Chapter Nine: Part One
Taking the more orthodox route of the ring road, Kate walked to Rick’s cabin. She had to double back after missing its discreet and somewhat overgrown entrance on her first pass, and marvelled again at how subtly the buildings of this island melded into the natural landscape. Unless you knew what you were looking for, it would be easy to walk past all of the cabins and never even suspect they were there.
Being distracted by thoughts of ropes and pleasure, and seeing overhanging branches everywhere, Kate walked squarely into the single wooden step of Rick’s cabin. The sound of the impact, together with her muttered expletives, brought Rick out just in time to see her exposing a small bleeding wound on her already swelling shin. Wordlessly, he assessed her and made a teasing, tutting sound before he picked her up. Cradling her in his arms, he carried her inside and set her down neatly on a kitchen stool. He disappeared for a moment and returned with a small dark bottle and a first aid kit.
After washing his hands, Rick cleaned the blood from her shin with a wet gauze pad, slapping her hands out of the way as she tried to help. He tweezed a substantial splinter out and looked carefully with a magnifying glass before he was satisfied that her wound was clean. He opened the dark glass bottle and tipped a little reddish-brown liquid into his palm before foaming it into a white froth with his fingers. He carefully dabbed it around and over her wound. Expecting it to hurt, Kate took a breath, only to discover that she could only feel her injury in a distant kind of way.
‘What is that stuff?’
‘The sap of a special tree mixed with the juice of a canopy vine. In combination, they stabilise each other so we get a couple of years out of it, provided it’s kept out of the light. It’s highly antiseptic as it oxidises, promotes healing, and forms a natural and completely waterproof barrier over the wound to stop dirt getting in.’ He inspected her injury, wiping on a little more of the mixture and blowing gently across it until it dried. ‘There,’ he said with a wink, ‘I think you will live.’
Kate leaned down to feel something like a plastic skin covering her injury. ‘Wow. That stuff is amazing. I saw something similar on a documentary about the Amazon.’
Rick regarded Kate with a happy look. ‘The Sangre de Grado tree. The vine is from the upper canopy and its juice is the anaesthetic and insect-repelling agent. Each stabilises and potentiates the other,’ he said with a smile.
Kate thought again about how much she liked his smile.
‘And now we are done with the first aid; good morning, my lady,’ he said with a little bow and a flourish.
Kate laughed, saying in true pantomime fashion with fluttering eyes, ‘My hero!’
‘Coffee?’ Rick offered, still chuckling. He looked at her face and amended his offer. ‘How about a nice soothing herbal tea instead? It looks like you have had a distracting morning.’
‘Why do you say that?’ Kate asked, feeling her face reddening by the moment.
‘Well… you did miss seeing a two metre wide step with a bright yellow safety marker on its leading edge, not to mention the attached, kind-of-large structure we are currently occupying, right behind the afore mentioned step,’ Rick teased, his tone heavy with irony. Kate poked her tongue out at him and they laughed.
He rubbed his hands vigorously with soap and water to wash the last of the sticky sap off after switching the kettle on. Kate took stock of him as he prepared their teas, and then she saw it. His every action is deliberate and measured, she realised. He deliberately poured the water, added a specific amount of honey, and finally a precise squirt of lime.
He placed the steaming cup on the bench in front of Kate and asked, ‘Are you hungry? We have a cold antipasto selection.’
‘Maybe in a moment?’
Rick nodded with a smile in response. He picked up both cups and led her from the rear of the cabin to a beautiful garden grotto with two comfortable chaise lounges, already set up with fresh towels.
After taking a few sips of their teas, Rick looked directly at her and asked, ‘What’s going on, Kate? You’ve been very distracted and you haven’t stopped blushing. I don’t think it is my company, so may I offer you my ear with privacy assured, but no pressure of any kind?’
A very long silence fell. How the hell do I even start? Kate wondered as she repeatedly faltered, trying to find a way to begin. Rick remained silent, waiting. Eventually he said to her, ‘You know Kate, Mary Poppins said to start at the very beginning. She said that it’s always a good place to start.’
Kate’s look became deeply mischievous. ‘Well, around thirteen-point-eight-one billion years ago, there was an almost infinitely large amount of energy compressed into an almost infinitely small space until a really Big Bang…’
Laughing, Rick suggested that maybe her story could begin a little more recently than the birth of the universe. It was their shared laughter that did it. Kate let it all out, telling him nearly everything, doing her best to narrate her morning as matter-of-factly as possible. The only thing she didn’t share were her own physical reactions.
‘Well, now you’ve met Natalie! I didn’t think she was due in until this evening.’ Rick said when she finished, smiling. Seeing the look on her face, he took her hands and looked directly into her eyes. ‘If I were in your exact situation, I would have done exactly what you did. From what you’ve said, I can’t see how she could have seen you. You were even wearing the right kind of camouflage pattern for where you were hiding.’
Seeing hope on her face, he added, ‘Kate, Natalie is happily uninhibited to the point of exhibitionism. Even if she did catch on to your presence, I can assure you that it would not upset her in any way. She is probably the smartest person you’re likely to meet. She’s even smarter than Dom and mum! If she was aware of you, I know she would have accurately computed both your circumstances and your actions.’
Kate looked hopefully at Rick. ‘I really hope so. No, I really hope she didn’t know I was there, but it felt like she was looking right at me.’
‘Seriously, Kate, don’t worry about it. Should you declare everything to them in abject confession, you will find no embarrassment or judgement from Dom or Natalie. If anything, they would probably be far more interested in your responses and reactions…’
Kate felt her cheeks prickle instantly.
‘… although I see they would not have to dig too deeply,’ Rick said. ‘Kate, may I be very up-front?’
‘Oh God, yes please. Anything to change the subject.’
‘Dominique is not the only man on this island who loves sexual domination play.’ Pausing to let his statement sink in, he continued. ‘Kate, as a yes or no question, did you find Natalie’s role one that excited you?’
There it was. Kate’s mind raced in circles as she reviewed his question. ‘Yes, I wanted to feel what she was feeling. But …’
After a long pause, Rick asked, ‘Kate, what you saw was D-s, Domination-Submission play. Do you know anything about it?’
‘Right here and now, I don’t think I know anything about anything. Is it the same as BDSM?’
‘Only broadly, and by inaccurate common definition. Domination-Submission play, D-s, is similar in some ways, but materially very different in others. BDSM is Bondage, Domination, Sadism and Masochism.’
‘I guess I only know what I have heard indirectly and read in magazines and books. You know, things like pain, obedience, not looking in the eyes, that kind of thing.’
‘Did anything that you’ve heard or read, in any meaningful way, describe what you actually saw, Kate?’
‘No… not at all.’
‘And what was it you actually saw expressed in that scenario? Don’t overthink this Kate. It’s a simple question,’ Rick asked.
Kate recognised that he was helping her order her own thoughts and let herself relax into his questions. Letting go of her internal censor, she responded. ‘Pleasure, care, release… I know what Dom was doing should have hurt, but it looked more like pleasure than pain. He was so attentive, watching her all the time. She was his total focus. He didn’t look like he was trying to hurt her, just the opposite, he was careful and timing everything. She definitely loved it and was into everything that was happening.’
‘Kate, you have it nailed. Pain is not a goal or an end in itself. It is not even a necessary part of it. D-s is all about the intensity of the experience. Would it help if I dissect it a little?’
Kate nodded, unable to trust herself to say anything at this point. Just talking about it with Rick, she was almost painfully aware of her own body’s needful responses.
‘The ropes are not a constant thing. They’re just a mechanism to physically take away the option of retreat, forcing the submissive, or sub, that’s Natalie in this case, to have to face whatever Dom deals out. His total aim is to help her find a state of mind called sub-space. It’s like a fully aware version of a deep mental trance. She breathes the sensation in and uses it to push everything else out.’
‘I saw it on her face. It looked like total bliss.’
Rick nodded. ‘Totally. When the physical sensations are coming in so intensely, and retreat is not an option, the sub has to change how their body receives and processes the sensations; changing them into something they can learn to shape and use. Are you ticklish?’
Kate tensed as she said, ‘Very.’
‘Relax, Kate.’ Rick laughed. ‘I asked for information purposes and would not presume without your permission. Imagine yourself tied in a way that you were comfortable but immobile. Now, in that state, you are going to be tickled mercilessly until you have learned to change the way you receive the sensation. When you learn how to exist above it and outside of it, you have found your own key into sub-space.
‘Kate, close your eyes and place yourself in that scenario, as deeply as you can. You can’t get away and you can’t make it stop. It is inevitable and won’t stop until you learn to rise above it, to change the sensation. Then you can form it and use it. Some describe it like riding some wild roller coaster or big-wave surfing.’ Rick paused for a moment before his eyes lit up. ‘For the purposes of example, may I speak in the first person and talk you through a scenario?’