Chapter 5: Bottom or Top

Answering Machine

Hannah's answering machine had five messages when she got back from the shops. Three of them were from Liz. The other two were the short click and buzz of someone hanging up as the answering machine cut in.

"Give me a call when you get back, if you're free," the last message said. "I wondered if you had time for coffee and, well, for coffee anyway.

Hannah pressed the button to clear her messages. Liz was showing all the enthusiastic signs of a convert, potentially annoying but, Hannah thought, understandable. To Hannah, Liz seemed like a woman that had never really thought about passion in her life and had now discovered something that brought out feelings that she didn't fully understand and wasn't entirely in control of.

Hannah called Liz. Liz managed to let the phone ring once before picking it up. "Hullo, Liz?" Hannah asked. "I wondered if you were still free for that coffee?"

"Yes, yes, please, do come over..."Liz's response tumbled out. Soon after, Hannah joined her.

Bedroom Scene

Two cups and a jug of coffee, milk, sugar and biscuits stood on the low table in front of the couch in Liz's lounge.

The coffee was cold. One cup, Liz's, had not been touched.

Upstairs in the bedroom, behind drawn curtains, Liz was enthusiastically encouraging Hannah. "Don't worry about those stockings, you can use those," she said as Hannah held up a fistful of Liz's hose from a drawer in her dressing table.

"All right," said Hannah. "Face down, hands behind you. You'll find this more uncomfortable than the rope. The stockings can really cut into your wrists, I'll tie them over the cuffs of your blouse."

"Don't worry, I want to feel the tightness."

"All right," Hannah pulled the nylon tight and knotted it. "Now your ankles," she said and did the same. Liz wriggled experimentally, testing the way that the bonds held her. Hannah smiled. "If you really want to feel helpless there's a couple of other things I can do."

"Mmm, please," said Liz, rolling on to her belly.

"All right." Hannah took another stocking and pulled it around Liz's elbows, pulling them closer together behind her back.

"Ohhh," Liz moaned, quietly at the discomfort the addition caused. Hannah, unphazed by Liz's response, took the loose ends of the stockings that tied Liz's wrists and ankles and used them to draw them together. "Ahh," Liz reacted, "that's cruel. That's really cruel. I can hardly move."

"Isn't that the idea?" said Hannah sitting down on the bed beside her.

Liz looked up at Hannah. "I guess so," she said, a little sheepishly. She gave an experimental wriggle. She didn't think she would be able to free herself, no matter how much she struggled. There was something missing though. "Can you gag me too?" she asked.

Hannah looked down at Liz and smiled, remembering the first times she had surrendered to the embrace of ropes and straps and seeing in Liz's bright eyes and flushed complexion the same combination of delight and desire. "Of course. Have you got a scarf or something like that?"