It was Thursday and the day, or rather the entire week had been slow at work. Most of the senior people at corporate were on summer vacation. The main offices were deserted. A summer virus, remarkably like a 48 hour flu bug was devastating the people who were not on vacation. Most of the Admin folks were home either sick themselves or were nursing family members. Since nothing was getting done or really needed to be done, Monique decided she would take the afternoon off. Roselie was one of the victims and I called her at home, telling her not to come in on Friday. I left for lunch and came back to find a message waiting on my answering machine.
"Mr. Evans. This is Mistress Monique. I hope for your sake, you are alone. That unfortunate business dinner last night deprived me if your attendance and interrupted training you need. Since your duties are currently quite light, we will take advantage of Friday as an additional recovery day for you. Plan on not working tomorrow, Mr. Evans. I desire to test you thoroughly tonight. You should expect a minimum of ten of the best with the paddle, crop and cane.
"I will arrive to begin your training at 7pm, but there will be tasks that you must complete prior to that time, including your own preparations.
I will see you soon, dear man. Think of me and of how much this will please me. I will be thinking of you, and that lovely round bottom of yours."
Sighing resignedly, I began forcing fluids over the next few hours. Mostly bottled water, but I also consumed three bottles of a sports drink preparation to keep my electrolytes balanced. It was better to have fluids in the system and wet myself under correction, then dehydrate during the session. I had already learned that lesson the hard way.
In many ways, my preparations mirrored those an athlete takes on the day of a competition. Surely my test with Monique would be no less physically challenging than a major sporting event. Over the course of my trainings with Mistress Monique, I had learned that the same things that prepared me to compete at a high level athletically while at the Naval Academy also assisted me over the obstacles Monique would set before me.
The remainder of the afternoon was a complete waste, at least from a work productivity standpoint. All I seemed able to do was sit, brood, and watch the seconds tick by on my wall clock and on my watch. This trial had the potential to be the most difficult challenge yet. This would mark the first time I had tasted the cane and based on everything I had been told by Monique, or read on my own, I knew that the pain could be terrible. I did not look forward to the experience.
I looked at the wall clock, again. Four thirty. Monique told me to be in place by seven o'clock. The only problem was I did not know what preparations would be required of me. It could be anything from a major costuming to intricate self bondage. In any case, I would need to ensure that I had sufficient time to complete them and it was a minimum 50 minute drive to her place in Great Falls.
Shuddering. It seemed to be getting cold in the office. I guessed that the air conditioning had been turned up in response to the recent heat wave and had not been turned back after the break in the weather. With everybody out, the reduced heat load on the system must be dropping the temperature below my comfort zone. I decided to leave rather than try to adjust the thermostat. Besides, it only made good sense to get to Great Falls a little early. I knew better than to simplify her task of adding more torments to my tally by not being fully ready and on time for my corrections. She was quite good enough at that little aspect of her dominance without my assistance, thank you very much.
It took over an hour in the Washington DC rush hour traffic to make my way to her house. I would have to get my heater checked by the dealer at the next opportunity. I roasted in unrelenting heat, regardless of how I set the air conditioning controls.
I parked the car and went into the house. A major milestone in our relationship was the day she had gifted me with my own key to her front door. On entering, my first stop was the hall powder room. It was almost five thirty by the time I had gone to the bathroom and relieved myself of some of the excess fluid I had downed this afternoon. In the foyer, a round, antique table had been set in the center of the main hall. The table was covered in an antique lace table cloth that fell nearly to the floor. On top of the table was a fruit bowl filled with apples, oranges and bananas, a pair of white, french cut panties, two pairs of padded, leather handcuffs, a softly padded leather blindfold, what looked like an old style school dunce cap and an envelope with my name written on it in Monique's flowing script. I picked up the envelope and sniffed at it, surprised that I could not smell her perfume on the stationary. I turned it over to open it and saw that she had sealed the letter with a kiss; her signature vermillion lipstick stained the letter's seal in the shape of her lips. I smiled, despite my growing anxiety. Even here, even as she plans out her little torments, she gave me evidence of her growing love for me. Resolve to serve well crystallized in my soul, as she knew it would.
I picked up my instructions and sat down in one of the chairs.
nathan,
Recently, your behavior has shown that you have not yet learned all your lessons. Therefore, we are going to use a little old fashioned reinforcement.
The correction will be done in the den.
Prepare yourself as follows, naughty boy. Undress completely before putting on my little gifts. The panties are obvious. Put the handcuffs on your wrists so that each hand has an unused cuff dangling. Take the blindfold, the hat and an apple of your choice to den.
I hope you are ready, naughty boy. I am.
Monique.
I wondered what my offenses were. I wondered about the apple and the dunce cap. Well, Monique would doubtlessly delight in detailing them for me. I took the props with me and went back to the powder room. I undressed, planning to hang up my clothes in the hall closet. I put on the panties, wishing that Monique had turned the heat on. My head was starting to hurt. Tension, I thought, from the anticipation of what was to come. I buckled on the wrist straps and smoothed the panties, again. Shivering, I went into the hall, hung up my clothes and then headed down to the den.
Inside, Monique had moved another table into the room. I saw a tall, three legged stool near one of the corners of the room. Actually, it was near the corner that Monique always put me in during discipline scenes. On the table rested another kiss sealed letter, the paddle, the crop, the cane and, damn it, a strap. That was another toy Monique had shown me on several occasions, but whose biting caress I had not yet tasted. She had said at least three rounds, hadn't she. It looked like being on sick leave on Friday was going to be a very good idea. I looked at the large floor clock, six fifteen. I hoped that there wasn't too much left to do. Not only wasn't there much time left, but I was starting to feel a little shaky. I opened the letter.
Hello, naughty boy,
You've made it this far. I'm sure you'll regret your failings before we finish tonight.
I do hope you were sensibly early because I expect you to be seated on the stool by 6:30. I want your nose pressed into your corner, your feet on the topmost crossbars of the stool and your hands held firmly behind you, as if you were tied. Have your naughty boy dunce cap on and put the apple in your mouth. Sink your teeth into the fruit and keep it there until I take it out. Make sure you open your sweet naughty boy mouth wide and bite deep, but don't bite all the way through. If the apple has a bite completely out of it any time before I remove it, you will get the strap. Otherwise, you may delay making that acquaintance one more time.
When the clock strikes seven o'clock, go to the front center of the desk by the fire place and put on your blindfold on. Bend over the desk and then reach out so that your chains drape over the back of the desk.
If you break position at anytime, I will know and you will get the strap.
Think of me, darling naughty boy, and of how much I'm going to enjoy you.
See you very soon, now, lover.
Monique
I looked around the room to locate the desk and the stool she wanted me to use. I put the blindfold down on the desk. I went and sat on the stool to ensure it was close enough to the wall to reach. It wasn't. If I had waited until 6:30, I would have not been able to safely reach the corner. I would either have broken position or fallen off the stool. I moved the stool toward the corner, just enough to safely reach the corner. I would not deprive Monique of my efforts by making the test too simple.
At 6:25, I again mounted the stool and put on the silly dunce cap. It did not fit me well. The hat was too small to fit on my head! The size of the apple and the awkwardness of the hat gave me pause. I could not get my nose in the corner and keep the ill fitting hat on unless the apple was way in my mouth. Either the hat would come off or the apple would keep my nose away from the corner. Opening as wide as I could, I jammed the apple as far behind my teeth as possible. Holding the cap in my hands, I rammed the apple into the corner until my nose touched. It was excruciating. My jaw already ached and the juice was like fire in the back of my throat. At 6:29, my nose in the corner, I put the cap on my head, locked my hands together in the small of my back and settled to wait.
I had no doubt that Monique was video taping this and that I would shortly cringe to it's replaying on her VCR. God, it was so hot in there. My throat was really starting to hurt and my head was starting to spin. The wait was hellishly long. Every muscle in my body seemed to have gone into rigor by the time the clock struck seven o'clock.
I rose from the corner and settled my feet gently to the floor, letting the circulation recover before I proceeded. Unsteady legs propelled me dizzily to the front of the desk where I put on the blindfold and then all but collapsed across the desktop. I shook the chains down the back as Monique ordered. I was so cold. Was Monique playing games with the thermostat? The apple in my mouth began to taste sour and I felt slightly nauseous.
Without warning, my ass exploded in pain as the paddle struck. There had been no warning, no sound, no perfume. Why wasn't Monique wearing perfume? And then, everything went black as I felt myself sliding, ever so slowly, off the desk to my knees. My last thoughts were "Monique, I think I'm sick."
I came awake to the sensation of the apple being wrenched from my mouth and the blindfold being removed from my head. I was laying on the floor, stretched out next to the desk. My head cleared momentarily and I saw Monique. She had, as always, prepared everything to the last detail. Her hair was pulled back into a tight round bun on the back of her head. She was dressed in a black, antique dress that must have dated to the mid to late 1800's, complete with gloves and a bustle. She was the image of the quintessential Victorian governess. Then the cold hit me again. "Monique" I was croaking. Every word seemed to rip at my throat. "I thought I would never be cold in your dungeon. I'm freezing." She got the hearth throw rug from the floor nearby and laid it over me.
"Nathan, you're burning with fever. I've called the doctor. She's on the way. Nathan, why didn't you tell me you were ill? Why didn't you stop this before it started?"
Her face swam in front of me again. "Didn't know. Thought it was a combination of nerves, anticipation and improperly set thermostats. Wasn't until I'd already started that I thought I might be coming down with something, but even then, I thought I could make it through for you." The world went black again.
I came to again when the doctor arrived. Dr. Danvers and Monique helped me to the couch where she examined me. Monique came back, dressed in a dressing gown.
I was nude now; the cuffs and panties had been stripped off me and real blankets covered me.
Dr. Danvers told her it was the flu-like virus and that I'd need to rest for about three or four days. She gave Monique a prescription and told her to put me to bed as soon as she got me home.
"He is staying here." was the only reply that got from Monique.
The next few hours are a blur. I faded in and out with the waxing and waning of the fever. I know Monique was hovering over me the entire time, forcing liquids down my burning throat, gently washing me with a cool cloth.
My fever finally broke at about four the next morning. I awoke with every muscle in my body aching with pain.
I saw Monique asleep in the chair next to the bed. I watched her for a few minutes. Even ill, I loved watching her in repose. She had put on a flannel nightie and had put her hair into a pony tail. She had washed her face clean of any cosmetics. I still couldn't smell her perfume. She stirred and saw me awake, watching her.
She smiled at me. "How are you feeling?"
I tried to answer. I could barely whisper. She held a glass with water and a straw to my mouth. It went down like I was swallowing thumbtacks. "Like you were pissed at me and I had just been the guest of honor at a reenactment of the Inquisition. God, Monique, what happened to me?"
"Well, I'm glad to hear you still have a sense of humor. You have that flu bug that is not the flu. It evidently hit you quite suddenly. I am surprised, though, that you did not feel it coming on sooner."
"I probably did, but for the most part I associated it with anticipation of what was to come during the session. Stress can cause headaches, sweats, and so on, so I did not think anything of it. Even with our entire crew out, I did not recognize the symptoms."
I shifted uncomfortably in bed, aware that Monique was hazarding her own health with me here. "I am feeling better, now, Monique, I think I'll go home now and rest. No sense in you having me here in this condition."
Monique gave me a little smirk-smile that told me I had not fooled her one little bit. "You'll stay right there in that bed, Nathan Evans, if I have to tie you to it. And I not only have everything I need to do just that, you're in no condition to resist me. You are just being macho and trying to prevent me from catching your bug. Don't you worry about it. I" and she said this with no small amount of arrogance and pride, "never get sick."
I shook my head. Viruses must be male, I thought. It was just as well she would not let me leave. At that particular moment I could not have moved and I told her so. "Monique, I am sorry about tonight. Just let me get well and I'll make it up to you."
Monique ruffled my hair affectionately. "There'll surely be other times, Nate. You should know that by now. I was rather proud of the scenario tonight, though. The self bondage and the apple as a gag. That was so if you ran into problems with your breathing or whatever, you could get rid of the gag by biting it." She sighed. "It won't work nearly so well next time, though, because now you've seen it and it loses the element of surprise."
I was starting to feel a little better. It seemed to come and go. I was suddenly being kissed passionately. I struggled to free myself and pushed her weakly off the bed. "Damnation, woman, I know you don't think you'll get ill, but don't press your luck."
"Nathan, thank you for that gift. You were so concerned with my wants and my needs, that you lost track of your own. That is truly a wonderful tribute."
I tried to nod graciously to her words. That was an incredibly stupid move. The world went green. "Monique, a basin! quick!!" The basin arrived simultaneously with the limited contents of my stomach. It was humiliating. I would have rather taken the full session, including the damned strap, than to have her see me like this.
Absolute power does corrupt absolutely. In charge of a sick room, Monique was even more the stern task mistress than Monique in charge of a scene. The only difference was that she smiled a lot more, and she was so ... abominably pleasant and smiling all the time. Made me damned nervous, waiting for the shoe to drop. It didn't, or at least, it did not fall too loudly. She did, however, tell me on one occasion, that I might want to be a less difficult patient. It seemed that Mistress Monique liked playing nurse games. I was not sure what that meant, but I took the hint.