I sat on the large couch in the middle of the suite’s great room, slowly sipping my coffee. My legs were pulled up in a fetal position with my arms wrapped securely around them. I felt so tired from only getting a couple of hours of sleep, yet my mind was whirling almost uncontrollably as I mentally replayed the events of the previous evening.
In the short time I had been with James, we’d done many things that pushed me out of my comfort zone. At times our sex had been gentle and loving. But most of the time he was very rough, aggressive, and demanding with me. However, nothing that I had experienced previously could have prepared me for what we’d done the night before.
I had never let anyone restrain me, and even though I had been spanked during my childhood by my father when I misbehaved, I’d never been spanked with anything other than a hand. Being spanked with the flogger, and especially seeing its catastrophic effects the morning after, had really shaken me.
During the spanking, the erotic feeling of the act itself and the pain just seemed to add to the intense, carnal experience of being restrained. Seeing the red marks all over my body, and especially the deep red welts on my ass, had given me such an uneasy, apprehensive feeling.
As I reflected, what troubled me the most was not what we’d done but rather what James had said. He’d told me, in the heat of that intense sexual moment, that I actually enjoyed the pain that he was inflicting on me. The very thought that I may have liked what he did, or, more accurately, what I let him do, was almost too horrendous for me to even contemplate.
I jumped slightly when I heard a knock on the door of the suite, which broke me out of my thoughts. Slowly, I rose from the couch and opened the door, and I found myself peering into Gianna’s sympathetic, caring eyes.
“Mel, are you alright?”
“I’m fine, honey,” I said as she melted into my arms and we kissed passionately.
“God, you scared me to death with that phone call; I thought something was wrong.”
I could hear the panicked tone leaving her voice once she saw I wasn’t in any type of peril. I sat down on the couch, curled my legs under me, and watched as she poured herself a cup of coffee, then sat down next to me.
“Where’s James?” she asked between sips. “You told me he wasn’t leaving until tomorrow.”
I proceeded to tell her about his son’s asthma, the medical emergency, and how he had to catch a flight back to Los Angeles.
“An allergic reaction to medication, especially in cases of asthma, is serious, but as long as they got him to an emergency room I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Gianna had nearly completed the third year of her RN program, so hearing her words gave me some measure of relief concerning James’s son.
We sat silently for several minutes sipping our coffee. I dreaded the thought of telling her why I had a panic attack when James left, but the elephant in the room could only be avoided for so long until … “Mel, you sounded like you were almost in hysterics when you called; what’s going on?”
I took a deep breath. I was now really starting to regret not being able to pull myself together once James left. This is going to be a rough one. “You have to promise that you won’t overreact.”
“You’re scaring me; just rip the Band-Aid off and come out with it.”
I stood up, slowly untied my bathrobe, and held it open, exposing the red marks on my stomach and breasts. Thankfully, my swollen red nipples were beginning to revert back to their natural pink color; however, the effects of the clamps and flogger were still very evident. I watched as her mouth dropped open and tears began to well up in her beautiful brown eyes. “Oh, God, what happened to you?” she said in a horrified tone.
“I … I … I mean … we ...”
She cut me off. “He did this to you?!” The fear and apprehension in her voice quickly turned to rage. “I’ll fucking kill him,” she spat angrily as tears started to streak her cheeks.
“Gianna, it’s ...” I attempted to stammer out the rest of my sentence until she interrupted me again.
“Turn around so I can see the rest of you.” Her voice calmed somewhat as her medical training took over.
I turned and faced away from her and dropped my robe to the ground while simultaneously hearing her gasp in shock. I could almost feel her eyes travel up and down my body as she assessed me.
“Melanie, these welts on your ass, he almost broke the skin,” she said in utter horror. “If he had, you would have required medical attention because they could have very easily gotten infected.”
“But he didn’t break the skin, Gianna, and there was no blood,” I said calmly, hoping the steady, even tone in my voice would help to settle her down. I pulled the bathrobe back up covering myself and then sat back down on the couch.
She refused to sit down and her rapid-fire questions commenced. “You need to tell me everything that happened,” she said in a cold, demanding tone.
“Gianna, it was just some playful spanking,” I said, trying to make light of what had happened in a further attempt to calm her down.
“That’s bullshit! A playful spanking wouldn’t leave these marks all over your body and those welts on your ass.” She was starting to tear up again as the realization of what we had done began to sink in. Her inquisition continued ... “What did he use to spank you with?” She paused, shaking her head, “Because these marks couldn’t have been made using only a hand.”
“He called it a flogger; it looked like small strips of leather attached to a handle.”
“And you just sat there and did nothing while he was making these horrible fucking marks on your body?”
I looked down, feeling deeply embarrassed by what I was about to admit. “I was restrained when he was flogging me,” I whispered.
“Christ, he tied you up?”
“Gianna,” I said gently, looking into her eyes, “I let him tie me up.”
Our eyes met, and I could see the bewildered look on her face. I knew that her mind was grappling and searching… trying to somehow make sense and give meaning to the shocking things I was revealing to her. She started to calm down somewhat; she sat beside me on the couch and took my hand in hers.
We were silent for several minutes as we continued to hold hands and sip our coffee. I wanted to give her time to mentally process these momentous revelations. When we were together, everything we did sexually was tender and loving. We were playful with each other, but there was always an element of sensuousness and softness. She was beginning to realize just how different my relationship with James was compared to my relationship with her.
“So you’re alright with what he did to you?” she said softly, her voice breaking the silence.
“I could have stopped it at any time, Gianna,” I said hesitantly, “but it was as if I got lost in it.”
“You actually .... liked it … then?”
“I’m still trying to make sense of what happened, but yes, part of me, on some level, liked what we did.”
She paused for several seconds, trying to collect her thoughts. I could see how difficult it was for her to hear these shocking revelations concerning a part of my sexuality that she hadn't even known existed. “It’s very difficult for me to hear you talk about these things that you say you liked, and even more painful for me to see the physical effects of them.”
A panic washed over me as I listened to the serious tone of her voice. I hadn’t even contemplated that these startling revelations might be a reason for her to want to end our relationship. Maybe I had made a mistake this morning when I called her in my panicked state after James had left. However, I could have hidden the marks on my body from her for only so long because she would have found out after a day or two.
“I know I’m going to fumble this a little bit so I want you to be patient and bear with me.” I took a deep breath and tried to prepare myself for the worst. If she was going to break up with me, I desperately didn't want to let her see me cry.
“We’ve only been together for a little over a month, so I feel a bit reticent in admitting this, but I’m in love with you; I’m sure of it.”
My jaw dropped in response to her unexpected words, but I tried to remain calm and let her finish what she needed to say. “I love what we have, Melanie, you’re so tender and loving; I’ve never been in a relationship where I’ve felt so much affection.”
As much as I tried to control it, her beautiful words were bringing tears to my eyes.
“But, you can’t ever ask me to participate in, or in any way be a part of, what you let him do to you. I could never hurt someone that I love, that’s just not me. If you want to do these things with James, I’ll try to be understanding and give you the space you need. But this is something that you’ll have to get from him, not me.”
After hearing her words, I immediately broke down crying. It was almost too much to emotionally process. What James and I had done, its physical effects on my body, him leaving, and then Gianna telling me that she was in love with me, it was just too much to hold in.
“I love you too, so much,” I stammered out between the falling tears.
When she saw me begin to cry, she instantly pulled me to her and we melted together and kissed passionately, our tongues gently playing in each other’s mouths. Just feeling her next to me, holding me, meant the world to me; she always seemed to know exactly what to say and do. I’d known Gianna had feelings for me, but I never thought she felt the same way for me as I did for her. We broke the kiss and held each other tenderly for several minutes until we finally parted and just held hands.
“I’ll try to support you as much as I can, Mel, but there might be things that we just won’t be able to talk about, like what James and you do when you are together.”
“We don’t have to talk about that part of my relationship with him, Gianna, and I totally understand you not wanting to, but just being here this morning, it means so much to me.”
We continued to hold hands and enjoy the comfortable silence as we both reflected on the revelations that we had discovered about each other that morning. I knew Gianna wasn’t pleased with everything she had learned about me, but I was so glad that I could be honest with her about it and she didn’t end our relationship over it. I also couldn’t believe that amidst all of the turmoil she’d confessed her love for me.
My elation at hearing that news was also coupled with no small measure of guilt over the threesome that James and I had with Megyn. Gianna could somehow, amazingly, understand and deal with me letting James restrain and flog me. However, James paying for a marathon sex session with a dancer we had just met in a strip club, and then me having sex with her again for hours after he fell asleep, yeah, not so much. The threesome with Megyn and any other subsequent trysts was just going to have to go under the umbrella of the things that Gianna and I agreed not to talk about, and I was somehow going to have to try to live with the guilt of that.
- - - - -
Gianna was looking around the expansive, extravagant suite. “So this is how the other half lives?” she said, smiling at me, her mood lightening considerably.
“Yeah, this is what I’m forced to deal with each time I meet him,” I said teasingly.
Gianna and I both came from middle-class families, but extravagance on this level was just as foreign to her as it was to me, at least before I met James. She released my hand, rose from the couch, and scurried into the kitchen and started to explore. I poured another cup of coffee and watched in enjoyment as she admired the elegant decor of the suite while I was mesmerized by her every movement. She was dressed in baggy black sweatpants that seemed to somehow, miraculously, mold to her amazing ass perfectly. She was also wearing a pretty pink t-shirt with pink tennis shoes. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and she wasn’t wearing make-up. I knew she had thrown on her clothes and came immediately when I called. But damn, she still looked stunning, and I had no idea how anyone could look so beautiful with absolutely no effort.
She exited the kitchen and went into the dining room. “Mel, what’s this on the table?”
I got up and walked over to the dining room table. There was a small oval velvet box on top of a note that was handwritten on Bellagio stationery. Next to that was an envelope with ‘Gianna’ written on the front. She looked at me expectantly. “I had no idea any of this was over here, but that envelope is obviously for you.”
Gianna hesitantly opened the envelope and pulled out a handwritten note, again on Bellagio stationery. Wanting to give her privacy, I watched as she read it. She smiled and passed the note to me so I could read it.
It said:
"Gianna, I want to thank you again for your assistance in helping me choose an executive chef. Your input was invaluable and I sincerely appreciated it. Additionally, I thoroughly enjoyed spending the evening with you and Melanie, and it was a genuine pleasure to get to know you a little better. As much as it pains me to lose my best server, would you consider a promotion to an assistant manager? If you're interested, David will tell you about your new duties and the considerable increase in pay. Continued success in your studies. Sincerely, James Moretti."