Prologue

 

They sat across the street at the South Coast Coffee bar. It was a sunny day and they leaned over to each other at an outside table. His beard was neatly trimmed, flecked with gray, salt and pepper hair pulled back in a short, tight ponytail. Hers was dark and short, but not butch. Her eyes though, her eyes sparkled and her laugh matched his, light and carefree. They acted more like best friends than lovers, or what lovers should always act like to each other. I found out later they had been together seven years and still treated each other like honeymooners. And, like lovers, they got to know everything about me.

How? It's easy when you're stretched out ceiling to floor and whip marks sear your skin. You'll say anything then. Just as its easy when you're bound at their feet and your crotch is so hot you'll do anything to have them touch you. Touch you across your sweaty forehead, your tear-streaked cheeks, around your hardened nipples, inside your wet pussy. You'll do anything even when they shove a huge gag past your quivering lips in to your small mouth.

Anything.

Chapter One

The New Tenants

 

For rent: 2 BDR Apt.

Over detached garage.

Kitchen, Small Balcony,

Quiet neighborhood, Near

Campus. 1,000 sq. ft.

The ad ran for three weeks in June and I don't know how many phone calls I got and just plain lookee-lou students that dropped in unannounced. Three co-eds showed up, all with feathers clipped in their hair and vacant looks in their eyes, (I could already hear it: "Oops. Sorry the rent was late. Forgot again."), not to mention two rich boys living on daddy and mommy's money in between school years that wanted to score a party pad. ("Dude! Let's rock!")

I had just about decided that with most of the students going back home the pickings were so slim I would have to rent to one of them or some other irresponsible idiot. Then a married couple phoned for an appointment and turned up on time. It was the laughing couple from the South Coast coffee bar. They were quiet and serious now, best friends and lovers; that's how I saw them as they wandered from room to room. He was a college professor and she a free-lance magazine writer. But the way they treated each other with such respect, so much in tune to their mate, made me jealous. I'd never seen anything like that, much less experienced it, and I wanted a piece of their magic. Their names were Stephanie and Daniel Taylor. They moved in that weekend.

Three months later I hung naked in their living room.

I didn't see much of them just after the move in, but I did notice several large footlockers that they wouldn't let the muscle-bound movers touch, taking each up themselves. It was different with the cage. Ah, yes, the cage! Very tall, ornate, round and so heavy it took four men to haul it up the creaking wooden stairs. While they carefully angled it inside, one of the movers asked why Daniel and Stephanie owned it. With a laugh Daniel shouted from below he locked Stephanie in there when he needed a good night's sleep. The muscle men laughed too and then, since it was the last thing to go inside, they left. The apartment lights stayed on well into the night as my new tenants unpacked. Late that night, from my back bedroom window I spied Stephanie in a blue, light bathrobe as she drew the curtains. I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw a small choke collar with a tiny ring on her neck.

And that was it. Daniel and Stephanie kept to themselves as summer turned to fall and the college year began. They dropped off their checks; either stuck in my kitchen door jam or brought inside if I was puttering at the sink. Just a quick "Hello" from them and an equally quick "thanks" from me. Their checks were always hand printed with my name, Marlene Bettencourt.

It was nice seeing my maiden name again. The divorce was final at the start of last summer and my ex-husband of ten years, married out of high school, left me with a mortgage I couldn't handle on my sales office assistant wages. Neat. So I fixed up the apartment over the garage as he had always promised to do and hoped for decent tenants. Stephanie and Daniel were a dream come true. I got some breathing space from the bank and a regular, if silent, endorsement of my new life.

My new life, but little did I know it hadn't even started yet!

That 'new' life began one early evening when Daniel and Stephanie strode by the kitchen on the driveway toward the street. They both carried well-stuffed, dark gym bags and were dressed in matching leather dusters, dark cowboy hats and boots. Daniel's heels clicked on the concrete while Stephanie's were quiet on the central grass portion of the driveway. They were smiling and their arms were curled around each other's waist.

Suddenly, I felt that pang again. Lovers and best friends. Drawn like a moth to a dark flame, I poked my head out the kitchen door, while they stood at the curb, waiting for someone.

I don't know what I was thinking, but I wanted to talk to them, get to know them better. Since the divorce, hell, even before it, I had no social life. It was work, come home, eat and sleep. There had to be more! I wanted to get out too! Get out and enjoy life like Daniel and Stephanie. Maybe I could start with a curbside encounter with them.

But what excuse would I give for just "meeting" them there? Uh, trash. Yeah, that was it. Take out the trash! I grabbed the half-full barrel by the kitchen door and, with it balanced on my tiny hip, half-carried, half-dragged it down to the street.

Daniel noticed my struggle and came back to help me. He grabbed a handle and frowned a little the emptiness of the barrel.

"Isn't trash picked up three days from now?" Stephanie asked.

"Uh, yes, it is," I said. "I guess I just wanted to get a head start." I lightly clapped and rubbed my hands, like I had just finished a huge job. I glanced at their clothes. "You two sure look nice."

Who was I kidding? They looked hot! Aside from the dusters, hats and boots, they both wore tight jeans and form fitting dark t-shirts. Daniel's chest was broad, his stomach washboard flat, while Stephanie's hips and breasts, oohwee!

"We're going to a party," Daniel said.

"Really?" I said and worked hard at casual interest. "Is it a college faculty thing?"

"Oh, no," Daniel said. "Just a few friends we made since moving here. Kind of quiet."

Stephanie gave a half-smile. "Well, mostly."

"We have interesting discussions," Daniel quickly said.

"Discussions?" I said. "About what?"

Stephanie laughed. "You'd be surprised."

A red SUV drove up. A dark-haired man with wide shoulders sat behind the wheel. A young, light blonde woman hopped out on the passenger side and kissed them both-and not just pecks on the cheeks.

"Uh, have a good time," I said.

"We will!" Stephanie said emphatically from the back seat.

They sped away and Daniel called back with a laugh. "Don't wait up for us."

Wait up? Ha! That's just what I did. In my bedroom I surfed cable movies for hours. But when ten o'clock Friday night turned into Saturday morning and stretched into two a.m., I wondered if it was worth it to wait up. Finally, at a quarter to three, just after I turned off my television and bedroom lights, Daniel and Stephanie returned. It was well worth the wait.

The dark-haired man and blonde woman accompanied them. The blonde stayed close to Stephanie and seemed rigid in her straight, almost stiff walk. Stephanie wrapped her arm around the blonde's shoulders, craned her head up and said something. The light haired beauty burst out in a laugh of relief and her shoulders relaxed. They quickly climbed the apartment's stairs.

Daniel and the dark-haired man trailed behind, and a little further behind strode a much younger man. In fact, their leisurely pace seemed deliberate to allow the ladies plenty of time to get inside. All three men stopped at the bottom of the stairs and Daniel studied the dark-haired man's hands as they quickly moved in tight, jerky movements. I squinted and discovered that he kept retying a short piece of rope into different kinds of knots. After a last, intricate knot, he handed the rope to Daniel with a "You try it" gesture.

Daniel's fingers weren't as sure. He fumbled and started again a few times. In the carriage light, set next to the garage door, I could see his lips were pinched, his total concentration. At one point the young man sought to try it too but Daniel waved him off. At last he finished. The young man bent over and inspected the knot. He picked at it here and there. The dark-haired man nodded approval.

"Hey! What're you three waiting for down there?" Stephanie yelled from inside. "An engraved invitation?"

Daniel and the dark-haired man bounded up the stairs. Daniel hit the door at full speed. "What're you trying to do? Wake up the whole neighborhood?"

"They're going to wake up soon e -"

Stephanie was cut off and it wasn't from the front door closing. It remained open, and, as I leaned near the window screen, my ears strained to catch something more. I don't know how long I stayed there. A minute? Five? Nope, nothing else drifted out from the apartment. I started to turn away.

But, I'd been caught! Down below, the young man stared right at me.

I froze. Maybe in the dark he couldn't really see me. But I could see him a whole lot better now. Young, yes. Handsome, very. Around my age, late twenties. Short, maybe light-brown hair. Aquiline nose. Firm mouth. He pinned me like a cat that spies a shaking bird in a tree.

Daniel stuck his head outside. "Russ, c'mon!"

Russ turned and, while he said something to Daniel, I scurried away from the window. My heart pounded. At last I heard Russ slowly climb the stairs, caught a glimpse of him as he met Daniel at the door, and then disappeared inside.

More of the apartment's lights snapped on, but not all of them. Through the thin curtains the bright lights I could see a silhouette of Stephanie. Daniel moved around her and pulled her head back a couple of times. He paid particular attention to her arms and brought them over her head. They stayed that way as he wrapped something around her waist and then pulled it up between her legs. He shoved something in her mouth. The dark-haired man did most of the same to the other woman, but left her mouth alone, and both women's silhouettes stood side by side. Russ kind of flitted between the two, helping with a rope here and there.

The men moved from one to the other, their hands in the women's hair, on their breasts, between their legs. First Stephanie, then the other woman seemed to shake, then their heads hung limp. Their knees buckled but Daniel slapped Stephanie's breasts and she forced herself to straighten up. Russ slapped the blonde's ass with an explosion and a resulting yell from the woman I could clearly hear all the way to my room. Forced back to attention, the women were left alone for a while, but then all three men took up positions behind them. A single arm from each was upraised, and then swung forward like lightning at the women. Several cracks resounded and both women arched their backs. The blonde cried out again, but then Russ appeared to shove something in her mouth too. He took up position again and, once more, all the men's arms swung forward. They didn't hit the women with their hands, but whatever it was made them toss their heads back. The scene went on a long time, until the men backed away and sat near the window, their indistinct heads the only thing I could make out of them. But Stephanie and the blonde stayed rooted to their spots for a long time, arms overhead, heads down. Silent and still. Like me. Dawn arrived and I remained paralyzed.