"You'll be alone, so don't be bashful about exploring in here, I really don't care if you do."
I was quietly relieved when he closed the door to the dungeon and we went on our way about the house. As we toured he told me about the grocery store nearby where he had an account and he invited me to enjoy myself as I saw fit. I would, I promised with a chuckle. The kitchen was magnificent and he eventually led me upstairs to the master bedroom with it's modest and tasteful decor which he said was to avoid distracting from the view. I appreciated that thought. I laid down my bag on the bed and he handed me the key and walked out the door without even saying goodbye. The unreality of the past twenty minutes was enough to make me think about the Scotch he showed me in the liquor closet. Not a cabinet, mind you, a closet.
And just like that, I was alone.
Amazing. Twenty-four hours ago I was driving a rust bucket and living in a ten metre square room and now here I was driving a Ferrari and about to spend a month living the dreams of Avarice. If you're a twenty-three year old girl who suddenly finds herself the mistress of a Malibu beach house what's the first thing you do? That's right, you go sit out on the patio in your best bikini and let the common folks stare at you from the beach with envy.
The patio was steel and glass just like most of the rest of the house and the glass afforded a clear view of the beach. It also afforded the beachgoers an unobstructed view of me. I like to think that I don't have any ego problems and I think I have a healthy self-image. That's my polite way of saying that I know I'm not hard to look at. Different people have told me that I resemble Natalie Portman, Audrey Hepburn (my fave compliment!), and one even told me I look like Kristen Kreuk. I like to think I'm just me and that's usually enough to make me happy.
This particular day was special and I pulled out all the stops. My very special Burberry string bikini came out and I tied it criss-cross to make the most of my 34C's. Heading downstairs I found the control for the windows and I just had to play with it for a while. Like a little kid I had the room dark, then light, then dark, and so on. The folks outside must've thought I was crazy. My curiousity served, I flicked it again to roll the heavy window open and then I strode out to the patio like I owned the place. There were some guys on the beach playing Frisbee and I made a point of distracting their game by leaning over the rail and hanging 'the girls' to their maximum effect. The Frisbee hit the sand. A couple of jaws nearly did, too.
My egotistical needs sated, I laid back on the chaise and sunned myself for a few minutes. I'd never done this before, but after a bit of an internal struggle with my modesty I undid my top and let it fall to the deck. I felt so racy. Just like a Malibu starlet. I could do anything. My skin being what my mom calls 'porcelain white' I really couldn't stay outside too long so when I felt the tingle of a burn coming on I packed it up and headed indoors for a shade break. Predictably, the boys on the beach strained to see me as I got up. I looked over my shoulder at them and then turned back to pick up my top. It was worth a little thrill to see their faces as they saw me in all my glory.
The heat was a little much and I touched the control to close the massive sliding window closed. Without even the slightest click, whirr, or whine the heavy glass slid along the track in the floor until it slipped into the frame on the other side of the patio. The noise of the surf and the people on the beach faded and fell silent as the widow closed, leaving me in a church-like silence. A strange chill went through me as I realized that it fit into the wall frame exactly the same way a prison door fits into its own frame.
The house was completely wired and Waldo had shown me the flat panel displays set into the wall of each room that gave control of temperature, sound, windows, and light and had given me basic instructions on how to use them. The graphical display clearly showed the temperature as 86F and I touched the on-screen numbers until they read 70F. A moment later a cool breeze began to blow throughout the house and 'the girls' came to attention. I hesitated about putting my top back on and elected to let it go for a while. I decided to go back and take the tour again.
I walked by a mirror and saw myself topless and complimented myself on how Continental I looked just now. The light blue bikini top with my dark hair and pale white skin just looked so perfect in the reflection. Then I chastised myself for being as bad as Waldo and kept walking. The liquor closet was something else. It was about three metres by ten metres with shelves and racks of various wines, champagnes, Scotches, bourbons, specialty liquors, and even some choice beers I'd never seen before. Getting a little exotic, I selected a bottle of Midori and an inappropriate brandy snifter (I wanted a big glass, see?) and poured myself a very generous helping of the chartreuse colored liquid. Smooth and sweet, the delectable inebriant tasted especially wonderful before lunch.
Properly braced, I continued my tour of the house, stopping back by the kitchen for a little plate of crackers and caviar to accompany my drink. Most civilized, I thought. I worked my way through the guest rooms and was heading to the dungeon when I felt a little cold. I'd left my top back in the kitchen and I was missing it right about now with a chill on in the house. I pondered going back to get it, but then decided to live to excess. The door to the dungeon was quite heavy and there was an odd resistance as I swung it open. Just another freaky feature of the house, I figured. Stepping inside I touched the wall panel and the lights came on, illuminating the strange room. I touched it again and set the house temperature up to a more comfortable 74F before I gave into my curiousity and explored the room.
I need to stop here and let you know what my first impression of the room was when Waldo revealed it to me earlier: black leather, chrome, and chains. My bare feet told me of the ceramic tile floor and I deduced there was, and found, a series of small grated drains set into the floor. I didn't want to know why there were drains in the room, but from the looks of things I could see that it had been washed spotless. A stainless steel door set into the tiled wall opened and revealed a coiled hose with both hot and cold handles on the spigot.
As it turned out, there were a few of the stainless steel doors set into the wall, some in the floor, and some in the ceiling and the ones I could open all held something different. One had a wide (and I do mean wide!) selection of 'toys', another held a flat panel display for various 'workstations' about the room, and yet another held a collection of manacles, collars, handcuffs, shackles, and things that were hybrid combinations of all of that. I wasn't exactly sure just what some of those things were they were so strange. I shuddered to imagine what goings on these items had been party to in the past and I imagined them possessing an aura of the events they'd been involved in.
Now I turned to the workstations and gave myself to trying to decipher how a body fit into them and what, exactly, was meant to be accomplished once a body was fitted into them. One of them was sort of a complex thing with a suspended chair and stirrups and weights and pulleys and boxes. I looked it over for a while to see if I could fathom its purpose and I finally gave up and moved on. The next workstation was a padded chair like a dentist would have except with hinged metal belts for securing ones' neck, hands, waist, and ankles. The metal belts appeared to be mechanically operated but I was unable to find any swtich for it. It was also the only workstation with a large drain right underneath it and, in comparison to the rest of the room, it really wasn't remarkable at all. Then there was a sort of vaulting horse complete with a saddle and the only odd thing about it was a funny stainless steel plate set into the saddle. The vaulting horse also had stirrups of a sort, but they were odd looking things, each of them a kind of slipper lined with soft fleece. Another had a more evident purpose, resembling the exam table at my gyno doctor's. Except my gyno doctor didn't have self-locking restraints on her exam table. Interesting.
There were a few places along the wall that were equipped with odd devices that were clearly meant to secure a person in a most uncomfortable position and, again, I shuddered with the thought of what uses they'd been put to in the past.
My modesty welled up on me in this disturbing room and I found myself tying my top back on as I walked out and went to close the door. For some reason, the door wasn't going to move. It was as if it suddenly just froze in place. I tried it a couple more times and finally said, "What-ever!" and headed back out to the patio. This time I left the boys alone and just enjoyed another twenty minutes in the sun before I went in for the day.
There was a thick, plush robe in the bathroom and I helped myself to it, cinching it around my waist. A studied glance out the window at the breathtaking view, and then I made my way to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. I soon had the comforting sounds of perking coffee to keep me company and that was when I saw a door off the kitchen that Waldo hadn't shown me. I padded over and turned the knob and found a handsomely decorated library. There was a dark, hard wood desk, two red leather chairs, and a collection of large books. I drew one of the books from the bookshelf and opened it to find some very intense pictures of women being tortured and apparently raped. I placed the book back where it belonged and opened another. Then another. And another. They were all the same. Except for the one shelf that had several books about behavior modification, psychology, and then a Physicians' Desk Reference on pharmacopaeia. I wondered what was up with all the books about women when Waldo was gay? What was his deal anyway? Was he a flunked out doctor or shrink? I guessed it really didn't matter as long as I got paid at the end of the month.
I sat down in the chair at the desk and got nosy and slid out a drawer to reveal a keyboard and a trackball mouse. I merely tapped the mouse wondering where the computer was when the desktop slowly flipped back and a familiar flat panel display came up and lit as the hidden PC booted up. The computer must've been a good one as it was up and ready in less than a minute. The usual desktop icons were displayed and then there were a few others that bore some exploring.
