Erik and Melissa stood in the shelter of his front door, waving goodbye as the Dean of Students from Jacob’s college drove away in the snow. Dean Weinstein was the last mourner to leave.
Erik’s large house had barely contained all the people who had gathered to remember Jacob: former students, faculty members, college administrators, neighbors, friends, and long-time synagogue members. Many of Erik’s friends had come as well, including a small delegation of employees representing Sunstone.
The peak of the constant coming and going had been some time in the late afternoon, with nearly two hundred people packed into the three levels of Erik’s house. Showing she was much more than just his housekeeper, Abigail Grady had overseen the caterers and parking valets, smoothing out the constant flow of mourners in the falling snow. Her husband Chuck had put a plow blade on Erik’s small tractor and frequently ran it up and down the long drive to clear away the snow, which had been falling heavily all day.
The sun had set now. The caterers and valets had departed. Abigail had still been cleaning up, but Erik asked if she could finish in the morning. She had fondly looked over at Melissa, standing next to Erik, and readily agreed.
Finally, the house was empty. After a continuous low roar of conversation all afternoon and evening, the house now felt silent, cocooned in the first heavy snowfall of the season.
Erik took Melissa’s hand, more casually, now that they had been together for a few days. Lifting her hand to his lips, he said, “Thank you for all your help with the funeral, and with the planning for the shiva.”
She said, “I’m glad I could help. Besides, Mrs. Grady did most of the work.”
Erik nodded, “She’s amazing, but I don’t know how I would have made it through the last few days without your strength.”
She smiled, “It was nice to be the one who takes care of you for a change. Last summer, it was mostly the other way around.”
“Well, you and Mrs. Grady did an amazing job – although how a Catholic and an Anglican figured out putting together a shiva for hundreds of mourners, I don’t know.”
Melissa shrugged. “The caterers took care of a lot of the details… and a few Internet searches helped. Turns out that sitting shiva is mostly like a having an Irish wake, but with a lot less booze.”
They started walking down to the lowest level. He smiled at her comparison, “True, but we make up for not drinking much by tracing out insanely convoluted connections of family and friends, and, of course, making business deals.”
She looked at him, wide-eyed, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but is that really normal? I mean, I must have overheard at least a dozen different people pitching some business deal or another to another guest, and then Dean Weinstein stayed late to pump you for a donation…”
They had reached the lower level, where they snuggled together in Erik’s favorite overstuffed chair. He chuckled softly, “It’s true of all Jewish life cycle events – a Bris, Bar Mitzvah, wedding, funeral, shiva – the tribe gathers, makes connections, arranges marriages, negotiates business deals – that sort of thing.”
Melissa shook her head, amazed, “A wake is a lot simpler. We get drunk and tell a lot of weepy stories. Sometimes, the next day, you wake up next to somebody you don’t quite remember. You know: get drunk, cry, get laid – then life goes on.”
Erik nodded, “I suppose every culture, in the face of death, reaffirms life in its own way.”
Melissa shrugged, “I guess so, but remember, I’m an archeologist, not an anthropologist. We’re not much given to self-reflection.” She shook her head again, then asked, “Do people really arrange marriages at a shiva? Seems a little weird.”
“Sure, thoughthese days it’s mostly the grandmothers circling around, trying to introduce the unattached youngsters to each other. No more selling off your daughter for three cows and a lamb, though I’m sure I would have had to pay more for you.”
“Sexist pig.”
“Hey, you’re the one who fell in love with a dom.”
“Yeah,” she said quietly.
“Um, talking about us, have you thought more about staying?” Erik was trying to be casual in his tone, but she could feel the nervous tension in his body.
She sighed, “I’ve been thinking about almost nothing else since the hospital. For the last few months, I’ve been trying to run away from accepting that I’m a submissive… and that I love you. I think what scared me was that I’d lose myself in you… and your world. It didn’t matter that everyone I trusted kept telling me I could have it all – be your sex slave and have a real career.”
“You are, and always will be, so much more than just my ‘sex slave.’ You know that – right?”
“Yes… I do.”
“Is that why you were avoiding Deborah – because she’s living proof that you could have a real career and still be a submissive sexually.”
“No… I was avoiding her because I knew I’d want to tear her clothes off as soon as we were alone.”
“Oh. Um, maybe you ought to tell her. She said you had apologized for avoiding her, but she didn’t know why it happened. I think she’d feel better if she knew.”
“Yeah, I need to. I was just so embarrassed about what an ass I was.”
Erik cocked his head sideways, “But you got together with Serena pretty often, and, ah, I thought you two really enjoyed having sex together.”
“The thing is, she’s got a rule about not having sex with anyone who isn’t paying. Didn’t you know?”
Erik smiled, shaking his head, “I have to admit, I had no idea. I thought I knew her pretty well, but, well, I guess women talk more honestly with each other.”
Melissa laughed, “Not really, or, at least, not always. But Serena and I do.”
Erik cocked his head again, “Why were you trying to avoid having sex with Deborah and Serena?”
“It would have undermined the whole ‘running away’ thing.”
“I suppose… but, um, were there any guys?”
“No!”
“So, you haven’t had any sex since we… since I left?”
“Only what I did all by myself… what about you?”
Erik snorted, “Same boat. But I was insanely busy – then I was in a hospital for over a week, followed by a step-down rehab unit for almost two weeks. In truth, I’m still so weak, I don’t know if I could get it up.”
“Hmmm…” Melissa gave him a mischievous grin, “I bet I could find out.” She slid off the leather seat cushion to kneel on the floor beside him, then bent over to kiss her way up the inside thigh of his dress pants.
Erik shifted a little, nervously, but then Melissa pounced, playfully mouthing his growing penis between her teeth, shaking her head back and forth, mimicking a dog wrestling with a bone.
She let go and smiled up at him, “See, it remembered.” She froze when she saw his worried expression, “What’s wrong?”
He pressed his lips tightly together, before answering, “I’m… I’m not as strong as you remember. I don’t want to… disappoint you.”
“Hey, just being with you is enough. I don’t need more. If… if you want to try… that’d be great… but if you…”
He gave her a reassuring smile. “I want to try. I just wanted to warn you … I don’t have a lot of stamina these days.”
“It’s okay.” She went back to nibbling on his penis through the fabric of his pants. “I’ll be gentle with this little guy.” Despite his misgivings, his penis rapidly grew firmer. She reached up to unfasten his belt and unzip his pants.
As she pulled his waistband apart to free his penis, she saw the bony points of his hips, sharply revealed under his pale skin. She did her best to hide her dismay over how skinny he had become. Instead, she drove her mouth down over his growing penis, sliding him to the back of her mouth, then pressing the not-quite rigid head of his penis down her throat.
For the two days since the funeral, she had stayed in the guest room. All of the clothes and toys he had bought for her were still there. She had found the soft dildo she had used to practice taking him into her throat without gagging and begun practicing again. Fortunately, it was easier to recapture those skills than she had feared.
She had also started cleaning herself out with an enema every morning and using the graduated set of butt plugs to expand herself back to where she would be able to comfortably accept him. Every time she slid the next larger butt plug inside, she found herself longing for having Erik and Michael in her simultaneously. Even now, just thinking about having both of her openings filled made her wetter.
As she slid Erik in and out of her throat, she felt him become fully rigid. She reached up with her unoccupied hands and unfastened the buttons of his dress shirt, one by one. As she undid the last buttons at the top of his shirt, she felt his ribs through the fabric in sharp relief. She continued lovingly taking his penis as deep into her throat as it would go, even as a tear formed in the corner of her eye at the horrible price his body had paid for trying to save Glanox. She reminded herself of how grateful the group of Sunstone employees had been earlier today. The loyalty they felt toward Erik was palpable. Melissa was glad at least some good had come from his sacrifice.
Despite her practice over the last two days, her throat quickly grew sore from the unaccustomed bulk she was thrusting down it. Needing to stop, she let his penis escape her mouth with an audible pop. With a smile, she helped him out of his shirt, pants, and socks. As she helped him undress, she tried to ignore how horribly reduced he had become.
She straddled across his thighs on the ottoman, then reached up to unbutton her green silk blouse, smiling at the surprise that she was about to reveal. When her fingers got to the waistband of the short wool skirt that Cathy had gotten for her yesterday, she reached around to the side and unzipped it. The skirt separated completely, and she tossed it away. Cathy had extended the side slit of the skirt up to the zipper, and then she replaced the original side zipper with a short jacket-style zipper that came apart when it was fully unzipped. Melissa was delighted when Cathy had showed her how the skirt could fall away with a single pull of its zipper. Melissa had joked about it being the perfect ‘fuck-me’ skirt.
Now, Melissa’s hands moved back to her front, where she finished unbuttoning the last two buttons of her blouse, which had been hidden below the waistband of her skirt. She let her blouse separate to show off the smooth, bare skin of her sex. She had used some of the money from her summer to splurge on laser hair removal for her pubic area, legs, underarms, and even forearms. Besides her long strawberry blond hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes, she had no other body hair left.
She saw his eyes widen slightly as he took in that she didn’t need to shave anymore. Teasing him, she slowly pulled her blouse open wider, until she finally revealed the golden rings, which pierced through her nipples. His eyes lit up. She reached up with both hands, taking the rings between her thumbs and forefingers, then pulling the rings up and forward, tugging hard on her nipples as she groaned. At the same time, she found herself grinding her sex down on his legs.
She had made a somewhat inebriated decision to get her nipples pierced the week after she had returned to the city, intending to taunt Erik with it over the telephone, so he would regret having left her. Since then, her piercings had fully healed. In August, she had told Serena about her piercings but swore her to secrecy. A few weeks later, Serena had given her a beautiful set of gold-plated titanium nipple rings, which cleverly closed on themselves to leave what appeared to be a smooth, unbroken circle of gold. Melissa’s first set of nipple rings had needed a little ball to hide the closure point. She complained to Serena about the obvious lumps the balls made under clothing.
Now, Erik was clearly enjoying seeing her pierced nipples.
She shrugged her blouse off, then crept forward on her hands and knees, until the drenched slit of her sex was positioned just above his straining penis. Lowering herself down on him, she pushed against him as far as she could, until he entirely filled her. Her labia were pressed flat against his pubic mound.
She was so happy to have him inside her again. She pushed down even harder, trying to cram every last bit of him inside that she could. The rigid warmth of his penis felt wonderful. She groaned in deep satisfaction.
Slowly, she lifted herself back up, until he had slid halfway out. She was tempted to slide him all the way out, then take him in her rear, but she knew she’d need more lubrication and she didn’t want to interrupt the intensity of the moment.
Instead, she pushed herself back down on him hard, beginning a strong up and down rhythm. After the urgency of the first few minutes waned, her pace became less frenetic. She arched back, reaching behind her with both hands to fondle his testicles while she continued to pump her body up and down on the shaft of his penis.
She was grateful that she had repressed her sexual frustration through frequent workouts at the university’s gym. She hadn’t wanted to lose the body shape she had gained under Mistress Amy’s tutelage. Now, she found herself wishing that Mistress Amy was here to whip her while she rode Erik. Melissa decided she would even willingly share Erik with Mistress Amy afterward, even though Melissa knew that what the other woman really wanted was Erik’s heart, and Melissa wasn’t about to share with anyone else.
Thinking about being whipped, however, made her desperate for being spanked, or whipped, or something. She asked Erik, “Please, spank me, Master. I beg you.”
With a loving smile, Erik reached up and swatted one of her breasts, then her other, continuing to alternate back and forth. His slaps frequently landed across her nipples, making them ache with fiery desire. Inside her, she could feel him getting hugely engorged and hard, proving he was equally excited by spanking her breasts as she was by being spanked. She felt him quickly moving toward an orgasm, and she groaned in frustration, knowing she wasn’t as close as he was and feeling desperate not miss his timing. Leaning down over him, she begged, “Slap my face, please Master. I want to cum with you.”
He reached up with both hands and gently slid her hair out of the way, to her left side. Then he firmly grasped her hair in the fist of his left hand, pulling her head around as he slapped his right hand across her cheek. This time, she saw him cup his hand before it reached her, so his slap would sound terrifying, without actually inflicting any damage. No matter his artifice, the electric intensity of her response shot through her. She desperately flung her body down on his penis again and again, trying to impale herself on him.
A low growl started in his throat, growing in volume and intensity as he bucked upwards against her. Feeling his spurts of semen filling her was enough to finally push her over the edge into her own bucking orgasm. Every part of her abdomen vibrated with her convulsive release.
When she finally finished, she hung over him, propped up on her arms, braced to either side of him, panting hard. She remained in this position, until her breathing finally began to steady. Relaxing her stiff arms, she leaned down over him, kissing him gently on the lips. “Thank you, Master.”
Erik patted the leather cushion to one side of him. She obediently lifted herself up to let his spent penis slide out of her, then shifted over so she could snuggle in beside him. She paused before she lay down and asked, “Do you want me to lick you clean, Master?”
“Later, perhaps. Right now, I want you next to me.”
“Always, Master.”
“Always, indeed. I want you to know, I am serious about giving up on ‘rushing off to save companies.’ For the next couple of years, I’m going to concentrate on growing Sunstone. That should be easier than I’m used to working, so I’ll have plenty of time to spend with you around the house and in the city… Are you willing to try again? Staying here with me?”
“Not as your paid sex slave,” she said firmly.
“No,” he agreed, “not as a paid sex slave, but how about as my partner in life?”
“That… sounds pretty serious.”
“Only be as serious as we both want it to be. I don’t have any preconceived plan about where out relationship will go… or where it won’t go. If that is just good friends, that will have to be enough. If we become lovers for a very long time, it would be wonderful. If, sometime in a hazy future, we should become husband and wife… I would consider myself incredibly lucky.”
She could see tears welling in his eyes. He blinked them away, then continued quietly, “Not that I plan on it, but if we should ever get married and have children – and one is a boy – I would like to name him Jacob.”
She felt tears of her own spilling onto her cheeks. She simply nodded, knowing that she couldn’t reply without sobbing. Taking a moment to gather her courage, she leaned forward, kissing him, and whispered, “Yes.”