Sensitive Research Ch. 01

My thoughts and the quiet in the room were interrupted by the buzzing of the vibrator, which MC had just turned on. As she began to approach her sub's body, I could see a smile cross the domme's face.

**********

Beside the relatively short telephone conversation that I had had with MC when I first recruited her into my study, I had conducted one face-to-face interview with her when I arrived two days earlier in her city. This was the introductory meeting, where I gathered some basic information from her that went beyond what was available to potential clients on her website. I asked her some questions about her background, how she got into the business, what other jobs she had held, etc. I was a little surprised to hear that she had a bachelor's degree in English, like me. She had attended a women's college as an undergraduate.

As with all of my subjects, both dommes and their clients, she was promised full confidentiality. She would be identified by a pseudonym in my research (not even using her professional name, Mistress Cecilia, even though I knew that was not her real name), and none of the cities would even be identified by name.

We were seated in the living room of her house, which was actually in the close-in suburbs of the city. She was comfortably dressed, wearing a light pullover sweater and a pair of jeans. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and she wore little or no makeup. We were sitting in overstuffed easy chairs, facing each other from a few feet away. Looking around the room, and the setting, I could have been visiting a friend for tea or coffee; nothing here indicated that this woman made a living by sexually dominating other people in a room elsewhere in this house. As I was working, I was dressed more professionally, in a blouse and skirt.

Like most of the dommes that I had already recruited into the study, she had both male and female clients. She was bisexual, and she told me had been since her teen years, so she was comfortable in intimate settings with both men and women. But she told me that she preferred female clients for a variety of reasons, and I asked her why.

"First is the safety issue," she responded. "As carefully as I try to vet my clients, generally relying on referrals from other customers, I still find that the rare times I run into problems with a client, it is always a man. I have never felt uncomfortable or unsafe around a female client."

"Second, I find it easier to connect with women. I have had a variety of both male and female lovers throughout my life, but I have generally bonded more emotionally with women, and I find the same is true in my work. They also tend to be more repeats than the men, and schedule sessions more frequently, so they're better for my business." She had already told me earlier that she was single and had never been married, though she had had a number of long-term relationships. She was currently not in one, however.

"Third," she continued, "the women clients are easier to schedule. I find that most of my male subs are married men who are seeing me on the side, mostly because their wives have no interest in or desire for their need to be dominated. So that means they're often trying to schedule in a session at lunchtime, or immediately after work before they head home to their families, and frankly, sometimes it's just a pain in the neck to schedule them."

"My women subs, on the other hand, tend more to be single, or if they are married, are not working and have more flexibility in their schedules. Their husbands are off working all day, the kids are in school, and they have the luxury of more time on their hands to schedule sessions, and they tend to schedule longer sessions with me as well."

"Can I interrupt for a second," I asked her.

"Of course dear, what is it?"

At first I felt slightly belittled being called "dear," but I glossed over it and just chalked it up to her trying to put me at ease. "You are located here outside of the center city area, so do your clients mostly come from this area?"

"Oh no, they come from all over the metropolitan area. Some are from around here, some from the further out suburbs, and many live in the city. You'd be surprised how many of my clients from the city show up here for a session in a Town Car that sits in the driveway waiting, and then takes them back," she said with a little smile.

"Doesn't all the traffic in and out raise the suspicion of your neighbors?" I asked. "I imagine that out here in the suburbs people can be a little nosy."

"It really hasn't been a problem for me," she replied. "You have to remember, it's not like there are 20 people a day coming in and out, so I'm not worried that people will think I'm selling drugs here," she said with laugh. "Most of my sessions last from one to two hours, so the most I generally have in any given day is two or three. More typically, it's just one a day."

I pressed a little more on this issue, because I was curious and intrigued about how she could operate her business out here in the middle of the suburbs. "Do your neighbors ever ask what it is you do?"

"Oh, of course. I mostly keep to myself and don't interact with them, but on occasion you can't avoid those kinds of conversations that arise when you're talking with neighbors. If the topic does come up, I just tell them that I do specialized therapy." She smiled again. "And in a way, that is very truthful."

"And they don't push for more information?"

"Well, one or two have, but I just tell them I can't say any more because of therapist-patient confidentiality rules. That usually stops the conversation cold."

"Okay, thanks," I responded. "I had interrupted your list of why you preferred female clients, so please go on."

"Okay, there is just one more on my list. The last reason I prefer female clients," she said with a wink, "is that they don't have the one-and-done problem."

I looked at her somewhat blankly, having no clue what she was talking about. "One-and-done?" I asked.

She leaned forward, smiled, and patted my knee, below the bottom of my skirt and below where my laptop was perched in my lap. "I assume you're straight, right Professor Phillips?" Her hand felt warm on my bare leg, and as she drew close, I caught a whiff of the perfume she was wearing. I couldn't place the scent, but it smelled very expensive and classy.

"Yes, I am," I replied.

"So I assume you've had enough experience with men to know how they are - once they have their orgasm, their desire immediately drops like a dead body thrown off a roof." She gave a knowing smile, as if we were two friends sharing a secret.

I now understood what she meant, having had experienced this many times with the men I had dated. Too often I found that after they came, I was left hanging not having achieved my orgasm yet, while they were either snoring, reaching for a cigarette, or hopping out of bed to grab a beer. I'm not sure if this was a reflection of all men, or just the ones I dated.

"Yes, they do tend to be like that, I know," I said, smiling back at her.

She removed her hand from my knee and sat back in her chair again. "Well, with the men, once they have their orgasm, their session is done. Many of my female clients, on the other hand, will go much longer, even if they have had multiple orgasms. And the longer the session and the more sexual it is, the more I charge."

I was taken aback by this statement, surprised to hear her talking about her client's climaxing. I had assumed that this was not part of the services she provided because of the legal issues around prostitution. My understanding of these dommes was that the services they performed stopped short of anything that could fall under the legal definition of "sex," in order to avoid problems with the law. In fact, most of their websites, including MC's, emphasized this limit.

"What do you mean?" I asked her. "I thought that you couldn't allow those kinds of acts."

"Oh dear, you don't get it," she responded, as if she were tutoring a wayward schoolchild. "There are quite a variety of services available, depending upon the client's needs. Remember, it's a very specialized form of therapy that I provide," she continued with a laugh.

"But aren't you worried about being arrested?"

"No, not at all. First of all, I don't expect that any of my clients are going to go running to the local police department to tell them what they are doing with me. As you can imagine, discretion is as important to them as it is to me."

"What about undercover police?" I inquired.

"I don't worry too much about that. As I said, I vet my clients very carefully, and get most of them from personal referrals from others. And with a new client, I won't engage in anything sexual - or at least anything that could get me into legal problems - until I have had at least two or three sessions with them. This gives me a chance to get to know them, and if I'm at all uncomfortable, I won't see them anymore."

"And," she continued, "I also require a different form of financial relationship with clients who want this higher level of services."

"Can you explain what you mean by that?" I asked.

"Sure, I'm happy to explain it for you. But we've been sitting for a little while now, so can I offer you something to drink before we continue?"

"Oh, that's very nice, thank you. I'll just take a soda, diet if you have it."

"Sure, Diet Coke okay?" she offered.

"That'll be fine."

She stood up and walked toward her kitchen. As she did, I admired the look of her jeans, which fit her like a second skin and looked quite expensive, showing off her ass very nicely. As I waited for her to return, I looked around the living room. She had what looked like some very nice antiques and artwork, and the thought occurred to me that she must make a pretty good living to afford these things. She had told me she lived alone, so I assumed everything I saw she had acquired on her own. I hadn't gotten into any details of her finances yet, but her form of "specialized therapy" appeared to be quite lucrative.

She returned after a few minutes with a Diet Coke for me, and a glass of red wine for herself. As she placed my glass on the table next to my chair, her perfume again wafted over me.

"Now where were we?" she said smiling.

I was surprised to find that my mouth was quite dry, so I took a sip of my soda before I continued. "We were talking about your clients who wanted, as you described it, a 'higher' level of service."

"Oh, that's right. Okay, let me explain. You are right, that even with all the vetting of clients that I do, I have to be careful. So like other dommes, we've come up with a financial arrangement that protects us from any charges of prostitution. For women who desire this - and it is generally the women who avail themselves of this arrangement - I do not charge on a fee-for-service basis. Instead, what I do is charge them a monthly membership fee to join a private club that I've created for this purpose. And the members of the club are entitled to these additional activities, which the client and I then engage in as consenting adults."

I thought about this for a few moments, to make sure I understand the arrangement. I took notes as best I could on my laptop.

"So a woman, let's say, who joins this private club, is then entitled to services that a regular fee-for-service client would not get?"

"Correct," MC responded.

"But how do you determine how much to charge for the monthly fee?" I asked.

"Well, it's as much art as science, to be honest," she responded. "I discuss with the client what her interests are, what she is looking for, and how often she wishes to see me. As I said, I only offer this arrangement to clients who I have gotten to know and feel comfortable with, so I have a pretty good sense of what they desire. But we do talk about it so that I have some idea ahead of time. So once I have a sense of what she wants, I then set her monthly fee at a level that I feel is fair compensation for me for the services she wants and for the number of times she expects to see me."

"And once she's joined, you then have a session or sessions with her?"

"Right, and once we've agreed on this, and she's paid her monthly membership fee for the club, we're then just consenting adults who are getting together for some fun."

With this, she gave me a triumphant smile, as if she were the cat who swallowed the canary.

"And this is legal?" I asked.

"I wasn't the one who came up with the idea. Some other dommes that I know from around the country who have been in the business longer than I have came up with this scheme some years ago. And it's been well tested in the courts. When they first tried this out, two or three of them did get arrested by their local police for prostitution. But prosecutors, once they understood the specific arrangements, quickly dropped the charges because they realized there was no way they would have enough evidence to convince a judge or jury to convict. So once this trail was blazed, others of us in the business jumped on board with this model and it works."

I was furiously taking notes, trying to capture as much of this as possible. "And is this part of your business very lucrative?"

MC leaned forward again, as she had earlier, and once again put her hand on my knee. I felt the warmth of her touch once more as she said to me, "It certainly is my dear. Let's just say I live a very comfortable lifestyle, and don't have to put in many hours to enjoy it. And my overhead is relatively low - a room in my house, some soundproofing, some toys, and that's about it."

I now realized why her calling me "dear" made me feel a little comfortable. I realized that this was a term she used quite frequently with her sub in the first session I had observed earlier in that day. Was she purposely addressing me like one of her clients, I wondered?

I tried to shake this feeling off and pay attention as she continued to speak. "My clients, women especially, are willing to pay some hefty monthly membership fees. Some of these women are quite wealthy, and have the resources to pay."

I was quite aware that her hand was still on my knee as she continued her explanation.

"After all, if you were in their shoes, wouldn't you be willing to pay a lot more money for a session that brought you to orgasm?" As she asked this, I realized that she was staring into my eyes. I was somewhat mesmerized, staring back at her, not quite sure how to respond. As I looked, I realized she had beautiful, deep green eyes. Was this a rhetorical question, or was she attempting to probe my desires as if I were one of her clients?

I grew very flustered, and was sure I was blushing terribly. I somehow broke her gaze, and sat back a little further in the upholstered chair, in order to get her hand off my knee. She gave me a wry little smile, I'm sure very aware of the discomfort she inflicted on me.

I didn't answer her question, but instead just mumbled, "Well I'm sure they are willing to pay," and then quickly tried to come up with a question that would allow me to change the topic. I scanned the list of questions I had open on my laptop. I managed to find some innocuous questions about her background, what kinds of jobs she had held before becoming a domme, and the like. After about ten minutes on these questions, I was very relieved to see from the clock on my laptop that the hour we had set aside for the interview had transpired.

"Thank you very much for the time. I appreciate your candor and willingness to share this information with me. I believe we have one more interview scheduled for after my final observation, correct?"

"That's right," she replied, and with another smile she said, "I'll very much look forward to it."

I closed my laptop, put it in my briefcase, and stood up. MC rose as well; I was aware that even in her running shoes, she towered over me by at least six or seven inches. She reached out her hand, took mine in it, and said, "Please don't hesitate to ask me anything you want. I'm an open book to you."

I withdrew my hand and said, "Thank you." As I turned to walk toward the front door, I stumbled a bit on the throw rug in the room. MC reached out a hand and grabbed my arm to help steady me, helping me recover before I went down in a heap, briefcase and all.

"Here, let me help you," she said, as I tried to regain my composure and continue toward the door. She kept her hand on my arm, and I was again aware of the warmth of her skin. Then I felt her other hand on my lower back, as if to help guide me as well. It could have been a totally harmless and helpful move on her part, but I was very self-conscious and aware of what she was doing. As we walked through the broad entryway of her home, I felt her hand edge slowly down my back, so that by the time I got to the front door, it was placed more on my ass than on my back. As I turned to thank her once again before walking out the door, she smiled and said, "My pleasure."

**********

MC first took the vibrator and placed it lightly on the right breast of her client, right next to the nipple which was still clamped. As the vibrator made contact with her breast, I could see the sub's body react, jolting a bit off of the bed, as she pulled against her wrist restraints. MC continued to lightly run it around her breast, and then continued on the other one, mirroring what she had done to the first. It was clear to me that this session must have been part of the private club arrangement that MC had described to me a couple of days earlier. I thought to myself that if I had known that this kind of activity would be taking place, and had disclosed that to the IRB, there was no way they would have given me permission to conduct the research.

Much to my surprise, I saw her then turn the vibrator off. I thought to myself, "Is that all she's going to do with it?", but my question was quickly answered. She picked up the chain that connected to the two nipple clamps. She wrapped it once around the vibrator, and then lifted it up so that there was no longer any slack between the vibrator and the clamps. She then turned the vibrator back on, now much louder than it was before. I could tell that she must have turned it up close to or on the highest setting. I could see the vibrations being transmitted through the chain to both nipple clamps, clearly stimulating both of her nipples simultaneously.

Subject 1-03 began moaning, as she was clearly turned on by this action. MC continued this for a few minutes, every now and then lifting the vibrator higher, tugging even further at her nipples. She then turned the vibrator off, unwrapped the chain, from it, and dropped it back on to her sub's chest between her breasts.

MC then turned the vibrator back on one of the lower settings. She turned her body, and now faced toward her client's pussy. As she moved the vibrator toward it, I could see that her sub's juices were flowing quite fully from her pussy - even through my narrow vantage point, and from about six feet away, I could see them glistening on her pussy, and even a large wet spot between her legs on the sheet. There was no question the effect this was having on the sub.

The domme placed the vibrator lightly on the client's pussy, starting at the top, and began lightly stroking up and down first one of her outer labia and then the other. This elicited more moans, and her sub tried to lift her body, as if to gain more and stronger contact with the vibrator. But the restraints prevented her from moving very much, so try as she did, MC remained in control of just how much stimulation she would receive.

She leaned forward toward her sub's blindfolded head, and as she continued to rub the vibrator up and down the outside of her pussy, said to her in a low voice that I could just make out over the noise of the vibrator, "You're enjoying this, aren't you my pet? You may speak."