Chapter 3: Things Get Personal
Dan completed his first full day at “Leather or Knot” without any other customers requesting a demonstration of the products in the shop. After briefly discussing the matter with Amanda, Dan felt better about how he handled the situation. Amanda made him promise not to make the same mistake again, but she seemed to forgive him.
The day ended uneventfully. He and Amanda closed the shop together, and they went their separate ways for the weekend. Dan had considered asking Amanda out for drinks or to a movie, but one of the first things that she told him on that first day was that the shop owner had a strict no-dating policy. She quickly followed up the information with “Besides, I’m sure a nice guy like you can get a date any time he wants.”
Dan’s weekend moved slowly. He occupied himself with his continuing job search, but he found it hard to concentrate. He couldn’t stop thinking about Amanda. He was particularly caught up with Amanda’s modeling session, and how excited he had been when she was helplessly writhing about. Monday finally arrived, and Dan found himself back at the shop to start his first full week.
Over the next few days, Dan discovered that requests for demonstrations or modeling were rather infrequent. In fact, he discovered that sales were rather infrequent, as well. It seemed that most of the people who came into the store were just there to browse. Every time Dan or Amanda would approach these customers, they would either scare the customers off or get a cold shoulder.
After days of observing customer behavior, Dan finally commented “Why do those people come in here, if they aren’t interested in buying anything?”
“They’re just tourists.” Amanda replied.
“Tourists?” Dan asked.
“Yes. They just come in to see the sights, like tourists.” Amanda explained. “Sometimes I call them rubber-neckers, gawkers, tire-kickers, but it all just comes down to curiosity without the conviction to follow it up.”
“Wow, that’s a harsh critique from someone who has never purchased anything in here.” said Dan, a bit condescendingly.
“Maybe, so, but I have also never come through a shop like this as though it were a freak show.” She replied unfazed.
Dan dropped the subject figuring that she had a point.
He changed the subject by asking Amanda about her family. Amanda told him about her life growing up in an upper-middle class, extremely conservative family. Her parents would be mortified to find out that their daughter made her living selling bondage equipment. She confided in him that they believed that she was working in a used CD shop. She joked that it was only a little white lie since some of her customers were used CDs – cross-dressers, that was.
Dan told Amanda more about his search for a job in his chosen field, but he made sure that she understood how much he enjoyed working with her. Eventually, each revealed to the other that they were not currently dating, and Dan seized the opportunity. He immediately asked Amanda out for a date the following weekend.
Dan was hit by a stunning silence. After a bit, Amanda asked “What about the owner’s no-dating policy?”
“What the owner doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Dan quickly replied.
“Or her,” added Amanda with a smile, reminding Dan that the owner was anonymous.
“I’ll go out with you on one condition.” continued Amanda. “Just in case you’re only interested in me because you’ve seem me tied up in my underwear, let’s agree that we will leave work at work. No bondage outside the shop.”
“No problem,” said Dan. “I would prefer that, as well. Especially since you have me at a distinct disadvantage since you have had a lot more practice at tying people up than I have.”
Thursday afternoon was heading toward evening, and he had almost completed his first full week at the shop when a group of six college-aged girls loudly entered the shop. It was Dan’s turn to wait on the customers, but he took his time approaching them. Based on their boisterous giggling, he figured that they were just there for the novelty of it.
He couldn’t have been more wrong. He approached the girls, and began to address the tall blonde who appeared to be the leader of the group.
“We need to buy things to tie up some boys,” the tall blonde announced before Dan had even introduced himself.
“Well, you’ve come to the right place,” Dan said jokingly.
“We are the pledge night planning committee for our sorority, and we need restraints for six football players,” she said directly. “We were considering handcuffs. They are inescapable, but so uncomfortable. Do you have any leather restraints that could control a big strong guy… like yourself?”
“Well, we have some 3-inch wide leather cuffs that would restrain just about anybody,” Dan said blushing slightly.
After a brief explanation, Dan learned that the girls had coordinated their sorority pledge party with a corresponding fraternity’s hazing party. As part of their hazing, the fraternity members were going to restrain their top six pledges and give them to the top six pledges of the sorority. The sorority pledges would keep the fraternity pledges as slaves until 9:00 the next morning. A chaperone assigned to each pair of pledges would judge the sorority pledge by how cruelly or kindly she treated her slave during the twelve hour period. The girls didn’t explain to Dan whether pledges would receive more or fewer points for cruelty, but he wasn’t sure he really wanted to know, anyway.
He led the group to the back of the store where the more extreme restraints were displayed, and he could see the mischievous thoughts behind each girl’s eyes. They looked like children in a candy store as they gazed around in wide-eyed wonder. He showed them the heavy-duty cuffs, and they tugged the ends to test how sturdy they were. With a nod from the blonde, one of the other girls collected six pairs and took them to the checkout counter.
Dan then proceeded to show them blindfolds, ball-gags, collars and heavy-duty leather ankle restrains connected by an 18-inch chain. Each time, one of the other girls would gather up a half dozen of the items and deposit them on the checkout counter. Finally, the girls asked Dan to show them the punishment devices. They seemed particularly interested in whips and riding crops. One of the girls suggested that they could have an equestrian theme for the evening. Dan started to mention that they had an entire selection of pony restraints, but the tall blonde quickly refocused their attention back to basic restraints. She said that they would work well regardless of whatever theme they ultimately selected.
Dan thought to himself that she would probably be deciding the party’s theme anyway, based on her dominant personality.
Unlike the restraints, they selected a variety of slappers – two riding crops, two whips, a cane and a rather nasty looking paddle. This time, the blonde collected the merchandise herself, and she led them to the counter. Amanda had just completed scanning the barcodes from the other merchandise when the blonde said to her, “I hope that this all comes in under $1,000 because that is our limit.”
After a few more beeps from the checkout computer, Amanda announced, “Nine-hundred and forty-five dollars even.”
“Wow,” whispered a cute little brunette to the tall blonde. “That’s an awful lot of money. What if they don’t work? The party would be a disaster if the slaves got away”
“We’ll just have to take that chance.” said the leader decisively.
“You don’t have to,” said Amanda off-handedly.
All of the girls looked between Amanda and the blonde, wondering what Amanda meant. After a moment’s pause, the blonde asked, “What do you mean, we don’t have to take that chance?”
“Well, you could test how effective the restraints are by having someone try them on before you pay for them.” Amanda offered with a cunning smile.
“Thanks for the suggestion, but that wouldn’t work,” the blonde replied quickly. “I don’t think any of us would be foolish enough to try them on, and besides I’m certain that none of us could get out of them even if we did. I don’t think you realize that we plan on using these on fraternity pledges who are a lot stronger than we are.”
“You mean that Dan didn’t brag about our shop’s standing offer to demonstrate our merchandise before you purchase it? Dan, shame on you.” Amanda said, shaking her finger at Dan with an over-emphasized look of disapproval on her face.
Ten minutes later, Dan found himself stripped down to his underwear in the rear of the shop. Instead of using the heavy-duty wrist cuffs that Dan had suggested to the girls, Amanda applied a neck-to-wrist restraint that held Dan’s arms parallel across the small of his back. The cuffs were connected to a harness that crossed from the cuffs, up and around the sides of his torso to the front of a matching collar. Amanda adjusted the harness to hold Dan’s wrists just a little higher behind his back than he was comfortable with.
The women all gathered around Dan, and pointed out how the cuffs looked like they made him completely vulnerable. They asked him to try to break free, and Dan gave it a valiant effort, but the restraints didn’t budge.
Dan’s shoulders ached a bit, and as he began to mention it to Amanda, she inserted a ball-gag into his open mouth. He struggled a bit, but decided that he had better cooperate. He wasn’t so much afraid that he would lose the sale, as he realized that he was in no position to antagonize either Amanda or the tall blonde who was ominously silent during the demonstration. It wasn’t until the ball was wedged behind his teeth that he realized that Amanda had selected a gag with their largest size ball. Dan would have trouble getting this out even if Amanda had not fastened the strap.
To complete his ensemble, Amanda placed a blindfold over his eyes that completely removed his vision. Once he was bound, gagged and blindfolded, Amanda began to calmly discuss the various restraint alternatives in much more detail than Dan had. She made it a point to ignore him, and the girls followed along.
“I saw all of the merchandise that Dan helped you picked out, but I was surprised that you didn’t buy any leashes for your slaves,” Amanda said to nobody in particular.
“I guess we hadn’t thought about it.” said the cute brunette. “Do we really need them?”
“Well, you don’t need them, but they can be really useful. And they can double as a whip, which gives you a bit more bang for your buck,” Amanda said smoothly. “Here, let me show you.”
Dan heard a distinctive snap, and he felt a gentle tug at his collar. Dan obediently followed along as Amanda paraded him around the rear of the shop. The girls giggled.
“Tell you what,” Amanda said suddenly. “Let me show you a new piece that we just received last week.”
Dan had no idea where this was headed, but he didn’t like the sound of it.
“This is our portable spanking bench,” Amanda said as she forced Dan to bend over a device that looked something like a collapsible, leather covered work bench. Once Dan’s chest was resting along the top of the bench, Amanda attached Dan’s collar to the bench with a snap-hook. Dan’s underwear-covered ass was facing the women, and he was powerless to stand up.
“What are these?” he heard one of the women ask from behind.
“Here, let me show you,” Amanda said as Dan felt his ankles being cuffed to the base of the bench.
“Wow. That’s really nice,” said the tall blonde, “but we could never afford six of those!”
“Maybe not, but I might be able to let you borrow this one to use for the party,” Amanda responded. “It isn’t often that someone buys a thousand dollars worth of gear in one shopping trip.”
“Let me show you a couple of other things,” Amanda said as Dan heard her voice moving away from him.
Slowly, the sound of the women moved away from him. He could hear Amanda showing the sorority sisters item after item. Finally, he heard Amanda say, “Great, I’m sure that you’ll be much happier with this gear than the gear that Dan showed you originally.”
It seemed like hours. Dan could hear the women passing the time and talking at the checkout counter. He couldn’t do a thing about it, but he wished that Amanda would complete the sale already. Suddenly, Dan smelled the perfume of the tall blonde, and he could feel breathing in his right ear. The women continued to talk at the front of the store, but Dan was sure that the blonde was right next to him.
Finally, she whispered in his ear. “Thank you for your help in picking out our gear.” she said.
“We ended up making some different decisions after talking with Amanda. She was really helpful.”
She paused, but Dan could still feel her breathing.
“Shame on you for not offering this bench to us, like Amanda. You were a naughty little salesman , weren’t you?” she whispered with a pout in her voice.
Dan remained silent following the rhetorical question when a piercing slap across his ass made him realize that it wasn’t rhetorical, after all.
“Mmphh! Mmphh!” Dan shouted in his gag, shaking his head emphatically.
“Beth, dear,” Dan heard Amanda call from the front of the store. “I’m afraid I can’t let you continue. It is against store policy.”
“Oh, just one more?” the blonde pleaded. “He’s been such a bad boy.”
Amanda paused as though in contemplation.
“You know what?” she replied. “He really has been a bit naughty. I’ve thought so ever since his very first day.”
Amanda paused again.
“Go ahead. Teach him a lesson, but no permanent marks. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a bit of discomfort for a really good sale. Isn’t that right, Dan?”
Dan immediately realized that this was his payback for the vibrator stunt he pulled on Amanda on his first day. Panic overtook him, and he completely forgot the release signal Amanda assigned him in the event he was gagged.
He felt his underwear being slid below his buttocks, and he felt three swift whacks to his ass before he remembered that his safe signal was the national anthem. By the time he remembered, though, it was all over.
His briefs were slid back up to their original position, and he could hear the tall blonde walking to the front of the store.
“Let’s go girls,” she said as she approached the counter. “We have a party to plan.”
“Oh, and thank you Amanda. We appreciate the demonstration, and I’m sure we’ll come back again now that we know about the shop’s superior customer service level.”
Amanda showed the women out, but re-locked the front door after they left. She decided to close the shop up a bit early tonight. She restocked the shelves with the gear that the women decided not to buy. She tidied up the back office. She signed for the final UPS shipment of the day. And finally, she released Dan from the spanking bench and other restraints.
When she was through, she smiled and said, “I think that makes us about even.”
Dan smiled sheepishly and said, “Yeah, I guess. Except that I didn’t get a $200 tip and a vibrator out of the deal.”
07.11.09
story continues in Leather or Knot Chapter 4: Amanda’s in a Bind
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