“So that’s your Hugo.” Valerie laughed at my distress. “I suppose such men have their uses but he’s not for you, dear, and I wouldn’t give him the time of day. Men only become interesting after their first hundred million. Eat your dinner.”
Valerie’s authority was total. It enfolded me in a strange likeness of love as I worked my knife and fork. I realized that she had broken me and I was hers. It was almost a good feeling.
“I suppose he’s impaled you a few times.” my mistress inquired without much concern.
“We were lovers.” I admitted. “He also whipped me on occasion.”
“Well, well, the full service! I suppose you thought yourself a lucky girl!”
“You said my punishment was finished? Will there be others?”
“You know there will be others, darling. Don’t nag. Your punishments are the essence of me being Me, and you being You. There’s wonderful times in store for us.”
“But what about Andrew Everleigh? Won’t he be expecting me back?” I asked.
“I’ll look after Andrew Everleigh, forget him.” I didn’t tell my mistress how much I’d forgotten already. Valerie’s force and power possessed me in a way that overrode all else. The past was already growing hazy. Plessious and my law practice dissolved into the mists before the radiance of the woman who had caned my feet. And even Hugo had become a disappearing back in a crowded restaurant. I shivered deliciously but not from cold.