Jessica, Jane, and Marie slept well past noon; Josie had slipped out stealthily in the late morning. After a room-service brunch Jessica gave Marie and Jane a half-hour to digest, then announced that they were going to be punished for their behavior of the night before.
Both of them found this puzzling; as far as they knew, they had been acting in perfect accord with their mistress's wishes the previous evening. She had certainly never expressed any displeasure at the time, but they knew better than to talk back. Instead they stripped naked and adjourned to the bedroom as instructed.
Jessica, of course, didn't really think that the girls had misbehaved; she simply wanted to punish them, for reasons of her own. Partly, she wanted to test out her new whip. Partly, she felt that they'd all had it too easy lately; she wanted to punish Jane and Marie in a way that no one would enjoy, not even herself. And there was a third reason too.
She had each of the servants stretch out face-down on one of the beds, facing the middle of the room. Then she tied them head and foot to the bedposts and unpacked the whip, feeling its weight in her hand, experimentally swishing it through the air. There was a leather ottoman in the corner, and Jessica used it to test her dexterity with the new instrument, trying to find the right amount of force. With every blow there was the satisfying crack of leather on leather, and she could see Jane and Marie wince, their eyes widening.
When she felt ready she stood between the beds and chanted, "Eenie, meenie, minie...." The arrow landed on Marie, and Jessica ran the length of the whip a couple times up and down the length of the younger woman's body, making her shudder and whimper quietly. Then the whip came down with a resounding "fwap" on the soft flesh of Marie's rear. Marie yelped and bit her lip, then exhaled loudly as the pain subsided.
Turning to Jane, Jessica again stroked her softly with the whip, letting her feel the texture of the leather on her skin. The whip dragged across Jane's back, butt, and thighs, gently, gently... and just when she had closed her eyes, surrendering to the sensual pleasure of it, Jessica raised the whip and delivered a solid stroke. Jane's eyes flew open and she looked up, surprised at the force of the blow. She was also surprised by the look in Jessica's eyes. Usually Jessica delivered punishment with a sense of playfulness, affection even. Today she just looked cold and hard.
Jessica alternated strikes of the whip between the two of them, each lash just a little harder than the last, sometimes opening up new areas of their bodies, sometimes returning to places already throbbing red. Marie and Jane's cries grew progressively louder and more pitiful, their bodies stiffening with each impact, until finally they began to beg. "Please, no more," whimpered Marie, tears in her eyes.
"What did we do?" pleaded Jane, immediately regretting it. She knew that no answer was forthcoming, and that she would probably be punished all the more for questioning.
In reply, Jessica simply found two ball gags and silenced their protests. In truth, she had been about ready to stop. But she couldn't go soft on them now. Turning toward Jane, she raised her arm high into the air....
And there was a loud knock on the main door of the suite. Jessica paused, cocked her head, waited. The knock repeated. Finally, Jessica put the whip down and went to answer it.