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"When
René had rung, it was to have the coffer
brought in which contained, or one of whose compartments contained, an
assortment of small chains and belts, and whose other held a variety of
these
shafts, ranging from the very thin to the very thick. They all had one
feature
in common, namely that they flared at the base, to make it impossible
for them
to slide up inside the body, an accident which might have produced the
opposite
effect from that desired, that is it might have allowed the ring of
flesh to tighten
up again, whereas the purpose of the shaft was to distend it. Thus
quartered,
and quartered each day a little more, for James, who made her kneel
down, or
rather lie prone, to watch while Jeanne or Monique, or whichever girl
happened
to be there, fastened the shaft that he had chosen, each day chose a
thicker
one" |
|
| "With
one hand, René took her wrists in a
viselike grip, and with the other lifted her skirts so high that she
could feel
the muslin lining brush her cheek. He caressed her flanks and drew Sir
Stephen's attention to the two dimples that graced them, and the
softness of
the furrow between her thighs. Then with that same hand he pressed her
waist,
to accentuate further her buttocks, and ordered her to pen her knees
wider. She
obeyed without saying a word." |
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"The honors René was
bestowing upon her body, and Sir Stephen's replies, and the coarseness
of the terms the men were using so overwhelmed her with a shame as
violent as it was unexpected that the desire she had felt to be had by
Sir Stephen vanished and she began to wish for the whip as a
deliverance, for the pain and screams as a justification. But Sir
Stephen's hands pried open her again, caressed her until she moaned.
She was vanquished, undone, and humiliated that she had moaned."
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"I leave
you to Sir Stephen," René
then said. "Remain the way you are, he'll dismiss you when he sees
fit."
"How often had she remained like this at Roissy, on her knees, offered
to one and all? But then she had always had her hands bound together by
the bracelets, a happy prisoner upon whom everything was imposed and
from whom nothing was asked. Her it was through her own free will that
she remained half naked, whereas a single gesture, the same that would
have sufficed to bring her back to her feet, would also have sufficed
to cover her."
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"Her
promise bound her as much as had the leather bracelets and chains. Was
it only the promise? And however humiliated she was, or rather because
she had been humiliated, was it not somehow pleasant to be esteemed
only for her humiliation, for the meekness with which she surrendered,
for the obedient way in which she opened."
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|
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"Only a
short while before, when she had been kneeling half-naked before
René, and Sir Stephen had opened her thighs with both his hands,
René had explained to Sir Stephen why O's buttocks were so
easily accessible, and why he was pleased that they had been thus
prepared: it was because it had occurred to him that Sir Stephen would
enjoy having his preferred path constantly at his disposal. He had even
added that, if Sir Stephen wished, he would grant him the sole use of
it."
|
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| "With
that, she felt a strange inexplicable storm
of revolt rising within her, silently denying in the depths of her
being the
words she was hearing, denying her promises of submission and slavery,
denying
her own agreement, her own desire, her nakedness, her sweat, her
trembling
limbs, the circles under her eyes. She struggled and clenched her teeth
with
rage when, having made her bend over, with her elbows on the floor and
her head
between her arms, her buttocks raised, he forced her from behind, to
rend her
as René had said he would." |
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"The first time she did not cry
out. He went at it again, harder now, and she screamed. She screamed as
much out of revolt as of pain, and he was fully aware of it. She also
knew - which meant that in any event she was vanquished - that he was
pleased to make her cry out. When he had finished with her, and after
he had helped her to her feet, he was on the point of dismissing her
when he remarked to her that what he had spilled in her was going to
seep slowly out, tinted with the blood of the wound he had inflicted on
her, that this wound would burn her as long as her buttocks were not
used to him and he was obliged to keep forcing his way."
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"She also noticed that when
René remained for one of those evenings at Sir Stephen's he
would never touch O except to make her more readily available or an
easier offering to Sir Stephen, if she happened to be struggling. It
was extremely rare for him to stay, and he never did unless at Sir
Stephen's express request."
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"Thus retained by his side for
whole mornings, during which he sometimes scarcely touched her, waiting
only to be caressed by her, she did whatever he wanted of her with a
sentiment that must be qualified as gratitude, which was all the
greater whenever his request took the form of a command. Each surrender
was for her the pledge that another surrender would be demanded of her,
and she acquitted herself of each as though of a duty performed; it was
odd that she would have been completely satisfied by it, and yet she
was".
"Sir Stephen generally preferred to keep her near at hand, at arm's
length, and while he was busy with other things, to none the less have
her seated on his desk, to his left. The desk was set at right angles
to the wall, which allowed O to lean back against the shelves which
contained some dictionaries and leather-bound phone books."
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It so happened that on one
occasion when Norah came into the room O was bent over the desk with
her rear exposed, her head and arms against the leather top, waiting
for Sir Stephen to impale her. She raised her head. ... He gathered
what it was all about, and with one hand pinned her waist to the table,
while prying her open with the other. She who was constantly striving
to cooperate and do her best was now, quite involuntarily, tense and
contracted, and Sir Stephen was obliged to force his way. Even when he
had done so, she felt that the ring of her buttocks was tightening
around him, and he had trouble forcing himself all the way into her. He
withdrew only when he was certain he could come and go with ease. Then
as he was on the point of taking her again, he told Norah to wait, and
said that she could help O get dressed when he had finished with her
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The marks made by the branding
iron, about three inches in height and half that in width, had been
burned into the flesh as though by a gouging tool, and were almost half
an inch deep: the lightest stroke of the finger revealed them. From
these irons and these marks, O derived a feeling of inordinate pride.
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Listening to him, O was once
again astonished at the coarseness of his language. But then, how did
she expect to be referred to, if not as a whore, a girl who, in the
presence of men (not to mention the restaurant waiters who kept
trooping in and out, since luncheon was being served) would open her
bodice to bare her breasts, the tips of which had been reddened with
lipstick, as they could see, as they could also see from the purple
furrows across her milk-white skin that she had been flogged?
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The meal went on for a long
time, and the two Englishmen drank a great deal. Over coffee, when the
liqueurs had been served, Sir Stephen pushed the table back against the
opposite wal and, after having lifted her skirt to show his friends how
O was branded and in irons, left her to them.
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"Fruits of Passion"
(1981)
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