Only those who serve others can truly know the pain of having that service taken from them. Only those to whom service is more important than personal happiness can train others to be the kind of servant they once were. There is only one Master Trainer in the Ambre Stewart Consortium and only she knows both kinds of pain. Can she now become more than The Reluctant Trainer? Enter the world of the Ambre Stewart Consortium. A business with a reputation for an excellent product--slaves. Meet the owners of these slaves, the spotters who find them and the trainers who prepare them for sale. Join them all in this tale of service and servitude; slavery and sadomasochistic sex; love and sacrifice.
Excerpt
Lillian looked at the pile of manila folders arranged on her desk. She sighed and pushed them to the side to make room to rest her elbows in their place. Cradling her head in her hands she asked, "Why do they come to me?"
"Because you're the best Lil," David said without hesitation.
"But I don't want to be the best trainer. You know that." She pulled the folders toward herself and opened the top one. A photo of a smiling, muscular man slid out into her hand, followed by a stack of papers half an inch thick.
"When do I get to be who I really am rather than who the ASC needs me to be?"
David reached across the desk and caressed Lillian's neck, touching the place on her collar bone where a small scar lightened the skin just slightly more than the rest of her neck. Lillian leaned into that caress, bowing her head and letting herself fall into memories of a time when a collar had made that scar. David leaned just slightly farther forward and lifted Lillian's chin to stare into her glazed eyes.
"You are, right now, exactly who you have always been, Lil. You are simply in service to the ASC instead of to me."
Lillian blinked several times, fighting back the tears that came each time she remembered her time in service to David and his family. She knew he was right, that being in service to the organization her father had built was only slightly different from being in service to a family. But it was the small differences that always brought the tears.
"Lil, honey, we go through this every time there's a new batch of applicants for this place." David stood and snatched the photo out of her hand. "And every time we go through this, you give in. Whether or not you want to admit it to yourself, you are the best trainer available in our community and until you no longer meet the needs of those you serve in that capacity, you will continue to have to train their toys."
"Until I can no longer meet their needs, eh?" The bitterness in her voice nearly cut the air. "When each day we add new owners to the organization? When each morning my email is filled with applicants who think they can be the next Natashia?" she sighed and took the file photo back from David. "You know that day will never come. I can really only hope to find someone else who is willing to take on the position. Even then, who would want to own the Master Trainer of the ASC?"
David took Lillian's chin in his hand again, refusing to allow her to look away. Her mind shied away from the anger she saw rising in his dark eyes, but Lillian's training did not allow her to pull away from him.
"There isn't an owner in the organization who wouldn't mortgage their entire holdings, Swiss and otherwise, to posess you, Lillian. My father turned down more offers than even your father knew of. You are valuable in and of yourself, even without the backing of the ASC. There are owners throughout the world who would trip over each other to line up to own you."
Lillian couldn't breathe. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen such fire flash in David's eyes as it did now. He was angry and hurting just as much as she was. How had she missed his pain in the midst of her own? After so many years of training others to see every nuance of those they served, to notice every desire and feeling before it even had time to surface in the mind of that person, how had she missed David's pain over the loss of her service? How had she allowed her own loss, the loss of servitude to David and his family, to overshadow her own true nature? Shame flooded her body and flushed her skin a vibrant red.
"Now, if you want to find a replacement for yourself, you are going to have to do only one thing, Lillian. What is it?"
"Train until I find the one with the skill and desire to take my place." Lillian lowered her eyes in contrition.
"Exactly." David released Lillian's face and slouched into his chair again.
"Well, if that's the case, I suppose taking on these four is just a step in the right direction." She gestured to the pile of folders on her desk. Three of the files were an inch thick, filled with photographs and notes. The fourth was barely thick enough to lift the front cover of the file off the back.
"Tell me about these new ones, Lil. I know the one I brought in, but what about the rest?"
Lillian shuffled the files to bring up the one marked Ira Stewart.
"Your father spotted this one for us, David. Didn't he tell you about it?"
Shaking his head, David took the file from her and flipped through the notes written in his father's precise hand.
Non-descript in appearance, Redmon is an excellent personal servant. His attention to detail is superb and his sexual inhibition even in the face of situations outside his sexual preference makes him an excellent candidate for training as a personal servant or major domo for a larger household. It will be necessary for training to focus on leadership and stepping out of the shadows if he is to be successful and happy.
David nodded, recalling the conversation he'd had with Ira about Redmon.
"He mentioned this one to me once but it was several years ago. Something about having seen the boy during a trip with Lafayette to Ireland."
Lillian remembered the trip. Lafayette and Ira had gone abroad to do some spotting just a few months prior to Lafayette's death. Ira never spoke of that trip with Lillian as she struggled to transition from servant to owner and operator of the ASC, but he'd obviously discussed it with David.
"If the notes look good and Ira felt Redmon was good enough to go back for three years later, I'll take a look at him."
"Agreed," David said, handing Lillian the file once again.
She put the file off to one side of her desk, placing it on top of Gene's file. She next pulled Natalie's file open.
"This one comes from Samuil in Florida. He worked with her for a few weeks before sending her here for this interview."
At Samuil's name, David's brow creased slightly. Lillian knew that as owners, Samuil and his family had always demanded the best of their servants and were quick to both punish and reward. As a spotter for the ASC, Samuil's recommendations had been hit or miss thus far. His last two recommendations had gone through the training process and been sold to families in Europe. The three prior recommendations, however had resulted in two rejections from the training and one early contract termination.
David glanced through the file, nodding here and there. "After that fiasco with the early termination, Samuil's recommendations have improved in quality ten-fold. Based on his notes in the file, this one seems to be much more on par with the last two he sent us than with the first three."
Lillian took the file from David and reviewed the notes once more. She'd already read the file six or seven times but there was something about this prospect that didn't feel exactly right.
"You're right about the notes indicating the quality of this one, " she said. "but there is something about her and Samuil's notes regarding his trouble breaking her of some clumsy mannerisms His notes indicated that they increased with stress. We'll have to push her past her breaking point a couple of times to get rid of those habits."
"Then I don't see a problem with her," David said.
Noting that David considered the matter closed, Lillian reached for the last, thin file. The sigh escaped her lips before she could contain her emotions.
"What's wrong with that one?" David asked.
"Tim."
One word was enough. The last three prospects Tim Krause had sent hadn't even made it past the initial interview. The women were beautiful but completely unsuited for service. They wanted to be sex toys for rich, beautiful people. They didn't care about the other skills necessary to make a well rounded slave and they'd made themselves clear about their feelings.
David took the last file and sifted through the scant information. Most of Tim's notes were about Sarita's abilities in the bedroom and dungeon. There was a brief sentence about body service but that was it.
"Do you think she's worth interviewing, Lil?"
Lillian looked at Sarita's photo and thought of the email request waiting in her inbox from a Saudi owner seeking a plaything for his son. "Only because I think we could probably sell her if she's willing to make even the slightest attempt to learn more than how to give good head."
"She might be a good prospect for specialty training from the Tolivers," David said. "They've been asking for more responsibility in training and the son, Jethro, seems particularly adept at training pleasure slaves."
Lillian considered David's suggestion. With the increase in requests for slaves from the ASC, she and Ira had discussed splitting the training into two facilities. Ambre House would handle the household and career slaves while Stewart House would take on the personal body slaves. Ira had mentioned that the Tolivers, one of the first ASC ownership families, had wanted to try their hand at training pleasure slaves. Sarita would give them a good opportunity to try out the services Stephan Toliver believed he could offer.
"I think you're right, David," she said. "If she is suitable for training at all, giving her to the Tolivers would be a great opportunity for us to test their training plans."
"Then it looks like four interviews," David said, standing and heading to the door. "I'll take the women first, you take the men. We'll let them stew through lunch and switch?"
Lillian nodded and handed over Sarita and Natalie's files.
"An hour each should give us until lunch time to finish. I'd say leave the calm one and the sexpot sitting while you take the clutz and I'll take the muscle-man."
"Sounds good to me," David smiled. When Lillian joined him at the door, he reached down and kissed her forehead. "Just remember you'll never find a replacement if you don't choose quality candidates to train. Don't let them get anything over on you just because you want to rush through this, ok?"
Lillian nodded and reached for the door. "Let's get started so we can at least have dinner served by the two who know how to do that."
Helios is an award winning novel about a brilliant inventor of new technology, a fallen CEO seeking redemption, and an idealistic youth who comes of age in corporate America.
London: Lashed, Lacerated, Lampooned and Lambasted satirizes 18 popular Jack London novellas with adult content and language and the work is author Jay Dubya's 37th published hardcover/paperback book.
