He admired her honesty and then asked her if she had to get home to cook for her husband as it was getting late? She replied she lived in the store and dinner was already cooking, it only required her to dish it up for her to eat. He sniffed and smiled. "That wouldn't be beef stew would it?"
She said, "It might." He got down on his knees and begged her to allow him to join her for dinner. He explained laughing that the servants in his mothers home didn't understand the wonderment of simple food like beef stew. He promised in return that he would take her out for dessert at the exquisite and expensive ice cream parlor around the corner.
Feeling very brave, she accepted. Told him to talk a walk and return in ten minutes. The door would be locked so to knock twice and she would answer. He agreed and as she playfully pushed him out the door when he hesitated, he thought how nice she would feel in his arms and over his knees. Adam had found a woman. That alone would make his mother happy. She was always after him to marry again but his Caroline had been an old fashioned woman and it was hard to find her ilk in the hurry- burly world of the twenties in America. Besides at almost fifty not many older women appealed to him and younger ones not at all. He judged Ariel to be near thirty in age, old enough to be settled. Ariel the name whispered off his tongue, fit the bill, or might that was yet to tell. He would invite her to the party next week and let his mother give him her opinion.
Ten minutes later, as requested he knocked softly at her front shop door. He heard the soft click of a lock as she admitted him to the store. Ariel had changed into a long soft ivory dress that set off her russet colored hair and she looked as fresh as if she had just recovered from a nap instead of working all day.
During dinner in her miniature suite of rooms, he kept her regaled with stories from his boyhood in boarding school. They talked of his travels, his interests, and his childhood growing up in the countryside of New York and going places like Coney Island and on cruises. It was not until they had been to the ice cream store, a walk along the ocean front and he had returned to her store, that he realized he had gotten no answers about her life or history.
The next morning he set off to do that by calling on a favorite friend of his, Peter Duggan, a private investigator. Pete was thrilled his old friend had found a woman of interest and promised to have the particulars well in hand before mama's birthday party. Adam set out to deliver the invitation to be his date at his mother's lavish party.
Ariel was with customers when he arrived and so he browsed while waiting her attention. In the light of day, he found several most interesting pieces that caught his eyes. Ariel if she was the one who purchased these treasures had a good eye for detail and bought both common as well as unusual things for her future customers.
He hadn't meant to purchase anything but was taken by a statue of an English Lord of the Realm who was studying a woman locked into stocks obviously crying out for pity. It was well rendered in copper. It had also obtained that patina of age that made it glow. He found he couldn't put it back down and so as he invited her out he also enriched her coffers by yet another sale.
Once he had the purchase home and properly displayed. He found himself thinking of Ariel in such a pose. He hadn't let his thoughts wander to that part of his life since the death of his wife. He felt himself grow warm and his male member harden at the thought of her on her knees, head lowered, hands locked tight below her ample breasts pushing them up provocatively. Skirts pushed above her waist showing her knickers to any man so inclined to touch, paddle, or provoke the young miss all in the name of teaching her a proper lesson. The sign on the statue said she was guilty of being sassy. He wondered if he would have the opportunity to find the circumstances that would make the small Miss Ariel sassy.
He hoped this time next week he would be closer to finding out as she had accepted his invitation. Adam inhabited several rooms in the family mansion. He had no servants of his own but his mother's cleaned for him on a regular basis and kept his linen clean. They also kept his bedding fresh and filled a small icebox with drinks and snacks should he grow hungry at night. Occasionally he sat with his mother if one of her nurses needed the night off but usually he was alone, and so it had been since he had moved home after the death of his wife seven years ago.
Adam had been one of several men who from his twenties on had dabbled in the practice of bondage and other things. He had never been as sadistic as some of his friends. He would admit if asked that a good paddling, or a whipping with a flogger could make sex all the better for him. When also enjoyed by a lady such as his deceased wife it was unbeatable for the pleasure.
She had been his in all ways never denying him anything. She wore a velvet collar with a diamond buckle whenever they appeared in public as a sign of her subjugation to him. It wasn't unusual at home for her to take the part of a favored pet. He had gone so far as to fit her out as a cat complete with long swishing ermine tail. She had then sewn a complete suit of ermine to cover her sweet body including ears. Once encased in it, with her hair hidden and whiskers glued to her face just remembering what happened on nights such as that had him reaching for a handy napkin to catch his juices as they exploded from his body. Ah! Just to find such a woman again would be a miracle.
Midweek, he sent flowers to Ariel telling her how much he was looking forward to their date at his mother's birthday party. He enclosed an old fashioned book that hinted at the subjugation of woman to man and the delicious practice of pleasure paddling. He was looking forward to how she would respond when questioned as to if she had read it and what she thought.
Ariel was surprised to receive the flowers taken aback at the book but once she started to read it was more amazed at the warmth it brought to her and how stimulated she became. Ariel was thirty and so understood that there were ways to cool off ones fevers when no man was available but seldom gave in to the practice. From the time she opened the book to ending it she found herself practicing that particular practice several times a day and still she yearned for she knew not what.
The night of the party, Ariel dressed in an old fashioned long dress of ivory and gold. It covered her from neck to ankles to wrists. Yet it clung in such a way that one could almost see what was underneath its intricate golden patterns. With her hair piled upon her head and a golden necklace wrapped through it she looked almost like a fairy princess captured and held earthbound by her escort.
Adam was quite proud to introduce her to his mother. Rose was quite astute for her age. While she was often treated by those who didn't know her as senile, the only problem she suffered from was joints that ached so badly some days she couldn't manage to get out of bed. She still ran a taut ship from her bedroom and everyone who knew her understood this well. She had finished talking to Pete the detective only minutes before Adams arrival and so knew more about his newest acquisition then he did. She was pleased she was still young enough to have children, encouraged by the independence that her thriving antique shop showed and pleasantly surprised to see what a beautiful child she was. The children if any should be breath taking.
She definitely approved of this girl and if she also catered to Adam's darker habits, all the better for it would keep him as Caroline had done home and happy. She smiled to herself Adam didn't know where his proclivity to the darker side came from and had never inquired of her, it was not a subject one brought up with one's mother. She could however tell him as Russell his father and her had spent almost forty years in just such an arrangement. How she missed those nights of bliss when he paddled her a bright red then passionately loved her until dawn. How she missed those evenings spent on the floor at his feet suckling on his maleness as a baby would its mothers tit until he had no more to give and happily they went to bed and sleep.
Under the mansion was a room unknown to Adam that was kept well locked. She had worn the key around her neck since Russell's death. The directions to it were in her will. He would inherit a plethora of toys the like of which he had never seen when it was time. She only hoped he enjoyed them half as much as his parents had.
The evening sped by the gift opening was fun since only immediate family had purchased real presents. The rest had agreed to her desire to have them donate money in her name to Russell's foundation to educate poor students in the local public schools.
She broke down in tears at the presentation of the brush set. It was of course not the one she had lost so many years ago. It was so close that it warmed her heart. She knew that he had gone to a lot of trouble to find it for her. Little he knew that a brush very much like it had warmed her backside many a night before they retired. It was the best gift of the evening for with it she received multiple memories of a beloved husband and their past.
