CHAPTER 3: BELINDA DISCUSSES VIRGINITY
There was a rap at Vincenzo’s office door, and then it opened before Vincenzo answered. The man who walked in seemed slovenly compared to Vincenzo’s meticulous appearance. His dirty blond hair could have used cutting, or at least combing, and his shirt was untucked. “This the new girl?” he asked, barely glancing at me.
A transformation seemed to come over Vincenzo. The connection that I had not realized was between us was gone, even before he pulled his hands away from mine. He looked up, and his face was cold and impenetrable, as it had been when he had spoken to my father. “You’re early,” he said, displeasure evident in his tone.
The man shrugged. “Thought I’d watch the show.”
A surge of dislike flashed on Vincenzo’s face. “Show’s over. She’s undamaged, which means, Heath, you’ll not touch her.”
“Not yet,” Heath said. He winked at me and deliberately licked his lips. I shivered.
“Stand up,” Vincenzo said. It took me a moment to realize he was speaking to me. I stood awkwardly, fighting the urge to cover myself. Vincenzo looked me over. He picked up a strand of my hair. “Keep this shoulder length,” he said to Heath. “Tell Tonna just to trim it. Nothing sophisticated. She looks younger than she is, and I want the men to see a scared schoolgirl.” He touched my chin. “Let me see your teeth.” I bared my lips, mortified. He nodded. “Color’s okay.”
Vincenzo indicated with his hands that I should turn around. When I obeyed, he touched my arm. “What’s this?” There was a long scratch on my bicep, not deep but ugly.
“I was pruning the rhododendrons,” I said. Even though it was the wrong time of year, I had wanted to get as much done as I could before I left. Suddenly I was homesick, for a home I hadn’t loved in years. My eyes filled with tears.
“She’s a crier,” Heath commented.
“Good,” Vincenzo replied. “The men will like that. Make sure the medic cleans the cut.” He touched my arm again, just below the cut. I almost pulled away, but I caught myself. “We’re done here,” he said.
Heath snapped his finger and turned to the door. I looked questioningly at Vincenzo and he nodded. “Go on,” he said. He turned away abruptly.
I caught up with Heath just outside the office door. He closed it and said, mostly to himself, “What a dick.” The man behind the front desk shook his head.
I didn’t want to go with Heath. I was naked, and alone, and I was sure that the only thing that was keeping him from attacking – raping – me was Vincenzo’s admonishment to him not to touch me.
But of course it didn’t matter what I wanted.
I followed Heath into an elevator around the corner from the front desk. He pressed 5. As the elevator started to rise Heath glanced to the top right corner of the elevator. There was a camera there.
The elevator door opened onto a hallway. Heath started walking, snapping his fingers for me again. We passed a couple of doors, and then Heath entered a room on the right. The smell of nail polish and shampoo hit me before I walked in. The room was smaller than the Supercuts I went to, but it had the same sinks, the same reclining chairs, the same mirrors, the same shelves lined with hair products.
I jumped when I saw a naked girl out of the corner of my eye. She was reclining in one of the chairs while another girl, also naked, painted her toenails.
I took a deep breath to try to steady myself. Of course I wouldn’t be the only one naked.
“Ladies,” Heath said, his voice dripping with an obnoxious sarcasm.
The woman who had been in the chair sat up. I tried to avoid looking at her body, so I looked at her face instead. Her skin was a golden tan, and her black hair was in elegant cornrows that fell to her shoulders. Her eyes were unexpectedly a light blue. “Show me some respect, Tonna,” Heath said. He snapped his fingers. I thought that if he did that one more time I would break them off.
Tonna sighed a little, then stood up and walked over to us. She fell to her knees before Heath, and reached up to his fly. Heath swatted her hand away. “Not this time,” he said. He indicated me. “I’m waiting for the real thing. Belinda here is undamaged goods.”
The other woman snorted. She was blonde, and a little heavyset. I couldn’t help noticing that she had the biggest boobs I had ever seen. “It’ll be a long time before you’ll get her, then,” she said, “unless your uncle gives itty bitty you a big fat check.”
Heath scowled. “You watch your mouth, Kaylee.”
“Or what?” Kaylee said. “You know you can’t touch me, and you can’t make me touch you either.”
Heath flushed a deep red. “That’s what you think?” He walked over to her and suddenly grabbed her nipples, squeezing and twisting them. Without thinking I reached my hands up to my own breasts. “You might not be a slave but if you don’t like our rules you’re back out in the gutter where we found you.”
Kaylee’s eyes filled with tears, and she uselessly put her hands on Keith’s forearms. He just twisted harder. Next to me, Tonna was frozen.
“All you have to do is tell me to stop,” Heath said, “and I’ll have you thrown out of Damascus.” Kaylee bit her lips against a groan that escaped, and shook her head.
The brutality of it made me feel sick. I stepped back, and bumped into a table with a bunch of hair product bottles on it. Without thinking I grabbed one that I hoped was made of glass and dropped it on the floor. It shattered, and a clear thick liquid splattered.
Heath let go of Kaylee and turned to me. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I knocked it over with my elbow.”
Heath looked at me hard, and he clenched his fist, but he didn’t make a move towards me. I realized that, unlike with Kaylee, he really couldn’t touch me. At least not yet. Heath seemed to be going through the same thought process. He narrowed his eyes. “Clean it up,” he said at last to the others. “And then take care of her. Just give her a trim.” He stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Kaylee was massaging her breasts. “Lucky for me you’re a clumsy sort of virgin,” she said, with an attempt at a laugh.
“She’s not,” Tonna said, staring at me. “Clumsy, I mean. The virgin part I don’t know about. But she didn’t knock that bottle over. She dropped it, nice and delicate, on purpose.”
“I didn’t know how else to make him stop,” I said.
Kaylee stared at me, and then she laughed. “Oh, honey, he would have stopped when he got bored.” I didn’t think it was funny, but I couldn’t help it – I laughed too. Tonna joined in. There we were, three sex slaves, or two sex slaves plus whatever Kaylee was, laughing until our stomachs started to hurt. We started to calm down a couple of times, and then we would look at each other and start to laugh again.
When we truly couldn’t laugh anymore, Kaylee directed Tonna and me to sit with our feet up so we wouldn’t cut our bare feet on the broken glass. She found some old tennis shoes in a supply closet, and came over with paper towels and a broom and dustpan. As she cleaned up the mess, Tonna asked me how old I was. I told her, and she said, “Are you really a virgin?” I nodded. “Why?” she asked.
I shrugged. “No boy was ever interested in me,” I said.
“Oh, please,” Kaylee said. “If you wanted to have sex, all you had to do was spread your legs and half the men in a square mile would come sniffing around and the other half would wish they had the nerve. It wasn’t that they weren’t interested in you. You weren’t interested in them. What’s the real reason?”
For a moment I didn’t know what to say. And then I told these two girls what I had never said aloud to anyone. “My mother was in a car accident a few years ago,” I said. “They gave her a blood transfusion, and she got AIDS. I took care of her, and I watched her suffer every day, and sweat her life away every night. You can’t imagine how horrible it was.”
“Oh, honey,” Kaylee said softly.
“When she was sick, I couldn’t think about boys, or anything else. I went to school, I came home, I did my best to make her comfortable and to look after my dad and brothers so they wouldn’t complain to her.”
Tonna was sitting next to me. She put her arm around me. My voice quavered as I continued. “After she died, I would have nightmares that I had sex with a boy, and then I would have AIDS. I had that dream over and over again.”
“Oh, honey,” Kaylee said again. She sat on the other side of me and put her arm around me as well, so that I was enveloped by these two girls who a few minutes ago had been strangers.
“You know you’re safe from that here, right?” Tonna said. “Every man who comes in here gets tested for all the diseases or they can’t touch us.”
I nodded. I had met with a doctor a month ago, and he had explained it all to me as he did my own tests and gave me a prescription for the pill. “I’m kind of excited to finally find out what it’s all about,” I admitted with a little laugh.
“Pfft,” Kaylee said. “It’s about nothing. One poke doesn’t change anything. All these men running around thinking they have magic dicks that make you a different person. Trust me, you’ll still be yourself tomorrow.”
“Vincenzo said there was no going back after tonight,” I said.
“Really? The boy wonder talked to you?” Tonna asked.
I nodded. “He’s the one who checked me in and tested my virginity.”
Kaylee started to laugh again. “What did he do? Give you a lie detector test?”
“No,” I said, feeling mortified all over again. “He touched me, to make sure. My . . . “ I didn’t know what to call it, so I waved my hand towards my crotch. “And my . . .” I pulled away from the girls and pointed to my backside.
Now Tonna was laughing too. “It was humiliating,” I said hotly. “No one ever touched me there before.”
“Or maybe a thousand men have,” Kaylee said, still laughing. “I guess I could have come here as a virgin too. I just would have had to let Vincenzo diddle me a little, and look innocent.”
Tonna said, in an exaggerated little girl’s voice, “Oh, sir, I know your finger slides right in, but I’m a horseback rider.” She batted her eyelashes. “What’s that? Oh, no, sir, I don’t mean I did it with a horse. But one day we took a big jump and down I came, and I felt this . . . this . . . this little tear. . . and . . . ”
Kaylee took it up. “And as for my rear entrance,” she said, a pronounced lisp, “well, I eat a lot and I have these great big poops and they stretch me out, sir, but your’ s is the first finger up there, I swear it.” The two of them cracked up.
“It’s not funny!” I said. “He did it in front of my father. I had to strip in front of him, and . . .” I couldn’t go on.
Tonna and Kaylee stopped laughing. “I’m sorry, honey,” Kaylee said. “Vincenzo knew it didn’t prove anything. I don’t know why he did that. It’s not like him to be mean for no reason.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s not like Heath.”
I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Can I ask you something?” I said to Kaylee. She nodded. “What did you mean when you said to Heath that he can’t touch you, or make you touch him?”
Kaylee stood up and started cleaning the mess on the floor again. “I came here of my own free will, without any debt,” she said. “See, after I had gotten my hairdressing license I stupidly moved here to the city, where I didn’t know anyone. The only work I could get was as an escort.” That didn’t make sense to me. Even I had been able to get work as a waitress, just by answering a help wanted sign.
Kaylee didn’t notice my skeptical look. “One night I was working the room at a cocktail party and I met Vincenzo. He convinced me that I was better off here, for all that I have to run around naked.” She sighed. “He was right. Even after room and board I’m saving money, and I’m safer. And Vincenzo lets me run the hair salon in my spare time, and pays me for that too. Pretty soon, I’ll have enough money to leave and start my own business.”
“Then why could Heath hurt you?” I asked.
Tonna answered for her. “Heath’s uncle is Elliot Prime.” I shook my head. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but I wasn’t sure why. “The big boss,” Tonna said. “They call him the Emperor.” I nodded now. I had read about him in the paper. He supposedly ran the mob in the region with an iron fist. “He owns this place. Vincenzo’s just the manager. If Heath complains to the Emperor about anyone, they’re out.”
I took this in. Just like with Kaylee having to work as an escort, I thought that there must be more to the story.
“What about you?” I asked Tonna. “Are you a slave, or can you leave?”
“For now, I’m a slave,” Tonna said. Her face took on a dreamy, luminous look. “But my boyfriend will buy me back. He’s working on getting enough money.”
I saw Kaylee roll her eyes, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she put a sheet down on one of the chairs by a sink and indicated to me that I should sit. When I complied, she leaned it back and started to run warm water over my scalp.
When I was talking with the girls I hadn’t exactly forgotten that all three of us were naked, but even in that short space of time I had become used to it. Now, as I lay back in the chair, I felt exposed all over again. Kaylee’s breasts were practically in my face. “Can I ask you something else?” I blurted.
She nodded. “Sure, honey.”
“Are your boobs real?” I said.
Kaylee chuckled. “As real as anything else money can buy. You want to touch them?”
“You don’t mind?”
Kaylee winked over my head at Tonna. “If you don’t mind if we touch yours. Turnabout is fair play.” I shrank down in my chair. “It’s up to you, honey,” Kaylee said kindly. “But I promise you plenty of people will have pawed at them by the end of the night tonight. Tonna and I will both be gentle.” She continued washing my hair. I closed my eyes and thought about it as she massaged my scalp. Why not? At least this way I was choosing the first people who would feel me up.
“Okay,” I said. I tried to sit up, but Kaylee put a restraining hand on my shoulder. “Let me do the conditioner first, honey,” she said. “You relax for now.” She rubbed in the conditioner and massaged my scalp again, this time more firmly. They had never done anything like this at Supercuts. She rinsed my hair again, but didn’t put the chair up. Instead, she trailed her fingers down my neck, and to the top of my left breast. At the same time, Tonna touched the top of my right breast.
Then their fingertips were circling around my breasts, gently feeling the skin. They slowly worked their way towards the center. I was amazed by the sensation. This was nothing like when I had touched myself there. I craved more, and the craving moved down to my crotch. I gasped softly. I opened my eyes, and Kaylee was smiling dreamily at me. She and Tonna both moved their fingers to where they must know I wanted them, to my nipples. They touched me there so softly that I could barely feel it. I couldn’t help it; I arched up into their hands. They squeezed me there, adding more and more pressure. Then Tonna’s mouth was covering my nipple.
“Tonna!” Kaylee’s sharp voice brought me back to myself. “Vincenzo will have our heads if you do that!”
Tonna shrugged sheepishly and backed away from me. “Sorry,” she said. “I never had a virgin either.”
“What’s the matter?” I said peevishly. “You can touch but you can’t taste?”
“Pretty much,” Kaylee said. “You’ll need to be warmed up before tonight, but there’s only so far we can go.” Before I could work out what she meant, she sat the chair up. She took my hand and led it to her breast, but abruptly, as if she regretted the deal. “Give it a squeeze, honey,” she said tersely.
I did. Her breast was a lot bigger that my hand, and felt a little denser than my own did. But before I could really explore, she backed away. “I’m not trying to cheat you, but . . .”
“Maybe in a few days you’ll let me really feel them?” I said. “After I’m damaged? And you won’t get in trouble?”
She grinned. “That’s a deal, honey.” She took my hand again and led me to a different chair, in front of a mirror, but she turned the mirror around so I couldn’t see what she was doing. Briskly she began to trim my hair. She didn’t seem to be doing anything to it other than what I usually had done – taking off the split ends off. She added some goopy stuff to it and blew it dry.
“We should do her eyebrows,” Tonna said.
“I should do her eyebrows,” Kaylee corrected her. “I’ll just neaten them up. No shaping.” I had tried to pluck my eyebrows from time to time, but they always ended up looking like blobs. Kaylee tilted my head back and painted a warm wax on. I yelped when she pulled it off, and again when she did the other side. She soothed me with a cool cream. Then she turned the chair around so I could look in the mirror.
I couldn’t believe it. I still looked like me, but a better version, more put together, prettier. My hazel eyes seemed bigger, and it somehow actually looked like I had cheekbones. “We’ll do her makeup later,” Tonna said, “just before the show.”
“What show?” I asked.
“Don’t you know about tonight?” Tonna asked. I shook my head. “The raffle?”
“No,” I said, a feeling of dread coming over me.
Tonna and Kaylee looked at each other. “You’re the show, honey,” Kaylee said.
“What do you mean? I’m already naked. I can’t exactly strip or anything.”
Heath came in through the doorway. “I guess Vincenzo didn’t tell you when you two looked thick as thieves,” he said, snickering. “You’ll be strung up in the main ballroom, arms spread, legs spread. Men will pay $50 bucks for a chance to grope you. The one who does the best job gets to rape you.”
I couldn’t make sense of it. “In front of everyone?”
“No, honey,” Tonna said. “A man who gives you pleasure,”—she emphasized that word while glaring at Heath – “gets to take you to a room for the night.”
I sank down in my chair. “You can’t be serious.”
Heath snickered. “Oh yeah,” he said. “And once you’re broken in, you’re open for business.” He pretended to reach out to touch me, but at the last minute he snapped his fingers and backed away.
The time I had spent with Tonna and Kaylee had been fun. That seemed crazy now. I had forgotten where I was, what I had signed up for. But I was not the girl Kaylee had shown me in the mirror. I was Belinda, beaten down, good only for being used. “No,” I almost moaned.
“It’s not so bad,” Kaylee said. “Every new girl does it, it’s just most of them aren’t virgins. It’s how you get introduced. If you put on a good show, you get a lot of customers and you make more money. You’ll do fine.” She smiled at me encouragingly, and I managed to smile back.
Heath snapped his fingers again. “That means he wants you to follow him,” Tonna said softly. I was rooted to the floor for an instant, loathe to leave my two friends, terrified of what would happen next.
“Go on, honey,” Kaylee said. “We’ll see you again before tonight.” She gave me a little push, and reluctantly I followed Heath.
He brought me to a small room down the hall. A man who looked vaguely familiar was waiting in it. He was middle aged, with short straight hair just starting towards gray. It took me a minute to realize that he was the doctor my father had taken me to a few weeks earlier. Dr. Lorenzo was his name. The room had white cabinets and a sink and, oh god, one of those chairs with stirrups. Was he going to examine me again? In front of Heath? Heath smirked.
Dr. Lorenzo greeted me kindly but then abruptly asked me how the pill he had started me on had affected my period. He nodded when I told him it had come a few days ago and had lasted only for a day. He had me raise my hands over my head and circled around me. I trembled. I couldn’t help noticing the bulge in his pants, but he didn’t touch me until he saw the scratch on my arm. Tsking, he put something on it that stung.
He did all the usual doctor stuff – listened to my breathing with a stethoscope, hit my knees with a rubber hammer, just as he had done when I had met him before. When he was done he handed me a couple of pills and a paper cup of water. “I’m not allowed to take drugs,” I protested. Was this some kind of test?
“Stop worrying,” Tonna said from the doorway. “It’s just muscle relaxants. You won’t get in trouble.”
The doctor frowned. “You will get in trouble for not listening to my orders, though.” Although he gave me a hard look, I sensed that he thought he was on my side. I swallowed the pills.
“Sorry, sir,” Tonna said, but she didn’t sound concerned. “If you’re done I’m supposed to give her something to eat.” The doctor nodded and Tonna took my hand, leading me across the hall to a small room with a metal table and a few chairs. It looked like an interrogation room from a police show on TV. Tonna pointed to a tray overladen with food on the table. “I didn’t know what you like so I brought you a variety,” she said. I just stared at the tray, until Tonna firmly led me to a chair and placed a bowl of orange-colored soup in front of me.
I was sure that I would throw up if I tried to eat, but Tonna put a spoon in my hand, and I took a bite to please her. I was amazed by the flavor. My eyes flew to hers. She laughed. “We have to watch our weight, but they don’t starve us,” she said. She grabbed a sandwich and sat opposite me.
I had just finished the soup when the door slammed open and Heath walked in. “It’s time,” he said.
