'Not yet,' mutters Neil and I aim a killer glare at him. He winks back at me, then the group bow their heads over the suitcase, picking things up and inspecting them, sometimes looking over at me as if speculating on the effect they might have on me.
I see long columns of smooth metal, precious mineral rings, acres of discreetly hued silicone, pots and bottles and horsehair and silk.
'Has everybody chosen?' asks Lura. 'Who would like to begin?'
The female model steps forward, holding up a glass vial. 'I'd like to try some of this on her,' she says. 'I've heard good things about it.'
'Be my guest.' Lura nods and the model smiles widely at me, opens her vial and dabs the stopper on my temples, then she peels off the sparkling pastes and treats my nipples. There is a moment of sting and a dizzying aphrodisiac aroma once my skin absorbs the contents. I take a deep breath, noticing how my nipples are an even darker red now, throbbing lightly and begging to be touched.
'How does that feel, Sophie?' asks the model.
'It's . . . heightening my senses . . . and it smells gorgeous,' I say, gasping as she grabs hold of a calf, hoiks it over the velvet arm of the chair and then glides the stopper along my labia majora, once, twice, three times, until the potency and intensity of it have caused my clit to expand and emerge from its hood. I see all eyes upon it, eyebrows raised, chins stroked. I think some sales may have been made, but I am too unfocused and needful of more touch to think of much else. I wriggle my bare bottom against the plushy pile and bring my hands up to my nipples, which seem to explode into spangles, oh, God, it's almost enough to make me come already. How long have I been here? Five minutes? I signed up f
or an hour.
'Sophie,' says Lura sternly. 'Hands off your nipples. I'm not paying you to touch yourself.' I moan and grip the arms of the chair, gazing longingly at some of the dildoes and vibrators the men have chosen. One of those is just what I need now. But Lura is busy hyping up her new concoction. 'Imagine the possibilities. A few dabs on your lover's skin and he or she is helplessly aroused, beyond reason. You can use it during normal sex, as a stimulant, or those with wickeder imaginations can devise schemes for pleasurable torment. Leave them tied up and burning for you. Make them wear it in a public place, underneath their clothes. And I'm led to understand that it can add a whole new dimension to a spanking. I will leave your admirably filthy minds to come up with your own scenarios.'
'It certainly seems to be working a treat,' comments Neil, frowning. 'I could be persuaded to carry this.' To my horror, he involves Lura in a long and involved conversation about costings, mark-ups and the like, while my inflamed pussy rages and melts on the velvet.
'Neil!' I eventually have to plead. 'Please!'
He laughs. 'OK, we'll talk about it later. Is it my turn yet? I think Sophie might need something a little stronger.'
I lift my bottom off the seat, offering him my spread as he approaches.
'She is hot,' remarks one of the strange men. 'She wants it so badly.'
'Have you ever seen one as wet as that? I am buying a bottle of that stuff before I leave here tonight.'
Neil leans over and takes a good look at what I have to give him.
'You want that stuffed, don't you, Sophie?' he asks lightly. I screw my eyes tight and nod vigorously. 'Bad luck, love,' he sympathises. 'I've got something else in mind. Turn around and bend over now.' He brandishes an implement that I can't quite identify for a few seconds, before I realise what it must be. As I wriggle around and kneel on the velvet seat, elbows down and bottom in the perfect presentation position I was taught by Dr Lassiter, I hear Lura's voice, once again giving the hard sell.
'This is a dual-purpose toy, lady and gentlemen, which can give pleasure in different ways. Is it a flogger that doubles as a butt plug, or vice versa? You can use it for one thing, or the other, or both. If Neil here would be so kind as to give us an idea . . .'
The horsehair falls stingily on my bare behind, but the sting is faint and sweet, erotic rather than punishing. It both relieves and accentuates the longing in my sex – at first it seems to dissipate some of the unbearable greed of my clit, but then the warmth spreads and returns there, to redouble the delicious torment. Neil flogs me evenly across both buttocks and the part of my thighs above my stocking tops, drawing it back and swishing it down until I am groaning with lewd want, pushing my bum back for each stroke, widening my legs until the lash falls on my lips and clit, hoping that pain might lessen my ungovernable desire. It does not.
'She's loving this. Watch her push out her arse for more.'
'I'd give her more. She's bright red and she still wants him to carry on.'
'Look at her pussy lips, all puffed up and shiny.'
'Look at her clit. Ouch, that has to hurt.'
Neil finally finishes when I am hot and tingling from tailbone to lace-top and all points in between. I am still tortured by the empty state of my soaked entrance, but Neil has no intention of assuaging my need.
Instead, I feel his finger, cold with lubricant, prodding rudely between my reddened cheeks, preparing my ring to receive the instrument of recent chastisement. 'You're going to wear this whip in your naughty little arse now, Sophie,' he tells me. 'What a fitting punishment for such a rude girl.' He chuckles. 'I love this. Might have to get a few of these in too. Let's finish here first, though.'
The cold rounded end of the whip handle, slippery with lubricant, is swivelled between my bottom cheeks, right, left, right, left, inexorably forward with each half-rotation. I feel my pucker twitch and expand, slowly stretched. Neil performs the task carefully, pushing in an inch, then pulling it out again, pushing back in a little further, then pulling out again. I gasp and my ring spasms in confusion.
'Come closer,' Neil invites the audience. 'Watch it going in. It's going in all the way.'
There is an eye-watering split second while the widest point of the plug stretches my ring almost beyond endurance. Neil holds it there, resisting my efforts to either suck it in or expel it, making sure the crowd gets a good eyeful.
'That's really stretching her,' gasps the model in wonder. 'She must be used to this.'
'She is,' chuckles Lura.