Why did they name me Jasmine? Sweet? Nauseating. No fire in Jasmine
They don't know what I called myself for three years - Mistress Firethorn.
When I hit eighteen, I set myself up as a dominatrix. Satisfying, you'd say. Would have been if the men weren't such wimps. It was great at first, willowy me wielding power over pallid backsides of professors and financiers. That mystery they couldn't keep in their trousers getting bigger and harder the more I batted and pummelled it.
Okay, but so boring - they never fought back. Soon, I was only doing it for the money to finish music college. At least the violin gives as much as it gets. Now it's got me this job.
Let me tell you about it. At the back of the second violins, my first professional post. Looking up at Signor Belletrini's baton lashing the beats. Passion pulsing through us all. His suave Italian chic oozing sex.
But he needed such a put-down, the way he treated my friend Geraldine. He made no secret of hating mediocrity. But Geraldine wasn't mediocre. Any other orchestra would have promoted her instantly, but Belletrini never stopped picking on her with his Italian tantrums and thunderous looks.
If only I could get him into the position of those wimps I'd whipped. I looked up and went dizzy and moist. Wow. He was different. He'd fight back. It was all I could think of as he thrashed us in concert with those last chords of Beethoven's Fifth.
And yet the second night they weren't the same. The libido had gone. Why?
Like all good bosses, the Signore insisted on spending one coffee break with each new player. Carefully, I asked him if something had troubled him that evening.
"It was nothing that might concern a second violinist."
But I knew it was.
The authority had gone from those chords because he had not submitted himself to greater power. Every instinct in me knew here was my match. A superb, sleek racehorse worth the taming. His lustrous silk suit, his tanned body, paler no doubt in those vulnerable places that would be - must be - mine to control. And maybe, just maybe, he'd be worthy to control me.
"Maestro?" I asked. "I have problems with next week's symphony. May I come to you for help?"
"But of course, mia cara. I have noticed how much feeling you put into your playing. Come to my home, Tuesday evening."
His 'home' was a mansion surrounded by parkland. Even in his lounge, Belletrini was stunningly formal. No woollen cardies for him.
He helped me with my problem. My nipples tingled as he guided my fingers and bow. It gave me the courage to do what I needed to do. I had everything in my violin case. I brandished the biggest of my three whips.
In my harshest dom voice, I commanded: "Do as I say. You are going to recover your Beethoven chords. But first, you must submit to the cords of a violinist. A trained dominatrix. You dare not disobey."