In Position

Before whatever is going to happen happens she has to bend over. He doesn’t force her. Doesn’t put one hand on the back of her neck and the other on her hip and push until she assumes the position he wants. He’s done that before. This time, however, he simply tells her to bend over. “On the bed,” he says. “All fours. Now.”

And she does. Mounts the bed and bends at the waist. Something about that movement always triggers something. Going from a proper, upright person to a creature on its hands and knees – a waiting creature, because he hasn’t yet undressed, but a creature all the same.

“Arch your back,” he says. She does. Feels the tension spike between her shoulders, her spine curving. She’s sticking her arse out like she’s begging for attention. Obscenely, it spreads her. The cheeks of her arse and the lips of her cunt. That little motion opens up that part of her completely. “Down on your elbows.”

Compliance brings her face to within six inches of the duvet. She cannot look over her shoulder anymore without straining her neck. Cannot move from that position, her head sunk between her shoulder blades, her arse the uppermost part of her, as if proffered. Behind her, somewhere, she can hear him taking off his belt, unzipping his trousers. Her leg shakes.

“Reach between your legs,” he says, “like you want to try and grab your ankles.”

He still has not touched her. Not a finger. She lowers herself still further. Turns her head to one side so she’ll be able to breathe. The weight of her upper body resting on her shoulder and cheek, the side of her head. Her hands awkwardly thrust between her legs. It’s an unstable position. Little twinges of strain in her upper back, her hips.

He has finished undressing, she thinks. Certainly she cannot hear him removing his clothes any more. She can hear herself. Her own noisy breathing. The shift of her hair against the bedspread.

“Now,” he says, and he is much closer to her than she thought he was. Right behind her. This is the precursor to something, but she doesn’t know what. A fucking or a spanking. A prolonged wait. He is standing over her. He can see everything. The most intimate parts of her bared and thrust out for him. Her body curved and folded to his specification. A bent, obedient thing. “Now,” he says, “I want you to masturbate.”