10 comments/ 14236 views/ 3 favorites Catriona By: SimonBrooke The heavy wooden door opened slowly, framing and revealing the room like a panning camera. Plain white walls, varnished pine floor. A wide bed with a cast iron frame topped with gleaming brass knobs. She knelt on it, naked, blindfolded, her face bowed between her chained, outstretched arms, half hidden in the tumble of her hair; her knees spread obscenely wide by their own fetters, stretching and parting her labia above her little tuft of soft pubic fur, revealing the darker pigment of her anus. Her beautiful skin gleaming in the soft evening light, marred and mottled with bruises. By the chain splaying her left leg, an unopened box of condoms. ----- "Mark, can you spare a moment?" I sat up, stretched, leaned back in my chair, and swivelled it round. David, my boss, and friend. Really. And with him, a very sleek guy. Sharp suit. Silk tie. Cuff-links, for heaven's sake! But big, well built, even slightly menacing. "Mark, this is Tony. He's come to join us on European sales." "Hi, Mark," said the suit, in a very upper class drawl, aggressively English, "I hear you're the wizard." I'm the guy who writes your telephone bill. Or, at least, I'm the guy who writes the thing that writes your telephone bill. Or, at least, I used to be. Back in the day, when the company was just basically David and me and John the finance guy, I wrote the whole product. These days I'm called 'Senior Software Architect', and have a team of untergeeks who do all the boring stuff; and I mostly provide top level input and write the bit that interrogates the switch. You really don't know how your telephone works, do you? There's this bit of string that goes from your phone to the exchange, and in the exchange, there's something mysterious that connects your call to the person you're calling. Of course, these days the piece of string is often virtual, but that really doesn't make any difference. Your call goes to somewhere, and from there it gets routed to where you want it to go. And that mysterious somewhere in the middle is the switch. Now, switches are very good at routing calls, but apart from that they're mostly fairly dumb. They remember which line called, and where it was routed, and how long the line was up; and that's about all. So the telephone company need something to pull the data off the switch, and work out what the tariff for each call was, and which account it belongs to, and so on; and that something is my baby. I'm a geek, and geeks in our society are more or less invisible. Society needs the things geeks do in order to operate, but most of the time most people don't even realise that the things geeks do need doing. Their phone bills come through the post, and they (usually) pay them. But I'm a geek, and I'm that geek; so next time you pay your phone bill, think of me. The software industry is composed of two kinds of people. There's geeks. That's us: the people who can actually talk to the machines and persuade them to do things. We're very good with machines, but we're notoriously not very good with people. So we need the other kind: the suits. We don't, mostly, like them. We certainly don't trust them. And to hear us talk, you'd think the suits were a bunch of parasitic drones. Which they mostly are. They call themselves 'managers', which means they set impossible deadlines, provide inadequate resources, and then waste so much of your time with meetings and way-points and productivity metrics and other buffoonery that you can't get any work done. Or else they call themselves 'salesmen', which means they go out and sell customers something you haven't built yet with the promise that it will do something it was never designed to do. Geeks have a word for that. It's 'vapourware'. Software that's been sold but doesn't exist, and which it may not even be possible to build. The one thing geeks hate above all else is suits who sell vapourware. But here's the rub: geeks can't sell. It's something we're really, really not good at, and really, really don't like doing. And unless someone sells product to customers, there's no money to pay our wages. So there's an uneasy and uncomfortable symbiosis between geeks who can build product but not sell it, and suits who can sell product but not build it. We need each other. We don't like each other. So Tony and I greeted one another with faux politesse, and after that I didn't see him for a couple of months. Until, one morning, David called me into the small conference room, and Tony was there. We exchanged greetings, sat down, shuffled papers. "Look, Mark, what this is about, Tony's got us a deal in Ukraine which looks very good. It's the former national phone company and they've still got a very dominant position in the market there. They're upgrading their exchanges to Nokia switches over a five year programme..." I saw what was coming. "But the sale depends on us supporting their old switches?" "Exactly." "What are they? Ryskas?" There was silence round the table. David looked pointedly at Tony. Tony cleared his throat, fiddling with his cuff-links. "They're locally made. I gather they're based on a 1960s Ericsson design, but with some modifications." I looked, slightly eye rolling, at David. We'd been here before. "OK," I said, "what language is the documentation in?" Again, David looked at Tony, and Tony looked still more uncomfortable. "They don't seem to have any. There's a couple of old guys..." To cut a very long story short, Tony and I flew out to Kiev, and I spent a very enjoyable couple of days with the two old guys and an intelligent young translator, and came back with what I needed. It was really very simple; it was a very simple switch. Tony was hugely relieved. I realised that this was his first significant sale for us, and that David had given him a suitably hard time about vapourware. The plane, of course, was delayed, so when we got back on the ground at Glasgow it was already late and the weather was dreich, so I wasn't much looking forward to rattling home by two busses or a very expensive taxi. "Come back to my flat", said Tony. "Cat'll whip something up; she's pretty good at that, and I'll drive you out to your place afterwards." I accepted, and Tony got out his phone. A moment later he asked me if there was anything I didn't eat, and I said no. His car was a dark blue Aston Martin; not new, but... certainly the most ostentatiously luxurious car I've ever sat in. His flat was in one of the big old sandstone blocks off the Great Western Road. We clattered up the tenement stair, and in through a heavy front door to a white space sparsely furnished with a judicious mix of antique and starkly modern furniture. And in it... Tall, gracile, good cheekbones, wonderful eyes. Lovely hair, long, vigorous. Elegant posture. "Mark," said Tony, "this is Cat. Cat, this is Mark, who saved my bacon in Kiev." "Good to meet you, Mark," she said. "I'm Catriona Stevenson." A soft voice, lilting gently. Northwards; I wouldn't be surprised if she had the Gaelic. But also, expensively educated. "It's good to meet you, too. Have you been kidnapped?" She giggled. "Not yet. And you should be very glad I'm not Gertrude." The tiredness seemed to drop off me. I grinned. "I'm sure I'd find somewhere to hyde." Tony looked at me for a moment, disconcerted, and then shrugged. "Park your bags, old man, and come through. What'll you drink? I've got some decent Chateauneuf du Pape, or there's a rather nice Saint-Émilion. Or there's pils, if you'd prefer." At table, Catriona served us spaghetti bolognese; simple, but very well cooked and presented, with green salad and garlic bread. She apologised for it, saying she'd have done something better if she'd had more notice, but it was delicious, and I said so. The Chateauneuf du Pape was also very good. "They have some surprisingly good wine in the Ukraine," said Tony. "Really quite acceptable." "I thought you went out there to work," said Catriona, "not to drink?" "Oh, Mark did the work," said Tony. "I just kept the money men happy." "Businessmen, they drank his wine," I said, "but the servants, regrettably, were shod." "And all the women came and went, no doubt?" I grinned, sheepishly. "I wouldn't know about that." "So," said Catriona, "which one are you?" I looked at Catriona. I looked at Tony, who looked confused and uncomfortable. I looked back at Catriona. "Oh," I said, "I think I must be the Joker. Don't you?" She laughed suddenly, a rich, warm laugh, her eyes dancing. "I think you must be." Sometime later in the meal, I asked her, as one does, what she did. Tony answered quickly, cutting across her. "She's a waitress in a cafe. Part-time." Catriona looked defiant and hurt. "Not a cocktail bar?" "No", she said, "that much is true. No, I'm trying to write a book, a novel." "Dear sir or madam, will you read my book?" I asked. She nodded, and her eyes danced again. "It's the dirty story of a dirty man." "His clinging wife doesn't understand?" "Well, in my book they aren't actually married, but... yes. More or less." "And have you found a publisher?" "No," she said, with a glance at Tony which seemed frightened, "not yet. I haven't tried yet." "She won't," said Tony. "It's derivative tosh. But it keeps her happy, gives her something to do." To change the subject I offered to wash up. Again the scared glance at Tony, who said nonsense, Cat would see to that. I said I should be getting home, and within a few minutes I was back in the leather passenger seat of the Aston Martin. "Why don't you drive?" asked Tony, idly. "Lost your licence?" "No," I said. "Don't have a car. Don't want one." "You really cycle this every morning?" I shrugged in the darkness. "It's not that far. And it gets my brain into gear. And if it's horrible, I take the train." There was silence for a while. I said "Catriona seems a very nice woman. You're a lucky man." "Oh, for heaven's sake don't call her that. It gives her airs. Just because her primitive barbarian forebears can't pronounce Catharine. But... yes, she looks the part, and she sounds the part. She's the sort of girlfriend you can be seen with in public, or show your parents. Never lets you down. Not very high powered in the brains department, but you can't have everything. What about you, girlfriend?" "No," I said. "Not for years." "Boyfriend?" "No," I said, unoffended. "Not that either. I live alone. It suits me. If it were either it would be a girlfriend, but... the ones I fancy never fancy me." "What about your little translator bird, Natasia, wasn't she? She seemed interested enough. What was she like in the sack?" "Was she? I didn't notice. Yes, she seemed nice enough, but... it was just work. There wasn't time to get to know her." "You don't need to know them," said Tony, "to shag them." ----- "Uhmmm... Mark, old man, could you spare a minute?" I swivelled my chair round. Tony, in another sleek suit, laptop in hand. "What can I do for you?" I asked. "Look, I'm awfully sorry, but I've got a presentation tomorrow morning, and my laptop seems to have a virus." "Grab a seat," I said, sighing. "Show me." He didn't look happy, but he opened up his laptop and logged in. Almost immediately pop-up windows started to appear, with drastically non-work-safe content, advertising porn sites. "Right," I said. "You need this when?" "Tonight," he said. "Before I leave tonight." I said OK, and called Elaine over. I handed her the laptop. "Wipe this and put a new copy of XP on it, would you?" "No!" said Tony. "What's the problem?" I asked. "It's got my presentation on it." I looked at him. "When did you write your presentation?" "Well, it's mostly based on one I did for Euskaltel last month, but I updated it on Monday." "In here?" He nodded. "When did you get this virus?" "I first saw it yesterday." "Is there anything else on it that you need tomorrow?" "Well, nothing but standard contracts..." "OK, Elaine. Wipe it. Standard XP install, then restore his home directory from Monday's nightly, then sweep for viruses. If you find any, wipe it and reinstall again, and then sort out which files he actually needs and clean them by hand if necessary." "What's 'Monday's nightly'?" asked Tony, still looking worried. "The backup." "But I don't make backups," he said, urgently. "No," I said, "I do. And if your laptop was connected to the office network on Monday, it was backed up. It's in our standard build." "But I didn't plug it in..." "The wireless," I said. "Oh." ----- "Mark, old man, I owe you one. Again." I looked up at him. "All part of the service," I said. "Presentation went OK?" "Yes, thanks. Flawlessly. All thanks to you. Cat and I were wondering..." I looked at him, interrogatively. After a moment he went on. "Would you like to come out for a meal with us tonight, maybe hit the town a bit? I've a friend I could drag along to make up a foursome." Catriona. Hitting the town didn't appeal, particularly, but I would like to see Catriona. And realised it probably wasn't a good idea. No, definitely wasn't a good idea, but... I wanted to, anyway. ----- A rather over-designer restaurant in the Merchant City. Chairs in imitation Charles Rennie Macintosh, better to look at than to sit on, rather too upright. Square white plates with rather too little food on them, rather too artfully arranged. Dramatis Personae: self, Tony, Catriona, Cecilia. Catriona, in a 'little black dress', simple, sleeveless, high at the neck in front but leaving much of her spine bare, sat on my left, feeling like a gravity well that it took all my strength for my eyes to resist. On my right, Cecilia, equally tall, with some mix of parentage which seemed to include both African and far eastern and made the most of both architectures; although marred in my eyes by a recent extension to the front elevation. She wore a rather insubstantial halter-neck top, in concert with a short leather skirt and tall boots. The soup had arrived; the waiter had left. "Tony says you live in a house up a farm track near Helensburgh," said Catriona, making it not quite a question. "Yes," I said. "I like it there. It's quiet, and... the view's good." "And no car?" "I don't need one. Cars are quite expensive to run, and when I was younger getting the house seemed more important. It's all priorities, you know. My parents live in a tied house... if it kills I will surround myself with four stone walls." "A little pride upon the shelf?" "That too. I love Capercaillie. I love that in particular. Thon fair gars me greet..." "Me too. That's my Scotland. I love it so much it hurts." I nodded. "The beautiful wasteland, and the black tide." "Oh, for heaven's sake, Mark," said Tony, "not you as well. I can't bear all that schmaltzy Caledonian sentimentality. Scotland's dead. It's a backwater. And as long as you lot keep looking over your shoulders at some hazy romanticised Brigadoon past that was never real anyway, you never will amount to a hill of beans. Independent? This godforsaken place? Don't make me laugh. Your precious parliament couldn't manage a piss up in their own bloody building." Catriona's eyes met mine, fierce and angry and hurt. "There's nae gods," I said, "and there's precious few heroes." Catriona softened a touch, catching the reference with just a ghost of a grin. "Look, could we just put politics off the agenda for the evening? Cecilia, what do you do?" "I'm a singer," Cecilia said, confidently. South-east England, with just a hint of Carribean. "I've got my own recording contract coming up, and I do mostly night clubs and functions and some modelling. And I've done some movies but... not speaking parts, yet. But I've done backing vocals for some pretty big bands." "So how do you know Tony and Catriona?" "Oh, I met Tony in a night club in Milan last year. I was singing, and he was over there on business... I hadn't met Cat. Before tonight, I mean." I asked Cecilia about whether singing involved a lot of travel, and finding it did, moved the conversation onto places we'd been to. Cecilia and Tony both liked the States, particularly Las Vegas and Los Angeles, where they'd both been. We had all been to northern Italy, and liked it, but somehow the northern Italies we'd been to seemed different. Tony's northern Italy was about wine, fast cars and motor racing; it shared glamour with Cecilia's, which was almost exclusively about fashion and labels. Catriona had liked the clothes, too, but her northern Italy was a warlike, turbulent place of history, art, and architecture. It was architecture which formed the overlap between hers and mine. None of them had heard of the Stelvio or the San Pellegrino, although Catriona had been to La Thuile on a school skiing trip. ----- The nightclub was dark and noisy, and I wasn't sure I wanted to stay. In a spotlight by the dance floor a nearly nude girl was gyrating around a pole. Out on the floor, Tony was saying something to Catriona, who was shaking her head, clearly unhappy. Tony said something again, more sharply. Catriona bent over, and another couple moved in front of her. When they passed, she was doing something with her feet. Where her dress had ridden up, there were blue shadows on her thighs. She scrumpled something tightly in her fist. They came back to the table, and I got up to let Catriona into her seat. As she moved past me I glanced down the back of her dress - I know, but one does - and there was the blue shadow again. Bruising. She found her handbag and stuffed her fist into it, coming out with her hand relaxed again. "Aren't you and Cecilia dancing, Mark?" "I'm not much of a dancer, I'm afraid." "It isn't that hard, old chap. Look, I'll show you. Fair lady," he said to Cecilia, "would you honour me with the pleasure of this dance?" "Yeah," said Cecilia. "OK." It was, like most of the music, slow jazz, languid, sensual, They danced close. I turned to Catriona, wanting to take her eyes away from it. "You're bruised." She flushed, her eyes down. "I fell down the stair, at the flat." "OK," I said, meaninglessly. "I have a friend - well, she's an ex girlfriend, really - who works in a domestic abuse refuge..." She flushed darker, and her eyes came up to meet mine. "It isn't like that, Mark. Honestly it isn't." "You didn't fall downstairs." "No, but... consenting adults and all that, you know?" "Rum, sodomy and the lash?" "Well, no... Tony's more of a gin an tonic man..." I grinned, startled and oddly proud for her that she could make a joke of it. "Don't be sad," I said, "two out of three ain't bad." "Oh, not Meat Loaf," she said. "That's really below the belt." I laughed. "Don't. That isn't fair. There are so many ways I could take that, and all of them are off limits." There was a pause. "Catriona, about your knickers..." "Mark! That's below the belt." "I know. He made you take them off, didn't he? Why?" "Oh. That. Yes. I don't like, I don't like, I don't like..." "Peruvian marching powder?" "Yes. Tony and Cecilia have had some. I wouldn't. He said I was a boring little square. I said I wasn't. He said only boring little squares wore underwear to nightclubs. So I joined the commandos. I don't like anonymous white powder in nightclubs. I don't like coke. But I am so not boring." "No," I agreed, "you're not." ----- "Enjoy Friday night?" "Oh, Hi, Tony. Yes, thank you, I did." "If you'd had a car, I bet you could have taken Cecilia home." I shrugged. "My bicycle isn't built for two." Catriona "No, that's what I'm saying, you need a car. You and Cat seemed to get on very well..." "I like her. I think you're a very lucky man." "Oh, she's all right. She's dull, and there's not much upstairs, but she's decorative. And... you know, she looks like a nice, good girl, she sounds like a nice good girl, she acts like a nice good girl... but underneath she's a bad dirty girl. In the best possible way." ----- I looked at my watch. I needed to get moving; I had an important meeting with David in half an hour, and getting out to Clydebank would take twenty minutes. I hefted the book in my hand, decided not to buy it, slipped it back on the shelf, and turned to go. At the end of the aisle, Catriona was standing, looking at me. Watching me. She looked nervous. "Hey, Catriona, what you doing?" She grinned, tight and slightly wary. "Not going down the road to ruin, anyway. Down the road for coffee?" I grinned back. "That's 'one more cup of coffee for the road', surely. Upstairs?" "Ah, but I have got worries. That's where I work... I'd rather go somewhere else." "You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant." "'Cepting Alice," said Catriona, looking more relaxed. "That's alright," I said, "I wasn't looking for Alice." We strolled down the street. Neither of us found anything to say, until we'd found a cafe and sat down. "So," she said, opening a gambit, "What did you think of Cecilia?" "She's so pretty, oh so pretty, yeah..." Catriona giggled. "That's a wicked thing to say." "Also, " I said, "I get the feeling that if you did get up to wash your face..." She blushed, and giggled some more, nodding. "The real question, though, is whether she has as much plastic between her ears as she has cantilevered out the front." "You didn't like her boob job?" I laughed. "God no. She looked... completely unbalanced. And they didn't look even remotely natural." "Oh!" Catriona looked surprised. "Tony has been trying to persuade me to get mine done." "Oh, no, Catriona, don't!" I said, surprised at my own vehemence. "That would be vandalism. And sacrilege." She blushed, painfully red. "You like them?" "Catriona, you're gorgeous. Not some bit of you in isolation. You. The whole of you. Please don't change." She looked surprised, taken aback, pleased. We both started to say something at the same time, and both stopped. We looked at each other, smiling. Catriona shook her head. "I'm glad we met up... it's sort of about that. Mark, about the bruises..." I nodded. There didn't seem anything to say; there didn't seem any need to say anything. "Don't get me wrong," she said. "I'm not a country and western girl..." I cocked my head to one side, interrogatively. "I'm... not into emotional messes. I don't have a cheatin' heart. I'm not going to be anyone's best friend's girlfriend. I am so not making a pass at you, even if you want me to. I'm not going to respond if you make a pass at me." "I wasn't..." "I know, Mark, I didn't mean to insult you. Just... be clear about the boundaries. I need you as my friend. I need you to respect me. So I need you to understand about the bruises." "Tony doesn't respect you... he doesn't treat you with respect." "No, he doesn't." "He belittles your writing. He will not even call you by your own name." "No, he'll not." "He tells people things about you that they oughtn't... that I oughtn't to know." She looked up, flushing. "About sex?" "Not in... any detail. But not respectfully. It... isn't good for you, Catriona." "No, it probably isn't." "He does it to undermine you. To diminish you. To control you." "Yes," she whispered, "he does." "Catriona, this isn't a pass... but is it good for you? Should you let him? Should you stay with him?" "Probably not." She looked up at me, strained, unhappy. "Look, this is going all wrong. This so isn't how I wanted this conversation to go." "OK," I said. "Let's start again. How's the novel going?" Catriona plunged her face into her hands and started to cry. "What have I said?" I asked, desperately. "What have I said?" "My computer got a virus..." "Oh..." I said, inadequately. "You have got backups?" She nodded, still weeping into her hands. "Then... isn't that all right?" She sniffed, scrubbed a hand hard across her nose, and looked up, her eyes still full of tears. I passed her my handkerchief; she used it, noisily. "I have two sets of backups. Since the last time, I've kept two sets of backups. One set that Tony knows about. One set that's secret, that I give to a friend secretly. That set's OK." "Oh... the other set?" "Stupid Cat is too stupid to be trusted with a computer. Stupid Cat can't even make her backups properly. But never mind, it doesn't matter, there's nothing important on stupid Cat's computer." I rocked back, mentally, on my heels, computations exploding like clouds across me cerebral cortex. I shook my head. "Look, Catriona, you really should leave him. Really. You can't live like that." "No... that's what Melanie says." "Melanie?" "My best friend... I give her the backups. The ones that don't turn out to be bad. You'd like her..." "So why don't you leave?" "Oh, hell," she said, curiously undefended. "This so isn't how I wanted this to go. This isn't in the script." "You wanted to talk about your bruises?" I asked, as gently as I could. "Yes," she said, more strongly. "That kind of is the point. They are my bruises. I... that's what Tony does for me, why..." "You need someone to hit you?" I asked. She nodded. "Sexually?" She blushed, but nodded again. "I've never had a lover before who was prepared to... let me explore that aspect... I mean, I've always known I was drawn to dark sex. But nice boys are too nice. They... can't. Even if they know you want them to. They hold back. They chicken out. Tony doesn't." She shook her head, violently, looking down again. "Oh shit, whatever I say it comes out wrong." "What is it you want to say?" "I want to say that dark sex is my adventure," she said, earnestly. "Mine. That I choose it. That it's a choice I have a right to make. That it's a positive choice, and a brave choice, and a choice that's worthy of respect. And that's all true." "OK," I said, trying not to show shock or uncertainty. "I can see that. And?" "I want to say I'm not a victim. And that should be true too. And it would be true if Tony wasn't such a mean little shit in other ways. But. But. My relationship with Tony is my choice. And yes, he's a shit, but it's me that's using him. It's instrumental. I'm using him to explore stuff I want to explore." "You don't respect him, do you?" She looked up, sharply. "Tony? No, he's a thug. A very well groomed and nice mannered thug. I'm certain he was a bully at school. I know he lost his last job for bullying." "So why don't you leave him? Why don't you find someone kind, who respects you, who is prepared to explore those things with you?" "They don't exist," said Catriona, shredding a napkin. "I don't believe they exist. I need a man who's capable of... violence and cruelty. Good people don't use violence and cruelty towards people they like and respect. At least, not in our society, they don't. We have it trained out of us." Running out of bits of napkin big enough to shred smaller, she stirred her mound of paper scraps. "You see, I wanted to say to you that I'm not a victim. I so wanted to say that to you. But it isn't true. Not really. It's not... I'm not Tony's victim. It's an addiction. I need more. I'm going to... push the limits of dark sex. Sex with thugs..." again she looked up at me, directly, serious and frightened, "until one of them kills me. And I so don't want to die." She looked down again, carefully piling the paper scraps one on top of the other. "Which is why Tony. He's sort of safe, in a bizarre way. He's controlled. He does not want to do jail time for me, so he won't kill me. At least, he won't unless he's 100% sure he'll get away with it. So he's predictable. If I left him, I'd need to find another thug..." I wanted so strongly to protect her. I reached across the table and took one her hands in both of mine. "I know, Mark," she said, gently. "I feel it too. You're lovely. You make me happy just being with you. But it wouldn't work. I so, so wish it would, but it wouldn't. You need a... less complicated woman than me. Which is why I need you to be my friend. Because I need people in my life who are safe and reliable and trustworthy. You'd like Melanie." "Catriona," I said, squeezing her hand, "don't match-make. I don't need a girlfriend. I'm... not at all good at relationships. And I don't need a relationship. I'm good at friendship. I like you. I want to be your friend." ----- I was doing a code review with Elaine, going over with her a change to the main billing database that she was implementing, when the phone rang. "Mark." "Hi, Mark, it's Tony. Look, I really need a favour. It's urgent, it can't wait." I sighed. "What is it, Tony?" "I'm off on holiday, I'm at the airport now and the flight's already been called. I've just remembered I've left some stuff that really needs to be dealt with back at the flat. Could you go round there and pick it up?" "How am I supposed to get it to you?" "Oh, that doesn't matter, you can deal with it. Look, there's a front door key in the top drawer of my desk... you will deal with it, won't you, Mark? I'm relying on you." "OK. Where's this stuff you need me to collect?" "I left it on the bed. First door on the right when you go in the flat." "OK, I'll deal with it for you. Have a good holiday. Tell Catriona I was asking for her." "Thanks Mark. I really appreciate it. Don't forget - it is really urgent." "Got the message, Tony. Bye." Another thing geeks aren't good at is distractions. I don't cope well with having two things to deal with at the same time. I had Elaine's code review to do, and we did it. It was good. She was really coming on, and I told her so. I got on with the rest of my afternoon. I got changed into cycling gear, grabbed my bike, left the building, heading west towards Dumbarton and home. A mile down the road I remembered Tony's message. It would wait till the morning. Another mile down the road I was thinking about how many times he'd emphasised it was urgent. Maybe it wouldn't wait till the morning. I cursed, turned back to the office, changed back into jeans, phoned a taxi, hauled on an old leather jacket I keep at work for such occasions. I felt angry, and used. I knew if he wasn't Catriona's boyfriend I wouldn't be doing this for him. I opened his desk, and found the key, lying on a picture of her. Nude. I both did and didn't want to see it. I both did and didn't want to take it. I got into the taxi, and fumed all the way in on the Great Western Road. At the tenement, I fumed as I paid it off. I fumed as I stormed up the tenement stair, and in through the front door. And then I paused. The door on the right was Tony's bedroom, of course. But it was also (presumably) Catriona's. I felt like a burglar, like someone with access to secrets I should not know. I opened the door slowly, quietly. Bare pine floor. Bare white walls. Big, cast-iron bed frame, with brass knobs... "Tony?" she said, her voice shaking. Her blindfolded eyes straining to see through the curtains of her hair. "Tony? Is that you?" Something urgent on the bed. For me to deal with. The bastard. I took my jacket off, took two strides across the room, and wrapped it round as much of her as I could. "It's Mark, Catriona. It's OK. It's Mark." I fumbled with her blindfold. She was shaking, sobbing, trying to bury her head between her elbows. It made it hard to remove it, but I did, as gently as I could. I moved to the manacles on her wrists. Steel, locked. Locked to the bed, too. "Catriona, how do these undo?" "Key." The word was sobbed out, her face still resolutely buried. "Where? Catriona," I said, trying to keep my voice gentle and calm, "where's the key?" "Tony's key-ring". I looked at the key in my hand. No ring, no other keys. "Is there a spare anywhere?" "The bastard, the bastard, the bastard. Where is he?" I sat on the edge of the bed, close to her, carefully not touching her. "He said he was at the airport," I said. "He said he was flying out on holiday. He said he'd left something urgent here, he wanted me to deal with it. I thought it was... work..." "The bastard!" Her head came up. She looked at me, unbearably fierce and sad. "Well, are you going to? Deal with me? I can't stop you." "Oh, Catriona... I'm going to get you free. Do you keep any tools in the house?" "Cupboard on the left of the sink." "OK, I'll go and get them. It's all right, I'll only be a minute." "Mark..." I knelt down on the floor to bring my face level with hers. "Yes?" "I'm sorry, but I really have to piss. Can you bring me something to piss into? First, I mean?" I went through to the kitchen, and fetched a washing up bowl from the sink. I went out to give her privacy, came back in to the sharp animal smell of it, carried it out and flushed it down the loo. It felt painfully, cruelly intimate, cutting at each of our veils of dignity. I didn't not want to do it. I did want to do what she needed of me, and she needed this of me. ----- It was much later. I'd been out by taxi and bought a big pair of bolt-croppers from a DIY store (they looked at me oddly) and an Indian carry out (with the bolt-croppers; they looked at me still more oddly). I'd cut her free. She'd showered. She'd got dressed in an old pair of jeans and an loose old jersey, in which, to me, she looked more desirable than ever. She'd curled up in one corner of the sofa. I'd put the tray of food between us, and sat at the other end. We'd picked at it in silence. Now it was getting late, and I was desperately tired - worn out more by the emotional stress than by the length of the day. "Catriona?" Her head came up. She looked at me, clawing her hair out of her eyes, her face unreadable. "Do you want me to stay the night, or should I go home? I could sleep on the sofa." "Oh..." she sounded blank. "Mark, why didn't you rape me?" "We're friends. I don't think friends rape friends, do they?" She laughed, still sounding oddly blank. "No, I don't suppose they do. You were meant to, weren't you? Tony meant you to?" I didn't answer. Mark, who can't get a girl for himself. Mark, who has to have them handed to him on a plate by the man who can. Was this meant to humiliate me as much as it was meant to humiliate her? Or was this supposed to be a reward for helping him out? Or just a convenient way to get rid of a girlfriend he no longer wanted? Or all of those things? "Perhaps he meant it as a kindness to both of us? He knows you are exploring dark sex, and he knows I like you? I mean..." "It's control. He doesn't want me any more, but he still wants to control me. And you." "Well then," I said, "he's failed. He's failed because we're both better people than he thinks we are. He's failed because we're friends. Do you want me to stay tonight, Catriona, or should I go? Or would you rather come to my house? There's a spare bedroom, it's OK..." "Mark, I need to know. Did you want to?" I looked sharply away. "I can't answer that." "Mark, did you want to because I was helpless, or because you fancy me?" I didn't answer. "Mark, please, I need to know." "Both." "Oh." I looked back; she was more relaxed, sitting easier, meeting my eyes. "Sleep on the sofa, Mark. It's too late to go home... and I'll feel better with you close." So I stayed. On the sofa. Nothing happened. In the morning we had breakfast together, Catriona looking absurdly young and vulnerable in a towel dressing gown. I went to work. I took the photograph from Tony's desk. I meant to destroy it, but I... didn't. At the end of the day I phoned and asked if she wanted me to come over, but she said no, she was OK. So I went home, and thought. Long and hard, dark thoughts. ----- The phone rang. I picked it up. "Mark!" "Catriona?" "Mark, can you come? I mean, now?" "On my way." I put my phone down and stood up, grabbing my cycling clothes off their hook and turning for the showers where I could change. "Mark!" "Sorry, David, personal emergency. Do you mind if I take the rest of the day off?" "No, of course not. Do you want my car?" I looked at him blankly a moment, and then smiled. "No. Thank you for the offer, but the bike will be quicker in town." "You've got a girlfriend!" I smiled. "No. At least, not yet." "OK. Well, the very best of luck." ----- I knocked on the flat door. It opened, and Catriona fell at me, so I had to grab her and hold her to stop her falling to the ground. We stood in the open doorway for several minutes, while Catriona sobbed uncontrollably into my thin cycling jersey. For the first time ever, I stroked her hair, whispering OK, it's OK, it's OK. At last the storm abated, and I guided her through into the kitchen. I put the kettle on. "OK," I asked, "what's happened?" Catriona held out a damp piece of airmail paper at me. "Read it!" Dear Ms Stevenson Kindly be so good as to vacate my flat by 9am on 15th July. You may leave your key with the letting agents. Yours sincerely Tony Huntley "The bastard!" she stormed. "The bastard, the bastard, the bastard!" "Do you want to fight him for it?" I asked. "What's the point? I couldn't afford the rent." "It's rented? Why on earth? "It's like you said, priorities. You spent your money on four stone walls, he spends his on his bloody car. And no, I don't want to fight him for that, either. Or anything else. It's all on the never-never, anyway. All except his grandfather's things, and I'm not mean enough to take those off him." ----- She came into my house for the first time, like sunshine. I took her through into my front room, built out over the hillside, with its huge panoramic windows looking down over the firth and the entrance to the Gareloch. The view caught her eye first, and she walked round the sofa to gaze out over the silver water to the purple hills. Her leg brushed the coffee table, and she looked down at the still life I'd laid out for her. What does a geek do when he needs to learn about something new? He goes out on the Internet. And, heaven knows, there's enough about sado-masochism on the Internet, stuff which made my eyes water. But knowing about it, having seen it, wasn't enough. I had to have tokens to show for it, to communicate. The Internet had supplied those, too. She knelt down, fiddled with the cuffs and chains, flipped distractedly though the picture book of Japanese bondage, picked up the whip with it's braided leather handle and nine knotted lashes, twisting it between her hands. She looked back at me, questioning. "Mark? What's this?" I looked out at the view, not meeting her gaze. "Suppose someone really wanted someone who was an alcoholic, and who wasn't yet ready to give up being an alcoholic. He'd need to make it clear to her that if... they got it together, there would be plenty of whisky. That he wouldn't try even ever so nicely to force her to give up." "Wouldn't the sensible thing be to advise him to go and find someone who wasn't an alcoholic?" "What if he didn't want anyone, he wanted this particular person, specially, and not anyone else?" "OK. What if being a hard drinker was part of her identity, part of her image of who she was?" Catriona "Then he'd have to accept that, wouldn't he?" "But he'd also have to be complicit in her drinking. He'd have to drink with her... he might become an alcoholic, too, addicted. She - I mean, if she liked him too - she wouldn't want that." "Even if he was prepared to take the risk?" "I don't know. But the other thing is, suppose they both think she's in a spiral she can't get out of, that she's going to drink herself to death, wouldn't he want to stop her?" "Of course he would, if they thought that. But it's how. It's realpolitik. If she isn't prepared to let go of whisky, he can't try to make her stop, or she won't stay with him. He would have to tempt her away from it, seduce her onto champagne and then onto, I don't know, Lapsang Suchong, something which was equally exciting and interesting but not so destructive. But of course he'd have to start with whisky, if whisky is what she needs." "OK, but what if whisky wasn't enough? What if he wasn't able to give her enough? What if she found she needed to go to grotty places to drink absinthe with strangers?" "If she really needed absinthe - I mean, suppose he loved her and she really needed absinthe - he'd have to make sure she had absinthe at home, wouldn't he?" "Really? Absinthe?" "If she needed it, and he loved her." "Oh." She turned away from me, looking out over the gleaming water, the flocks of little yachts moving across the silver surface like slow starlings. In the distance the black sail of a nuclear submarine was nosing in from the firth. She turned the whip between her hands, jerkily, nervously. "Mark," she said, "hit me." I closed my eyes for a moment, drew a breath. There had to be some sort of test. I'd known, at some point, there would be some sort of test. This was it. I hit her, from behind, across her left cheek below her ear, with all my strength. She went down in a heap of tangled limbs, like a puppet with its strings cut. The whip rolled away across the floor with a clatter. I desperately wanted to get down with her, to check she was OK, to comfort her... but this was a test. This was what I was being tested on. So I didn't. She came up slowly, first onto her elbows, then onto her arms, then kneeling, still facing away from me, rubbing and cradling her jaw. There was silence in the room. A cloud shadow moved across the floor, dimming the highlights in her hair. "Ow," she said, shakily. "I didn't think you'd do that." "You asked me to." "Yes," she agreed, "I just didn't think you would." She laughed, ruefully, a bit shakily. "I should have said not my face. It's going to bruise horribly." "I know," I said. "You - we - had to know if I could do it." Suddenly she came to her feet smoothly, turning to face me. "Are you OK?" she asked, with concern. "Can you do it?" I shrugged, and grinned sheepishly. "My hand hurts... Catriona, I can. If you need me to. But... if... it wouldn't be like that. It wouldn't just be brutality. It would be - I mean if - in context, in a context of making love. It would be... a much more vigorous caress..." She nodded, suddenly, trying to smile, her face clearly hurting. "Yes." "If - I mean - I can caress my lover - I mean, if I had one - how she needs to be caressed, in a context of love. However she needs to be caressed." She nodded, her eyes thoughtful. She reached for my hand, and laid it gently on her jaw. "Mark, have you got any ice? I have to work tomorrow." ----- I walked up the tenement stair, and rang the bell. A woman with short, dark hair opened it. "Hi," she said, "I'm Miranda. Are you Mark?" Behind her in the passage was a small pile of boxes and bags. "I'm Mark," I said. "Where's Catriona? And is that all there is to take?" "She's in the bedroom." "OK," I said, "shall I start taking boxes down to the van?" "No, she wants you to go in to the bedroom. I'm going out, I'll be back in about an hour." ----- The heavy wooden door opened slowly, framing and revealing the room like a panning camera. Plain white walls, varnished pine floor. A wide bed with a cast iron frame topped with gleaming brass knobs. She knelt on it, naked, her face bowed between her chained, outstretched arms, half hidden in the tumble of her hair; her knees spread obscenely wide by their own fetters. And tied round her, a wide red and gold ribbon, through her crotch and criss crossed around her torso to tie in a bow at the back of her neck. By the chain splaying her left leg, the same box of condoms, still unopened. "I think you've got the line wrong," I said, sitting carefully on the edge of the bed. "Oh?" Her voice was nervous. "It's 'baby's got new clothes', not 'baby's got no clothes'. But I do like your ribbons and your bows..." "Oh, good... I ache, just like a woman..." I knew my next line. Very nervously I asked "do you make love just like a woman?" "Yes, I do. And Mark, if you don't touch me soon I'll break like a little girl." "Oh, Catriona." I leant forward, taking her shoulders in my hands, nuzzling my face blindly into the perfume of her hair, into the safe dark space behind her ear, feeling for skin, kissing her down the back of her long neck. Suddenly I was trying desperately to control sobs. Catriona's Sacrifice Author's Note: I had fun writing this story! I hope you enjoy it. PLEASE vote, rate me high and leave feedback and comments. I adore reading what you have to say! XOXO, Nicole =================================== Catriona put a hand on her stomach, nauseous to the point of vomiting. Nerves made her hands shake as well as all her insides. "Cat, don't be so nervous," her friend Sine. "This is an incredible honor! I'm so jealous. I wish I could be The Alyth in this year's Imbolc festival!" "That's because you're a whore," Catriona told her friend with a laugh. "There's nothing wrong with a strong man between your thighs," Sine told her best friend with a smile. "You don't have a man in you often enough!" "Oh bollocks," Cat told her friend. "I fuck plenty. I just don't relish the thought of fucking three men in front of the whole village!" "Well, you've been picked to be The Alyth of Imbolc and you HAVE to do it to ensure Ballybridge has a good harvest. And it's not like it's going to be a hardship." "Not for you, mayhap, but I'm not an exhibitionist like you. I swear, Sine, you have no shame." "What is there to be ashamed of, you little prude? Sex is natural." Sine walked over and put her arms around her friend. "You sacrifice a little time and public fucking and we get an abundant crop this summer. It's a fair trade." Catriona hugged her friend before she turned and sat on her bed. She thought about the annual festival of Imbolc. It was a fertility festival their village of Ballybridge celebrated every year. One unmarried girl, who was not a virgin, was chosen to stand in for the goddess Alyth, the goddess of Spring. During the festival, three masked men would take her to an earthen altar where they would all fuck her. This was a sexual sacrifice to ensure the fertility of their crops in the coming year. In the last hundred years the village had not had one bad harvest. It was unheard of in the surrounding villages in their rugged, unforgiving region of northern Scotland. Cat was not opposed to sex, she loved it. She'd had many lovers who had remained her friends. She wasn't even opposed to sex with multiple men at one time. What she had to come to terms with was fucking these men with the whole village as an audience. But tonight was the night, so Catriona needed to come to terms with this quickly. "Don't worry, Sine, I'll do it. I'll even embrace it. I would never do anything to jeopardize Ballybridge." "I know, and don't worry. Plenty of people will be busy fucking each other. Many may not even watch." Catriona knew Sine was just trying to make her feel more at ease, but Catriona knew better. Most eyes would be on her performance tonight. Just talking about her fears had helped, though. "What is Keith going to think of me after this?" Keith was the Laird's son. He was nearly ten years older than her and she had seen very little of him through her life, usually from a distance. He was often away on clan business and she'd had no opportunity to interact with him. All she knew of him was that he was very tall and well muscled with dark hair. It was, however, a very enviable match. "Keith? If he really loves Ballybridge he'll understand what you are doing for our village! You know very well there is no stigma attached to being The Alyth." "I hope so. I'm ready to be married and it will please my family very much." ***** As the sun was setting, Sine helped Cat get ready for the Imbolc ceremony. Cat stripped her clothing off and Sine helped her friend rub a special, very expensive cream into her skin. It made Cat's very white, milky skin glow with a golden sheen which brought out the gold in her hazel eyes. Then Sine brushed Cat's waist length burgundy hair until it shone like fire. She very much looked like a pagan goddess. "Frig, Cat, I am so jealous of your body. I wish I looked like you instead of a beanpole! You really look like a fertility goddess with all with your round hips and giant tits. Bitch," Sine told her with a mock scowl. "Oh, shut your mouth. You literally have to beat the men off with a stick." "I know, but you're so soft and womanly." "Or fat," Cat said with a laugh. Sine helped Cat wrap a hooded cloak around herself. The traditional Alyth cloak was dyed a beautiful yellow-green to represent Spring. It looked amazing with Cat's coloring. Lastly, Sine placed a wreath of daisies on Cat's head. "There, Alyth, you are all ready!" Cat looked at herself in the full length mirror standing in the corner of her room. It had been a very pricey gift from her father. "I really do look like Alyth," she whispered to her friend. Sine hugged Catriona from behind. "You look gorgeous. Those men will be drooling!" "I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Let's go." They left Cat's large home and walked through the streets of the village. It was now just past dark, but many torches were lighting the way to the village square. Most of the villagers would be at the Imbolc celebration, only a handful of women remaining in the church with the priest to look after the children. The Imbolc celebration was so vital to the prosperity of Ballybridge, that even their Christian priest looked the other way. Cat and Sine could already hear the sound of the ram's horns and cowhide drums throbbing from the square. As they drew closer they could also hear the laughter of the people. As they entered the square the celebration was already in full swing. Scantily dressed and fully naked men and women were dancing around a great bonfire that reached nearly 20 feet in the air. Their bodies undulated to the rhythm of the horns and drums. The music was low and throbbing and Cat could feel it pulsing in her body, causing moisture to gather in her cunt. People were grinding and writhing against each other as they made their way around the fire. Looking to the left, Catriona saw the high earthen altar. It measured nearly twenty feet square and about five feet tall. There were bright torches every few feet, ensuring a good view for all. Already the three chosen men were in their places, awaiting Cat's arrival. They were the strongest and fittest men the village had to offer. Cat grew excited looking upon them, knowing that in moments she'd be the center of their undivided attention. Sine led her to where the Laird waited at the bottom of the earthen steps that would lead her up to the altar. "Have fun," Sine told her with a wink, "I know I will! I'm off to be well and truly fucked!" The Laird took Cat by the hand and led her to the top of the altar. When they reached the top the music and dancing started and the people gathered to listen to the Laird relate the story of their Imbolc celebration. "One hundred years ago, this village was starving, along with the rest of the Highlands. The land refused to give up her fruits and the people were dying. Then our priestess was visited by Alyth in a vision. Alyth, our goddess of spring and rebirth, informed our priestess that if we would offer her a sacrifice of sex, lust and love that she would bless us with good harvests, with enough to sustain us and prosper us above all the other clans in the Highlands. She informed our priestess that the encroachment of the new religion of Christianity was killing the belief in our Gods and Goddesses that we have loved and worshipped from the beginning of time and as a punishment the land was being laid waste. So our ancestors obeyed our goddess and the first festival of Imbolc was celebrated. That year our crops were so abundant we had enough to feed ourselves and livestock, to store away for winter and to sell to neighboring clans!" A great cheer went up from the villagers. "Since that time we have prospered by keeping the old traditions and worship alive! Alyth continues to bless us year after year. Let the celebration commence so that we may once more please our goddess and prosper!" This time the cheer from the crowd was deafening when the Laird moved behind Cat and removed her cloak. Far from feeling embarrassed, as she had assumed she would, Catriona was aroused by the sight of so many lust filled eyes on her naked flesh. Keeping with tradition, Cat raised her arms and shouted, "Let the festival begin!" Cat watched for a moment as villagers began once more dancing to the music, many more removing what little clothing they were wearing. As the Laird made his way off of the altar one man approached Cat and led her to the center of the altar. The cool, moist dirt between her toes felt sensual and made Cat feel connected to the earth she was sacrificing her sex for and therefore connected to the real Alyth. Once in the center, the three men surrounded her. It was traditional for The Alyth to make the first move, but once she did, she no longer had any control over what happened to her. She was at the mercy of the men surrounding her. Cat's pussy wept at the thought of what these men were about to do to her. Cat dropped to her knees and surveyed the three large and hard cocks surrounding her. One by one she sucked just the head of each cock into her mouth, turning in a circle until she had kissed them all. Not being sure who they were, Cat decided to refer to them as One, Two and Three, so she could keep them straight in her head. When she was finished she raised her arms above her head signaling her readiness. She was immediately pushed down onto her back on the damp dirt. Cat placed her arms above her head, hands together, to show her submission. This pushed her breast out and up and One took advantage of this as he leaned over and sucked on hard nipple into his mouth. Cat gasped in pleasure as his other hand came up to pinch and twist her other nipple. He used his teeth to bite down causing Cat to moan and writhe her hips. While One was playing with her tits, Two roughly spread Cat's knees up and out, displaying her wet, bare cunt for him. The priestess had given her a cream the day before that removed all the hair on Cat's body. Being bare, Cat was sure her juices were shining in the light of the many torches for the man to see. Using his thumbs, he spread her cunt lips apart and leaned in just barely flicking his tongue on her clit. Cat groaned and arched her hips up in invitation for him to lick her fully. Not to be rushed though, Two continued to barely lick her, teasing her horribly. "Please," Cat cried out. "Please what, Goddess?" Two asked in a low growl. "Please eat my cunt!" "As you wish Goddess," Two replied, before burying his face into her cunt and thrusting his long, thick and agile tongue deep into her passage. "Yes! Oh, yes!" Cat cried. "Fuck me with your tongue." Not to be left out, Three knelt down beside her and started tonguing the breast that One wasn't. The feeling of having both tits sucked while another man ate her cunt sent Cat into her first orgasm. Arching her back, she screamed her release bring a cheer from the observing villagers. Cat felt a blush creep up her chest onto her face as he was momentarily mortified. "Don't be embarrassed, Goddess," Three said as he lifted his head. "You are beautiful when you come." Cat moaned when he thrust his tongue into her mouth, the hot kiss making her completely forget her momentary embarrassment. "Put her on her knees," she heard One say. "I want to taste her luscious ass." Cat moaned in desire as all three lifted and turned her over. She was on her hands and knees in the damp earth, open to their every desire. Two pushed her head down so that it was pillowed on her forearms which shoved her plump ass further into the air. She felt One's hands caressing her ass cheeks, lifting and spreading them. Cat moaned into her arms as she felt her fluids dripping down her thighs. Grasping her by her hair, Two turned her head until she was looking at him. "He's going to eat your ass. And you have such a hot, plump ass. Does that arouse you?" Cat nodded. "Tell me, Goddess, I want to hear you say it." "Yes, I want him to eat my ass. I want to feel his tongue licking it and thrusting into it." "Hmm...that's good, Goddess, because after he's done he's going to fuck you in it. Have you ever been fucked in your tight ass? " When Cat nodded he jerked her head up to kiss her. When he thrust his tongue into her mouth, she could taste herself on him and it made her moan low in her throat. Just then she felt the first swipe of One's tongue on her ass. She arched her back harder, encouraging him to lick more. She wasn't disappointed. Spreading her ass wide, he licked her in long hard strokes, interspersed with quick light flicks of his tongue right on her little pink asshole. Cat moaned into Two's mouth and pushed her ass back hard against One's mouth. She felt Three kneel in front of her. Two pulled her back up onto her hands so she was face level with Three. She watched as he stroked his large cock. The sight was so carnal that Cat whimpered in need and unconsciously licked her lips. Two pressed his lips to her ear. "Do you want to suck that cock, Goddess? Swallow it until he shoots his seed down your throat?" Cat whimpered again. His words were so arousing. When she nodded, Two used his hold on her hair to shove her mouth onto Three's cock. While One continued to lick her ass, Cat struggled to take Three's large cock fully into her mouth. She swirled her tongue around it as she slowly worked it in and out of her mouth until she could take it all the way in. When she felt her nose bury in the hair at the root of his cock they both moaned loudly. Two pulled her back by her hair and slammed her head back down on Three's cock. He continued to do this, controlling her movements and Cat loved it. She felt a fresh gush of her moisture burst out of her cunt and run down her thigh. While Cat was busy sucking Three, she felt One slip two fingers into her cunt. She moaned and thrust her hips back, fucking herself on his fingers. When he pulled them out, she groaned in disappointment until she felt one of them him slide one wet finger into her ass. He pushed until he had his finger buried all the way. Catriona's eyes rolled back in her head in pleasure. He worked his finger in and out a few times before he added a second. Cat felt her ass stretch, burning from the invasion, but it felt so good she ignored the pain. Two leaned in and growled in her ear. "Are you ready to have him stuff his big cock in your hot little ass, Goddess?" Unable to reply, Cat just nodded her head as she continued to bob her head up and down on Three's cock. She felt fluid leaking from the head of cock and sucked just on the head, probing the little slit at the top with her tongue, seeking more of his salty sweet fluid. One continued to fuck her ass with his fingers, scissoring them to stretch her to more easily accept his large cock in her ass. Two wrapped his t arms around her and began playing with her hanging nipples-pinching, pulling and twisting them. Cat went crazy, rapidly bobbing her head up and down Three's cock so hard that he was continually slamming into the back of her throat. Both Cat and Three were continually moaning. Cat felt Three's cock harden impossibly more, growing slightly in her mouth and she knew he was getting ready to come. She slowed her sucking and took his cock as far down as she could, purposefully opening the sphincter in the back of her throat until she was able to swallow the head of his cock. Three grabbed her hair and pulled her even harder against his groin. Cat swallowed several times, effectively milking his cock with her throat. "Oh, fuck," Three groaned loudly. "The Goddess is swallowing my cock! I'm going to come down her sweet little throat." Using her hair to control her, Three held her in place as he thrust one last time, then stiffened and shot cum down her throat. Cat swallowed rapidly, trying to get all of his cum, but it was a huge amount and some squeezed out of her mouth, running down her chin. She pulled back slightly, removing him from her throat, but continued to fiercely suck his cock until she'd drained every last drop of his seed. When Cat lifted her head from Three's groin, she heard the crowd cheering again. She was so lust ridden by this point that she felt no embarrassment at all. She did, however, feel the need to have her clenching, wet cunt filled. She pushed her ass back at One, silently begging for more. Two released her nipples, grabbing her hair once more. He leaned in to whisper in her hear. "You are an eager little thing aren't you?" "Yes." Cat moaned and turned her head, seeking contact with his lips. He granted her desire, slamming his mouth down on hers and forcefully thrusting his tongue inside. When he did, Cat sucked on it hard, much as she had Three's cock. She continued to wildly thrust her ass back at One. Cat pulled her mouth away from Two and groaned. "MORE!" she begged, "I need more. Please!" "What do you need, Goddess? Tell me and I'll make it happen for you." "I want a cock inside me, filling me, fucking me," she moaned, aroused by her own words. "Just one, Goddess? I'm afraid you're going to have to settle for two. We are going to stuff you luscious body so full, you are going to scream in ecstasy." "Yes! Fill my cunt and ass! I need it, please!" "Your wish, Goddess. Spread your legs." When Cat complied, Two moved beneath her, sliding his legs between her open ones. One pulled his fingers out of her ass and using his other hand scooped an abundant amount of her fluids from her cunt and spread it on her asshole. He scooped another handful and rubbed it onto his cock before telling her, "Mount him, Goddess." Cat was quick to comply, eager to have a cock inside her. Placing one hand in the dirt above his shoulder, she used her other hand to guide Two's enormous cock into her. She lowered herself into place in one quick movement whined in pain and he stretched her tight cunt painfully. She sat still as One grabbed her hip and held her in place as he pushed the head of his cock into her ass. Cat again whimpered to have such a large cock invading her. "It's alright, Goddess, you're going to love this," Two told her. She looked down and into his eyes for the first time. They shone a brilliant blue, like the sky on a summer day, and were reflecting such lust at Cat that it took her breath away. "Take a deep breath and feel how full we are both making you. You cunt is so hot and wet it's hard for me not to come right now. You love it, don't you, having both of your holes so full?" "Yes, I love it." "You are such a sweet little slut," he told her pulling her down for a fierce kiss. He thrust his tongue into her mouth and licked every inch he could reach. She sucked hard on it as One began to move slowly in her ass, letting her adjust to having two cocks fill her so fully. She moaned into Two's mouth as the cock thrusting in and out of her tight ass brought her close to orgasm. "Not yet, Goddess. Don't come yet." Cat whimpered. She had never felt anything as hot and nasty in her life. Even though Two was staying still inside her for now, the feeling of One's cock rubbing against Two's through just a thin piece of skin was so arousing that Cat felt her womb tightening, begging to come. One grabbed her by the back of her hair, lifting her into a semi-seated position and used her hair as leverage to thrust into her ass even harder. Finally, Two grabbed her by the hips and began slamming up into her wet, eager cunt. Cat let out a small scream of ecstasy as both cocks moved in her in counterpoint to each other. At no time was she without a cock fully filling her. She opened her eyes as she felt Three come to stand next to them. "I want your mouth on me again, Goddess," he ordered her. "I want to shoot my seed down your throat again." Catriona's Sacrifice "Oh, yes, please," Cat moaned. Using his grip on her hair, One guided her head to Three's cock and shoved her mouth down on it. Three took over the hold on Cat's hair and One moved his hands to her shoulders. Cat was in ecstasy, having all three holes full of hot cock. Her mind was whirling, lost in sensation. She could feel One and Two's cocks getting impossible larger inside her and knew they were close to coming. Two shifted his angle just slightly and managed to start hitting that spot inside her cunt that drove her wild. Cat began moaning non-stop on Three's cock. "Oh, fuck yes, Goddess. You have the hottest mouth I've ever felt. Take me down your throat." When she did it was Three's turn to moan. He began thrusting into her mouth harder and she tasted moisture leaking from the tip of his cock. "Goddess, you have such a tight little ass. It feels like you're trying to strangle my cock. I'm going to shoot into you soon." When Cat unconsciously clamped down on his cock in response to his words, he groaned. "Fuck, she's trying to kill me!" He began thrusting even harder. In moments, Three had tightened his hand in Cat's hair and thrust his cock down her throat as he began pumping his seed down her throat. Cat gagged once, but quickly loosened her throat to let him shove as far down as he wanted. When he pulled his softening cock out of her mouth, she leaned in and gave it a kiss right on the head as she smiled up into Three's eyes. Sucking Three's cock had somewhat distracted her from her need to come, but it slammed back into her full force as she felt the two cocks filling her so fully still. Cat fell back onto Two, her hands on either side of his head. She dug her hands into the dirt, loving the connection with Alyth and the earth. She knew she would never smell damp earth again without her cunt weeping as it would forever trigger memories of this night. She looked into Two's eyes and saw such desire there it took her breath away. "Kiss me," he ordered her. Cat leaned down and softly nibbled at his lips. The position pushed One's cock impossible deeper. Cat moaned loudly against Two's lips as her eyes rolled back in her head. "Oh, fuck, I'm going to blow," One moaned. He began pounding into her ass, using short, hard thrusts. Looking into Two's eyes again, she asked against his mouth, "Can I please come now?" "No," he told her and tears of frustration filled Cat's eyes. "You'll save it for only me." Cat looked confused but nodded. Seconds later, One stiffened behind her and she felt large amounts of seed spilling inside her ass. The sensation was so carnal that her cunt spasmed repeatedly around Two's cock. He groaned and thrust up into her harder. One pulled out of her well used ass and kissed her on both her ass cheeks before gaining his feet and standing next to Three to enjoy the rest of the show. The crowd now had an unrestricted view of Two's cock thrusting up into Cat's soaking wet cunt. The crowd cheered and clapped in excitement. "Now I'm going to fuck your for real Goddess," he promised Cat as he grasped her hips hard and started slamming up into her fiercely. "Oh god," Cat nearly wailed. "Oh god, oh god. That is so good, keep doing it. Please don't ever stop!" "Goddess this is only the beginning," Two informed her. Cat looked down in confusion, know they were nearly finished with the ceremony, but lost any train of thought as Two took one of her nipples in his mouth. Cat arched her back and moaned low and guttural in her throat, pushing her cunt down hard onto his thrusting cock. "Touch yourself," he commanded, taking his mouth off of her nipple. Looking into his eyes, Cat worked a hand between their bodies and found her clit. She groaned when she began pinching and rubbing it. "I can't last much longer. Please let me come," she begged Two. "I can't either, Goddess. Your hot, wet cunt is too much. Come whenever you want." Cat continued to work her little clit madly as juices ran out of her cunt, down Two's balls and into the earth underneath them. Between her own fingers and Two's cock bumping the wonderful bundle of nerves buried in her cunt, Cat was moments away from coming. Two's cock stretched even longer inside her and in two powerful thrusts Cat was lost. She threw back her head and wailed her release. "Aaaaaaa...yes...god...aaaaaa," Cat cried as she ground her cunt down against Two and continued to finger her clit. "Fuck, Goddess, you come so beautifully! I'm going to come in," thrust, "you," thrust, "right," thrust, "now!" With one final thrust he froze and Cat could feel him pulsing in her still throbbing cunt. Cat watched his face as he came, his jaw clenched and veins standing out in his neck and forehead. It caused her to roll into another fierce orgasm and she removed her hand from her clit and leaned down to thrust her tongue into Two's mouth. Their tongues battled as they both continued to pulse and throb in orgasm. Finally, as her cunt calmed, she sat up in Two's lap, his semi-hard cock still inside her. "Thank you," she whispered, for more attracted to this man than she ought to be, considering her betrothal. She lifted her arms into the air, signaling the completion of the ceremony. The audience of villagers went wild-screaming and cheering. One and Three helped her to her feet, then stepped back to stand behind her. Two joined them as The Laird came forward with her cloak. He covered her and then turned to address the crowd once more. "The Imbolc ceremony is complete!" More cheering met this proclamation. He pointed down to where an embarrassingly large puddle of Cat's juices were soaking into the earth. "The Alyth has given her sacrifice to the earth and to our Goddess." Raising his arms to the sky he implored, "Please Alyth, Mother of Our Earth, Spring and Crops, accept this freely given sacrifice and bless our village with abundance." Lowering his arms he looked to Cat. Cat stepped forward, spread her arms and called out, "Let the fun begin in earnest! Happy Imbolc!" The crowd went crazy, turning from the stage to each other. All who weren't already nude began stripping and dancing around the bonfire as the tempo of the drums and horns picked up to an almost frenzied level. Catriona watched for several moments, smiling softly, until she felt someone walk up to stand behind her. Turning, she saw that Two had pulled on a pair of breeches. "I'll walk you home," he informed her. Cat looked up at him. "I had planned on staying to cele..." "I'll walk you home," he repeated, cutting Cat off in a tone that brooked no argument. "As you wish," she acquiesced. ***** They walked in silence. Two seemed to know exactly where she lived, as he asked no directions. As they neared her home, Cat had a startling thought pop into her head. What if she became pregnant? Would it affect her betrothal? She put a hand to her stomach and chewed her lip in agitation as they stopped in front of her home. "I hope I planted my seed in you. It would please me for you to have a rounded belly when we marry," he told her. Cat jerked her head around to look at him in surprise, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "What," he asked her peeling off his mask, "you don't recognize your own betrothed?" Cat gasped, shocked, and backed up a few steps until her back hit the wall of her home. She looked upon his face for the first time. He was incredibly gorgeous. Thick, dark brows framed his beautiful blue eyes. He had a straight nose and full, sensual lips she knew all too well. His jaw was clearly defined and he had a tiny cleft in his chin. "My Lord," she told him, "I'm sorry. I had no idea." Keith laughed. "My Lord? Come now, we've already been as intimate as we can be. No need for formality. Keith is fine, Goddess." "I'm not a goddess; I'm just a simple girl doing her duty." Keith pushed Cat's hood off her head, wrapping his hand in her hair and tilting her face up to his. "You'll always be my Goddess. When my father told me that you had been picked as The Alyth this year I orchestrated who would be serving you. I've been watching you for months and had to have you." Cat raised her eyebrows, questioning. "Oh,yes. Even since before our betrothal I have wanted you, but there was never a right time to approach you. I asked Father to arrange a betrothal with your father. They were both delighted. My two closest friend and best men were chosen to fuck you tonight as well, little Cat. Robert happily fucked you in your sweet ass and it was William you sucked off with your pretty little mouth twice." "Oh my goddess! How will I ever face them knowing that? The Alyth isn't supposed to know who served her for just that reason!" Keith leaned down and began nibbling and licking her neck below her ear. Cat moaned, squeezing her thighs together to try to appease the fresh ache in her cunt. "Oh, I plan to have them service you many more times in the future. Watching you fucking them was so hot," he whispered in her ear, licking her lobe. Cat groaned. "I don't mind sharing and I doubt very much that you will mind being shared. Will you?" "No," she replied and whimpered as he nipped her earlobe. Keith continued to lick and suck at her neck, causing Cat's cunt to steadily weep fluid down her legs. "Take my cock out, Goddess. I want to fuck you pretty pussy again." Without delay, Cat untied his breached and pulled Keith's cock out. She used her small hand to steadily stroke it until it was so hard it pointed straight up his body. She used her other hand to cup his balls and gently massage them causing Keith to moan against her neck. He pushed the cloak back until it fell behind her shoulders; the only thing keeping it from falling to the ground was the tie around her neck. He cupped both of her breasts and brought them to his mouth. Going back and forth, he licked and sucked them until both nipples were hard points. Then he used his teeth and bit down none too gently on a nipple. Cat cried out, but not in pain. She lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck, holding his head to her breast. "I had a feeling you liked a little pain, Goddess. That is truly lovely. Lift your leg up, I want to fuck you." Cat's eyes darted around but the street was empty. Keith laughed. "You are going to be shy now? Little Cat, you just fucked three men in front of the whole village!" True, Cat thought to herself. She raised her leg and placed it at his hip. Leaning her wait against the wall behind her she wrapped her other leg around him as well. "What are you waiting for? Put that monster inside me." Without waiting, Keith slammed his cock into her dripping wet hot cunt. "Fuck, your cunt is tight," he moaned, thrusting without delay. He continued to pummel her as he spoke directly into her ear. "I've never felt a better cunt, Goddess. I'm going to fuck you in it every night. And I'm going to enjoy watching other men fuck it and eat it. And I'm dying to feel you hot little mouth wrapped around my cock. William looked like he was getting the sucking of a lifetime. Did you like it, Goddess, sucking Will's big cock?" Cat moaned with a combination of the effect of his words and the feel of his cock in her. With every thrust his cock was rubbing her sensitive clit and slamming against the bundle of nerves deep in her cunt. She grunted every time he bottomed out in her, her orgasm building quickly. "Yes, yes, I'll do anything you want. Can I come Keith, please? I don't think I can hold on." "Let yourself go, Goddess." Cat relaxed into his thrusting, no longer trying to hold herself back from orgasm. Holding onto her hips, he began thrusting into her forcefully, slamming her repeatedly into the house behind her. She felt her orgasm rise to the surface quickly. Turning her head, she told Keith, "Kiss me while I come." His eyes flared hot with lust as he lowered his mouth to hers. Their tongues warred with each other, their teeth occasionally clashing as they kissed hotly. Within moments Cat was screaming into his mouth as her cunt began to clench around his cock. He moaned back into her mouth as her cunt tightened almost painfully on his thrusting cock. Within moments he felt his seed rising in his cock and as it burst forth he tore his mouth from Cat's to bite down hard on the place where her shoulder and neck met. Cat cried out as he drew blood, her orgasm intensifying. When he was done coming in her, he lifted his head. "I've marked you," he told her, licking the small amount of blood up. "You are mine now, Goddess." "Yes, Keith, yours." "I'm glad we understand each other. I can promise this marriage will never get dull, little Cat." Cat laughed. She knew truer words had never been spoken.