Working late

By Rayron D’Olier

Chapter one: The phone tip

Suzy was working late and was not happy about it. She and her husband, Derek, were licensed private investigators and bounty hunters who ran their business out of a one-story office building that they owned in the small shopping district of one of the nicer neighborhoods in town. They kept a low profile and didn’t advertise. The only sign was on the front door that led from the sidewalk into the lobby and it said, “City Enquiries,” in three-inch-high black letters. Suzy was in her mid-thirties and her husband was in his early forties and after ten years of their partnership, they had a thriving, if somewhat nebulous business. They followed people, did divorce cases, snatched fugitives, ran security checks, located people and,  for the right price, would provide a complete paper portrait of people of interest to all kinds of other people. They tried to maintain a high standard of ethics, but in their business, disreputable characters on both sides of the law seemed to infest their lives.

Suzy was especially put out by some of the operatives they hired from time-to-time. These shadowy citizens were sometimes very difficult to deal with or know as much about as Derek and Suzy would have liked, and were often highly eccentric. How do you make someone understand that one cannot be discreet or inconspicuous if one has hair down to one’s shoulder blades, a devil beard, large earrings, frightening tattoos, an exclusively black leather and denim wardrobe, as well as a wild, aggressive way of dealing with other citizens. But it was guys like that who were most suited for the work in many ways. Occasionally, though, they would find a hire who was a former spy or federal marshal and those men were generally quiet, intense and very hard to spot when on the job. Suzy thought of these as the “solid citizens.” She didn’t enjoy them as much as their wilder employees, Suzy herself was fairly flamboyant, and appreciated that quality in others, but she worried less about the chance that they would commit some kind of impulsive outrage that would bring them unwanted attention and perhaps unravel a carefully plotted case of investigation.

They had seven operatives at the moment and Suzy was busy updating the reports on their activities this late Tuesday evening. It was about 7 p.m. and she and their secretary, Betty Anne, were the only ones in the building. Her husband was due back from a meeting at any moment and then they could close up and go home. And Suzy was very much looking forward to going home this particular night, because early in the day she had given her husband, Derek, the silent signal that announced that Suzy would like very much to be snatched the second they entered their house, tied up tight and teased for hours into a truly devastating orgasm. This was a game they both loved very much and one that had many variations. Suzy had come to trust Derek to the point that she knew he would do what excited her and would control the pace and scenario in a way that would keep her in a state of prolonged sexual bliss. The aftermath would be a floating serenity that was as delicious as the most excruciating sexual peak. She would beg and plead to be untied, but Derek would just toy with her until every nerve and every square inch of her body was quivering with hypersensitivity. Suzy squirmed in her chair just thinking about it.

As Suzy types the reports into the computer, we can see that she is very nice to look at indeed. She is something of a fitness fanatic and her 5-foot, 6-inch body is taut. If she were not in such excellent shape, she might tend to be naturally plump, but as she is, she is simply a study in well-defined curves. Her bosom is large, but not overly so. Her face is almost sweet with greenish-gray eyes, an oval face, a button nose and a lovely little mouth, which, at the moment, reveals her concentration on her work by her upper teeth biting her lower lip and occasionally mumbling something to herself. Her face is framed by shoulder-length blonde hair, almost white, which today she has drawn back from her face and gathered into a ponytail at the top of her head.

She is dressed in a tight, pink sweater with a low-cut neck and long sleeves. It is buttoned up the back. She has on a double strand of pearls with matching earrings. Her skirt is a loose, slightly below knee-length affair with diagonal stripes of aqua, orange, pink, brown and yellow. Her legs and feet are beautifully enhanced by transparent, natural-color pantyhose, but with visible seams running up the back of her legs. She has kicked off her shoes, which are matt-black, medium-heel, round-toed, leather pumps with a strap and side buckle over the toes. She is sitting straight up in her chair typing away with her ankles crossed under the chair and her legs raised on the toes of one foot. We are very lucky to be able to observe her, because she is very nice to look at, but she is not happy. She would rather be home right now, but she has already been at her desk two hours longer than usual and is probably looking at another hour.

The secretary, Betty Anne, is taking care of some faxing and organizing in another room, but she wasn’t at all unhappy about working late. She is very young, 22 years old, and very excited indeed about working for such, as she thought, glamorous people as Suzy and Derek.

Betty Anne seems to think that she is a character in a detective novel and would like nothing more than to be not only the secretary of this romantic business venture, but would be elated to become an operative in the field. She is always asking questions of everyone and is touchingly, openly and deeply impressed with what she hears from the others. Of course, many of the more unscrupulous employees feed her with some tales that are not quite exactly the honest truth in an attempt to get Betty Anne to grab their manly arms and say things like, “You are so brave and intelligent and handsome and funny. Please fuck me now,” but while Betty Anne is naïve and easily infatuated, she is also not without a keen insight into other peoples’ motives and she has so far resisted any temptation that she might have felt to let herself be used.

There was one operative that Betty Anne actually thought she might like quite a lot named Raymond, but Raymond wasn’t one of the ones that tried to fill her full of guff. Raymond was one of Suzy and Derek’s “citizens” and when he talked to Betty Anne it was as a friendly business associate. It seemed to embarrass him to talk about himself and he actually seemed quite interested in Betty Anne’s life. But so far this interest hadn’t translated into any overt flirting. Betty Anne wasn’t even sure if he was married or whatever, but was anxious to pry that out of him.

Apart from Betty Anne’s natural defenses against cads and bounders, Suzy and Derek had sternly admonished their more raffish employees about playing on Betty Anne’s credulity and Derek especially had decided that it would be inconsistent with his honor as the dominant, silverback male of the organization to allow her to be harvested as a sexual conquest by the lesser men on his payroll. The others would not cross Derek, because Derek would not only promise to hurt them, he would cheerfully do it. Derek liked to fight. It made him happy.  

We see Betty Anne in the fax room behind the reception area standing as she feeds papers into the fax machine. Betty Anne is 5 feet, 10 inches tall and is a willowy young person – almost skinny but not quite. She has dark brown hair, parted on the side that flips up and out in several different directions just below her jaw line. Her face is long and describes an inverted triangle from her cheekbones to her chin. She has blue eyes, straight nose, thin mouth, strong chin and the high cheekbones of a model. She usually wears black, horn rim glasses with oval lenses. That is the case today. Her breasts are very small, but they seem quite firm and would be nice to touch. She is one of those women who have a very high waist and the correspondingly long legs that that implies. She is like the human equivalent of a young deer or colt with an awkward, endearing grace to her movements.

She is dressed today with a fitted, white, sleeveless blouse, buttoned up to her neck. The little collar has a cameo broach where the top button fastens it. The blouse is tucked into a black leather belt that is in turn above a tight, black, silky-looking skirt that ends a couple of inches above her knees. Betty Anne has chosen transparent, white, matt pantyhose today and when she can keep them on, she is wearing very low-cut, leather flats with small, black, leather rosebuds over her toes. At the moment one shoe is on as she stands at the fax machine and she is toying with the other, with the pointed toes of her foot and sliding it around the carpet behind her. Betty Anne is quite happy to be lost in her thoughts at work and is humming an old song she heard on the radio hours ago.

Into this quiet scene strode Derek. Both women heard the door open and his noisy approach through the lobby and down the hall. “Hello Betty Anne. Giving it the old overtime again, eh? Where’s my sweet patootie?”

“She’s back in the main office typing and talking to herself.”

Derek laughed, “As long as she’s still talking to me, she can talk to herself as long as she wants. We’ve got a date tonight.” Derek disappeared down the hall. Betty Anne found herself imagining how Derek and Suzy might “date.” She had often wondered if their sex life might be a little unconventional. She wished hers were a little more so.

Derek entered the office where Suzy sat typing. He is not a tall man. He is a little shorter than Betty Anne at about 5 foot, 9 inches, but he looks like a gymnast. His shoulders easily have enough room for three heads to sit atop and his bulky chest narrows down to a waist so narrow and legs so relatively small that his lower body seems to belong to a much smaller man. His face is square with the huge chin and neck of an athlete, but his eyes are full of fun. He loves life. He loves his work. He loves Suzy and he is obviously comfortable in his own skin. His dark hair is speckled with gray and is cut in the style of a military officer with very short sides, but with a fuller top. He is only beginning to lose some hair and there are extensions of his forehead at his temples. His hands look like square vises. He is dressed today in a black suit, black tie and, because it is very cold today, in an ankle-length overcoat.

“There’s my lovely, little Suzy sitting at her desk with her shoes off and her hair up. I think I might have to take you right here on the floor Suzy. Betty Anne can watch and learn.”

“Oh, hello Derek.” Suzy suppressed a grin, “Were you saying something? How was your day? Get your tongue out of my ear and let me finish these profoundly bombastic and immodest field reports from our so-called “operatives” so we can go home. Thank you dear. Yes you look nice too.”

Derek laughed and threw his coat on the coat rack. He went to his desk and leaned back in his chair so he could continue to watch Suzy from behind her. He watched her stocking feet wriggling around as she typed and watched her ponytail swing. Derek began thinking about exactly what role he might assume when they entered the door of their house and their game would begin. Perhaps he should play it slow and do nothing at first. Keep her wondering when he would grab her.  He thought he might start tonight’s festivities with a really thorough chair tie where she could barely move an inch. While she was bound and gagged he would think it over and decide what kind of villain to be. He would touch her a little now and then – just enough to get the juices flowing. Derek was a good improviser.

The rest of the scenario would play itself out naturally. He would ungag her from time to time so she could prompt him with whatever role she had decided to assume – angry, spunky captive or sweetly innocent damsel in distress begging for release. Sometimes he just liked to talk with her while she was tied up and excited. She could be very funny when her body was demanding that she do something to satisfy its sexual desires while she was completely helpless to move at all. The resulting sexual tension really sharpened her intelligence and her considerable wit was greatly enhanced. She also loved to laugh and sometimes their most hilarious moments together were when he had tied her hands and feet and they just sat together and talked; all the time with the huge clouds of an awesome sexual storm gathering within both of them.

The phone suddenly broke in on these bright, happy thoughts and Suzy decided to let Derek take the call. He did so immediately. She listened to his side of the conversation, but there wasn’t much to hear.

“Myellow… Oh hey Scooter... Yeah?... You know I’m good for it if it’s any good... I’m loaded. Rolling in wealth... Just tell me, you dweeb. Have I ever left you out of a pay day?.. NO! JOKE!.. ARE YOU SURE?.. Ok, let me get this down…” Derek began furiously scribbling on a piece of paper and Suzy stopped typing and turned around to look at him. “Thanks Scooter. Drop by tomorrow.” Derek hung up the phone and went to a closet that was in the wall beside his desk. Out of the closet he took a soft leather suitcase and began rummaging through it on his desk.

Suzy looked at him for a minute and cleared her throat. When this didn’t have the desired effect, she said, “I’m sure that I, as your partner, should have no interest in the fact that you are pawing like a bear with a picnic basket through your little weapons stash, but perhaps, just in the spirit of enquiry, you understand, I might press you to tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”

Derek looked up as if surprised to find someone else in the room. He had pulled a huge knife out of the bag and his hand held it up in the air. And then his face brightened. He smiled a rather fierce smile and his eyes were excited. He somehow managed to look threatening and boyish all at once. “Scooter just called, dear, and he informed me that Jo Jo the Gentleman has just arrived back in our fair city and Scooter has given me the very location where I can go and lay hands on his sorry carcass. In spite of the fact that I would much rather lay hands on you, I cannot let this opportunity slip. If I bring him in we will be paid handsomely and all of our friends and associates will be struck dumb with admiration. Maybe I’ll even get to kill him or hurt him real bad. Ha ha ha.”

As Derek spoke, Suzy had stood up and put her fists on her hips and her sweet, little face assumed an expression of angry incredulity. “You are not running over there by yourself with no planning to confront who knows how many heavily armed assholes just so you can say that you brought in Jo Jo again. You brought him in once and they let him get away, so just you call the police right now, tell them what you know and pat yourself on that concrete slab you call your back that you weren’t irredeemably stupid today. I mean it. You call the police right now you overgrown adolescent!”

Derek thought he had never seen a sight so beautiful as his angry, little Suzy raking him over the coals in her stocking feet and her cute little outfit and an adorable ponytail shaking from side to side as she poured out her fury. “Sweetie, I’m gonna go get him and it will all be just fine. I’m gonna get Stan and High Hat to meet me there and they won’t know what hit em.”

Suzy stood her ground, “NO! Jo Jo will never let himself be taken. He will try to kill you this time, just like he did the last time and if you won’t call the police, I will.”

Suzy turned around and went to pick up the phone. When her hand was an inch from picking it up, she suddenly felt her wrists grasped with an irresistible force. Her arms were pulled behind her and she felt handcuffs close around her wrists and click shut. She began sputtering in angry confusion and found herself being picked up and carried to the huge, old leather sofa that was against the wall next to the door of the office. Derek sat her down and before Suzy could register a complaint or move, another pair of handcuffs locked her ankles together. Derek turned around and left her there and went back to pulling weapons out of the suitcase. Suzy was speechless for a moment, and that surprised both of them.

Her mouth was open for a long second and then she finally spit out, “You take these goddamned things off me right now mister or you’ll regret it.” Derek briefly glanced at her and laughed. Suzy stood up and began advancing on him with the tiny little steps allowed by the very short chain of the cuffs on her ankles. “Look at me. You are not going to leave me cuffed like this while you go off and maybe get killed.” Suzy had managed to get halfway across the room and was breathing hard; not from the exertion, but from sheer frustration and anger.

Derek watched her slowly, but surely, making her way toward him and said, “You’re right, I can’t leave you cuffed. You can get to the phone like that and anyway, I’ll need those cuffs where I’m going.”

Derek went back to the closet and Suzy changed course and began mincing in that direction. “I’ll tell you one thing you bastard, you will unlock these cuffs now and maybe I won’t shoot you in your sleep tonight.”

Derek emerged from the closet holding a pair of high top boots, which he took back to his desk, sidestepping Suzy as he did so and giving her a little kiss as he went by. Suzy had to change course again and slowly began making up for the ground she had lost following Derek to the closet, all the while spewing out a great volume of invective. Derek began taking the laces out of the boots. The boots were almost knee high and had soft, thick laces made of red and white woven cotton. When Suzy realized that Derek intended to put these laces on her, she again reversed her course and began directing her quick, little steps toward the door, intending to enlist the help of Betty Anne.

Derek watched with one eye as he finished taking the laces out of the boots. In a few strides he caught up to Suzy, grabbed her and laid her face down on the couch. He sat on her butt facing her head and unlocked the cuffs on her wrists. Suzy began struggling furiously to keep her arms from being pulled behind her back, but Derek was so much stronger than her and he had very little trouble holding her arms together at the small of her back so that her forearms were at right angles to her body in such a way that her hands were pointing in opposite directions and one forearm was on top of the other. He wound the laces around her wrists with several double wrappings and then cinched them between her wrists. Suzy felt all this and knew from previous experience that she had already lost the use of her hands. She relaxed and felt him pull the laces snug and knot them. She felt him gather her legs together and unlock the cuffs on her ankles. He crossed her ankles to keep her from hopping around after he was gone and began double-wrapping them together. The wrapping was followed by the usual cinch and then the knot. Suzy was now helpless and had lapsed into a cold, silent fury. Derek sat her up and put her on the end of the couch. She leaned back and felt him attach her feet to the couch leg with the leftover cord emerging from the knot at her ankles.

Derek stood back and he and Suzy stared at each other. Derek looked a little ashamed, but he said, “I can’t have you screwing this up. It is my… um… duty to get Jo Jo and I will get him. Just to be sure, when I’m driving over there, I’ll call Raymond and have him come over here in about an hour and a half. He’ll be done with what he’s doing by then and can just swing by on his way home.

Suzy just looked away from him. Her legs were unconsciously tugging at the ropes and her stocking feet were gripping the carpet. Derek had never seen her so offended and angry. He thought, “She’ll get over it.”

He started to go back to the desk to finish arming himself and when he looked up who should he see but Betty Anne standing in the door. She had obviously just entered the office and was staring with amazement at the sight of her immediate boss, Suzy, bound hand and foot on the couch, apparently by her very own husband. The expression Derek saw on Betty Anne’s face contained the remains of the smile she had entered the room with, now frozen with confusion. Betty Anne’s huge eyes looked like big blue saucers. She didn’t seem alarmed. She seemed a little tentative though, as if maybe she had walked in on something a bit private. Her eyes stayed wide open with surprise, but her mouth resumed its smile and even broadened it a little. She put her index finger to her lower lip, giggled and said, “What’s going on in here you guys? How come Suzy’s all tied up?”

When Suzy heard Betty Anne’s voice her body jumped as if electrified. She strained against her bonds and began shouting at Suzy, “Run and call the police right now. Get them over here right goddamned now.”

Derek laughed and said, “Betty Anne, we thought you’d gone home and you’ve caught us playing a little game we’re rather fond of. Suzy here can’t seem to get out of character.” Derek looked at Suzy, but was still talking to Betty Anne, “Imagine how awkward it would be to explain to the police what they would find here. Imagine the effect it would have on the business and our reputation among those in our rather special circle of friends. Hmmmm?”

Suzy mumbled something to herself and flung herself back against the back of the couch. Then she weakly smiled and said to Betty Anne, “Yes. We were just playing around. That’s it. Derek and I were arguing about whether a person, me, could get loose if they were tied up by a nefarious criminal and since Derek is sometimes indistinguishable from a heinous asshole of a shitbird, lowlife, three-time loser, we thought he would do just fine in the role. I’m sitting here now trying to escape. Ha ha.”

Derek laughed just a little too much considering what Suzy had just said and turned to Betty Anne, “So you see, we agreed that we would tie Suzy up and I would leave for about an hour and a half and if she gets loose before I come back then I have to pay her $100 and call her ma’am for a month. Isn’t that right my precious cupcake?”

“Yes, my dear, my filthy pig, my less than a gutter rat.”

“Ha ha,” Derek said a grin.

“Ha ha yourself,” Suzy mirthlessly said.

Betty Anne was blushing quite desperately now, but was deeply and obviously interested in these fascinating proceedings. She said to Suzy, “I could keep you company while you try to escape. We could talk and stuff.”

 Derek said, “No, no, we couldn’t have that. That crafty she-devil of mine might talk you into helping her escape and then where would I be? Out $100 dollars and be ma’aming her left and right, that’s where I’d be.” But now Derek was looking a little concerned and confused. What to do about Betty Anne?

Betty Anne was still giggling and blushing, but was also very obviously unwilling to depart. She said, “You know… I’ve never been tied up before. You could tie me up and then I could keep her company. I could try to escape too and you wouldn’t even have to call me ma’am, although $100 would be nice, or even just $50. Ok?”

Suzy didn’t know what to say. She really wanted to keep Betty Anne in the dark about what was going on now, but she also thought that maybe with two of them there, escape might be possible. That would fix Derek’s little red wagon. So Suzy just sat there squirming a little and watching the tawdry little drama play out in front of her.

At Betty Anne’s last statement, Derek’s face began to twitch and contort a little as he made a mighty effort not to burst into hopeless laughter. “Well, I don’t know. I mean you might not be up for it. We’re hardened old professionals and we’re used to this kind of rough play. I bet you’d be scared if I trussed you up like Suzy.”

Betty Anne turned to Derek and said, “No, I wouldn’t, really, please tie me up, it’ll be fun. Come on Deeereeeek. She needs me to stay and have somebody to talk to and I want to see what it’s like. Come on, pleeeeez.”

Derek really needed to leave the room so he could roll on the floor laughing, but he just settled his face into a calm and amused expression and said, “Well, I guess that would be all right. I’ve got to warn you though, I know what I’m doing and you’ll still be sitting right where I left you when I get back.” Betty Anne just giggled. Derek winked at her and said, “Now we just need to find something to tie you up with. I used all my boot laces on Suzy.” Derek went to the closet with Betty Anne close behind.

Betty Anne watched him for a minute or two and then tapped him on the shoulder and said, “I keep a pair of high-top walking shoes in the fax room to go walking in during lunch. They’ve got some pretty long laces. I’ll go get them.” Betty Anne ran happily out of the room.

Derek looked at Suzy and opened his mouth wide in hilarious amazement. Suzy looked at him cynically and said, “You are enjoying this just a little too much you butt face.”

Derek bent down toward Suzy’s ear and whispered in a voice cracking with suppressed mirth, “She’s running across the building to get me something to tie her up with. I can’t believe it. I didn’t know what the hell to do with her. I was about to take her with me.” Betty Anne ran back into the room. Derek quickly straightened up and said to Suzy, “Yes, you’re right. It has been a very cold day.”

Betty Anne held out a very long black shoelace in each hand and said, “Here. Will these do?” Derek took the laces from her and looked at them with a critical eye and said, “Yes, I believe so. They’re not as long as the bootlaces, but then you’re somewhat skinnier than Suzy – no offense my dearest soul mate – and so we won’t need as much to get you all situated. Turn around and put your arms behind you please.”

Betty Anne grinned, whirled around like a dancer and crossed her wrists. Derek repositioned her arms so that they were at right angles to her body in the small of her back, just as he had done with Suzy, and began wrapping the lace vertically around her wrists and then finished by cinching between her wrists and knotting where she couldn’t reach the knot. Betty Anne laughed and flapped her hands like a bird’s wings. “Wow, that was fast. How did you do that? Man, I’m in trouble if I have to scratch my nose.” Then she went and sat on the couch next to Suzy and held out her feet to be tied, making little flutter kicks and smiling excitedly.

Derek went, “Not there,” and stood her up and had Betty Anne walk to the other end of the couch. “Don’t want you gals sitting too close to each other and messing with my knots.”

The couch was a gigantic, old thing that had once been in a hotel lobby and was easily 10 feet long. Derek sat Betty Anne down at the very opposite end from Suzy. He bent down and began expertly tying her ankles together; wrapping, cinching and knotting just as he had with Suzy, but with Betty Anne he didn’t cross her ankles, he just tied them side-by-side. He left enough length coming out of the knot to tie her ankle bonds to the couch leg, also as he had done with Suzy. There was just enough slack between the couch legs and their ankles so they could either rest their feet flat on the floor or lift their feet all the way up on their tip toes. Derek stood back for a moment, unable to resist the sight of these two lovely women tied hand and foot. One woman was tied against her will, was aware that escape was unlikely and was more than a little put out by this absurd situation even though she was beginning to accept it and relax a little. The other, younger woman was tied up because she thought it would be fun and was looking forward to amazing one and all by escaping. She had no idea that she could no longer change her mind about her predicament and that Derek wouldn’t untie her no matter what she said or did. It didn’t matter though, because she was looking forward to this strange little adventure and was blissfully ignorant about its true nature.

Derek tore himself away from the heavenly tableau on the couch and went back to his weapons case. He put on a double shoulder holster and placed a large automatic pistol under each arm. He put his heavy overcoat on over this and into the pockets of this there disappeared a large knife in a scabbard, a tactical baton, four pairs of handcuffs and a hand grenade. Initially, Betty Anne had been paying no attention to Derek, but was exploring what it felt like to be “bound hand and foot” as they say in the novels. She struggled against the laces and tried to see behind her back and brought her hands around to her side so she could see how they were tied. Betty Anne was wonderfully limber, so she had a surprising range of movement and her waist was so slender that when her hands were directly behind her back, most of her fingers could be seen on either side from the front. She looked down at her legs and tested her ankle ropes ­ pointing her toes and pulling against the laces with one foot while the other stayed flat on the floor. She was twisting and squirming and tossing her hair out of her eyes as she tested her bonds and she had soon lost one of her little flat-heeled shoes from a slender, graceful, stocking foot. Suzy watched her, smiling sardonically, and then turned to stare angrily at Derek. Betty Anne also looked up at Derek, but with a gleeful grin on her face. She started to say something, but stopped when she saw him hanging deadly weapons all over his body.

“What are you doing Derek? Why do need all that stuff? She said this softly and with a little suspicion in her voice as if it was beginning to dawn on her that perhaps all was not what it seemed.

Betty Anne heard Suzy give a snort of laughter and Suzy chimed in, “Yeah Derek, you dumb shit, what do you need all that stuff for huh? Will you commit violence and mayhem on the unsuspecting public of our community for and hour or two while you allow us time to free ourselves? Are you afraid to walk to the parking lot without being armed to the teeth? Huh? Tell us Derek?”

Derek was at a loss for words. He looked at Suzy and said; “I knew I should have put a gag in that pretty mouth.” Then he smiled at Betty Anne as he walked toward the door and said, “Maybe Suzy will answer that question for you if she recovers her naturally sweet disposition. Well, have fun girls and don’t get into any mischief. Bye.” And he was out the door, closing it behind him.

Chapter two: Betty Anne is clued in

Betty Anne laughed and turned to Suzy, “You are so lucky to have such a cute, funny guy like that.” Suzy smiled in spite of herself, but she looked worried. Betty Anne didn’t notice. She was now trying to escape in earnest. “Man, the way he tied our hands it’s gonna be tough to get loose. Where did he learn to do that? If we can get our feet loose we could untie each other’s hands. It’s strange how I can sort of move around all over the place, but I’ll be damned if I can see how to get these laces untied.” Betty Anne was twisting every way she could think of to try and get a couple of fingers on a knot or find an angle where she could slip out of the laces that bound her. Her beautiful legs in their white pantyhose were moving up and down and flexing as she pointed her toes and tried to slip a foot through the tight, black laces around her ankles. It wasn’t long before the other shoe had slipped off her foot and she absentmindedly kicked both shoes in front of her so she wouldn’t be stepping on them. She looked at Suzy and said, “We are really tied up! This is incredible! And what’s so strange is that if I sit very still, I can hardly tell, but the second I try to move, I just can’t. I’m so used to being able to do anything with my body and now I can’t do anything at all. Two shoelaces have made me completely helpless. Gee!”

Suzy looked back at Betty Anne and said, “I can assure you that unless we think of something truly brilliant, we will stay tied up just like this until Derek gets back. Believe me, there is no use struggling at all. If we are going to get loose it will have to be another way. Derek is an expert.”

“I remember him saying that. I thought he was just kidding around, but you really mean it. You don’t seem very surprised. You’re not even trying to escape. I thought that was the whole point of this was to try and escape and you’re just sitting there. And what did he mean about getting you to tell me why he left here with guns and stuff all over him? Tell me. I’ll keep everything a secret. I won’t tell anybody. You can trust me totally, I swear.” Betty Anne was leaning toward Suzy and had an eager look on her innocent face and then she leaned too far and fell over. She giggled and tried to sit up and let out a little squeal when she found that she couldn’t. With their hands tied at right angles to their bodies, they had much less movement from side to side with their arms than if their hands had been tied crossed, but more parallel to their backs. Betty Anne started grunting and pushing back against the backrest of the couch and used her legs to dig her feet into the carpet and pull against the laces holding her ankles to the couch. After several tries, she finally managed to resume an upright position and breathed out, “Whew! It’s hard work being all tied up and stuff.” Betty Anne wriggled around and leaned forward to reposition herself more comfortably and settled down to the same sort of gentle writhing against her bonds that Suzy had been displaying all along. They were both sort of toying with the carpet with their stocking feet and experimentally flexing their legs and pointing their toes against the laces. Betty Anne said, “Where were we? Oh yeah, talk to me.”

Suzy thought about it a minute and decided that Betty Anne was a decent sort of girl and if they were closer in age, they would probably have been close friends instead of just employer and employee. Suzy decided to tell her everything.

“Well, first of all, Derek ties me up sometimes when we have sex. He actually does it quite often. He captures me and keeps me tied up for a time we agree on in advance and drives me absolutely crazy by touching me and then leaving me alone until I need to come so bad I’m literally desperate. Finally near the end of our game time, he’ll let me have it. He’ll slowly bring me to it and those orgasms are so strong that sometimes I even faint. You said while ago that your body and mind are surprised that they can’t make the simple movements you make hundreds of times a day, every day. It’s the same when you’re tied up for sex, but the urge to move and get satisfaction makes every nerve in your body so hypersensitive that this aura of sexual energy surrounds you totally. You are so helpless to do anything about the power running through your body that all your emotional and physical defenses go down completely. But that only happens when you trust your man. When I’m tied up and we’re playing our roles of villain and damsel, I feel twice as sexy as I normally do and Derek looks twice as sexy to me. Every little thing becomes charged with sexual significance. For instance, just watching Derek walk across the room away from me makes me twice as excited because I can’t follow him. He’s totally free and I’m totally helpless. I’m tied to a chair or something and I can’t do what he’s doing. He’ll kiss me and put his hands on me, but I can’t touch him back or hold him close if he goes away. I can’t control anything. I am out of control and it is so powerful when you love the man who is in control. It just sends me through the roof when I am his prisoner and he is the gentlemanly villain.”

Betty Anne’s eyes were as wide as it was possible for them to be and her teeth were biting her lower lip. She said, “I’ve heard of that and I’ve wondered about it, but I’ve never been able to imagine what it would be like. I don’t think I’ve been with a guy that I would want to do it with yet, but then I’ve only been with two guys. And I’ll tell you a secret. I’m a virgin. But God I want to find somebody to help me not be.” Betty Anne was quiet for a moment, “So I guess I screwed up your game. Why didn’t you just tell me to leave? I’m such an idiot to have wanted to get in on what you guys were doing. You and Derek must be so pissed off that I got him to tie me up and when he comes back, I’ll be in the way. I am sooo sorry. I wish I could get loose and just leave.” Betty Anne pounded her feet on the floor and twisted her body around, but found herself tied as effectively as ever. “It’s hopeless to even try to get loose.” Betty Anne started crying a little in embarrassment and frustration and her hands automatically tried to move from behind her back and wipe her eyes, but all they did was wave and twist ineffectually behind her.

Suzy smiled and said, “Hey, look at me honey. Just this once, I’m not tied up for sex. This is the first time it’s ever happened, but Derek really tied me up to keep me from interfering in something. I have literally been tied up against my will this time and when I first told you to run and go get the police, I meant it, but Derek was right when he warned me off that with his bullshit story. He had no idea what to do with you and he was glad when you wanted him to tie you up too. He couldn’t believe it when you actually asked him to tie you up with me. I didn’t say anything because it would open up such a clusterfuck that a bad situation would be made infinitely worse. Hell, after sitting here for a while I’m starting to think Derek might be right on this issue and I’m wrong, but there’s nothing to do but sit here and wait now. Either he or Raymond will come and cut us loose in a little over an hour.”

Betty Anne was having trouble processing this information, but she had recovered her poise and was once again interested in what was happening. There were still some tears on her cheeks, but her face was once again bright with curiosity and a sense of something new, exciting and mysterious. Suzy noticed Betty Anne had leaned toward her again and her legs were bouncing up and down on her silky toes. Her fingers were wriggling behind her back in a reflexive attempt to express her excitement. “So why did Derek tie you up? What were you interfering with?”

Suzy had gone too far to stop now, “Derek got a call about a professional assassin who is on the run and has a huge bounty on his head. Derek brought his guy in once before about five years ago and the guy tried to kill him then. Derek shot him and almost beat him to death and when Derek heard where he was hiding he just had to go get him himself and I was equally determined to call the police and let them handle it. He was just about to leave when you came in and if you hadn’t asked him to tie you up, he would have probably done it anyway. I don’t know how he would have handled it otherwise and I doubt if he does either.”

“So you mean to say that I’m really as much a captive as you are? That if I hadn’t liked how it felt to be tied up that he wouldn’t have untied me?”

“That is correct young lady. Derek wouldn’t have been as comfortable with it with you as with me because he at least knew that I wasn’t frightened of the idea of simply being tied, but he was so relieved when you begged to be tied with me. He thought it was really funny too.”

Betty Anne looked positively delighted at this new development. “Oh wow, I’ve really been tied up by a big, scary man! This is unbelievable. But I’ve got to tell you that I find the way it feels kind of fun. I think I know what you mean when you say it makes you feel sexy. You look sexy all tied up. Your legs and feet look really great when you pull them against the laces and your bosom is out there all helpless and tight against your sweater. I can see what the attraction is for the guy. How do I look? Do I make a fetching damsel?” Then Betty Anne’s face fell, “But you must be worried sick. How can I be having fun when Derek might be in trouble?”

Suzy was amused in spite of herself at this young woman’s sense of fun and then her concern with Suzy’s feelings, “Don’t worry about Derek too much. He’s a dangerous, dangerous man and he has the advantage of knowing where the shitbird is and the shitbird is unaware that Derek is about to fall on him like a ton of lead.”

Betty Anne’s face was still serious. She tossed a lock of hair out of her eyes and asked, “So who is this guy that Derek’s going after?”

Suzy was now glad that she had someone to confide in. It was a comfort, but it was all so odd. There they were, like two girlfriends on the couch exchanging secrets and worries, but they were both so effectively bound that they couldn’t budge from their respective ends of the couch. In was incongruous. But it was so much better than sitting there alone. “As I said, the guy is, or was, an actual assassin who did hits for the New York mafia families. He’s not Italian, though, he’s Irish and his services were in great demand. He’s known in the criminal world as Jo Jo the Gentleman because even though he is a professional killer, he has impeccable manners and has never harmed a law-abiding citizen or any woman or child. His real name escapes me, but Jo Jo ran a shipping business out of New York and did the hits as an extremely financially rewarding sideline. He would go anywhere and kill anybody as long as he was satisfied that, by his standards, they needed killing. His downfall came when one of the big crime family bosses insisted that he kill the wife and children of a major mafia figure in Chicago. Jo Jo refused to do this and told the man that he was a “revolting piece of offal.” When the family boss looked up “revolting” and “offal” in the dictionary, he sent some guys to kill Jo Jo for having the temerity to turn him down and insult him on the way out the door. Those guys were never seen again and Jo Jo disappeared for about a year.

“His shipping business, which was officially in someone else’s name, was sold at a huge profit through middlemen and the money presumably disappeared into a foreign bank account, but they tried to arrest Jo Jo as he was preparing to leave the country. Jo Jo eluded the police even though they thought they had him surrounded and then every bounty hunter in the country started to keep one eye out for him. We found out he was here through some of our more unsavory contacts and Derek went and got him. Evidently, Jo Jo thought Derek had been sent by his former New York associates and there was a tremendous gun battle at the house where Jo Jo was hiding.  Once Jo Jo was in custody, he made a deal to go into the federal witness protection program and tell everything he knew about the highest levels of organized crime. But after about three months in the program, he eluded the marshals before he could testify, which meant the deal was off, and he hasn’t come up for air until today, almost a year later. Presumably he is still trying to leave the country so he can enjoy his massive fortune in some out of the way place. And that’s who Derek is after. He’s probably in the thick of it right now. I have mixed feelings about Jo Jo because if ever there was a criminal with some honor and principle, then he is the one, but right now, I hope Derek is standing over him and Jo Jo is dead.”

As Suzy was telling this tale she began to lean toward Betty Anne, who was already leaning toward her. Both women were trying to gesture with their hands, which made their hands struggle against the laces that bound them and made their fingers clutch at the air behind their backs. Suzy was rubbing her stocking feet against the carpet as she thought of Derek going into battle like some irresistible force and her body began to insist that it had been tied up long enough and needed to move around in response to a growing sense of a very familiar urge. Betty Anne was absolutely vibrating with excited concentration. Every now and then, she would arch her back and spread her fingers wide and twist her arms and hands as she struggled with the bonds around her wrists and the toes of both feet would point and her leg muscles would flex as she tried to pull away from the couch leg that her ankle bonds were leashed to. Then she would begin lifting one foot, putting it down and raising the other as if to loosen the laces.

They were so deep in their conversation that all of this movement was unconscious, but the idea of escape eventually occurred to both of them and they began looking around the room for inspiration. But they were well and truly tied and finally lapsed into a more relaxed and gentle writhing against the laces that bound them. Suzy told Betty Anne about her and Derek’s history together and Betty Anne told Suzy about her woeful lack of experience in relationships and how she soon hoped to remedy that. She also mentioned that her fellow employee, Raymond, was very interesting to her, but didn’t seem interested in her. Suzy turned the idea of Raymond and Betty Anne over in her mind for a moment and then just said, “Ask him out. He will not say no, I promise.”

Chapter three: Jo Jo the Gentleman

At that moment they heard the front door open and footsteps in the lobby. They sat straight up and as the door to the office opened, they saw a thin, loose-limbed, but broad-shouldered man of about 50 enter the room. He was dressed in a gray overcoat and slacks, shiny, expensive shoes and was wearing simple rimless glasses. He was very tall; at least 6 foot, 4 inches and his grey hair was long and wavy on the sides while the top of his head was bald and shiny. His face was composed of sad, droopy eyes, a mouth with lips like two sausages pressed together and a nose that curved like an S from the front view and had a huge hump in it from the side view. His face was deeply furrowed and his chin stuck out like a steel truck bumper. The lines in his face rearranged themselves as he smiled at the amusing sight of two bound and helpless women and he bowed slightly at the waist and announced, “Good evening ladies. I am Jo Jo the gentleman and I hope you are doing well in spite of this bitterly cold day.”

Suzy and Betty Anne stared dumbstruck and Jo Jo continued, “Imagine my surprise at your situation. Who could have been so thoughtful as to prepare such a delightful greeting for me? I would have thought that I was an unexpected guest, but it appears I still have some friends after all. Forgive me if I express the hope that our time together will prove to be a “bonding” experience. Ha ha.” Jo Jo pulled up an office chair and draped his coat over the back of it revealing a very expensive gray suit. He sat in the chair facing the women and crossed his legs. Suzy began to say something, but Jo Jo immediately put his finger to his lips and shushed her. “Let me talk for awhile please. I think you will be not altogether unhappy with what I have to say. I think you will find it somewhat reassuring. I must say the two of you look so nice all trussed up like that. I won’t ask how you got that way. Other peoples’ recreational activities are none of my business, but your helpless state will make my job easier. And now I will explain what has happened and what will happen next. Let me start by affirming that your heroic Derek is in the pink of health but is probably just a little unhappy because he doesn’t know where I am. I have no intention of hurting him or either of you, but if I have to, I will. Let me reemphasize that I don’t ever want to hurt anyone ever again, and if you two cooperate you can insure that everyone and everything will be all right by this time tomorrow. I will confide in you both. I don’t know either of you, but I am moved by the idea of someone knowing my story. You will have no choice in the matter. For the next hours you will be my captive audience. I will try to keep you as comfortable as possible, but a certain amount of restraint will be necessary from time to time. The first thing I must do is move you and myself to a place where our conversation can be uninterrupted. There will be no one else there and you will be perfectly safe, but you must reconcile yourselves to being my prisoners.”

Jo Jo stood up, put back on his coat and went about the office gathering Betty Anne’s and Suzy’s coats. He came back in the office, “I’ll explain more later, but now we must go on a little field trip.” Jo Jo bent down to Betty Anne’s ankles and untied the laces that held her ankles to the couch leg, but leaving her ankles tied together. He lifted her feet off the floor and slipped her shoes back on. Then he unleashed Suzy’s ankles from the couch leg. “And where are your shoes young lady?” Suzy just nodded with her head in the direction of her desk chair. Jo Jo went and retrieved her shoes. When he bent back down to her feet, he untied her ankles, which were crossed, placed them side by side and retied them. Then he slipped Suzy’s shoes back on and stood up. Her grabbed Suzy’s coat and with one hand he pushed her to a standing position. He draped the coat around her shoulders and bound arms and buttoned the coat down the front. He did the same with Betty Anne.

Without a word, he picked up Betty Anne and hooked her over his shoulder. Betty Anne let out a squeal and Jo Jo said, “There there, I won’t drop you,” and he and Betty Anne disappeared down the hall leaving Suzy standing there all alone. Jo Jo came back quickly and Suzy found herself picked up and carted away down the hall toward the back door of the office building. As she looked up to see the hallway grow longer behind them, she wasn’t terribly afraid, but she was nervous. She supposed she might be able to trust Jo Jo, but she damn sure didn’t have to like it and there was always the chance that he would be forced to do something desperate. She almost laughed when the thought occurred to her for the second time that day that she was totally powerless to influence events, like them or not. She was being carted down the hall like a sack of flour and couldn’t fight, run away or even wriggle very much. She actually found herself worried about how this experience might affect her and Derek’s tie-up games, but then just as this thought took conscious form, she found herself carried into the frigid night and laid on the floor of the cargo area of a black, windowless van. The door shut and she wriggled around so she could see where Betty Anne was.

Betty Anne was sitting against the side of the van with her legs straight out in front of her and her shoes had already begun to fall off her feet. She was looking at them and toying with them on the ends of her toes, but then turned to Suzy and fell over so that she could whisper in Suzy’s ear, “He promised he would be nice to us. This might be fun!”

Suzy stared hard at Betty Anne and then rolled her eyes in disgust. They were both lying down on the floor now and neither could manage to sit up since they were wrapped in their coats. Jo Jo got in the driver’s seat and they took off. Not a word was spoken as they drove away. They only went about twenty minutes or so and the women felt the van turn off the asphalt road and onto what seemed to be a dirt driveway. The van came to a stop and Jo Jo opened the van’s side door and picked Suzy up over his shoulder. He held her there with one arm and with the other Suzy could see that he was carrying a canvas overnight bag. Suzy was facing backwards so she couldn’t see where they were heading, but she could see that they were in what looked like a yard with a lot of trees in it. She heard Jo Jo put a key in a lock and they entered a pitch dark building. Then Jo Jo flipped on a light and put Suzy in a chair. She saw they were in what seemed to be a suburban kitchen, last decorated in about 1960. It was clean and well lit and she was sitting in a chair that went with a dinette set made of metal tubes and plastic cushions for the seats and backrests of the chairs. Jo Jo went back out and soon came back in with Betty Anne over his shoulder. Suzy saw to her extreme irritation that Betty Anne had lost her shoes again and was doing little flutter kicks with her feet as they entered the door. Jo Jo was visibly amused and was carrying Betty Anne’s shoes in the hand that wasn’t needed to hold her on his shoulder. He set Betty Anne down so she was standing on the floor in front of another dinette chair and he took her coat off. He bowed a little and gestured for her to sit down, which she did with a sort of prim grace dictated by her bound hands and feet. Jo Jo stood Suzy up and took her coat off and she sat down without being prompted.

Jo Jo had situated their chairs so that they were away from, but facing the table and he went and sat down at yet another chair that was facing them. He pulled a pint of liquor and a large, automatic pistol from under his coat and laid them on the table. He took a long swig from the liquor and gave them a relieved smile. Suzy barked, “What are you going to do to us Jo Jo?”

Jo Jo looked a little hurt and said, “Really it’s not like that. I can’t let you go for a while because I might need you for a bargaining chip, but it would just about ruin my life to have to hurt either of you. Try not to worry sweetheart. First things first and I imagine you two would like to stretch a little and freshen up a bit and then we can have a bite to eat and something to drink. I’ve got plenty of food and liquor here and you are my guests, however unwilling.” Jo Jo and the women looked at each other for an awkward moment and then Jo Jo continued, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll untie you and we’ll go upstairs to the master bathroom and you can do whatever you want in there for a little while and then we’ll come back down here and sit at the table and have a chat. I’ll have this pistol on you and if either of you try anything the least you’ll get is a smacking around. If you get away and I don’t think I can catch you, I will shoot you. God, I hate even saying those words to such two lovely, lovely girls, but I won’t have my plans screwed up and I won’t be taken. I’m leaving here tonight and you’ll never see or hear from me again, so for your own good and mine, just relax and work with me.”

Jo Jo got up and untied Suzy. While he was untying Betty Anne, Suzy said, “Where is the alcohol?” Jo Jo pointed to the cabinet over the sink. Suzy got a glass, some ice and poured herself a very large scotch.

Betty Anne said, “Me too, Suzy,” while Jo Jo was untying her hands. Jo Jo laughed at Betty Anne and said, “Young lady, I’ll have to see your ID.”

Betty Anne looked indignant and said, “I am 22 years old and I can have a drink if I want to.”

Jo Jo picked up his pistol and motioned for them to walk in front of him. As they walked he directed them, “Right, left, up the stairs, left, down the hall, left into that door.” They walked into a large bedroom. Jo Jo sat on the bed with the pistol in his lap and his drink on the bedside table. He smiled and gestured to the bathroom. Both women went in and “freshened up” as Jo Jo had put it. As soon as they had closed the door Betty Anne turned to Suzy with an excited look on her face and was starting to say something. Suzy quickly put a finger to Betty Anne’s mouth and with her other hand put a finger to her own mouth. Betty Anne made “OK” signs with both hands.

After they were done, they retraced their steps to the kitchen and Suzy made another large scotch. Betty Anne did the same. Suzy noticed Betty Anne’s eyes were a little shiny and full of interest in everything that was happening. Jo Jo opened the canvas overnight bag he had brought in earlier from the van and produced a gigantic tangle of soft, white cotton rope. “When I went to your office, I figured I might have to tie up somebody. Ha ha. I didn’t expect to have it so easy. Have a seat.” Jo Jo went to the refrigerator and started reciting its contents. They settled on heating up a massive take-out pizza and drinking some beer along with their scotch. As the sat at the table eating and drinking Suzy saw that Betty Anne was dying to talk to Jo Jo, but was too shy. Jo Jo was aware of this too and occasionally would wink at Suzy to show it was all OK. He didn’t eat much and leaned back in his chair with the pistol in his lap and while the women ate and drank, he talked, “This house. All these months when the feds and everybody else have been looking for me, I’ve been right here. The nearest neighbors are about half a mile away and I don’t go out much. I’ve had a phone, computer and a woman that brings me everything I’ve needed while I’ve made my plans to get out of this country and enjoy my money. The house belongs to the woman, who I’m surprised to find I am actually in love with. Who’d a thunk it? I won’t get into who she is, but she is coming with me and this house will probably be confiscated and sold by the feds. We’ll think about it while we’re living in my new chateau that I’ve never even fucking seen yet.

“That stinking rat Scooter saw me in town today when I went to meet with some friends who are also coming with me. We took Scooter to one of the guys’ apartments and in case somebody else had seen me, we made him call Derek and tell him I was holed up outside of town. Where we told him is a very long way from here, all the way across town and in the country. All Derek would have found there would be a warehouse full of old junk. I imagine Derek has already arrived back at your office and found the note I left him. I told him I have you two and that he needs to stay in the office at the phone and wait for me to call him. He is also to carefully avoid telling anybody else about this and to understand that I have people watching the office, which I don’t. I suspect he’s gonna be real careful with you involved. It goes against his nature, but he doesn’t have a play against me and he knows it. By the way, you’ll see Scooter again. I couldn’t kill a pissant like that, but my friends are keeping him entertained elsewhere. You guys should quit dealing with scum like that in my opinion. He’ll sell you out some day.

“Anyway, we’ve got a float helicopter hidden out in the barn. My friends and I are going fly out over the coast and meet up with a ship that I still own, through a foreign company, and I will be free. I don’t even think I know what that feels like. It’s been a hell of a lot of work setting all this up, but by the time anyone else hears what I’ve told you, I will be long gone. It will be as if Jo Jo the goddamn Gentleman never existed. What I’m gonna have to do is leave you two tied up here. I’ll call Derek and let him know where you are, once I’m out of reach, and there’s also a friend of mine, who will remain unnamed, whose going to make sure and call Derek too. We’ve got a failsafe. I won’t be around, but I still have some loyal contacts here that I have been very generous with as a result of their loyalty.” Jo Jo looked at his watch, “Let’s see, it’s about 10:30 and we won’t be flying out of here until 4 in the a.m. I’ve got some things to do, so I’m afraid I’m gonna have to rope you gals up a little.”

Suzy said, “What if we promise not to escape. What if we swear we’ll cooperate as if we were your friends?”

Jo Jo shook his head, “Nawww, I didn’t survive this long by ignoring the details. I’ve got to know you’re staying put. Let’s go in the living room and see if we can’t tie you up nice and snug, but still comfy enough so you won’t mind too much.”

Betty Anne said, “Can I make another drink first, Mr. Jo Jo?”

“Well sure, little lady, bring it in with you.” Suzy and Betty Anne made themselves another drink. Betty Anne found her shoes and put them back on and they were herded by Jo Jo into the living room, which was on the other side of the house through a door next to the staircase. Against the far wall of the living room was a comprehensive entertainment center that looked out of place among the 1960s furnishings. Facing the entertainment center in a semi-circle was a couch with end tables and on the other side of the end tables were two overstuffed chairs that matched the couch. Suzy found herself wondering where the coffee table was, but the floor was empty between the furniture and the entertainment center, which was dominated by a very large TV. Suzy and Betty Anne stood there and watched as Jo Jo began pulling rope out of the canvas bag. When he found two lengths that seemed to suit him he went over to Suzy and said, “Hold out your hands palm to palm. He wrapped turn after turn of rope around her wrists, cinched between her hands and tied a knot beneath her wrists. He went over to Betty Anne and did the same with her. As he was tying her hands together, Betty Anne began blushing and made a few low laughing noises. Jo Jo laughed with her and said, “Don’t get the wrong idea, but you are just cute as a bug. And this don’t scare you at all does it?”

Betty Anne looked at him shyly and said sweetly, “Maybe a little.”

Jo Jo laughed and gave her a wink. Jo Jo looked at Suzy and said, “Now she’s got the right attitude. You can learn something from her.” Suzy just groaned.

With their hands tied, Jo Jo began arranging the remaining ropes by length and he took one of the longer ones and went over to Suzy and grabbed her shoulders and gently turned her around. He wrapped the rope in double turns around Suzy’s arms and body so that it was just under her bosom and above her elbows. Suzy felt the ropes tighten as he put cinches between her arms and body and then she felt him tie a tight knot at the center of her back. He led her to the end of the couch, turned her around and indicated that she should sit. She did so a little stiffly. Jo Jo began wrapping rope around Suzy’s legs just above her knees. He cinched between her legs and bent down to tie the knot under her legs. With a very short length of rope he attached her bound wrists to the ropes that held her legs together. When Suzy was leaning back in the couch there was no slack in this rope at all. Jo Jo then finished by tying Suzy’s ankles together just as he had her wrists. Suzy noticed that all of the knots were where she couldn’t even see them.

Jo Jo then did exactly the same to Betty Anne and had her sit in the chair nearest the end of the couch where he had placed Suzy. “There, that’s a pretty sight. You can move around a little and maybe even scratch your cute little noses if you’re lucky, but call me a dipshit if either of you can get out of that. Who wants the remote control to the TV?” Jo Jo held the remote up.

Suzy just looked away from him, but to her astonishment, she heard Betty Anne say, “Oh, give it to me. That’ll be great, thank you.” Jo Jo placed the remote between her tightly bound hands. She had moved to the edge of the chair so she could sit up straight and reposition herself and she smiled at Jo Jo.

Jo Jo placed their drinks on the end table that was between them and frowned. “Damn, I forgot something.” He left the room, but came back almost instantly and stuck a straw in each of their drinks. “Now you too can enjoy what’s left of the evening. I didn’t even gag you, you’ll notice because I just know you two will have plenty to gab about. I’ll be coming and going and I’ll check in on you every now and then, maybe bring you a fresh drink or whatever. Later I’ll have to tie you all up a little more… um… securely. In the meantime, have a drink, watch TV, shoot the shit or just take a little nap. By sunrise your heroes will have rescued the damsels and you can all have a big laugh about this.” He put his hand under Suzy’s chin and lifted her face so she was looking into his eyes and said, “Cheer up gorgeous. Remind yourself that it could have been so bad, but now you know it won’t be bad at all.” Jo Jo stood back and looked at Suzy who was staring at him with very little evident emotion. “I must say though, that I am a little curious about why you ladies were all tied up at the office. Ha.”

Suzy said, “Jo Jo, just please mind your own business. This has been a tough day and I just want to sit here and try to pretend I’m not tied so I can barely move. Is that OK with you?”

Jo Jo smiled ruefully, “You make me feel bad.” He turned to Betty Anne and said, “Try to get her a little less moody would you cupcake?”

Betty Anne lifted her lovely legs up on her toes, which made her shoes slip off her heels and said, “You betcha!”

Jo Jo said, “That’s the spirit.” He rubbed his hands together and loudly sighed and said, “Time to get to it.” He left the room with one last cheerful look.

Chapter four: Suzy and Betty Anne kick back

After Jo Jo left the room, Betty Anne leaned forward in her chair and whispered, “He is amazing!”

Suzy looked at Betty Anne, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re enjoying this.”

Betty Anne’s actually got a little pouty and she said, “Well look, I mean how often does this happen to somebody and they don’t have to be scared. Who gets to meet a famous criminal and get held captive? There’s nothing we can do about it anyway. Why not just go with it, ya know? Think about it. Derek’s safe, no worries there. I would bet money Jo Jo won’t hurt us and we’ll get rescued. Maybe Raymond will come with Derek and he can rescue me while Derek is rescuing you. Ha ha ha.”

Suzy looked at Betty Anne and saw that she had slipped her shoes off her feet and had hooked her toes over the heels and was making the shoes flip up and down. Suzy sighed, “I guess you’re right. There’s certainly no reason to be mad at you anyway, I’m sorry.”

Suzy leaned back in the couch, kicked her shoes off and with some awkwardness, pulled her legs up on the couch and curled them around her, just as she would if she was relaxing at home after work. She leaned over and took a sip of scotch through the straw.

Betty Anne took a sip also and said, “One thing I want to hear more about is these sex games. To be honest, when I thought about Raymond rescuing me what I really thought about was him coming in the room and seeing me all tied up. The second I thought of that I got that sexy feeling. I’m not seeing him untying me, I’m seeing him touching me while I’m tied. It surprised me. God, I hope Raymond is a nice guy.”

Suzy watched Betty Anne leaning forward in her chair, her hands trying to gesture, but held together by tight ropes and pulled up short when they tried to move above her knees more than a couple of inches. Betty Anne was bouncing up and down slightly and her feet were pointed at the floor. Betty Anne was excited and wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it. Suzy said, “From what I know of Raymond, he won’t be an actual bad guy, he’ll be nice enough. The question is, will he have any imagination? Derek knows him a lot better than me.”

Betty Anne leaned back in her chair and began investigating how she was tied. “Don’t think we can get loose Suzy. It’s so weird to be able to see your hands and still not get them loose.” Betty Anne lifted her legs straight out in front of her and flexed them against the ropes, “We could hop around, though. Hey, do you think my legs are too skinny?” Betty Anne looked at Suzy while holding her bound legs out in front of her and pointing the toes of both feet.

Suzy said, “God no. Your legs are perfect. They make mine look stumpy.”

“Your legs don’t look stumpy. They look curvy and gorgeous. I’ve always been afraid mine look like sticks.” Betty Anne let her feet fall to the floor, where she began to rearrange her shoes so she could slide her feet in and out of them. “I feel a lot more vulnerable with my shoes off when I’m tied up, don’t you?”

Suzy laughed and said, “First of all, your legs don’t look like sticks, they look like extremely graceful dancer’s legs. Secondly, yes I do feel more vulnerable when my shoes come off when I’m tied up. In fact, just so you’ll know, Derek and I both like me to at least start off being tied up as if I’m dressed for work or dressed for a fancy party or something. That way he can paw through my clothes and I can fight and struggle, but can’t stop him. He also likes to see me lose my shoes while I’m struggling. If I don’t lose my shoes, he’ll come over and slip one off and start kissing my feet. God, that makes me so crazy.” Suzy gave a shiver as she said this, “And he’ll start unbuttoning me and feeling around underneath my clothes. It makes me break out in a sweat just thinking about it. Then he’ll get me all hot and bothered and go out in the backyard for a cigarette. He’ll come back and sit down across the room and just tell me what he’s going to do next. We’ll both be so crazy we can’t think straight. I’ll be struggling like mad because I’m trying to make myself come and the sight of him, free as a bird, walking around the house and coming over to touch me just about makes me go into convulsions. I’ll tell you a little secret. Sometimes when Derek makes me come after all that, I will literally faint. What’d ya think of that?”

Suzy was now twisting and turning against her bonds. Her stocking feet and legs were tense and moving all around against the ropes, which were very tight the way she had her legs curled up on the couch. She laughed and kicked her legs straight out and let her feet fall to the floor. She shivered a little and her feet began to slide around on the carpet.

Betty Anne was giggling almost to the point of losing control. Her long slim body was leaned back in the chair and her legs were extended straight out in front of her. Her hands were spread open against the ropes and her silky toes were gripping the carpet. “I can see it. I can feel what it would be like. My God, we are sitting here turning each other on. It’s like phone sex. This must be the strangest ladies’ coffee clatch ever.” Betty Anne leaned up and emptied her scotch glass through the straw and fell back into the chair again. “I definitely needed that! We better calm down a little. You look kinda damp. I feel kinda damp. I feel kinda damp you know where. Ha ha ha.”

Betty Anne found the remote for the TV that Jo Jo had given her earlier. It had fallen out of her hands at some point and she was barely able to pick it up with two fingers of one hand. She shook the hair out of her face and turned on the TV. They channel surfed for a while and then settled on a show about what women should and should not wear. They sat there and criticized the fashion choices and tried to stay away from any agitating sex talk, but every now and then one of them would say something like, “She’d look nice tied up in that,” or. “I bet I’d look nice tied up in that.” They would giggle about it and writhe around a bit. Occasionally one of them would see something and would reflexively try to point at the screen and they both found it inordinately hilarious when their hands would be held fast by the ropes. They found it equally hilarious when they took to pointing at the TV screen with their stocking feet.

At one point Betty Anne decided to go hopping around. With her hands tied to her knees she was forced to assume a sort of crouched position, but found that with a little practice she could hop around quite effectively in the space between the TV and couch and chairs. Suzy found this sight deeply funny and had to struggle to look away, but she found that the thumping sound of Betty Anne’s feet hitting the carpet was just as funny as the sight of her. “Stop it you loon. You’re going to make me pee.”

Suzy saw Betty Anne freeze in mid hop and look behind the couch with a sickly little smile on her face. She said, “Oh, hi.”

Suzy heard Jo Jo laughing. She was relieved to hear that it was a somewhat jolly laugh. Jo Jo came around the couch and picked Betty Anne up in his arms like he was about to carry his bride over the threshold. This made Betty Anne’s hands and feet wriggle and wave like mad. Then Jo Jo said, “Well ladies, it’s time to get you ready for the big rescue. I’m gonna take this big rabbit upstairs and get her bundled up all nice and snug and then I’ll come back for you.”

Suzy heard them go up the stairs and heard Betty Anne squeal as Jo Jo ran with her up the stairs saying, “You need to eat more, slim.”

Suzy was sorry Betty Anne was gone now and their fun was interrupted. She didn’t have long to wait before Jo Jo came down for her and carried her up the stairs the same as he had Betty Anne, saying to her, “Now you don’t worry about a thing. I’ve got this all figured out and you two won’t be tied up here more than three hours and maybe less. Probably less.”

Suzy found herself carried into the master bedroom where they had been earlier in the evening and by looking at Betty Anne, she could see what was in store for her. Betty Anne was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall and her legs straight out in front of her. As they walked in, Betty Anne’s face lit up and she waved a bound, stocking foot at them. Suzy saw that her hands were now tied behind her and that a thickness of rope circled her body and arms under her breasts and was cinched between elbows and body. There was also a white, silky-looking scarf between her teeth and lips, knotted behind her head. The scarf seemed to have quite a few turns around her head and it was obvious that Betty Anne couldn’t make her teeth or lips touch.

Jo Jo set Suzy down so she was precariously balanced in a standing position, crouched a bit because of the rope attaching her wrists to her thighs. Jo Jo untied her hands and the rope around her arms and body. He pulled her arms behind her and crossed her wrists near her butt and tied them securely together. Then he replaced the ropes around Suzy’s arms and body, tying them just as he had Betty Anne’s. He leaned over her shoulder and said, “Say, ahhhhhh.” Suzy opened her mouth and felt a scarf inserted between her teeth and with both hands Jo Jo wrapped the scarf in both directions around her head and between her teeth until she too couldn’t touch her teeth or lips together. She noticed that Jo Jo kept her ponytail out of the way of the scarf so that when he knotted it behind her head, it still hung free.

All this time, Betty Anne was sitting on the floor giggling and trying to talk through her gag. She seemed to think the sounds coming out of her were very amusing. Jo Jo looked at her once and shook his head and this made Betty Anne laugh even more.

When Jo Jo had finished tying Suzy, he left her standing there and he looked at Betty Anne with a suspicious look on his face. “Slim, tell me why I think you might be plotting against me.” He walked a few steps toward Betty Anne, “Why do I look at you and see a devious little mind plotting to escape if I leave Suzy in here? Do you think between the two of you, you could get untied, Slim?” Jo Jo was amused.

Betty Anne’s huge eyes turned on the innocence and she said, “Oh mo. I uhuh ooo aph o o.”

Jo Jo smiled with his scary old face and sad eyes and said, “Well I think you’re a mischievous, little minx and on thinking it over, I believe I’ll put you two in separate rooms.

Betty Anne’s face fell and she moaned a little pleading tune, “Mmmmmmmmmm, UMM!”

Jo Jo went over to a dresser near the door and picked up an old-fashioned skeleton key and held it up so Betty Anne could see it. “Do you know what this is Slim?”

Betty Anne nodded her head and said, “Uph. If uh eee.”

“That’s right, If uh eee. But it’s not just any key. These old houses have keys that can lock all the doors from both inside and out, so what I’m going to do is leave you in here, take your pretty friend to the bedroom across the hall and I’m going to lock both doors from the outside. So if you think you’re going to go hopping around and having free run of the house and maybe even untying each other then think again. You might as well just sit there and relax.”

Betty Anne was crestfallen. She wouldn’t have any company. She said sullenly, “o ay.”

Jo Jo said, “Well, this goodbye. I’ve enjoyed meeting you Slim, you’ve been a happy and delightful captive.”

Jo Jo picked Suzy up off the floor and draped her over her shoulder. As he went out of the room, Suzy lifted her head to see Betty Anne sitting against the wall with her knees up and her feet flat on the floor and a pouty look on her face. “What a pitiful sight. Poor thing,” thought Suzy. Then they were in the hall. Jo Jo closed the door, locked it and carried Suzy into the room directly across the hall. He laid Suzy on the bed. Suzy turned on her side and indicated with her head that she wanted both pillows under her head. Jo Jo stacked the pillows and made sure Suzy was comfortable and then he went to the door, blew her a kiss and disappeared as the door shut. Suzy heard it lock and Jo Jo thumped down the stairs and out of their lives forever.

Suzy lay there still and quiet. She was glad the lights had been left on. Jo Jo said they would have to wait no more than three hours. Suzy laid still and could hardly feel the ropes that held her captive. For the first time that day, she remembered the plans she and Derek had made to tie her up after work and give her that really big orgasm. Suzy had nothing else to do so an internal monologue began in her head, “Well dammit, I’m just going to make this the game instead. After all, we’re usually just playing a game, but this is real. I’ve been tied up off and on all evening totally against my will and that means the rescue will also be for real. This will be the only time in my life that this will ever happen. I won’t waste it.”

So Suzy began to think of the things she usually did when Derek would put ropes on her and leave her alone in another room. In the game when he did that, he would begin by getting her all excited first with a little gentle foot-kissing and tit-rubbing and frustratingly light stroking between her legs. Suzy found that the very thought of this sufficed to bring on the same feeling. She knew she would now lie here and dream of Derek and what they would do together and grow explosively excited. She tried to keep still, but her stocking feet began to point and pull against the ropes and her entire body began a rhythmic struggle. She knew that the ropes would be increasingly forgotten by her body and that she would be periodically surprised by her inability to move. The throbbing between her legs would be come like an extremely powerful itch that she was powerless to scratch, but when Derek came through that door it would all pay off. She might just beg him to satisfy her in this very bed. She knew she would be past ready. The thought came to her again that this time she was really, truly a bound and gagged damsel in distress and the thought sent a delicious shiver through her body. Her feet rubbed on the bedspread and she made a sudden gasp through the gag as her hands tried and failed to free themselves and go between her legs.

As she often did when her body was helpless, her mind opened up within and she entered a waking dream-state where every image was sharp and vivid and deeply exciting. She wasn’t so much moving or trying to struggle against the ropes as she was vibrating and rhythmically flexing against them. The ropes held her body fast and sent her mind into places it never went except when she was tied hand and foot and yearning for her man. There were worse ways to spend three hours and the thought sent her into a deep, sleepy laugh.

Betty Anne was a bit more at a loss as to what she should do for three hours. Being tied up all evening had been surprisingly fun for her as a new experience. It was a shared one with her new friend, as she thought Suzy now was. And when they had been tied up together in the living room she had felt the rising sexual energy that could be unleashed by a bound body and a rich imagination. Suzy’s description of the possibilities made possible by being in a state of distressed damselhood had excited her deeply. But this was the first time today she had been tied up without a playmate and while a certain excitement still lingered, it was a bit unfocused without someone to talk to about it with or, more importantly, a male someone to do it with. While Suzy could writhe around in the certainty of the coming of a real hero who would thrill her no end if he touched her or even delayed in untying her, Betty Anne’s thoughts had to remain strictly in the fantasy realm. Her rescuer would be either Derek, who could only be thought of as Suzy’s hero or maybe Raymond, who was a potential hero and a playmate with all the right equipment, but who nevertheless was only a person of interest. “Oh my God,” she thought, “I hope Derek doesn’t bring that horrible Stan or High Hat with him. I don’t want them to see me all sexy and tied up. Ugh. But Raymond is another matter. I’d love for him to walk in here and see me as an innocent, helpless damsel. You bet I would.”

The thought of Raymond coming in the door and seeing her would tell her a lot about how he felt about her. She hoped Suzy had been right hours ago when she assured Betty Anne that if she asked Raymond to go out with her, he would be happy to. “How does Suzy know that?” she mused. Betty Anne decided that thinking of Raymond was a very happy line of thought and she immediately began to get tense with excitement. The game was new again. Her interest in the adventure was rekindled.

Betty Anne decided that a real damsel wouldn’t just sit there, but would try and be more active. It would make thinking about Raymond that much more exciting to try and get untied. She would really try, but she knew it was unlikely and that was the most compelling thought of all. “I think I might be getting a little damp in the panties,” she said to herself and then giggled.

As she was sitting there on the floor setting her train of thoughts in order, she had been rocking back and forth a bit and her hands had been opening and closing. She had been watching her feet play with each other, one foot curling its toes over the toes of the other foot. She would also occasionally tickle the sole of one foot with the top of the other and was astounded at how sensitive her feet had become since she began imagining a romantic rescue by a guy she thought she might like. She also found herself admiring how her legs and feet looked tied together. The hose made them smooth and white and the sight of the tight rope binding them together made her feel doubly vulnerable to the right kind of manly attention. As her excitement mounted, so did her energy, so she decided to get up and hop around. This was easier said than accomplished.

She lifted her knees and put her feet flat on the floor and pushed herself against the wall, hoping to slide up the wall into a standing position. Her efforts only resulted in her stocking feet slipping against the polished wooden floor. Next she turned sideways and pulled her legs up beside her. Then she pushed against the wall with her shoulder and rose to a kneeling position. She carefully leaned forward and tried to pull her feet up so that the bottoms of her toes could reach out and get a grip on the floor. Without her arms to balance her and with her feet and legs held tightly together as a unit, even this fairly stable position felt precarious, but she managed to stay balanced that way and stop the swaying back and forth that almost sent her face down to the floor. That accomplished, she took a deep breath and slowly rocked back until she was in a sort of squat with all her weight resting on the toes and balls of her feet, which were spread out a little like a duck. All the ropes seemed to tighten in protest and hindered her greatly. She then slowly used all the strength her long legs could muster and finally rose to a standing position.

Betty Anne surveyed the room. She hopped a little until her back was once again to the wall she had been leaning against. To her right was the dresser where Jo Jo had gotten the key. In front of her was the locked door. To the left of the door was vanity. To her left was a huge old bed that looked formidably high. “I could usually jump up on that without even thinking,” Betty Anne reflected. On the other side of the bed was a sitting area with a couch against the far wall, an end table with lamp and between that and the bed was an overstuffed chair that matched the couch. At the other end of the couch was a full-length mirror on a wooden swivel-stand. It was in front of the closet door, but faced the overstuffed chair and bed. This was a corner room so two windows were in both outside walls, one of which Betty Anne had been leaning against.

She hopped around and then forward to the window nearest her. She poked her head between the closed curtains and looked out into darkness. She could see the light on beneath her at the front door and some trees looming beyond, but there was nothing of interest. She hopped backwards and turned to face the room again. Then she made for the sitting area, hopping with more confidence, but keenly aware that any loss of balance would make her fall. It would be a fall she couldn’t break and that worried her. But she continued her journey around the bed and into the sitting area. Betty Anne was very impressed with how long it took to travel a distance that would normally be covered in a matter of a couple of second were she untied. She was in front of the chair and decided to take a break. All that hopping had made her ropes feel very tight indeed. She hopped in a circle and sat in the chair. When she looked up, she gave out a startled squeal as she found herself facing another bound and gagged woman. She instantly understood that it was her reflection in the mirror.

She giggled madly in relief and watched herself do so. Betty Anne liked what she saw. She knew she was pretty and desirable, but looking at herself tied up and gagged was a sort of revelation. What she saw was a slightly disheveled woman. She had tossed her hair out of her face so many times that it was a bit haywire. Her blouse had come unbuttoned long ago and the ropes pulled it tight around her breasts and lifted them up and together so that they seemed to be straining to escape the fabric. Enough buttons had come undone so that the middle of her bra was showing as well as the curving inward sides of both breasts. Her shoulders and arms were drawn back behind her, which made her bosom stand out more prominently than usual. She could wave her hands on either side of her waist and she decided that this made her look devastatingly helpless.

She had always been worried about her legs being too skinny, but this groundless concern was not in her mind right now. Her legs seemed well defined and she decided that the ropes made very nice fashion accessories indeed. Her feet were flat on the floor and splayed out to each side, so she brought them together and admired them as they pulled and pushed at her bonds. Betty Anne decided that her feet and legs were very nice – very graceful and strong looking. She reflected on the strange fact that a thin cotton cord could keep such lovely, powerful legs inescapably tied together. Her face was cute too, with her lips parted by white silk. It made her cheeks bulge out in an adorable manner. She decided that any man who wasn’t deeply moved by the sight of a tied and gagged Betty Anne had something terribly wrong with him.

Betty Anne noticed that she hadn’t even thought about escape lately. She wished she could get on the bed so she would be fetchingly displayed if Raymond were to come through the door. She decided that he would see her quite well enough as he rounded the bed and saw her sitting in the chair looking helpless and beautiful, her eyes pleading, her legs flexing and her toes pointing. He would be knocked out. “Man, I’ll probably ruin it all by giggling. I guess giggling is cute too though. It would certainly be more in character.”

So Betty Anne settled in to wait. She wondered what Suzy was doing. A couple of times she thought she might have heard Suzy’s voice mmphing across the hall. As she sat in the chair she marveled at how the ropes seemed to lose interest in her if she stayed very still. She thought Jo Jo must know how to tie a person up as skillfully as Derek. “I wonder if Raymond has ever tied up a young lady before. Maybe Derek and Suzy could hold a seminar on the proper way for a person to be tied up and stuff.” She snorted with laughter at the thought and was horrified to find that a little snot had come out of her nose and was resting on her upper lip. Her shoulders twisted and her hands waved helplessly behind her as they attempted to come around and flick it off, but the ropes awakened to their duty and held them fast. She ducked her head toward a shoulder, but couldn’t quite reach it. She bent down to the arm of the chair and finally got it off. “Ewww, that was a close one.” But the sight of herself struggling in the mirror brought her back to happier thoughts.

She thought of Raymond gently putting the ropes on her and had a sudden vivid flash of what that would feel like. She shivered as the throbbing between her legs suddenly became insistent. She sat thinking these thoughts and watching her body gently writhe and twist and pull against the ropes. She gave up worrying about how long it had been or how long it would be. Betty Anne gave in completely to the adventure, the game and wherever it would lead. She became a bit damp all over and was positively wet between her legs, but she didn’t care at all.

She didn’t know how long it had been, but she became aware at some point that there was the noise of a car crunching the gravel outside the window behind her. She stood up and hopped between the bed and the chair and shoved the curtain aside with her head. There was Derek’s car and there was Derek getting out and there was Raymond! She suddenly felt hopelessly infatuated at the sight of his large body and handsome, almost Teutonic face. It didn’t hurt at all that he was wearing jeans, boots and a black leather overcoat. Betty Anne felt weak and nervous. She didn’t want them to see her yet. She hopped around and back to the chair. She stood in front of the chair and shook herself a little to make her wrinkled skirt fall as straight as possible and then sat down to wait. She looked at herself in the mirror and decided that leaning forward with breasts exposed and feet flat on the floor and perfectly together, not splayed out like a duck, would be the most effective way to accentuate her bound state. Perhaps she would point her toes and rub her legs together as he approached her. She saw herself arching her back so that her breasts would strain against the blouse that was so tightly pressed against them by the ropes around her body.

Then she sat still and listened. The anticipation was making her rock back and forth and quiver all over. She heard the door open downstairs and then their steps running up the stairs. They came stomping into the hall calling out, “Betty Anne! Suzy!” and then she heard Derek rattling the doorknob of the room where Suzy was. It was locked of course, and she heard Raymond say, “There’s an old key on the floor.” Betty Anne heard the door open and then she heard a low, muffled laughing that could only be Suzy greeting her man. Derek’s louder, more boisterous laughter followed.

Betty Anne was about to explode. When the lock on the door to her room rattled and then the doorknob turned, Betty Anne suddenly felt like she did when a roller coaster rounded the top of the hill and began its precipitous rush to the bottom. Raymond strode in and scanned the room. He saw her perky head of hair over her gagged face and made a beeline for Betty Anne. All of Betty Anne’s plans to look sultry and smoldering vanished and she began laughing uncontrollably. She was bouncing up and down in the chair and would have been clapping her hands together in glee if they hadn’t been so effectively tied behind her. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and noticed her feet had assumed the duck like position, necessary for standing when ones ankles are tied together, as her body reflexively tried to go and meet Raymond halfway.

Raymond got to her and his face was confused by all of this happiness. He displayed a little half grin that betrayed more than a little embarrassment. He didn’t seem to know what to do at first, so he ungagged her, the gag being the closest thing at hand. When he had removed it from her mouth he put his hand on her shoulder and said, “Are you OK?”

Betty Anne tried to keep a straight face when she said sweetly, “I am now Raymond,” but she was unable to suppress her giggling.

Her eyes were full of fun and her bubbly laugh gave Raymond some very curious feelings that he wasn’t quite sure what to do with. He was normally a decisive guy who didn’t hesitate at all no matter how extreme the pressure, but he found himself almost stammering when he absurdly said, “I’ll untie you now, OK?”

This sent Betty Anne into a fit of giggling that now became contagious and she saw Raymond trying very hard to stifle his own laughter. She said with some difficulty, “Oh, please untie me. I’ve tried so hard and I can’t get loose by myself.”

She continued to have little fits of giggling as Raymond undid the knots and unwound the ropes. She found that after some hours of carnal thoughts and feelings, that she was ticklish everywhere and when Raymond bent to untie her feet, she almost struggled to keep his hands away. He stood her up when her legs and feet were free and untied her hands. She was free for the first time in hours. She turned around to face Raymond and stretched sleepily, her face smiling. “Thank you Ray, you did a very nice job rescuing me. I’ll bet you know how to do a lot of things.”

Betty Anne bent down and stretched her back and then entwined her arms above her head, arched her back and began doing sweeping ballet movements – sliding her stocking feet on the polished floor. She smiled at him and said, “In fact Raymond, I am so grateful to you for coming all the way out here just to untie me that I want to do something for you. What time is it?”

Raymond looked at his watch and said, “It seems to be almost three o’clock in the morning.”

Betty Anne continued to stretch her stiff, but limber body and make heartbreakingly graceful movements that looked like dancers’ stretches. She looked at the ceiling and pondered for a moment. Raymond was enthralled by the sight of her. He had been deeply moved by the sight of her tied and helpless and was doubly moved by her uninhibited movements now that she was free. The memory of the feel of her stocking-clad legs and feet was vivid and powerful. He was getting hold of himself now though and recovering his usual emotional control, “You don’t owe me anything honey. You’re one of my favorite people at work and I wouldn’t have you all tied up for anything.” He was smiling rather broadly now.

Betty Anne glanced at Raymond with a little pout and said, “You wouldn’t huh? Well I don’t think you’re being quite honest with me sir, but in any case I would still like to insist that I am required to owe you a favor.” She looked into Raymond’s now beaming face and said, “I think that we should take the day off tomorrow and you should call me on the phone. Then I think we should set a time for you to come over to my little house and I will cook for you and me and we will sit and talk. That’s what I think. What do you think, Raymond? What do you think about that?”

Raymond’s face had a shining happiness on it that Betty Anne had never seen before and she noticed that his eyes were kind, gentle and as full of fun as she knew hers were.

“Well,” Raymond said, “I think that we think alike, except if we’re going to take the day off tomorrow, and I already know that Derek intends to have the office closed, then we could even sit up some tonight and talk. We could have a few drinks and tell each other about our exciting and productive day. That is, if you’re not too exhausted. We could have our date tomorrow night too.”

Betty Anne was thrilled that Raymond had used the word ‘date,’ “Raymond, you’re a genius.”

Later on in the car going back to the office they noticed that Derek and Suzy were having problems keeping their hands off each other.

Even later at Betty Anne’s little house, Raymond remarked that Suzy had gathered the rope that they had been tied in and stuffed it in her purse while Derek watched her. He had given out an evil laugh. Suzy had smiled, looked at Betty Anne and blushed. “What was that all about? I love them to death, but I’ll be damned if I don’t think they sometimes have a private conversation going on that we can’t hear. It’s funny to see them look at each other sometimes and just laugh like idiots. I mean when Derek went in that room and saw Suzy all trussed up, they both split their sides and could not stop laughing. Then instead of untying her he went over and started kissing her and whispering in her ear. And now you’re laughing as if you’re in on it. So tell me.”

Betty Anne wasn’t really laughing. She did have a very cute and angelic smile on her lips and her huge blue eyes were gleaming. She just said, “I don’t know you very well, but you’ve always been one of my favorite people at work too, and tomorrow night when we can talk longer, I’ll tell you what I can without giving other peoples’ secrets away, but what I can tell you is this; Suzy and I actually had fun today in a weird way and the thought of you fellows coming to rescue us was the most fun of all. And don’t you tell me you didn’t enjoy it too. You’ll notice I was laughing when you came in and saw me. Also notice that I was very, very happy it was you that came through that door. Just come over tonight and we’ll go with the flow. Tonight you were my hero. Maybe some other night you could play the gentlemanly villain just as well. We’ll just have to see how things work out. I’ll explain everything.”

As Raymond drove home just before dawn, he found he wanted Betty Anne badly. He wanted her and he understood what she wanted from him. He kept seeing her sitting there tied up and gagged, with her eyes full of excitement and glee. He kept seeing her unfettered body gracefully stretching and dancing around in front of him. He wanted to see her both ways again and again. A cosy glow surrounded him as he yawned and realized that he and Betty Anne would be having the same dreams as they slept through the day.

Copyright, Rayron D’Olier, 2005