by Paul Blades
As her eyes focused on the door, she wondered what would have happened if she had been able to get it shut before the dream man came back into the house after his early morning frolic on Saturday. Would he have mesmerized her into opening it again? Could his powers flow through walls? Even though she was a confined prisoner, had lost all rights of personal integrity, and was apparently being used for some ulterior purpose of the man's, she wondered if she would have tried to close the door if she knew then what she knew now. If someone had offered her the conscious choice between the almost intolerable bliss she had experienced over the last two days and her freedom, what would she have chosen? She knew she would have chosen freedom, because there would have been no way to convey the inexpressible joy she felt at the man's presence, the ecstasy she felt at his touch. And still now, she wondered, if somehow the man's control over her lapsed, if she got the chance to run away today, would she take it? Probably not. What was freedom after all compared to bliss?
Kelly was also afraid of being someplace other than here, in the comfortable, warm environment of her house, where her mystical transformation had taken place. Here, she did not have to be confronted by the real world, deal with the fact that no one could ever understand what she had been through, never mind approve of what she had become. And what if, being confronted by the realities of her outside existence, somehow the spell was broken? She would lose the feeling of utter contentment she felt whenever the man put his hands on her. She would lose the burning need she felt for him, a need that made her feel more alive than she had ever felt before. She would lose the orgasmic bliss he brought to her whenever he placed his hard cock inside her body and discharged himself there. Just the thought of it made her need for him rise.
The man came and sat down opposite her. He was drinking his second cup of coffee. He saw she was nervous and noted her growing lust. It was good to feel it flow across the small room to him. His eyes surveyed the picture of his pretty familiar. The blond woman had done her job well, and the female was a delectable sight. Her bound hands behind her curved her shoulders back, proffering her covered, clearly distinguishable breasts. Her legs looked long and sensual. Her helpless confinement and doleful look made her even more appealing to his male, human mind.
Kelly shifted uncomfortably as the man's eyes scanned her body. His gaze made her more conscious of her bonds, her defenselessness. She could not help thinking of her naked breasts beneath her knitted top, breasts he could caress or kiss merely by the raising of the bottom of her shirt. She was reminded of her bare pussy that lurked under her short, revealing skirt, open to his possession by the simple expedient of lifting her hem. Her body shivered as her lust began to grow. “How will I ever make it through the day?” she asked herself fearfully.
Adele came storming into the living room. She was dressed in one of her standard miniskirts and a tight, flowered blouse. “I'm ready. I'm ready,” she announced merrily. She knelt down before Kelly and released and removed her ankle bindings. Standing up, she disconnected the bracelets around her wrists and eased the gag from her mouth. She put the ankle bracelets and gag in her big, red purse. She retrieved Kelly's fall jacket from the closet and helped her put it on. When Kelly looked up, the man was standing in front of her. He was wearing a supple, form fitting, black leather jacket with a bright brass zipper that looked very good on him. He placed his hands on either side of her auburn head and sent her a strong signal of the need to obey his will combined with a surge of pleasure. Kelly felt her knees weaken as she absorbed it. When the man released her, Adele put her arms around her and gave her a long, passionate kiss. Kelly hugged her back and returned the kiss happily. They were best friends, lovers now, she thought. Adele would take care of her. As if reading her mind, Adele told her when they broke their kiss, “Don't worry, Kelly, everything will be all right. And tonight, I'll have a really nice surprise for you.” She then locked Kelly's wrists together in front of her.
It was a twenty minute drive to the lab from Kelly's house except when the usually light traffic got snarled where Route 246 crosses Becker Farm Road. Today, of all days, traffic was heavy. Kelly's composure about the upcoming day lasted only a few miles. At the first signs of the otherwise normalcy of the day, the cars breezing up and down the country road, the telephone poles whizzing by, the stores and coffee shops, Kelly's heart sank into a deep funk. Like a condemned woman tired of waiting for her doom, Kelly sat in the back seat behind Ramón and counted each long minute of their trip. They had taken her car and Kelly was driving. A light drizzle was making everything worse.
How could the world be the same, she thought miserably, when she had changed so much? Although her wrists were bound in front of her, they were clearly meant only as something symbolic since she could still release her seat belt by pressing the little button to her left and operate the door handle to her right. It was her own will that kept her a prisoner, her decision to succumb to her need for the man sitting in the passenger seat in front of her.
"And why does he want to go to my lab?” she wondered, looking at the long, black hair at the back of his head. Does he need it for some reason? Is this what this is all about? Was that why she was selected?
The fact that the man might have chosen her for purely utilitarian purposes rather than as a result of an infatuation or obsession with her was disconcerting. It struck at her self respect and pride. She still had no real answer to how he had appeared so suddenly in her bed, locked in a passionate embrace with her. It was clear he had chosen her. Was he merely trading on the emotional barrenness of her life, counting on her desperate need for intimate companionship? Did he really care for her?
Ramón, otherwise entranced by the strange new world he was traveling through, turned from time to time to check up on his familiar. When they had come out of the house, Ramón had stood still for a moment, his face upturned as the rainwater caressed it. Adele had stopped walking to the car when she discovered he was not right behind her, and said jokingly, “It's just rain, baby. You'll get to see a lot of that around here this time of year."
When he looked back to where his familiar was sitting in the car, he could sense her distraught state. He sent soothing, comforting messages to her, signals that would, temporarily cause her to relax her tense body, ease the conflicts within her. When he looked back a few minutes later, he would see the same, tense, nervous look on her face.
Twice, Kelly had the urge to jump out of the car. The first was when they stopped at the red light about three miles from her house. She knew the owner of the gas station there and imagined herself running inside and begging him to call the police. The second time was when they stopped at the light at Meyer's Junction. There, an actual police car pulled up right beside them in the right hand turn lane. The young officer peered into their car with feigned nonchalance. Kelly looked back. It would take only a look, a mouthing of the word ‘help’ to summon assistance, start in motion a chain of events that would lead to her liberation. A wave of misery flooded her when she thought of being separated from her dream lover and she let the police cruiser pull away.
She was filled with dread when they finally pulled into the driveway for the lab a little before 8 o'clock. Ramón got out first and opened her door. When she stepped out, he took her arm. A thin curtain of light rain was still falling. As luck would have it, Mr. Hardings, her landlord was arriving just at the same time. He was broadchested and about 5'8” tall. He was wearing a heavy, plaid winter jacket that, coincidentally, matched Kelly's skirt and a red and yellow Washington Redskins knitted pullover cap. Kelly, distressed that he would see her bound wrists, tried to pull them up into the sleeves of her jacket.
"Morning, Dr. Jameson,” he said to her amiably.
"That's right,” Kelly said to herself. “I'm Dr. Jameson.” She was about to return the greeting when she was hit by a wall of panic. If she didn't speak, Hardings would think there was something weird going on. If she did speak, her captor might punish her. She looked a
nxiously at Ramón. He sent her a message of reassurance.
Ramón, of all people, saved the day.
"Hi,” he said, holding out his hand. “I'm Ramón Vasquez, Mr. Hardings. Nice to meet you. I'm going to be working with Dr. Jameson for a while. We've brought in a few new grants and are going to be very busy."
"Well, that's great,” Hardings replied shaking Ramón's hand back heartily. That his tenant was prospering was good news indeed!
Kelly looked at Ramón as if he was a manikin that had just recited the Gettysburg Address. The dream man had a voice after all! And it was perfect, slightly accented English. She was about to say something when Adele broke in. “Hi, I'm Adele. I'm the office manager. I've seen you around a lot but we've never met.” She extended her hand to formalize the greeting. “We've got a conference call with some of the money people in a few minutes so we can't chat. Ramón'll come over later and talk to you about some plans we've been working on."
"Okay, Okay,” Hardings said merrily. And to Ramón, “Come over any time. Anything I can do for Dr. Jameson, I'd be happy."
Adele unlocked the door to the lab and the trio entered. Ramón immediately began to look around the place. Adele escorted Kelly to her office and, after unlocking her bracelets and removing her coat, locked them back together before her and sat her in her chair behind her desk.
Kelly's beautiful, large, dark oak desk had been a present from her family when she had opened the lab. Its shiny top was covered by a clean, black bordered, green felt pad, had a picture of Kelly, her mom and dad and her younger brother and sister in it sitting in a frame, an old fashioned green tinted desk lamp and the usual assortment of office conveniences, a stapler, Scotch tape, a round container for pens, etc. There was a small stack of papers on the front right of the desk in a little bin and her thin computer screen on the left in front of which sat her keyboard. The telephone was on the right, just far enough to be out of the way, but within easy reach.
After sitting Kelly in her chair, Adele pulled the cord from the telephone base. She then unplugged the computer and closed the blinds on the outside windows. There was a set of blinds which Kelly never used which covered the interior windows that looked over the lab area. Adele closed them too.
Kelly watched sadly as she was cut off from contact with the outside world. She felt like a little girl in her grandmother's parlor with her hands graciously and respectfully folded in her lap. It was about another hour before the lab techs would arrive. She thought nervously about how they would react if they saw her bound hands and her skimpy dress, not to mention all the drawn blinds. Adele had even lowered the shade over the window on the door. And how would she communicate with anybody? Were they going to make her sit in her chair all day with nothing to do?
Kelly felt a tear roll down her cheek. Was the dream man going to take everything away from her? Adele had taken the dark wooden chair with the padded seat to the left in front of her desk. She just sat there, smiling and waiting.
Kelly's office was warmly decorated. The lab area had once been a large warehouse and the manager's office had been carved out of the storage area and was constructed of concrete block. It rose about ten feet high under the 20'high roof. It been modeled in late early industrial decor when she took over the lab. The torn, sheetrocked walls were a faded, dirty white, the ceiling consisted of the bare underside of the concrete overhead. The floor had been painted gray over what had once been painted red, and scuff marks and gouges made the older, red paint stand out like wounds.
Using a small amount of money from her first year's grant, and with the help of reduced price workmen Mr. Hardings had sent her, Kelly had the walls repaired and painted a light, pastel green. The floors were covered with a dark green and cream colored oriental style carpet over a thick pad. She had had a drop ceiling installed and a large, round light fixture put in to replace the banged up fluorescent ones. The walls were covered with her mementos, diplomas, awards, letters of commendation. She had several of her favorite prints matted and framed in dark, brown wood. Across from her desk was her favorite Degas, a picture of several, young pretty student ballerinas in flowing, chimerical ballet dresses, flexing their legs, taking practice adagios against a backdrop of a long, tall mirror. Their delicate hands floated in the air or swept towards the ground as they anchored themselves to the long wooden bar that ran across it. The painting was suffused with pleasant reds, blues, yellows and whites and clearly showed the painter's affection for the delicate, young girls.
Looking at it now, Kelly felt fear for the pretty, young girls who worked for her. Ramón would corrupt them, she just knew it. They were all over eighteen and probably had active sex lives of their own. They also had boyfriends and family and Chandra, whose family had emigrated from New Delhi, went to night classes. Were they all to become his servants? To what purpose? Didn't she have some responsibility to warn them, to protect them? They looked up to her as a kind of surrogate mother, sometimes coming in to her office to cry over this and that. And they treated Adele like a favored older sister, the same Adele who would happily facilitate their betrayal.
While the women waited for him in Kelly's office, Ramón took his time examining the facilities of the lab. It had been an interesting ride from the house. He was surprised at how much these beings had marred the natural beauty of their environment, with large, garish billboards here and there, the ubiquitous power and telephone lines, the interminable stores. Why they needed so many he couldn't figure out. And the amount of resources the devoted to their means of locomotion was astounding. He counted two new car dealers and three used ones on the 15 mile ride from the female's house to here. There had been four gas stations and two parts stores too. And that didn't include the vast spaces devoted to parking the vehicles at all the different commercial establishments.
His servant had popped on the radio while they drove and while some of the sounds were jarring, the melodies of others were interesting and the beat was compelling. The noise of what he recognized as selling messages were the worst. He wondered if these beings could recognize the falsity in the voices of the pitch men and women.
The strangest part of the ride had been his search for the computer guidance mechanism he presumed gave the drivers of the cars the confidence to travel so fast and so close to one another. The vehicles coming in the opposite direction often made him flinch as they looked to be coming right at them. Although he had courageously made five dimensional jumps, he had never felt the apprehension he felt during that ride. It had distracted him for caring for his familiar who, he realized, was suffering bouts of intense apprehension in the back seat. He gave her what assurances he could before pinning his eyes again on the fearsome traffic approaching them.
The feel of the light drizzle of rain on his face had been wondrous. It felt like a thousand tiny kisses to his skin. The woman Adele had been amused at his enjoyment of this new, pleasurable sensation. It was a shame, he thought, that these beings had been so inured to the pleasures around them they were barely noticed.
He examined the laboratory equipment and recognized most of its uses. He went to the rear of the building and took stock of the steel emergency door. Adele had informed him about the vacant space which was located next to the lab. He would speak to Hardings about that today. The meeting in the parking lot had been fortuitous, obviating the need for an introduction later. He had taken from his familiar's mind what little she knew about his operations on the other side of the concrete wall that divided them. It seemed he might have had a stroke of luck. If Hardings had government contracts for military applications, he would probably have access to strategic materials Ramón would need. And he was sure he could produce innovations to Hardings’ products that would bring very quick financial rewards. Until then, he would need to live off of the foundation money the female had access to. He would have her add him as a signatory to those accounts today.
He took his time, looking in cabinets and drawers, examining tools and the stock
room. Some of the raw materials would be useful. He needed to study some more to know for sure. He had already identified, in his research, several compounds and types of biological materials he would need. Adele would make sure orders were placed before the day was out.
It was about 8:30 when he walked into Kelly's office. He knew the three young laboratory assistants would be showing up in a half hour or so and he wanted to be ready for them. Also, he needed to acclimatize his familiar to his dominance of her here and he wanted to complete that process before the others arrived.
Kelly had been sitting quietly in her office, sullenly staring at her assistant and friend. Adele just smiled back. “I could get up and run,” she thought. She might be able to surprise Adele, knock her down or something and dash out of her office door. If the man was in the back of the lab, she might be able to get to the main door before he could do anything about it. There were security men watching on the cameras that were mounted on the roof and they might see her frantically fleeing the building before the man caught her. They would investigate. She could save the girls, get her lab back. She kept on trying to will her body into motion with no success. Her stomach would cringe with the thought of being disobedient to her captor, her lord and master. She would get a vision of his face, his body and she would recoil from the idea of being parted from them.
He had spoken! What a trip that was! His voice was deep and comforting. She wished she could hear more of it, but for some reason he didn't deign to use it in her presence unless he had to. He communicated to Adele psychically, apparently, since she always seemed to know what he wanted without any conversation passing between them. She had secured Kelly's office without any words being exchanged, unless they had planned out what she should do on arrival before Kelly awoke. Adele had picked up quickly on Ramón's lie to Mr. Hardings and followed it up with a convenient and consistent lie of her own.