Best Kind of Pain Ch. 07-10

I had intended the previous chapter to be the last installment in Vivian & Elly’s story, but you wore me down… and I had a few extra chapters just lying around. If you didn’t read Chapters 1 thru 6 first you won’t be terribly lost, but let’s just say you won’t have the full scope of characters’ background. And you’re gonna miss out on some bedroom scenes, just sayin…

Thank you to everyone who commented or contacted me, I truly didn’t know what effect this little story would have. I’d also like preface with disclaimer that if you are looking for BDSM with hard limits, this isn’t it. But BDSM isn’t simply about ball-gags and beatings. It’s about power and control in the rawest form human beings have available- sex. Thanks again for reading.

Chapter 7

Elly looked at her reflection, trying to decide if the small hoop earrings she’d put on exceeded the tasteful number of accessories. She was wearing a long dangling silver necklace and a chunky watch, her nicest pair of dark denim jeans- snug enough to be flattering without the camel toe, with a silky gray t-shirt, and a well-tailored dark blue blazer. It had been a gift from Vivian after Elly spied it on one of the models from a shoot. The interior was lined in a print of tiny little skulls on a creamy satin material. Elly loved its perfect mixture of chic and cheeky. Vivian was always so well put together that Elly had no hope of matching her level of fashion mastery, but she wanted to look at least a little more fashionable than her usual version of outer borough girl’s night out. And she was no longer in the borough, and she was no longer the little wife of some meathead.

Vivian told her the party would be a smaller, more casual affair than her black tie extravaganza from months prior, the same party that had landed Elly in Vivian’s bed afterward and heralded the beginning of their own affair. Now Elly would face some of the same partygoers: work clients of Vivian’s, industry pros, and some old friends were on the guest list. Elly wondered if there were any exes in that list.

Vivian had repeatedly offered to cancel the party and spare Elly the added stress of socializing so soon after leaving Tony, but Elly insisted she didn’t want to further disrupt her life.

With that complex assortment of guests, Elly had debated on how she wanted to appear, and how to be accepted in her new role. A role that had changed practically overnight. A role that carried with it the enormous and life-altering nomenclature that would change how friends and family saw her, but a role she truly wanted in order to be with Vivian. And then there was the other matter of her broke-ass existence. And no matter how polished or hip she appeared, people would eventually figure out the disparity in her lifestyle as opposed to Vivian’s.

She shook out her hair that she’d blow dried and added products to, gaining a smidge of volume in her straight and baby-fine blond locks, and tested out a placid smile in the mirror. Her reflection saw right through it, her cheeks quickly falling back into her usual semi-frown. No going back now, she thought.

Walking out of the bedroom and down the hallway, she could already hear the low hum of voices coming from the living room. The clicking footsteps from her kitten heel boots were heard by Vivian, who spun around from the long table of food she was currently organizing while talking to a couple of men. She smiled at Elly encouragingly, wearing a trim leather skirt in black and a long sleeved blouse in a billowing sky blue, paired with her usual sky-high black stilettos. Another perfectly sexy ensemble that hinted at the ravenous woman beneath the well-tailored professional.

Elly slowly walked up to the table, sidling up to Vivian and silently waiting for her to either introduce Elly or introduce them.

“When did you get the corner slot on the last good penthouse?” one of the men teased, his tanned face pulling up in unnaturally tight patches when he smiled.

“Oh let us say when Ford was still sending out girls for cigarette ads,” she bantered back while smoothing out a stack of starched fabric napkins.

“Well it was a damn good investment, Carl here just wishes you’d leave it to us in case you ever get hit by a cab crossing 5th Avenue,” the man joked with a wave of a hand wearing an enormous gold ring large enough to rival an NFL alum’s super bowl ring.

“If my untimely death comes at the hands of someone behind the wheel, there shall be someone else in line ahead of you,” she paused, turning to gesture to Elly, “Carl and Robert may I introduce you to Elly.”

The men seemed to see Elly for the first time, turning their heads to assess the newcomer to their conversation. The tanned man, Robert, smiled broadly at Elly, while Carl stared back at her through tinted sunglasses that allowed him to only vaguely make eye contact with her.

“Elly, so very nice to meet you,” Robert said, extending his hand for a shake, “I’ll shake for me and Carl, but don’t mind him. That austere casino siteleri is part of his charm and god forbid he lose that last bit of his mystique.”

She chuckled while shaking hands with him. “It’s ok, I don’t know how to have mystique. That’s more Vivian’s department.”

“She is exotic so mysterious comes naturally. I’m old and white so my charm is not being a racist misogynist,” he stated with a wave towards himself, garnering a laugh from both Vivian and Elly.

“Robert’s charm is being one of my dearest friends and mentors,” Vivian explained.

“Dearest is code for old, but god bless her anyway,” Robert quipped.

Vivian kept laughing, shaking her head at him. “I am not far behind you in that department. But before we compare ourselves further, I must get more wine.”

“Leave some for the rest of us,” Robert called after her as she started to back away, subtly bringing her hand up to usher Elly with her.

Vivian walked them over to the far end of the buffet table where a grouping of wine bottles waited along with plenty of clean wine glasses.

“He’s hilarious,” Elly chuckled quietly.

“He is very sweet, one of the finest photographers I worked under until he could no longer hold a camera,” Vivian explained as she deftly popped the cork on a gleaming bottle of white wine. “Would you like a glass?”

Elly hesitated, not sure alcohol would help lessen or increase her social anxiety. “Maybe later.”

“If you would like something else-“, she started, setting the bottle back down.

“I’ll probably just stick with sparkling water,” Elly cut in, “but thanks.”

Vivian stopped puttering with the bottles and met Elly’s eyes. “You look very pretty tonight, and very comfortable in this,” she complimented with a meaningful smile.

“It’s definitely a comfortable outfit, whether or not I look like I am,” she cracked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“I am very glad you are here tonight, with me,” Vivian stated, her brown eyes gazing into Elly’s.

Elly could feel her throat get tight, and quickly tried to exhale it away. “Me too,” she answered quietly.

Vivian leaned in to give her a quick peck on the lips, then pulled away with a smile. “I must go check on the rest of the food, but please enjoy yourself. I’ll join you shortly, I promise.”

The kiss helped, and Elly smiled back. “Ok.”

She walked away, bolstered from the jolt of passionate energy that Vivian could transmit in one innocuous kiss, and assessed the clumping of guests in the room. Robert and Carl were now on the far side of the room, closer to the wall of windows, with another pair of men that they were now talking to. A short distance away a few more people were chatting, one of them being an older woman wearing an obscene amount of jewelry who was loudly bragging about it. Pass on that, Elly thought. Going back towards the middle of the room, a small group of women were gathered, most of them close to Vivian’s age and dressed just as impeccably. Not ready for them, she sighed.

Then closer to the front door, just walking up to the couch were a couple who looked to be in their twenties. Two very tall Amazonian people who were probably models, but at least someone Elly could talk to and not have to explain what Tik Tok was. Elly sucked in her breath, and headed in their direction.

The two people were chatting quietly, looking down at their phones as Elly approached. They were talking in hushed tones that Elly recognized as the furtive voice of do we like this party and how long do we have to stay here.

“Hi,” Elly greeted them, trying to make her trembling body smile in a way that wasn’t creepy.

“Oh hey,” one of them replied, a woman sweeping the bangs of her short bleached blond bob out of her eyes. She was at least a foot taller than Elly, wearing a thin white t-shirt that was emblazoned with the ironic print of a cartoon cat.

“I was tired of explaining the internet to some of the other guests, and thought maybe you two had heard of it,” Elly ventured.

The blond chuckled with a friendly nod. “Oh yeah, I get that.”

Her androgynous companion was a few inches shorter, with a more skeptical look that matched their short pixie cut that was shaved up on the sides, leaving a dangling wave of black hair that hung petulantly over their eyes. They wore a denim jacket lined in sheep shearling, a throwback to a country look at a much higher price-tag by the looks of the material.

“I’m Elly,” she said, extending her hand in greeting.

“Jemma,” the blond replied, “this is Moira.”

Moira simply gave her a curt nod of her head, flicking her bangs up only to have them fall back down again. “Gonna get a drink,” she grunted before walking off.

Elly tried to keep smiling despite Moira’s near sprint to get away from her.

“I think I met you before,” Jemma said, nodding as she thought about it. “It was after a shoot, and you were waiting for Vivian.”

“Oh…probably,” Elly replied, hoping it was not the day canlı casino of her short-skirted tantrum.

“Which agency are you with? I haven’t done as much print and I still forget who I’ve met,” she stated with a self-deprecating laugh.

Elly realized she thought she was another model, and felt her ego get a brief high. “I’m not with any agency, but thank you for thinking that.”

“We’re usually the only millennials in the room left. Usually. Except for Vivian who’s like some sort of Grecian goddess no matter what age she actually is.”

Elly followed Jemma’s eye line and turned around to see Vivian back over by the table of food, talking to a cloister of people.

“She is like a goddess,” Elly quipped, turning back to Jemma.

“She’s awesome, and I’m not kissing ass- she’s just genuinely super nice,” Jemma gushed.

“She is,” Elly agreed.

“And I trust her, like she’s not…” Jemma paused, lowering her voice with a furtive glance around, “gonna pull anything.”

Elly raised her eyebrows, thinking she had some idea about what she meant when Jemma continued.

“It’s the creeps trying to get you to take a few supposed sample photos without any clothes on,” she hissed.

“What a lazy way to try to hustle you,” she sympathized.

“Right?” Jemma stated loudly. “And so obvious…like really dude?”

“And it doesn’t matter if you say something, it’s just your word against theirs,” Elly mused.

“Exactly!” Jemma guffawed. “You sure you don’t model ‘cuz you seem to have the scams figured out.”

Elly chuckled. “No modeling, I just know the bullshit people try to pull.”

Jemma nodded in agreement, smiling now, looking Elly over a little more carefully.

“So how do you know Vivian?” she asked.

“Mutual friend,” Elly quickly replied, a script that she’d prepared. “The friend died of cancer a few months ago and we met at her memorial.”

“You knew Joan Baxter?” she gasped, gobsmacked.

“Uh yeah,” Elly replied, trying not to grin when Jemma looked so thoroughly impressed.

“Oh my god, she was a legend! Black model in those days- and bi, and outspoken, and demanding equal pay…just a fucking warrior,” Jemma rattled off.

“She was a warrior for sure,” Elly smiled sadly.

“Were you a student of hers? Although I know she had her salon business and didn’t do much photography anymore, but she has that book with Vivian, and I think she was starting up a Cosmo school…” she trailed off in thought.

“Book?” Elly piped in.

“The picture book. All their early stuff and the nude collective- the one Scavullo totally ripped off,” she said with disdain for the apparent copy-cat.

“I’ve never seen their book but I want to now,” Elly said.

“So how did you meet her?” Jemma asked, baffled by Elly’s lack of knowledge on Joan’s apparent legacy but Elly didn’t want to leak Joan’s confidential history.

“We were in a…health group, together, a few years back. We started meeting up for coffee to bitch about the other people in our group. She had a great sense of humor,” Elly explained to Jemma’s bulging eyes.

“Oh god I can only imagine,” she sighed, just as Moira came shuffling back up, holding a beer.

Jemma quickly turned to her to reveal her intel. “SHE knew Joan Baxter.”

Moira frowned, confused by the very uncool Elly knowing the godlike Joan. “How?”

“They were in a like… health class together,” Jemma explained, “like a few years ago? Right?”

Elly nodded. “Yup.”

Moira narrowed her eyes at Elly, debating if she had misjudged her. “Cool.”

Elly tried to smile at Moira, thinking there was a code or vibe that she was conflicting with. Maybe it was her long hair, or the make-up, but Vivian also had long hair and wore make-up. And as if on cue, Elly heard the tell-tale click of Vivian’s stilettos walking up behind her.

“Now this is a very photogenic grouping indeed,” she quipped as she came to stand beside Elly.

Moira flicked on their full attention, smiling falsely and laughing with insincere levity. Jemma smiled warmly and went in for the usual air kiss with Vivian.

“How are you my darling?” Vivian asked her politely.

“Super, really loving the green diet. It’s so good for my skin,” Jemma gushed.

“And Moira I did not think you would come out for such a late party,” Vivian teased, swinging her long dark hair over her shoulder.

“Gonna be jet-lagged either way,” she grunted with a toothy smile that her petulant pout had concealed.

“Flying to Europe is brutal no matter what,” Vivian empathized. “Have you all made introductions, or do I need to assist?” she asked of the group in general, but ended by turning her head back to Elly.

“Nope we got those out of the way,” Jemma answered for her, “AND I found out she knew Joan Baxter.”

“Indeed Elly did,” she smiled, “But not before I did.”

Elly tried to keep her face neutral, not sure how to arrange herself as Vivian had her left hand free and was on her right side. It would have kaçak casino been easy to lower her arm and take Vivian’s hand, or even lean in to put a hand on her back, but she did neither. She felt it was somewhat fair to assume most of the party attendees knew Vivian well enough to know her proclivities, and part of Elly wanted to proudly be a part of that, but old fears and anxieties stopped her.

“I’m still grateful I met her when I did, and got to be her friend,” Elly stated, getting knowing nods from Jemma.

“And I am grateful that you did, so that I could meet you,” Vivian announced with a sly smile, curling her arm around Elly’s back.

Elly could feel her face get warm as Jemma and Moira collectively dropped their jaws, watching in silence when Vivian playfully tugged Elly closer to her side. Elly wrapped an arm around Vivian and tried to look past everyone, trying to own the moment that she was being declared as her partner. A little dumb blonde from the Bronx, arms locked with a glamorous professional at least a decade her senior, in her palatial Upper East Side apartment. Formerly married, formerly straight. Now another woman’s girlfriend.

Jemma recovered the quickest, glancing back and forth between the new couple, and then finally a bow of her head.

“Vivian…you are my fucking hero.”

Chapter 8

“Time to get up darling,” came Vivian’s lush voice into Elly’s ear.

Elly rolled over onto her back so she could face Vivian, groaning in protest. “What time is it?”

“Nearly seven,” she answered with an encouraging rub down Elly’s arm.

“Today’s my day off,” Elly mumbled, still feeling the grogginess that wanted her to go back to sleep and wake up many hours later.

“If you wish to sleep in, you may. Or you can get up and go into the shower,” she stated in a casual way.

Elly made more of an effort to focus her eyes on Vivian’s face. Her slightly mussed ebony hair and skin bare of make-up didn’t detract anything from the contained smile she was giving Elly, her brown eyes twinkling.

“Are you saying, I should get up and get showered?” she asked, then before Vivian could answer Elly added, “With you?”

Vivian gave her a sly smile. “It is better for the environment to save water.”

Elly practically leapt out of bed and followed Vivian into the bathroom.

The master bathroom was almost as large as the bedroom itself. It reminded Elly of a high-end spa with natural stone tiles paired with creamy colored walls. It had a separate stall shower and a large soaking tub. The shower was tiled in a beautiful arrangement of stonework, mimicking a cliff wall of some waterfall, and large enough that two people could comfortably stand underneath the dinner plate sized shower head and wash their hair without elbowing each other in the face. Or in Elly’s case, she could be pressed up against the cool rock wall with a leg wrapped around Vivian’s hip and still share in the warmth of the spray of water.

Tony had never been good at shower sex. To him it was just another place to stand and fuck, with the added bonus of easily cleaning one’s spunk off afterwards. Typically, Elly would let him come and then wait for him to get out while she “washed her hair”, meaning she was going to get her own orgasm all by herself. That was no longer an issue with Vivian’s expertise.

Vivian opened the clear glass door of the shower and turned the water on, checking the temperature with her fingers. Satisfied with the level of warmth, she closed the glass door then walked over to the counter and picked up a few bobby pins that were kept in a faceted glass dish. She methodically twisted her long hair together, being sure to get all of the wavy strands in the coil of ebony when she knotted it on top of her head, then carefully secured it with the bobby pins. Elly envied the glorious mane of hair, and was also somewhat disappointed that now she couldn’t get her fingers into it.

But Vivian made up for it when she glanced over her shoulder at Elly with a seductive glance, running a hand down her long neck and over her shoulder, until the hand had pushed down the spaghetti strap on one side, and then the other. There was a pause to pull the material down, giving Elly just a glimpse of her breasts before she slipped off the silk nightgown that could have passed as a revealing dress in its deep plum color. Vivian left the nightgown on the floor like a puddle of silk, stepping out of it with decadent disregard. She walked back over to the shower and opened the door, releasing a cloud of steam into the bathroom. Enveloped in cloudy vapor, Vivian used the opportunity to pull down her lacey panties, kicking them towards the satin pile. Never had Elly seen any woman so beautiful and so hot at the hour of seven a.m.

However, first thing in the morning Elly was not feeling nearly as attractive, worrying about morning breath and the state of her hair. She was trying to think of what to address first when Vivian stepped into the shower and pointed at Elly with a finger, gesturing for her to come in. Elly could not disobey her, nor did she want to. Without thinking she quickly tugged off her t-shirt/nightshirt, shucked off her cotton boyshorts, and followed her master.