The setting was a quiet residential street in an upland mountain suburb. The time, mid afternoon on a winter day. And Geoffrey Gage was on his way to visit his lover, Rosemary.
Geoffrey was a retired former government employee in his mid-late fifties. He had a trim athletic figure which he kept that way with plentiful exercise, a square determined face and a head of hair beginning to grey. A widower by status, he had moved up to the Mountains on his retirement.
Rosemary, his mistress, was a year or two younger and had been here slightly longer. She was a retired teacher and like him, lean and fit with an attractive oval face and straight, black hair. She lived in a two bedroom cottage further up this street along which he was now making his way.
The two had been lovers for some time and though they had been discreet even though most in this parochial area were probably aware of their connection by now. Both were known members of a local book discussion group and to this end Geoffrey was openly carrying two books as if to legitimise his visit. For the occasion he was wearing a tight jacket and new blue jeans.
Their association had begun about a year before. There had been a payroll robbery at a nearby business. Three lady employees had been made captive and bound and gagged. One of them, an old teaching acquaintance of Rosemary’s, had afterward told her that being rendered incapable in this way had sexually aroused her. She and Geoffrey had discussed this and had then indulged in an experiment in bondage lovemaking to their equally great satisfaction. And they had been lovers in bondage ever since.
He even wondered if they might fit in such a coupling in this afternoon. And smiled at the thought.
Geoffrey entered the gate and knocked on her front door. Two sharp knocks a measured distance apart. They were both methodical and had secretly ritualised their association. Rosemary answered promptly, drew him inside and carefully locked the door behind him. They kissed, swiftly and delightfully.
Geoffrey would have embraced her but she stepped back and held up one hand. “I’ve got two guests, whom you should meet,” she smiled, “One of them, very much so.” Taking his arm, she led him into the lounge room.
Two people, a woman and a man, were sitting on the lounge. They stood up as the pair entered.
The woman was slim, wiry and about average height. She had a long, rounded face, framed by thick, wavy dark brown hair and looked serious, determined and assertive. She wore a thick woollen, belted skirt and a long-sleeved, well fitting fawn blouse.
Her male companion was shorter than her but broader with a broad, squarish face and very thick, dark hair. He had an intellectual look about him. He wore blue jeans (like Geoffrey) and a warm looking woollen jumper.
Both wore thick rimmed glasses and looked to be in their very early fifties. They had a somewhat bookish look about themselves.
Rosemary made the introductions.
The woman was Margaret Deane, an old colleague from her teaching days who now worked locally at a firm named Burstons, situated a few miles away. Her companion was Alan Randell, described as a systems analyst from a local regional centre. The pair were clearly lovers. Geoffrey was simply introduced as ‘my companion.’ Rosemary stood beside him when she said this.
Geoffrey was interested to hear of Margaret’s place of work. “Burstons?” he said, “You mean Burstons of Barkridge, don’t you? The place where the big robbery was a year ago?”
Margaret Deane stepped forward. She looked serious. “I was one of the three lady staff who were bailed up by those characters. We were first to arrive that morning. The payroll was mistakenly delivered two hours ahead of schedule and the armoured delivery firm wouldn’t stay and guard it. I frantically phoned head office and they said it’d be OK. Nobody knew it was there and Security’d be there shortly to take charge of it anyway. A damned lie. They never turned up for two hours.”
She went on. “Those armed crims must’ve been watching. They got in somehow and threatened us with pistols. We were terrified.
“OK - they never harmed us physically. But they got some duct tape left over from a recent electrical repair job and used it to tie us up. They taped our wrists behind our backs. Then our arms to our sides. And they didn’t stint it. We ended up looking like well wrapped packages, ready for shipment. They made us sit in three lined up office chairs, bound our ankles and thighs and lastly lashed us to the steel chair back supports. Alright, they didn’t hurt us, but we were scared to death all the time.”
"One of our number, a nineteen year old girl trainee, became hysterical at one stage. She started asking them if they were going to rape us. I felt like telling her to shut up before they decided to do just that."
"Before they went they gagged us. Damp face cloths from the washroom, folded up and stuffed into our mouths. And kept in place with the last strips of duct tape plastered across the lower part of our faces. And then they left. With the payroll.” She paused and then concluded. “All we could do was sit here and writhe and mew to each other. We were there for half an hour. Then more of the staff arrived. They got in by the forced side door of the original entry and released us. And I can say it was a hell of a job getting that tape off.”
Rosemary spoke. "It all sounds pretty traumatic. Now I understand Margaret wants to go into this matter further. In which case I suggest we all sit down facing each other.” She looked at the company. “We might as well be comfortable.”
Margaret and Alan went back on the lounge and Geoffrey and Rosemary sat in drawn up armchairs opposite them.
Rosemary was not only the hostess but also the Mistress of Ceremonies as well. “Well, Margaret, I know you have something you want to say so you had better begin.”
Margaret, still unsmiling, began. “You all heard my story when you mentioned my place of employment. That started it all off. I don’t mind admitting I was having counselling for months after the event.” The others looked sympathetic. “The day after it happened I came here to Rosemary’s place to unburden myself. She’s the only old trustworthy friend up here that I can talk to.
I told her the whole business. But what I emphasised was being tied hand and foot and then gagged by those characters made me sexually aroused. She may have told you that, Geoffrey.”
Geoffrey blinked. He wasn’t expecting this. Rosemary answered for him, “Yes, I did,” she went on, “And you, my love,” this to her partner, "Told me that the sight of a bound and helpless woman is something of a male turn-on anyway. And that you’d wondered if the practice affected femininity in a reverse sort of way.”
Geoffrey managed a smile and a nod.
Turning to the other two, Rosemary went on. “We talked about it at some length. You could say that is what bondage lovemaking is all about.”
Margaret was in full cry. “And do you go in for bondage lovemaking?” She did not wait for an answer. “I suspect you do. Anyhow. You see, bearing in mind how being bound and gagged affected me, Alan and I want to try it. But we’re not sure how to begin. Could you give us some advice?”
Rosemary and Geoffrey both burst out laughing, “Do you really need to be told how to tie and gag a member of the opposite sex?”
Alan spoke for the first time. “We’ve never done it personally. But we’d like to try.” He stood up, “Would you help us?” He smiled self consciously, “Perhaps it’s because we’re both products of sheltered, strait-laced backgrounds.”
Rosemary stood up. She was wearing a close fitting long sleeved white top and a hip-hugging narrow blue skirt. “Geoffrey, I think we should give these good people a simple demonstration. A hands and arms tie. I’ll volunteer. You go and get our box of bondage things.” Geoffrey left without a word. She said not another word, just remained standing with her hands clasped, smiling at her guests.
Geoffrey returned and put a cardboard box of equipment on the nearby coffee table. Rosemary stepped forward and stood in front of Alan, who was standing. And Margaret too, still seated on the lounge. And who was now wringing her hands, possibly in anticipation. Wordlessly, she turned around in front of her partner and crossed her hands behind her back.
And Geoffrey set to work. A soft sash-tie was looped several times around her wrists and secured with a couple of firm knots. A longer length went around her upper arms, under her breasts and then cinched under her armpits for added tightness. Which made her bust stand out. And lastly another long tie wound many times around her waist, further securing her already bound hands. He worked with care, aiming at firmness and security but not over-tightness. Margaret and Alan looked on with fascinated interest.
“There,” said Geoffrey on completion, ”Hands and arms well secured with a minimum of restraints and yet the subject still reasonably comfortable.” Rosemary obligingly did a full pirouette in front of the two viewers. They watched it all in silence.
Finally Margaret asked, “You’re perfectly helpless, yet comfortable?”
“I couldn’t get free if I tried,” said Rosemary, “Yet only a minimum number of sashes have been used.” She smiled, “And, I might point out, if my skirt and knickers were removed my private parts would be completely at my captor’s mercy. And I couldn’t do a thing about it.” Another smile, “What a prospect for a girl to be in.”
Margaret got up and stood beside Alan. “I notice,” she began, “You still have lots of ties in your box. Could we try?” A tentative smile, “Myself as subject.”
Rosemary and Geoffrey agreed. They stepped back, leaving their guests centre stage.
Alan seemed hesitant. “I’ve - I've never tied up a woman before.” He turned to the box of ties, “But I’ll try.”
And try he did. Selecting what seemed to be the softest sashes he began to tie up his mistress. And he used the restraints more lavishly than Geoffrey had done. A many knotted binding of her hands crossed behind her back. He used three lashings to bind her arms to her sides. Above and below her bosom and a third at her elbows. And finally many windings of a long sash around her waist to hold her forearms. Margaret’s upper body was looking like a well wrapped mummy. For someone who had never before tied a woman up, he showed remarkable aptitude.
Margaret bore all of this calmly and quietly, at least on the surface. Yet bearing in mind what she had said about how she felt during the Burstons robbery, Rosemary suspected she was becoming very much sexually aroused by now. She noticed her eyes were beginning to close.
“There.” Alan, the man who had never before tied up a woman, stepped back from his very impressive first effort.
Margaret’s eyes opened. She looked down at her bonds as best she could then looked around at the assembled company. Finally she stared at the bondage box. And then asked in a quiet voice, “Do you have a gag in there?”
Geoffrey pulled out a folded towelling wad tied in the middle of a length of soft webbing about a metre long. The same quiet voice then asked, “Could you put it on me?”
“We’d better moisten it first.” And Geoffrey went to the bathroom to do that. Rosemary stated that the gag should only be used for a short time. She made it clear that the bound Margaret should be vocal for the rest of this new experience she was undergoing.
Geoffrey returned and Alan insisted on depriving his beloved of speech, tying the gag with a neat bow at the back of her head.
And so Margaret stood before the others. Her arms firmly tied, her mouth gagged, her eyes shining. She walked up and down in front of them, flexing her arms as best she could. At this stage Rosemary told Geoffrey to take out the gag, returning her to the world of vocal communication.
And vocal she was. Margaret, her arms still bound, stood beside Alan and faced her hostess and her partner. “Rosemary, Geoffrey. I know it’s asking a lot of you. But, could we, please, Alan and I, have some privacy? Together?” A pause. “For a short while?”
Geoffrey said nothing. Rosemary just smiled, “Of course. I think the guest bedroom will do nicely.” She turned. “Geoffrey, you lead the way. To open doors and there’s something to be picked up on the way. I’m a little incapacitated at the moment.” She wriggled her own bound arms. She and her partner stood up.
All four left the lounge room and went into the hallway. At Rosemary’s direction they stopped at the linen cupboard and Geoffrey was told to take out a folded beach towel and hand towel.
In the second bedroom all gathered round the double bed it contained. Rosemary spoke, “This’s where I bed down overnight guest couples.” Margaret and Alan looked at each other. Geoffrey had already put the two towels on the coverlet and was further requested to draw the blind fully down. “Not that there’ll be any problems with the neighbours. They're an old retired couple, not at all nosy and there are two leafy trees between this room and them anyway.”
“We’ll leave you people to yourselves,” Rosemary said pleasantly, “Come out when you’re ready.” She and her partner turned and walked out of the bedroom. Geoffrey closed the door.
Back in the lounge room the pair sat on the lounge. Geoffrey moved to untie his partner whose arms were still bound. “Leave it,” he was told.
Rosemary spoke. “Margaret is a very close old friend whom I’ve known since our teaching training days together. Privately, since that payroll heist she’s repeatedly told me of how her vaginal orifice moistened when she was bound and gagged then.” She turned and looked at Geoffrey, “And we both saw the enthusiasm and inventiveness that little man (Alan was shorter than any of them) showed when he tied her up. ’Never done it before’ he said.” She laughed, “I can only assume he’s an absolute natural then.”
Geoffrey stared straight ahead. “I came to exactly the same conclusion.”
“I can only say,” she went on, "the two of them are headed for a riotously adventurous career in bondage lovemaking.”
They both laughed.
“Well they’ll certainly be busy in there for an hour or more,” she went on, “What’re we going to do to fill in the time?” Rosemary smiled at him. “Since you’ve got a bound, helpless female here. Which you have previously said is a male turn-on. Why don’t we go into my bedroom and have a riotous adventure ourselves?”
“Why not indeed?”
They both stood up and walked to the bedroom.
An hour and a half later Rosemary and Geoffrey were back in the lounge room. The ties she had been bound with were back in the box and she had placed a bottle of wine from the refrigerator on the coffee table and was laying out some wine glasses.
Margaret and Alan appeared in the entrance to the hallway. Alan was carrying the now neatly rolled up ties he had earlier that afternoon tied up his companion with. Margaret wore a look of quiet serenity. Any signs of worry she had previously shown were gone from her face. She looked content.
“Hello,” said Rosemary, “We’re about to have a celebratory drink. Would you like to join us?”
They would. Alan put his collection of ties back in the box. All four seated themselves around the coffee table. Rosemary poured the wine generously. “There’s another bottle if necessary,” she explained.
She went on. “It’s getting dark, and late. We’ll have to think of an evening meal. There’s not much here. But on the other side of the Station, where the highway is, there’s the Highland Grill. It’s a quiet, local restaurant, wouldn’t be too busy tonight. We could book a table for four. It’s only about a mile away. An easy walk. I suggest we go there. I think we do have an occasion for dining out.” They had, they all agreed.
“And as to after that. I take it you two will stay the night? It’ll be late by then.” Margaret and Alan looked at each other and then nodded their agreement. Their hostess smiled, “You know where the guest room is.” They did indeed.
“Well then,” said Rosemary, “I think a toast is called for. Let’s drink to a happy future for all of us.”
They all raised their glasses.