I decided to tell her. "You should be a model."

She flushed. "You never asked ... but I am. Or at least I was." She tossed her blonde hair about her shoulders and gave me one of those s.e.xy pouty glances that she might throw at a camera. My heart caught for a moment at the sheer beauty of the pose.

I swallowed hard. I hadn't expected that. She smiled as she realized that she'd somehow surprised me. Though I'm not sure that she knew the reason. The girls seemed to revel in that. Surprising me. Or shocking me. Even if they didn't mean to.

Because I couldn't move my tongue anymore, I crouched down and fitted the chrome handcuff key into her restraints. She sat still as I released her wrists. I watched in fascination as her fingers gently ma.s.saged the skin of her wrists where the metal had held her. The handcuffs were still warm from her body heat. I placed them on the ground and looked up at her. She remained in the seat simply letting me regard her in silence.

Christi surprised me again when she spoke.

"Let's take her outside," she said.

I was confused, not quite understanding what she was saying. I suppose I'd dropped into her beauty, unaware of the other girl still kneeling quietly beside us.

Christi saw my confusion, and I could tell that she wasn't sure why I hadn't understood her. Only that I hadn't.

She continued. "Jane. Remember her? Your other slave? She and I were talking earlier. She wanted to go outside for this."

I turned slowly to Jane who was completely flushed. She nodded her head nearly imperceptibly. Christi was telling the truth.

Christi's voice continued on behind me. I felt almost intoxicated by the girls.

"Maybe we should use the front yard? If you agree? Then we wouldn't have to see Mayer? Or have you put him back already?"

I shook my head, clearing it. The spider crawled along the base of my head at the back. I felt the world closing in, but again it receded. I was grateful. Although the danger here was minimal, Christi and Jane would take care of me if I fell into unconsciousness, there was no guarantee I would wake up. If I was smart, I would let them go now. Forget their requests, and hightail it back to the prime time line. But I wasn't smart. I truly wanted to give them something. They had been so good to me. They deserved something. A small voice at the back of my brain was shouting that they didn't deserve to be trapped on this timeline forever or some unknown limbo, but I carefully ignored it. I was reasonably sure that we could get through this.

"Are you alright?" Jane asked worriedly from her kneeling position in front of me.

I nodded. "It didn't get me."

Jane still looked worried. "We don't have to do this. We can just go back. We aren't going to remember anyway. Are we?"

"You won't remember. But I'm fine now. Really."

I felt fine. As though nothing had happened at all. I just hoped that the next close call would happen after I'd had my time with Jane and Christi. Preferably while I wasn't on this timeline. Of course, the spiders would disappear once I regained the prime timeline.

After a moment, I moved over to Jane. I removed her handcuffs quickly, dropping them beside Christi's.

"Is crawling going to ruin your dress?" I asked her.

She looked puzzled. I understood. She couldn't imagine why I'd care if the dress was ruined. She'd figured out that she was going back as soon as this last scene was played out, and the dress was useless at that point. And I'm sure she never expected to have it covering her much longer in any case. She was probably surprised that she was still wearing it at the moment.

She shook her head and nodded at the same time. Quite a sight actually.

"Yes, Master," she breathed. "Crawling will ruin it. I can remove it if you like."

She hadn't even blinked an eye at the prospect of crawling. She'd done it for me before, though it had been a long time ago. But she was determined to play her role, accepting whatever I asked of her.

"You may keep the dress. Try not to ruin it."

"Master? Can a slave ask if she'll be punished if she ruins the dress?" Jane slipped easily into slave talk. I was surprised. I hadn't heard it from her lips for a while. I wasn't even sure she'd remembered how to speak that way. She was full of surprises.

"I'll decide that when you are outside."

"Yes, sir," she responded. "But, your slave begs to remove it first if she is going to get punished for ruining it. She knows that she is being punished anyway, but she doesn't want to make it worse."

Her words struck a chord in me. I was aroused simply by her manner and her words. I had to adjust my jeans. I couldn't believe that I could react so soon after Elizabeth. Jane's mouth curled into a quick grin as she watched me adjust myself before she caught herself and forced a straight face. I was going to have to punish her for that.

I answered her slowly, "Crawl with the dress. I'll decide later what you will be punished for."

"Yes, Master," she spoke with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Despite her own willingness to be in this role, she was unable to completely discard her normal strong will and defiance. I loved that about her.

She carefully fell to her hands and knees, waiting for a command to begin crawling for me. I motioned Christi to her feet and then to Jane's left side. I strode to Jane's right. Jane looked up at us towering over her diminutive and vulnerable form with a look of worry on her face.

I smiled to her rea.s.suringly. I wasn't going to hurt her yet. I carefully gathered up a handful of her full brown hair in my fingers, indicating for Christi to do the same. Christi hesitated, but reached down and gathered up some of Jane's hair in her hand as well.

We began walking slowly, gently tugging at Jane's hair as a leash. Jane cried out a little at the initial tug, but fell into a rhythm, moving her hands and legs in the unfamiliar and slow motion, relieving the pressure on her scalp. Christi and I moved along beside Jane matching her slow pace, not trying to hurt her. It would have been a simple matter to increase the pace to the point where Jane couldn't keep up, her scalp in agony. But I didn't. She would be uncomfortable enough, soon enough. Neither girl complained about the procession.

We moved slowly from the dining room, and down the main hall. The only sounds were Jane's laboured breathing and the whisk of her dress as it touched the tile. I looked back as we crossed the front door threshold. The mansion that had been our home. The mansion with Sheila and Mayer and all the good times and the bad. I felt that I'd lived there forever, when it had only been a few days at most. I couldn't believe that this was the last time I'd ever set foot in the place. It seemed so odd to be leading this girl outside using her hair as a guide. The tender soles of her bare feet upturned beneath the elegance of the evening gown. It all seemed so surreal and so erotic. The former occupants of the house would probably be shocked at the display, well most of them anyway.

I took a deep breath.

"Christi?"

She turned to me, waiting for instructions.

"Run upstairs and gather up the pack. Be quick, or you are going to join miss slave, here."

Christi flushed, remembering that essentially she was still a slave as well. She dropped Jane's hair that she had been gently holding. I watched as it fluttered back to Jane's shoulder. As Christi turned and quickly walked towards the stairs, I admonished her. "Run."

The denim clad girl threw a withering look over her shoulder but decided it was still in her best interests to do as asked, and jogged the last few steps. Her free b.r.e.a.s.t.s bounced beautifully under the top and her bare feet thundered as she ran up the stairs.

"You didn't have to make her run, we have time," Jane spoke from her hands and knees.

"I don't remember anyone asking you." I spoke half jokingly to the elegant girl at my feet.

Jane twisted her head as best she could, pulling her own hair in her attempt to find out how serious I was. When she managed to see that I was smiling at her, she returned to looking at the floor.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d," she mumbled.

"That earned you another couple of strokes."

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d," she said more loudly.

"Hmmmm. She wants more, huh?" I speculated out loud. "Little one. You don't have to be defiant. All you have to do is ask, and I'll make sure you can't sit down for a week."

We both knew that she wouldn't feel anything at all from this in a week's time, but she shivered nevertheless.

"I'm sorry, Master," she apologized. It sounded sincere enough.

I heard Christi's feet thundering down the steps as she ran back. I suspected that she had probably dropped to a fast walk as soon as she was out of sight, and I could have punished her. But I wanted to save my creativity for Jane, who actually did want it.

Christi was out of breath, even from the short run. She was dotted with sweat. I liked the effect, and especially liked the effect of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s beneath the sweater still heaving as she fought for breath. She smiled at me as she showed me the pack in her fingers.

Without being told, she shifted the bag to her left hand and picked back up Jane's soft hair with her free hand. Together, the three of us stepped out for the last time. I took note of the address as I looked back. I was going to need it.

As we reached the steps to the front porch, Jane halted as Christi and I stepped down onto the first step.

"M-master?" Jane spoke.

"Yes slave?"

"I. I don't think I can crawl down. I'll fall."

I knew that she could do it. It would take some concentration and some balance. But I didn't force her.

"If you like, you can suggest an alternate."

"Add some to my punishment, instead? For not being able to do this?"

I nodded as she looked up at me, her hair still extending from her head to my fingers. And Christi's.

"I'll try not to scream the first two times you hit me."

A challenge. Could I make her scream anyway? I was betting I could.

"Alright, slave. On your feet."

Christi and I both released her hair at the same time and Jane struggled to get to her bare feet. The evening gown had worn where her knees had pressed into the fabric against the tile. I was quite sure that it had never been meant for this type of activity. I couldn't imagine most women crawling in that thing. Jane smiled, glad that she hadn't been forced to crawl down the steps. She was well aware that I could have forced the issue and she would have had to at least attempt the crawl down the steps. She was happy even if it meant making her later punishment harder. I could imagine that it would have been very painful on her unprotected knees to have to climb down. Either way, she was up for extra discomfort, she'd simply chosen her route.

I took Jane's hand and led her down the steps. As we reached the bottom, the girl automatically fell back to her knees. She rocked forward ready to crawl again, without being asked. I left her there, not taking her hair.

"Jane?"

"Yes, Master."

"Pick a tree."

"Master?"

"Just pick one."

She carefully balanced herself on one hand, centering her weight. She pointed to a thick trunked oak tree just off the front path.

"On your feet. You don't have to crawl."

She gave me a dirty look as she rose to her feet. One of those, then-why-did-you-let-me-make-a-fool-of-myself looks. She sighed and climbed back to her bare feet, not quite daring to voice a complaint. The dress was now quite dirty around her knees from her kneeling on the earthen path, but I had no intention of having it on her body much longer anyway. She knew that as well.

I took her right hand, and Christi lightly grasped her left. Jane shivered slightly. Probably antic.i.p.ating her upcoming punishment and pleasures. We slowly walked towards the tree. I felt like singing something right out of Wizard of Oz. We made an odd sight, I would imagine, walking slowly hand in hand together.

Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my.

I smiled at my inner thoughts, but neither girl noticed.

Chapter 126.

Jane was remarkably easy to secure to the tree. Made me wonder just how much the girls were resisting previously whenever I tied them up. She almost seemed eager to be bound, and happily rose up on her bare toes, reaching for the low branch above her head. She gripped the branch lightly with her fingers and waited patiently as I slipped the steel handcuffs back around her slender wrists. Her position raised her b.r.e.a.s.t.s wonderfully under her dress. If she had been a little less endowed, the dress would have slipped right off her as she stood like that.

I stepped back, watching as she twisted her wrists in their restraints. Sighing, she let go of the branch and let herself down off her toes. The handcuffs, stretched over the branch became taut well before she was able to get her heels to the gra.s.s. She took a deep breath, knowing it was useless to complain, and resigned herself to being on her toes. She gripped the branch again, trying to ease the weight on the b.a.l.l.s of her feet.

I ordered Christi to her knees. The other girl knelt quickly, sensing that I wasn't going to tolerate a lot of protests from her. I'm sure that the designer jeans she wore were getting gra.s.s stained around the knees, but like Jane, she probably didn't care much about the state of her clothing. As long as she didn't get punished for it.

I slowly walked around the suspended girl, admiring her figure, admiring the way her body stretched in its restraints. She tried to watch me as I circled her, unsure of what she'd gotten herself into. Probably regretting her last request. I smiled at her as she was forced to watch my progress by whipping her head from right to left.

She spoke softly. "Can a slave change her mind?"

I gently shook my head. I'd arrived back in front of the girl.

"I didn't think so," she whispered. "Can I ask what you are going to do to me while I'm like this?"

"That would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?"

She swallowed. "Can I stop you, if it gets to be too much?"

I thought about it. I could give her a safeword, like I had with Elizabeth. But I didn't want to. She was still my slave. A lovely slave, true, but still my slave. I could still do whatever I wanted with her. Even if she was here by choice. I would try not to go over her limits with my play, but I didn't want to worry too much about safewords. It was part of the game for her. She needed to have absolutely no control. I could see it in her frightened eyes. It wouldn't work if she could stop it. Not for her. She wasn't Elizabeth.

"Are you my slave?"

She nodded slowly.

"Will you accept what I do to you, and for you?"

"I don't have much choice, like this ..."

"No, you don't."

She shuddered a bit. I couldn't tell if she was shuddering at her lack of control, or shuddering simply because of her arousal. I was entirely sure that if I checked between her legs, the antic.i.p.ation would be showing.

Leaving her, I walked slowly back to the pack. I retrieved a bright blue ball gag, the crop, some soft rope, the nipple clamps, a blindfold and the pair of scissors.