**** Sunday evening
Now I really was starting to worry. The light was starting to fade outside, the late afternoon giving way to early Sunday evening. Claire was still not back. Worse, she wasn't answering her phone.
I knew my wife had an important client meeting first thing on the Monday. She'd normally be here, with him, bent over her laptop going through her notes. But she was still... out.
I looked at my messages again, hoping to see something. But no, the last thing I'd had had been on the Saturday - "don't expect me back tonight - Samuel wants me to stay round one more night."
Fuck this.
I'd have to go over. I had to make sure she was OK.
I strode out to the hallway, picking up my keys. Fiddling with my phone, about to book an Uber when the door opened, I had to dodge back to avoid the heavy door hitting me on the in-swing.
"Jesus Claire! It's almost five! I know you said you were staying one more night-"
I stopped dead, mid-sentence, as I saw the state my wife was in.
"Fuck! Are you OK baby?!"
Claire managed a small, weak smile. She looked an absolute mess. Her hair was still in a ponytail, but it had frayed considerably, strands dangling out to frame her makeup-streaked face. Her mascara had all run, her lipstick smeared messily across her mouth. As she gingerly pulled her coat off, the state of her dishevelment became crystal clear.
Her dress, already low cut, now had a large tear in the front, what was once a plunging neckline now a gaping chasm, the rip stopping below her belly button. She'd clearly ditched the bra, her breasts visible, the torn fabric now only just covering her nipples. Her blue panties were sticking out the top of her handbag.
She groaned as she reached up to the hook to hang her coat, red marks circling her wrists.
"I'm pretty tired babe," she managed, stumbling slightly as she moved past me, clearly angling to head upstairs.
"Wait, Claire!"
I held my wife by the waist, turning her to look at me. God, she looked exhausted. She just let out a little sigh.
"Jesus Christ, Claire, look at you! What the hell has that man got you into?"
My wife's eyes suddenly narrowed.
"That's mister Akinyemi, remember!" she snapped.
"Fine," I conceded, letting go of her waist and standing back a little.
"But you look like..."
I couldn't bring myself to say it.
"What?!" she barked, "A whore?! That's what you were going to say, wasn't it?!"
She marched up the stairs, stopping halfway to look back over her shoulder.
"I might be your wife. But I'm his whore."
I was left, staring up from the bottom of the stairs as the bedroom door slammed shut.
What the fuck had I done?
****
**** Monday morning
"You needed that rest - you were already fast out when I came up!"
Claire gratefully took the steaming mug I handed her.
"And you were snoring."
I playfully elbowed her in the ribs, trying to bring some levity after last night.
Claire, still chomping down her toast, looked like she was back in the real world again, dressed in her full business battle regalia.
"Look," she started, a contrite expression on her face, "I'm sorry I snapped at you. And I'm sorry about what I said. You know I didn't mean it."
"No, I know," I lied, as much as to myself as her.
Claire leaned in and pecked me on the cheek. She went to leave, her big meeting starting within the hour. She turned just as she got to the front door, a sudden wicked smile on her face.
"By the way, my master said you've been a good boy, so you can watch the videos from last night. I'll text you the code later. Love you!"
The door closed.
I just stood there. Did she just call him...?!
****
**** Monday afternoon
I was seriously considering a career change. It wasn't that I didn't like the work; sure, the admin was a pain, but the work was fun. No, it wasn't that. It was because I seriously wondered how long I could keep the charade up. I wasn't really doing anything, just answering emails, starting then not finishing small tasks; generally procrastinating.
All I could think about were the videos, my eyes glancing down every few minutes at my phone, waiting for a code to come through.
Of course, I thought, any new job is going to have to pay well. My payments to my wife's bull - did she really call him 'my master'?, I wondered again, for the fifteenth time - were coming in at a hefty two thousand, one hundred pounds a month. It isn't cheap, I mused, paying to watch your wife get fucked.
My phone pinged, my cock reacting with a Pavlovian instinct, already tenting my trousers. I clicked to view the message - sure enough, it was from Claire.
"Dear cuckold," it started, as I again felt the same weird sensation of deep arousal and a simultaneous sickness in the pit of my stomach, "my master thinks you'll very much like these videos he made on Saturday night. The first is called 'Claire and Samantha - Turning Other Men's Wives into Trained Fucktoys'."
"Shit!" I exclaimed, my cock practically throbbing as I read. The next message pinged up.
"But my master says you don't get to watch them unless you do as you're told. You have to prove your commitment."
The fuck? I thought, a couple of grand a month ain't enough?!
"You have to send a link to the first video he made - it's on Pornhub - to a female friend that we both know, telling her that you're paying my master to fuck me and including the link to his website."
I sat, slack-jawed, staring at the message on my phone. "She can't be fucking serious!" I shouted out loud.
It had only been a matter of days, and here was my sensible, ball-busting career woman of a wife, telling me to publicly out the both of us, to share our secret.
I had to talk to her, to talk some sense into her. I pressed dial, my mind racing, feeling a strange concoction of emotion: incredibly turned on, hugely angry and plain scared.
"I know what you're going to say already," - Claire had picked up immediately - "and there's no point in you arguing. If you want to watch the videos, this is what you've got to do."
I could hear the sound of other people in the background, my wife keeping her voice low to avoid being overheard.
"Jesus Claire, you told me, 'no Cloud' - now you're telling me there's a video of you, on a fucking porn site! And you want me to share it with someone we know!? Have you lost your mind?!"
I could scarcely believe I was talking with my wife, her rational decision making apparently having gone completely out the window.
"This is what my master-"
"Your fucking master?! Can you hear yourself?! This has gone too far Claire, you need to think about what the consequences will be!"
"As I was saying," - she sounded calm - "this is what my master" - she put extra emphasis on the word; I simply shook my head as I heard her repeat it - "wants me to do. If you want to see, you do as you're told."
Her tone was calm, measured, but forceful too, a terrifying certainty in what she was committing us to.
"I've got a meeting now. If you don't text me before it's done, in half an hour, letting me know you've done it, I'll pack my bags when I get home."
The call ended, Claire killing the line.
My head was spinning. Did she really mean it? Could she really go through with it? This would commit us, out us. I knew our lives would never be the same if I did as she asked. Fuck, they'd changed so much already! But this, this?!
What about the consequences? How could I - how could she - seriously carry on, how could we see our friends if this got out?
I slumped down into my chair, feeling like I'd had the air punched out of me. "Half-a-fucking hour!" I snorted.
I couldn't do it. I knew that. I wouldn't go through with it. If she wanted to leave... well, I'd simply have to cross that bridge when I came to it. But the alternative? I wasn't about to ruin both our lives, no matter what Claire said. She'd see sense eventually. She'd realise she was acting like a mad woman.
"No!" I shouted, picking up my phone, "No fucking way!"
I tapped out the message, my hand trembling.
"I can't do it. I won't do it! You'll see what you're doing is crazy. You'll ruin your career! You'll ruin your life! Claire, I'm begging you, think about this. I love you."
I threw the phone down. I was covered in sweat.
****
I know now. I know now it was his idea all along. I was hooked now, hooked on watching my wife get dominated by her bull. I think he wanted to push me over the edge - that's why she sent me the link.
I clicked play. Again, the shot was a mobile, the narrow portrait view clearly taken from the large bar, propped up to allow an uninterrupted view out across to the main room, the front door centre of the picture.
The top of my wife's head was visible to the right of the screen, facing towards the door. She was sat on the sofa.
In the middle of the picture stood her bull, completely naked. Kneeling in front of him - also naked - was the prone figure of what must have been Samantha, her hands cuffed behind her back. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, Samuel holding the end with his hand.