Free Stephanie's Castle by Susanna Hughes Page B

fantasy could be catered for. In this room it
would be possible to bind a man or a woman, dressed in rubber,
leather, or whatever, in any position one cared to imagine. And do
to them whatever one cared to do. There would be no escape. The
illustrations in the books she had bought had always been line
drawings, not photographs; drawings of men and women tied in
extremis. Because they were drawings they had not appeared real; in
this room the bondage would be only too real. The thought sent a
chill through Stephanie. Then she thought of what Devlin had said
about the slaves. They were all thieves. And in this room they
would get their punishment. Of that she was certain. The frisson of
fear she had felt as she contemplated these devices turned to a
little knot of excitement. She would not like to be on the
receiving end of any of this equipment. Or would she?
    In a sense
Martin had tortured her. Not physical pain, admittedly, but he had
put her into bondage. She walked over to the pulley tied off on a
cleat screwed into the stone wall. She unwound the white nylon rope
from the cleat and let it loose. Immediately from the centre of the
room the other end, attached to the leather cuffs, descended. She
went over to where they hung at head height and inspected them.
Fitting one on to her wrist she felt the thick padding inside the
leather, very much like the cuffs that had held her last night. She
tightened the strap on one wrist and stood with her hands high
above her head, as high as she could reach. She closed her eyes and
felt the strain in her shoulders. Could she imagine herself
standing there bound and naked, not able to bring her hands down to
relieve the pressure, waiting helplessly to be whipped or handled
or fucked in any way her tormentor wished?
    She brought
her hands down and unbuckled the cuff. Her hands were trembling
slightly. The stretching had loosened the towelling belt and as she
pulled the belt free to retie it, the robe fell open and she
glimpsed her naked body. Both her nipples were puckered and rigid,
as hard as she had ever seen them.
     
     

Chapter
Six
     
    The sun was
high in the sky and heat radiated in a shimmering haze from any
surface not protected by shade. Stephanie had changed into the
bikini that Devlin had provided, a costume definitely not capable
of withstanding exposure to water. Cut high on the hip, it showed
off Stephanie's long legs and tight curved bottom while the
spangled tiny bra did little to conceal her breasts. The wrap,
designed to be worn with it, was no more than a thin veil of
chiffon. Coming down to the main terrace Stephanie had ordered a
light lunch of lobster and salad and had decided against more
champagne. She sipped ice-cold mineral water instead and had been
tempted by the offer of ice cream after the salad. The melon ice
cream the waiter had brought was unbelievably delicious, but she
avoided the temptation to gorge herself on it. As she had thought
on the plane, the main problem this weekend was to know where to
draw the line. From where she sat the view over the lake was
breathtaking, framed by the cascading flowers, the sun reflected
off the almost still water. The heat of the sun made her body feel
calm and relaxed.
    The secrets of
the castle were hers now. It was extraordinary that Devlin seemed
to trust her implicitly with all this. He had been true to his
word: There had been no locked doors, either physically or
metaphorically - she had been able to go and do whatever she had
wanted. Had Devlin not been so obviously distracted by his long
telephone call Stephanie would have thought him quite capable of
deliberately leaving her alone to see what her reaction would be,
to see what she would do or perhaps to draw her deeper into the
web.
    The waiter
brought her a steaming cup of espresso coffee. She left it to cool
and walked over to the parapet of the terrace and looked down to
the lake below. She could not see the stone steps leading down to
the jetty as they