, and the final decision would be hers. Of course, as his son, you would have an inside track; but she might very well give him an argument that someone else was better. And she might not like that her assistant, being her boss's son, would have her boss's ear. Your Dad might argue back, but he would leave her the final decision, and make clear that he was doing so. He would have to. It would be dumb to do anything else."

"It was the same with Mistress Lotte, if you remember. I sent you to her and asked her to consider you, but she accepted you on your merits. If she had turned you down, I could not even have argued for you."

"I will continue to help you and teach you no matter what you decide now; but if you wish to work in the field of lifestyle D/s and learn from me, my advice is that you consider what your father is suggesting: Without pressure from us, think it over and apply for that job if you want it. Then, if you win it, you'll be taking classes in human resource management, but Lisa and I will probably be helping you advance your skills in lifestyle D/s training. If you don't get that job, but still want to work in my field, then I'll suggest that you apply to Myrna Stiles at LifeMates. She'd certainly have use for you in her instruction and training programs, if only doing gig work until you prove yourself."

"I'll second everything your Mom just told you," my father added. "She's correct on every point. I'll help you apply for that job - prepare you with some knowledge you'll need for the interview, and so forth - but you'll have to win it on your own. If Judith Arruda, our VP of human resources, prefers someone else, I won't overrule her and will make sure she knows that up front."

"That said, I think that someone like you is exactly what we need in the position, and that the credential it will give you - unless we botch the project completely, which is not going to happen - will be a terrific asset on your resume. Arruda is very good at her job, and already has a big reputation. We already have a very strong design team, which is why we won the bidding for this contract; The project itself is spectacular and interesting enough to attract the biggest talents in the industry. Offering its key players the corporation's logistical and financial support in acquiring and bonding with devoted personal assistants will set an exciting precedent if it works out, as the evidence to-date on the use of D/s couples in high-level staffing suggests it will. And colonizing the Solar System (at least initially) with robots, instead of needy humans, is certainly the way to get it done."

"Arruda knows all this, and is already sold on the concept of staffing the top levels of a challenging project with devoted D/s teams, but she has had zero experience herself with lifestyle D/s although she is sexually open-minded and has played with power exchange in bed. She's 42 now, eighteen years older than you are, but still attractive, sexy when she wants to be, and no one you'd be inclined to turn down if she sets her cap at you."

"She needs someone to do for her, almost exactly what you were doing for Natasha Sorkin before that drunk killed her. My plan - at the right moment, probably about two months from now - is to offer her personal and corporate support in selecting, managing and remunerating a submissive protege of her choice to assist both in her personal life and in staffing up for the Mars project. I will describe you and your background in connection with that offer, and tell her that I'll be suggesting that you send her a resume. That's as far as I will go unless she asks for a personal introduction. Fortunately for you, she's hetero. If she were gay, I'd be suggesting Lisa, not you, as her partner."

"OK, Dad," I said to him. "Thanks. I'll think about this. It really is worth thinking about. Only..., it will be weird coming to work for you after the way my geisho career started."

"Let me make it little clearer," my father answered. "I'll be your Dad at home as I always have been; but at work, if you want the job and get it, you won't see much of me at all. Most of the time, you can forget that I exist. You'll be working for Judy Arruda and following her directives. If she tells you something which seems to conflict with something you heard from me, or know about me, you will keep that to yourself and be loyal to her. Both as your father and as CEO of the company, I will know this, and will not feel betrayed. This is a promise I make in front of your mother. You can hold me to it."

"OK Dad," I said to him. "That's fair enough, and it's an interesting offer. Thank you for making it. And thank you, Lisa, for your houseboy offer, and congratulations again on your engagement. I'm looking forward to meeting your lucky fiancé. Between the two of you, you've me a lot to think about."