You belong to one of them, but in a peripheral way, you belong to all of them.

Jon moved back to her front now, his firm touch moving over her tense fingers in the cuff. He loosened their curl so they lay flat on the wood again, then let his hand drift over her arm. She gazed up at him, suffering, communicating myriad things she didn"t know how to express, so maybe the gag was a good thing. She didn"t know if this was where she wanted to be anymore, though some part of her knew she did, that she couldn"t back away from this. He"d brought her to the starting line, and he was challenging her to have the courage to run toward something instead of away from it.

“I"m here,” he said, meeting her gaze. Touching her chin, stroking over her stretched lips, he tightened his grip on her jaw, underscoring his words. “I"m always going to be here.”

* * * * *

He shifted then, so blissfully all she could see right now was him, not the mirror or the others. “Rachel, did you ever have a male teacher when you were in school? One who attracted you in a particular way?” He spoke in that raised voice that carried through the crowd, but the way he kept his focus on her, it was all about the two of them.

An answer to his question sprang right into her mind. Mr. Montgomery. Mixed with his energetic and creative teaching style, there"d been a natural authority to him. It gave him control over every person in his class with little more than a direct look or a slight lift to his deep voice. He hadn"t been extraordinarily handsome, but had the look of a rugged, middle-aged Viking warrior, broad shouldered and strong.

She nodded. Jon"s lips twitched, though his gaze remained serious. “And did you ever imagine him punishing you for passing notes?” That twitch at his mouth reminded her he could be more than one thing, elicit more than one emotion from her at the same time. So he"d remarkably intertwined a sliver of humor among her spiked emotions, cushioning her. It helped. She held his gaze, glad now he offered her that lifeline, and gave him a slight nod. It had been a quiet, shameful fantasy, one she hadn"t thought about for a long, long time. She"d remembered it on occasion in her marriage, realizing it was early evidence of those inexplicable needs that Cole had made her feel were appalling.

The humor died away, probably because he saw her emotional shift. He caressed her face, holding her attention. “Never again, Rachel,” he said, low. “I"m going to punish you, not for passing the notes but for being ashamed of wanting that fantasy.” Ben now rose. He had two things in hand. One was a nylon flogger. The other was a switch.

“In the one-room schools of our past, they used hickory switches as a very effective way to maintain a student"s attention.” Jon addressed the crowd again, though his gaze held Ben"s an extra moment, a significant exchange that sent a capricious wave of panic through her, understanding what might be about to happen. Her Master settled his gaze back on her face, and that expression confirmed it even before he began to speak.

“My friend here knows more about the female bottom than any man I know, how every individual nerve ending can be stimulated to maximum response. He"s devoted a great deal of time and study to it.” He cocked his head, and his voice modulated, addressing her specifically, though the audience could still hear him. “I know you"ve already recognized exactly what type of Master he is, sweet girl, and you can probably well imagine him as your stern teacher, can"t you? He"s going to punish you, and like the other night, I"m not going to give you a number. He"s going to keep going until I tell him to stop. I"ll know when you"ve had enough.”

Her breath had speeded up, such that she was making small, helpless noises against the gag. It only fueled the fire in his eyes. “Give yourself to my desires. Believe that I know what it is you truly need and want. In time, you"ll be brave enough to tell me, and then we"ll go to even deeper levels. But tonight I"m going to prove how far down that path I can take you, merely from what I know of you now.” Ben had disappeared, and she knew he was behind her. Jon stayed in front, laying a hand on either side of her throat, his thumbs teasing that sensitive pocket of her collar bone beneath the midnight blue strap. Then his gaze rose. “Begin.” She hadn"t expected Ben"s hands first, so she jumped at that initial contact. He"d set aside the tools, because his large fingers slid fully over her buttocks, molding their shape and weight, the depth of the valley where they met her thighs, then slid back up the crevice between. Those fingers parted her cheeks wide, so wide she felt the stretch on her anal opening. She"d played in that area privately of course, and though she was tied here naked, she hadn"t realized the startling defenselessness of having one of her most private openings displayed to a crowd. Then, all that disappeared, because his fingers were tracing that rim. His knee pushed against the inside of hers as he knelt. A second later, his mouth was right upon that intimate area.

Holy Goddess… He didn"t waste time on preliminaries. He already knew she was well aroused, but of course there"d been no direct stimulation to that part of her. When the wet heat of his mouth touched that sensitive nerve circle, everything in her body arrowed toward that point of contact. The fingers holding her buttocks dug in, conveying how strong his hands were as he kneaded and pinched, sensitizing all of it in an unpredictable pattern of discomfort and fondling.

She strained forward against Jon"s hands as he saw every reaction, the way her lips strained around the gag, making her lips slick with her saliva. She was sure her expression was wild and uncertain, but she couldn"t look away from him, not now. It was as clear as a spoken command that he expected her to look at him, let him see all of it.

The rest of her life, past and future, dropped away. This moment was like finding herself at the gates of Heaven and Hell, not sure which way to go, but knowing the decision didn"t rest with her. That decision was out of her hands, and she could only surrender to judgment.

Ben"s hands and mouth at last drew away, but hellfire was quick to arrive. The first slap of that switch came so quickly on the heels of the stimulation, she wasn"t expecting it. Her body was still shuddering from the pleasure when she received the pain.

Because she hadn"t tensed against it, fire sang unimpeded through her flesh. He"d cracked it square over both buttocks, at the most cushioned point, her response arrowing straight into her pussy. She made a plaintive scream against the gag, her lashes fluttering against eyes wet with stress and more. Jon"s hold shifted over the collar, reinforcing the reminder of it as he caressed her chin. His to protect, cherish.

Punish.

A second strike, and she cried out. It really hurt. But then there was the flogger, layering over that. Her nerves were in chaos, still burning in pain, her body shaking and flinching. A firm, brief smack against her buttocks, the nylon cords wrapping around her hips, between her legs, was followed by a lick and sting of sensation as he hit her pussy square. Then back to the buttocks. Just as she was sinking into that feeling, the switch was back.

And so it went. Her nerves gave up anticipation, and abandoned her to full, jittering reaction, taking pain and pleasure the same way. Perspiration broke out on her face and body. Ben never paused, but once Jon took a towel from the attendant, stroking it over her brow, the place between nose and lip, the indentation of her chin. He leaned forward, nibbling on her lips around the gag, his breath caressing her skin. She screamed as the next strike with the hickory switch felt like it cut through skin. Her hands convulsed in the cuffs. Then Ben spread her buttocks, his mouth once again busy on her rim.

She screamed again at the sensation, until she was making a repetitive shrieking response in her throat, her tongue hampered by the phallic gag. Jon kept up that erotic play over her quivering lips with his own skillful mouth, touches of his tongue. She wasn"t climaxing, but it was like she was being overcome by sensation, and sound was the only way to release some of the enormous pressure building inside her. But that wasn"t enough for Jon. God help her…

Lucas and Peter rose from their seats now. Jon drew back, clearing the path to her.

Since Peter and Lucas were both large men, if her brains weren"t so scrambled and she wasn"t clinging to Jon with her gaze, terrified he"d disappear, she might have appreciated the grace with which Lucas dropped to one knee between her legs, putting his hands on her hips. Peter stood to his left, bracing his hand over hers on the post as he leaned in, cupped one of her breasts and bent his head to take the nipple in his mouth, at the same moment that Lucas" tongue found her clit and started to lick.

She was choking on her passion, so close to climax, yet the fiery pain of the hickory held it out of reach. That, and what Jon was holding in his hands now. It was a phallus, so thick that surely it was bigger than a woman was meant to take, even well-greased as it was by the attendant. Jon had another that seemed only slightly smaller, and he handed that to Lucas, who passed it without conversation between her legs. His forearm brushed against her calf, Ben bracing himself on the small of her back as he bent to take it.

Lucas slid his tongue around inside of her in a way that had her swiveling her hips with the motion, begging for a thrust that would emulate the fucking she needed so badly. She couldn"t take this. She couldn"t. And yet she had no choice.

When Lucas straightened, her body pleaded for him not to stop, that it was far too soon. He licked her off his lips, taking an additional taste, and she saw his gray eyes were fierce silver with appreciation. He glanced at Jon. “She"s dripping wet. She"s got a shameless, hot little cunt. She can take whatever you want her to take.” Her husband had said crude things to her, in a terrible, hurtful way. But they seemed to know when to say things crudely, to drive her even crazier.

Peter took Lucas" position to better stimulate her nipples with clever hands, his devil-blessed tongue. She mewled, her body twisting and writhing in the restraints. Her gaze clung to Jon"s face. If she could speak, maybe she"d protest, make her fear or trepidation known, but now her fate was his to determine. Peter"s hands settled on her thighs now, increasing the sense of being widened. She felt the brush of the dildo as Jon guided it down there. Ben"s tongue stabbed deep inside of her ass and she arched forward, right onto it. The broad head pushed between her labia.