Chapter 1

"Do you accept rides from strangers?"

Catlin stared at the screen. She normally had no interest in on-line polls or tests or whatever they were called, but here, just two weeks before the end of the semester, everything seemed a little crazy. The pressure of classes and exams, papers and presentations, and everything in general caused a lot of students to let off steam in a variety of ways. Now Catlin looked away from the first question and back to the heading. "Are you the adventuresome type? Take this quiz and find out."

She had been surfing the net, mostly around some of the milder sex-orientated sites, when she happened across this. Catlin had read the heading and paused to think. Was she? She honestly couldn't say for sure. And for that matter were they talking about adventuresome in general or in a sexual sense? In her three years away at college she had certainly tried a number of new things in the general sense. Last fall she had gone to a few classes on technical rock climbing and found she liked hanging on the face of a cliff fifty feet off the ground. And last summer she had spent two weeks learning to scuba dive and found it enjoyable if not especially exciting. But she wouldn't walk down the dark alleys of the campus late at night. That wasn't "adventuresome" - that was dumb.

She thought about her sex life. Was it adventuresome? Well, maybe a little. There had been that one frat party freshman year. She almost cringed at the memory. She had gone with a boy - she couldn't even remember his name now - and there had been some drinking involved. Catlin was eighteen then, no longer a virgin, and certain she could handle a couple of drinks even if she wasn't old enough legally. She wasn't drunk, just a little high, when somehow it came out that it was her birthday. As it turned out there was another girl there with the same birthday and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" (with a couple of ribald verses) to them and then someone began chanting "Birthday spanking, Birthday spanking." Everyone seemed to take it up and finally Catlin and the other girl - her name was Bonnie, she remembered - had agreed.

What she hadn't expected was what came next. In less than a minute she and Bonnie found themselves bent over the low back of a couch with their hands tied to its legs in front and their own legs tied to the ones in back. She wasn't surprised when their skirts were pulled up over their backs, but she wasn't expecting it at all when one of the men used a pair of scissors to cut off her panties. But by then everyone was worked up and no one paid any attention to the protests she and Bonnie were making. Two of the frat men moved behind them and suddenly landed hard slaps to their defenseless bottoms. Both of the girls cried out but the blows were repeated. Then two more men took their places. Then two more. Catlin lost count but there were a lot more than nineteen spanks. But what really startled her was that the spanking was turning her on like she couldn't believe and from the sounds Bonnie was making it was having a similar effect on her.

Eventually all the men (and a few of the women) had swatted their bottoms and all Catlin could think of was that she wanted to get out of there and back to her room so she could masturbate. But instead of being untied Catlin suddenly felt a pair of male hands on her hot rear and a hard cock pressed against her dripping pussy. In her current state she didn't really protest and within a minute was coming even as the man did too. But it still wasn't over. Another man took his place and Catlin found she was still hot. All in all seven guys (she thought it was seven) took her and she came more than she could count. When she and Bonnie were finally released she quickly made her way home and dropped exhausted into bed.

The next morning the incredible risk of what had happened struck her. She wasn't worried about getting pregnant since she was taking the pill, but she didn't know most of those men. She had no idea if any were carrying anything and she realized she could have been exposed to almost any STD, including AIDS. She was scared stiff, went to the clinic and had a blood test done and continued to be scared until the results of that test - and follow-up - came back negative. She resolved never to take a chance like that again.

But she couldn't hide from herself the fact that the bondage and the spanking had turned her on more than she ever had been. While masturbating she started imagining scenes where she was bound and spanked or whipped. These fantasies always resulted in tremendously strong orgasms.

After she no longer feared she might be infected with something she began to date again. She found a lot of information on BDSM activities on the net, but she wasn't really turned on by the idea of a master-slave relationship. She was definitely not the type to get off on humiliation or subservience. She had gone out with a number of men and managed to get a couple of them to tie her up and spank her. She always loved it but only one of the men seemed to get turned on by their activities and several acted like there was something wrong with her. So for the last year she had relegated these activities to her fantasy life.

Coming back to the present she looked back at the quiz again and thought she still didn't know how adventuresome she was. She moved back to the first question: "Do you accept rides from strangers?" Slowly she moved the mouse to click "NO." The questions continued, mixing ordinary stuff with questions about sex. ("Do you enjoy having sex where you might be caught?"). The questions got more and more intimate, but Catlin figured no one would know who she was, so she kept going. Some of the questions asked her to describe sexual fantasies as well as real life experiences and Catlin diligently answered them all. When she finally submitted the last answer a screen popped up with a message, "Your adventuresomeness score is 67." That was all very nice but nothing explained what a 67 meant. Frustrated, Catlin shut the window and went back to working on the paper due in two days.

About a week later she received a letter in the mail. It was typed on good quality paper and bore a letterhead saying only "XAdInc" The letter said that her name had come to their attention in regards to a unique position they had to fill. A representative would be contacting her in person in a few days and would like to discuss a possible offer. It was signed simply, "Richard Hardin, President." Catlin didn't know if this was someone's idea of a joke and had no idea what it might be about. She tossed it aside and forgot about it in the rush of final exams.

Then about noon one day as she was leaving her last final, a man stopped her and said, "Catlin Reed?"

Catlin looked at him. He was about thirty, near six feet tall with blue eyes and light brown hair. Overall fairly attractive, but she had no idea who he was. Hesitantly she responded, "Yes, I'm Catlin."

The man smiled at her and said, "I'm Rick Hardin. I sent you a letter a few days ago and I'd like to discuss a possible rewarding opportunity with you. Allow me to buy you lunch - say across the street at the Brown House - and I'll explain."

Catlin looked closely at him. He seemed straight forward enough, not a creepy type or anything, but she wasn't sure she wanted to find out what he was peddling. After a few seconds she decided as long as they were just going to be across the street with lots of people around she might as well get a free lunch. Still she felt obligated to say, "I think you must have me confused with someone else. I don't even know what your company - XAdInc, right? - is and I certainly haven't applied for any position."

He smiled again. "I don't expect you have heard of us. And I'm sure I have the right Catlin Reed. Why not listen to what I have to say and then decide?"

Catlin gave in and said, "All right, but I still think you have the wrong woman."

He escorted her across the street and into the Brown House, an upscale restaurant which was generally out of Catlin's price range and soon they were seated in a high backed booth in the dimly lit dining room. From the instant they sat down, Catlin felt they were isolated from the dozens of other people around them. The booth cut the noise and assured it was unlikely anyone would overhear anything they said.

They ordered and began to eat. Rick asked about how her school work was going and Catlin quickly realized he knew a lot about her. He was definitely not mixing her up with anyone else, but she still had no idea just who he was. Finally when they had finished and were sipping coffee he broached the subject that had brought her here.

"The 'Ad" in XAdInc stands for Adventures. We specialize in providing some unique adventures for a very limited selection of successful men and women. A couple of weeks ago you took an on-line quiz to find out how adventuresome you are."

At the mention of the quiz Catlin looked shocked. "How do you know I took that quiz? I didn't give a name or e-mail address or anything."

Rick smiled. "In general when you go on-line, if someone is knowledgeable enough - and willing to spend the time and money - you can be identified. Don't worry, the knowledge stopped with me. Since you know now that I am aware of the quiz, you might guess I also know about some of the more adventurous activities in which you have engaged. Including the private ones."

Catlin was turning red in embarrassment. "How do you know I didn't make that stuff up? Maybe it was all in my imagination."

"Some women might have made it up, but in your case I'm sure it was true. I checked out a couple of things."

"Oh, God," Catlin thought, "he must have talked to someone about that frat party. Or maybe one of her boyfriends had talked about her kinky fantasies. She had described the party in a section of the quiz about her most adventurous sexual activity. She looked up at him and, with a red face, said, "How could you know? No one would talk about that kind of thing," knowing even as she said it that some people would talk about it and also knowing he really must know it was true.

Rick put on an exaggerated stern look and, with a thick, fake German accent, said, "Ve have vays to find out. Ve can make it so people vill talk."

The pose he struck was too much for Catlin and she broke out laughing despite her inner turmoil. Rick joined her in laughing and when they calmed down, some of the tension had been defused. "Let me explain a little more. I'll tell you a little more about the service I provide and make you an offer. If you're offended - or even if you're just not interested - just say so and get up and walk away. I'll destroy all information I have about you and that will be the end of it. My word on it."

Catlin wasn't sure why, but she believed him. "All right, I'll listen. But that's all I'm agreeing to."

"Fair enough," Rick answered. "Let me first say that our clients are all well off men and women, most of whom have started and built up their own businesses to real successes. Most are still in their twenties and thirties. None are over forty-five. We provide them with unique specialized adventures. I say they are well off because our services are not cheap: a one week adventure is typically about twenty thousand dollars."