“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”

 

 ~Seneca (mid-1st Century A.D. philosopher)

“Please, Cera?  Just agree to meet her...just once?  I swear, you two will hit it off immediately!  You trust me, don't you, Angel?”

I glanced up at Lynn, sitting across the table from me, her fingers wrapped around her coffee cup.  Her big blue eyes were pleading with me.  I sighed softly and looked back down at my own fingertip that was tracing the lip of my coffee cup.  It had taken Lynn six weeks to talk me into meeting with her today.  I had been busy nursing my bruised heart lately and had been completely out of touch with the world.  We had chosen this Starbucks because it was almost perfectly halfway between my apartment in Tacoma and her house in Olympia, Washington. 

“And how do you know her again?”

Lynn began to fidget.

“I...uhh...umm...I've known her for a couple of years now, I think...”

I stared pointedly at her then.

“Lynn!”

She jumped almost as if I'd struck her, her pouty lips forming a slight frown on her delicate face.  She glanced up at me briefly and then back down at her hands.  I sighed.

“Listen, Angel, it doesn't matter how I know her, ok?  I'm a pretty good judge of character and I just know you two will spark.  You need that again.  You've lost your spark and that scares me...”

She reached across the table and grasped my left hand with her right and squeezed softly.  I looked up at her and quietly asked,

“How did you meet her?”

She audibly groaned slightly, took a deep breath, and blurted quickly,

“At Tasha's old club with Ty.”

Tasha.  The mere mention of her name made my world go black.  I stared at her, though I wasn't truly looking at her.  She nervously swept a short blonde curl behind her ear and waited for me to say something.

Six months ago, on a whim, I had taken a drive to Olympia to sightsee.  I had just moved to Tacoma a month prior from Tulsa, Oklahoma and was still playing tourist.  Just about a block behind Downtown, down a dead end street, I'd caught sight of this seemingly out of place building that was fashioned after a traditional Japanese Tea House.  It intrigued me enough to make me stop.  There was a sign above the entry way that said “The Black Rose” and had a painting of a solid black rose outline along the bottom.  Upon walking inside, I was greeted by more traditional Japanese artwork, décor, and furnishings.  I was enthralled by what I was seeing and hadn't noticed the two women sitting at the bar to my right.  I was surprised when a warm as silk voice with a British accent greeted me.  The voice had taken hold of parts of me unknown before I even turned to see where it had come from.  A dangerously sexy woman sat on a bar stool, left foot propped on the lower rung of the stool, right foot planted solidly on the floor, knee high black leather boots, tight as skin black leggings, and a mid-thigh length dark maroon sweater.  Her straight raven hair was just past shoulder length with wispy bangs and eyes as green as emeralds.  I sucked in a breath at the sight of her.  She greeted me again, smiled, and her voice covered me yet again.  I felt warm all over and something like needle pricks on most of my skin.  I stammered an apology finally and walked slowly towards her.  As I neared her, I reached out my hand to shake hers and introduced myself.  She stood then, gestured with a nod of her head towards the floor and said,

“Hiya!  I'm Tasha.  This is Polly.  We're the owners of The Black Rose here.  Welcome to our Opening Day!  How did you find us?”

It wasn't until that moment that my brain even registered the second woman, who had been kneeling on the floor, just in front of where Tasha had been sitting.  I smiled down at her.  She had this very innocent look about her, with her waist-length straight blonde hair and bright blue eyes.  She smiled back at me, but then blushed and lowered her head.  Tasha led me to the middle of the room where we sat down on a plush red velvet couch with black wood framework.  We began to talk.  For hours!  For the next week, I came back by every day to spend several hours talking with them.  I had been completely ensnared.

I met Tasha and Polly in January.  It had only been the previous summer, around June or so, that I had officially been introduced into the Alternative Lifestyle of BDSM.  More specifically, D/s (Domination and submission).  On top of all of that fantastic new information, I had discovered that I was, at the very least, bisexual.  But I really tended to lean more towards being a lesbian.  Not that I had ever actually acted on any of these tendencies, mind you!  But the revelations had awakened something deep inside me and, at the same time, filled up this black hole in me that I had never been able to touch beforehand. 

That chance meeting with Tasha began a whirlwind affair that would last only four months, but would feel like so much more.  It had also taught me the basic rules of submission.  Within two weeks, Tasha had become my Mistress.  Polly, who was also her wife, was her First Girl.  She had also taken Lynn on about a year before, after the BDSM club she'd been running with Ty Hanson closed down.  I would become her third, who quickly took Polly's place as First Girl, which signaled the beginning of the end for us.  I never got to see Lynn much during this time.  Her mother was dying of Cancer back home in Toronto, Canada, so Lynn had spent most of her time there with her.  When I did get to spend time with Lynn, she constantly flirted with me and attempted to get Tasha to demand we scene together.  Tasha never would agree to that though.  She'd gotten extremely possessive of me and wouldn't let anyone touch me.  Except for the one time with Polly when we scened together in the Dungeon as a show for a visiting Domme.  Tasha had trouble dealing with it afterwards and so began her strict rules for me.  I could only be with Her.  And I could only be with Her...on the sly from Polly!  It made the situation almost unbearable. 

A little more than six weeks ago, O/our predicament came to a head.  I was totally smitten with Tasha.  I was her good girl though and kept O/our secret.  Tasha had finally gotten to the point where she was about to decide to divorce Polly...and run away with me.  This terrified me.  It also thrilled me.  I didn't push for either direction.  I knew it wasn't my choice to make.  Tasha and Polly had been having personal problems for quite some time anyway, so that just added to her desire to end it with her.  But, instead, and totally to my shock and abandonment, Tasha made the split second decision to deed The Black Rose over to Lynn and she and Polly returned to London.  Lynn had not had any idea of our affair until after they were gone.  Only then did the suddenness of it all make any sense to her.  It also explained to her why she and I were never allowed to play together.  Though she continued to pretend she was upset about it, Lynn knew that we had become much better friends than anything else. 

In the six weeks since their disappearance, I had basically dug myself a little hole to crawl into to nurse my bruised heart.  I didn't leave my apartment.  I didn't talk to anyone.  Lynn had called me at least once a week though.  And she had become determined to play Match Maker!

I looked at Lynn now and said softly with a sigh,

“Tell me a little about her...”

She squealed and clapped her hands together, the grin threatening to split her face wide open.  I had to chuckle.

“Well...she's sexy as hell!”

She waggled her eyebrows at me, laughing.  I laughed lightly.

“Though she'd never give me the time of day.  Just like you...”

I snorted and laughed again.

“Her name is Chantal.  She lives in Seattle.  She's a teacher, too, but I think she does Middle School where I do Elementary.  She's married, has 2 kids...girls, I think.  She's a Switch and she's bi.  I really, really, really think you'll like her!”

At the mention of her being married, I was almost determined to say no, but I finally just whispered,

“Ok...I'll meet her...”

Lynn jumped up from her seat and came over to me to hug me, exclaiming,

“Ohhh, Angel!  I promise you will be ok!  I'll call her tomorrow and set up a meeting, ok?”

I smiled up at her and nodded my head.  She kissed my forehead softly and said, as she grabbed her purse,

“I've got to run.  The kids get out of school shortly.  Spoiled brats can't walk the four blocks home!”

I laughed at her and squeezed her hand as she left.  Lynn was also married to a truck driver and had a boy and a girl.  She was not “out” to anyone in her family or friends and her involvement in the BDSM Community was definitely kept under wraps.  I sat there, at my table, in the silence of her departure, pondering just what I had gotten myself into here. 

As promised, the next evening, Lynn called to tell me that the three of us would meet at The Black Rose on Saturday at noon.  I started getting nervous immediately.

Saturday, July 11th.  I had to laugh at the date.  Anytime some significant numbers came up on a date, it would make me think.  Almost like something magical or important was supposed to happen.  Not that it ever really did, but a part of me still anticipated it.

I spent the morning staring into my closet.  Everything there had a memory of Tasha attached to it.  I found myself caressing the black suede strips of my slave silks that She'd had specifically made for the three of us.  Our matching collars, wrist, and ankle cuffs were made of black leather, silver studs and black and silver feathers.  It was utterly gorgeous and each set had cost her $2000.  They were one of a kind.  Her design...made to order by a business associate.  I had never felt so much like a Princess as I did wearing those silks.  We had a major party one night.  The three of us dressed alike in our silks.  Tasha wore a black latex catsuit, silver studded thigh-high boots, and a black tailed tuxedo jacket.  There were over 200 people at the Black Rose that night, but we commanded everyone's attention the whole night.  I withdrew out of the reverie with a deep sigh.  I hadn't been back to The Black Rose since Tasha had left.  I wasn't too sure about what it would feel like.  Lynn had said to bring a bathing suit.  We would hang out in the hot tub for a while.  I opened a dresser drawer and pulled out my sapphire blue bikini and tossed it on the bed.  I turned slowly back towards the closet and finally picked out a white pleated mini skirt and lavender top.  It was time for a shower already.  I needed to get moving even though my feet felt like lead.

I have this really bad habit of being early absolutely everywhere I go.  No matter what I do to stall myself, I still end up arriving to places early.  It can get quite annoying at times.  This being no different, I got to The Black Rose a good half hour earlier than our agreed upon meet time of noon.  I sat in the back parking lot in my car, where usually only the four of us would park or occasionally someone Tasha approved of.  I was the only one here, of course.  I looked at my key ring.  Lynn had not mentioned whether or not she'd changed any of the locks.  I grabbed my bag and headed for the back door.  I slid the key in and my heart burst just a little when it turned smoothly ending in a soft click.  I turned the knob and pushed the door open.  Instinctively, my hand slid to the wall just on my left, inside the doorway, and I flipped the light switch.  I took a few more steps inside and looked around.  It all looked exactly the same as it had.  I closed the door behind me and stood beside the life-sized statue of Buddha that welcomed you into the main club area.  Absently, my palm brushed across his belly, just as I'd always done every time I passed him.  It was then that I realized I'd been holding my breath and I let it out in a puff.  This was like coming back home after being away for 20 years. 

I found myself standing in front of the Dungeon door.  I didn't remember getting here from the back entrance.  But here I was.  Both palms were flat on the leather cushioned surface of the door.  I blinked several times, actually starting to wonder if I was about to lose my mind or something.  My left hand slid down to the keypad lock of the door.  I wondered if the code was still the same.  Tasha had changed it way back in the beginning.  No one knew the code but She and I.  No one knew, because this was the only place we could meet in privacy.  She made sure of that.  Polly was told I was in training.  She, of course, didn't question that.  And, I suppose, in a way, I was in training.  But those sessions were so much more than mere training!  I punched in the code.  My birth date:  0501.  I heard the soft beep and the click and release of the lock as the door popped open.  I stood there for just a moment with my palm flat against the door again.  Did I really want to go in?  I pushed the door open enough to reach inside and flip the light switch.  I held my breath again as I walked inside and closed the door behind me.

It took only moments for my eyes to adjust to the low lighting.  The walls and floor were a dark gray granite, fashioned to look like individual blocks even though they weren't.  All along the walls hung pewter gargoyle oil lamps that had actual flames creating the light.  In the center of the ceiling hung a monstrosity of a chandelier made of iron and pewter and it held 12 individual gargoyle lamps with dancing flames.  The room was always a bit on the chilly side.  Tasha really spared no expense to make this look and feel like a real 16th century Dungeon.  The toy rack that lined the wall to the right as you entered the door held all sorts of clamps, leashes, butt plugs, ropes, chains, dildos, paddles, cat o' nine tails, floggers, whips, masks, blindfolds, hoods, and canes.  My eyes caught on the whip and I shuddered involuntarily.

Tasha believed in teaching Her girls what pain a punishment could be right from the beginning.  That way, she almost never had to use it again.  I was introduced to the bull whip within my first week with her.  Lynn and Polly stripped me down and cuffed me to the metal rack.  It looked like a simple frame standing up on one end, but each corner had a cuff attached to the rack by a chain, one for each wrist and ankle.  Tasha stood behind me, so I could not see Her.  I had absolutely no idea of what to expect!  Once I was secured, Polly and Lynn backed away from me and knelt down into the basic kneeling pose to watch.  Tasha came up behind me then, She twisted my hair around Her palm and pulled my head sideways and to the left, just enough to strain my neck to the point of slight pain.  With Her lips barely brushing my earlobe, She whispered,

“I will teach you to fear Me, My slut, so that you will respect Me always.”

With that She backed away from me.  I was trembling and terrified, but I had never known fear such as I did the moment I heard the whistle and snap of that whip that first time.  The searing pain that followed was almost secondary to the fear the sound itself had caused.  I received 10 lashes that day.  I only remember the first four.  I was delirious after that. 

I woke up several hours later, in an extremely cushiony pillowtop mattress covered in purple satin bedding surrounded by a massive black, ornately carved four-poster bed frame with a sheer black canopy top.  I was lying on my stomach, but I could tell I was naked.  The second I tried to move, every nerve in my body screamed, and I immediately stopped moving...and breathing.  I released my breath slowly as the tears rolled down over the bridge of my nose and seeped across my lips.  I licked at them gingerly, but didn't attempt to move again.  Tasha sat down on the bed next to me.  I looked up at Her and She smiled at me.

“Hi.  Are you ok?”

I tried to speak, but nothing came out.  Finally, I croaked out,

“I'm not sure.”

She chuckled and reached for a glass of water that was sitting on the bedside table next to Her.  She leaned down next to me and positioned the glass and the straw, so that I didn't really have to move to be able to get a much needed drink for my parched throat. 

“Where am I?”

“You're in My bed...”

My eyes grew wide, and she laughed that tinkling, magic sound again. 

“What about Polly?  I...I've got to go...”

I made the mistake of trying to push myself up off the bed again, and froze as the streaks of pain ran through me.  She shushed me and brushed the strand of hair that had fallen across my face out of the way.  She leaned down and lightly kissed my forehead.  My skin erupted with goosebumps from head to toe.  It was the first time she had kissed me. 

“Polly has her own room.  This is no concern of yours.  You're here, with Me, in My bed, for Me to take care of.  That is My job!  I wouldn't damage My property and not be able to fix it...”

My breath caught in my throat.  I knew immediately where She was going!  My heart began to race and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do exactly, but I knew it was coming.  She whispered softly, her face right next to mine,

“That is, considering, you want to be Mine?”

I struggled to sit up again, trying to talk, but the words were just spilling out all over themselves.  She chuckled softly and placed her index finger on my lips, her thumb holding my chin, and her other fingers splayed across my jawline. 

“There, there, My girl!  Calm down!  We will do this proper when you are healed and can serve Me...”

I quite literally melted into the sheets at that point.  She smiled broadly as She took a deep breath of me in, she held it for a moment, and then growled low in her throat as She bent down to me again and whispered hoarsely,

“Damn it!  I should take you now!  You are primed for me.  I can smell you.  I want to taste what's Mine.  But I won't take advantage of you this moment...”

She leaned in closer to me and replaced her finger on my lips with her lips.  So very softly at first that I wasn't sure she was actually kissing me.  I couldn't help the small moan that escaped me then and she growled in response, deepening the kiss that seemed to last an eternity.  She stayed with me non-stop for the next three days.  She bathed me, fed me, doctored my whelps, teased me relentlessly, thus beginning my formal Training.  Every inch of every whelp on my body was kissed and licked countless times in between the medicine applications.  She had explained to me that she was infusing Her love and Her soul into me, into my pain, into my scars, where I would carry Her for always.  At the end of those three days, I got down on my knees and I begged Her to take me for Her own.  She sent me into a tailspin of emotion when She pretended for about 30 seconds that She would not accept me.  Once She relented and let me off of my emotional hook, I serviced Her.  Several times.  In several different places in the room.  And She finished the evening by making love to me and buckling a dainty lavender leather collar studded with diamonds around my neck.

I reached out and grasped ahold of the whip, letting it slide between my fingers.  That was when I realized that I was wet and my entire body was quivering with need...just as I had been painstakingly trained to do!  Since we never had a whole lot of time together, Tasha concentrated greatly on training me to be ready for Her at a moment's notice.  She'd gotten so intense with it that it even went beyond that and I was then trained to be on the edge of orgasm by the time I walked into the Dungeon.  She wouldn't ever let me release that one though.  No matter what, She made sure to take me down and then bring me back.  It was always such sweet agony.

My eyes swept across the rest of the furniture in the Dungeon.  I could stay here all day and remember moments spent in every inch of the room with Tasha.  I could stay here and do this all day!  Oh, shit!

I turned and almost ran for the door!  I'd forgotten why I was here in the first place.  As I stepped into the hall, Lynn rounded the corner and we almost ran into each other.

“Cera!  I was wondering where you were!”

We laughed.  She gestured toward the Dungeon door with a nod of her head and asked,

“How'd you get in there?  I've been looking for the code for weeks!  And Tasha won't call or email me back!”

I half turned to glance at the door and then said,

“This is where we used to meet.  Of course, I know the code, Lynnie!”

“Ohhh, Angel!  I'm so sorry!  I never even suspected you two.  I never expected you would know the code either...She was hell-bent determined that we weren't to be able to get in there without Her!”

I gave her the classic Duh look, and she grabbed me and hugged me tight.

“I'm sorry, Angel!”

“It's ok!  I'm ok.  Really...”

She let me go, smiling softly.

“You sure?”

“Yes!”  I laughed.  “Is she here yet?”

I glanced at the watch on my wrist.  She was 30 minutes late already.

“No.  She's running late.  Something to do with her girls, I think.  She's on her way though!”

We laughed again, linked our arms at the elbows, and walked back to the main part of the club to sit on the couch to wait for Chantal's arrival.