Karla wished she could just lift Mei Chun and carry her like a man. A moment ago she felt so powerful with a flog in her hand but with Mei's knees wobbling she felt useless. Feeling confused and concerned she led Mei slowly down the hall and into the bedroom, supporting her with an arm around her waist.
'What did I do to this girl? What came over me?' She felt sick inside. She'd never considered anything like what she had done, never even contemplated giving someone more than mild love taps, convinced anything stronger was sick and against her nature. However, Mei's obvious enjoyment of it, nay her need for it, kept her delivering strong blows that each seemed to elicit a brighter flash of ecstasy than the one before it. 'And the power!' she thought, 'I never knew sex could be like that!'
She had played Mei as one would an instrument. With the tools arrayed on the bench she had concussed her body and pulled from her wonderfully expressive mouth the exquisite sounds of a woman in ecstasy. She remembered the way her fingers would extend and her wrist twist in agony as the crop bit her flesh, then fall limp in the cuffs as the pain turned to pleasure and a sigh escaped her lips.
She recalled how she shivered when she saw Mei come. How the thrill of Mei's crazy orgasms sent a flush of excitement coursing through her.
It had been sex as the rough manipulation of another human's body rather than the lovely, soft, motion filled embrace that it had always been before. This time the coercion and the punishment put it in a different category of experience.
'Hmm, was it punishment?' she wondered. No, she had not punished Mei. She had felt as though she were scratching an itch within the pretty Asian girl that she could not get to herself.
It had been sex in all caps. Sex so raw and different that it hardly seemed related to what they had done in the gym's salon. And yet one more thing surprised her; it was oddly empowering in a creepy kinda way. As though she were a keeper feeding a hungry, dangerous animal, taunting it with the raw meat it wanted.
As she pulled the blanket and sheets aside to help her in, she thought, 'Then what explained the thrill?' Why had she, Karla, gotten so turned on by hearing Mei whimper and moan. It aroused her so that the tingle up her spine and in her scalp had felt as if her hair were curling. 'Maybe it was that Mei was just so goddamned into it,' she figured, 'or that it was new and dirty and kinky?'
"What can I do for you, Mei?" she said as she lay her back into a pile of pillows.
"Get me some juice, sweetie. I need to just relax for a minute before we go into everything. And you still can't call me Mei, ok?"
As she left she called for her to bring her phone. "It's charging next to the coffee machine," she yelled. She slumped down in the bed. "And get some Advil from the bathroom cabinet and the aloe."
She felt like shit and yet was still high from it all. Every inch of her ached, especially her ass which felt like it had been reamed by a boring machine for the last hour. She should have listened to Philip on that one but she wanted Karla to have the whole tableau, to understand what she was in for.
Yet the aches in her ass and arms also gave her a sense of accomplishment and she had insisted on the plan.
On her skin was a different kind of pain altogether. It was tender, hot and angry where Karla had whipped her. Philip always cooled her with aloe and sweet words and Mei was wondering if Karla would do the same.
'I really didn't think she was up to it,' she thought, wringing the fingers of one hand over the wrist of another. She figured it was a coin toss as to whether Karla would stay and thrash her or just turn around and leave her stranded.
"Hurry up with the phone," she called and Karla scrambled to get everything. She had to call Philip before he barged in. If he didn't hear from her he'd assume she walked out and left her. But standing for a hour like that, alone in that room was a risk she was willing to take. And it worked; Karla had surpassed her hopes.
She came into the room laden with the tall glass of apple juice, painkillers and the aloe. She put it all on the night stand and handed her the phone. Mei dialed Philip and looked at Karla with something between love and hunger.
"I'm ok," she said. "Yes. Yes, she was wonderful. So brave," she looked at Karla when she said it, giving her a wink. "Yes, I'm sure." She curled her hair behind her ear, looked at Karla and said, "Yes, she loves me," and put an arm around Karla's neck and smiled very broadly, "Yes! Oh you're the greatest, Philip. Yes, I'll call you in ten minutes or so, or you call me when you get to your room. Ok. Love you too, master!" Karla saw her smile brighten and Mei winked at her. "Yeah, but you're in your car and my ass really hurts so can I take a rain check? Ok. Bye."
Karla saw how she love him just by the glee with which she spoke on the phone and the tone in her voice as she said bye. However, there wasn't a trace of jealousy for Philip left within her. In fact, she felt a sympathetic tenderness for him as though it were a contagion that Mei Chun was passing to her.
Mei touched the red button and let the phone go. She reached out her arms and embraced Karla and pulled her forward for a long wet kiss that raised the hair on Karla's neck and stiffened her nipples.
"Oh, I love you, Karla. I really do," she said as she released her. "Hand me that juice." She downed it it two gulps. "God I love this apple juice he buys. It's, like, organic Honey Crisp apples and it's, like, ten dollars a gallon but god it's sweet and like nectar. Try some when you get me another glass."
"So what?" She said anxiously, anticipation bubbling over. "What'd he say?"
"I told him you passed and he said fine. You can stay."
"What do you mean? Was he watching?"
"No, I thought you knew that when I shook my head. God my jaw hurts. Get me another... oh, just bring in the jug. I've got to take an Advil."
Karla scampered back out to the kitchen and returned with the jug. She pored the light amber juice and Mei took two pills and downed the glass. "Have some, it's the best."
"Mei, tell me."
"Listen, Karla. Don't call me that unless something very intimate of yours is wiggling around someplace special, ok?"
She felt a bit hurt by the rebuke but it had been clearly explained to her several times and she'd try harder to remember. "Sorry, honey, I just thought that since he..."
"Don't think that way, Karla. He really is, and I'm not kidding, he's my... he's the guy I give my obedience to and it's his right and, sorry, honey, it's not yours." She patted her hand, "Don't worry, it'll be clear soon."
Karla was confused but still too overwhelmed by the last hour to raise objections.
"So," Mei continued, "he wasn't here. He was waiting in his car down the block to see if you ran out and left me tied up or something. And there was no camera."
"But, he? Why did he leave? I mean if this were his test..."
Mei interrupted. "It wasn't his test. It was mine. All this was my idea."
"What!?"
"Yeah. I had to know if you loved me like you said and I had to know if you could accept what we do. And help with my..." for the first time Mei looked a bit tentative, "my thing."
Karla was flabbergasted.
"I've found such freedom in being obedient to him. Understand?"
"No."
"I. Hmmm. I was such a bitch Karla, when my name was Jenny. I hated everyone and used everyone. I fucked guys for their favors and for their gifts and for the orgasms I could squeeze out of them. And when they fell in love with me, god only knows why they did but they always did, I left them. I had no self-worth since my father left me as a child and I've been making men pay for it ever since."
She held the glass for more and Karla filled it. She drank and handed her the glass, "Have some." Karla took it and put it on the night stand. Mei's tone and demeanor changed instantly, "I said have some." It was an order and Karla looked at her a little oddly and took a sip.
