Daphne

(11) Friends with benefits

Daphne modeled for Leo at least once a month, often twice, and she was one of a very few students at her school to be completely free of student loan debt by the time she finished her Sophomore year. She always took the financial hit and wore the hood – but not to protect her identity, although that was a genuine concern since she recognized at least one face from school at nearly every exhibition. She wanted to be immersed in her fantasies and she'd learned in her first exhibitions that when you have no identity Leo's clients were less inhibited about playing rough with a faceless body than they were with an actual person with a face looking back at them – a face that possibly reminded them of someone they knew and cared for. When presented with a faceless female body – a warm slab of meat with a hole – the clients were far, far less inhibited, and this suited Daphne's growing appetite for more just fine.

Saturdays were the worst. That was when the stocks and paddles were demonstrated. Then crops and canes came out, and, as the evening wore on, the demonstrations became increasingly more uncomfortable for the model. Very strict rope and metal restraints. TENS units. Wooden ponies. Saturday evenings often ended with two men expertly whipping the model; when Cecil and Harvey were done, the evening's demonstrations were over...

Sundays were a lot like Fridays; they were an opportunity for Saturday's welts and bruises – and the soreness – to subside a bit, punctuated with a few of Saturday's lighter toys...

So, for Daphne, a weekend at Leo's was a bit like eating your dessert before being forced to down an unpleasant dinner. Nonetheless, she went to Leo's twice a month, accepted the fun, and gritted her teeth through the bad. She vowed not to let them make her give up. She learned that she was strong. She also met some of Leo's other girls. They were strong too, but their strength wilted whenever Cecil and Harvey were mentioned. There was no experience on Earth more scintillatingly painful than an encounter with that pair. They said it wasn't worth it. They talked of quitting. They talked of a lot of things. And they all went back to Leo's.

Despite her semi-monthly extra-curricular activity, Daphne managed to enjoy a relatively normal social life while she was in school. She dated actively and experienced everything that college life had to offer. She knew that her life was too complicated to have regular 'boyfriends,' so, for companionship she settled for a series of male 'friends' who usually became 'friends with benefits.' Everyone she hung-out with liked her immensely, even as they sensed that she kept them at arm's length, as if she was keeping a secret, a terrible skeleton in her closet. It didn't help that she wouldn't explain where she went when she disappeared for days at a time once or twice a month...

And then Sean materialized into her life.

He was an English Major, a poet, with a romantic flair for the language. He was the first boy that seemed to want her to the exclusion of all others.

Daphne fell in love.

After their second date she invited Sean to her apartment. They sat on the sofa and kissed. Sean began to lean into her and she retreated. Daphne was flat on her back before she knew it, her blouse was pulled from her slacks, and the buttons were all free. Above her waist all that was not protected by her brassier was exposed. Had its closure not been beyond his reach, it, too, might have been as open as her blouse. Secure or not, she felt him expertly squeeze and roll her nipples between his fingers through the lace.

Daphne awoke from her blissful stupor and realized, happily, what was happening. She pushed Sean gently up and away, breaking the kiss. He opened his eyes and saw Daphne looking back.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"What for?"

"Am I going too fast for you?"