Page 44 of The Shadow of Breninsol
Eleanor raised an unamused brow. Their antics had caused the rest of the bathing house to go quiet. Everyone anticipated another form of entertainment, and no one wanted to miss out.
Lauressa let out a long-suffering sigh. “I’ve got one of your clients…”
Madam Grace had reassigned the courtesan’s regular patrons to the other ladies. It was up to the other ladies to pick up the slack unless Madam Grace hired more ladies.
“I thought you weren’t working?” Eleanor murmured.
“It’s healed faster than expected, so I used some powder with low candles, and…” Lauressa snapped her fingers with a pleased grin. “Gone! You can’t see it.”
Eleanor narrowed her eyes. The age-old mantra she used to repeat to herself echoed in her mind.Magic wasn’t supposed to exist anymore. Eleanor acknowledged exceptions existed, much like herself. But Lauressa was over the age when magic would reveal itself, and Eleanor would have noticed if anyone in the house was using magic…wouldn’t she?
“Who do you have, then?” Iris asked.
Lauressa bit her lip, unsure if to share the name of the client she wanted advice on. “Hugh.” Not all the clients were completely anonymous, no matter how much Madam Grace promised. To a certain extent, they all knew each other’s regular clients, but the secretive part was what happened behind closed doors. However, being in such close quarters with each other ensured that some client’s preferences were common knowledge, albeit not spoken of outside of The Ladies Grace.
Eleanor had a sneaking suspicion of this conversation’s direction. Hugh had been one of her first clients and he’d been surprised at his own fetish until she’d slowly shown him how much pleasure he got from it.
Hugh owned Providence Antiquities, an upmarket dealer house in the Exchange. He was a gifted auctioneer and could sell anything. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he could sell the king’s crown while he was still wearing it. Hugh bought and sold just about anything of worth from pieces of art, to jewellery, books, rugs, weapons, clothes, anything. He’d even sold a few undergarments, claiming they were from someone of historical note. Recently he’d spoken about selling a lifetime’s worth of particularly detailed letters from an unknown lady to her lover, which was still causing a storm amongst the gossips, speculatingas to the authorship. It was little wonder Lauressa wanted to master how to handle him.
“And for those of us who don’t know what he wants…?” Milk trailed off with a smirk. He had settled onto the cool, smooth, tiled steps that led into the water, with Cookie at his side.
“Come on, spit it out. We all want to know,” Cookie encouraged.
Lauressa started playing with the water as her cheeks grew more flushed, that didn’t stem from the steaming hot water. “He wants…I thought you could help withit…youknow…” Lauressa’s hands stilled, and her eyes beseeched Eleanor to understand what she meant, so she didn’t have to finish the sentence. But Eleanor acknowledged that if Lauressa lacked the confidence to speak up in the relatively safe space of the bathing house, she wouldn’t be able to fulfil Hugh’s desires, so another person would suit him better.
Eleanor tilted her head and kept her expression neutral. “No, I don’t know.”
Titters echoed around the bathing house at her false ignorance. “Yeah. Explain, Lauressa,” Milk sniggered.
“He said he didn’t want what other men usually want.”
“And how would he know what other men want?” Cookie replied.
“I’ve heard the rumour…youknow…” Lauressa said in a hinting tone, but Eleanor continued with her blank stare. “Youget the clients that want a girl to be a guy?” Lauressa exclaimed, raising her hands out of the water in exasperation. Eleanor tilted her head. None of her clients were into cross-dressing, not that she’d found out. “He said he wanted me to walk over him,” Lauressa finally blurted out.
“Actually, walkonhim?” Lucy asked incredulously.
Eleanor let out a tired breath. She really wished she had some wine for this.
“No, well…I mean, I don’t think so,” Lauressa replied.
“Think what you do for yourplainerclients,” Eleanor replied as simply as she could. “Now put him inyourposition and you inhis.” She swallowed past the image of the Dark Star, who looked like temptation underneath her, forcing herself to focus on where she was.
Lauressa visibly swallowed, and her eyes widened. Eleanor could see Lauressa come to the realisation of what Eleanor meant. Among all the fetishes that were acted out in The Ladies Grace,this onewas deemed the strangest for them.
“That’s what you do?” Lucy shrieked from the other side of the pool. “I want clients like that.”
“Clearly you need to have a heavier hand,” Iris said.
“Like walking on him?” Lauressa asked, licking her lips as she thought about it.
Eleanor’s voice carried through the steamy bathing chamber as she explained what a man like Hugh found pleasure in. “The moment he enters your room, you hold the power. Walk over him like he’s nothing beneath your feet. He must earn your approval through service to you and your desires. Walk on him with your shoes and let him feel each and every placement of your step while your soles dig into his back, letting your weight sink into him, so he’s pushed further into the floor. He wants to be trapped beneath your feet, and you to allow him the privilege of it.” Eleanor sedately stood in the waist deep water, feeling the rivulets flow down her body. “Bring him close to release and just as he’s begging for it, needing it, squirming for it…” Collectively the room leaned into her words, waiting on bated breath. “Hold him there, on the painful edge of wanting to come but not being allowed the release.” Eleanor squeezed the warm water from her hair, watching Lauressa and the others try to understand what this client wanted.
“Don’t let him come? But that’s the whole point.”
“Don’t let him, he’ll love it. If you ruin his release for him, he’ll come crawling back to you with a gift.”
A smile touched Lauressa’s lips, wondering what sort of gifts a man like Hugh might bring.
