Chapter One

 

Rebecca Curtis was very much aware of her image. She was well respected by her peers and superiors for her intelligence, her sense of responsibility for her work, and her attitude and behavior. She did not slack off, gossip, or cause trouble. She acted as nonjudgmental as she could towards others, and worked hard because she believed she owed that to her employer.

She acted little different in her private life. She was kindhearted and modest, loved animals and nature, and tried to think the best of people. She realized that in some cases she was being foolishly naïve. But it was her belief that if you treated people with respect they would return the favor. If you expected good things of others, perhaps they would present you with them.

Rebecca had grown up in rural Wyoming. Though her parents were not so much farmers as city people who had decided to move their business to the country. They were somewhat out of step with their conservative, religious neighbors, but as their attitude mirrored Rebecca's, they managed to get along fine.

The people she had gone to school with, however, came from very conservative and religious families. It was hard not to be influenced by that. On the other hand, their professed devotion to a religion which called for charity and forgiveness did not seem to match their behavior in real life. And once she hit her teen years, that divergence grew more pronounced.

However much the school might preach about chastity and modesty, the students, particularly the male students, seemed to have other ideas. That was particularly so given that she developed fairly early. Her generous bust drew considerable attention, comments, and insults. There was also an enthusiastic effort to see and touch her breasts - along with every other part of her body.

Rebecca didn't see how this fit in with their supposed beliefs in the noble virtues of Christianity and grew somewhat cynical about religion. She also became self-conscious about her body and took to wearing clothing which helped disguise her hourglass figure.

Her boyfriend through the later years of high school had been a minister's son, who at least had shown more restraint. Still, she left high school, and Wyoming a virgin when she traveled to Colorado for University. They were considerably more liberal there but that did not adjust the men's attitude or desire about getting her to remove her clothing.

She did find a boyfriend there and allowed him to satisfy his curiosity even as she satisfied hers. It was... enjoyable, but nothing to write home about, even were she interested in telling anyone about it which she most definitely was not. She didn't come to enjoy sex but did like the physical closeness, the romance, and the gentle stroking and caressing than anything which could be described as genuine lust or passion.

Her studious behavior in school had pushed her a year ahead of her peers and so she graduated from university when she was barely twenty. She took advantage of this to do a backpacker tour of Europe with her girlfriend and there met Connor. Connor lived in New York City but was originally from Vermont. So his attitude was very similar to hers in many respects.

He was in Europe finishing his master's degree in international politics and had a job waiting for him at a government-affiliated think tank in New York. They hit it off so well that she returned to New York with him and found a job at a bank.

She performed so well that she was quickly promoted from clerk to junior officer due to her hard work, intelligence, and responsible nature. At home, she took great pleasure in setting up her first house with Connor, and loved going through the secondhand shops searching for just the right furniture for their Brooklyn apartment.

They lived in a nice neighborhood of century-old brownstones on a quiet street with plentiful shady trees. Their brownstone, once a large home with four floors, had been subdivided into four apartments and they lived on the third and highest floor.

She adored the bay window and spent months searching for just the right furniture and curtains to accentuate it. Connor often had to work overtime but that just gave her more time to read, which she loved. She would sit back in the armchair in the bay window with soft classical music playing, sip from her ginger tea, and read through the latest book to catch her interest.

When the neighbors didn't interrupt.

Unfortunately, the couple downstairs were not exactly of the same maturity level as she and Connor. Daniel was a former football player who now taught physical education while Kaley had been a cheerleader and sold used cars. They had what might be called a fiery relationship, and she often heard them yelling at each other through the thick old timber floor below her feet.

Worse than that, their lovemaking sometimes became embarrassingly vocal, at least on Kaley's part. That was disturbing in too many respects to even think about. It had forced her to buy a white noise generator for the bedroom since she certainly couldn't bring it up to them as a complaint.

She was of two minds about the noise. She thought the by far the most likely reason was that Kaley was simply faking her orgasms to please Daniel's ego. And that he was simply too ignorant to realize it. The thought that they might be real was intriguing, and she couldn't help wondering just what he might be doing to cause her such pleasure.

Certainly, she enjoyed her lovemaking with Connor. He was considerably better than her boyfriend at college and did his level best to please her. He succeeded most of the time, though her climaxes were certainly nothing to cause her to scream at the top of her lungs like Kaley was in the habit of doing.

She felt guilty about not telling the girl, for she herself would be mortified if she knew that people were overhearing her at such an intimate moment. But there was simply no way she could bring the subject up. Such things were not for discussion with mere acquaintances, or even friends for that matter.

Rebecca had a firm belief in what was and was not to be discussed with others, and anything to do with sex was very firmly in the latter category. Those that knew her considered her to be something of a prude, and perhaps very religious. But she simply had definite ideas on what was proper to do and say in public.

In private was another matter, and she had no difficulty with the concept that part of her partnership with Connor involved her making her body available to him anytime she wasn't feeling ill or too much out of sorts.

In fact, she took a shy delight in his appreciation of her body. She had spent so long covering it up, after all, that it felt wonderful to be able to show it off to someone. Certainly, she knew full well that her body was pleasing to the eyes of men.

If she had ever had any doubt about that it had been dispelled on the beaches of France, Italy, and Spain. Though she had worn bikinis that were more modest than most there, they did nothing to disguise her generous assets and shapely figure. She had certainly gotten a lot of male attention.

When she was home, unlike at work or on the street, she dressed casually, generally in a T-shirt or tank top and shorts. The old place was rather hot in the summer, and she tried to keep the air-conditioning down to save both money and the environment.

She also dispensed with the thick, flattening bras she wore to work and many other places which helped disguise the size of her chest so that she would not draw unwanted attention from males. In fact, she had a selection of quite sexy and revealing lingerie for Connor's benefit.

He had had to work overtime the last several nights and was quite exhausted, but she knew from his text that he was on his way home. Because she wanted to make it up to him for his hard work, and lack of romance, she had donned a new outfit which she hoped would be a pleasant surprise for when he got home.

It was called a harem girl outfit. The top part was a light mauve halter attached to a gold-colored collar and supported by a gold-colored hard fabric hem beneath the breasts. The fabric itself was very thin and partially see-through. It was also quite tight across her buxom chest, and thin and stretchy enough to gather in around and beneath each of her breasts separately.

That was quite immodest, of course. Even indecent. But in the context of showing it to her live-in boyfriend, who was, after all, sort of her spouse, perfectly fine.

The bottom was similar to the top with a hardened gold-colored fabric belt around her hips and a thin thong descending from it. There was also a second gold-colored belt around her waist from which descended what could be called an ankle-length, see-through lace skirt. Though since it was wide open on both hips, perhaps it was more of a loincloth, if a long one.

It had two hardened fabric bracelets which matched the gold-colored fabric of the belt and top which she supposed were meant to represent some kind of shackles that a harem girl might wear. She had been inspired to buy the outfit because she knew that he was working on a report on Middle East socioeconomic issues.

Hopefully, that was now done since he had handed it in today, and stayed late again to ensure it was finished. She liked making him dinner and she had missed doing so the last several days so she felt this might remind him that she was his, if not wife, then spouse. Certainly, she was more than a girlfriend given that they lived together, she thought.

In fact, she felt quite sexy as she moved around the apartment in the outfit. She had, of course, first ensured all of the curtains and blinds were drawn tightly. So she was quite safe from casual eyes. She was a bit nervous about his reaction. She was not one to flaunt herself, he approved of that. Certainly, he said he did, but one never knew with men how much of what they were saying was simply to please their girlfriends or wives.

She checked her look in the mirror several times, both pleased and a little self-conscious. Was it too much? Would he disapprove? It was so thin that she could almost see her nipples through the light-colored fabric. She thought he would like it, though, and felt considerable anticipation, like she did when he opened a particularly good present she had bought for him.

When she heard his key in the lock she jumped up and started for the rear of the house, wanting to make a casual entrance for his benefit. Her blue eyes were bright with excitement as she hid herself behind the door of the bedroom, peeking out down the length of the apartment as he closed the door behind him and locked it.

She drew a deep breath and then opened the door and casually strolled forward, through the dining room, then the space they used as a den and library, and then into the living room, doing her best to keep her face as nonchalant as possible.

She felt a rush of excitement when his eyes widened but kept her face, and casual as she approached him.

"I'm so glad you're home at last," she said, giving him a light peck on the cheek.

When she made as if to back away he quickly grabbed her by the shoulders

"Whoa!" he said, his eyes skimming up and down her body.

"Something wrong?" she asked impishly.

"That's new."

"Oh, this old thing?" she sighed. "Just something left over from my harem days."

"Harem days, huh? I don't believe you've ever mentioned those," he said in amusement.

He slid his left hand behind her neck to draw her back in against him and gave her a rather more fulsome kiss, his right hand cupping her breast and squeezing firmly through the thin fabric.

His hands slid up and down her back as he continued to kiss her and Rebecca felt her pulse rate rising as his hands stroked her bare back then dropped lower to squeeze her buttocks.

He drew his lips back with a grin. "Maybe to remind you of the good old days you should wear this more often," he said.

"Oh you think so?" she asked.

"Yes, maybe we could go out to dinner with you wearing that."

She smirked up at him in amusement. Then squeaked, startled as he dug his fingers into her bottom lifted her into the air. She threw her arms over his shoulders as he carried her through the living room and den.

"Wait, wait, wait!" she gasped, "I have your coffee ready!"

"Later."

"But I have to turn off the machine!" she protested.

He sighed and set her down just inside the dining room.

"Oh, and would you please put those plants up?" she asked as she scurried into the kitchen.

The apartment was basically one long room except that there was a wall between the kitchen and bedroom and a door to the latter. Along the near wall were doors to a large closet, a storage room, and the bathroom.

Rebecca had placed bookshelves to divide the living room from the den area. But the division between that and the dining room was more clear-cut in that there were two Roman-style columns projecting out from the wall on either side. She had selected a pair of heavy potted plants with long, leafy vines descending from them to hang from both.

He had placed the metal brackets in the columns a few days ago but the plants remained sitting on the floor, too bulky, awkward, and heavy for her to comfortably raise them up high enough to hang from the macrame plant hangers.

She quickly went to the kitchen to turn off the coffee machine and returned to find him eying the macrame plant holder rather than hanging the plant

"Something wrong?"

He grinned at her, a grin that she recognized as something which preceded some kind of boyish mischief-making or teasing.

"No, I was just thinking that this is a great place to put a harem girl."

She frowned at him in confusion as he gripped her shoulders and guided her underneath the macramé plant hanger.

"I don't unders -."

He took her wrists and lifted them up above her head and then joined them together in one hand before quickly wrapping the rope-like fabric around them.

"Connor!" she squealed. "What are you... doing!?"

He stepped back and released her and she stared at him in confusion and surprise then up above her at the macramé wrapped around her wrists. She tugged at it to no avail then turned and frowned at him only to see that smirk widen. Confusion turned to understanding and she felt a sudden tightening of her chest and fluttering in her stomach.

"Connor Phillips, what do you - mph!"

His lips crushed hers and she moaned into his mouth as he pulled her body against his muscled chest. A rush of excitement spread through her as his hands stroked up and down her body, squeezing her breasts and then sliding in under the filmy lace to cup her bare buttocks.

He drew back a moment, grinning. "Shouldn't you be calling me master?" he demanded mock-sternly.