Yes, I was aroused. Does that make me a weirdo? I dunno. Don't judge me.
Mahogany was so excited her breathing was quivering. Her eyes were bright. She was bursting with... was it joy? It was white-hot excitement!
Miss Havisham gestured to one of the other maids to come forward. It wasn't the one Mahogany had singled out earlier, but one of the others - probably the oldest among them, come to think of it. She stepped forward and took the ruler from Mahogany's open hands.
To another, perhaps randomly chosen maid, who this time was the one Mahogany had retaliated against earlier, she said simply, "Tea". And the girl swiftly headed to the sideboard at the other side of the room, where there was a steaming hot urn, crockery, and an assortment of tea-making necessities.
"Right, up you get," Miss Havisham had the old familiar tone of absolute unhurried authority. Mahogany kicked off her shiny black heels and climbed up on the chair next to me, visibly quivering, to end up on her hands and knees on the table. From where I was sitting, next to where she climbed up, I can report further that, not only was she wearing suspenders as I had previously noted, but by now I could see... well, everything. She didn't have any underwear on. I didn't know if that was the case with all the girls, but from my vantage point it was, let's say, perfectly obvious that Mahogany did not have anything on under the dress.
That doesn't mean I was looking, ok? It doesn't mean I got a thrill out of seeing up her dress. It doesn't mean I was getting turned on by it. It just means I saw it. How could I not? So don't judge me.
But while we're on it, yeah, I looked. Why shouldn't I? A lot of people had seen all of my most private bits that day, and here I had the opportunity to switch roles to being the watcher instead of the watched. So I took the chance. And I liked it. So what? Whatever.
Anyway, Miss Havisham had Mahogany turn around, still on her hands and knees, to face me, so I wasn't looking straight up her dress any more anyway. Happy now? I was looking at her face, which was shining with excitement. To tell the truth this scene was probably more erotically charged than staring at her backside anyway, and I continued to feel caught up in Mahogany's obvious arousal.
Positioned this way, her bottom was available, diagonally across from me, at the head of the table near Miss Havisham. Anyone standing at the edge of the table next to Miss Havisham would have full access. Mahogany made eye contact with me, drawing me into her world of erotic thrill. The spell was briefly broken when, after having served Miss Havisham, the other maid delivered a fine bone china cup and saucer to me as well, filled with dark, hot tea, and with a small macron at the side. She served me professionally, but also glanced at Mahogany and they exchanged a momentary look that I couldn't decipher. Mahogany's excitement just kept ratcheting upwards. I was amazed. She was positively in heat!
Miss Havisham's crockery clinked as she tried the tea and made an audible sigh of appreciation. She crooked her head around the half naked woman perched absurdly between us, and asked, "How's the tea, my dear? Would you like sugar?"
By now I could see this was all a pantomime, a game, and I should play my role in it or be thought a spoil-sport, and I didn't want that. I sipped my tea, and responded, "Oh yes, miss, I mean no, miss. The tea is delicious, thank you, miss," without breaking eye contact with Mahogany. I felt that her excitement was heightened even more by the exchange, and presumably Miss Havisham was designing things that way.
Actually, I thought to my self, the tea really was good, and I was hungry, too. As strange as it seems, in the middle of this rather peculiar drama that was unfolding before me, I then eagerly ate the macron and sipped the tea again, purely for my culinary enjoyment this time. There was something in Mahogany's eyes that gave away her continued acceleration in erotic energy. Outwardly, her demeanor hadn't really changed, yet I found I was able to sense, ever more precisely, what her inner arousal was... like.
"There will be ten strokes", Miss Havisham's instruction was to the girl holding the hefty ruler, who nodded. She positioned herself near Mahogany's tail end, and lifted her dress up and forwards in a practical manner, so that it hung slightly over Mahogany's forehead, but not enough to block her eyesight, which was still fixed on me. Her petticoats formed a plumage around her, preventing me from seeing anything much past her face, so I wasn't able to get a good look at the suspender belt to finalize my survey of her corsetry. It was completely obscured from my view, but I knew that by now Mahogany was very naked in that direction. She also knew it, and I sensed a distinct uptick in her arousal in response to the lifting of her dress. It was a particular *kind* of arousal. It was... it was like humiliation, I guess. Actually, it felt a lot like the feelings I had when Miss Havisham kept pulling that curtain back in the shop. Whatever the word is for that, that's what she was feeling, on top of a surprisingly highly charged sense of anticipation and thrill.
Was I imagining this, or was I really able to see Mahogany's sensual mind like a map, watching her arousal swell into the scene like the ocean rushes up and around the rocks at the base of a cliff? I had never studied someone as they became aroused before, so I had nothing to compare it to.
Smack! The sound snapped across the room. It was loud. It was crisp, and it was, presumably, quite painful. Mahogany exclaimed, "Ooh!", as if merely surprised, and then sharply drew in breath in response to the pain. She never broke eye contact with me. Having me witness her experience was amplifying her sensations.
Across her sensuality, one of the swelling waves broke and foamed at the base of the cliff, with others following, rolling across the map, and a flash of lightning cracked overhead. How else can I describe it? I was in her head.
"One," Miss Havisham pronounced.
Smack! Again, Mahogany drew in breath sharply, but this time without a whimper. Her face continued to shine, even if her eyes closed briefly at each painful blow.
The lightning flashed, the waves grew in height and power. The skies darkened, in her inner world.
"Two," Miss Havisham's voice was level and dispassionate. Her pronouncement like the satisfying boom of a wave having crashed against a cliff, leaving the expectation of the next one, inevitably to rise, and the next.
Smack! Mahogany pushed her shoulders downwards, which would have raised her bottom upward, and took on a triumphal expression as she held my gaze. Her seas were all afoam, the storm was brewing, the air was crackling, and the tension was building.
"Three," the now expected commentary continued. Boom, went the wave.