The Night Manager – Part 2: Checkout

She took the whole building as her stage. She had him stand at the front desk and recite the hotel's rules aloud, correcting each slip with a tap of her pen on the leather. She made him carry a tray of nothing from the bar to the lobby and back, slowly, without a sound. She made him kneel on the marble beside the concierge desk, silent, while she wrote her night report, and told him, without looking up, precisely what she expected of a bellman. She corrected him with a finger under his chin and a quiet no. It was strict, formal and absorbing, and the great hotel seemed to hold its breath around them.

Every hour: "Do you wish to remain, Mr Ashby?" "Yes, Madam." "Say it clearly." "I do. Thank you."

"The Night Manager does not require thanks." But she smiled at the log.

The grand clock chimed four. A cleaner's trolley rattled somewhere on an upper floor and was still. Outside, the first grey light reached the glass of the revolving door.

At five she signed the log.

"Checkout," said Camilla, softly.

It was her word, and she used it for them both. The jacket came off. The badge was unclipped and laid on the desk. She came round the front of the counter in her stockinged feet, sat on the bottom step of the marble staircase and held out her arms.

"How are you?"

"Checked out," said Hugo, laughing, sitting down beside her. "In the best possible way."

"You were exemplary." She put an arm round him and kissed his forehead. "I have never had a finer bellman."

"Is there a late checkout?"

"I have asked the manager on duty." She smiled. "He has said that a gentleman of your standing may remain until noon. In the staff quarters. With a very large pot of coffee."

"I accept," said Hugo.

They sat on the staircase in the pale first light, sharing a thermos, while the lobby clock ticked on.

More consensual femdom stories: Velvet Contract · Silk and Steel · Gentle Hands, Gentle Femdom