The rest of my punishment was conducted without incident. I didn't see much of Alex, and for that I was glad. I still had not come to terms with what happened the night we were together in Master's chambers. I also hadn't seen Aidan, and was truly worried about him. Mistress' voice saying he wouldn't come to 'serious' harm wherever he was kept playing in the back of my head.
The morning after my last day of punishment, I awoke to feel Master stroking my hair. I had slept at the foot of his bed ever since that one night, curled up at his feet. The need to have him inside me was incredibly strong and I think he sensed that for no other woman was brought to his room while I was there. I'm sure he had the other girls in a variety of ways, but the days of fucking them in my presence were gone.
As I opened a sleepy eye I saw him staring at me intently. Nothing showed on his face so I couldn't tell if he was looking at me with concern, care or indifference. There was no way of ever telling what was on Master's mind at any given moment... "Good morning, Master," I yawned.
"Good morning, Annie. High time you were awake. Your punishment has ended, as I'm sure you are aware. Get up and go to the stables for your grooming then report to Mistress." Master swung his feet over the side of the bed and walked to the armoire. Nothing further was said. It was clear I had been dismissed.
The house was quiet as I made my way to the stables. Aidan was busy sweeping out one of the stalls as I came in and I ran over to him.
"Aidan…I'm so glad you're okay." I went to put my arms around him in a friendly hug.
"You forget yourself Annie." He roughly pushed my arms away. "Or did Master now give you permission to call us by our first names?"
I stared at him numbly. Of course. He was trying to avoid further punishment for both of us. "I'm sorry sir. Please forgive me." I hung my head in shame.
"I'll overlook it today since you haven't been quite yourself lately. Or have you?"
His voice had a slight tinge of jealousy to it and I snuck a look through my lowered lashes. Like Master, his face was an expressionless mask.
I made my way into the grooming room and assumed the first position so he could start shaving my pussy. My nipples were already erect and my pussy was moist and hot with anticipation. While Rafe was more than capable of performing this task, he never played with my clit or slid a finger or two deep inside my pussy like Aidan had. Today, however, was different. Aidan went about the task almost robotically, avoiding my clit all together. There would be no more teasing I gathered, at least not here. My heart sank as I watched him silently shave me. When he was finished with my pussy, he motioned for me to turn over and began to wax my ass. This was going to be very different from now on, I realized as he tore the first strip of wax from my body with a ferociousness I had never encountered before. Hurt and confused I turned my head and looked over my shoulder at him, unbidden tears streaming down my face.
"What is it?" Impatience ran through his voice like a raging river.
"Sir…you're so different with me now…not like…well…before."
"I don't understand Annie. My job is to groom you and that's what I'm doing."
"Yes sir, but before, well, you were…well…" I struggled to find the right phrasing for what I wanted to say. Somehow I knew telling him I wanted him to play with me; to tease me like before just wouldn't sit well.
"I was what? More playful? More tender? Teasing? My job Annie, as I said is to groom you, that's all. That point was made vividly clear to me over the last month." Aidan went back to the task at hand, although not quite as roughly.
Of course, I thought. He blamed me for his punishment, that's why he was so cold and indifferent to me. Feeling satisfied with what I thought was the cause of the change in his demeanor, I turned my head back around and waited for him to finish. After the last strip of wax had been removed, he unbound my hands and walked out of the room. While I may have been satisfied with the reasoning behind his personality change, I wished the old Aidan was back. The one who seemed to delight in teasing me, in bringing me to the edge of orgasm only to let me slide frustratingly back from it without release. I missed the Aidan who would laugh and joke as he performed his job, the one who would be whistling as I came into the stables. Whatever had happened to him in the last month had taken that Aidan away. As I left the stables without another word from him, I wondered if I'd ever see that side of him again.
Making my way to Mistress' office, I found the house to be waking up. Servants were going back and forth hurriedly, and the manor seemed to come alive with a under current of excitement. I ran into Philip coming down the stairs.
"What's going on?"
He stopped at the foot and kissed my cheek. "Morning Annie. Nice to have you back. Well, almost nice." He grinned sheepishly and I looked down at the very apparent bulge in his slacks. As the hall clock chimed the hour, I realized now would be the normal time for him to come see me with Tristan and Jean Claude and I laughed.
"You're no better than one of Pavlov's experiments, you know that?"