Bound or Free?
I was running.
I usually went jogging every morning, having inherited the 'sturdy peasant build' of my Germanic ancestors and it was only with continued discipline that I could keep my tone and figure.
Sure 48G-40-46 was on the opulent end of curvy, but the tendency to get chubby was one that I had fought since adolescence with relentless cardio, dance, martial arts and swimming.
I usually run with my Iphone piping inspirational music to my earbuds, but today I had forgotten. It didn't matter, my heart was hammering before I took my first step. I had once been caught by Yu Ka, my Chinese student boarder, captured by the twin sights of his painting, showing me bound and naked. Captured by the sight of him naked bathing in the moonlight, and worst and most humiliating of all, caught touching myself watching him.
Yu Ka. An artist, a dreamer. A quiet studious boy with short dark hair and eyes that were pools of blackness that I fell into, because I wasn't careful. Yu Ka of the golden skin, the quiet gentle movements, the almost serene stillness that gave a youth of half my age the air of a silent sage, while I felt like the chattering fool every time I tried to speak in his presence.
It was ridiculous. I was an Orthodontist, a sought after and very well-paid specialist. I was his landlady. I had been the best at everything I had done and had a wall of recognition that any professional would be proud to claim as her own, yet the sight of his golden skin made me blush, the thought of its taste...
I released a groan, my red hair tossing from side to side as I tried to deny my own reactions. I could feel the heat in my panties, feel the almost painful erection of my nipples. The mere thought of his name had my body falling all over itself to be ready for his eyes, his hands, his lips and his perfect golden cock. Yu Ka, his name was all the music I needed to run to. I was running away from the shame of him seeing me, the shame of seeing his depiction of me bound for sexual exploitation and knowing it spoke to the deepest needs in me. I was running away from him, and failing.
I stopped upon the trail, now back at the parking lot. It was time to go home and face Yu Ka, or take the cowards way and go get breakfast, or hit the gym to delay facing him. It was a Saturday, I didn't even have work to hide in. No. I may be many things, a bitch, control freak, and arrogant but no one had ever accused me of cowardice.
I stopped to pick up two drinks. My local coffee shop/new age book store had what Yu Ka and his friends liked to drink, so I stopped and got two large tieguanyin. I mentioned his name, and they knew how he took it, so I had two made the same way. If I was to apologize for my behaviour, I could at least pretend to be civilized at the same time.
Nerving myself up, I felt like a virgin awaiting her first date as I pressed the chime on the downstairs apartment, holding the coffee.
Yu Ka opened the door with a quiet bow and motioned me to enter. I was two steps in when I noticed his wince and noted the careful shoe rack on the door and remembered how carefully all his friends took off their shoes and put on slippers.
I stopped and blushed furiously.
"I am so sorry, Yu Ka. I brought this Tieguanyin for you to apologize for violating your privacy that way last night, and now I have violated your hospitality with my shoes. If I can just put your tea down, I can remove my shoes. Sorry I didn't bring any slippers."
I was gushing like an idiot and knew it. I was a trained dentist who owned multiple branches, was a paid speaker at a professional association gathering and this young Asian man had me blushing and gushing like a desperate fan girl with her boy band crush.
Smiling softly, Yu Ka waved at the shoe rack and spoke.
"Civilized folk brought slippers to wear in the house, barbarians went barefoot of course, but civilized folk understood their duty to train the barbarian in right behaviour so they too could earn a place among civilized folk."
His words should have stung, but before I could decide whether or not to be offended, his next sentence drew a whimper from me as my whole body shuddered in what felt like a mini orgasm.
"Barbarians had some redeeming features. They were frequently splendid animal specimens, full of passion and potential that needed only the right controlling hand to train to great usefulness."
His eyes.
Oh his eyes roamed over my body openly and slowly, making it clear I was to him such a barefoot barbarian animal, and the hunger in his eyes made it clear both that he found me a splendid animal specimen, and that I needed training.