Alice glanced at the large, wooden wheel, braced against the wall like a giant clock. It frightened her, made her legs weak to the point where she thought she would fall again.
“Walk to it.”
Alice did, each step like walking through thick molasses. When Alice reached it, she saw the four thick leather straps on the edges, made to hold a person spread-eagle. In the center was an even thicker belt, meant to cinch around the victim’s waist.
Alice trembled, her whole body shaking.
“Lean against the wheel,” Pilar ordered.
“I… I don’t…”
Suddenly Pilar was behind her, one hand clutching her breasts, the other pressed to her belly.
“This is for your own good, Alice,” he said, his fingers descending. “I’m doing it to help you. Do you understand?”
“Uh…”
Once again his finger entered her. But this time he began to move it in and out, like Lewis when they made love. But unlike Lewis, Pilar didn’t seem to be in a race to the finish. He moved slowly, luxuriously, until she wanted to beg him to move faster.
“Lean against the wheel.”
“Uh… uh…”
“Alice.”
“Okay… okay…”
And the next thing Alice knew she was backed up against the terrible wheel and Pilar was strapping her into place. First her waist. Then her hands. Then her left foot. As he knelt down, stretching out her right foot, spreading her legs, Alice tensed up and began to resist. Pilar’s head was only inches away from her most private parts, and Alice felt shame like she’d never felt before.
How could she have gotten to this point? A complete stranger, strapping her to a giant wheel? Even more embarrassing, her hips seemed to have developed a mind of their own, and they heaved forward toward Pilar as if trying to touch him.
Then, suddenly, her other ankle was bound, and Alice had never been so exposed in her life.
“Try to get away,” Pilar said.
She strained. She pulled. But the wicked straps were tight, and she couldn’t close her legs, couldn’t get free. Alice was bound there, spread open before a man she barely knew, revealing parts of her even her doctor had never seen. Alice fought tears, a blush creeping up over her whole body, her sore bottom pressed against the rough wood of the wheel. This couldn’t possibly get worse.
Then it did. Pilar went to a cabinet and withdrew a length of white rope.
“This is silk bondage rope I received after training with a nawashi in Japan. I am going to tie it around your knees and thighs to restrict your pelvic movement and spread you wider.”
“Please, don’t. I beg of you.”
But Pilar didn’t listen. He looped the rope around her right knee and up her thigh, then cruelly pulled it back against the wheel and tied it off. Pilar repeated the procedure with the left leg, the rope so tight it forced her pelvis forward. Alice tried to struggle, but it was no use. She had lost all ability to move her lower regions, except for the tiniest of circles.
Pilar was so close she could feel his hot, peppermint breath on her. She chanced a humiliated look down, and could see his lips were almost touching her hair down there.
“This won’t do,” Pilar said. “I can’t see what I’m doing. I must shave you.”
“No! Please don’t, Pilar. Untie me at once.”
But Pilar was back to his cabinet, and when he returned it was with a safety razor, a bowl, and a brush.
He spent a moment twirling the brush in the soap bowl, making a lather. The brush had round, bushy bristles, and when it was sufficiently covered with foam he began to spread it on Alice.
The lather was warm and smelled of sandalwood, and when it touched her she gasped at the sensation. It felt like washing, but not. When she washed herself down there, Alice used a soapy rag and was quick and businesslike. Pilar was gentler, slower. Alice felt as if he was dragging the process out, stroking her left and then right. Up, then down. Sometimes he missed the hair completely, going lower. Alice began to get lost in the rhythm. She closed her eyes, flexing her hips, trying to press into him. But just as she was ready to beg him to put a finger inside her again, Pilar withdrew the brush and began to shave her.
Unlike the gentle rhythm of the brush strokes, the razor was cold, stiff, and unyielding. The pleasant sensations were replaced by panic. What if he cuts me by accident? And even worse, what will I look like when he finishes? A few deft strokes later, and Pilar was done. He brought a pitcher of warm water, pouring it over Alice, washing away the remaining hair and lather, leaving her as naked and vulnerable as the day she was born.
“Would you like to see?” he asked. “I can fetch a mirror.”
Part of her did, but she was so mortified at being laid so bare that she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t understand how Pilar could even stand to look at it. Those parts of her were ugly and dirty. They were used for childbirth and nothing more. Staring at them was abnormal and perverted.
“Beautiful,” Pilar whispered.
Alice wasn’t sure she heard him right.
“Pink and perfect and beautiful. I know we have just met, but would it be okay if I kissed you there?”
Alice couldn’t believe her ears. Why would he possibly want to do something like that?
But her hips began to make a little circle, and Alice couldn’t stop the movement.
“One kiss then,” Pilar said.
His lips touched hers, and Alice gasped. He was so soft, so tender, and she had an overwhelming urge to press against him. Maybe this is what she’d been missing her whole life. Maybe this was what sex was supposed to be like. She thought of Lewis, her boyfriend, kneeling between her legs, kissing her as Pilar did, and a low moan escaped her throat.
“Thank you,” Pilar said, pulling away. “Now it is time to get to work. I’m afraid it is going to take some time, and may be a bit uncomfortable. To fully extract all of the blue potion, I’m going to have to build you up and tease you beyond what you feel you can endure.”
“Tease… me?”
“Have you never been teased before, woman?”
“I… I don’t know.”
Pilar rubbed his beard. “You aren’t a virgin.”
“No. I have a boyfriend named Lewis.”
“Does Lewis satisfy you?”
“He’s a very nice man.”
“I mean sexually, Alice. Does he satisfy you?”
“I… I love Lewis. Being intimate with him makes me feel close, but… he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. I’m afraid I don’t either…”
Her voice trailed off. Talking about her lovemaking failures was almost as humiliating as being spread open before a stranger.
“To tease is to arouse without release,” Pilar said. “Like this.”
Immediately, Pilar pressed his face against her. But this time it wasn’t a kiss. He began to lick.
Alice began to plead with him to stop, that this was dirty, but it felt like something had ignited inside her loins. Throbbing, but times ten. Pilar licked around her opening, then put his tongue deep inside her, flicking it in and out rapidly. Then he moved up higher, finding a sensitive spot between her lips, and when he touched it the feeling was so intense it almost brought pain. She cried out, and Pilar stayed on that spot; slow, fat, languid strokes until the almost-pain became something else, a warmth that began to spread throughout her whole body.
This was it, Alice thought. This was what she’d heard about. How sex was supposed to be. It felt amazing, and just kept getting better and better. Her hips were bucking now, wanting to capture Pilar’s tongue, and he increased his tempo and pressure, pushing his finger up inside her, and the feeling built and built until Suddenly Pilar was gone. Alice continued to buck, straining against the ropes and shackles.
“Please! Please don’t stop!”
