The Dungeon

Professional Reviews

Excerpt

Duwy Mallory smiled half-heartedly at her friend, Geninne Long, across the restaurant table. Her hand was curled lightly around a glass of ice water, her chin rested in her open palm. The tinkling of glasses and silverware mingled with soft whispers and polite laughter. Sunlight poured in from a bank of windows on the far side of the room. Music from a local radio station played over the speakers, but it was turned down so low that no one could hear anything but the whisper of the occasional song.

Dee and Geninne came here every day during their lunch break. They had been friends since kindergarten, gone to college together, and surprisingly enough, gotten a job at the same advertising company. Technically, Dee was Geninne's boss, but neither seemed to notice or care. They'd been together too long to let something like a promotion get between them.

The two were as separate as night and day. Geninne had straight, long blonde hair with bright blue eyes that had men turning their heads to continue looking. She was tall, lean, and drop dead gorgeous. Dee, with her name that no one could pronounce and a tendency to speak old English, had black hair, black eyes, and an earth goddess figure. She made up for her looks with a personality that anyone could get along with. Geninne chattered about anything and everything, while Dee sat silently to one side and listened with a smile.

They were doing so now, just as they did every lunch hour, in their favorite restaurant, over their favorite meals that were soon to arrive. And as usual, Geninne was discussing her recent love conquest.

"I tell you, Dee, he was magnificent." Geninne sighed. "He had a body on him that would make you drool like Pavlov's dogs. And he knew just how to touch a woman."

Dee shook her head. "Genny, where do you meet these guys? Every day we go to lunch, and every day you tell me about a new light-o-love you met that has the body, libido, and sexual skill of a hero from a romance novel. Unlike in the stories and your own experiences, heroes are not very common. Is there a club or a store where you pick them up? Sex Gods R Us?"

Geninne laughed the soft polite laugh of the five star restaurants. "No, but you are close." A waitress appeared with their salads and to refill their drinks. When she was gone, Geninne leaned forward, lowering her voice to a conspirator's whisper. "It's called the Dungeon."

Dee raised an eyebrow, paused in the middle of pouring dressing on her salad. "Pardon?"

"It's the place where all your fantasies come true." Geninne smiled and popped a crouton in her mouth. "Speaking of fantasies, I was thinking of the new advertisement we've been contracted to do for that Alaskan cruise..."

Dee smiled and ate her lunch, listening as her friend discussed business. She didn't think of the club Geninne had mentioned. All clubs offered to fulfill your every fantasy. It was nothing new, so she focused on advertising. Not that her love life couldn't use some work. Lucky in work; unlucky in love. Dee had played the club scene for a while, but all the guys she had meet there weren't exactly "worthwhile". None of them had a sense of humor or had any sense of romance. When Dee was with someone, she wanted to feel right. The sense of rightness with the men of her past was right for only as long as the drinks kept coming and that wasn't a very good right. At least not in the long term, and Dee had outgrown the desire for one-night stands. While she wasn't exactly looking for marriage, she did want something more than a night on a crowded dance floor and a fumbling of clothes at a hotel.

Dee and Geninne paid for their salads and strolled back to their office building. Geninne was quiet for the walk and then stopped Dee with a hand on her arm before they started up the stairs to the front doors. "I'll take you to the Dungeon tonight, if you are interested. Membership is a little pricey, but it's worth it in my opinion. You can take a look around as my guest. At the end of the evening, if you are satisfied with what you saw and think it will be your cup of tea, you can sign on."

Dee frowned a little. "Oh, I don't think so, Genny. A club tonight sounds like a headache, all the light and music and having to yell at the person close enough to be wearing your clothes." Dee shouldered her purse in a nervous gesture.

"Not that kind of club, Dee." Geninne smiled. "Music is soft, lights are soft. It won't give you a headache, I promise. Besides, what are you going to go home to? You can't say your cat, you have allergies."

"I have a turtle," Dee said defensively.

Geninne rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I met her, the grouchy thing nearly took my finger off."

Dee chuckled.

Geninne shook Dee's arm. "Come on, a club will do you some good. It can't be all work. All work and no play makes Dee a dull girl."

Dee laughed and started walking. "Aye, all right. Come and get me at my apartment around 8:30. That should give me enough time to change into something comfortable."

Geninne cheered and followed Dee into the building. "Wear that slinky blue velvet thing you got a couple of months ago. It would look fabulous on you tonight."

Dee, dressed in designer jeans, a poet's shirt that showed off a large amount of her cleavage and a corset, looked up at the very non-club-like building. "It looks like medical office," she said a little confused.

Geninne laughed, wrapping an arm around Dee's shoulders. "That's 'cause it was at one time. The owner bought it after the doctor was sued for malpractice." Geninne shook Dee's shoulders, smiling at her friend. "Loosen up a little, Dee. This will be fun, trust me. Relax."

Dee straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath, bracing herself for what was ahead. Geninne opened the door and they stepped into the waiting room of a doctor's office. There were sounds from the back and Dee started towards the laughing and faint music, but Geninne took hold of her arm and pointed to a secretary sitting behind the lobby desk.

"Hello, Geninne. Welcome back." The secretary leaned forward, smiling politely.

"Hello, Marcus. I've brought a guest with me tonight."

The secretary nodded, pulling a piece of paper and a clipboard out from a cubbyhole. "Please fill this out, front and back."

Dee took the clipboard and skimmed the page. She filled in her full name and address. Yes, she was over the age of twenty-one. She thought it odd that she was asked her martial status and her place of business, but filled it in. She raised an eyebrow at the question of total household income and looked at Geninne. Dee pointed to the question and Geninne chuckled, nodding. Dee frowned a little and filled it in, skimmed down the paper listing legal laws and regulations. She flipped it over and raised a brow at the page filled with the legalities. She signed and dated the bottom and returned the clipboard to the secretary.

He took the paper and looked it over, nodding. He pointed to a spot on the paper. "You understand about our privacy policy, anything that happens within this building, stays in this building?"

Dee nodded. "Yes."

He nodded and pointed farther down the page. "You understand that our staff are paid to serve you drinks and see to your physical and mental fulfillment and satisfaction, but any intimacy is prohibited? What you do on your free time, however, is your own business."

Dee glanced at Geninne out of the corner of her eye. "Yeesss..."

He nodded again and turned the page over. "You understand that you are just a guest here, not a member, and that to have a private session with a member of our staff, you must pay for membership and the session? Drinks you may buy without membership."

Dee looked at Geninne again, trying to think of what kind of club she had been brought to. "Yes, I understand."

"May I see some ID please?"

Dee fished her wallet out of her back pocket and flipped it open to her driver's license. The secretary gently took hold of a corner of the wallet, angling it so there wasn't a glare from the light shining on the plastic cover and copied the ID number down on her guest form.

He smiled at her, pushing a badge stating GUEST in big letters. Dee attached it to her shirt over her right breast and the secretary pushed a button next to him on the desktop. The doors off to one side behind him swung open. "Then welcome to the Dungeon."

Geninne took Dee's hand and led her through the doors, where Dee promptly dug in her heels and stopped. Her mouth dropped open and color rose to her cheeks in a blush. There were people lounging about, some in designer suits, some in street clothes, but there were others. It was the others that had her blushing. There were some wearing wore leathers and chains, carrying whips and leashes, and yet more dressed simply in loin clothes and Raquel-Welch-caveman bikinis with collars. There was a staircase, where people were eagerly going up, while others came limping down. There were open doorways showing a restaurant, a gaming room, and a bar with a floor show. From her place at the front door, Dee could see the floor show easily. A man was bound with his arms over his head, his toes barely touching the ground. A woman in leathers and spiked high heels grinned from behind him, a bullwhip in her hands. She was running the leather over his back and shoulders, though not hitting him. She then lifted her arm back to strike and there was a crack of the whip.

"Ohhh."

Dee turned toward a man as he limped to the door.

"Hello, Phillip. Been bad, have you?" Geninne winked at the man.

Phillip grinned back. "Oh yes, and soundly reprimanded, too."

Geninne smiled. "Who by?"

"Carter. He's got a heavy hand, just the way I like 'em." Phillip pushed the door open with a wince and left.

"Ooo, Carter." Geninne poked Dee in the side. "That's the Sex God I was telling you about earlier. I wonder if he's up for anoth--Whoa!"

Dee grabbed Geninne's arm and dragged her to a sheltered corner. She rounded on her friend and hissed, "Where in God's teeth have you brought me? This isn't a club, this is a ... a..."

Geninne pulled her arm free and rubbed at the sore spot. "Would you relax, Duwy."

"Relax? Genny, look around you. This isn't a club; this is ... this is ... a bordello! And last time I checked, prostitution was illegal in the Union." Dee kept her voice low, looking about her to make sure no one overheard.

Geninne laughed. "Dee, this isn't a bordello. Sex is prohibited. Relax."

"If you tell me to relax one more time, I swear--"

Geninne put her hands on her friend's shoulders. "Dee, you need to calm down. Nothing will happen. If someone tries to pressure you into something you don't want to do, just say something to one of the staff members. If that doesn't work, a guard will be around presently to throw the jerk out." Geninne threw up her hands when Dee's face paled. "That doesn't happen very often here. No one wants to lose his membership. This place is just too good."

Dee brought a hand to her forehead. "I can't believe you brought me here ... Why do you come here?"

"Why?" Geninne looked about the room then raised an eyebrow at Dee. "I come here when my boss is giving me grief and I want to ease some tension. I come here when I'm feeling particularly ... naughty and want a good, sound scolding. I hear some people come here when they feel their spouses aren't being sympathetic enough and just need a shoulder to cry on. For a lot of people, this is a home away from home. I hear you can even rent a room for a couple of days, if you need a place to sleep. This isn't what you think it is, Duwy."

Dee stared at the blonde, exasperated. "It isn't? 'Ease some tension.... want a good, sound scolding.' That combined with what I am seeing, I think this place is exactly what I think it is."

Geninne shook her head, laughing softly. "No, I don't think you do. Okay, yes, this is a place for subs and doms to gather and have fun, but it's more than that." Geninne patted Dee's shoulder. "If you don't like it, don't join, but at least for one night you aren't alone in your apartment with that turtle from Hell." Geninne walked off, mingling with people and the Others, laughing and having a good time. Dee watched for a little bit, backing up a step. She bumped into an overstuffed chair and slowly fell back into it.

A Raquel-Welch-bikini-clad Other came up with a tray and a glass of some sparkling drink. "Would you like anything else, sir?"

"A drink for my companion here, Susan," said a voice from behind Dee, and the Other smiled and passed the glass over Dee's shoulder.

Dee turned her head to find a black man behind her. The secluded corner wasn't as secluded as she had thought. The girl smiled at Dee in question.

"Uh ... what he's having." The girl nodded, smiling, and bounced away. Dee looked at the man, unsure of how much he heard. She couldn't see him very well, his features being mostly in shadow. He was dressed in a three-piece suit, Gucci, she thought. His shoes were polished to a high-shine and she wouldn't have been surprised if she saw her reflection in them. He was tall, but she couldn't tell how tall with him sitting down. He had a trim goatee framing his lips, the only hair on his head. A soft, grey felt hat was on a table beside him.

He sipped from his glass, watching her over the rim.

"Hello." Dee smiled a little.

The man smiled back, settling his glass in his hands. "Hello."

The girl reappeared with another drink, which Dee took. She held the glass, looking down into the sparkling liquid nervously. "Thank you for the drink."

He nodded in acknowledgement. Silence ticked by for a moment while Dee and the man sipped their drinks. Dee was a little taken aback to taste sparkling pear cider. No alcohol in it. She didn't mind, she'd never really cared for the taste of alcoholic drinks, but it was a surprise. She was expecting champagne. Dee watched Geninne laugh and talk with the people of the Dungeon. She had slid up to a man dressed in leathers and was now glued to his side. She supposed that would be Carter.

"I do believe this place can be a shock to the unprepared."

"Pardon?" Dee looked at the man beside her.

"I've been looking around and thinking of your reaction. I can certainly understand why you were shocked."

"How much did you hear?"

"From 'Where in God's teeth...' on." The man raised an eyebrow. "God's teeth?"

Dee groaned.

"I apologize for eavesdropping, but it was hard not to listen in on a conversation a bare three feet away." He smiled at her and Dee laughed softly.

"Apology accepted." Dee smiled at the man. "May I ask a personal question?"

"Why do I come here?"

Dee nodded.

"Where else can one go to be surrounded by perverts of like perversion?"

"The internet?" Dee smiled and he chuckled.

"Too modern. We perverts need something traditional, like a bordello."

"I think a lot of people would object to being called perverts and the owner would most certainly object to having this place called a bordello," she stated, for the moment forgetting her own words.

"Then they have no sense of humor." He lifted his glass to his lips. "Why did you come here?"

Dee shrugged. "For no reason as sensible as yours. I caved under peer pressure." She smiled when he laughed, and she felt herself begin to relax.

"Yes, I can see that. Geninne is infamous about the Dungeon for her pressuring techniques." He nodded his head at the mentioned blonde, who was at this time holding a drink and smiling at the leather-clad Other.

"I call it 'bludgeoning' myself. She's determined if nothing else." Dee smiled at her friend, then frowned as Geninne put her drink down and headed for the stairs with the Other. "Excuse me," Dee set her glass down on a side table and rushed after her friend, catching them at the stairs.

"Oh, Dee, this is Carter." Geninne smiled, petting the man's arm.

"How do." Dee barely glanced at him as she leaned close to Geninne. "Where do you think you are going? You can't leave me down here."

Geninne rolled her eyes. "Oh, for heaven's sake, Dee. I'll be upstairs for a half hour--" Dee caught a 'That's what you think' look from Carter "--and then I'll be back down and we'll go. You'll live for thirty minutes." Geninne patted Dee's shoulder and headed upstairs before Carter.

"Genny," Dee whispered after her friend, then looked around. A sumo-wrestler built man started towards her and she headed quickly back to her seat with the dark stranger. She picked up her glass and swallowed it all down, choking slightly. The wrestler had stopped a few feet away, but didn't come closer. Dee didn't see the look that passed between the two men. Eventually the wrestler moved away.

Dee sighed, fingering her empty glass.

"Are you really uninterested?"

Dee looked up at the man next to her. "Hmm? Oh, well, the imagination tends to picture the worst. The, um," she waved a hand at the door to the barroom with the floor show, "images one gets with--" The bound man in the floor show let out a scream of mingled pleasure and pain that reached throughout the club. Dee jumped and her eyes grew wide in her now very pale face.

Dee jumped again as she felt warm fingers touch the back of her hand. The man had leaned forward and was taking her glass from her. "Ignore what you hear and see for now. Ignore what you think happens and stories you might have heard. Focus on what you are interested in. Ask yourself, deep down, if you are interested in what goes on in those rooms upstairs. Ask which you would like to be, the one wielding the whip and giving the commands. Or are you the one on your knees and taking them."

Hypnotized by his sultry voice, she let go of all of her thoughts and asked herself those questions. Dee stared into the man's eyes, seeing in those black orbs both scenarios. She was dressed in leather and chains, having someone on his knees as she ordered him to lick her boots, tapping a crop against her thigh. She saw herself dressed as a skimpy slave, down on her knees and her head bowed, doing as her master commanded and loving him for it. Her lips parted and breath grew heavy, her blood pounding in her veins as she continued to carry out the scene with her as the slave.

Dee looked down at her hands; his fingers were caressing and massaging her palms. Her imagination went a little further. She saw him, this stranger beside her, as her master. She was dressed as his slave, kneeling on the floor beside him as he petted her hair. She saw herself with her head bowed, looking contrite, as he stood above her, ready to punish.

Dee looked back up at his face, licking her lips, and whispered, "Slave."

He smiled, not needing to hear more. "Would you care to go upstairs?"

Dee looked around, then back at him, as if to ask 'Me?' She swallowed. "Only members are allowed upstairs."

"That's true if you are with one of the staff. Do I look like staff?"

Dee laughed and shook her head. "No."

He lifted her hands, lightly brushing his lips over her knuckles. "Come upstairs with me. Let me show you how things can be." Dee nodded wordlessly and, picking up his hat, he stood. Dee now had a good look at his height, and she wondered nervously if there was a giant somewhere in his lineage. Still holding her hands in one of his, he lifted her to her feet and Dee smiled as she noticed the top of her head didn't quite reach his shoulders.