Chapter One

 

By the time that Ed found himself licking Amanda's shiny black boots, he was so far outside his comfort zone that he was no longer quite sure whether or not this was an unusual thing to do.

All that evening he had been quite literally outside his comfort zone. Most days, he rarely ventured outside the little cluster of streets around Hoxton where he both lived and worked. Amanda's cavernous apartment - at least three times the size of the place he shared with three coworkers from his tech start-up - was in Knightsbridge. Ed always felt more uncomfortable the further west he went. Amanda herself was way outside his comfort zone too. Not that Ed was awkward around women, but he soon realized that Amanda was quite different from the weird but affable geek girls that he usually hung out with. They had dark square fringes and a pallid glow that spoke of all-night pizza-fuelled coding marathons. Amanda's complexion was warm gold, and it spoke of evenings in the gym and weekends in the country. No square fringe for her, either; her dusty blond hair was artfully scraped into a tight chignon that showed off her long neck and perfect cheekbones. Even the little black dress that she had worn to their dinner was somehow a different shade of black to the geek girls' post-Goth outfits; and her exquisitely sculpted red-soled boots probably cost more than their entire wardrobes. More than mine too, of course, thought Ed.

That they had gone for dinner at all had been unsettling. Their first few encounters at the offices of the venture capital firm where Amanda worked had been cool and professional, with no hint at all of any personal connection between them. He was seeking first round funds for the start-up, and she was his contact in the VC firm. They had talked about business metrics, and about his company's speech analysis software. She'd been well informed and interested, but not in any personal way. He'd been quite taken aback when Amanda had suggested that they meet that evening for dinner in a Mayfair restaurant. The fact that she'd changed out of her crisp work suit into the more elegant evening wear had come as a surprise too. He'd sat in a café for a few hours and then gone straight to the restaurant. He wore the same clothes all the time and hadn't thought to change. The head waiter had found him a tie to wear, and had half-pretended to ignore his trainers.

 

***

 

He felt that he'd more or less survived the dinner conversation without too many long pauses. Once he had gotten into the swing of talking without having to think too hard, he had begun to analyze Amanda's voice pattern, pretending to himself to be his own voice analysis software. She held onto her long vowels a fraction longer than most people, and she swallowed final consonants just a little - in an upper class "huntin', shootin' and fishin'" sort of way, rather than a North London glottal stop. It was attractive, even sexy.

Amanda had asked him easy questions about how he'd gotten involved in speech software development, and he had remembered to ask her about her own background and education. He had the unusual sensation of being in the presence of someone at least as driven and smart as himself; head girl at her public school, Natural Sciences first at Oxford and an MBA from INSEAD, then a top rank management consultancy before the VC firm. He felt a brief flicker of shame. Most Englishmen had him down as a thick Mick because of his Dublin brogue, and he'd had Amanda down as a not-too-bright Sloane because of her home counties accent.

Amanda had paid the restaurant bill without discussing it. "We can put it on the project," she said.

"Does that mean my company is paying or yours?" asked Ed.

"Oh, neither," said Amanda. "It's the investors who are paying, and they can easily afford it."

Invehhhhstors, thought Ed. Afforrrrrd. Those long vowels really were a turn-on.

As they stepped outside onto the pavement Ed wondered what was the right thing to do now - thank her for a lovely evening? A peck on the cheek, and an excuse about work in the morning?

But Amanda showed no uncertainty. "Back to mine for coffee," she said firmly, hailing a cab. Her even tone, without rising intonation, showed that it was not a suggestion, much less a question.

Cohhhfee, thought Ed.

 

***

 

Amanda's flat was in a red-brick mansion block with a uniformed concierge. Ed didn't know anyone who lived in a block with a concierge. He had begun to feel as if he was on some sort of theme park ride and all he could do was hang on until it finished and he was back on familiar ground again. He sat on the sofa and tried to look relaxed. In a few minutes Amanda reappeared with a small tray -not coffee, but two large tumblers of amber liquid. "It's Laphroaig," she said. "I decided we should skip coffee and go straight to the booze."

She sat down in the armchair opposite him, silkily folding one long leg across the other. Her boots creaked slightly as they slid against each other. He took a sip of the whisky, which was strong and smoky, with a faint hint of iodine and the sea. "Cheers," he said, raising the glass to her in gesture that he hoped looked suave.

Amanda's own whisky lay untouched on the tray. She leant back in the armchair and circled the toe of her boot. "Ed, we both know what's going to happen next. We're going to finish our drinks, and then we're going to fuck the whole night through."

She says fuhhhhck, thought Ed, taking a big gulp of the whisky to cover his shock. The rollercoaster had become a drop tower.

"But before we do that, I'm going to give you a little test," Amanda went on. "If you pass it, we'll have sex." She held up her thumb and forefinger, to show how infinitesimally small the test would be, and she flashed him a smile like they were already having the sex.

"Sure," stammered Ed, making an openhanded gesture that meant "whatever", and thinking of all the tests that he had ever done, from SAS to defending his PhD thesis. "What sort of test?" He took another big swig from the whisky glass.

Amanda leant towards him and spoke very soft and low. "I want you to lick my boots. Both of them. All over."

Ed felt as if he had begun to fall very fast. His comfort zone was a distant memory. He could not think of a single experience that might have prepared him for this moment.

"Wh-why would you want me to do that?" he stammered. For a second he wondered if he had misheard, or even if he was hallucinating.

"Never mind why," said Amanda, breathily. "Like I said, it's a test. To see what kind of guy you are. And to see how much you want to please me."

"Can we talk about this?" said Ed, desperately.

"There's nothing to talk about," said Amanda. "You can get down on your hands and knees, and do it. Or you can finish your drink, say goodbye, and we'll never mention it again."

Oh yes, thought Ed. We can never mention it again. We won't mention it in any of the meetings we'll have about my first round funding, with you and the firm's other partners. We won't mention it when I take you as financial backers to meet the phone companies that are considering whether to sign up with us. Sure he could walk out, but it would be more than sex with Amanda that he was saying goodbye to.

Amanda reached forward to trail her red-nailed fingers along the boot. He noticed for the first time that the color of her nail varnish, which matched her lipstick, also matched the color of the heel and sole of the boot. "Come on," she breathed. "It's not such a big deal... and you do want to fuck me, don't you?"

Ed was not good at quick decisions. He liked to weigh up the options, make lists of pluses and minuses. There wasn't going to be time for that here, and in any case he felt more than a little drunk from the whisky. There was the company to think about, his hopes and dreams, and his mates and colleagues who had all put so much time into the software... and there was the sex. Amanda was the most beautiful woman he'd ever been with and he very much wanted to fuck her, but she was also clearly mad and perhaps a little dangerous. Normal, not-mad people did not ask other people to lick their boots. On the other hand, she was mad and perhaps a little dangerous, but she was also the most beautiful woman he'd ever been with, and he very much wanted to fuck her. And fucking her was there for the taking, apart from the mad thing with the boots. And she could kill his start-up, if she wanted to.

Perhaps if it hadn't been for the whisky, which seemed to be really very strong, Ed might have acted differently. Perhaps if it hadn't already been such a disorienting sort of evening he might have made the polite excuse and left. Looking back later, he couldn't recall a conscious decision. Still, he slid off the sofa and moved on his hands and knees across to Amanda's boots. He looked up at her with a grin that was supposed to say that they both knew that this was some sort of joke - just a fun thing. Amanda smiled back, but it was a different, heavy-lidded sort of smile.

Ed lowered his face towards the toe of Amanda's nearest boot, the one on the leg that was crossed. The leather of the boot was shiny, and he caught a brief disconcerting glimpse of his own features. He didn't know the right way to do this, but he guessed that you started at the toe and worked upwards. His mouth was very dry, and the boot tasted bitter.

He knew, intellectually at least, that his position was humiliating - a bootlicker was a very bad thing to call someone - and that humiliation ought to feel nasty. Yet it didn't seem to matter all that much. Suddenly, he just really wanted to please Amanda. Again, as if he was observing someone else, he noted the discrepancy between his thought and his feeling; and while the two contended in his disoriented brain, he continued to lick the boot.

He had almost reached her knee. Did she want him to keep on licking, up her stockinged thigh? She did not. "Don't forget the rest of the boot. The sole, and the heel," said Amanda, flexing her foot inside the boot so that the leather creaked. He paused for a moment, dimly aware that this was even more disgusting." Don't worry, I wiped them clean when we came into the flat, silly..." she said. So Ed licked the boot's red heel, and up into the arch, and the rest of the sole. They were leather too, but they tasted worse, gritty and chemical.

Somewhere far above he could hear Amanda's voice, softly crooning encouragement. "That's good, Ed. You're doing really well, Ed. Go on, go on..." Amanda sounded very aroused. To his amazement, Ed found that he was aroused too. Addled though he was, he made a valiant attempt to analyze his own state. He knew that he didn't have any sort of thing about feet, or about shoes. Some men were turned on by this sort of thing, only not him. But his thickening cock told a different story.

When he had finished the boot he looked up expectantly at Amanda. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and her eyes glistened." Very good," she said." I can see that you're going to pass the test with flying colors. In fact..." She paused, as if considering a thought that had just occurred to her." Before you do the other one, take your clothes off. So that we're almost ready when it's time for the sex." Again, her intonation made it clear that this was not a suggestion.

"Why don't we both take our clothes off?" asked Ed, looking up at Amanda.

"Come on, Ed," she said briskly, tapping the toe of the unlicked boot. "Get on with it. I can barely wait to fuck you now." Without getting up from the armchair she smoothed her dress down over her hips.

So Ed had taken his clothes off and put them neatly on the sofa before returning to the second boot. His engorged cock must be very visible to Amanda, he thought. She must think he was a foot freak too, because why else was he so big?

As if from somewhere near the ceiling, he could see himself crouching naked on the floor at the feet of the still fully dressed woman. Amanda was beautiful, but his position was not a pretty sight. The second boot rested on the floor, and he had to bend his face even lower. After a few minutes Amanda giggled and recrossed her legs the other way, making it slightly easier for him. His mouth was even drier now, his neck was stiff from craning and his knees were sore from the polished wooden floor. At last he was finished.

Amanda beckoned to him to stand up, and he swayed unsteadily to his feet. God, he'd never felt so drunk in his life. For a second he wondered if he'd even be able to manage sex with Amanda. But his cock seemed to be the only part of him that wasn't affected by the whisky. He didn't remember it ever being so big and hard. Amanda certainly seemed impressed. "Mmmm," she hummed appreciatively, and licked her dark red lips with a small pink tongue.

Amanda led him to the bedroom and he slumped on to the bed. He listened to the blood pounding in his head and closed his eyes for what felt like a few seconds. When he opened them Amanda was naked. She had let her hair down and it fell on to her shoulders. Her body put him in mind of an angel. She was long and lean and golden, with small firm breasts tipped with erect raspberry nipples. He loved her, and not just sexually. She was so beautiful, like a sacred thing. He was relieved to see that she had taken off the boots - it had crossed his mind for a second that she might insist on keeping them on for sex.

He extended his arm towards her, and it was as if he was pushing through warm treacle. He so wanted her, but at the same time he was weak as a kitten. Amanda had enough energy for both of them. She climbed on to his body and eased herself down over his cock. She was already hot and wet, before he'd even touched her. She rode him hard, moaning quietly at first and then ever louder, at last almost shrieking and pummeling his chest as she reached the climax of a monumental orgasm.

His cock was still hard as flint and he ached to come himself. She rolled off him and lay by his side for a few minutes. What if she fell asleep now? He'd have to pull himself off, because his unsatisfied erection was more than he could bear. He need not have worried. Amanda toyed idly with his penis for a few minutes and then climbed back on for another violent fuck. This time she held back until she had brought him almost to the brink, and they plunged together into a simultaneous orgasm that was as epic as her first.

Even now she was not finished with him. She rested for a few minutes, then as Ed watched incredulously she coaxed him back to another enormous erection. Not for the first time he wondered if he was dreaming. Amanda's third orgasm of the night took longer. Ed's exhausted body screamed for rest, but his cock remained steadfast until she came. This time she brought him off with her hand, and as dawn broke they both collapsed into a stuporous sleep.