Barry spent the evening keeping an eye on the video and copying all the other tapes to DVDs, figuring that they would provide entertainment on dull nights for a while to come.

As Diane thought, he chuckled occasionally, though outright laughter seemed inappropriate. He watched as the four of them sought the elusive holy grail of a simultaneous climax, a thing that eluded them.

There were plenty of orgasms after the foursome. Two each for the three guys and four at least for Diane; and more if you counted the ones Barry was sure were fakes. He time-stamped the video with his verdict on each, betting himself that he was right, knowing that Diane would most likely be able to validate his score when it was all over.

Around two in the morning, the boys had had enough. They showered and dressed.

“Thanks for a great night,” Diane said. “Which of you had the idea to be a syndicate?”

The three of them exchanged a shifty look, by then they were too relaxed and their guard was down. The guy in the club said don’t tell, but it was all over now, and somehow, after a night that they would talk about for months, if not years, none of them felt happy to take the credit.

“You can’t remember?” said Diane.

Fred looked at the others again, raised an eyebrow, and they nodded.

“There was this guy in the club, it was his idea, he put us up to it.”

“This guy?” Diane said.

“That guy,” Frederico said, pointing at Barry coming through the connecting door.

Diane spun around and shrieked with laughter.

Barry bowed.

“He said he knew you,” Freddy said. “He said you’d be up for it.”

“He knows me too well,” Diane said. “Boys, meet my husband.”

The three guys almost fell over. Fred, who was nearest to a chair, sat down.

“I hope you enjoyed the evening.” Barry said, “It looked like you did.”

“How long have you known?” Diane said.

“Since the first night. Your boss shouldn’t have picked up the phone.” Diane nodded.

“I almost phoned you with some excuse when I came out of the shower, but I didn’t think I’d fool you.”

“Any chance you can explain?” Freddy said.

“We gave ourselves a week off. We kind of agreed that we’d do something to surprise each other. This was Diane’s surprise. Mine’s turned out a bit different. We had a burst pipe halfway through her first day and I’ve spent the week watching over tradesmen and getting the place back together.”

“That doesn’t explain tonight.”

“No, good point. I called Dee to tell her and a man answered. Said he was her boss. I asked to speak to Dee, and he said she’d call back when she was out of the shower.”

“He said that?” Diane almost screamed. “The idiot.”

“Yeah, a bit of a giveaway. I traced the location of Dee’s phone and spent an hour checking the area. A hotel with a strip club bolted on seemed like an obvious place where a woman might get a job at short notice with an arrogant idiot for a boss. I made a few trips to the club bar for the afternoon show to case the joint, and here we are. I hope you guys don’t feel hard done by.”

Frederico came over to Barry and shook his hand.

“Any time you want to pull a trick like that on me, feel free.”

“That would be tricky, I mean there’s bound to be a load of guys called some sort of Fred in the phone book.”

Frederico pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to Barry. “Any time, call me Frederico and I’ll know. Either of you, any time.”

The other two pulled out cards and handed them to Barry.

“Do you want the video?” Barry held out three DVDs. “It’s pretty much the whole thing, up until you decided to call it a night..”

The guys took the DVDs, shook hands again, had an extra kiss from Diane and left.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Diane stood looking at Barry, waiting.

“Was that okay, I didn’t spoil it for you?”

“Silly man. It was the best night. Do you want to go home or stay here?”

“I thought we might sleep in the other room. This bed looks a little rumpled.”

“Is the house okay?”

“The carpet layer can’t come till Thursday, We have decorators coming Monday. With luck, the paint will be dry by the time the carpet goes down.”

“What about your project, did the burst ruin it?”

“I do have a surprise for you when we go home.”

“What?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“You found out about my surprise.”

“So?”

“So you should tell me about yours?”

“No, that doesn’t follow, I found yours through your mistakes and my detective work. I’ve probably made as many mistakes as you, but you haven’t noticed them.”

“What mistakes?” Diane said.

“I don’t know. You didn’t know yours.”

“I did, actually. As soon as he told me he’d picked up the phone I guessed you’d work it out.”

Barry stood back and looked at her. “And you kept going?”

“I kind of hoped you’d find out.”

Barry nodded. “Why did you do it?”

“I couldn’t face going away, finding some bull and all that.”

“So?”

“I wanted to be punished. I know it sounds crazy, but when we came back from the cinema, it was so good. It made me feel so much better. I wanted it again. I know it’s crazy, but I thought... well, I didn’t think really. The idea came into my head and I couldn’t get rid of it.”

“So, me buying you a chastity belt set if off in your head.”

“Mmmmm, sort of, yes, I guess.”

Barry said nothing, retreating for a moment into the vast intellectual space in his head.

“Was I stupid or crazy?” Diane said.

“I think, on balance, we can rule out both of those. How much did you make?”

“A couple of thousand.”

“And how much did the club make?”

“Two and a half, plus whatever extra the bar made.”

“Why did he make more than you?”

“The house always wins. Sorry, that’s being supercilious. I had to pay him for the suite.”

Barry nodded. “So the crime, if we are to call it that is having sex with, let me see, it must be ten men and two women, is that right?”

“When you put it like that, it sounds bad.”

“Good.”

“Good?”

“I can’t punish you for something trivial.”

“Oh, yes, yes, of course.”

“Let me guess, all of them were safe apart from one? Correct?”

“How did you know?”

“Lucky guess, the boss didn’t look like a safe sex guy. I doubt if any of the rest could handle you.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Was I right about the boss?”

“Yes.”

“Only one other question.”

“I got tested mid-week.”

“Ah, good. I should have said two questions.”

“What?”

“Did you enjoy it?”

“I can’t lie, can I, you have the recordings. What do you think?”

“I have copies of all the recording so that we can look at them together. I had to skim most of them at high speed, so this is not a considered opinion.”

Barry looked at her, caught her smiling.

“I will promise to study them with more diligence in due course,” Barry said. “An immediate opinion might be that there were several features of note. I think some orgasms were faked, but I am sure that some were not. Orgasms are usually said to be enjoyable.”

He looked at her again, studying her face, building suspense.

“There was something else, I think I saw some professional pride and some discharge of an obligation. A whore is paid, after all, there is an obligation to give value. You were appreciated, I think you enjoyed being appreciated for giving value.”

“Does that increase or decrease the sentence?”

“That requires a considered opinion. Right now, I am too tired for such cogitation. I have had a difficult week without any spousal support. I require love and affection, plus possibly a little alcohol and at the very least a good fuck in the morning.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They had a lazy morning. Barry insisted on watching the foursome video at the correct speed.

“Why that one? You’ve already seen it live?”

“I made a bet with myself.”

“What? That you could do better than those young lads.”

“That hadn’t crossed my mind. I don’t go around comparing myself. That’s one thing I learned from Spike.”

“How do you mean?” Diane said.

“I could never be like him, but he was in my bed fucking you. I hated his behaviour, but I had to remind myself that you did actually come back to me time after time. It was hard going sometimes, but what kept me going was that I must have something that brought you home,” He looked up with a grin. “The bet with myself was that I could spot the good orgasms from the fakes. I thought we could watch it and see if I got it right.”

“How do you know if I’ll tell the truth?”

“Ah, the flaw in my game. I should have asked you first. I mean, before I mentioned the bet. What you’d get out of lying, I’m not sure.”

“Putting one over on you?”

Barry laughed. “You’ve had my permission to screw other men, do it for money because you feel like it, even have idiots belittle me, there’s nothing left to put over, leave me some pride.”

“I wish all of that wasn’t true. Go on,” she said. “Run the film, you can show me your answers afterwards.”

They ran the film. Barry correctly spotted two fakes but missed one. Diane was delighted that she had fooled even Barry with one of them.

Diane danced around the room, naked and full of enthusiasm.

“Fooling me once, is that good?”

“No, love, it’s not that. It’s you, and us, and how lucky I am.” She looked at him, standing still for a moment. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

Barry shook his head.

“For the last week, I have been a whore, being paid to give myself to other men—”

“And women—”

“Yeah, and women. I’ve stripped, tempted people, exhibited myself, done things that most husbands would hate, that most women would disapprove of, that would make my parents disown me if they were still alive... all that, and what upsets you?” she laughed. “Only spotting two out of three of my fake orgasms.”

“Actually,” he said. “I got nine out of ten. You had seven genuine orgasms and three fakes, which I tagged as eight real and two fakes. I got one wrong out of ten,” Barry said, trying to sound serious.

Diane shrieked with laughter and turned a cartwheel in the middle of the room.

“Exactly. You are a marvel. I am so lucky.”

“But you don’t know what’s coming next week.”

“So there is something coming?”

“Definitely.”

“When does next week start?”

“That’s the tricky part.”

“Why?”

“I thought we should have a quiet day to reconnect. I didn’t make any plans, because I didn’t know how you would be. I knew enough about what you were up to, but I had no idea how you would be when it stopped. When you came back from your trips—”

“My slut trips—”

“When you came back from your slut trips, you were in charge of what happened next. I never knew whether I would be caged for another day, or we’d be right into a day in bed with sex and storytelling. I wasn’t sure about how today would go.”

“One thing for sure, there will be no cage.”

“I noticed from the recordings that you seem to have quite a selection of belts now.”

“I went shopping.”

“Was it a good place? Should we go and see what else they have? Would that be fun?”

“It might. Let me ask you a different question. If it was entirely up to you, what would you do?”

“I’d go to a naturist beach, but we’re miles away from the sea. Several hours drive there and back is hardly spontaneous.”

“What about staying here another night, plus a trip to my belt shop? How would that do for a wind-down?”

“Can we do that?”

“Yes, I paid for the week, so today and tonight are included. What time are your tradesmen turning up tomorrow?”

“Good point. Tomorrow I’ll get up early and be ready to meet them. We’ll be in two cars anyway, so you can lie in if you want to.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They spent the day in a whirlwind of erotic reconnection. They watched some of Diane’s video, had sex, went out for coffee, came back to the hotel and had sex, visited the sex shop, bought some new toys, came back to the hotel and had sex again, slept a little, tried some toys and walked the streets until they found somewhere they liked for dinner.

“Would you want to do it again?”

Diane laughed.

“That’s very good, darling. I make it almost twenty hours before you asked me.”

“I thought you might need some time to process it. Should I have left it longer?”

“I don’t think it would get any easier to decide, it might even be harder.”

“So?”

“It’s not such a simple question. Question one is did it work? Wearing the belt at the cinema started it, so that’s down to you. We talked about wearing a belt to a party and that’s what was in my head, but where would I find a party. The strip club was an alternative to a party. When I thought about that I couldn’t help thinking about who would have the key. That’s when I thought of the auction.”

“So the answer to question one is what?”

“I think it did work. It was popular, and it brought in extra money. Would it work again? I’m not so sure. I think punters would come to the conclusion that it was a wheeze to get them to pay more. Also, I think it would end up looking like simple prostitution. If I wanted to do that, I could. So question two is how was it being a whore?”

“And?”

“I could do it. I don’t know if the selection of clients would be typical. Apart from the last night, my customers were guys who saw watching strippers as a substitute for sex that they weren’t getting at home. This threw an extra at them and they couldn’t resist. None of them was anything like as good a fuck as you are, and mostly they were not as good as any I played with before. It was fun being nice to them, and the auction added a layer of excitement that I never got from playing away. I doubt if a hooker gets that excitement every time.”

“So you think being a hooker would be less fun?”

“Yeah, I think so. Before you ask, I don’t want to try it.”

“How am I doing?” Barry said.

“All very rational. How is it making you feel?”

“Right now... I feel proud of you for thinking up something very original and carrying it through. I feel that as an emotional thing, a reaction. Apart from that, I may be intellectualising, which may be a kind of defence. I enjoyed being in the room next door. I think pulling that stunt, persuading the guys to be a syndicate, was good for me. It gave me some ownership, and it meant that I didn’t feel left out.”

“I didn’t know it was your idea until they said.”

“Were you shocked?”

“It gave me an explosive high. You could tell, but when they owned up about you I felt myself gush. So many things at once went through my head. All my fears about whether I might have hurt you, the guilt about doing it in secret, all that stuff blew away in a second. The weight came off me, it’s a wonder I didn’t come off the ground.”

“You were that worried?”

“I don’t think I realised until that moment. It was a liberation.”

Barry nodded, staring thoughtfully at his meal for a few seconds.

“Does that mean that if you did want to do this or something like it, I would get to be the bodyguard?”

“Or my master?”

“It’s a big career change from cuckold to master,” Barry said.

“You were never a cuckold.”

“You know what I mean. Given that we are not getting into prostitution, so there is no risk of me being a pimp, I could also be your agent. On the basis of last week, you are a performer. Performers have agents.”

“I’ll have to give you a percentage, especially as your intervention increased my take by—”

“Sixty-three per cent.”

“I still haven’t answered your question.”

“True, but if you did want to do it, we have a better idea of how.”

“Yes,” she said. “All things considered, I think the answer is no, at least for now. It was fun and nerve-wracking, and educational. Does it mess up your surprise at all?”

Barry paused for a moment. “It’s hard to say. I could call it off if you like. I mean this has gone well, we’re both on some sort of high, I wouldn’t want to spoil that. What I planned was something very different.”

“You should do it, whatever it is, you should do it, and then we’ll think about it afterwards.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They walked back to the hotel, holding hands, stopping to kiss, as they window shopped and enjoyed the night air.

“Where is your car, love?” Barry said as they got near the hotel.

“There’s an underground car park, go past the side of the hotel and the way in is at the rear.”

“Could I park there too?”

“Ask reception, I don’t see why not?”

“It’ll make it easier packing in the morning,” he said. After a brief conversation with the hotel reception, they both walked along to get Barry’s car and there was a space next to Diane’s. The penthouse lift went all the way down to the car park, or from their point of view when Barry's car was in place, it went up to the penthouse.

They watched Diane’s session with Sue and Carla as evening entertainment.

“What was it like, having those two damn great things inside you?”

“Freaky,” Diane said. “The boys' cocks the next night were nothing like as big, so I wasn’t worried about them. Cocks are different, they move more, and I can squeeze them with my muscles and get a reaction from the man on the end of the cock. If you squeeze one of those dildos, the girl on the other end has to be very sensitive to notice any change. If there’s a lot of lubrication, the dildos slide in and out so easily, it’s hard to grip them.”

Diane rolled over in bed to look at Barry.

“Do you fancy doing me like that?”

“It might be fun to have the girls over.”

Diane giggled. “Or your electricians.”

“What did you think of them?”

“It was a bit of a shock when I walked into the garden and found them in the pool.”

“I did tell them it was okay. The house was very hot with the heating on full blast.”

“Did they swim nude while you were around?”

“No.”

“Poor you.”

“Oh, it wasn’t such a bad day. While you thought you were checking up on me, I was sitting at the bar in a strip club finding out about a new act they were running.”

“Should we have another week where we spy on each other?”

“Is that what you were doing when you dashed home?”

Diane chuckled. “No, I was worried about what had happened to the house. I felt bad leaving you to deal with it. It looked awful. I felt a bit guilty all week.”

“That will have gone by the end of the week.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“I think so. That’s my plan.”

Diane sat on the bed looking at him, curiosity was written all over her face.

“You’ll see,” Barry said.

“Are you going to tell me more?”

“No.”

Diane laughed. “So guilt removal is part of next week’s surprise?”

“That would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?”

“I guess,” she said. “Sometimes a little guilt adds a piquancy to things. This afternoon, while I was looking at those basques, you bought something and they bagged it up before I saw what it was.”

“And you have been dying to know what it was ever since?”

“Wasn’t that the point?”

She kissed him. “So what was it?”

“I was tempted by a rhinestone collar.”

Diane shrieked, “No!”

“I resisted, but I did buy you a collar, would you like to see it?”

“I’d like to wear it.”

It was a deep burgundy faux leather with fake gold studs that had a lock at the back and carried a solid brass ring at the front.

“Oh, wow,” she said. “That is so much better than rhinestones. That makes me look like a very expensive slut.”

“There are matching cuffs.”

“Wrist and ankle?”

“Of course.”

“Put them on me, please.”

Barry fastened the collar first, followed by the wrist cuffs and then the ankles.

Diane got up to see herself in the mirror.

“Oh, look at that,” she said. “Anyone would want to fuck that. I don’t suppose you could get a belt to go with it?”

“You mean a chastity belt? I did look, but there wasn’t anything close. I imagine it would be possible to have one made, but not in a week. How do those feel? They look stunning, but are they comfortable?”

“Yes. They are exactly right. I can feel them. I know I’m wearing them, and that has an effect. It’s like you said about wearing a collar and a cock cage, it tells you who you are. This tells me that I’m a slut and I can be restrained for someone else’s pleasure. Your pleasure, but really anyone’s, if you say so. It’s like I felt at the cinema, liberated by being constrained. What are they made from?”

“It’s some sort of plastic that looks like leather, the point being that it’s waterproof, you can shower in them.”

“Won’t it ruin the locks?”

“It’s not supposed to, but if it did, why would it matter?”

“Oh. Oh wow. You mean these could be permanent?”

“Nothing is permanent love. If you’re wearing them and I’m not there, you don’t have to worry about getting them wet.”

“So you are keeping the key?”

“For now, yes.”

“For now?”

“This week. Until next Sunday.”

“So these are part of my surprise? Will last a week? What happens then?”

“We take stock, think about the two surprises, reflect, learn, all that stuff.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Barry had his watch set for six in the morning. He crept out of bed, showered in the other room and checked that everything in that room had been packed. He phoned for room service breakfast, asking for it to be delivered to the room that Diane was not sleeping in.

When he knew that was on its way he silently made the same checks in the other bedroom while Diane slept. When breakfast arrived, he woke Diane. They both ate naked.

“I don’t want to risk messing up these things, I know you said they were waterproof, but could you take them off for me to shower, and then you can put them back on afterwards. We can test them in the water when we get home. I don’t want to risk spoiling them.”

Barry got the keys, and Diane showered. Barry waited outside the shower with a towel and insisted on drying her and moisturising her skin. When she was suitably perfumed and pampered Barry locked everything back in place.

“Does my surprise start now?”

“Why don’t you hang around here and get used to wearing your new uniform and I’ll take the luggage down to the cars.”

Barry set off with the cases, and Diane looked around for her clothes. She couldn’t find them.

“The surprise starts now,” she said to the mirror. She danced around the room. “I asked for a cell,” she said, “I guess these will have to do.”

“I can’t drive home like this,” she said when Barry came back.

“I’ll come back and get your car later, you won’t be needing it.”

Barry clipped a chain onto the ring on her collar.

“Ideally I would clip your hands together and your ankles, put you in a sack and carry you to the car, but I don’t like the idea of you being restrained while driving. I know we did it once, but it scared me, and we weren’t in town traffic.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“In the lift like this and a raincoat in the car. This way.”

“Have you checked out?”

“Yes, and I’ve told them I’m collecting the other car later. One more detail,” He said and wrapped a blindfold around her face. “I did think about taking you through reception like this, but if you can’t see, it makes no difference. This way, please.”

He led her to the door, left it unlocked with the keys on the desk, and they took the lift. Barry walked Diane very slowly through the underground car-park, dragging out the experience for as long as possible.

She heard him open the car, felt the raincoat wrap around her and was gently nudged into the seat. He did up the seat belt, and they set off. Diane could sense him driving carefully. She was tempted to remove the blindfold but didn’t. This was Barry’s show. She would do it his way.

They parked, Barry got out of the car, opened the door and led her out. In what she assumed was the hallway, he took off her coat.

“This way,” he said. She knew the house well enough to know that they had moved into the living room.

“There’s no carpet,” he said, “it’s coming on Thursday.”

After a few more paces, he stopped her and held her hands while she felt the chain on the collar move a little. The chain was long, she could feel the weight of it and heard it move on the floor. It must be four or five meters, she thought.

“Don’t take the blindfold off yet,” he said. She heard a whirring noise, not particularly loud, sounding like an electric motor. It stopped.

“You can take the blindfold off.” His voice seemed to be faint, coming from the hall perhaps. He must be getting the bags, she thought.

She pulled the cloth off her face. She was facing the wall. She could see the length of her chain running across the floor and up to a heavy ring fixed into the wall. She was standing on a floor that hadn’t been there before. It looked like slate.

“I’m going to get your car,” Barry said. “There're some papers for you to read, and the painters may be here before I get back.”

She turned towards his voice, and that was when she saw the grill. She was in a cage, surrounded on three sides by the walls of the house and the enclosure of the staircase and on one side by a folding metal grill that ran from the floor to the ceiling.

“He made a cell,” she said to the room in general. She reached out and felt the grill. It moved a little. She turned around, and that was when she saw what must be a folding bunk fixed to the wall. There was a piece of paper on top of it. She picked it up.

'Instructions,' it said. She turned to look at the rest of her cell. She could feel her heart racing and at the same time that familiar gush in her pussy. The end wall of the cell appeared to be a door. It couldn’t lead anywhere, surely — that way was the side of the house. She opened it and found a small sink and a combined toilet and bidet. Above the sink was a small cupboard. She opened it to find one section with a toothbrush and various toiletries. Below the sink was a small fridge, that contained a selection of drinks, some rolls, cheese, butter and two small jars of jam.

“Not bread and water,” she said to the world in general.

Diane spent another ten minutes exploring every detail of her cell. She put the bed up and down a couple of times before she realised that there were no blankets. She tested the toilet, and it soon dawned on her that there was no privacy. She was naked and on display all day, for as long as Barry decided.

She lay on the bunk to read the instructions.

'Safety Information.

The grill has a motor with its own power supply. In the event of a fire, or a power failure, the grill will open and any restraining locks will release. A kit bag will release from the cupboard immediately outside the cell. In that will be a fire-resistant jumpsuit and a pair of trainers. Put them on immediately and leave the house.

In the event of a fire, sprinklers will activate two minutes after the emergency clothing is released.

Leave the area or you will get very wet.

The food in the fridge has adequate nutrition for three days. If you require other delicacies, you are free to offer services to anyone who happens to be in the house, for example, a hand job or a blowjob might be sufficient to secure a treat of some kind.

Most visitors will not have the security code. Those that do will be able to open the grill, but they will not be able to release the chain to your collar.

Sign here to confirm that you have read this information and confirm that you accept your sentence.'

........................................................................................

She turned the page. On the back, there was more information.

'Sentence.

In the first case one week.

Following a further sentencing hearing, there will be an agreed number of days for each admitted episode of coercive control.

Visitors have been informed that they may stare all they like, pass comment and converse.'

Diane read each side several times before taking the pen that was attached to the clipboard and signing on the dotted line.