Page 14 of In Her Own Way
“Get those clothes off,” Mistress Starr barked. “I will not be kept waiting.”
Jessica hustled to take off every last stitch of clothing. She knew she didn’t have to, but it helped her reach a level of vulnerability that allowed her to submit to Mistress Starr. Jessica was, as always, a bit self-conscious about her less-than-in-shape body, but Mistress Starr once said she liked women who owned their bodies and didn’t fret over what others orsociety thought about it. However, she added that if a person’s health was at risk, that was a different story.
Jessica placed her folded clothes on the spare chair and hustled to the St. Andrew’s cross. She was very familiar with this particular piece of equipment in this particular room with this particular professional Domme. She’d been frequenting Mistress Starr’s lair for almost three years at this point, getting relief, crying on Mistress Starr’s shoulder, and absolutely finding comfort there.
“I should gag your mouth, Jessica,” Mistress Starr said, “but that would not serve you. I need to hear your cries ring out. I need to know that you understand that I am in charge here and I will do whatever it is I want to do. And you,” she grabbed Jessica’s chin again, a scowl on her face, “you will enjoy every stroke and every welt I give you.” She tossed the chin, grabbed both of Jessica’s shoulders, and turned her toward the cross. Using her body, she smooshed Jessica against the cross. Jessica turned her head, so her cheek took the hit and not her nose. Mistress Starr leaned in close and whispered, “You will use your safewords. You will get aroused. You will take care of your needs afterward.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Jessica said. She wished the woman standing behind her, giving her commands, was her real Domme, a life partner who understood Jessica’s needs. Sadness tightened her throat. She took a hitching breath.
Mistress Starr’s arms were around her instantly. “Let’s get you that relief, love.” She stepped back, and the next sound Jessica heard was a crop smacking against Mistress Starr’s hand or something. “Strap in.”
Jessica let out a shaky breath, trying to release the sudden onset of melancholy. She loved Mistress Starr’s humanity, with her ability to shift from nurturing to dominant. Jessica cuffed her ankles and then one wrist to the cross. Mistress Starr cuffedthe other wrist and then touched the crop briefly to one of Jessica’s ass cheeks.
A sharp sting followed. Jessica yelped. Another sting. Jessica’s yelps turned to grunts, and then her head drooped as she absorbed the pain. The sadness still filled her chest. Images flooded her mind as the crop strikes came. Sitting alone watching television, no partner in sight. There was no one to text or call. There was no one to ask how her day was. There was no one to share her life with.
The crop strikes increased in intensity, traveling down the back of her thighs and back up to her buttocks. She willed her brain to focus on the pain, but part of it wanted to wallow. More images came unbidden. Principal Herrera forcing the literary magazine on her, and her department chair going along with it.
“Feel it, Jessica,” Mistress Starr called out. “You’ve got to let go. Or maybe you’re weak and just not capable of letting go.”
“Yes, that last one,” Jessica said in defiance. Letting go was difficult that evening for some reason. She knew why. Images of breaking up with Miss Marta played in her mind. Why had she done that? It had been a good gig. That one hurt most of all. But it had to happen, right? Another hitching sob escaped.
“Yes,” Mistress Starr shouted as the crop strikes slowed. “Keep it up, Jessica. Let it out.”
The crop stopped. Jessica knew better than to think the session was finished. She breathed in the pulsing pain, grateful for the short break, that is, until the scratchy Velcro-covered nipple clamps appeared. Mistress Starr twisted each of Jessica’s nipples to harden them. Arousal blossomed below. One clamp grabbed the hardened nipple. Jessica moaned in exhale as the pain merged with her sex. The next clamp was even more intense. Jessica’s entire body shuddered at the pleasure flooding her system.
The flogging then began. Slow at first. Gentle. It was exactly what she needed at the moment. Oh, yes, Mistress Starr knew how to handle her. Jessica moaned as the leather tails filled her back with sensation. It was almost like a massage. Knowing that she was in someone’s capable and nurturing hands, let Jessica breathe. She felt the sadness dissipating. It wouldn’t completely go away, that she knew, but at least it was lessening.
“She needs this,” Mistress Starr said as if talking to someone else. “She understands that keeping all that stress and tension inside hurts her. She has to understand that she has no power here. No power for thinking or wallowing, so let go. She needs to get out of her own head, so stop fighting.”
“Stop fighting,” Jessica repeated. “Let go.”
“That’s right, love. Jessica is wound up so tight she’s getting in her own way. Loosen up, mi bella mia. Loosen up.”
Jessica squirmed in her restraints, trying to loosen her muscles.
“That’s the ticket, love.”
Jessica inhaled deeply and then exhaled loudly.
“One more of those and then we go faster,” Mistress Starr said. “I’ve hardly broken a sweat here.”
Jessica did as bidden and then absorbed the harder, faster flogging. There were names for the different patterns Mistress Starr did with both floggers, Florentine or something, but Jessica didn’t care to think right now. Her focus was on the rhythmic strikes caressing her back. Sure, it was starting to hurt, but it was a good hurt. The hurt was traveling to her sex again. Mistress Starr changed it up, increasing the intensity.
“Be present with me. Be present here,” Mistress Starr urged. “There’s nothing you can do about all that other shit going on in your life right now. Be present.”
“Be present,” Jessica repeated. Groan after groan from the pain, with an occasional moan of arousal, came from Jessica’score. She couldn’t help it. She had to release the tension somehow.
“Be with me,” Mistress Starr said. “Be here. In this room.”
“Here.”
“Yes, yes, love. Here.”
The flogging slowed and then stopped. A soft cloth rubbed her pulsing back. The cloth included her buttocks and thighs. A hand then reached around and tugged gently on the nipple clamps. Jessica inhaled sharply and exhaled an aroused moan.
“Sounds like someone’s ready for her private time.”
“Yes,” Jessica said breathlessly. “Ma’am,” she added.
