(Posted to Literotica to mark the Halloween season, this story fulfills a request from a reader, James A, for a satin fetish story.)
Count Gregor Arninov towered over his elegantly dressed host and hostess in the foyer of their winter dacha as his sleigh was being brought around. He was leaning over them and holding the admiral's wife's small silk-gloved hand in his appreciably larger satin-clad one while he murmured how wonderful their ball had been and that, yes, he had enjoyed dancing with their daughter immensely. The hostess was lost to his charm—and to his handsome face and broad shoulders and slim waist. He was elegantly dressed in evening clothes with satin lapels and finishes and gave off the aura of a powerful, sensual man, whose well-developed muscles were barely contained by the confines of the formal attire. Some who knew him well likened him to a wolf—intelligent, handsomely and powerfully built, but with a dangerous, wild, loner, almost ravenous streak in him that lent an incongruity to wearing the formal attire of Russian winter balls. In the realms of ambition, money and power, however, he was seen to fit right in. Any family seeking what he had to offer—and there were many—held its daughters out to him; the ones that didn't have such ambitions hid their daughters whenever he was nearby.
He could have told them all that they needn't have bothered.
The admiral, also looking at Gregor with both admiration and speculation, asked yet again if perhaps the count should not spend the night here considering the blizzard that was raging outside. He was only slightly reticent in doing this, having given in to the scheming of his wife and daughter to bring their campaign to a close to entice the count into marriage by bringing the daughter and count in close proximity at night under one roof, their bed chambers just a few steps down a deserted hallway from each other. The count had somewhat of a reputation for his nocturnal activity—quite a varied reputation actually—and every noble family in the region had taken notice of his physical beauty, his standing at court, and his large fortune. And most of the young women and even some of the young men dreamed of lying under him.
Citing pressing business at home, Arninov politely demurred again. He gave a slight start as, with the opening of the front door to the swirling snow and howling wind outside, his sleigh driver and new footmen came into the foyer and the candles in the chandeliers overheard flamed up.
But then the host and hostess were returning to the ballroom and their other guests, and the sleigh driver was holding a massive mink coat open for the count to slip into. The young footman, on his first outing and nearly overwhelmed at coming to grips with his duties, stood trembling, ready to open the door and then rush out to the sleigh to let the steps down and take his perch beside the driver. He was a beautiful young man, diminutive for his age, with alabaster skin and dark curly hair framing a face with full lips; a shy smile; large, dark pupils; and thick, curly eyelashes. Although slight of build, his body was perfectly formed, as demanded by the physical fitness championing count. In fact, the footman was of much the same physical presence as all of the count's man servants, save the sleigh and carriage driver, who had been with the count's family for several decades and who saw and knew all—and did whatever the count asked of him.
The count gave the footman a piercing stare as he shrugged into the mink coat. He accorded the young man a slight nod of the head, and, after a moment of trying to match his employer's stare, the footman cast his eyes down in filial obedience. It was a momentary check in the levels of status and privilege of the nobleman and two servants in the foyer, but just a moment. At a signal from the sleigh driver, the footman threw open the door to almost be tossed back immediately by the howling wind and then thrust himself out into the night to reach the sleigh before the count and driver did.
As the count reached the sleigh, the footman let down the steps. The count paused there for a moment, gaining his balance and reaching for the handholds to help pull himself up into the sleigh against the current of the wind. The footman placed his hands on the count's leather boot momentarily to help his master steady himself. He shuddered at the feel of the leather. Rich material moved him. Satin possibly the most of all. The count looked down and their eyes met. In the eyes of the footman was slight fear, but also a note of resignation. Once more the footman dipped his eyes in obedience to the master. In the count's eyes, slight amusement, more than a slight interest, and a touch of hunger.
Moments later, the sleigh was lumbering off into the blinding snow, almost immediately lost from sight from the entrance to the admiral's dacha by a swirling white cloud, and on its swift, but precarious journey across the fields to the count's winter dacha.
From where he sat in the back of the sleigh, wrapped in his luxurious mink coat and contemplating the cigar and cognac awaiting him before his own roaring fire at the end of the journey—as well as, perhaps, a bit of dalliance during the journey—all that the count could see outside the sleigh was the unforgiving world of white swirling snow and the blur of passing tree trunks. The moon was struggling to be seen through the cascading snow from above, but was no more than an eerie light giving a hint to the undulating hills the narrow track of the sleigh was shushing through. The moon was trying to valiantly cast light on the activities of the night, but it slipped behind clouds and failed in its own recognition of inevitable events unfolding by forces beyond its power.
Good, the count thought. He much preferred the dark and the pleasures of the night.
Looking ahead, the count observed the backs of the two heads, the driver, in a fur hat, with puffs of gray tumbling around his ears. The driver was hunched over and snapping the reins of the four black horses, their heads rearing as they pulled the sleigh through the almost-frozen mud and over snow and ice and snorted their billows of breath clouds. The driver was the ultimate servant. His eyes would ever be forward directed, checking the horses, and ever watching the approaching road, no matter what happened inside the sleigh during the precarious journey.
Next to the driver, bareheaded and shuddering, not only from the cold, sat the young, virginal footman.
Save for the snorting of the horses, the occasional crack of the whip, the shushing of the sleigh runners, and the jingling of the sleigh bells, serving the purpose of warning of their approach to any other sleighs out on this dark, snowy night, all was silent as the grave. But it was a silence full of tension, waiting for something momentous to happen, like the long, drawn-out, shimmering note from a violin.
The count leaned forward and touched the shoulder of the footman, who jerked in surprise, but who nuzzled into the satin of the count's glove as the count caressed his cheek. The count pulled back his hand and the footman turned and looked back at him. His eyes were big, his pupils bright, whether with anticipation or fear, it was not known. And, on his part, the count didn't care.