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Regime

By: krr1957



This story deals with themes of reluctance and coercion against a background of female dominance. If you think you might be offended please try a different story.

Chapter One

Just half an hour earlier I had been sitting in the cabinet room briefing the Prime Minister and later that same day I was going to give a televised press conference trailing the most significant changes to the country's defence spending in modern times.

I was very much the man of the moment but here I was in the spartan outer office of a psychosexual counsellor feeling more like a man in a dirty mac. It was less than two weeks ago that my life started to unravel and my heart sank when I recalled the fateful day.

Roland had been a lifelong friend of mine and so when he phoned and asked if I could arrange a summer internship for his daughter I did not think twice. Chloe lived in America with her mother where she attended an Ivy League college and I had not seen her for some years following the acrimonious divorce.

When she breezed into the office that first day she immediately stood out from the other young women. With her long blonde hair, natural tan, and beach perfect body it was as if she had brought the Californian sunshine in with her.

She was just nineteen but she exuded self-confidence and for the first day or two it was a struggle to stop casual male visitors turning up on the flimsiest of pretexts. I had to resort to having my office manger ask her to dress just a little more soberly as the sun dresses that she favoured were driving up temperatures all round.

Beauty was not her only asset. She was incredibly bright and soon moved on from routine office tasks to some fairly demanding research work.

One evening I was thinking about an early night when I noticed, unusually, that I was not the last to leave. Sitting at her seconded desk Chloe was busy perusing her screen which was displaying a document with the familiar blue MOD masthead.

I smiled at her keenness but when I looked up again a moment or two later it was to see something altogether different. I was a fair way off, and a glass partition divided us, but it was obvious that she was now watching something pornographic.

I was shocked on two counts. First, that she was interested in such things and second that she had somehow circumvented the strict computer filters. For a moment I remained frozen, unsure what to do, but then I convinced myself that I had misinterpreted what I had seen. This impression was reinforced when Chloe closed down her screen and cheerily turned to wave goodbye before leaving the office.

The next day I was due to leave at five to attend a constituency meeting but found myself staying on at the office. One by one my staff began to leave until, once again, only Chloe remained. She seemed immersed in an elaborate spreadsheet but then a flickering in the corner of my eye confirmed that she was watching something more animated.

Her back was to me and so as quietly as I could I approached the open door to my office. Standing in the doorway I was left in no doubt. On her screen some impossibly endowed Adonis was servicing a pneumatic blonde with the vigour of an Olympic athlete. There was no sound emanating from her computer but then I realized that she was using an earpiece.

I returned to my desk completely at a loss as to how to handle the situation and was only brought back to reality when Chloe got up to leave.

I knew that, at the very least, I should have taken her to task and should certainly have reported the breach of computer protocols but, for reasons I could not explain to myself, I did nothing.

Fortunately, I was called upon to attend meetings for the whole of the following day but when the last of them finished I returned to the office when it would have been far easier just to have my driver take me straight home.

I normally take the lift but, on this occasion, I walked up the three flights of stairs and I am not sure if I was relieved or disappointed when I found the office in darkness. I decided that, having made the journey, I would take a look at my e-mails but then I saw a light in my own room.

Without thinking I slowed my pace and stole up to the partition. My computer was on displaying two naked women locked in a passionate embrace.

My immediate instinct was to walk back the way I had come and to enter more conventionally allowing Chloe a chance to cover her tracks, as I was certain who was responsible, but, instead, I edged forward silently.

When I saw her my heart skipped. She was again wearing an earpiece but she was slumped in my commodious office chair with one hand lost in the folds of the blouse and the other beneath the waistband of her skirt.

Her face was flushed and she was breathing heavily. The rhythmic movement of her arm dispelled any last doubts about what she was doing and within seconds I was fiercely erect.

After two years of marriage I still enjoyed a very healthy love life and I had had no need to resort to my own devices but the image of this young girl pleasuring herself with such carefree abandon was irresistible.

Burying any vestiges of guilt I slowly unzipped my trousers and took out my handkerchief as I stood there like a thief in the night.

It took a few moments before she reached an almost subdued climax but by that stage I was already cleaning myself as best I could. I began to creep away and I was almost at the door when I stumbled over a carelessly placed waste paper bin.

I cursed but, thinking fast, I got to my feet and made it appear that I had just arrived. I walked boldly back towards my room as Chloe appeared in the doorway. To her credit she looked composed but she could not have closed down the computer that quickly.

She smiled as I expressed surprise that she was still working and she did nothing to bar my entrance. To my surprise the computer was off but only later did I notice that she had had the presence of mind simply to pull out the power cord.

Looking at her I should have been angry but all I felt was a nagging sense of shame which developed into total embarrassment as she began to laugh.

"Oh shit, you were watching!"

As she said it her eyes were fixed on the crotch of my trousers where it was plain that I had dismally failed in my attempt to clean myself up in the dark.

I desperately tried to dissemble.

"I had an accident...with a cup of coffee..."

"A creamy one by the look of it. Look, you don't have to lie, I guess I should be flattered.

I suppose I felt annoyed at getting caught out and I adopted a different tack.

"Chloe, there are serious penalties in this office for anyone caught using the internet to access inappropriate material."

She just laughed contemptuously.

"For a government office the security stinks. All the USB ports on these PC's are supposed to be disabled but its child's play to reactivate them. I don't use the internet. I carry my stash with me."

She showed me the flash drive that she had secreted in the palm of her hand and I could not believe that she was being so brazen. I was also very concerned that she had exposed a very fundamental flaw in our systems. Even as I was digesting this she spoke again.

"Look, I apologise, I know what I did was wrong. The fact is that I am staying in London with a couple of girl friends and I'm having to share a bedroom. I don't get much privacy if you get my drift."

I decided to cut things short and save any dignity that was left to me.

"Chloe, get along home. We don't need to say any more about this."

That evening I had to make an excuse when my wife suggested an early night but then, perversely, I awoke in the early hours with a painfully stiff erection having had a dream in which Chloe featured prominently.

The next day at the office was even worse. Sitting in my own chair knowing what had taken place there only hours before left me in an almost constant state of arousal. Clearly my chair was more comfortable than hers and it also helped that I had the privilege of a much larger screen.

As the day came to a close I kept looking up in the hope that Chloe had left but, as the others drifted away one by one, she seemed glued to her desk. It did not help that she had slipped back into bad habits. She was wearing a daring, low cut, sun dress which showed off her tanned legs to devastating effect.

When it was just the two of us left I decided that the sensible thing to do was to simply tell her to call it a day and to get herself home. Having reached this decision I wandered out to her desk but, as I approached, she turned towards me in her chair.

I tried to hold her eye but I could not help but take in the natural beauty of her teenaged body. She smiled in understanding and, almost casually, lifted the hem of her dress just a little.

"I was thinking about you last night. I hoped that you'd be back for another show."

The words caught in my throat as I tried to tell her that it was the last thing on my mind as deep inside my sub-conscious was revealing the truth.

She lifted her dress even higher and I was stunned to see that she was not wearing panties. I wondered, distantly, if she had spent the day like that but, for now, my eyes were riveted on her sex.

She was perfectly depilated revealing a tight clamshell that was in stark contrast to what I was used to. Contrary to what the tabloids liked to infer I had been faithful in each of my three relationships and I only truly discovered the joys of sex when I finally fell in love with Katherine.

The thought of my wife made me flush with guilt but Chloe was already teasing her sex with a single finger.

"Take it out and show me..."

Her eyes flitted to my trousers which were tented by a greedy erection and I was like an automaton as I unzipped and let it spring free.

"Don't touch it....just watch."

The situation was surreal enough already but as I stood there with my hands by my sides it verged on the bizarre.

For a few moments she did nothing more than languidly trace out the centre line of her sex with her fingertip but then, with a loud sigh, she began a deeper incursion.

"God, you don't know how hot it makes me having you watch."

Her sex opened beneath her touch and the moist pink interior formed a thrilling contrast with her honeyed tan. The urge to take myself in hand was almost overwhelming but I was wary of her admonition and I did not want to break the spell.

I groaned as her finger penetrated further with an audible suck of moisture which seemed to amuse her greatly. She withdrew it and held her hand in front of her so that it glistened beneath the lights.

"Look what you've done to me."

She reapplied herself rubbing a little less gently and my nostrils twitched as the scent of her arousal reached me.

"Is that nice...?"

In my mind I was already debating where to have her. On the desk? On the floor? I could not hold back for much longer. She used two fingers to part her labia whilst a third sought out the discrete bud of her clitoris but, at the same time her free hand was flitting over her keyboard. She cast a quick look at the monitor and then turned it towards me.

On screen a young girl, very similar to Chloe in looks, was perched naked on a desk whilst a man, still fully dressed, licked dutifully between her legs.

As I looked back at Chloe she was already rising from her seat and reaching for the fastenings of her dress. She stood and allowed it to slip from her body permitting me a first glimpse of her beautifully unfettered breasts.

She was modestly endowed but her nipples were neat pink roundels which stood proudly engorged. As I continued to stare she pinched them gently and I felt my tongue move in my mouth.

She indulged me for a moment but then she boosted herself onto the desk and sat with her legs wantonly parted.

"I want you to eat me..."

Under normal circumstances it was not an activity that I could claim to enjoy. I performed from time to time because it was otherwise selfish to expect my wife to go down on me but the present situation had me inflamed.

As I knelt before her I reasoned that she could return the favour and, in so doing, I would only be unfaithful in the Clinton sense.

Close to, I could feel the heat of her thighs and her heady scent increased my madness. I sealed my mouth to her sex and licked broadly taking in that first intimate taste.

She giggled at my clumsiness but then put her hand on the top of my head.

"Slow down...make it nice."

It took an effort to control myself but I did as she asked. I eased back and began to lick along the fringes of her now exposed labia whilst my erection continued to throb unabated.

Over the next few minutes she said very little, some occasional guidance and the odd word of praise when I did something she liked. The problem was that my tongue was tiring and she showed no obvious signs of an approaching climax.

I shifted on my knees to try and make myself a little more comfortable and to ease the strain on my neck and it was then that I noticed that she had fixed her attention on the computer screen.

I immediately felt aggrieved, being treated as little more than a masturbatory adjunct, but, perversely, my reaction was to try even harder. I pressed my tongue deep inside her and was surprised at just how wet she had become. I had to swallow frequently to keep my mouth clear as I thrust against the squeeze of her tight muscles.

"You are eager!"

I began to suspect that she had planned this moment and had probably been aroused for most of the day in anticipation. Her scent was stronger now as she finally guided me to her clitoris.

I was anxious for it to end not only for the sake of my own relief but for the opportunity to change my clothes. I was still in my suit and my shirt, probably beyond redemption, was plastered to my skin

"Hold yourself..."

I acted without thought; as my tongue lashed at her swollen bud I took myself in hand. I heard her last words before she enclosed me with her thighs twining her ankles to keep me pressed close.

"Come with me,,,"

I could feel her beginning to tense and the pressure of her legs against the side of my head was almost painful but I licked valiantly whilst my hand began to move ever faster. Somewhere, a long way off, she began to cry out and the wetness of her sex threatened to choke me but I was beyond the point of no return. With a breathless gasp I felt myself starting to come, a body wrenching orgasm that seemed to have no end.

When she finally released me it took me a while to fully regain my senses by which time she had got herself dressed. She kissed her fingertips and touched them to my lips.

"See you in the morning."

Chapter Two

As it happened I was due in Brussels the next day. I was booked in for a three day conference and, whilst it was an event I would have gladly avoided if possible, I now saw it as an opportunity to set myself straight.

Whilst there I seriously contemplated asking Chloe to leave but I had no idea how I would explain it to her father. Fortunately, when I returned, she acted the consummate professional as if nothing had happened between us.

The problem was that I found myself constantly taking surreptitious glances in her direction and, in so doing, I found myself in a semi-permanent state of arousal. Things became so bad that I had to go to the toilet to gain some relief and to keep a grip on my sanity.

She no longer stayed late and I could not shake a strange feeling that I had been used in some way. The whole affair was putting a strain on things at home too. Katherine noted that I was not as responsive to her needs as usual and I told her that I was stressed at work which was not too far from the truth.

Some days later I had a meeting scheduled with Chloe to discuss progress on the report that she was working on. I thought about booking a conference room but it would have seemed odd to the others and so it went ahead in my room in the normal way.

She was wearing a simple two piece business suit but I had to mentally shake my head clear as I called to mind the youthful perfection that lay beneath. Fortunately, her report exceeded my expectations and raised some very interesting points that I had not immediately considered. For a short while I was able to able to relate to her as the academic that she was.

By the time we had finished it had gotten late and I only then noticed that we were the last two left in the office. Chloe saw me taking this in and smiled at me.

"I kind of assumed that you were stringing things out..."

I immediately became flustered.

"Chloe, that was never my intention."

She laughed.

"You mean you don't want to fuck me?"

"No!...Well, yes, of course I do. No man in his right mind would turn you down."

She reached out and touched the tip of my noise.

"You are so sweet..."

The klaxon in my head was telling me to stand up and put her straight but she was first to her feet.

"Wait a moment."

She walked into the outer office and retrieved her handbag from beneath her desk. She found what she was looking for and returned. Without asking my permission her fingers flashed across my keyboard and when the terminal beebed she showed me the flash drive in her hand.

She winked as she slotted it home and the screen quickly filled with pornographic picture icons.

"Now which one should we have..?"

She deliberated for a second or two and then clicked the mouse.

The scene showed a naked man incongruously secured in a pillory in the middle of a very expensive looking loft apartment. With a clack of heels a blonde, dressed head to foot in form fitting leather, moved into view.

My first thought was that she was the same girl that I had watched being serviced on the desk but then my eyes fell to the menacing looking whip in her hand.

"Shit..."

The whispered expletive passed my lips before I could stop myself and Chloe laughed.

"Not your thing? I bet it is...."

I feared that I was losing control of the situation but there was a sense of danger about her that thrilled me to the core. I stood there mutely as she pulled me to my feet and slowly proceeded to undress me. I finished up standing in the middle of my own office, completely naked, sporting a prize winning erection.

As I watched Chloe raised her skirt beneath which she was wearing black panties and stay-up stockings. She slid the panties down her legs and stepped out of them.

"You're married, and I have a regular boyfriend back at home, but there's nothing to stop us doing the other thing."

With that, she settled into my seat and opened her legs leaving me in no doubt as to what "the other thing" was. Some part of me wanted to assert itself, to pull her from the chair and take her place before making her sit astride me but I was not that man.

Instead, I went meekly to my knees and applied myself to her sopping sex. This time she issued no instructions. She assumed, correctly, that I would do the things she liked and she simply pulled her skirt down over my head to lock me in and keep me focused on that one single task.

It took some time before she came to the boil. At some point she increased the volume on my terminal and I could hear the regular crack of the whip punctuated by howls of anguish and the sounds of cruel laughter.

The imagery served to stir Chloe as her sex began to melt. In the closed darkness I worked towards her clitoris and, without being told, I began to rub myself. I understood, somehow, that she was not going to reciprocate, and there was some hurt in this, but I was beyond rational thought.

I held back until we came together, her loudly exalting and me groaning deep into her sex as I drained myself totally. When it was over she was as perfunctory as before. She recovered her underwear, said goodbye, and left me to clean up any embarrassing evidence from the furniture and carpet.


Regime



Chapter Three

The next morning I found a note on my desk asking me to report to office of The Chief Whip at my earliest convenience. There were no imminent debates in the house, which would normally be the purpose of such a summons in order to check my voting intentions, and so I was at a loss.

At forty-one, just five years older than me, Jennifer was the youngest party whip in recent memory. She was also a good friend of Katherine and it was, in part, because of her that I had entered politics after a previously successful career in industry.

I could tell as soon as I entered her office that the meeting was formal and not social so it came as a surprise when she started to speak.

"Katherine spoke to me on the phone a couple of days ago. She said that you had not been your usual self, something about stress at work. She tells me things have been off in the bedroom department."

My instinct was to tell her to mind her own business, friends or not, but it was her job to know everything and to cajole or blackmail to ensure that party affairs ran smoothly, I said nothing and allowed her to continue.

"I know the new spending brief is demanding and I told Katherine that I would make sure that you got all of the assistance you needed. It's a flagship policy and we don't want any glitches."

I relaxed a little. The policy launch date was imminent and everything was almost in place but another pair of hands would always be useful.

"But something else has come to light..."

I was immediately on the alert.

".... I've arranged to have Chloe Heffernan moved to a less sensitive department."

I cursed silently. I should have known that her meddling with the computer system would be found out. Was there now a suggestion that I should have been aware and reported it? I waited to hear her out.

"It seems that your PC was been activated on occasions after you had left for the day according to the door system logs. The good news is that it was a generic system log on and no attempt was made to access your personal suite of applications.

However, it was suspicious enough to alert the security service and someone there had the bright idea of using the new on-line conference software."

I felt a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. My new monitor had been installed a few weeks ago and I had not yet even attempted to use the video conferencing add-on. Jennifer turned her own monitor towards me and there, in frightening detail, I saw myself naked with Chloe in the throes of ecstasy.

She allowed the footage to run on for a few seconds and then turned the monitor back.

"If it were down to me I would have you sacked today. Unfortunately, for reasons clearly having more to do with your looks than your brains, the party has elected to make you its poster boy."

I was tempted to take issue with her but I held my tongue. The tabloid press had recently crowned me "parliamentary hunk of the year" which was as embarrassing as it was flattering but I had also made the fastest rise from the back benches to ministerial rank in recent memory and that was all to do with my perceived abilities.

"You will go home right now and explain to Katherine. I will make sure the lid stays on tight here. I don't want anything to jeopardize the defence spending review."

I looked at her aghast.

"...explain to Katherine?"

"Yes. I've already broken the news. Fortunately, it seems that you were not stupid enough to fuck the little tramp, and, for my sake, Katherine has agreed to keep things quite for the time being. Whether or not she will stick by you in the long term is another matter. I also told her that you have volunteered for psycho-sexual counselling. I will give you the date in due course."

I clenched my fists in anger. Jennifer had overstepped the mark but now was not the time to argue. I was desperate to get home. Without another word I turned on my heel and left the office. Within ten minutes I was back in my ministerial car for the fifteen minute journey to our London flat.

I found Katherine in the bedroom, still in her bathrobe, brushing her hair at her dressing table. She appeared unnaturally calm under the circumstances and as her eyes met mine in the mirror I simply whispered.

"I am so sorry..."

She continued brushing in silence for a moment or two and I saw that her riding kit was set out ready on the bed. She was scheduled to be at the stables and I felt guilty that I was spoiling even this aspect of her day.

As she slowly rose from her seat I asked myself, as I had so often in the past, why this beautiful, talented, woman had deigned to commit herself to me. Her job, as a legal counsel to various film production companies, brought her into contact with some very eligible men and in her thirty-eight years she had dated a good number.

To my mind she could have taken a place in front of the camera. Her father was Czech and her mother Croatian but she had a Mediterranean look. An Italian film director of her acquaintance remarked on her resemblance to a young Sabrina Ferelli prompting me to look up this actress who was previously unknown to me.

She idly fingered the collar of her riding jacket but when she then looked up at me her eyes were ablaze.

"A bloody child!"

She was so wrong both legally and realistically but this was not the time to argue the point. Almost before I was aware she had taken hold of her riding crop and began laying in to me. I did nothing to try and stop her save raising my arms protectively as she lashed out punctuating each blow with expletives that I had never heard her use before.

She must have struck me a dozen times before she regained control of herself but her anger had barely abated.

"You know what makes it worse? You, so bloody unwilling when it comes to pleasing me, jump at the first opportunity to go down on that little bitch."

This brought me up with a jolt. I had no idea that she was aware of my reluctance in fact I thought that she was totally satisfied with our love life. I was still digesting the implications of this when she unfastened her robe and shrugged it off.

"Is this not good enough for you anymore?"

She knew exactly the effect that she had upon me. She still had the body of a twenty year old honed by years of healthy living. Others would pay fortunes to surgeons to achieve what was naturally hers.

My eyes fell to her beautifully rounded breasts with their uplifted nipples and, in spite of everything, I began to feel an initial stirring. I tried to disregard it but, almost without thought, I took in the dark delta of her sex. At that moment the thought of losing her finally hit home.

I took a step towards her and opened my arms but she brought me up short.

"Don't touch me!"

"Katherine, I'm a bloody idiot, it was a moment of madness. Tell me what I can do to make things right."

She was still shaking with rage but there was something else in her eyes that I could not quite fathom. For a second or two she became possessed of an eerie calm.

"Do it for me."

I looked at her uncomprehending.

"I don't underst..."

"You did it for her...do it for me."

Slowly, realization dawned, and with it a spark of hope. I looked towards the bed and then began to undo my tie.

"Don't bother undressing."

As she said it she opened her stance just a little and pointed to a spot on the floor just in front of her. A hundred and one thoughts went through my mind; of all the things she could have asked of me this might have been the least expected. It had all sorts of connotations and I was not sure how to construe it.

My instincts told not to do it. I still wanted to reason with her, to plead if necessary, but perhaps she saw it as a form of symbolism. In the end I decided that the easiest thing would be to make the gesture.

I went to my knee and reached for her hand as I had done on the day that I proposed to her but she brushed it aside.

"Just your mouth."

Her terse tone rankled but I was in the wrong, and if this was what it took, and I was to have any chance, then so be it. I leaned forward and softly kissed the centre of the immaculately trimmed triangle that delineated her sex.

It struck me that she was in no way aroused, and I hoped that I had done enough to assuage her, but she had other ideas.

"Don't stop. I want you to lick me."

Strangely, I had never heard her use those words before. We had always had an innate understanding of one another's needs and desires which, for me, made our love making so special. Feeling slightly hurt I tried again finding the dryness of her mons rough against my tongue.

As I continued I could not help but draw a contrast with Chloe. Katherine has a distinct mound with the proud wings of her labia forming a beckoning entranceway. I had once or twice hinted that she should try being totally depilated but she ignored the suggestion. In her mind there was a way that a real woman should look.

I felt absurd, and was wondering how long she would keep this up, when I suddenly felt a sharp tang on my tongue. This was usually an indicator of her growing excitement and, in the next few seconds, the taste filled out accompanied by her all too familiar scent.

I wanted to look up at her to see if I had managed to soften her attitude towards me but for the next few moments I continued to build on my success.

Her pubis was sodden and it was easy to push through and tease the fringes of her labia with the tip of my tongue. This was something she particularly liked but I found it a strain on my tongue and my previous endeavours amounted to little more than a token gesture. Now, however, I put in a major effort and was rewarded when I felt her sex begin to seep.

Encouraged, I applied a firmer pressure and eased my tongue just between her lips. I had always found her muscle control uncanny, something she attributed to years of yoga practise, and now she held me just so. It was a unique sensation, something I had never experienced with any other partner, and at that moment I yearned to make love to her properly.

Eventually, I felt her relax a little which was the single for me to press deeper and, as I did so, I was surprised by her inner heat and wetness. Her evident excitement gave me high hopes that I could encourage her to come to bed but, for now, the taste her flowed over my tongue.

We remained locked together as I was subjected to a rippling pressure which was becoming almost painful. It continued for some time and, whilst I could not be certain, I felt sure that she had reached a climax.

As she finally released my tongue I surreptitiously tried to adjust my erection which painfully caught up in my undershorts. The truth was that I was keen to get undressed altogether but she put a hand on my shoulder keeping me in place.

I watched as she used her fingers to part her sex revealing the warm, creamy, residue of her excitement.

"Clean me up."

She had never asked anything like this of me before and there was something almost mocking in her tone that struck an offensive note. I was sorely tempted to answer in kind but I had come too far.

I steeled myself and began to lick again, her taste strong on the slick walls of her exposed sex, and she gave an almost imperceptible shiver. It took a moment to understand that she was still simmering and then I noticed that her clitoris remained engorged.

I pointed my tongue and began lick in a series of tight circles causing her to stiffen just a little. She opened her fingers and pressed harder putting herself more lewdly on display and I concentrated on the spot just beneath her clitoris where she was particularly sensitive.

I could feel her pulse throbbing strongly and she was breathing more raggedly. If she had failed to reach a climax before there was now no cause for doubt. She began to press herself against me and then, at the last, she twined her fingers in my hair.

She tugged painfully and I was unsure what she wanted. Then it became clear as she pulled my head back so that I was almost facing the ceiling. In the same movement she stepped over me and sealed her sex to my mouth.

The position put a severe strain on my neck but she was unheeding. My tongue was again lodged deeply as she began he rock herself ever more quickly until, with a shuddering gasp, her orgasm overcame her and my mouth was flooded with choking gouts of moisture.

It seemed to take an age to subside but when it was over she summarily pushed me away.

"Wait for me in the living room."

I could not believe it. My erection was still craving attention her violent usage of me notwithstanding. I was about to entreat her when she took up her robe and went into the shower room closing the door behind her.

I stood up, listened to the shower running, and then sullenly did as I was told.

Chapter Four

It was over an hour before she came out from the bedroom fully dressed with an overnight bag in her hand.

"I need a couple of days to think things over. You can reach me at my aunts."

I was so taken aback that I could not articulate a reply before she opened the front door and was gone. I moped around for half an hour and then headed back hoping that I could lose myself in the hustle and bustle of the office.

I noted Chloe's empty desk on the way past and then found that Jennifer had booked me an appointment for the following day immediately after my meeting with the PM.

The intervening hours passed in a blur. I slept badly that same night but somehow managed to get through my presentation without any hitches and then it was time my session with Dr. Samms.

I had given it no prior thought, considering the whole thing to be a waste of time, and so I was a little taken aback when I found out firstly that Samms was female and secondly she looked remarkably young.

She was smartly dressed in a dark two-piece which pulled off the trick of making her look professional but, at the same time, very feminine. The skirt was cut just above the knee and I could not help but admire her legs as she led the way back to her desk.

Her opening questions were innocuous mainly concerning my general health but then they became more probing. She wanted me to outline my relationship with Katherine and to begin with I was loath to open up but then I began to find the process quite cathartic.

I talked about our first meeting at a party fundraiser which established our mutual interest in politics. Six months later we had moved in together. My business was profitable but not thriving and it was Katherine who helped me to hone my organizational skills. By the time I sold it, less than a year later, I was financially secure for life and it was, in great part, down to her.

It was also her drive, ambition and connections that had secured me a constituency nomination allowing me to fulfil my ambition of entering the political arena. The truth was that I never took a major decision without using her as a sounding board.

I was reticent when it came to discussing our love life but the more I talked the more I realized how stupid I had been and just how much I stood to lose.

By the time she broached the incident with Chloe I was so embarrassed with myself that I considered leaving not least because it was evident that she had seen the incriminating footage.

She looked at me over the top of her designer glasses as she spoke dispassionately but then, contrary to all reason, I began to visualize her opening her legs. For a few seconds I saw it with a vivid intensity. I imagined myself kneeling before her and slowly raising her skirt.

Perhaps something in my expression gave me away because she stopped speaking for a moment and raised a questioning eyebrow. Fortunately, seated as I was at the other side of the desk, she could not see my burgeoning erection.

She began to wrap up the session telling me that, next time, she wanted to see me along with Katherine. In conclusion she told me that she did not think that I was in anyway psychologically damaged with the inference that I was just another man, closing in on middle age, who had had an aberrant moment.

Having opened up to her in the way that I had I felt almost cheated and I pressed her as to what I should do to regain Katherine's trust. Her reply surprised me.

"You seem to me to manifest some submissive traits. In business, the lack of ruthlessness that was needed to take it forward, in the many ways that you defer to your wife and in your dealings with Chloe you were symbolically on your knees performing an act that you profess not to enjoy. You might think about exploring some of these feelings"

There was a certain logic to what she said, albeit I did not like hearing it, but it was not an answer to my immediate question. Clearly flowers and chocolates were not going to cut it. I sat there expectantly and she looked a little perplexed.

Finally, she wrote something on a piece of paper and handed to me.

"I have two patients, not unlike you, who have taken a rather unique approach. Take a look at this website and see how you feel about it."

I pocketed the address and put it to the back of my mind as I made ready for my press conference. Ironically, in view of the way I was feeling about myself, it was hailed as a bravura performance but the spotlights gave way to gloom as, back at home, I logged on and checked out the site

At first glance I laughed out loud and it was a moment or two before I looked at it in any detail. It was a manufacturers site that extolled the virtues of male chastity made manifest by a series of tubular devices that it produced.

There were a number of testimonials, more from women than men, which eulogized about re-born relationships and a word that came up repeatedly was trust.

I dismissed the whole thing as a joke but when, later that evening, Katherine phoned to say that she wanted more time alone I began to rethink. It was, after all, only a symbolic gesture. I could wear the thing to work each day and Katherine could remove it at night. She might even be aroused by the notion.

The devices themselves were produced in acrylic or steel and I perceived an immediate problem. The acrylic option was secured with a conventional padlock and so both types would set off the security scanners at the office.

A further trawl brought to light a bespoke device made from a ceramic material. It had a built in 'lock' which was secured with four tiny nuts of the same substance. They could be turned with a tool which looked like a silver hex key. In the illustration a woman wore it as a necklace charm.

It was ridiculously expensive but, knowing Katherine, she would research it for herself and would appreciate the exclusivity. From my standpoint it had the benefit of looking a lot lighter than the mass produced items and, for the same reason, it looked far more receptive to brute force if necessary.

Very self-consciously, I took the series of measurements required, placed my order and, by some twist of fate, it arrived a week later on the day that Katherine was to return. I was loathe to try it out and I suppose, deep down, I was hoping that Katherine would accept it as a peace offering and not actually put it into practise.

That evening I left early for the first time in days and set about preparing some salmon. When I heard her key in the door I found my heart racing and, as she came into the room, I felt almost sick at the thought that I might have lost her.

Throughout the meal our conversation was slightly stilted but she grew more animated when I gave her the inside track on the defence review. By the time we had drunk a bottle of wine I dared believe that things were getting back to normal but she brought me up abruptly.

"I'll use our bedroom. You can make up the guest bed."




Regime



I was tempted to argue but thought better of it. I showered and came back out into our bedroom to find Katherine lounging on the bed wearing a negligee that I had not seen before. It was a tan shade of diaphanous silk and she looked achingly beautiful.

As she got up to take her turn in the shower she handed me a couple of pillows and it was then that I blurted out.

"Katherine I've bought something for you...well for me really."

She opened the presentation box and frowned before looking at me with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Thank you. I'll take a look when I've showered. I'll see you in the morning."

I wanted her to call her back and make her understand what it represented but she closed the door behind her and I dejectedly slunk to the spare room. About an hour later I was no closer to sleep when she knocked at the door and came into the room.

I sat up in bed and noted that she had the box in her hand. She looked at me earnestly.

"You would do this for me?"

I nodded acquiescence and a slight smile crossed her face as she sat down on the bed.

"Come here, and close your eyes"

I was naked under the covers and as I got up to stand in front of her I felt strangely self-conscious. I closed my eyes as she asked and felt her slip the tube over my manhood. This was followed by a retaining ring secured around my sac and the two were mated together with a solid click. She then took the whole thing firmly in hand as she turned each of the four nuts closed.

The contraption felt somewhat heavier than it had in my hand but there was no obvious discomfort. Only now that it was on did it occur to me that I would have to use the toilet sitting down whilst I was wearing it.

I stood still as she examined it from various angles and then she began to pull at it to convince herself that was totally secure. The only problem was that her manipulations began to have an effect.

I felt the first stirrings of an erection and then an ache as it was frustrated by the enclosure. I instinctively reached down to my groin but then realized the futility. Katherine took all this in with an interested expression.

She stood up and slipped off her bath robe, beneath which she was completely naked, and I noticed that her nipples were engorged; they had shaded from their normal coral pink to a stippled ruby hue.

This evidence of her arousal gave me hope that, assured of my fidelity, she would allow me back into our bedroom but she surprised me by immediately sliding beneath the quilt and inviting me to join her.

I wanted her to remove the device, and I was on the verge of asking her, but something told me that this was not the moment.

The bed sheets were cool contrasting with the welcoming heat of her body and, out of long habit, I lay on my back put my arm around her as she nestled her head into my chest. The ease with which we fitted together and the familiar smell of her hair created a mood of peacefulness that I had not felt for weeks.

I laid still for a long time listening to her regular breathing and then I felt her fingers gently combing the hairs on my chest. In the past this was usually a signal, conscious or otherwise, that she was frisky and this was borne out as she trailed her way south until her hand was between my legs.

For a few seconds I had forgotten about the device altogether but I was swiftly reminded by a resurgence of the dull ache that I had felt before. For what seemed an age she used her fingertips to examine it the cage arrangement allowing her to stroke the very tip of my manhood.

As I result I felt myself repeatedly trying to become aroused only to be bitten back. All the while I sensed that she was listening to my breathing and gauging the tension in my body until, after a particularly prolonged stimulation, I gave an involuntary groan.

At this point her hand slipped away and, only a few minutes later, it was apparent that she had fallen asleep. It was some time later before Morpheus granted me the same boon but it did not last long as I woke with a cramping pain in the groin.

In my befuddled state I thought I needed the toilet but I found that Katherine was spooned into my back with her hand cradling my balls. It seemed that she was still asleep and so I gently extricated myself and went to the bathroom.

It felt strange taking a seat but it presented no problems and I crept back into bed. Tiredness quickly overcame me but I was awoken twice more in the night as Katherine inadvertently reached out to me.

By morning I was having troubled dreams not least a recurring nightmare. As a child my parents had owned an antique sea chest which they pressed into use as a window seat. When I was about eight years old my sister, seven years my senior, was doing schoolwork with a friend when they decided to have some fun.

Caroline was a budding gymnast and, while I watched, she contorted herself inside the chest whist my sister closed the lid. They then bet me that I could not do it and filled with childish bravado I made the attempt. I was only a little smaller than Caroline but I lacked her litheness and it was a tight squeeze.

Needless to say when I tried to open the lid again it would not budge. I started to shout as I heard them laughingly fastening the thick leather straps that secured the chest. I immediately started to panic and tried to kick out but the chest was constructed of stout seasoned oak and it was totally unyielding.

They both sat on the chest and the more despairing my shouts became the more they laughed kicking their heels against the sides of the chest to increase my torment. I have no idea how long it lasted but in my panicked state the stifling heat and heavy smell became indelibly imprinted on my subconscious.

I was in that same waking nightmare now. I felt unhealthily overheated and I struggled for a fresh breath of air. As I rose to consciousness I found myself pinned beneath the duvet with Katherine's sex filling my mouth.

She loomed over me with her eyes closed and her fingers teasing her nipples. From her obvious state of arousal I guessed that she had been in place for a moment or two and my immediate reaction was to try and buck her off.

She laughed and, with her knees pinning my shoulders, she rode me down. I took pause and drew a deep breath as she eased up a little clearly intending that I should lick her. Far from complying I felt a surge of anger. I had confided in her and she knew how my fear of closed spaces had arisen. It was for this reason that we did not adopt this particular position even though I knew that it excited her.

I could have struggled free but only at the cost of possibly hurting her and my abhorrence of causing harm to the fairer sex was deeply ingrained. Instead, I closed my mouth tight and hoped that I appeared suitably aggrieved.

Katherine looked down at me as if I was a petulant schoolchild and she began to tease my lips with her dampened pelt.

Her scent was strong and one might conclude that she had been aroused for hours but the sun was only just rising and she could not have been awake for long.

"Don't you want to please me?"

For a second or two I said nothing feeling that my silence spoke volumes by itself but then she bore down on me a little more insistently. She began to rub herself over the whole of my face smearing me with mixture of my sweat and her own musky emissions.

She laughed and made light of it but then she became more purposeful. She found a rhythm and, working her hips, she traversed my features from my chin to my forehead and then back again.

At first she was gentle but she quickly became excited and less controlled. She placed a hand on the top of my head to steady herself as she gathered speed and abraded my face.

With my mouth closed it became difficult to breath; my nose was being crushed and nostrils felt filled with moisture. I began to make a genuine effort to dislodge her but my struggles only seemed act as a spur.

Most unusually she began to whisper urgent expletives as she drove herself on and then I felt her thighs clenching me tightly. To my astonishment I realized that she had started to come. It had all happened mercifully quickly but now she rested heavily on my face as she recovered.

It would have been hard to tell which of us was breathing harder but then, through it all, I became aware of an added discomfort. Notwithstanding the abuse I had suffered my manhood was making a valiant, but doomed, attempt to rise the occasion.

This unexpected development made me uneasy but I was left with no time to dwell on it as Katherine finally dismounted.

"You'd better get yourself ready for work or you'll be late.

Chapter Five

Having arrived at the office I could not concentrate. Katherine had shown me a facet of her personality of which I had not previously been aware. It was a mere glimpse but I kept wondering what it augured.

At the finish I put it down to her need to get even. I had belittled her in a way that no woman deserves and I suppose I should have been grateful that she had not taken a more obvious option in order to gain revenge. I was not happy with the state of affairs but at least, for now, we were still together.

Any thoughts of Katherine, and there were many, brought with them a reminder of my restrained state. I had quickly grown used to the device and, for minutes at a time, I could forget that I was wearing it but then I would find myself checking its outline through the material of my trousers.

At lunchtime, as I often did, I took a stroll across the park but the late sunshine had brought out a lot of young women who lazed on the grass with hoiked dresses to top up their holiday tans.

I looked, as any man would, trying not to be too obvious, but now there was a price to pay. I had not realized, until then, just what an effect the act of simply looking had on my libido. It was not by any means a fully fledged reaction but even an initial stirring was enough to painfully remind me of what I had volunteered for.

As so often, in such situations, I comforted myself with thoughts of Katherine and I in bed together but, right then, I could not be sure that she would be willing to make peace.

The remainder of the day passed slowly and I found myself looking anew at the girls around the office. One or two were physically desirable in a very obvious way but I found that, even amongst the others, there were some who acted on my subconscious.

The result was that, when I returned home, I felt incredibly frustrated and wondered how I could go about charming Katherine.

I was surprised to find that she had arrived before me. We usually worked late and I had only come home early because of the unusual stress of the office. I could smell something cooking but Katherine was not in the kitchen.

There was music coming from the living room and I began to hope that this was the prelude to one of our, more formal, romantic dinners at home which usually finished up with a torrid bout of lovemaking.

The shock as I walked in was profound. Katherine was reclined on the sofa; she had her eyes closed and she was completely naked. For a fleeting second I thought that she might be asleep but then I registered a flash of orange.

She had her hand between her legs holding something that might have been a piece of fruit except that it was buzzing purposefully. It was quite small and held in place by a single strap around her fingers.

That it was a vibrator of some description was obvious but this seemed designed to excite her clitoris whilst still leaving her fingers free to stimulate her sex which she was doing with evident pleasure.

I had no idea that she owned such a thing and my immediate reaction was to feel affronted but as she gave a low pleasurable groan my manhood reared and I clutched my groin as the resultant pain kicked in.

She sensed my presence and opened her eyes but rather than appearing embarrassed she looked completely unabashed.

"You must have been reading my mind."

I looked at her uncertain how to reply and she made no move to cover herself as she continued.

"The truth is I've been thinking about you all day. The idea that you've let me lock you up has made me as horny as fuck."

Her language jolted me. Katherine is one of the most well spoken women I have ever met and even though she swore occasionally, sometimes in the throes of passion, she had never been coarse.

"I was just wishing that you were at home and, lo and behold, here you are."

Under other circumstances her words would have cheered me but there was something about the way she said it. My fears were confirmed when she discarded the vibrator and opened her legs.

"Come and finish me off."

It was obvious what she was demanding but I stood my ground.

"Unlock this thing. I want things to be as they were."

She gave a smile that I recognized. It was the triumphant smile that crossed her face when she found the vital flaw in an opposing counsel's argument.

"You've got to do a lot more to earn that. Right now I want you to use that skilful little tongue of yours."

I felt my anger growing and I had to fight the urge to walk out of the room. I had, after all, brought this upon myself and if the price to pay was a couple of days amusement at my expense then I would have to take my medicine. The problem was that I had not anticipated her retribution having quite so cruel an edge.

"Let me get showered and changed and..."

She cut me short.

"You can shower after you've satisfied me. I'll prepare dinner while you change."

There seemed little point in arguing. I knelt down beside the sofa and surveyed the heated maw that was her sex. She must have been pleasuring herself for quite some time as her labia remained slightly parted revealing a pink wetness within.

Her scent was strong but there was a redolence of something slightly synthetic no doubt induced by the vibrator. I tried to ignore it as I tentatively began to lick the dewdrops of arousal that gilded her labia before commencing with bolder strokes of my tongue.

She visibly relaxed, which confounded my immediate hopes of quickly getting it over with, and began to instruct me on where to focus my attentions.

It seemed like a hour, but was probably a lot less, before she told me to concentrate on her clitoris by which time my face shone with sweat. I felt her tensing herself as her climax blossomed but even as it began to shake her I could tell the she was holding something back.

She gave a satisfied sigh and I was, at last, dismissed to go and sort myself out after which dinner seemed unnaturally routine. Katherine again quizzed me on the defence paper and I told her about the rumours concerning some possible dissension from the back benches.

She took a keen interest and I liked to think that it was because she wanted to help further my ambitions but she had also spoken, at different times, of perhaps entering politics herself.

The meal was delicious and Katherine looked beautiful. She wore the simple blue dress she had bought for herself on holiday and I loved the way that it defined and emphasized her breasts.

One or twice she smiled as she caught my eyes flitting downwards and then she leant forward and touched my hand.

"I didn't bother with underwear."

For a guilty second my mind flitted back to my encounter with Chloe but I recovered and turned my hand over to hold hers in mine.

"Come up to bed."

She freed her hand from mine and sat back a little.

"No, I want it right now."

I looked at her earnestly.

"Katherine, have a heart, I've done everything that you asked."

Her eyes flashed to anger.

"And you'll carry on doing everything I ask if you want to repair this marriage."

At that moment my temper got the better of me.

"Look, I'm tired, let's go up to bed. I think we could both do with an early night."

She raised an eyebrow suggesting that she was surprised at me temerity.

"I don't care how tired you are. I want you down on your knees right now and you'll be finished only when I say that you are."

I stood bewildered by her reaction so much so that she spoke again.

"Let me make it clear to you. You either do your best to please me or, tomorrow morning I will take off my wedding ring before I leave for the office. Would you like to take a bet on how quickly it will take some sharp eyed tabloid journalist will spot it?"

"You can't do that! Not right now. Not with the defence bill and everything."

"Do you want to try me?"

I must have stood mute for a least a minute as I frantically tried to weigh up the implications. Katherine just stared at me coolly knowing that both physically and metaphorically she had me by the balls.

Galling as it was I had no cards to play and knew that I would have to do as she asked but, for the very first time, I found myself seriously speculating how my future might be without Katherine in it.

With poor grace I knelt down as Katherine smiled and raised her dress

"There's a good boy."

I immediately noticed that she had not showered before dinner which, for someone as fastidious about cleanliness as Katherine, was out of the ordinary. From my intimate vantage point I could smell traces of her earlier arousal on her skin and her dressing of dark hair was untidily matted.

I leaned in towards her sex but she placed her hand on my head and brought me up short.

"Lick my thighs."

It was then that I understood that, for her, this was as much an exercise in humiliation as it was an act of lovemaking. As I began to lick her tainted skin I felt angry but I could not account for the fact that my manhood was stretching into life not least because it was clear that she had no intention of releasing me for the time being.

As I finished on her left thigh and moved to the right I tried counting in my head to calm myself down but increasing pain attested to my failure. I worked my way up to her pubis whereupon she moved slightly and I found myself licking at her dampened curls before she allowed me to focus on her sex.

She was already leaking and I centred on her clitoris but she touched my head once more.

"Take your time. Get your tongue nice and deep and then suck me."

Whilst I found going down on her a chore I counted myself reasonably proficient and so this recent predilection for issuing instructions was unwelcome. Nevertheless, I did as she asked and the taste of her flooded my mouth.

Over the next half an hour she continued to make precise demands of me heedless of my increasing discomfort. My knees and back vied with my tongue and jaw in claiming relief but the worst of all, because I could not understand it, was the pain of my thwarted erection.

It was at least another fifteen minutes before she succumbed to a lazy climax which she heralded with an appreciative sigh.

I got up from the floor and, in a show of petulance, I cleaned my face on my linen napkin but, if she noticed, she chose to ignore it. Having cooked, she left me to clear up and went up to bed. When I followed, sometime later, I found the door locked.

Chapter Six

Three days later I was revisiting the cursed website in order to buy a spare unlocking tool. Katherine had become unreasonably demanding and my patience had worn thin. Each night she expected me to minister to her orally with no hint that she was prepared to forgive.

I decided that I would give it just a few more days on the basis that I could free myself from time to time without her knowing and then lock myself up again.

I had hoped that I could buy something from the local hardware shop but, on closer examination, I saw that the recess in each tiny nut was irregular. It was clear that only the bespoke tool would do the job.




Regime



A hunt around the apartment drew a blank and so I had no choice but to revert to the manufacturer. A high to low price search turned up my particular device at the very top but there was nothing obvious about spares or replacements.

I then reviewed the terms and conditions which I had glibly accepted and swore out loud. The nuts were more than just a simple means of securing the device. Based on the number of turns they effectively formed a combination lock.

I looked at the device again and registered, for the first time, the dotted motif around each nut which corresponded to a number from one to nine. Simple maths told me that the number of possibilities totalled 8889 but that was without taking into account both the clockwise and anti-clockwise turns that the system allowed.

Worse was to come. A replacement tool would only be released to the 'owner' once the registered combination number sequence was correctly confirmed. I assumed that Katherine, in her usual meticulous way, would have registered her chosen number and, not for the first time in my life, I cursed myself for not reading a set of instructions.

It was bullshit of course, all part of the fantasy, but I was hardly in a position to sue them.

I considered trying brute force but the site cautioned against it declaring that the use of tools might lead to a shearing of the brittle material with the danger of severe laceration.

In extremis I suppose I could have walked into a local hospital and have it removed safely but the possibility of any attendant publicity did not bear thinking about.

I set off for work in a foul mood not helped by the fact that I was scheduled to address a new intake of fast trackers to extol the virtues of working in the public sector. I stood at a lectern and looked out at the thirty of so bright young things and then I had to do a double take.

Brazenly seated in the front row, smiling conspiratorially, was none other than Chloe. I have to confess that I had thought about her often even going so far as to make some discrete enquiries as to her whereabouts.

I guessed that Jennifer would have liked to have gotten rid of her altogether but Chloes' father, Roland, as well as being a friend, had connections to the party and the whips office could not afford to raise suspicion.

It transpired that she had been transferred to Human Resources and so there was a chance that she was attending in that capacity but surely it was more than coincidence.

She stood out amongst the soberly dressed high flyers wearing another of her daring wardrobe pieces and, as I began to speak, I had to fight to keep my eyes on the body of the audience.

The standard script was anodyne. It was non-aligned and could be delivered by ministers from either party but I found myself making one or two simple errors. My audience did not seem to notice; they just stared up at one of the stars in the political firmament.

I could not help but glance at Chloe from time to time but she seemed busy making notes until I reached a point where I began to talk about 'open government'. With studied deliberation she set her clipboard aside and uncrossed her legs; when I reached the subtext on 'degrees of openness' she slowly parted her legs and I could not avert my gaze.

A trick of the light seemed to illuminate the seat she had chosen and I could see that she was without underwear. For a couple of seconds I completely lost my train of thought and then I almost doubled over as my manhood tried to burst from its confines.

One or two of the youngsters started to move towards me but I put up a hand and forestalled them. I smiled, wiped a bead of sweat from my brow, and picked up where I had left off.

Some looked at me curiously but none more so than Chloe. She picked up her clipboard and put in on her lap but, at the same time, she raised the hem of her dress a couple of inches. I winced in renewed discomfort as her thighs were slowly revealed.

She intuited that something was going on but she could not be sure exactly what. Over the next few minutes she shifted in her seat revealing herself to me without making it obvious to her immediate neighbours. For my part I apologised to my audience and told them I was a little under the weather as I continually mopped my brow.

I cut the question and answer session as short as I decently could and noted that Chloe was providing each delegate with an information pack as they left the room until there was just the two of us left.

I was still standing at the lectern trying to gather myself knowing that any attempt to walk at that moment was doomed to failure. I was wrenched back to earth by the click of the door lock.

"Chloe, open the door. We can't be alone together."

"Of course we can silly."

She smiled and touched me on the cheek.

"I noticed that you cut things short. The room's booked for another half an hour...and nobody goes down on me quite like you."

An alarm bell was shrilling in my head but, as if by magic, her dress was sliding down her body to pool at her feet.

I could not explain it. Katherine was my ideal in a woman in so many ways so why was I so mesmerized by this slip of a girl? Her body was near perfect but it was more than that. It was the seemingly innocent way in which she flaunted her sexuality.

She moved closer and her hand dropped to my crotch.

"You want to...you're body can't lie."

She had taken the perceived firmness as a measure of my arousal and I eased her hand away before she divined the truth of the matter.

"Chloe, get yourself dressed..."

She ignored me and, instead, pressed her finger to her sex. My heart leapt as she let it sink inside and then withdrew it wet with arousal. I stood, unable to move, as she smeared my lips and the joined her mouth with mine.

Her tongue was everywhere seeking out her own taste and I almost cried out in pain as the device held me in check. I felt powerless as she eased me down to my knees to worship at her shrine until she melted into a draining orgasm that left her barely able to stand.

As soon as I returned to my office I picked up the phone to Veronica Samms. At first she told me that she could not bring forward my appointment but she must have heard the desperation in my voice. She agreed to see me that evening on the understanding that I could get Katherine to attend.

Katherine proved hard to get hold of but she eventually returned my call late in the afternoon. She, too, was put out by my impromptu request but I sensed that she was intrigued.

When we entered Samms' offices I was surprised to find her casually dressed in a dark dress which exposed a great deal of flesh. She spoke as she shook Katherine's hand.

"Forgive the informal appearance. I have a box at the Royal Opera this evening and I am going to be cutting things fine."

Katherine told her that there was no apology necessary as we were ushered to a sofa to sit side by side with Samms taking a seat in front of us.

For the first ten minutes she quizzed Katherine going over the same ground that she had previously covered with me including general health and her feelings about marriage in general. When she started asking about our love life I felt uneasy but Katherine said that for the most part she had been satisfied.

I was still considering the implications of her use of the past tense when I realized that she was expanding.

"I would like it if he were more attentive to me in certain ways...but I think we are making progress."

Samms made a note and looked up.

"Would you care to be more specific?"

"He used to be reluctant to go down on me. We have now remedied that."

I did not like that way that Katherine spoke of me in the third person and Samms was looking at me curiously.

"Did you check out that website?"

She did not wait for an answer before she continued.

"If you have been wearing a device for any length of time you need to get yourself examined to make sure it is not too constrictive. Your doctor can do it for you but I would be happy to do it now if you feel it might save you embarrassment."

She must have been insane. I had spent the last ten minutes trying not to stare at her chest and, at that moment, the constriction was almost bringing tears to my eyes. When I could not frame an answer she turned to Katherine.

"I was a clinician before I majored in psychology. I hope you don't think me presumptuous."

"Not at all."

I half registered that Samms, despite her youthful appearance, must have been even older than I imagined before Katherine touched me on the knee.

"Stand up and get undressed."

I looked at her in disbelief.

"Katherine, I ..."

"Just get up and do as you're told!"

Her tone shocked me and I rose almost without thought prompting Samms to remark.

"That's interesting. Have you discussed the submissive traits that we touched on during our first session?"

The answer was no. I had not broached it with Katherine and did not want to. I considered it total nonsense and accounted my acquiescence simply a means to keep things smooth until we got back to normal.

I was minded to sit back down again but Katherine gave an impatient tut. I did not want to have a row in front of Samms and give her more ammunition and so I took the line of least resistance and began to unfasten my trousers.

"Get completely undressed. I need to listen to your heart and check your blood pressure."

I felt as if I were in a dream as I stripped off not even thinking to look for a modesty screen but Samms was totally business like. She collected her stethoscope and listened to my heart and lungs but as she walked behind me she ran her fingers over my skin.

"You've tried corporal punishment?"

I had almost forgotten the riding crop and had not realized that the marks had yet to fade completely. Her next question was unexpected.

"How did it feel?"

I was about to give a sarcastic answer when Katherine unexpectedly replied.

"It felt empowering. I was angry and he deserved it. It was a release."

"Anything more than that?"

Katherine paused before she answered again.

"Truthfully?... It turned me on."

The shock of hearing her say it rocked me but not nearly as much as Samms next remark.

"I would say that the pair of you are more empathetic than perhaps you both realized. Pain, if properly controlled, can be an exciting stimulus".

As if to illustrate the point she stood in front of me and cradled my balls in her hand. She looked me straight in the eye as she continued speaking.

"A very expensive model if memory serves. Impossible to remove unless the keyholder so decides. How long has it been since you last allowed him to climax?"

"Not since...the incident."

"Well the good news, for you, is that it is a good fit and does not present any health problems. You can leave it on indefinitely.

I was on the point of telling her that she had crossed the line when Katherine forestalled me.

"Be quiet!"

Samms smiled broadly.

"You are a very lucky woman. You have 'the voice'. I had to train for years to become proficient for professional purposes but you have it quite naturally."

Now it was Katherine's turn to look puzzled prompting Samms to continue.

"It's in the tone and inflection. It is something almost hypnotic that bends people to your will for want of a better description."

Samms turned back to me.

"Kneel down."

She spoke the words quietly but with firmness and I went to my knees without conscious thought. Realizing what I had done I felt a deep sense of unease but, somewhere in the recesses of my mind, she had sparked the memory of being scolded as a child.

I immediately began to rise to my feet but Katherine interposed.

"Stay there."

There was a long silence as she considered the connotations and it was almost as if a series of unspoken questions and answers passed between them. The absurdity of the whole situation was not lost on me but it took a turn for the bizarre when Katherine next spoke.

"Lift her dress."

I looked up at Samms expecting her to look as stunned as I felt but her expression was a mix of amusement and mild curiosity. Was this some sort of test of my fidelity? Was I supposed to refuse or to obey?

I half turned to where Katherine remained seated on the sofa but she spoke just a little more tersely.

"Don't make me ask again."

I felt belittled, especially in the presence of Samms, and so I could not account for the fact that my groin ached with the beginnings of a frustrated erection. I reached forward hesitantly and raised her dress revealing her bare tanned legs and a pair of panties whose price was probably in inverse proportion to the scant amount of silk needed for their manufacture.

"Very pretty. You must let me know where you bought them".

Katherine spoke in a matter of fact manner as if it were a perfectly normal set of circumstances and so I was completely thrown out of kilter by her next remark.

"Take them off for her."

Any last pretence of professionalism was strewn to the winds but Jennifer had made it clear at the outset that Samms was seeing me "off the books" as a personal favour. I had vague, but futile, thoughts of suing for misconduct knowing it would have as devastating effect on my career as Katherine's threat to appear in public without her wedding band.

My mind was in turmoil and all I could do, for now, was to go along with it. My hands were shaking as I took hold of the delicate material and eased them down her incredibly smooth legs.

She stepped out of them and then raised her skirt to leave me staring at her depilated sex and I was shocked to see that she was sporting a discrete tattoo slightly to the left of her mons.

"Do you have time?"

Katherine's question to Samms could be construed in any number of innocent ways but somehow I knew exactly what it portended. Never, in the whole time I had known her, had she ever even hinted at introducing someone else into our relationship so how twistedly ironic that it was my infidelity which had brought us to this point.

Samms looked lost in thought for a second or two but then, looking down at me, she simply said.

"Why not."

She settled herself on the sofa next to Katherine and parted her legs as though it were the most natural thing in the world. I remained rooted to the spot, trying to deal with my conflicting emotions, and I looked to Katherine imploringly.

"Don't look at me. I want you to please Doctor Samms."

Samms was a very desirable young woman but I understood that, if I did this, nothing could ever be the same. That fear held me in check until, growing impatient, Katherine spoke again.

"You either do this or you and I are finished, it's up to you."

Samms smiled as I shuffled forward and leaned in towards her. I could now see that her tattoo was a Latin inscription the words inked in a circle. As I put out my tongue to lick her it was in my line of sight allowing me to read "Portas Paradisi". I wondered how many of her other lovers recognized the conceit.

Her sex yielded to me almost immediately suggesting an immodest level of arousal and I could not help but notice that she had applied a dab of scent to the inside of her thighs. It seemed obvious that she had been expecting someone to perform this service for her before the end of the night and I wondered with whom she was attending the opera.

I continued to lick, applying my new found skills, but I was surprised when they began talking to one another.

"You have him well trained."

"A work in progress. He can find the right spots but he tires too easily. He has trouble keeping his tongue deep enough for any great length of time."

"If you will allow me I can help you with that."

They carried on talking about me as though I had been bought for the night. I knew that I should have felt anger but, perversely, my overwhelming reaction was one of arousal with the ever increasing discomfort that it engendered.

The urge to rip off Samms clothing and to thrust myself upon her, fuelled with days of pent up frustration, was almost too great. I wanted to prove to her my worth as a lover and, at that moment, I did all that I could with the only means at my disposal.

I licked and sucked at her like a man possessed occasioning a sporadic moan as I homed in on her surprisingly large clitoris. I kept my hands flat on the floor as instructed but my efforts bore fruit as she began to leak freely.

Her natural scent blended with the musky application on her skin to shroud me in a heady bouquet that had me craving the taste of her. I was so caught up in this temporary madness that I did not notice the subtle change in atmosphere.

I cast my eyes upwards for the first time in minutes and time seemed to stand still. The two of them were engaged in a deep passionate kiss and an instant stab of jealousy almost stopped my heart.

They both had their eyes closed but Samms pressed down on my head in a clear instruction to stop looking and to carry on from where I had left off.

I obeyed simply to give me time to gather my fevered thoughts. To the best of my knowledge Katherine had never been with another woman nor had she ever expressed a desire to do so. I found it troubling but, nevertheless, my body responded in Pavlovian fashion.

A sudden jolt of pain made me gasp deep into her sex and this was the trigger for a gentle, but extended, climax which sent shivers through her body. We were disconnected but she no longer had need of me. She had found an altogether different stimulus.

When it was over they reluctantly parted and Samms spoke peremptorily.

"There's a washroom through there. Go and clean yourself up."

I did as she asked but I could not meet my own eyes in the mirror as I washed and dried my face. When I came back they were laughing together on the sofa and it was a moment before Katherine finally deigned to acknowledge my presence.

"I'll see you at home later. Veronica has invited me to the opera."

Chapter Seven

I took a taxi and, in a moment of icy clarity, I finally confronted the possibility that it might be over between Katherine and I. She had pushed me into dark places, and I was frightened about what I had found there, but more than that I could not come to terms with the enjoyment that she seemed to take from my suffering.

Back at the flat I even began to think through the mechanics. Once the defence bill was passed I would be well placed to think about the next step up. I could then ask for a divorce on the grounds of incompatibility, which would get the tabloids excited for a day or two, but the fuss would pass quickly.

In the real world a wife and two children was no longer a necessary prerequisite for high political office and, handled properly, the publicity might even be turned to my advantage.

On the financial front Katherine earned far more than me and so the process was not going to lead to impoverishment.

In the meantime I just needed to keep her sweet and persuade her to unlock the device. The worse case was that she would continue to play the bitch and I might have to accede to her demands for a few more days but I was scheduled to be in the States at the end of the month and I was hardly known there. I would find an opportunity to slip away and have the necessary work carried out.

I put on a Brahms symphony, which was usually guaranteed to relax me, as I tried to focus on the latest batch of briefing documents but I could not concentrate. I switched on the television and I must have dozed off as I was awakened by the opening of the front door.

I glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearly midnight but a gale of laughter confirmed that Katherine was not alone. As I sat up she came into the room in company with Samms and it was clear that they had both been drinking.




Regime



I looked at Katherine as if to ask what was going on but she simply turned on her heel.

"Come through into the bedroom."

I felt my heart pounding as the pair of them led the way and I found it hard to frame a coherent thought. As I walked in Katherine was already undressing unmindful of Samms' presence and I finally found my voice.

"Katherine, I have an early start tomorrow..."

She stripped off the remainder of her clothing as if I had not even spoken and sat on the edge of the bed with her legs parted.

"Get yourself over here. I've been waiting for hours, ever since I watched you with Veronica."

My face must have expressed my disbelief as I tried to get a grip on the situation.

"Katherine, this has gone far enough. We'll talk about it in the morning. I'll make up the sofa and Dr. Sam..., Veronica, can have the spare room if she's staying."

Katherine looked at me as if I were an errant child.

"You still don't get this do you? Tomorrow morning there is guaranteed to be at least one tabloid journalist camped out on our front door step. I promise you that, not only will I appear without a wedding ring, I will kiss Veronica with a passion that is guaranteed to get the front page."

I looked for some sign that she was speaking in jest but she was in deadly earnest and knew the power of her threat. They were two stunningly attractive women and a picture with connotations would not remain confined to the UK press. It would go viral.

It was now blackmail, pure and simple, but I could see no immediate way out of my predicament. I wanted to strangle Samms for her part in it and the more so when she laughed as I reluctantly went to my knees.

She could see my anger but she gave another twist of the knife.

"He should be naked don't you think?

"You're absolutely right. Get yourself undressed."

I had changed into tee shirt and pair of cotton shorts after my shower and so it was the work of but a few seconds to do as they asked. I threw the discarded clothing at Samms' feet but she ignored the gesture.

"On your knees. You wife is waiting."

It took an effort of will to make myself do it but I abased myself and began to gently kiss her sex in the manner that she now customarily demanded.

I could smell her arousal and, in an unusual show of impatience, she had me begin licking almost immediately. The taste of her was markedly stronger than Samms bearing out her assertion that she had been excited for some hours.

As I applied myself to my task I was aware of Samms hovering around the bed. Not for the first time that evening I wondered if she was a lesbian set upon seducing my wife but she had certainly seemed eager enough to avail herself of my services.

I continued to labour for some minutes but then, at some unseen signal from Samms, Katherine had me stop. When I looked up it was to find that the pillows have been formed into a mound in the centre of the bed and Katherine lazily draped herself over them.

I was left staring at the perfection of her toned backside with her sex lewdly displayed. I felt a desperate urge to kneel behind her and take her by the hips but this thought reignited the pain in my groin and it was not what she wanted of me.

"Lick it."

I could feel my body almost shaking with anger but I fought it down and bent to my task. Positioned as she was her sex was opened to me but it made it difficult for me to access her clitoris suggesting that she was in no great hurry.

Carefully, I began to lick her labia knowing better than to try and gain entrance straight away but, as I did so, she relaxed more deeply into the pillows. My tongue slipped away from her sex and was drawn into the furrow of her parted cheeks.

Instinctively I pulled away but Samms put her hand on my head and pressed me forward.

"She wants you to lick it."

For a few seconds I struggled with a feeling of revulsion. I had always thought that when I met the right woman nothing would be taboo but this was one reservation I had never been able to come to terms with. Fortunately, until now, it had been an unspoken but mutual understanding between us.

I could feel a sweat of anxiety on my brow and I started to resist the pressure of Samms' hand but she spoke close to my ear.

"You will do it...or do I have to phone and leave a message with the Whip's office to stand by for bad news later this morning."

I could still not believe that Katherine would deliberately sabotage my career but in Samms' company she had become a total stranger to me and, for now, I simply did not know how to fight back. For the time being I took the line of least resistance and reluctantly licked along the well defined divide.

The taste was slightly musty but Katherine was already beginning to perspire and there was an underlying tang of salt. I was given no indication that I was to stop and so I licked again and the now cleaner taste made things just a little less unedifying.

She gave a murmur of approval as I fell into a lazy rhythm and tried to detach myself from the immediate reality but after a minute or two she stretched her body just a little more.

Now, as I licked, I could not avoid her darker opening with each pass of my tongue and I had to overcome the impulse to turn away.

It shaded from pink to a more dusky hue at the very heart and its subtly ribbed texture hinted at a latent strength.

"Don't tease her. Find the spot."

My hatred of Samms was increasing by the moment. I thought that I had done enough to satisfy but now Samms seemed intent on furthering my degradation. I began to lick in a tight circle, which seemed much to Katherine's liking, and noticed the taste of her leaked arousal.

The tight opening seemed totally forbidding, which I regarded as perfectly natural, but then I felt a slight flexing beneath my tongue. To my total dismay she was relaxing her muscles and it was almost like the throbbing of a pulse.

I was engulfed by an irrational, almost childlike, fear and as Samms began to coax her words had an almost comforting quality.

"Press gently but firmly..."

I did as she asked but, deep down, I assured myself that it could not be done. Katherine squirmed beneath me and raised her hips pressing herself against my mouth whilst I flexed my tongue meeting with seemingly stubborn resistance.

"Point your tongue and try harder"

I centred the tip of my tongue at the heart of her rosette and tried once more. Just when, with relief, I felt I could do no more there was a sudden and unexpected easing.

Katherine gave a groan of contentment and in the space of a couple of heartbeats my tongue was drawn deep within to be held fast. I was expecting heat but there was a surprising coolness and an earthy taste which was not as bad as I feared.

We remained locked together for a few seconds, neither of us moving, until Samms issued further instructions.

"Move your tongue a little. Try and get deeper"

I thought that I was already at full stretch but Katherine relaxed her hold and I found another millimetre or two. This small movement had a disproportional effect on her and she moaned as if I were licking at her clitoris.

We fell into a regular cadence as she alternatively squeezed and relaxed whilst I thrust with my tongue as best I could.

After a minute or two the strain became painful, and I felt stretched to the root, but I was reminded of Samms earlier remark about training my tongue. At the moment it was Katherine who was in need of tuition as she clearly did not understand the stress she was inflicting on me.

She was breathing quite hard and it was then that I grasped that she was close to orgasm. The notion that she could climax from this alone was quite startling but as she continued to bear down on my tongue it was not in doubt.

With a final series of painful squeezes she went into melt down and smothered her cries of ecstasy in the counterpane as her body hummed with waves of pleasure. It seemed interminable but as the final tremors subsided my tongue was curtly ejected.

As I worked my mouth and jaw, trying to restore some life, Samms took hold of my manhood from behind.

"See, what did I tell you?"

For some insane reason, which could not be denied, I was semi erect and crushed to the limits of my enclosure. The fact was, that for all the abuse that had been heaped upon me, I knew that I could come within seconds if only I were free. Was it just autonomic or, more worryingly, was there some merit in her assertion that I was a natural submissive?

Katherine rose from the bed and stretched languorously and I suffered a fresh burst of pain but at least this time I could put it down to the sheer beauty of the image she presented. In the space of seconds my earlier resolve evaporated and I knew that, in reality, I could not let her go.

She reached for her night gown but as she did so Samms spoke excitedly.

"Wait a moment."

She took hold of Katherine's tie belt and pulled it free from the loops of the gown before taking up station behind me.

"Put your arms behind your back and touch your fingertips to your elbows."

I looked to Katherine hoping that, now she was satisfied, she would bring an end to the game but she looked inquisitively amused. I was torn between leaving the room, and effectively calling her bluff, or staying and trying to win her favour. The single thing that finally tipped the balance was my reluctance to leave them alone in the bedroom together.

I did as she asked, finding that it was not as easy as it sounded, and she then proceeded to wrap the silky tie around my forearms. She worked quickly and dexterously to produce a seemingly loose binding but then she braced her knee against my arms and tugged.

All at once the web tightened, putting an immediate strain on my shoulders, and I quickly established that I was securely held.

Satisfied with her work she began to undress and, much as I wanted to look away, she knew that I was a slave to my latent desires. She was slimmer than Katherine, with less pronounced curves and smaller breasts, but that only reinforced the impression that she looked much younger than her years.

When she was completely undressed she settled on the bed with her back propped by the pillows. Slowly and deliberately she raised her knees and opened her legs removing any last lingering doubt about what was required of me.

I was tired and enraged but her provocative pose got to me nevertheless. I stared at her distended sex only to be the victim of a sympathetic but anguished swelling.

"I am too tired for this."

She seemed unfazed by my complaint and simply smiled.

"I was so hoping you would say that."

She looked towards Katherine who immediately opened the wardrobe and then produced her riding crop prompting a chain of frantic thoughts. She normally kept her riding accoutrements in the garage and so how had Samms known that it was in the room?  

It was clear that this whole scenario was premeditated which made me fearful that they were equally determined to carry out their threat if it became necessary. I guessed that arguing was going to avail me nothing and so I resigned myself and began to consider ways of exacting revenge on this she-wolf who was having such an evil influence on our already strained marriage.

For the second time in as many hours I sealed myself to her aroused sex and pressed my tired tongue back into service. It was quickly apparent that watching my performance with Katherine had excited her. My face was soon wet and every breath I took was imbued with her scent.

She settled more comfortably and sighed prompting Katherine to ask.

"How's he doing?"

"I think he could show a little more enthusiasm."

With that Katherine lashed me playfully across the buttocks producing a muted howl of anguish.

"Don't be such a child. I hardly touched you."

She reinforced the comment with a second stoke a little heavier than the first and I exhaled sharply eliciting a similar response from Samms. The sharp pain passed to be replaced by a warmth that spread from my buttocks to my groin where I felt a distinct tingling.

I licked at Samms absently as I came to terms with this new sensation. It almost felt as if I could achieve ejaculation despite my cruel imprisonment. Katherine noted my lack of effort and hit me twice more in quick succession each time with a greater measure of venom.

Again I gasped, exciting Samms, and over the next few minutes I felt like a human conduit. Katherine struck me at intervals, and each stroke took Samms nearer to the brink, but the ever increasing warmth caused by the crop brought me tantalizingly closer too

At the finish she was striking me with the full sweep of her arm and, God forbid, I was actually welcoming it. Samms was issuing a stifled scream as she reached the zenith and I was tonguing her furiously as if the effort would afford my own release.

As the tension eased from her body I almost cried out in frustration. Katherine stilled her arm and I was left poised at the brink of an uncertain, but desperately needed, climax.

Katherine cast the crop aside and moved to sit on the edge of the bed putting her arm around Samms' waist who, in turn, stared into her eyes.

"Didn't I tell you it would be fun?"

Chapter Eight

Later that morning, as I left the house, the bedroom door was still closed and I felt ill at the thought of what was going on behind it. I spent the night in the spare room and, more than once, considered decamping to a hotel.

I arrived at the office early, even by my own usual standards, and threw myself into reviewing the final draft of the bill which was to be set before parliament. It was difficult to clear my mind but, once I did so, I managed to focus and began to feel quite exultant about the prospects for its success.

I should not have tempted fate. My hubris was found out when I received a call to attend Jennifer's office at my earliest convenience.

I had barely taken a seat in her office before she began to speak.

"Aruna Banerjee is going to oppose the bill."

I did not know how to reply. Our majority was large enough to weather some opposition from within our own party and Banerjee might argue that she had good reason to dissent. Her constituency was home to two of the largest military bases in the country as well as an aerospace factory which could lose out in the cuts.

"Has she galvanized some support?"

Jennifer looked down at a list of names on her desk.

"Not enough, but more than we would have wanted."

I was now at a loss. I could not see what she expected of me. Jennifer sighed and began to lay it out.

"Some opposition is no bad thing, it gives the impression that this is a policy that hasn't simply been hammered through, but we can't afford to have it coalescing around Banerjee. "

That I understood. If I was the party's poster boy then she was its poster girl; a beautiful Cambridge graduate who sent the party's approval ratings soaring every time she appeared on TV.

"Surely she's been promised something?"

"She's been promised a great deal and, if the bill was anyone but yours, she would hold the party line."

"I don't see how that..."

She cut me off mid sentence.

"Don't be dense! She thinks she is more qualified than you and can't understand why you've progressed so quickly, a question I ask myself. It also doesn't help that you turned down the offer of going to bed with her at the party conference."

I looked at Jennifer in amazement. The depth of knowledge to which seemed privy was almost terrifying.

"How the hell...?"

"Because some reporter got hold of the CCTV imagery of her propositioning you in a corridor. There was nothing conclusive but he had to be bought off anyway. I suppose it's to your credit that you refused her."

I took all this in still wondering what I was supposed to do when Jennifer made it clear.

"I want you to arrange a meeting. Go through the bill with her and defuse the arguments. You might also want to try a bit of flattery. I trust you can do that?"

I said yes but as I made my way back to the office I was unsure exactly what I could achieve. When I got to my desk I picked up my phone almost without thinking and put a call through to Katherine.

For a moment she was very distant but when I explained my dilemma she was brisk and businesslike. Fortunately, I had told her about Aruna's drunken approach at the time and she had laughed it off. When I put down the phone I took comfort from her obvious willingness to help out and hoped that, perhaps, things were not as black as I had painted them.

Jennifer wanted matters sorted out as quickly as possible and Aruna was primed to receive my call. Mindful of the instruction to massage her ego, and knowing that her London flat was not too far from my own, I invited her around for drinks that same evening.

Katherine got home early and prepared some finger food and Aruna arrived promptly at eight o'clock. She and Katherine greeted one another effusively but I could sense each of them carefully weighing up the other.

After a first drink, and a little small talk, I invited Aruna to sit at the dinner table so that I could spread out my paperwork. She sat with her legs crossed allowing her formal skirt to ride up a little and I was reminded of the brouhaha that attended a recent television interview when the producers were deemed to have lingered just a little too long on her exposed thighs.

Another of her little artifices was to be seen wearing a cross on her necklace which confirmed her Christian credentials but also drew attention to her delightful cleavage. Like the cameras I had difficulty in keeping my eyes front.

For the next ninety minutes we went through her objections to the bill but they were hard to rebut. I could not tell her outright but at least one of the bases in her constituency was almost certain to be mothballed. My reticence told its own story and when she went onto the attack with reference to the possible closure of the arms factory I was glad that Katherine looked in on us.

Aruna stopped mid rant but then Katherine surprised me altogether.

"The factory is a secure facility is it not? If it becomes surplus to requirements would it not be the kind of site that Bofors might be interested in for production of the new 40mm cannon?

I was in the Department and I had not even considered this option. Bofors had won the contract to produce armaments for the Army Air Corp and implicit in the contract terms was the understanding that jobs would be created in the UK.

I saw Aruna looking at Katherine with grudging admiration both for the confirmation that her fears were well grounded and for showing a possible way out. By contrast she looked at me as if I had confirmed her opinion that I was a deceitful apparatchik.

"Your wife makes a better politician than you do."

Katherine smiled and touched me on the shoulder.

"You'd be surprised at his talents. Shall we cut to the chase? I'm guessing that Jennifer has guaranteed to parachute you into a safe seat if yours goes at the election. I would also surmise that you've been offered Junior Minister. There's an opening coming up at the Home Office I believe."

Aruna's expression told me that Katherine was on the mark and I was stunned by her insight. If she ever chose to enter politics she would prove formidable. I was still coming to terms with it as she continued.

"It seems to me that it would be in your best interest to vote with the party which suggests that you are toying with my husband...perhaps to avenge a personal slight?"

Aruna raised an eyebrow but otherwise gave no hint that she may have been found out. She simply waited for Katherine carry on.

"Would it make you feel better if I told him to go down on you?"