Chapter 8

Larry gestured at several of the Delta Rho boys. “ ... and then you guys swing around in front of Laney, close together, so you’re sort of a wall between Laney and the audience, while Emil ties her hands behind her...”

Laney interrupted. “Can we try that now, sweetie? Emil needs to practice that.”

I looked around the empty auditorium where Laney would be hanged. The rehearsal seemed to be going on forever. Laney liked the play, but the stage directions in some spots were very sketchy. We had spent all day working out details. The only thing that seemed to keep tempers from fraying had been Laney’s sunny excitement about every nuance of the performance.

Larry looked at Laney’s brother. “Have you got that rope?”

Emil looked startled. “Oh! Sorry, I forgot I had that with me.” He reached into his shoulder bag, the sort most of the students used for carrying books, and pulled out a length of silky rope. Laney, already standing with her back to Emil, crossed her wrists behind her.

Larry frowned as he watched. “I’m thinking even if Emil gets really good with that, it’s going to take too long. Nothing else is happening while he’s doing that, and the audience isn’t seeing anything going on. It kind of takes all the momentum out of the pacing.”

I propped one elbow on my other forearm and rested my chin on my balled fist, also frowning, deep in thought. “We can’t just tie her hands offstage?” All of the standard Noosemeister scripts had the them enter with their hands already tied behind them.

Laney shook her head. “There’s not really a good way to do that. I’m onstage when they decide to hang me.”

The frowning silence that followed was broken by Grant saying, “What about handcuffs?”

Laney’s eyes lit up. “Yeah! That’d work!”

I asked, “So you’re okay with handcuffs holding your wrists instead of rope?”

Laney laughed. “Sure!.”

Larry objected, “The handcuffs would clink together all the way through the earlier scenes. People’d hear that.”

I had caught Laney’s excitement. “Just tape the two halves to each other, then they won’t make noise. Use masking tape or something, and Emil can easily rip that and free up the cuffs.”

Larry was nodding eagerly. “Okay, yeah.” He turned to Grover and quirked a little smile at him. “You’ve got handcuffs, don’t you? We didn’t bring any.”

Grover gasped and goggled at him. “How did you...?”

I choked back a laugh. The marks on Grover’s wrists were barely visible, but familiar. “Never try to keep personal secrets from a Noosemeister.”

Grover scratched at his cheek, trying to hide his blush. “In my room. I’ll go get them.” He took off toward the exit.

Laney was grinning. “After we get that fixed up, let’s take the whole thing from the top.”

That Night

Larry was half asleep; I gave him one more kiss, then got off the mattress we’d dragged in from next door. Laney and Grant had quieted some time ago, and now breathed softly in sleep. I got up, gently tapped Grant’s shoulder, and whispered, “My turn, sweety.”

Grant stirred and stretched, and gave Laney’s pussy one last kiss. Laney rolled away from him and smiled up at me. Grant crawled off the bed and down to join Larry on the mattress below. I crawled into bed next to Laney. “Sixty-Nine?” I asked.

Laney shook her head slightly. “Just did that with Grant. Let’s face each other, and see what happens.”

I beamed at her. “Glad to.” I put my arms around her and started kissing her.

I could hear the sounds of Grant and Larry snuggling together, shifting to get comfortable. Minutes later, they seemed to be asleep.

I suddenly had to choke back a giggle, and whispered, “I guess things went well with Grover and Henley.” Laney had had private sex sessions with each of them after dinner. She’d be doing Shakir and Travis tomorrow evening. “Grover came into the rec room after, looking kind of dazed and flushed.”

Laney giggled, and whispered back. “He was really sweet. It’s funny, he’s so confident in a group with the other boys, but in bed he was ... I don’t know, kind of shy. At first, anyway. I got him warmed up pretty quickly.” She giggled again.

I smiled. “I don’t think it’s shyness. They seem kind of in awe of us. You especially. You’re the star.”

Laney nodded. “I went to a couple of hangings last year. That’s how everybody always is around Noosemeisters. You don’t get as much of a feeling for that at the Academy parties, because people there are used to being with us. But when you get with people who’ve never seen a Noosemeister before ... Well, you know how you felt with Miranda, right?”

I took a deep breath. “Oh, definitely! But ... so everybody’s feeling that way about us, now?” It was hard for me to get my mind around the concept of anyone seeing me the way I’d seen Miranda.

Laney grinned. “You’re not even getting the full force. Wait till it’s your own hanging!”

I shivered with the familiar sudden tingling in my neck and between my legs, whenever my daydreams turned in that direction. “I think about it every day. I’d ask you how it feels, but I understand if you can’t put it in words.”

Laney shrugged slightly. “You’re right, I really can’t. Just thinking how...” She paused in thought. “Everything I’ve worked for in the last three years is coming down to this. But there’s more to it. Like I’m ... floating above the clouds. It’s like ... it’s like...”

I grinned and put a finger across Laney’s lips. “Stop trying. You’ll blow a fuse or something. I’ll get there in another year, and then I’ll know. Right now, all I want...” I stopped and thought about how to say it. “We’ve made love so many times, they start to run together a little. I want this one to stand out. Our last time. I want to always, always remember it.”

Laney sighed. “You are always so sweet.” She paused, and looked intently into my eyes. “I love you.”

A small tear slipped down Laney’s cheek onto the bed. My throat tightened as I responded, “I love you.”

Laney’s arms tightened around me and pulled our upper bodies tightly together, our breasts squashed against each other’s, Laney’s leg slid in between mine, her thigh rubbing my pussy ... and Laney’s lips met mine, softly at first, then harder, more urgently, Laney’s tongue reached into my mouth. And suddenly, all those previous times did come into sharp focus, the feel of Laney’s skin, her lips, our movements together, all of the feelings that had washed through me every time Laney and I had made love. They were all present with me now, all of them wonderful, all of them right, and all of them bound together now in an unbreakable knot held together by this one last physical demonstration of our love for each other. I knew I would always remember this time, and all of the times.

THE NEXT EVENING

Laney, her four owners, and the rest of us had distributed ourselves around Grover’s room. Grant and I sat together on the windowsill. Emil had gone home to his wife after the rehearsal had broken up. Rehearsals had gone well, and Laney had pronounced herself satisfied that she was ready for the show and her hanging. The talk had drifted to comparisons between the university and the Academy.

The Delta Rho boys were shaking their heads in amazement. Henley said, “I just had no idea you guys took such hard classes. I guess I imagined you’d just practice hanging all the time.”

Larry grinned. “Well, we do a lot of that, of course. You can’t learn it without doing it, but the classes tell us more about how our bodies work so we can do it the best way possible.”

Laney held Larry’s hand as they sat together on the floor facing the bed. Laney leaned over and gently licked Travis’s earlobe and neck, smiling when suddenly closed his eyes and shivered violently. Laney whispered, “Let’s spend some time together. Can we go to your room?”

Travis was suddenly speechless; his eyes got wide, he breathed deeply, and he could only nod. Laney let go of Larry’s hand, gave Travis another gentle kiss on the ear, and took his hand, rising gracefully from the floor. Travis grinned and nodded, choking back giggles. Laney led him out of the room, interlacing her fingers with Travis’s and looking at him as if he were her long-lost love.

Grover and Henley looked at the door after it closed, sighing deeply. Shakir laughed. “Is she that good?”

Grover grinned and shrugged. “You’ll find out.”

I smiled. “See, that’s another thing we learn at the Academy.”