Chapter 8: Dan’s Preparation & Amanda’s Decision
The meeting quickly adjourned. Juliette and Miss Francis walked to the back porch in anticipation of Amanda’s arrival, and Cynthia escorted Dan to an elaborate dungeon through the secret door in the dining room wall. They descended in a hidden elevator and walked through an unusually wide cinder block corridor in the lower level.
With businesslike precision, Cynthia directed Dan to a side room and helped him step up onto a metal platform which had two metal boots attached to the top of it. The boots were spaced roughly shoulder distance apart. Each boot was hinged at the toe and heel, and around the ankle of each boot was a latch which, when engaged, locked the front and rear portions in place. Cynthia opened each of the boots to reveal that the inner portion of the boots was rubberized, like an inner tube.
Understanding that the boots were meant for him, Dan removed his own shoes and socks and stepped into the metal boots. Cynthia trapped his feet by closing and locking the hinged portions of the boots. As if to test the comfort of his new footwear, Dan wiggled his toes against the rubber interior. “Not as good as my Nikes,” he thought, “but not bad.”
Looking down at his feet, Dan more closely examined the metal platform. What he originally assumed was ordinary corrugated metal was actually a finely machined grid for mechanically attaching a variety of elements to the platform. He reasoned that the bottom of his boots must have a corresponding grid which allowed them to lock into place.
Looking up, Dan noticed Cynthia attaching metal poles slightly in front of each of his feet. Each pole had a brushed chrome finish and was tapered to form a wide base for a sturdy connection with the platform. From a storage shelf under the platform, she removed a similarly finished, futuristic neck stock and attached it to the tops of poles. The circular center portion was attached to side pieces by ball joints that allowed the neck restraint to swivel with the movement of the subject without sacrificing secure restraint. Like the boots, the top half of the neck restraint was hinged at one side to allow positioning of the subject’s neck, and a latch on the opposite side locked the restraint. Further, the interior of the neck piece was rubberized, as well.
After adjusting the height of the poles, Cynthia opened the neck stock and nodded for Dan to place his neck in the lower semi-circle. Dan felt like he was placing his neck on a chopping block as he grasped the supports and gingerly lowered his head into position. Only as the latch sounded a telltale “click” did Dan realize how quiet it had been. Cynthia hadn’t spoken a word since they entered the elevator from the Dining Room. He suddenly realized that he had been quietly, submissively complying with all of her unspoken commands, and the realization made him uneasy.
Stepping out of view, Cynthia quietly removed a second set of poles from beneath the platform. A wrist stock, a smaller version of the restraint which encircled Dan’s neck, was attached to the top of each pole. Cynthia attached each pole slightly behind each boot and adjusted the height of each pole to just below Dan’s shoulders. One by one, Cynthia guided Dan’s arms behind him until his wrists rested on the lower semi-circles of the restraints, and she locked them into place with two quiet “clicks.”
Dan was now completely trapped in a position that looked as though he was beginning an Olympic dive. Cynthia reappeared in front of Dan holding an oversized ball gag. Smiling sweetly, she held it to his mouth, and he took in the rubber sphere, but not without some trepidation. She fastened the gag swiftly and tightly causing Dan’s heart rate to quicken.
As Cynthia moved out Dan’s view again, he strained and craned to see what she would do next, but to no avail. He could hear her rustling about behind him, but it was impossible for him to see what she was doing. Suddenly, he felt a cold steel blade sliding up his leg. She was cutting his clothes off with scissors! After parading around most of yesterday evening in a nothing but a high-tech chastity device, Dan was loath to be on display again, but he had little say in the matter, and he rationalized that it was for Amanda’s benefit anyway.
After all of his clothes were removed, Cynthia knelt down in front of Dan facing his genitals. He was hard as a rock, and he was panicked that Cynthia was going to take advantage of his position. She grabbed his shaft and pulled slightly as she applied a cool moist substance to his balls and around his crotch. To Dan’s surprise, Cynthia began shaving his genitals with a straight razor. Each stroke felt cool and crisp as air hit the skin where hair and shaving cream had been removed. Dan kept as still as he could, knowing that a blade was within millimeters of some very active blood vessels. Each stroke came closer to his family jewels, and after the fourth stroke, he began humming “Take me out to the Ball Game.”
Cynthia stopped shaving him immediately and rose to face him with a look of concern. She reached around the back of his head and unfastened the ball gag.
“Everything is alright,” she said soothingly holding his face in her hands. “Take a deep breath.”
Dan tried to control his panic and reduce his racing heart rate.
“You’re having second thoughts, aren’t you?” Cynthia asked, as though she was talking to a kindergartener on the first day of class.
“Yes, I’m sorry,” said Dan in a trembling voice.
“I completely understand,” Cynthia said empathetically. “You need to understand that this was the way that Juliette had planned to present you to Amanda. Are you sure you want to stop?”
Dan took a deep breath. He knew how crazy this was. A few short months ago, if someone had told him that he would be allowing himself to be presented to a woman as a piece of property, he wouldn’t have believed it. But here he was completely helpless, displayed like some kind of collectible doll.
“I wasn’t kidding last night when I told you how romantic I thought it was that you were giving yourself to Amanda,” she offered.
Last night, he was completely confident that Amanda would decide to let him go, but he hadn’t realized how the question would be put to her. In his current position, he looked like a slave, not Amanda’s boyfriend. Would she be inclined to continue the enslavement that was already started? It would be easy, he thought, but ultimately, he wanted to hear it from her. Besides, he could always just say “pistol” or start humming “Take me out to the Ball Game.”
Dan swallowed hard and quietly said “No, let’s continue.”
Cynthia set the gag aside and said “We can leave this off for now just in case, but I need to finish shaving you”
After shaving his entire body below the neck, Dan looked up to see a clock on the far wall. He estimated that Amanda and Juliette were probably exchanging pleasantries on the back porch at that very moment. Maybe Amanda was already demanding to see him.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Dan commented. “We’re actually finished sooner than I expected.”
“Oh, we’re not done,” Cynthia said from behind him.
Dan felt the platform jar slightly as Cynthia unlocked the wheels. She rolled the platform to the other side of the room facing a storage cabinet. Cynthia opened the cabinet to remove two metal spheres. Each sphere was eight inches in diameter and had a circular opening on one side. The opposing side was hinged. Dan watched as she opened one of the spheres into two halves. One half was constructed with a metal bar running across the center, perpendicular to the opening at the end. She stepped behind him and placed the ball near the palm of his right hand.
“Please grip the handle,” she said in a clinical tone.
Upon gripping the metal bar, Dan felt the device close around his fist. Although he couldn’t see what she was doing, he felt Cynthia somehow fasten the sphere to the metal wrist stock. It attached firmly with absolutely no give, but Dan could still flex his fingers inside rubber lined interior. Cynthia repeated the process with Dan’s left hand and returned to the storage cabinet.
As she turned to face him, Dan could see that she had what looked like an athletic mouth guard in her hand. She held the mouth piece in front of his lips and said “Please bite down naturally.”
He accepted the device and bit down firmly. His mouth slowly filled with a sweet strawberry taste as non-toxic glue seeped from pores of the soft rubber mouth piece to instantly bind with his teeth sealing his mouth closed. Cynthia next produced a rubberized metal harness which she fitted around his head and chin. She adjusted it until it was just a bit too tight. Metal bands extended from the harness near his temples, and she attached them to the neck stock, thereby completely limiting even the slightest head movement.
Dan had never been so thoroughly immobilized. In all of his time at the shop, he had never encountered any restraints so elaborate – except maybe the remote control straps that Juliette had used to kidnap him, if you could call it kidnapping.
“Almost done,” Cynthia says in an encouraging tone. “But we’ll need to hurry if we want to make your grand entrance on schedule.”
Turning to the cabinet, she removed a small transparent mask on a hook. The transparent mask included a small rubber bulb attached to the bottom. Cynthia gently hooked the mask onto a loop built into the forehead of the head harness. Dan wondered what she could be doing. Cynthia adjusted the mask so that it lightly covered his nose and mouth, and she pumped the bulb twice before turning away to complete her next task. The mask filled with a mint smelling vapor which he had no choice but to inhale.
Once again, Dan felt the platform move as Cynthia wheeled him off to the corner of the room. After locking the wheels of the platform, Cynthia moved to the front of the platform and opened the double doors of another storage cabinet. She removed a retractable rubber hose that was attached to a small air compressor mounted in the cabinet. Dan watched as Cynthia bent over the base of the platform to access his metal boots.
She attached the compressor hose to a valve fitting in the toe of his left boot. He was surprised when he realized that he hadn’t noticed the valve earlier, but he was even more surprised when the rubberized interior expanded between Dan’s foot and the metal covering with a short “pssst” to completely prevent his toes from moving. After repeating the process on the heel of the boot, Dan’s left foot was one with the boot.
Circling around behind him, she filled both halves of the left fist sphere in a similar fashion, and Dan found his fist was as immovable as his foot. Continuing to circle him, she pressurized the other boot, the other fist sphere, both wrist cuffs, and his neck cuff. The inflated cuffs were tight but surprisingly comfortable. Even though the neck cuff was tight, it still allowed him to breathe freely. Finally, she moved back around in front of him, removed the plastic mask, and asked him “What do you think?”
Dan tried to “mmphff” out a response, but his vocal chords had been completely relaxed by the mist from the bulb. His surprised look prompted Cynthia to say “I thought so,” as she moved behind him once more.
Dan began to struggle helplessly. He was unable to make a sound. Not a whimper. Not a hum. Not a tap. He was held fast and silent.
The room was again eerily quiet and Dan felt Cynthia’s breathe near his right ear.
She quietly and deliberately whispered. “You can’t move, can you? There’s no need to respond. Your vocal chords have been disabled.” She paused to give him time to panic, but he was way ahead of her. “That means that there will be no safe word or gesture today.”
After a pause, he could hear that Cynthia was again removing equipment from beneath the platform and attaching it to the top of the platform.
“Mistress Juliette insisted that I save the best for last,” Cynthia whispered into his left ear. “Your safe word wouldn’t have mattered anyway.”
His complete vulnerability was punctuated by a squirt of lubricant into his anus. Dan’s heart was beating like a speeding train. He frantically tugged at his feet and wrists, but any ordinary observer would not have known unless they noticed the strained thigh and upper arm muscles.
“You were committed as soon as I locked down your first foot,” she continued in a hushed tone.
Suddenly Dan felt a metal probe being screwed into his ass. He had never allowed anyone to penetrate his ass. Not anyone.
“In case you haven’t realized by now, your attempt to use the safe gesture earlier was really quite meaningless,” Cynthia said smiling. “Think about it. You’re no longer an employee of Leather or Knot. As a result, your safe word and safe gesture mean nothing. You really should be more careful when you surrender control to Mistress Juliette.”
He thrust his hips forward as far as they would go to avoid the intruder, but his penetration was a certainty. Just as he thought it was in as deep as it would go, Cynthia attached the plug to a post she had installed behind him. With the post in place, he regretted thrusting his hips so far forward because releasing any tension on his hips pushed the plug further in. With his hips thrust forward, and his heart beating double time, his hard on was accentuated.
“It was fun toying with you though,” she continued. “I was hoping that my feigned sympathy would convince you to continue. It was so much more fun finishing the job knowing you’d be surprised in the end,” she said laughing. “No pun intended, of course.”
As a final restraint, Cynthia encircled the base of Dan’s scrotum with a metal band and attached it to yet another post that she installed and adjusted immediately under his package.
“Time to see Amanda for the show!” She announced, and with a few taps on her remote controller, the butt plug and the scrotum ring began to vibrate.
* * * *
Sunlight shot down between the bedroom shade and the window frame onto the floor. Amanda opened her eyes again to focus on the digital clock. It was only 5:28 am. It was too early to get up, but she was too emotional to sleep. Closing her eyes, she worked through her schedule in reverse. She needed to be at Amanda’s at 9:00 am sharp. Any earlier would show anxiousness. Any later might be taken as disrespect, or worse – disinterest.
She determined that she could safely sleep until 7:15. But who was she kidding? She hadn’t slept more than 30 minutes in a row all night. She swiveled her legs off the bed and sat up to stare at a bedside photograph of her and Dan in the park. So much had changed since their friend’s camera had captured that moment. So much had changed in the last twelve hours.
Amanda took her time getting ready, thinking through the many ways in which her morning could play out. One common thread weaved throughout all of her imagined scenarios: she demanded that Juliette release Dan.
Dressing on instinct, Amanda automatically selected a provocative leather outfit that she might have worn to the shop. She was ready to go by 6:45. Rather than waste her time in the apartment, she decided to begin driving. She would spend the extra 90 minutes scoping out the area around Juliette’s house. It beat doing nothing.
With two hours to do nothing but think, Amanda’s thoughts swirled around her impending decision in ever widening circles until she began to consider scenarios that didn’t involve setting Dan free. She considered one, then another, and another. Yet, even as she considered those other depraved realities, she knew what she had to do. She loved Dan; and she knew that he loved her; and even though she was aroused by the thought of keeping him as her captive lover, she remembered the feelings she had when she was tied up in the store in front of her parents. Dan rescued her when she needed it most. She loved the loss of control to someone so trustworthy, and then regaining control at his hands. It was incredible.
Then she realized that she might be able give Dan that same incredible rush. Maybe she could take him away from Juliette while he was still restrained and release him at the apartment. Maybe his release would be as incredible as hers was.
She shook the thought out of her head. This wasn’t a couple of Midwestern parents she was dealing with. This was Juliette, a brilliant, powerful, deceptive bitch. She would need to free Dan immediately to ensure that they got out of Juliette’s house safely. Besides, she couldn’t betray Dan since he was taken against his will.
Amanda drove around the house for over an hour before finally deciding to turn into the long drive. She took her time driving up to the house, and then she realized that this was no house. This was a mansion. No, this was a compound.
As slow as she drove, she still arrived fifteen minutes early, and she was helped from her car by a valet in a leather tuxedo. A doorman in a leather chest harness and little else ushered her through the front door into the foyer where she was greeted by Miss Francis in a leather maid outfit.
“Miss Amanda, I presume,” Miss Francis said in a welcoming tone. “Mistress Juliette has been expecting you. Please allow me to show you to the back porch where she awaits.”
Amanda looked around in awe as she followed Miss Francis through a wide hall to the back of the house. Aside from the strangely dressed staff, you wouldn’t know that a deceitful sadist lived there, she thought to herself.
As she stepped through the double French doors to the back porch, Juliette was sitting in a comfortable leather loveseat looking out over the stable area. Several horses were being trained, each in a separate rectangular corral. The trainers wore the customary equestrian attire which made them the only people here, other than herself, who looked normal. Then, she laughed at herself when she realized that people in equestrian attire could hardly be said to appear normal, and she was wearing her work clothes.
“Amanda dear, so glad you could make it,” Juliette said rising from her seat with her arms outstretched for a pompous hug. Amanda allowed Juliette to hug her, but did not reciprocate. “And you’re early,” Juliette continued, looking over Amanda’s shoulder. “You must be anxious.”
“Damn!” thought Amanda, and her thoughts played out across her face as Juliette leaned back to take her in.
“No, no, it’s a good thing,” Juliette said reassuringly. “It only shows how much you care for Dan, a fact of which I was already keenly aware.”
Without hesitating, Amanda said “I’ve decided that you should let Dan go. I’d like you to bring him to me.”
She said it just as she had practiced hundreds of times in her head. She said it perfectly.
Juliette regarded her a moment and said “So, you’ve made up your mind. That’s nice, but I haven’t asked you for your decision just yet. Please, hold that thought until after breakfast. Daniel is in good hands. Let’s have a drink and get to know one another.”
A young woman in a leather waitress’s outfit walked over from a bar on the far side of the porch and said “May I get you something to drink? Orange juice? Tomato juice? Bloody Mary? Mimosa?”
Amanda looked at Juliette and at the waitress, and she couldn’t believe that any of this was real.
“Bloody Mary,” Amanda said reflexively, as if in a daze.
“My usual, Constance,” said Juliette with a smile.
The waitress brought the drinks promptly as Juliette and Amanda began to talk about the shop. Juliette wanted to know whether Amanda was happy working there. She asked about how long Amanda and Dan had been dating. She told Amanda about her deceased husband, and she asked about Amanda’s parents. As the two women continued to drink, Amanda was surprised at how relaxed she was beginning to feel. Still, she was resolved to leave there that morning with Dan on her arm.
After nearly a half hour of talking, Miss Francis announced that a continental breakfast was ready for them in the dining room. Juliette and Amanda walked leisurely to the dining room as if they were old college roommates catching up after years apart. The comradery continued through breakfast, and Amanda began to actually enjoy Juliette’s company. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she couldn’t manage to hate Juliette, despite the kidnapping that brought them to this point.
About fifteen minutes into breakfast, Juliette looked over to Miss Francis who was attentively waiting in a corner of the dining room and said “Amanda, it has been quite nice getting to know you better. You’re a lovely young woman with a bright future, and I’ve made you wait long enough. It is time for you to make your decision.”
Caught off guard, Amanda collected herself and began to repeat the words that she had practiced. But before she got only as far as “As I’ve said…” before Juliette leaned over and put an index finger to Amanda’s lips.
“Before you decide, I would like to give you a small presentation,” she said quietly.
Amanda stared at Juliette a moment.
“Go ahead,” Amanda said stubbornly. “It won’t change my mind.”
Juliette tapped a touch screen embedded in the dining room table, and a wooden panel on the far wall of the dining room opened up to reveal a darkened alcove. At first, Amanda couldn’t see what was in the darkened recess, but she soon made out a female figure emerging from the darkness. As the figure came into the light, it became clear that the she was pulling a cart of some kind behind her.
No, it wasn’t a cart. It was a wheeled platform, and the platform carried a sculpture.
Amanda looked over to Juliette who was smiling a devilish smile - the devilish smile of a child who was caught with chocolate all over her mouth after finishing the last cookie from the cookie jar.
By the time Amanda turned back, the platform was close enough for her to recognize it for what it was.
“Dan!” she shouted, rising to her feet. Juliette rose to her feet as well, and gently grasped Amanda’s upper arms.
“Don’t be too quick to judge,” Juliette cautioned. “Things are not always as they appear. I assure you that less than an hour ago, in this very room, Daniel freely agreed to be presented to you in this fashion so that you could decide his fate.”
Nearly hyper-ventilating, Amanda found herself frozen. She was stunned yet strangely excited. She couldn’t sit down, but she didn’t move away from the table either. She just stared at Dan as he was wheeled into the well lit center of the dining room. Then, she glanced over to Juliette.
“Please, he’s fine, really,” Juliette said calmly, trying to comfort her. “Sit down and give me five minutes to explain. Then, you can give me your decision.”
Dan was positioned directly in front of the women, and the attendant locked the wheels in place. Dan was utterly immobilized. The only things he could move were his eyes which darted from person to person taking in the scene. He became particularly concerned when he took in Amanda’s outfit. She wore a tight fitting black silk top with a plunging neckline and a black leather waist cincher that accentuated her assets.
Dan desperately tried to find a way to alert Amanda to the fact that he was no longer as certain of his position as he was before she arrived. He just had nothing to work with. On the elevator ride from the dungeon, Cynthia had used more of that strawberry smelling glue to seal his lips together, preventing him from moving even his lips.
“Thank you, Cynthia,” Juliette said, and the attendant took a position along the wall behind Amanda.
Amanda continued to stare at Dan. Aside from a few blinks of his eyes, Dan was completely motionless. Attached as he was to the platform, it almost seemed as though he was part of the platform itself. The light cast shadows which accentuated his firm but inanimate muscles, and Amanda paid particular attention to the muscle at his groin. She had never seen him more sexually aroused.
As she examined his predicament, she noticed a screen being lowered just behind him and to her right. When the screen stopped descending, the lights behind Dan dimmed, and an LCD projector threw an image onto the screen. It was a photograph of Dan, Amanda and Juliette in the shop the evening before, and a superimposed title read “Dan’s Devotion: The Story of how Dan gave Himself to Amanda.”
The relative positions of the screen and Dan’s platform were such that Amanda could not look at one without also seeing the other. The arrangement didn’t go unnoticed by Juliette who was rather proud of her staff for orchestrating such an impressive presentation.
“I’ve taken the liberty of having my production staff prepare a video montage of the events of the past twelve hours,” Juliette said proudly. “It was made using footage from surveillance cameras positioned throughout my estate and the boutique. It will take less than five minutes to view, and then I will ask for your decision. If you would like us to release Dan at the end of the presentation, we will do so without question. Agreed?”
Amanda, her eyes fixed on Dan, finally sat down and nodded. A tap of Juliette’s finger on the dining room table touch screen started the video.
Amanda began to watch the short documentary-style presentation depicting selected events of the past twelve hours. A recognizable female voice narrated the story. Meg Ryan? Jennifer Anniston? Although the narrator’s name escaped Amanda, she knew that it was a popular A-list actress.
Amanda watched as she relived Dan’s capture from the boutique. She was surprised when she witnessed Juliette’s explanation of the Employment Agreement, and she thought of her own employment agreement. “Why didn’t he read that thing?” she thought. “I read mine.”
Amanda listened intently as the announcer described Dan’s resourcefulness, and the video showed Dan using his safe gesture, cross fading into his release in front of the HD monitor. Amanda was proud that Dan had figured out a way to free himself, and she was initially surprised that Juliette lived up to the contract. But then, after spending the last forty minutes with her, Amanda felt a bit ashamed for judging Juliette so harshly.
The narrator explained that Dan had resigned his position at Leather or Knot, and to punctuate the point, the documentary showed Dan saying “I’m done with the shop. Using my safe word was my last official act as an employee, thank you very much,” as the screen faded to black.
After a brief pause, the documentary showed footage taken right there in the dining room just an hour earlier. In a flawlessly spliced audio track, Juliette could be heard saying “As an alternative, you could surrender yourself … to Amanda just before I ask for her decision.”
Through a bit of creative editing, Dan immediately replied “You’re right. I’ll do it.”
Dan couldn’t see the screen, but he heard the edited dialog, and he saw a profound change in Amanda’s expression. He could also see the smile of satisfaction on Juliette’s face.
That wasn’t how it happened! He was exploding inside, and he was nearly exploding outside. He thought he had a safe word. He thought he could back out. He thought his presentation was merely to prove that Amanda would set him free. Only when it was too late did he realize that his presentation was the one factor that might push Amanda over the edge. As exciting as the prospect might seem, he hadn’t expected that he might actually become Amanda’s slave.
The documentary concluded with a live shot of Dan immobilized and contorted in the metal display platform. Amanda looked at Dan in front of her and then at the video echo of Dan’s plight. She was as surprised, confused and aroused by this new information as Dan was worried.
Again, she noticed Dan’s intermittent blinking, and Cynthia dimmed the lights around the periphery of the room until Amanda and Juliette seemed to be the only two people in the room. A spotlight above them illuminated only Amanda and Juliette. The rest of the room fell into complete darkness.
Cynthia quietly made her way through the darkness to Dan’s side, and she whispered in his ear.
“I saw that little stunt of yours. You’re lucky that she didn’t recognize your Morse code S-O-S.”
Then she tapped a few commands on her remote controller, and Dan felt a jolt of electricity rip through his ass.
A barely audible “hffft” escaped through Dan’s nose as he involuntarily exhaled in reaction to the sudden shock. His unseen face contorted into a grimace in response to the pain.
“From now on, I expect you to be nice,” Cynthia whispered. “By the way, the scrotum ring is similarly equipped.”
At the dining room table, Amanda was still silently weighing everything she had just seen. Juliette sat patiently as Amanda slowly shook her head.
“He loves you very much,” Juliette said quietly. “He trusts you, and you can trust him.”
Amanda smiled. “With him like that, trust really isn’t an issue, is it?”
“Well, no. But it’s still nice to know what he would do if he wasn’t controlled,” Juliette answered.
Juliette then tapped a few times on the touch screen in front of her, and the projector came back to life.
“Check this out,” Juliette said as an image appeared on the screen.
The screen displayed raw video of the previous evening as Juliette escorted Dan to his room. Amanda watched as Juliette offered Dan the use of his staff for whatever he wanted before bed. It also showed Dan rejecting Juliette’s offer once and then a second time after being assured that Juliette would keep it secret.
As the screen faded to black again, Juliette reiterated “He really does love you.”
Amanda chuckled. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but doesn’t that strike you as a bit hypocritical. In the video, you said it would be your little secret, but here you are telling me about it.”
Juliette raised her eyebrows.
“Hypocritical? Hardly,” Juliette said smiling deviously. “Young lady, I have proven time and again that I am a woman of my word. As you saw, I clearly stated that if he took me up on the offer it would be our secret,” Juliette said defensively. “He didn’t take me up on it. So, there is nothing to keep secret.”
The room was silent again. Amanda still offered no decision, and Juliette did not press for one.
“Have you considered what you will be doing with the $100,000?” Juliette asked.
“I plan to use it to tide me over until I find another job,” Amanda said responsibly.
“So, you plan to quit the boutique?” Juliette countered.
“Well, I don’t want to, but you told both of us that we should find other jobs.”
“What if I offered you another job? Would you take it?” Juliette asked.
“That depends. What is it?” Amanda answered, her curiosity piqued.
“Store manager of Leather or Knot,” Juliette said flatly. “Frankly, Linda has disappointed me with the way she handled Dan’s chastity incident. So, I’ll be giving her a two month severance package starting tomorrow. Of course, Dan has resigned, and we’re seriously understaffed.”
Juliette let Amanda absorb the circumstances before continuing.
“On the other hand, you have always impressed me. I’ve seen the way you treat the customers. I believe that you could rebuild the staff from scratch and run the shop the way it was intended, with customer satisfaction being tantamount.”
Amanda’s anxiety, confusion and arousal all mounted until suddenly all of the pieces seemed to fit together perfectly.
She loved Dan dearly, and he clearly wanted her to take him as her slave since he voluntarily allowed himself to be presented to her without a safe word. She truly enjoyed working at the shop, and the only thing that she never really cared for was being subordinate to Linda.
Quietly, she announced her decision to Juliette. “I’ve made up my mind. I will be taking Dan home with me as my slave, and I would be happy to accept the position as store manager of Leather or Knot.”
Juliette smiled like a little girl at her own birthday party.
“Wonderful! Let’s get you started at once. Come with me, and we’ll put together a little starter kit for your new toy,” Juliette gushed. “Cynthia, please prepare Amanda’s slave for his new life and meet us in the front hall in 45 minutes.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cynthia said with a smile.
Over the next hour, Juliette and Amanda discussed Dan’s future. Amanda told Juliette that she would need periodic help in training him, and they arranged for training sessions to be conducted on Tuesdays and Saturdays at Juliette’s estate. The first two sessions, however, would be at Amanda’s apartment to ensure that she could provide the proper living environment.
Juliette cautioned Amanda that Dan may appear to change his mind and beg for his freedom. She assured Amanda that such behavior was typical in the non-dominant partner.
“He may tell you that he thought there was a safe word, but we know better,” Juliette said to Amanda taking a tone that a teacher might use with a parent of a difficult child.
“You need to be certain enough for both of you,” Juliette advised Amanda. “Daniel deserves no less. He’s a good man and he’s perfect for you. Don’t let his insecurity interfere with what you know to be right.”
While Juliette gave Amanda a brief tour of the dungeon and many of the accessories it housed, Cynthia dressed Dan in a discipline harness covered by street clothes.
An ordinary observer would be completely unaware that anything nefarious was afoot. The concealed harness included a number of features that made it a dangerous clothing choice. It included a microphone embedded in the center of the chest for detecting any sound Dan might make, and electrodes at the scrotum and anus that could be remotely controlled. Having already tasted the electric pain administered by Cynthia during the presentation, Dan was terrified of those electrodes.
As Juliette and Amanda met Cynthia and Dan in the front hall, Amanda pulled along a wheeled case filled with high-tech bondage accessories. Juliette also provided a brief tutorial on how to use the harness.
She gave Amanda a beautiful leather and diamond choker which included an embedded microphone, voice analyzer and transmitter. She told Amanda that it was synched with Dan’s harness and showed Amanda how certain commands would activate various features of the harness. For example, she instructed Amanda to initiate the “silence slave” command that would cause the electrodes to be energized whenever Dan’s voice was detected by the harness microphone. Juliette also directed Amanda to initiate the “heel slave” command which would activate the electrodes if he strayed beyond 4 feet of her. Although Dan was pretty sure his vocal chords had not returned to normal, Dan was smart enough not to test them. He was silent and obedient.
Juliette assured Amanda that those two commands using in conjunction with one another would keep Dan from fleeing or calling out for help. Juliette jokingly advised that Amanda deactivate the “heel slave” command after Dan was belted in the passenger side of the car, because Amanda’s walk around the car to the driver’s side would take her beyond the four foot limit.
As Amanda hugged Juliette and said goodbye, Amanda told Juliette how excited she was to start revamping the shop. Amanda revealed that she already had some ideas for finding the additional help she would need.
Cynthia called for Amanda’s car to be brought around, and as Amanda and Dan set off toward home to settle into their new roles, Amanda felt happy and satisfied. Just as Amanda had promised herself, she was walking out of Juliette’s estate with Dan on her arm.
05.12.09
story continues in Leather or Knot Chapter 9: The J-2010 Training Harness & Amanda’s Mistake
o0o