Prologue
By its nature, this story must begin within the story of O and would include the
fate of Natalie’s half-sister Jacqueline. I do hope the patient reader will indulge me as
I set out a bit of background to these events.
The time was the early nineteen fifties and the story French, but it had its
origins further to the east. The patriarch of Natalie’s clan had wandered into the
Siberian wilderness. Whether this was by accident or design was never determined. After an
appropriate time passed, modest bribes changed hand and the women were allowed to emigrate
to France. They took up residence in one of the poorest sections of Paris.
Natalie knew little of this; she was the accidental daughter born of a French
father. He had deserted her mother, Kasha, within a few days of their Parisian tryst. Her
father had little curiosity in his offspring. He was however, a gentleman of means and so
he offered a modest stipend for her upkeep.
When she was old enough, he provided her with tuition at a lycée (boarding
school) on the outskirts of Paris. What little of the yearly stipend remained became the
sole support for her mother, aunt, grandmother, older half-sister, and even the ancient
maid who clung to the family like the smell of age and decay.
The money barely kept them from destitution.
Jacqueline, her older half-sister, eventually found work as a fashion model. She
was tall, and thin, though of a pleasing shape. Her face had high cheekbones and a
wide-eyed and vaguely Eastern cast. Men desired her. Her modeling salary mostly went to
makeup, clothing, and otherwise maintaining those appearances.
Natalie was darker and shorter than her sister, though tall for her age. Her face
favored the high cheekbones and slightly upturned almond shaped eyes that were her elder
sisters’ most intriguing features. The appearance, which added eloquence to her
half-sister, endowed Natalie with an expression of innocence.
Natalie dreaded the summers, spent with her family. She ached for any chance to
escape the bickering women that she barely knew. Offered the chance she joined Jacqueline
to spend August at the shore.
They were staying with her sister’s friends.
Jacqueline had a lover, O. Her sister’s friend in turn had a fiancé
René. Such an arrangement was not unknown among the modern set. Sir Stephan was a
foreign businessman who lived in Paris and spoke fluent French. He was René’s
superior and Sir Stephan had rented the Summerhouse for the four of them.
O had brought Jacqueline into the group. She worked as a fashion photographer. As
such, she had met Natalie’s half-sister while working a fashion shoot. Jacqueline’s
beauty, stood out even among the other models.
Sir Stephan was quick to see O’s attraction to Jacqueline, René also found
himself smitten by the model. O remained curiously free of jealousy for she had already
thrown herself into pleasing Sir Stephan at the expense of the younger René.
Sir Stephan was a bachelor by inclination though he kept a household servant who
was female. He had no romantic interest in Nora; she was a Negress of indeterminate age
whose services he had simply inherited. She kept his house clean and his women orderly.
Her very visage struck fear into O though Jacqueline was oblivious to this.
The peculiar place O played in this foursome slowly emerged. It was René who
began O’s decent into subservience. Sir Stephan was intrigued and the younger man shared O
with him.
O strove to please Sir Stephan, at first for René’s sake, but with time, she
found herself intrigued by the older man. Thus what she had feared, René’s
disinterest, eventually became O’s goal. While Sir Stephan happily attended to O, he would
not be obliged to René for such a creature.
Jacqueline had infatuate René, as was her habit with men. Both he and Sir
Stephan encouraged O to become the model’s lover hoping O would lead Jacqueline to the
Château at Roissy.
Sir Stephan was barely aware of Natalie in their midst.
The dealings and relations between the adults was something of a mystery to the
young lady. Sir Stephen’s possession of O was as deep as her sister’s love was shallow.
René’s love for her spoiled sister seemed tragic. Natalie held her tongue.
Their first meeting was awkward, Natalie felt coltish and clumsy. O was good enough
not to notice, Sir Stephan noticed but was deliberately silent.
I - A Summer Afternoon
August was half over when the three women ventured into the resort town of Toluene.
René, their only male companion, drove the party. Toward midday, they stopped at a
sidewalk café for a light meal and could not help but sit within listening distance
of a couple. The two argued about the state of their relationship. The woman was young and
beautiful, the man was older and if anything, plain. Still, the balding man sought to end
the affair.
“You used me but ignored my talent; you’ve never taken me seriously.” She said to
him.
He did not deny the allegation but did nothing to encourage her.
“You haven’t the skill to become an actor. Its best you stick to what you know.”
The young beauty left in tears. The man remained behind, sipping his Nescafe. When
it was obvious his companion was not returning Jacqueline invited him to their table. He
accepted with a gracious nod to René.
“Such a woman has aspirations, good that may be. However, her grasp should not
exceed her skills, especially when it comes to acting.”
The man‘s language of choice was the atrocious French of a Swiss German. Caution
filled Jacqueline, as a cinema part was the very thing she desired. His words told her
that this man was a means toward her end, but only if she were clever and made the idea
his own.
“I’ve spent years as a cinema director and recently have produced films of my own.
I cannot afford to make an actress of every woman I bed.”
She answered him with an indifferent nod, which of course only fired his desire.
Eventually they parted ways and René was relieved that little of obvious value had
passed between them.
They returned to the summerhouse with their shopping bags; O and Jacqueline spent
the languid afternoon in each other’s arms.
Over the next two weeks, the Swiss director managed to meet with Jacqueline a
number of times. His desire became obvious, to her. He knew she would be perfect for his
next cinema project. The belief that this idea originated with the man gave him the
semblance of control he needed. She maintained an indifference to his career choice. It
drove him mad.
A time came in the cinema producer’s seduction; Jacqueline at last showed some
interest in his desire. He might be a man of self-aggrandized worth, but he was one whose
ego required that ideas of seduction originated with him. She knew many men of such
temperament and was well versed in their games.
Kneeling before the man, she offered homage with her lips and asked nothing in
return. His long groan marked the release of his seed. The strong taste of semen on her
tongue showed that her skills were not lacking. She licked her lips in satisfaction. The
Swiss gentleman’s actions might be predictable, but he at last learned just how very
persuasive her silent lips could be.
Natalie knew her sister and with increasing difficulty, remained silent about
Jacqueline’s betrayal. While O and Jacqueline remained together as lovers, Natalie’s heart
burned with jealousy as her sister accepted those caresses. She yearned for the day O
might forsake her sister and embrace her.
A party celebrating the end of the season fast approached and her sisters scheming
took a minor role. She needed to help O prepare.
A man known as “The Commodore” came by to inspect Sir Stephan’s property. He was a
portly gentleman with a baldhead and a stern countenance but he had won the respect of Sir
Stephan in an undisclosed manner. Summoned, O stripped at her master’s command. The
Commodore walked about her as she stood passively and he grinned at her nakedness.
“She is quite lovely.” He said at last, and then grasping the sparse hair that
covered her nether lips added, “of course this must go. How are you planning to dress
her?”
”She’s to be a bird of prey, a mask, a chain, little else.”
The man grunted his approval. It was in fact what René and Sir Stephan had
discussed, and while they had never mentioned shaving her bare, that too was well within
their purview.
“I will see you a week from Thursday then. She’ll be there, but be sure to bring
her as well.” The man said. His steel grey eyes swung to the slated window, to the exact
spot were Natalie crouched, spying on them from her hiding place.
“Bring them both.” He added, as he turned to leave.
Sir Stephan escorted his guest from the house and returned to find Natalie at O’s
feet. Her hiding place revealed she had come into the room and now rested on her knees
before O who still stood, unadorned waiting her master’s instructions. His reaction was
not one of cold displeasure, but rather the expression of a master, one accepting his
due.
“You play a dangerous game.” He said to Natalie, “None the less, I’ll allow it.
You’ll accompany her to Cannes tomorrow; she needs her hair shorn so that she is made
ready.”
The next morning a driver brought René Natalie and O into Cannes to a hair
salon. Once they had explained the procedure they sought, the women of the salon were
quite agreeable. Still the ladies insisted on banishing René to the waiting area at
the front of the store. Natalie accompanied O to the enclosed room and helped her strip.
Once O was seated and naked below the waist the shop’s proprietor entered to view her
client.
The madam became quite agitated when she found fading blue bruises from a whip
covering O’s thighs and bottom. While O reassured her as best she could the woman looked
on her with shock and disgust. Natalie soon joined René in the waiting area at the
storefront.
Their mutual banishment was an opportunity to speak to René. A sober
conversation concerning her sister’s imminent betrayal seemed required. The idea of the
pain it might cause them both made her hesitant.
René felt some responsibility for the whip marks though Sir Stephan was a
more direct reason for them. René had never beaten O per say, only held her that
others could use her thus. The women in the salon did not know this; they spoke of him in
whispered tones, and eyed him with distrust. Natalie felt pride in those fading strips
and their effect; to O they were something one must endure.
In her disgust, the owner of the salon left O, but sent in another woman. Soft wax
was applied to remove the offending hair and O within an hour was as bare as a child.
Shortly, O reappeared fully clothed but newly hairless beneath her skirt.
The proprietress did not allow Natalie or René to see this new, more
profound nakedness. They waited until they had entered the car and were returning to the
house.
“Strip!” René demanded.
O removed her skirt and sat once more in the sedan’s rear seat.
“The blouse too.” René added, though his voice was softer now.
The car skidded a moment as the drivers eyes lingered in the mirror a moment too
long. René’s frown returned him to his duties; O had never looked so open as she
sat between the two of them naked and her hairless lips exposed. René, who enjoyed
the view, kept her naked until they reached the house.
Thoughts of her half-sister disappeared from Natalie’s mind.
While the three were attending to the unwanted hair, the driver had picked up a
number of masks from a local store. When they returned home, they arranged these on a
table before O. O chose from the masks of various birds of prey. The mask of an owl caught
her fancy from among them. Sir Stephan approved of her selection. She was to be one with
her role, an owl returning to the Château at Roissy carrying her fresh catch,
Jacqueline.
René related the Salon’s owner reaction to the whip marks on O’s skin. Sir
Stephan seemed to find this disturbing.
“You will not feel the whip until after the party.” He insisted.
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