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Horner Springs, The Institute Ch. 01

By: voluptuary_manque



Let me know what you like or don't like, people. I can't get better without comments. And naturally votes are always appreciated, too.

*

Justin Heityme knocked on his academic advisor's door, a resigned expression on his young face. Another older person was trying to manage his life, he presumed, just like all the others he had encountered in his short existence. Did they not understand that there was a planet to save and that he was just the man to do it? Why was there all this uproar about his need to be a 'whole person' and to have interests outside his Environmental Engineering major? Being well-rounded was for those useless people in Liberal Arts over on the other campus. Here, at the technical school of Horner Springs Institute they studied serious things.

"Come in. Ah, Mr. Heityme, just the young man I wanted to see." Dr. Sylvia Ellynrunch smiled warmly at the precocious and (according to the faculty) downright obsessive sophomore. "I've been looking over your transcript and I wanted to warn you that you are missing graduation requirements. You need to sign up for an additional class this semester."

"But I'm already carrying sixteen engineering units, Dr. Ellynrunch. I don't have time for another class."

"Justin, I think you weren't listening to me. I said that you are missing graduation requirements. Horner Springs Institute insists that every student have a minimum of twenty units in human sexuality before they graduate. We didn't mention this before because you were so young when you completed high school but now that you are of legal age, you need to catch up. If you wait for next semester you will find yourself short when you come to the end of your four years here. Now, it turns out that Ms. Beindre has room for one more male student in her section of Introduction to Bondage so I'm signing you up for BDSM 101. It meets on the Liberal Arts campus and if you leave right now you will be just in time. It's in room 305 of the Major Horner Building so grab your iPad and scoot."

"Dr. Ellynrunch, this is out . . . ."

"I said scoot!"

Stunned and cowed by the intensity of the professor's command, Justin hustled down the hall and out the front door. He pulled his fleece-lined leather coat tighter as he stood in the cold at the shuttle stop and stamped his feet irritably. 'They' had done it to him again; making him do something he saw no need for because 'they' had the power and he didn't. It never occurred to him to ask why he obeyed so readily or to wonder why he put up no resistance beyond a cut-short protest. 

He arrived at the Major Horner building with his head down and a scowl on his face. Climbing the steps to the big double doors, he paid no heed to the excellent copies of tenth century Indian temple carvings that formed a frieze around each story nor did he notice the Art Deco murals that covered the walls. Instead he looked at his watch, cursed under his breath and ran up two flights of stairs and burst into room 305 to find there was only one remaining empty seat—in the front row.

Ms. Beindre tapped a key on her laptop at the lectern. "Ah, and Mr. Heityme in the nick of time. How appropriate. Well class, good afternoon. I am Ms. Beindre and as I'm sure you all know this is BDSM 101, Introduction to Bondage. The class consists of an hour of lecture once a week in this room and two hours of laboratory which will meet in the large—gymnasium, if you will, at the end of the corridor. Since you will naturally be working in couples, I'm going to give you a few minutes to get acquainted."

A compact brunette with a page boy haircut was seated next to Justin. She turned and looked him up and down appraisingly, then smiled.

"Mmm, you're cute! Hi, my name's Amanda Knott and my friends all call me Randy Mandy. What's yours?"

Justin blushed. "Uh, Justin—Justin Heityme. Uh, I'm majoring in Environmental Engineering. Um . . . ."

"Ooo," the girl's eyes widened, "that's one of the hard ones! I'm an art major, specializing in landscape design. So what brings you to Introduction to Bondage?"

Justin glowered. "My academic advisor said I needed graduation requirements and this one was open so she signed me up. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do here. It's not like I'll ever have any use for it. I've got important things to do and I need to get started. That's why I left high school at sixteen and came here. The planet is a mess and needs fixing before really terrible things start to happen! I don't have time for—," he stopped in mid rant, "uh, what is Introduction to Bondage all about, anyway?"

Amanda took off her glasses and laid them on the desk. She cocked her head to one side and peered at Justin with one raised eyebrow. Then she shook her head, as if to clear it of some impossible concept.

"You really don't know, do you? That's amazing! You graduated from high school at sixteen? When did you turn eighteen?"

"Last week. Dr. Ellynrunch said now that I'm legal I need to make up for lost time; otherwise I won't graduate on schedule. Obviously, this has something to do with sex, right?"

Amanda reached out and laid a gentle hand on Justin's shoulder. "Honey, it certainly does. And it looks like it's a good thing Ms. Beindre sat me next to you. I don't claim to be an expert, that's why I'm in this class but at least I've had some experience with being a tie toy. Uh, have you ever been with a woman, Justin?"

Justin opened and closed his mouth in confusion, his eyes goggled. Finally he took a deep breath and said primly, "My high school Sex Ed classes were very complete. I'm quite aware of how people have sex."

Amanda pursed her lips mischievously. "From a theoretical/academic standpoint then? I meant personally, Justin, but you don't have to answer. I can already tell the answer is 'no'. Don't worry, sweetie, Mandy will fix."

Before she could go any further, Ms. Beindre tapped the bell on her lectern. "Alright, everyone, let's get started. Ms. Knott, if you will help me hand out the syllabi and Mr. Kough, if you will make sure everyone has one of the reading compendia? Tonight's homework is on the board. Make sure you write it down. Today we will begin with safety cautions and an introduction to cuffs. This is all testable and I expect you to be taking very good notes. If you want to record instead, that's fine, but of all the lessons, today's maybe the most important."

*****

Two days later a very confused and reluctant Mr. Heityme shuffled down the hall to what Ms. Beindre had leeringly called the gymnasium. The lecture on the proper use and placement of padded cuffs, the insistence on safety words, the warning about the hazards of suspension had been intimidating. Then he had read his homework and the descriptions of what people did and felt and experienced had figuratively set his ears back. And now he was supposed to practice some of this? With Amanda? An icy Arctic owl seemed to have taken up residence in his stomach and was extending its talons.

He opened the door, glad to not be the last one in, to find Amanda waiting for him.

"Justin!" She threw her arms around his neck for a gigantic hug, pressing her body hard against his. Then, leaning back she looked him over. "My goodness, Justin. You're so preppy looking. Checked shirt, Argyle sweater, tweed coat—are you trying to set a masterful tone here?"

Justin blushed. It was beginning to get annoying. Every time Amanda spoke to him his face would flare up bright red making all his freckles stand out even worse than usual. "I—I thought I ought to—to treat this like a date? So I dressed up? Is—is it all right?"

She reached up and took an ear in each hand and pulled his face down to hers. "Justin," she whispered, "we're going to be lovers for the next month, maybe longer. Of course it's all right. In fact, I'm flattered that you would take the trouble for what is, after all, a class project. Now, come on in. We've been assigned to booth eleven."

She took his hand and like two middle school students just starting to figure out their strange, adolescent feelings she led him around the central block of booths and into number eleven. Justin gulped. The booth was a bedroom, carpeted and decorated in subtle tones of rich colors. In the center was a king-size four poster bed with turnings at the head and foot. A clothes rack ran along one wall and on each side of the bed were large, multi-drawer nightstands. As he stood there, confused, Amanda locked the door and took his coat by the collar and pulled it off him. As she hung it on a hanger she spoke soothingly over her shoulder. 

"Now honey, I know this is all new to you so for these first few labs I'll lead. You'll catch on fast, I know, and then you'll be pinning me down and using me relentlessly but for now—well, just start by taking off your clothes!"

Hesitantly, Justin pulled his sweater off over his head and unbuttoned his shirt. Amanda watched with a predatory gleam in her eye. As he started unbuckling his belt and unbuttoning his 501's her lips spread in a toothy smile and she stepped out of her boots and did a slow, seductive strip that stopped Justin in mid-disrobe. Once she was naked she sat on the bed, and slid under the covers. Justin gulped and finished taking his clothes off trying to hide behind his hands.

"Come on, Justin, get in bed. I'm not promising I won't bite. I may well, but if I do, you'll like it." 

Justin followed directions, trembling as he did. Amanda smiled at him then turned and opened a drawer on the nightstand. She pulled out sets of fur-lined cuffs and handed four of them to Justin. 

"Here, put the little ones on my wrists and the bigger ones on my thighs. Good. Now I do the same for you. Like I said," Amanda continued, "in the beginning I'll lead. Soon I'll just be a happy bottom and you get to do whatever you want with me, but until then . . . ." 

She pulled each of Justin's arms down and clipped the wrist cuffs to his thigh set. Her manner changed. Half closing her eyes and sticking out the tip of her tongue, Amanda wrapped herself around him. The heat of her body and the pressure of her pelvis and erect nipples had an effect. Despite his embarrassment Justin started to get aroused. His heartbeat increased as Amanda's hand running slowly down his chest and abdomen. She took his 'package' in her hand and murmured happily.

"Ooo, Justin, you're hung! I like that in a man." She took his earlobe between her teeth and squeezed. He gasped and then moaned as she stroked his stiffening manhood. 

"Baby," she whispered, "now I've got you where I want you, totally helpless. The only way you can escape is roll off the bed and then I'll have you on the floor, which is just as much fun but not as comfortable. So since you're going to be ravished you may as well lie back and enjoy it. I'm going to use your body, Justin, use it for my pleasure. When I'm satisfied, we'll trade places and it will be your turn to do whatever you want. When you're done, we'll rest and then you can start over again. We've the entire two hours, toy boy, and if we go over time, it will count as extra credit."

Amanda covered his mouth with his, sucking on his lower lip and slipping her tongue. He started in surprise. Straddling his thigh she began to rub her sex against him, humming happily as she stroked his hard cock and ran her mouth and tongue all over his face and ears. As she became more excited, she buried her face in his chest and dug her nails into his shoulders. She humped his leg faster and began to pant, making little cries of pleasure until she threw back her head and screamed wordlessly, spasms wracking her body. Then she got up on her hands and knees and starred down at him hungrily.

"That was good, Justin, really good. And look at you; you're still all hard and eager. I'll bet you want to get free and stick that big ol' thing inside me, don't you? But not yet, you don't. I'm not finished with you yet, my tie toy. Mandy's still randy."

Clambering off him she grabbed him by the shoulder and wrist and rolled him over face down. Then she straddled his butt, grabbed his nipples between long-nailed fingers, bit fiercely into his shoulder and began to thrust her pelvis as though she was trying to sodomize him without a dildo.

For Justin, the sensations were electric. Having erect nipples brushing his shoulders and a smooth pussy pushing hard, again and again, on the base of his spine was far and away the most erotic thing that had ever happened to him. Unconsciously he arched his back in response, imitating the lordosis reflex female mammals exhibit when in heat. He began to whimper and might have climaxed but Amanda beat him to it and then collapsed, limp, on top of him.

"Ooo, that was fun. And you liked it, too, didn't you?" Amanda whispered with a grin. "You know, I could get used to topping you, baby. Maybe I'll just leave you all trussed up and ride you cowgirl? No? Well, I did promise to let you free, but first . . . ."

She bent down and took his stiff manhood in her mouth. Slowly she bobbed her head up and down, sucking hard and tickling the frenum under his helmet with the tip of her tongue. When he was slick and glistening with spit, she sat up and let him free from the cuffs. "Now, Justin, tie me tight and then do whatever you want to me. Just do it hard!"

Justin thought about the pictures in the class reading and grabbed both Amanda's wrists. He snapped them together around one of the spindles at the headboard and rolled her onto her belly. On a hunch, he opened a drawer of his nightstand and pulled out the straps he knew had to be there. Hooking one end to the bedrail and the other to Amanda's thigh cuff, he pulled the end spreading her legs apart. Doing the same on the other side he had her well pinned.

"Ooo, baby, you catch on quick!" Amanda was delighted. She was stretched out and spread wide with every useable part of her exposed. She arched her back, pushing swollen labia out where he could see them. 

"Here's your target, stud. You know you want it; you want it bad. Come and get me, Justin. Do me right!"

The young man knelt between her thighs and laid his hard manhood on the cleft of her bottom. Leaning forward he rubbed against her, humming with pleasure deep in his throat.

"You like the way my ass feels on your cock, Justin? You just wait. The inside of me is even better."

Justin grunted. He had stopped thinking several minutes ago and now Amanda's swollen, pink, glistening lips called to him irresistibly. He took his cock in his hand, put it against her sex and thrust. Amanda moaned. It's his first time. He won't take long but that's alright. After he's recovered he'll take a lot longer. Oh, this will be great. Fuck me, Justin, pound my pussy.

Justin's brain should have been in neutral but instead of buzzed with amazement. So this was sex, was it? Perhaps he had been overly hasty in his dismissal of it as something that serious environmental activists could ignore so they could concentrate on more serious matters. Amanda was right. The inside of her body was heaven on earth. Never in his life had he felt such sensations, such emotions. It was not long before the urges overtook him and with a howl he exploded in her pussy, filling it with cum. For a few minutes he lay there, stunned by the intensity of what he had just experienced.

Amanda wiggled underneath him. "How'd you like it, sweets? Better than you expected? Better than anything in your life?"

"Uh-huh," her lover grunted almost silently. Feebly he reached for the catches on her cuffs and released them one at a time and rolled onto his back. 

Amanda curled up in the hollow of his arm and laid her head on his chest. She kissed him gently on the cheek and whispered, "Go to sleep, honey, it's okay. I'll set the alarm for about twenty minutes from now. Then you can start over and do me again."

Just as the alarm was buzzing, waking them both from sound sleep, the lock on the door clicked open and Ms. Beindre slipped into the room. The couple started in surprise but the instructor shushed them quietly.

"I just wanted to let you know that the two of you did beautifully, especially since this was Justin's first ever sexual encounter," she sat on the side of the bed. "Now Justin, as Amanda said you strap her down and do it again. It will take you quite a bit longer this time because you've already shot one load into her and you've only had a few minutes to recharge. That's normal but you need to tie her up so that she can be comfortable for as long as it takes you. That might be half an hour or more. So let's look in those drawers and see what else they contain."

Amanda lay back and extended her arms over her head. As Ms. Beindre looked on in approval, Justin pulled her arms apart an attached the cuffs to opposite corners of the headboard. When he turned to look at her, Ms. Beindre nodded toward the drawers and the young man rummaged through them until he came to a neck strap that he recognized from the week's reading. He held it up, a questioning look on his face.

"That will be perfect, Mr. Heityme, put the pad behind her neck and attach the ends to her ankles. Yes, just like that but tighten the straps a bit. Good, her feet should be pointed at the ceiling. Now put this pillow under her bottom. Perfect. She doesn't have to exert any effort but her legs are spread wide apart for you and her genitals are fully exposed. Actually, her anus is, too, but that's for another session. Skootch up close and sit on your heels. A little further. Right there."

Ms. Beindre stood up an leaned over the bed. Supporting herself on one hand she used the other to fondle and massage Justin's ample package back into readiness. He moaned under her ministrations, breathing deeply as she worked him harder and stiffer.

"There. I think you are ready now. I know Amanda is, aren't you, dear?" Amanda nodded enthusiastically. "Now stick it in her, support yourself on her thighs and shove on in. Good. Now you can rock back and forth—oh, you're a natural! This is a very good position, Justin, as the tip of your phallus will hit her G-spot. Don't be surprised or alarmed if she ejaculates all over you. That's a common female response to a vaginal orgasm. Just take as long as you want and have wonderful time, you two. When you are finally finished, the showers are out the door and to your left. See you next week."

The instructor was right. Her students were busy for rather longer than half an hour.

*****

In late May, Professor Ellynrunch heard a knock on her door.

"Come in? Oh, hello Mr. Heityme. What can I do for you?"

Much had changed in the young man in the preceding semester. Whereas in January he had been obsessive, anxious and irascible, he now sat down in her visitor's chair with a quiet smile on his face and a calm light in his eye.

"I've decided to stay at the Institute over the summer, Dr. Ellynrunch. Professor Van Kanaal has invited me to be part of his annual prairie renewal project. I'm really honored and excited about it. Undergraduates are rarely included in it."

"And might there be any other reasons, Mr. Heityme?"

Justin blushed just a little. "Well, Ms. Beindre and a few of the girls in BDSM 101 have told me I should enroll in a summer course in the Human Sexuality department. Amanda and her roommate Bindi Singh really want me to take Advanced Relations 215M. They say there should be no question I can waiver the prerequisites with Ms. Beindre's recommendation so I thought it would help me ensure I had all the graduation requirements."

"Introduction to Tantra? And excellent choice, young man. I remember my undergraduate days being a surrogate in that class. There are a number of prominent men in the state whose improved self-confidence I take personal credit for. Who will be your partner, Ms. Knott or Ms. Singh?"


Horner Springs, The Institute Ch. 01



"Neither one. They both signed up for AR 215F, Introduction to Pompoir and it meets at the same time. Actually—Ms. Beindre told me she intends to be my partner. She says experience counts."



Horner Springs, The Institute Ch. 02



I'm much obliged to Stella Omega for clarifying the Leather culture aspects of this story for me. If you find it accurate and believable, the credit is hers. Any mistakes are mine alone.

*

Jake McAllister pulled the big pick-up next to the garage of the comfortable log home nestled in a grove of junipers and parked. The house, sitting on five hilltop acres of conifers and sagebrush, had a fine view of Horner Springs, especially of the Futter College Arts and Letters Campus in the foreground and the Technical Institute across town. He looked longingly at the distant campus, feeling very much 'on the wrong side of the tracks'.

Without turning his head he swallowed and said softly, "I—I could just wait out here. It's not that cold and I've got papers to correct . . ."

"No, Jacob," his younger wife Willow replied, "We've already been over this. I'm looking forward to this scene. I want it, I'm going to enjoy it and I want to share it with you. And when you see how much I like it, maybe . . ."

"Baby, I don't like hurting you and that's all there is to it. If this is what you really like, I can live with it, I guess. But there's no way I'm ever going to have any fun smacking you around." He kept his eyes focused on the horizon and sucked his lower lip in and bit down, a sure sign of a man trying desperately to maintain control.

Willow sagged slightly. She reached silently into her purse and pulled out a Kleenex and leaned over to dab the tear she saw forming on his tan, weathered face. And I'd always heard that cowboys don't cry. Oh Jacob, what am I going to do with you? All I really want is for us to be happy together but we're so different. "Jake, please? Laurie Bindre is good. She must be, otherwise how would she end up the Chair of the Human Sexuality department? She's a nationally recognized authority, for heaven's sake. I'm not going to get hurt and if I can't take any more, I'll safe-word out. That's how it works, Jake. Those are the rules."

Blinking hard, and without a word, Jake conceded. He opened the door and put his boots on the gravel. Unfolding his lanky frame, he went around to the other side of the truck and opened the other door, letting his pleasantly plump little wife out. It was a measure of how important today was that she waited for him. The man's somewhat old-fashioned ideas of gallantry were a continuing source of low-grade conflict between them.

Jake rang the bell and the door popped open to reveal Laurie Bindre. Her dark hair, silvering at the temples, was cut in a bob that framed her face and drew attention to her startling green eyes. She was enveloped in a loose emerald green velour jumpsuit that spoke of cozy times on the sofa, not wicked games in a dungeon. 

"Right on time, Willow. Come on in. And you must be Jacob? I thought I knew most of the TI faculty but Soil Science seems to have escaped me. It must be all that field time you folks put in. Here, let me take your coats."

For a known dominatrix, professor Bindre had a remarkably folksy, down-home manner and it put Jake a little more at ease. She ushered the couple into the kitchen and poured coffee, a large mug for Jake and a small cup for Willow. "You don't want a full bladder, dear, it can spoil a scene unless you're really into golden showers."

Willow made a face. "No, I'm not. I mean, there's kinky and there's kinky!"

Laurie glanced at Jake out of the corner of her eye. As she feared, that had been the wrong thing to say. At his wife's words, the tall man's face shut down again and he hunched his shoulders defensively around his coffee, enveloping the mug in sinewy, big-knuckled hands. 

Laura mentally whistled to herself, long and low. 

If the man ever learned not to fear the BDSM scene, he'd be impressive. She imagined him with a flogger in his hands and shivered just a little. However, today was obviously not going to be the day and she laid a hand gently on his arm.

"Jake, Willow was supposed to explain how this works, both emotionally and physically. Give yourself a chance. Give her a chance."

Jake looked at her with deep-set, dark brown eyes, gifts of several Blackfoot and Nez Perce ancestors. "Ma'am, I am trying, trying very hard. I know I'm out of phase with lots of things but I am trying."

Laurie's eyes narrowed. That the man was angry and defensive showed in the set of his jaw and the flush in his face. This was not good. She leaned back and taking a deep breath spoke softly to him. "Please, call me Laurie. We're both faculty and there's no need to be formal when the students aren't around." She turned to Willow. "You have talked this over, seriously talked?"

"Well," Willow replied a little petulantly, "I've told him about it often enough. He should understand by now, I think."

"You told him? And what did he say?"

"Nothing! He just shuts up and closes down. And—and then he mutters he doesn't like the idea, but if I insist he won't stand in the way. But that's not what I want, Laurie, I want him to be part of it. It's just . . . ."

Laurie folded her hands on the table and—not quite glared, but put on a decidedly stern teacher face. "So you really haven't talked, have you? Jake, Willow—I'm sorry but that's as far as it goes today. What separates BDSM from abuse is informed consent and I want to emphasize both words: 'informed' and 'consent'. And Willow, I don't mean just yours. If you want Jake to be a part of this, he has to agree, really agree. Otherwise the whole thing is off. I cannot ethically do one blessed thing with you so long as he's as upset as he is now. Now, go home and talk about this. And Jake, that means you have to answer, say what you mean and Willow, it means you have to listen to him. Understand?"

In the truck on the way home it was Willow's turn to sniffle, try as she might to not show it. If she started to cry now, she thought, Jake would assume she was trying 'the waterworks' ploy—that she was trying to manipulate him. She couldn't permit that. It was a weak, pre-feminist method of getting one's way and she refused to stoop to it. Somehow she would have to get him to answer. The hard part might be shutting up long enough to hear what he had to say, assuming he said anything.

Jake, for his part, was even angrier, but mostly with himself. You're a goddamn college professor, Jacob, not a strong-but-silent cowboy—at least not anymore. The least you can do is say how you feel out loud. Maybe if she understood how hard this is, she'll forget the whole idea. Somehow, that last seemed a very faint hope.

Neither of them had seen Laurie watch them walk out to the truck and then stand in the doorway long after they'd disappeared down the road back to Horner Springs. Her arms were folded across her chest, her brow wrinkled and her jaw set. If anyone had asked what she'd bet she'd never see either of them again the answer would have been, "Plenty!"

*****

Sunday afternoon, Jake finished refilling the woodpile next to their woodstove, checked the firebox to see if needed a refill, washed his hands and poured himself a mug of coffee. It tasted alright; years in academia had given him a taste for drip brewed but sometimes he missed the bite of black java boiled in a blue enameled pot with an egg stirred in to settle the grounds. He shrugged and turned around. Willow was sitting at the kitchen table her face almost pleading.

"Jake? Can we talk? I mean seriously talk? And I'll listen; I promise."

The big man was quiet for a long time, a worryingly long time as far as Willow was concerned. She never did ask, even long afterwards what he was thinking just then, but at last he pulled out a chair across from her and sat down with a sigh. "Okay, you start."

"Jake, I love you. I really, really love you and you are a wonderful lover. But—but you remember that song, "Is That All There Is?" I feel like that sometimes—okay, a lot of the time. You must've felt endorphins. As many injuries as you've had and worked through, you must have. I've never felt them. I want to. Maybe it will turn out I don't like them but I at least want the chance to find out? Please?"

Jake took a deep breath and let it out. A wry smile tweaked up the corners of his mouth and he looked at his wife from beneath heavy brow ridges. "Baby, I've heard of them. I've read the chemistry that's supposed to be behind them. But whenever I've been hurt I just gritted my teeth and got on with things because they had to be done. It's what happens when you're the eldest, especially eldest son. Euphoria from exertion or pain? Never felt it. Pain hurts, that's all. One reason I didn't mind giving Sis my share of the ranch was that teaching was safer. I've yet to see a professor lose parts in a classroom." He looked at his right hand, missing two joints on each of his last two fingers. "The other was not having the responsibility for the place anymore."

"Does—does that mean, 'no'?" Hope began to drain from Willow's face.

"No, it just means I can't understand what you want or why in the world you want it. But I'm just an unsophisticated Kalispell boy with a talent for math and chemistry and if my California surfer girl really thinks she'd get off on endorphins, I'll just have to cowboy up for her. It's not going to be easy to watch, mind. You know how much it wounds me when you're hurt or unhappy."

"I could tie you to a chair," Willow suggested with an encouraging, wrinkle-nosed grin, "That way you wouldn't come raging to my defense just when things are getting good."

"Tie me to a chair?" Jake raised his eyes and stared out the window of their double-wide mobile home. A twisted grin spread across his face. "You know, crazy as it sounds, that might just not be a bad idea. Yeah, tie me—no, have Bindre tie me to the chair. Baby, that may be the best idea you've had since you started thinking about this—stuff. Tie me to a chair . . . ." He started to chuckle. Moments later Willow began to giggle and they laughed like a pair of kids sharing a private joke.

*****

"Okay, Willow," Laurie said the following Friday evening, "the playroom is in the basement. You go down there and wash up. We'll follow in a few minutes."

After Willow left, Laurie leaned forward and stared sternly at Jake. "Jacob, you seem to have gone from angry and defensive to apprehensive. Don't deny it, I can tell from your posture and the way your lips are pursed. If you want to walk right out that door and come back in an hour or never come back at all, I have no way to stop you and even if I could, I wouldn't. This is play, Jake, and as I said before consent is a crucial part of it. So keep this clearly in your hardheaded mind. Willow is here to play. She's not being forced or even seduced so if you decide to stay, like she wants, no interference!"

Jake shook his head and stared back. "We talked this over like you said. She wants to give it a try and I agreed to go along. It's just that I may not be able to help myself. I don't care how 'highly evolved' some other men on the staff may be, if Willow is hurt I might just lose interest in 'consent'. Understand that? In Montana we're raised to protect our families."

Laurie sat up and smiled at him. "And that's a good thing—so long as you know when your family needs protection and when it needs to be allowed to try its wings and go exploring." The smile faded. "Now Willow said she wants me to strap you into a chair to watch. I can even gag you if you think you won't be able to keep your mouth shut. I'd rather not, honestly, but I can. Or you can just walk out. But if you do, Willow may never forgive you."

"You think I don't know that? You think that hasn't been gnawing at me ever since I agreed to what she had in mind? I love Willow, more than life itself. I'll do anything to keep her happy—but that doesn't mean I'll always be happy doing it. Yeah, we think strapping me down is a pretty damned good idea."

"Oh you do, do you? And when I try, what are you going to do, lose it completely? Can you actually tolerate being strapped down without going nuts? How about if I hold onto your hair or push down on your shoulders? Just what triggers you, Dr. McAllister?"

"Trigger? What do you mean, trigger? I may be a cowboy born and bred but I'm no psycho. There isn't any of that that would make me lose my temper. The only thing would be hurting Willow!"

Laurie rose to her feet, walked over to Jake and leaned down next to his ear. The big man didn't budge, refusing to be intimidated in any way. "I am not going to hit your wife much at all, not on her first try." She whispered intimately, "I am going to show you how little hitting you can get away with and still make her happy. All I'm going to do this time is redden her butt up a little and get her endorphins going, like a runner's high. Understand about those?"

"Yeah, I've heard about them. Never felt it, myself."

"A lot of people don't. But that doesn't matter. Willow thinks she will; it's part of her fantasy. And, Jake, I have to tell you—a BIG part of her fantasy is that you watch. I asked her to tell you this, and I can see that she didn't, but from the beginning she had a fantasy of you being in bondage unable to 'rescue' her, having to watch while I spank her. It would make her sensations even better."

"What? That's crazy." Jake's face changed from worry to a mask of suspicion.

"Well, I've heard worse." Laurie smiled. "It never hurts to remember that sex is always a little crazy. Barring genuine harm either emotional or physical, no one thing is much crazier than another. Now, if I can count on you to understand that this is a game and that you'll play along, we'll go downstairs and get started. If not, I'll go get Willow and send both of you home again to do some more serious talking. Your call, big man."

"If it makes her happy, you can count on me," he growled.

Laurie stood up. "Then let's get started. Come on."

She led the way down the stairs into the basement and through a very solid, soundproof door. It closed behind them with a leaden 'thud' and the click of heavy bolts. Jake looked around. He'd seen BDSM porn sites where the 'studio' had been laid out like a medieval dungeon. This was not. Instead the walls were dark knotty pine panels and the floor wide-planked oak. There were a couple of solid-looking frames with padded shackles hanging from them, a rack of riding crops, cat-o-nine tails, paddles and the like and an apothecary cabinet full of drawers. Instead of overly theatrical menace, the room had an aura of baronial decadence and dissipation. It also contained a large, wooden armchair.

Laurie pointed at the chair. "Sit down!" she commanded.

Jake started to ask just who she thought she was bossing around but remembered that this was play, that Willow had a fantasy scripted out in her mind and that he had agreed to play along. He grudgingly seated himself. Laurie walked around behind him. Once more her breathy, warm whisper was in his ear.

"I'm going to put a strap around your chest, Jake. Are you sure you're okay with that? Don't say anything, just nod or shake your head." Jake nodded. "How about your wrists? May I strap them down?" He nodded again. "She wants your feet spread. May I shackle your ankles to the chair?" Jake sat motionless for long seconds then gave his head a quick shake. "Will you hold them apart?" Jake spread his legs and slid his boot heels back against the legs of the armchair. "Good man," Laurie whispered again and gently stroked his shoulders, "Willow will like this. I hope you do, too."

The tall woman straightened up and stalked between the couple. She reached up and grasped the zipper pull between her breasts and pulled it down, shrugging off the soft garment and letting it fall in folds around her ankles. Underneath she wore a chainmail bikini. Silver links encased her breasts and pushed them up; a narrow chain circled her hips with little triangles of mail hanging from it front and back. Polished black boots with three-inch heels covered her lower legs. Jake, impressed, thought she looked like a barbarian warrior queen. Her toned, tan figure contrasted starkly with Willow's jiggly curves. She stepped out of the velour and twirled fiercely toward Willow, who stood naked next to a folding screen.

"Come here, woman!" Laurie stood next to a kneeling bench.

Her eyes downcast and her hands modestly held in front of her, Willow blushingly complied. She stood in front of Professor Bindre without raising her eyes, though Jake could see that she was trying very, very hard not to smile. So far it really did seem to be a game.

"Kneel down! Now, put your hands through the holes." Laurie pulled down a board and latched it in place. Willow's hands were held in a set of stocks. "Now your head." Another board clicked in place. Willow's head and hands stuck out one side of the frame, the rest of her naked body out the other. Jake wasn't sure but it looked like her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

Jake clenched his jaws but remained silent.

Laurie looked down at Willow. "Honey, I know you asked for the riding crop but take it from me, for a beginner it's 'way too severe. BDSM is like anything else. You start slow and work your way up to whatever level you're comfortable with. Today, I'm just using my hand."

And with that she hauled back and delivered a sharp smack across Willow's plump, pink bottom.

"Ooo!" Willow jerked and then giggled. A bright red handprint flared to life on the pale skin. "Oh!" A second joined it, then a third, and then more and more until Laurie stopped and then rubbed the smaller woman's ass vigorously. 

"How does that feel, dear?"

"Wow! My butt is all hot. It feels like I'm backed up to the fireplace--feels really good."

Laurie came over behind Jake's chair. "See?" she whispered, "That's all it took. A light spanking, a few minutes and you're taking your darling home with a big smile on her face. Now to finish off this fantasy, I'm going to let you loose and go change. You get up; 'rescue' Willow and give her a big kiss. Don't forget the kiss! It's important to her. Then she puts her clothes back on and I meet you upstairs."

Upstairs Laurie had changed into Levi's, western boots and a cashmere turtleneck. She poured more coffee, large mugs all around this time. She smiled approvingly at Willow, her chair scooted over next to Jake's, both her arms wrapped around his left one. The big man, on the other hand, looked troubled while his wife chattered away, happily.

"Oh, Jake, that was wonderful. And you looked so tough and masculine even sitting there helpless? I--I just loved it. Maybe next time . . . "

Laurie interrupted. "Willow, dear, if there is to be a next time you and Jake need to have more long talks and I don't just mean you need to spend a long time talking to him. You need to talk once and listen twice, like my gram used to say. And no talking about it at all until Jake has had a chance to recover. Okay?"

Willow looked confused for a minute and then smiled broadly. "Okay, more long talks with me listening. We'll do it."

On the way home, Willow kept humming a cheerful tune, a huge grin spread across her face. Jake kept glancing at her as he drove, unable to come up with anything to say. 

When they arrived home and went inside, Willow stopped in the middle of the living room, turned around and put her arms up around Jake's neck

"Jakey, pull my pants off. My ass is so hot right now; you've just got to feel it. Didn't it turn you on, seeing it all bright red?"

Jake would have rather not admitted it to himself but she was right. The sight of his wife's round butt glowing red in the spanking frame had done something to him, deep in the most primal reaches of his brain. He pulled her ski pants down and ran his palms over her buttcheeks. She was right; they were hot!




Horner Springs, The Institute Ch. 02



When she arched her back and pushed her bottom into his palms with a wiggle, he gave them a squeeze and it made Willow gasp. "Oh, honey, that's intense! Do it again. Oh! D—drum your fingers on my butt. Ooo . . . Damn, I can't wait!"

She dropped to her knees and to her husband's amazement undid his rodeo silver belt buckle, unbuttoned his 501's and jerked jeans and boxers down to the tops of his boots. Greedily she took the head of his stiffening cock in her mouth and started sucking. As his manhood came to attention she licked the underside, swirled her tongue around the glans and stroked the shaft. Pulling each ball into her mouth in turn sucked and released them with a popping noise. Back to his cock she went, sucking, licking, and stroking. Her head bobbed up and down as she worked, stopping only to grab his hands and force them into her hair.

"Pull!" she commanded, "Pull my hair and make me take you deep."

Obeying, Jake tugged her face back into position and moaned softly as she swallowed hard, forcing his cock past her gag reflex and deep into her throat. Just when he thought he wouldn't be able to hold on any longer, Willow pushed herself away and stood up. She turned around and stumbled over to the coffee table and got onto it on her hands and knees, flaming ass aimed right at him.

"Fuck me doggy style, Jake. Pound me, spank me and make me cum!"

A manic grin spread across McAllister's face. Willow had always been enthusiastic about sex but this was hot even for her. Grabbing a hip in each hand he lined up and drove into her with a groan. His pelvis slapped against her reddened buttocks, making her yell. "Fuck me, Jake! Fuck me and spank me. Oh yeah, oh, just like that!" And in mere minutes she chirped in orgasm. That was all he could take and with a deep grunt Jake emptied himself into her pussy.

*****

A week later, Jake sat at the computer terminal in his laboratory with a frown on his face. Some Silicon Valley cyberlord had purchased a nearby ranch and had hired Jake to do a range analysis of the property and to make recommendations on what would be needed to restore the soil and the grass to what it had once been and should be. The answer, in a nutshell, was "A lot!"

However, the full report didn't need to be sent in for another week or so since the Mr. Patel, the new owner, was in Fiji avoiding the cold of the Rocky Mountain West's winter. Professor McAllister leaned back in his chair, his collar unbuttoned, his tie pulled down and his sleeves rolled up. Try as he might to maintain a professorial image, when there was hard labor to be done, even mental labor, Jake reverted to type just like he was up for a day's branding.

There was a knock at the door.

"C'mon in."

"Hello, Jake, am I interrupting anything?"

"Laurie? Uh, no. Not really. I've got this report to write but there's plenty of time before it's due."

He stood up and retrieved a chair from under a stack of printouts, dusted it off and held it for her. She dimpled in surprise, nodded graciously and sat down, thought for a moment and then slouched back, Tony Lama's under Wrangler's crossed at the ankle. 

Jake was curious about that. Someone with a national reputation in the scholarship of BDSM hardly seemed the kind of person to dress western but this was Horner Springs, it was in the West and boots and jeans did allow one to fit in better than his wife's preferred designer suits and Gucci's. "What can I do for you?" he asked.

"Willow wants to schedule another scene and I need to know if she discussed it with you like I told her to."

Jake sighed. He wasn't sure that a woman making goo-goo eyes at her husband with her lower lip stuck out and saying, "Puh-leeeeeze . . ." qualified as discussion.

"Yeah, we sort of did. She wants me to participate this time. It was bad enough watching you spank her but I'm not sure I'm up to—what was it she wanted? Clothespins? It just . . ."

"Have you ever tried them?"

"Laurie, coming up I've been kicked by and bucked off horses, thrown off bulls, fallen in cactus, lost fingers in a baling machine, been bit by a pissed off badger and a whole raft of other injuries. Pinning a clothespin on my skin is just one more kind of pain and I'd rather avoid it."

"Like getting spanked?"

"Damned straight! However, Willow sure liked it. It was all she could talk about for the next couple of days." Jake's eyes grew distant at the thought.

Laurie very slowly raised one eyebrow and cocked her head to one side. "Just talked?"

Jake blushed. "No, we've—we've been pretty—passionate the last week."

"So there's been an improvement in the McAllister sex life? She told me she thought you'd earned it, giving in so completely when she knew you hated the whole idea. So you made Willow deliriously happy and she's rewarding you. Sounds fair to me."

"I guess. She said that I should ask you to help me with the clothespins. I was going to—later on, I mean."

Sure you were, Hoss. As later on as you could manage. Laurie tried valiantly to keep the skepticism off her face. "Of course I will. Did she say anything else?"

Jake's blush went clear down below his collar. "She wants me to wear nothing but my boots and chaps."

"Ooo, hot. I think that would be a very good idea, Jake. The whole BDSM culture also goes by the name 'Leather' so those would be fine, especially if you have a fancy rodeo set? Maybe some you won back in college?"

Jake tucked his chin down and looked at Laurie suspiciously. "What do you know about that?"

Laurie smiled like a crocodile on a sandbank. "Jake, I'm a Californian, too, like Willow is but there's a world of difference between Santa Monica and Bakersfield. I got to wondering where I'd either seen you or your name before. I used to barrel ride in the NCAA rodeo circuit back at UC Davis and checking the records, there was a certain Jacob McAllister from the University of Montana who had a remarkable string of wins in the bareback bronc and bull-riding events. Small world, no?"

Jake was speechless. He tried to start a sentence three times but never got beyond "You?"

Laurie looked at Jake's left forearm protruding from his shirtsleeve. "That's a fine tattoo, you've got there. Somebody has a real eye for horses."

Back on familiar ground, Jake managed a reply. "My sister. It's a portrait of my cutting horse, Ponca. Barbara's got a great eye and thought that learning tattooing would be a good way to earn some extra money. That was before she married Chris from the next spread over. After I was accepted into the doctoral program and I had a chance not to be a rancher, the two of them combined both places into one. They're doing real well now, what with meat bison and outfitting hunters. I always take a week off in the fall for the elk opener."

"Mm-hmm. I understand," the woman answered. "I haven't missed a trout opener at Crowley Lake since I was twelve. That brand on the horse's neck—your family's?"

"Yeah, the Flying Ten. It's not active any more. Barb and Chris use his family's, the Lightning A. The only Flying Ten iron left is up on the wall over there." He gestured to a black branding iron supported on a deer hoof gun rack.

Laurie looked up at it quizzically. So that's where Willow got the idea. I wonder if she'll go through with it. Seems unlikely but people do some crazy things for love. . .

Laurie stood up and patted him gently on the shoulder. "We have a lot in common, Hoss. Now, Willow wants a return visit Saturday evening. If that fits your schedule, make sure she eats a very light supper and I'll see you two at seven. And don't forget your chaps."

Leaving Jake's office, Laurie exhaled deeply.  Damn, but that is one attractive man. He reminds me of a better educated version of my uncles and the rest of the men I grew up around. Why couldn't I have met him when he was single? Why can't I find another one like him?

*****

The drive from their rented doublewide to Laurie's wasn't as bad, Jake felt, as the first one. Willow was anything but nervous. In fact, though he found it hard to credit, she was flushed and squirmy, obviously horny as a cat in heat. He, on the other hand, had finally settled on resignation as the most appropriate emotion. It was, he mused, somewhat like being taken shopping for his wife's new clothes. The same amount of time spent—the same amount of shoe leather worn through as hers but nothing for him to show for it except a double armful of her boxes to carry.

When they got to Laurie's there was no coffee. Instead she handed Willow a glass of Chardonnay, showed her a seat in the hallway and told her to wait.

Back in the kitchen Laurie sat Jake down at the breakfast bar and pulled out a box of wooden clothespins. "Jacob, I need you to try these out first. I'm not going to do anything. I just want you to take a pin and put it where I tell you. If it hurts too much, you take it back off but before you decide that, I want you to really focus on what it feels like each time you clip one on."

Jake looked dubious. "This isn't a trick? These are the same pins I'm supposed to use on Willow?"

Laurie sighed. She wasn't sure whether he was too hardheaded to be attractive or whether some of that attraction was due to how hardheaded he was. "No trick, Jake. If it makes you feel better, you can carry that particular box downstairs to make sure. Deal?"

Jake sighed hugely. He felt very put upon though he couldn't exactly explain why. "Deal, I guess. What do you want me to do?"

"Pick up a pin, squeeze it open and put it on the web between your thumb and index finger. There, was that so hard?"

Jake looked at the pin squeezing his hand. Did it hurt? Barely at first, though as time passed the ache got stronger. Was it unbearable? Hell, no. Getting kicked by an ornery yearling hurt a lot worse but it had not prevented him from tying the little rotter down and laying a hot iron on its flank. Admittedly, it didn't feel good and he couldn't imagine that it would but he could take it. The one Laurie told him to put on the back of his hand was worse. He almost pulled that one right off again until he realized that it felt sharp whereas the one next to his thumb felt dull. The big man leaned back and looked at his hand sideways. It was surprising how different two identical pins could feel, even though they were less than four inches apart. He stared at his hand and then raised his eyes to Laurie quizzically. She smiled encouragingly and then picked up a pin herself and squeezed it open.

"May I?" she asked, pointing the jaws at the inside of his elbow. Jake shrugged and extended his arm, saw the clip close on his skin and felt a different kind of sharpness, one that tingled all the way down his arm and made him twitch. It wasn't a sensation, he thought, that he would go out of his way to experience but it wasn't bad, really. In fact, it was kind of interesting. He wondered how it would feel if he was as excited and aroused as Willow was. Not that that was likely. His wife could work herself up to an orgasm just thinking about it. Jake didn't have that much imagination.

Silently, Laurie extended another clothespin, one eyebrow raised enquiringly. Jake nodded. Slowly, deliberately she placed a row of them down the tender inside of his forearm and each time it tingled clear down to the base of his spine. When she had half a dozen of them clipped on she picked up a string and ran it through the holes in the ends of each clip and took each end in a hand. Then, with a smile, she gave a quick jerk and they all came off a once. That hurt! But as the pain died it reminded him of his father's old saying, "I love hitting myself over the head with a hammer because it feels so good when I stop!"

"Does that help you understand?" Laurie asked gently.

"No, not really. But I'm not terribly sensitive. In fact, I've had to be pretty inured to pain coming up. I still don't see going out of your way for it but I guess if you ramped up the sensations a couple of times and were excited enough . . ."

"Exactly. Now, let's police up Willow and go downstairs. You did bring the chaps?" Her smile was almost a leer.

Jake blushed again. He thought he'd spent an uncommon amount of time embarrassed over the last few weeks. It seemed like being around Laurie was like being in junior high all over again. "I did. But at least Willow relented and got me something to wear under them."

"Oh?" Laurie put on her best poker face. "What?"

Jake hadn't looked and when they got downstairs he was mortified to find a black leather thong in the box Willow had brought. Teeth clenched and determined not to blush anymore tonight he came out of the dressing room into the 'playroom' wondering what Laurie would be wearing. The answer was, "Not much."

If for the last 'scene' Laurie had been a barbarian warrior queen it was hard to label what she had on tonight. Between her black leather mask and jackboots, Laurie Bindre was completely covered and totally un-concealed by a black fishnet cat suit. The sight of her and of Willow once again naked and hanging from an H-frame made his leather pouch start to swell. The woman was, in simplest terms, hot!

Laurie winked and motioned him over to the whip rack. "Jake, tonight we're going to start with a light riding crop. A horse wouldn't even feel it or would think it was a fly but it will give your wife a bit of a sting. Her fantasy is for you to take it over to her and start with a long, slow full body grope. Slide the whip all over her, too. Once you've made sure she's hot and wet, we'll start with the clothespins. Once they're in place, go to work on her butt.

Now hold out your arm. I'm going to hit it as hard as I want you hitting her. When you know how it's supposed to feel, slap yourself a time or two until you know how much strength to use. Is that all right?"

Jake shrugged and held out his arm. Smack! "Ow! That hard?"

"Yes, just that hard. Now you try."

It took Jake a couple of swings before he matched the sting Laurie had given him and once he had it, he squared his shoulders and marched over to Willow. She shivered. Pressing his body against her back, Jake kissed Willow's neck, ran his tongue around the shell of her ear, palmed and squeezed each full, round breast and even pinched her nipples. That made the younger woman twitch, squeak and giggle. His hand ran down over the smooth, full curve of her belly and around to her ass. More squeezing and Jake even stuck his fingers between her buttocks and fingered her anus, making her gasp.

Willow felt his cock stiffen through the lambskin thong. Ooo, he's getting excited. I wonder if he'll just forget the script and have me right here. I hope not. No, he's too tall. I'd have to be standing on something but that is a thought—getting ravished in bondage . . .

Jake was having similar thoughts but stuck to his script. Willow was breathing hard and a quick check of her pussy revealed that she was wet and ready. Laurie stepped forward with the box of clothespins and motioned Jake around in front of his wife. When Willow saw the box her eyes grew wide and she took a deep breath. "Put them on my boobs, Jake. Make a ring of them around each nipple."

Jake tightened his lips and looked at Laurie, as if seeking permission. She nodded in return and handed him a pin so Jake pinched the skin on the top of Willow's left breast and closed a pin on the fold, bringing a gasp. She handed another one to Jake and pointed at the right breast. Another pin brought another gasp. All the way 'round each pink globe he went, bringing gasps and whimpers with each one. At last Laurie handed two Jake the last two pins and pointed to Willow's erect, hard nipples. The tall man swallowed hard and put them on. This time Willow was silent but she clenched her teeth. Laurie pulled Jake back.

"Usually the next step is to apply a row of pins up each labia with the last directly on her clit but I think that's too much for tonight. Just string all the clips together and go to work on her bottom. She'll tell you when she's had enough and then when I nod, pull them off all at once. You won't believe the climax she'll have."

Jake looked dubious but it had been a strange night already so he ran the cord through the holes as his wife watched, eyes like headlights. When all the pins were connected, he picked up the riding crop and walked around behind her.

"Mmm," Willow muttered, "these things are starting to itch." With her hands cuffed up over her head there was nothing the woman could do but writhe and wiggle in her bonds. Jake took a deep breath. Willow's 'few extra pounds' wiggled most enticingly but he stuck to the script. Behind him Laurie smothered a snigger. The McAllister's might not talk to each other as well as they might but there was nothing wrong with their non-verbal communication.

Taking a firm grasp on the riding crop, Jake hauled of and laid a stripe across his wife's ass. She gasped. He leaned sideways to look at her face. Her lips were tight between her teeth but she nodded. He smacked her again. This time she jumped a little but said nothing.

"A little faster, Jake," Laurie advised. "She'll tell you when to stop."

Jake sped up and soon had a criss-cross pattern of red line's covering Willow's bottom. Finally, she turned her head toward him and with a deep breath said, "That's enough, honey. You—you can pull the clothespins off now."

He looked at their mentor and at her nod gave a hard jerk. The pins all came flying off and Willow howled and convulsed, collapsing in her bonds in the most powerful orgasm of her life. 

"Hold her!" Laurie commanded, "Don't let her hang by her wrists."

Jake pulled his wife back up to her feet and held her close as she shuddered and whimpered and came down from her climax. Then, to his consternation, she burst into tears while Laurie unbuckled the cuffs. Burying her face in Jake's chest Willow blubbered, "Oh! Oh, Jake, I love you and I'm sorry, so sorry. It was amazing, Jakey . . ."

After he'd helped Willow back to her screen and been shooed away because, "I'm fine, honey, just a little shaky after that. I can dress myself. But Jacob, that was amazing. You're amazing", McAllister stood next to Laurie with a perplexed, worried expression. Professor Bindre was sorely tempted to squeeze his butt but settled for patting his shoulder.

"Okay, big man, from now on if she wants a scene, she has to tell you. More importantly she has to tell you exactly what should happen in it. I know you don't think you'll want to but after a while you'll get to know her quirks better and you'll be able to make suggestions. And never be afraid to say, 'no' if she comes up with something so far-out it makes alarm bells go off in your head."

"I just hope she doesn't try and use this to replace plain old married sex," Jake replied. "I'm queasy enough with it the way it is. If it turns into a fetish it could ruin a perfectly good marriage."

At that point, Laurie could no longer resist. She wrapped her arms around Jake's shoulders, and pressing nearly naked breasts against his arm gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry, Jake, coming up with scenes isn't and can't be spontaneous. Always remember that. Everything has to be planned and agreed to. You want to just sweep her up on a fine afternoon and carry her off to bed, go ahead. You can bet she'll squeal in delight."

*****

Wednesday in the following week, Laurie was eating lunch in the faculty cafeteria when Willow came up carrying a tray with a small salad. "May I join you?" she asked.

"Of course," Willow replied. "Everything going okay at home?"

"Oh, yes! Last scene was so fabulous. The orgasm was unbelievable and I just love how Jake is getting in touch with his inner Dom. So master . . ."




Horner Springs, The Institute Ch. 02



She stopped in mid word when she saw Laurie put down her fork and with a patient, forgiving expression slowly shake her head.

"No."

"No? What do you mean, 'no'?"

"Willow, Jake is not getting in touch with his inner Dom. He hasn't got one. 'Top', yes, but Dom he is not."

"I thought they were the same."

Laurie sighed. She often forgot that while the students needed twenty-four units of Human Sexuality to graduate, the faculty could be hired without any background, at all, in the subject—beyond what they figured out on their own, of course.

"Willow, there are two different dynamics at work in BDSM—or any other sexual relationship, for that matter. There's the relationship between the Top, the active partner, and the Bottom, the passive partner. However, there's also the relationship between the Dom, who calls the shots, and the Sub, who does what the Dom wants. Jake is doing what you want. He gets absolutely nothing out of it except the satisfaction of knowing he's made you feel good."

"Wait a minute. That sounds like I'm the Dom. That can't be right."

"But it is. You're what is known as a Dominant Bottom. Jake is a Service Top, doing whatever you want or need. A very noble position, if you ask me, very altruistic."

"But—but that has to be wrong! I didn't want that. I wanted him to be like you."

Laurie smiled crookedly. "But he is, exactly like me. Willow, BDSM is what I study, not what I am. Coming up in Bakersfield, the Leather scene was something what we called 'those perverts in San Francisco' did; my only interest in it was kind of morbid. It wasn't until graduate school that I began to ask 'why' and 'how'. It was at UCSF that I designed the experiments that paved the way for my doctorate, my reputation and my position here. I have lots of friends in the BDSM community nationwide, but I'm always a guest. I don't belong to it. Even with years of skill building, I get no charge from wielding a flogger, except to know that I got someone off."

Willow's previously eager, flushed face was now sober and pale. "Laurie," she asked, dreading the answer, "—then what do you like?"

For the first time since they'd first met, it was Laurie's turn to blush. "Would you believe plain vanilla, missionary sex?"

"I knew it! And because of your reputation, every man attracted to you is either out to get topped or is intimidated and afraid you'll want to take a cat-o'-nine to him, aren't they? That's terrible. That's—that's unfair."

"Oh, it isn't that bad. I have tenure, my reputation, my horses—I've done a lot better than most men, not to mention better than most women. I manage."

Willow's eyes narrowed and she stood up, drawing herself up to her full five-foot-two. "Hunh! That's as may be. But thank-you for clarifying things, Dr. Bindre. You've given me a lot to think about."

*****

March first had brought an early thaw but a week later the ground was covered with snow again as Laurie Bindre guided her 4x4 across Horner Springs to the McAllister's mobile home park. The invitation had been decorated with confetti and sequins, sugar sprinkles and stars. It said she was invited to a multi-reason celebration at Jake and Willow's and that they wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

It had been a month since her conversation with Willow and she hadn't even seen Jake since the 'night of the clothespin'. That he worked on the campus clear across town and had a reputation as a diligent and somewhat solitary researcher meant that his lack of visibility was no surprise. And since she had gently dismissed the couple from her guidance she wondered what the party was really about. Maybe Willow was pregnant? Maybe she'd decided after a couple of scenes that BDSM wasn't her thing after all? Maybe the young art historian had gotten tenure tracked. Now that last would be something to celebrate!

Pulling up next to the doublewide she saw Jake tending an open fire with several dutch ovens sitting in the coals. He waved cheerfully and motioned her on in and when she opened the door, Willow greeted her with an enormous, even suggestive hug. 

"Sit right down here," the smaller woman bubbled, "we're having chuck wagon tonight, with a California twist. It should make a Bakersfield gal feel right at home."

Jake brought in the dutch ovens and set them on tiles down the middle of the sideboard. He lifted the lids and the scent of hot food filled the room. Laurie was delighted.

"Onion braised short ribs? Pintos with bacon and onions? Sourdough biscuits and—and canned peach cobbler! Oh, guys, you know how to make someone homesick, don't you?"

"And a big green salad with avocado, too. And to wash it down a Lodi Zinfandel. Dish up, honey, we're celebrating."

Warm and well-fed, a couple of hours later, they all sat around the pot-bellied stove in the living room.

"Okay, you two," Laurie started, "just what are we celebrating?"

Jake laughed. "Well, to start with this is a late celebration of something that deserved a party five years ago, something about a certain Kiger Mustang stud getting best in show in Sacramento."

Laurie was amazed. "You knew?"

"No, but I found out. When Willow said you had horses I just looked you up. Dr. Bindre, your stud may be small but it is choice."

"Which," Willow continued, "brings us to the second and third celebration. Jake was hired to do a range analysis for the new owner of the old McPherson place, some East Indian cyber-type from Silicon Valley with visions of becoming a cowboy. His recommendations got him referred to one of Mr. Patel's friends and now he has two multi-year contracts to turn two different ranches into showpieces. And money is no object. That means, celebration number three, that we can bug out of this tornado trap (it is a trailer park after all) and get our own place. Hi, neighbor, we're moving next door to you."

"Wait! You—you bought the place next to mine I'd been saving up for, didn't you?"

"We did. And that means you can lease the back four acres and expand your stables and that Jake can bring Ponca down from Kalispell. It's cruel to keep a cowboy away from his horse."

Laurie was nearly speechless. "I—I don't know what to say. I really don't."

Willow stood up. "Hah! I know what you want to say. You want to protest that having you and Jake next door to each other is a recipe for trouble. That you're afraid you'll find yourself in the position of 'other woman' because you think he is one hot stud and you can tell he's attracted to you, too. And that, my dear Mistress, is where you are wrong. Growing up in Santa Monica, in a politically active family, I heard a lot about Social Justice. I have to admit much of it was pretty self-serving and some of it downright bigoted."

"Yup," Jake broke in with a chuckle, "her mother is okay with me because I teach Environmental Science but she would just die if any of her friends found out that Willow is really married to a cowboy. We get along best at a distance."

"Quiet, you. It did, however, give me very definite ideas about what justice was and what it should be. And what it should not be is Willow-the-Pillow-Princess getting off constantly because Jake and Laurie put her pleasure first without getting anything for themselves. No! Don't interrupt. As the Dom here I have a responsibility to my service tops. You guys have been wonderful. You've given me ecstasy beyond my wildest dreams. You've catered to my slightest whim and made every one of my 'scenes' something to be treasured in memory forever, and you haven't asked one damned thing in return. 

So now I have one more. We're going to do a scene here, tonight. Shut up, Jake, I'm not finished. And the scene is this. Laurie spends the night with us and I get to watch while you two have some happy, vanilla missionary sex together. No! Laurie, it's okay. It's fair. You deserve to be happy as much as I do, as much as Jake does because you two make me happy. Now stand up, you two, strip down and come with me. I bought a new, comfortable chair and put it in the bedroom so I can be tied down to watch and I don't want it to go to waste."



Horner Springs, The Institute Ch. 03



"Welcome to Marbled, Dr. Bindre, are you ready to order?"

"Hello, Bindi, yes I am. I'll have the family bowl of Caesar salad, the tureen of black beans and the cowboy cut rib eye—and three plates. I've got friends coming along in a few minutes."

"Wow, I hope they're hungry. The cowboy rib eye alone weighs three pounds. And can I get you a carafe of the house red or maybe a pitcher of beer to start?"

"A pitcher of Horner Gold Lager, I think, and three mugs, please. How are you and the guys coming along?"

"Oh, I keep them in line. If they don't stick to their books I threaten to go sleep with Amanda and they put their noses back on the figurative grindstone. I just wish the men at Arts and Letters were as serious about their studies as the guys over at Tech. When I compare my partners' attitude to what Justin's was when we took Intro to Bondage together, I want to shake my head. I love Sam and Henry but they just aren't as—serious."

Laurie Binder leaned back in the comfortable booth and smiled benignly at the young Indian-American. She remembered watching her and her classmates perform in the 'lab' on closed circuit TV and nodded mentally. While all students at Futter College were required to take twenty-four units of Human Sexuality, the Arts and Letters and the Technical Institute campus pupils took different approaches to the discipline. The A&L kids were just in it to get laid but the techies and engineers put the same effort into quality sex as they did to differential calculus. As an experimental scientist herself, Professor Bindre had a very warm spot in her heart for the TI community, especially young Justin Hightyme.

"Oh, they'll come around, Bindi. Once they graduate and it comes time to earn a living, I expect that your men will do what most all of their predecessors have done, buckle down and get on with life. Sam and Henry will be fine. I'm sure they'll put as much care into keeping you in a lifestyle of comfort as they do in making you scream in ecstasy."

Bindi blushed a darker shade of tan. She'd been voted 'Most likely to break windows' by her classmates and was known campus wide as the screamer's Screamer. She couldn't help it. Orgasms just did that to her, especially when both her partners were doing her together. She put her order pad back into her apron.

"Are these 'friends', Dr. Bindre, or 'friends with benefits', if you don't mind my being nosy?"

"I don't mind, at all, dear, but I suspect that the most accurate term would be 'potential family.' After years of being single I seem to be acquiring a triad of my own. It's quite a surprise, to be honest, but a happy one."

"Well, congratulations. And now I'll go get that pitcher."

Laurie looked around her. Marbled had been a rather ordinary café for ages but after changing owners five years before, it had morphed into the best-reviewed steakhouse in the state. It had augmented the dude ranch and fly-fishing industry becoming quite a tourist draw in its own right and the cowboy rib eye was the chef's signature piece. Local grass fed prime beef cut into what looked like a small prime rib roast seared on a bed of rock salt—you had to either get there on a weekday (like today) or reserve one for the weekend if you wanted it. The thought made her start to salivate just as Willow McAllister blew in the room blowing kisses to everyone she recognized. The curvaceous little blonde hurled herself into Laurie's arms for a passionate hug and then slid across from her in the booth.

"So, where's Jake?"

"He texted me that he was going to stop by the construction site before he came. He should be here any minute. Oh, it's going to be wonderful having our own home, especially since it's next door to you."

Laurie's nose wrinkled mischievously. "You just want to be next door to my basement playroom."

Willow grinned. "Well, I have to admit that it doesn't hurt but I think the best part will be watching you and Jake in bed. You're so endearingly—normal. And to think I first believed you to be a genuine dominatrix. Funny how things turn out."

"Willow, are you losing weight?"

"Mm-hmm. The doctor said I that since he expected me to gain when I get pregnant, he wanted me to start lower. I don't think Jake is terribly pleased. He does like the way I jiggle. It's about the only part of spanking me he enjoys though I know he is really turned on when my ass is all red. Oh! Here he comes now."

Professor Jacob McAllister's long frame ambled through the door and across to the two women who shared (and managed!) his life. He bent down to kiss both of them and then slid into the booth next to his wife. A puzzled expression spread across his face.

"Willow, when was a 'small' change made in the blueprints?"

The art historian giggled. "You mean the slight modification to the foundation and basement?"

"Mm-hmm. I'm a little curious as to why there is what looks to be a tunnel between our basement and Laurie's."

Laurie Bindre sucked in both lips between her teeth to keep from laughing out loud. This should be fun to watch, she thought.

Willow's face was the very picture of eyebrow-batting innocence. "Why I should think that would be obvious to any Montana boy. One, when the next blizzard hits, you wouldn't want poor Laurie to get half frozen coming over to 'get warm', would you? And two, it will prevent having to explain things to the police (understanding as they are) why the some neighbor called in that you were carrying me naked and screaming from our house to hers. I don't understand why it wasn't in the original plans, actually."

Very slowly and deliberately, Jake's face went from puzzled to resigned. That was more than either of the women could ignore and they burst out laughing. 

"Mercy," Laurie said to Willow, "the stage lost a great comic talent when Jake went into Soil Science. Nobody, and I mean nobody does put-upon like our Jacob."

"Honey," Willow turned to her husband after the giggles subsided, "if it makes it any easier I've decided that while getting clothes-pinned was amazing that one time, from now on I'll be quite content with plain, old spanky in our hanky-panky."

About that time Bindi returned with the pitcher and mugs and poured each of them a drink. They were about to toast the new construction when movement caught Laurie's eye and she looked across the room to a slight, freckled young man walking over to the bar.

"Justin!" she called out and waved him over to join them. Then taking his hand she dragged him into their booth and pulled him next to her before skooching against him, making him blush through his freckles.

"Uh, hello Dr. McAllister," he said to Jake.

"Hi, Justin," the big man replied, "I don't believe you've met my wife, Willow?"

Justin rose as well as one can in a restaurant booth to shake hands with Willow who took his hand warmly and squeezed it. "I've never had the pleasure," he said, "but Amanda says that if I can ever fit some time between my Environ-engineering classes, I really need to take your introduction to Indian Art. She says the temple carving lectures alone are worth the price per unit."

Willow dimpled. "I'm glad she enjoyed the class. It's great fun to teach. Some day I'm going to have to take enough yoga classes that Jake and I can give those positions a try."

Jake looked strained so Laurie quickly changed the subject. "Justin, after Intro to Bondage I would have put money on you and Amanda pairing up but I see you haven't."

Justin sighed. "We could have, I think, but our career plans are completely incompatible. She's dead set on going home to Charleston and joining a landscape design firm turning out high-end gardens for the city's moneyed classes. I suspect that I, on the other hand, will be traveling the world from one environmental project to another and when I am back stateside—well, I've become so fond of Horner Springs that I think I'd rather have a little place here, one I could lock up and leave for months at a time without worrying about upkeep. She doesn't even want to negotiate the point."

Jake nodded sagely. "Never argue with a women, Justin. Either give in or politely say good-bye. I said good-bye several times before I met Willow. Now I just give in—a lot!"

Willow started to haul off and punch him in the shoulder when the salad arrived.

"Bindi, dear," Laurie spoke up, "could you bring us another mug and table setting. Justin will be joining us for dinner—and he won't argue about it, will he?"

*****

The following Saturday, Willow bustled into Laurie's kitchen just as the older women was laying out several fat, fresh-from-the-stream rainbow trout. The plump art historian smiled benignly and, reaching into her coat pocket, produced a bag of sliced almonds. 

"Whoa, when you reach for the fly rod, you don't fool around. I'd have thought that with so many tourist anglers playing catch and release on the local water the fish would be so educated you'd need a seine to be sure of catching any. Those look wonderful."

"Under toasted almonds? With hash browns and eggs? They will be. And catching trout isn't as hard as people say. Too many fly anglers make a fetish of matching the hatch, insisting on #18 midges on 7X leaders. I think it's all hogwash. A black ant or a good wooly worm will out-fish the dry-fly purists 24/7. And being of the school that holds you only release the ones you aren't going to eat, that suits me just fine. Is Jake back from Kalispell, yet?"

"Not yet, but I expect him within the hour. Of course, he'll have to unpack Ponca and make sure he's settled in before he joins us for breakfast. Thank-you so much for letting him stable his horse with yours—even before the stable extension is built. Just knowing Ponca is close by will do wonders for his peace of mind. It's a good thing Mother never comes to visit. If she ever saw him in Levi's and boots I think she'd just faint. She just can't abide the thought that her son is only incidentally a professor, that he's really a cowboy at heart."

"Cow handing grows on you," Laurie relied with a wink. "Your mom ought to give it a try here for a summer. I'll bet she'd convert. I mean, look at Justin. Boston Brahmin born and bred but wants to make Horner Springs his home base when he finishes school. I tell you, the big sky and the mountains—there's just nothing like it."

There was a fairly long silence while Willow carefully worded her next question.

"You're fond of Justin, aren't you?"

Laurie chuckled through a wistful smile. "Willow, if I wasn't nearly old enough to be his mother I'd knock him down, hogtie him and drag him to the nearest justice of the peace. The first time I laid eyes on him he was a sophomore who had just turned eighteen. Yeah, he graduated from high school at sixteen and came directly here. The kid is positively brilliant but since he entered so young he has had to sort of double up on his Human Sexuality requirements. In fact, his advisor forcibly sent him to my intro to bondage class. He wasn't happy about that. Worse yet, he was a virgin! Fortunately, it just happened that I paired him up with Amanda Tighe, you know, the one they call Randy Mandy? He not only became a sexual enthusiast but threw himself into the class work so hard that he had the highest score ever recorded."

Willow grinned in response. "He sounds kind of—obsessive?"

"Obsessive he can be. Anyway, he was invited to Van Kanaal's summer seminar, something that doesn't happen to undergrads very often, and on Mandy's recommendation enrolled in Intro to Tantra. Mandy and Bindi were taking Intro to Pompoir so on a whim I volunteered to be his partner for the class. I'm not sure whether that was a mistake or the best idea I ever had. Naturally at first we worked on muscle control and since he was fairly fit it didn't take long before he could repeat orgasms. So far, so good, no? But once he had that down the little devil sat down in a full lotus and pulled me up onto his lap. He fixed his gaze on my right eye and then he synchronized his breathing with mine. I suppose I should have avoided his look but he was so compelling . . ."

"What?" Willow's blue eyes grew wide. "The Wave of Bliss? He compelled you into the Wave? But—but that's instant love."

Laurie's smile twisted. "Got it in one. Yeah, over the rest of the summer he kind of overwhelmed me. Why? I don't know. To see if he could, I expect. But I am not a cougar, thank-you very much, so you know the saying, 'If you love something, let it go'? I've let him go."

Willow carefully kept a poker face but behind the mask her brain was on overdrive. Let him go? Pushed him away, more like it. He could follow Amanda to North Carolina but he wants to stay in Horner Springs so he can be near you whenever he's in the States. Laurie Bindre, we're going to make a great trio together but if I have anything to say about it, from time to time, it'll be a quartet. Now, just how do I arrange this? 

About that time Jake came in through the mudroom door, shucked his boots and left his Stetson on one of the wall pegs. He gave both his wife and his mistress tight, affectionate hugs and poured himself a mug of coffee. "So what kind of diversions have been taking place while I was gone?"

Willow put her hands on her hips. "Well, if you must know, Debra Weatherspoon propositioned me!"

Laurie looked pleasantly surprised. "Did she, now. And you responded by . . .?"

"I thanked her for the compliment but told her I was a strict het, not a girly's girl, at all."

Jake took a sip and wisely kept quiet, the mug hiding his grin.

"Really?" Laurie asked, "You should reconsider. Wendy's very, very skilled. She did her dissertation on why women's sexuality is so much more flexible than men's and since she came here she's been working very hard to prove it—and she has a bit of a fetish for seducing married women. A night or two in bed with her and I'll bet you'd be singing a different tune."

"Laurie! I—I'm shocked, I really am. You've had sex with her? I'd never have guessed."

Laurie lowered the cup from her mouth with a sly smile. "Well, dear, I am chair of the Human Sexuality Department, after all, and I would be very remiss in my responsibilities if I wasn't as knowledgeable on the subject as possible. Of course I had sex with her, several times in fact. It was pleasantly different. You really should think about giving it a try."

*****

That night, Jake climbed into bed next to Willow who, to his surprise, had a laptop on top of her lap. He was about to reach for her when she turned a thoughtful face toward him. "Honey, I think we ought to get another horse, something with a really smooth gait like a Missouri Foxtrotter or maybe one of those Icelanders."

Jacob blinked slowly and deliberately. "And the reason we need an easy-riding horse is?"

Willow rolled her eyes. "Well, the obvious reason is so I can tag along when you and Laurie go for a ride. If we brought a tent and a really big air mattress it could be a lot of fun."

Now it was Jake's turn to look pensive. "It could, couldn't it? But Foxtrotters aren't the best choice for our climate so an Icelander or maybe a Rocky Mountain would be better. Both of them have really smooth ambling gaits. I'll start looking at Internet auctions."

Now Willow's face displayed a knowing mischief. "And the second reason is you need to teach Justin to ride."

Jake looked at her for a long time. "I know I'm going to wish I hadn't asked this but just why do I need to teach Justin to ride?"

Willow shut the computer down and slipped it onto the floor next to her. Then she slid over and leaned up against Jake's shoulder. "Justin needs to learn to ride so whenever he's in town and Laurie wants to go out, he can go along with her. Jakey, she's in love with him and I'm totally convinced the feeling is mutual. She's nearly old enough to be his mother and so doesn't want to get seriously involved. But even though he's from a upper crust Boston family, when he graduates he wants to base here. She claims it's because he's fallen in love with the country. Rubbish! He wants to stay close to her, even though she's trying to push him toward someone more his age. So I think we should help."

Jake put an arm around his wife and pulled her close. His other hand stroked her cheek. "I think my favorite Dominant Bottom should let other people's lives alone—unless there's another hidden agenda at work here. Tell me the truth, Baby, is it just Laurie who thinks he's cute?"

Willow blushed. "Well—he is cute. But I don't think that has anything to do with it. Like you said, I am the Dominant Bottom and I'm just trying to take care of the Service Tops who take such good care of me. So . . ."

She rolled over away from him, kicked off the covers and slowly pushed down her pajama bottoms. She arched her back to lift her ass up, closed her eyes and with a dreamy smile murmured, "Spank me, Jake. Make my butt all red and then fuck me silly. And tomorrow night I'm going to watch you fuck her silly."

Jake's big palm made a ringing smack on her ass, leaving a red handprint. "Don't bet on that. Maybe, I'm going to watch her fuck you silly. It's about time you expanded your experience. This is Horner Institute, after all."

With each resounding spank, Willow squeaked and squealed and shortly her pale bottom was bright pink. Jake knelt between her legs and rubbed her buttocks vigorously, increasing the blood flow until they were bright red. The sight was terribly erotic. It reached deep into some primate portion of his brain and stiffened his cock. He reached down and fingered her pussy. As he suspected, it was swollen and wet. Leaning forward on his hands he shoved his stiffy deep into her. She moaned. Slow withdrawal, trip-hammer thrust, he paced himself drawing it out as long as he could. Willow, for her part, moaned, chirped, whimpered and finally began to wail as orgasm after orgasm washed over her until she reached a state of constant climax. That was where he wanted her. Speeding up, he brought himself to climax, shooting his load deep into her. Pregnant she wanted, pregnant she was going to get!

*****

Laurie slouched in a big, rustic leather armchair grinning mischievously at her friends, her fingers steepled together in front of her face. Jacob returned the grin but Willow looked slightly alarmed. 

"No, I don't think you should watch Willow and I get it on," she said thoughtfully to Jake, "Debra asked first so I think she should get 'right of first refusal' as it were. Willow, you should just give her a call and tell her that after thinking about it, you've decided to take her up on her offer and that you'd be happy to go on over and spend the night."

"But—but . . ."

"No buts, baby!" Though Jake was normally the mildest of men, without a Dominant bone in his body, this time he was pushing—gleefully, "If we're going to become a triad it should be an equal one. I don't want to be the center of it all; you and Laurie should get just as much fun with each other as I do with the two of you. Besides, I'll have fun watching until I feel like joining in. Will I want toned or jiggly? Shall I choose one or switch from one to the other? The possibilities are intriguing. Call Debbie. Say, 'yes'."

Willow's wide eyes ping-ponged from one to the other.  Actions have consequences. Oh dear lord, I never thought this would be the result. All I wanted was to try out endorphins and get Jake to start being more assertive. Now he has. I guess it really does do to be careful of what you wish for. You might well get it! And now they're insisting I go sleep with a notorious bisexual woman with a fetish for married women and they want it because Laurie thinks it will be fun for me and Jake thinks it will be fun for him.




Horner Springs, The Institute Ch. 03



"I—but I'm the Dominant one, aren't I? Shouldn't I be the one telling you two what to do?"

Laurie's grin went from mischief to evil. "Oh, didn't you know? Subs switch to Dom whenever they're ready and Doms sub whenever they get the chance. Jake is ready and this is your chance. You, Willow, shall get laid by another woman tonight and probably tomorrow as well. And while you're being subjected to the delights of soft flesh and delicate fingers, not to mention her truly amazing collection of sex toys, Jake and I will entertain ourselves in the most vanilla, missionary position way possible. Now go call Debbie."

*****

Laurie looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Maybe, she thought, the cute-but-professional bob cut could go. Maybe she should grow it out in long waves. That would be a fine contrast to Willow's blond curls and would give her the option of either a ponytail or, when she had her Stetson on, a pair of pigtails. Jake would probably like it, too, she suspected. He did try to keep up with the times and progressive thought but at heart he was a conservative, old-fashioned man. She kind of liked him that way. It made him solid and reliable, much like her father and uncles back home in Bakersfield. Yes, this new phase of her life was definitely going to call for a softer look. A little feminine in her feminism wouldn't hurt a bit.

She tied the top of her sheer peignoir together over her equally sheer cotton nightgown. Protesting all the while, Willow had been sent off to Debra Weatherspoon's place where, Laurie was sure, she would find her sexuality far more flexible than she currently believed. After all, Laurie herself was nominally a complete heterosexual but she had really enjoyed her time in Debbie's bed and was sure Willow would, too. Now she and Jake had the evening to themselves. Tonight there would be no Leather, nothing kinky in any way, just two adults making the sweetest kind of love to each other. She was looking forward to it.

Half an hour later, Laurie lay curled up next to Jake with her head on his chest, a contented smile across her face. He really was quite to most satisfactory lover. He kissed well, starting with her lips and then working his way around to her ears and then down her neck. He had fondled and squeezed her breasts, tweaked her nipples and sucked them ferociously. When she had finally had enough, she grabbed his hair in both hands and pushed his face down between her thighs. Spreading her labia with his thumbs, he had delicately flicked her clit with his tongue tip and then proceeded to lap long, teasing licks up from the back to the front, ending each one with a quick back-and-forth on the nubbin before doing it again. Laurie had hummed happily at first, and then started to twitch. As she felt the orgasm build she panted, hyperventilating herself into carbon dioxide deficiency. That did it. The climax rolled over her while she applied her Tantric skills to stretch it out.

At last she decided she'd had enough and pulled him up to her face again. "Lay back, Hoss, it's my turn to do you."

His balls in one hand and his cock in the other she too licked, flicked and sucked. Should I just swallow him? He'd like that. Or would it be better inside me. He's good and stiff . . . 

Just then Jake had pulled her over onto her back, settled down between her spread thighs and plunged in. Laurie moaned. "Okay, Hoss, ride me hard." 

Jake slid his hands behind her shoulders and up to cradle her neck and head. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down, holding him tight while he pistoned in and out. "Come on, baby," she crooned, "fill me up. Oh, Jake, you make me wish I hadn't had my tubes tied. But knock Willow up first. Maybe when the little one is crawling around I'll think about getting them untied."

Now in the afterglow, she mentally shook her head. What had she been thinking? A baby? No thanks. When she wanted to play with one she'd just borrow Willow's. Sex was for love and for the fun of it, not reproduction, at least not for her.

"Laurie?"

"Mmm?"

"I wonder how Willow and Debbie are coming along."

Laurie snickered. "Well, to start with Debbie will certainly be dressed in something slinky. She likes slinky and has some of the most amazing python print sheaths. And she'll offer Willow a good stiff drink. If my guess about Willow is correct, she'll probably drain the first so Debbie will give her another. About the third one, Willow will get chattery and start feeling warm and relaxed. That's when Debbie will start teasing her out of her clothes. To be honest, I think that's really the part she likes best, getting a happily married woman out of her clothing. She'll tickle and tease until she finally takes her by the hand and pulls her into the bedroom. Then, since she knows Willow likes being spanked . . ."

"She knows?"

"Of course! You don't think I'd send you hot little wife over there without any preparation, do you? Anyway, she'll break out a light riding crop, do a smart tattoo on Willow's ass, rub it good to get her all warm and then slip out of her dress and pull the covers up over both of them."

"Is that what she did to you?"

"Minus the spanking? Sort of. She has the most amazing soft hands and lips. And naturally a woman knows what a woman likes better than any man can. Somewhere along the line she'll introduce Willow to frottage. That will probably keep them busy for at least half an hour, maybe longer. When Willow comes home tomorrow morning we'll make her give us all the details over breakfast. We might even insist on a demonstration."

Jacob's soft snores told her he might not have heard her entire explanation but since she definitely intended to grill his wife in the morning about her adventure, it didn't matter. She rolled over and snuggled her back against his side and went to sleep herself.

*****

Willow walked into their mobile home the following morning to the smell of garlic sausage and hash browns. Jake was just topping off three big mugs of coffee while Laurie slipped the long pancake flipper under the mound of potatoes to skid them onto a platter that was already stacked high on one end with fat, toasty brown links. They smiled sweetly at her and her husband pulled out a chair for her. Usually it annoyed her when he did that but this day she blushed and seated herself demurely. She sweetened her coffee in silence and looked up to see that her lovers were pointedly helping themselves to breakfast without a word or even a leer. That was even worse and Willow blushed furiously.

"Oh, come on, you two. Don't tell me you're going to play nonchalant after almost forcing me into last night's depravity. The least you can do is snigger or something."

"Willow, dear, a while back you told me you wanted Jake to get in touch with his Dominant self. And now you're complaining that he has?"

Jake put his coffee cup in front of his mouth hiding a big grin.

"But I never expected him to insist I try lesbian sex. I was just hoping for some Leather, maybe a little light bondage or at most getting wrapped up in cellophane." She turned and glared at her husband. "That was very mean of you to make me go get laid at Debbie's."

Jacob lowered his mug. "Like you hated every minute of it! Or had no way of just quietly saying, 'No'. 'Fess up, Willow, you were bicurious and our insistence was just the excuse you needed. So, was it all that bad? Honestly?"

Willow's fair skin turned brilliant pink clear down into her impressive cleavage. "No, it wasn't bad, at all. Laurie, you were right. She is remarkably skilled. It took three stiff bourbon sours to get me relaxed enough but once we were in bed together—I might actually get used to that."

Laurie swallowed the forkful of scrambled egg she'd been chewing. "Score another one for Debbie's thesis. She has admitted to me that she's only successful in seducing the allegedly heterosexual about five times in seven but I'd call that an impressive percentage, especially since she nearly always approaches women who are otherwise perfectly happy with their husbands. One of her classmates back in grad school was trying the same thing with men. He had very little luck, at all. On a couple of occasions, before he learned to be more circumspect, he even got decked. No one's sure whether it's cultural or inherent but gay men know they're gay and het men know they're het and only a handful are willing to cross over, even experimentally. Guys just aren't as flexible as we are."

"But—but what about Classical Greece or even the Roman Empire? Men seemed to be a lot more flexible back then. What happened?"

Laurie shook her head. "It seemed to happen in the XIV Century and no one has a good explanation. Up to that time no one, not even the clergy, seemed to care but over a period of a hundred years homophobia swept Western Civilization. That's why a lot of us think it's mostly cultural but with some sort of biological overlay. Once a man identifies himself as heterosexual, he pretty much sticks to that. Oh, there are times and places where there aren't any women around and the men get desperate but damned few guys will go gay just for the fun of it. Either they are or they aren't."

"Yup," was Jake's sole comment.

"Oh!" Willow was indignant, "So it's okay for me got get laid by another gal but you don't have to have anything to do with other men?"

"Yup!" This time his tone of voice was sharp and his dark eyes glinted and closed slightly beneath his heavy brows. Willow looked back and thought fast. I want him to be more assertive and dominant. I guess I really do need to be careful about what I wish for 'cause I seem to be getting it—just not the way I expected.

"Oh. Well if you're going to be that way about it. So I guess this means Laurie and I should get it on sometimes, just to entertain you?"

Jake chuckled. "No, Laurie and you and I will get it on because it's fun and because you ought to find out what it's like to be shared. Right now it's just you and her sharing me, which is wonderful, but it's only fair that she and I should share you and that you and I should share her. There are lots of ways three people can have fun together."

*****

July arrived and the McAllister's new home was complete, moved into and hosting a housewarming. Naturally all of Art History was there as was not just Soil Science but also a good portion of the faculty from the College of Environmental Sciences. The number of guests from Human Sexuality surprised few—after all, its chair was their next-door neighbor. So all in all it was a merry gathering made more so by the presence of Akash Patel and Imran Doss whose generous retainers to Jake had made the construction possible. The two gentlemen from Silicon Valley were resplendent in their newly tailored Western suits and they looked for all the world like the cattle barons it was presumed they dreamed of being. 

Their wives' saris made an amusing contrast but the ladies' dry, deadpan tales of their conservative relatives horror at the purchase of (gasp!) American cattle ranches had the other guests in stitches. The party was perfectly respectable, especially by Horner Springs standards without even so much as a double entendre or a naughty reference and by dusk, most of the people had congratulated Jake and Willow and bid Laurie a fond farewell. Only Justin Hightyme remained. He was out by the stables leaning on a corral fence with a drink in his hand and a contented smile on his face. 

Jake ambled up next to him. "Like horses?"

"Oh, yes. I used to ride a lot in the park by Massasoit College. English saddle, of course, because 'our sort of people' would never dream of riding for work. The only professionals were either equestrian instructors or polo pros. Anyway, Aunt Hester insisted all the children in the family learn to ride. A couple of my cousins made the Olympic trials in dressage. Personally, I never saw any sense in that. Now riding to the hounds—that's fun!"

Jake blinked slowly, like an old turtle. "Seems like a good way to get killed, to me."

Justin curled his lips up into a twisted grimace. "Oh it is that. We've had our share of casualties in the family's history, even after the U.S. Army replaced horses with tanks. But if you ride well and have the time to do it regularly it isn't that dangerous. However, even though I used to ride well I don't have time for it anymore. Do you think Dr. Bindre would let me borrow one of hers when I'm in town?"

Jake looked down at the smaller, slender man searching for any hint of irony in the question. He found none. "Oh, I suspect she would. You might have to let her go trail riding with you, though."

That's when Justin blushed enough to make his freckles glow. But before he could answer Laurie and Willow approached. "So that's where you two got off to. Jake I understand, but Justin? Are you a horse fan, too? I never would have guessed."

Jake turned to his wife with a grin. "Justin isn't just a fan; he's an accomplished rider—used to follow the hounds."

Willow's eyes grew wide and Laurie lifted an eyebrow. "Really?" they asked in chorus.

Justin blushed further. "I used to but it's been so long now that I wouldn't dare. Jumping hedges isn't something you want to do without working up to it. But I used to ride a lot with the Old North Bridge Hunt. Heck, I even got to go out with my uncle when he and a bunch of his friends ran wild boar out in California."

Laurie and Willow's jaws dropped. "People hunt wild boar with hounds? On horseback? In California?"

Justin looked conspiratorial. "Shhh . . ." he whispered, "don't tell anyone. If some of those Hollywood nambies found out there would be Hell to pay. It's all very proper, hunting pinks and everything, and the mistress of the hunt finishes off the pig with a knife. It's some serious excitement. And the 'hunt breakfast' afterwards is amazing. The hunt mistress is French, after all."

Jake grinned. "And you thought I should teach him to ride?"

Laurie's eyes turned speculative toward her stud. After perusing them for a minute or two she nodded to herself and then turned to Justin. "Are you busy tomorrow?"

Justin started. "Uh, no?"

"Good," replied Willow. "Go back to the dorms and get something suitable for riding. You can stay in our guest room . . ."

"No," Laurie's voice was firm. "He's staying with me." She turned to the younger man and saw him light up from inside, a dazed but ecstatic grin on his face. "Honey, I've tried to keep you away—turn you toward someone more your own age. It hasn't worked, has it?"

Justin stepped up to her. Though they were the same height and general build, he suddenly seemed taller and broader. Taking her in his arms, he answered, "Laurie, it would never have worked. I fell in love with you back in Intro to Bondage. Amanda knew it then. The summer when you taught me Tantra I swore to myself I would make you love me and somehow, some way, make you mine."

Laurie pushed him partly away. "Okay, but only if you agree to share."

"Share?"

Jake slapped him on the back. "Yup, share. Of course, there is one added benefit." He pulled Willow close and Justin found himself held by both women who were in turn held by Jake.

"Yes," both women answered, "share!"