Ascendance - A Romance (Part 2)

Part 2 [The story won?t make sense if you haven?t read part 1. Part 3, if it comes, will complete the story.] ?What?s bothering you?? Julie asked. She said this to the back of my head as she followed me out of the meeting room. ?That was an important design meeting, and you were somewhere else? Care to tell me where?? I don?t think so, I said to myself as I looked at my watch. It was Friday and I was trying to leave early. I had to get home and clean up before heading over to Mona?s where, I could only imagine . . . well, I?d been trying to imagine it for two days and now I didn?t want to think about it anymore. ?Hey, wait a second, will you,? Julie said. ?Just wait a second.? ?Can?t Jules,? I said. ?I gotta go.? ?What the hell is going on? Are you okay?? ?I?m fine,? I said. ?Just leave me alone, please.? ?Won?t you just talk to me for a minute? I was hoping we could go out to dinner tonight.? Now! You fucking say that now? Today? Jesus Christ. ?I can?t Jules, I can?t. I?ll call you.? If she?d only asked a week ago. It could have been a different world. ? Julie and I worked on the same project team building a new 1.0 business intelligence software product. I was the marketing lead and she was the engineering manager. It was my job to come up with the list of features for the product, and her job to manage the engineers who designed and built them. A lot of the male engineers didn?t like working for a woman, but Julie was a lot smarter than they were and they knew it. So despite their resentment they busted ass to impress her. Of course, it helped that she was gorgeous as well as brilliant. With her blonde hair, upturned nose, full lips, and a smattering of freckles, she nailed the girl-next-door archetype. And it all went with a body that?s hotter and curvier than you?d expect from the girl next door, so I guess she?d even improved that ideal. I had a major crush on her from the first moment we met, but it didn?t take me long to realize she was out of my league. Yes she was hot. She was also tough and smart. What more could a guy want? Not that it mattered, though, because she was living with Doug, our QA manager. They were a cute couple with an odd Mutt-and-Jeff touch. Doug was a former college linebacker; at six feet four inches and too many muscles he towered above Julie who barely cracked five three. Doug struck some people as trying a little too hard to maintain his macho, college-boy bona fides. Most of us thought Julie was the one in the family with the brains. Some of us also thought she was the one with the balls. With my crush destined to be just another candidate for my closet of broken dreams, I settled for friendship. Julie and I scheduled lunch every Monday to review project status. That went to two and later three lunches a week as the project developed, problems arose and deadlines came closer. Our relationship grew as well. It didn?t take long to realize that we shared the same interests in restaurants, modern literature and very old music. (It?s not easy to find someone who loves sopranos singing Handel arias.) Soon we were talking about almost everything except work. And the conversations started getting a little personal. I?ve always been closer to women than to men so it was easy for me to open up to Julie. It was more difficult for her but she was getting there. But we weren?t BFFs and, much as I would have preferred otherwise, it was still basically a work relationship. I didn?t try to change that. Doug wasn?t my favorite person, and, to be truthful, they moved in a more hip circle than I did. A few months back Julie asked if we could go to lunch off campus. We drove to a small Indian restaurant she liked across town and settled into a corner booth. We ate slowly, tossed around some pleasantries but made no attempt at serious conversation. Well, I ate; Julie mainly moved her food around as if the plate was a canvas and she was creating a gustatory abstract. If there was something bothering her, I?d let her get to it in her own time. When the table had been cleared she looked up at me with an expression that was barely holding sadness at bay. Her eyes had faded from their usual bright blue to a pale gray and her lips were trembling ever so slightly; you had to look closely to see it. I?d never seen her look like that. She said, ?I need to ask you something.? ?Sure,? I said. ?Anything.? ?This is hard,? she said. ?Take your time.? ?Okay.? She folder her napkin into a square and brushed some invisible crumbs away. She said, ?After Doug went to bed last night I used his laptop to download a file from the office I wanted to review. I?d left my laptop with IT for a memory upgrade.? She stopped to pour herself some tea but didn?t drink it. ?Anyway, I opened a folder and found tons of bondage photos. Women tied up with rope and leather, bound and gagged in the most grotesque positions. It was really hardcore shit.? She cast a glance toward the door. ?Why would he have those? He Karaköy escort obviously downloaded them. Is that what he wants?? How the hell was I supposed to respond to that? ?I wouldn?t make too much of it,? I said. ?Men like to look at pictures of naked women.? ?These were more than just naked women. They were scary. I don?t understand. We?re doing good. He has everything he could want. The sex is great, even a little kinky.? I didn?t need to know that. ?Should I say something to him? Do you think I should say something? I?m going to say something.? I?d never seen Julie like this, shaken and confused. She was always in control. Even in her happiest, unguarded moments, her eyes always told you she was on top of everything. ?Just don?t do anything rash. I?m sure it?s nothing.? But she did confront him. She was in my office at 8:30 the next morning. Doug had dismissed her questions. The pictures meant nothing. They were a joke. His old college roommate sent them; everyone knew he was a boor. At 32 he?d already been divorced three times. Doug deleted the pictures then and there. Everything was cool, she said. Less than a week later Julie got home from work and found that all of Doug?s stuff had been moved out of the condo and, apparently, Doug along with it. She got an email from him around midnight saying it was over. He said he was sorry but their relationship just wasn?t working for him. He?d met someone else and was moving in with her. He didn?t come into work for the rest of the week and wouldn?t respond to her phone calls or emails. And then we heard that he was taking three week?s vacation. It was short notice, but the project was still in the early design stage and QA activity was slow. Julie was shaken but managed to be stoical at work. She was too strong and determined to let it affect her job. She had nevertheless been thrown off her game and was pissed that Doug had refused to talk to her. She was an engineer; she wanted to know why something didn?t work, what was broken. If there?s a problem you fix it. If you can?t fix it, move on. We talked a lot over the next few weeks. Our lunches continued but we also met frequently in her office, checking in, taking a pulse. We even went out for a drink after work a couple of times; the first time we ever spent together outside of work. Doug came back and dropped two more stink bombs out of the blue. He quit our group and took another manager position in a different division. Julie and I both figured he must have interviewed for that slot a while back since he?d been out of town the last three weeks, which meant he?d been planning this for some time. Even more of a shocker was that he was married. The mystery lady he?d left Julie for was his new boss?s secretary; excuse me, executive assistant. Janice was a sweet girl and the opposite of Julie in every way. She was a sweet girl but a bit of an airhead. Perpetually bright-eyed and cheerful, she was always willing to talk about the latest episode of American Idol. Her major skill was being able to type 125 words a minute on any keyboard you threw in front of her. Okay, we were snobby, but she wasn?t the sharpest pencil in the drawer. On her first day back in the office she handed in her resignation. She told everybody that Doug didn?t want her to work; she was going to stay home and take care of her man. Well that knocked any residual sadness and self-doubt out of Julie. Obviously she had just been too much for Doug, too smart, too strong. ?What I really don?t understand,? she said, ?was why I didn?t see what an asshole he was.? I didn?t tell her that everybody else had seen it. People see what they want to see and so often that means that they blind themselves to the obvious. Julie was her old self again. In fact, she was better than ever since she was free of Doug. She was smiling and joking and she was driving the engineering team with an overdose of good cheer and optimism. I marveled at her. Hell, I fell in love with her all over again. At her lowest moment she?d come to me for friendship and reassurance. Was there a chance for me? Could I even think of aiming so high? I decided not to push it. I?d bide my time and wait for her to come to me. I wondered if men ever got the women they deserved. And then today of all fucking days Julie asks me out. Of all goddamn fucking days. Why didn?t she ask last week? No, she asks on the night I?m going over to the house of a woman I just met who is going to strip me naked and offer my holes to her friends as a party favor. . . and I?m going along with it. ?I can?t Julie, I?m busy. Sorry, I gotta run.? I just left her standing there. Halfway down the block, I wanted to turn and see if Julie was still standing there watching me, but I didn?t. ? I spent the short drive to Mona?s looking around and reading store names out loud in a lilting singsong, just like my father used to do. I gripped the steering wheel hard to try to Kayaşehir escort bayan stop my hands from shaking. I was actually physically weak. My thoughts were dancing around in my head, lighting briefly on my most painful memories, those moments when I felt scared or timid, moments that embarrassed me to think about. But a memory left as quickly as it came, only to be replaced with another and then still another until all I felt was one big ball of despair drawn from a lifetime?s desperate moments. I parked around the corner from Mona?s. Without looking where I was going I walked mechanically to her building and up the stairs to the front door. I ignored the doorbell and tapped lightly on the etched glass door panel. As I waited I looked around behind me, half expecting people to be staring at me. Mona opened the door. ?Good,? she said. ?I knew you?d come.? I walked in and she closed the door behind me. She stood there and looked me up and down. After a few seconds she shook her head almost imperceptibly and curled her lips in irritation. ?Well,? she said, ?you know what to do.? I began to undress, folding my clothes neatly and putting them in the covered wicker basket next to the door. I stood there as naked as I?ve ever been in my life. Instinctively I covered my cock and balls with both hands. ?Tsk, tsk,? Mona said and cast a glance up at the ceiling. I removed my hands. ?Okay,? Mona said. ?Follow me. I?ll show you around.? Just then Carole walked by carrying a couple of shoeboxes. ?Hi, Ishy. Good to see you,? she said, and laughed as she kept going. Mona took me on a quick tour. There were three bedrooms, an office and a bathroom off the hallway to the right. The main area was a living room, which I remembered well, that turned into a dining room at the far end. A door on the left led to a large kitchen that had been completely remodeled with all the latest high-end appliances. There was a door that led out to a small but beautifully manicured back yard. I was only half paying attention as we moved through the apartment. I didn?t give a damn about the House Hunters walk through. I was naked in a house with two women I barely knew. They had sexually used me, doing things to me, no . . . making me do things to myself that I could never have imagined doing in front of others. And I had come back for more. What the fuck was I doing? As we went back into the living room I noticed a table behind the couch that I hadn?t seen before. It was a narrow glass table that ran the length of the back of the couch and was almost as tall as the couch itself. Mona saw that I was looking and paused so I could take it all in. The table was covered from end to end with a delicate lace runner. Laid out neatly on the runner were a variety of bottles and plastic squeeze jars of lube. Next to them were about 20 or so vibrators of different shapes and sizes, some with cords and remote controls. Then came a line of dildos in different lengths, girths and colors. Some of the dildos had larger flat wafers at the base. I guessed they were designed to fit into the strap-on harnesses piled next to them. I felt a knot burst to life in my stomach. Mona nudged me forward. ?Come on,? she said. Mona sat on the couch and motioned for me to stand in front of her. Carole, who I now decided was younger than I had at first thought, twenty-five at the most, came into the room and sat down beside Mona. She was strikingly beautiful, with long dark hair, perfect almost pure white skin and garish red lipstick. She was wearing a loose, low-cut, sheer black sleeveless blouse and a floor-length wraparound skirt tied closed on the side of her waist. She pulled her legs up and tucked them under her. I was beginning to recognize that as her usual position. ?Let?s have a look at you, Ishy,? Mona said. ?You are clean, right?? I nodded. ?Show me,? she said. I didn?t understand. I guess my expression gave that away. ?Oh, come on,? she said, the exasperation evident in her voice. ?Turn around, bend over, and spread your ass.? As many times as I?ve heard that from her already, it still startled me when she said it. What startled me even more was that once again I said nothing and did it. I felt her finger draw a light circle around my anus. ?Okay. Good. You can stand up and turn around.? Carole leaned back and picked up a dildo from the table behind the couch. She bent forward and pushed my cock to one side and then to the other with the dildo, like TV detectives do with a pen when looking for evidence at a murder scene. ?He really should be shaved,? she said. ?Think how much cuter he?d be with baby-soft skin rather than that thick stringy mess. Ugh. Yuk.? ?You?re right,? Mona said, but it?s too late tonight. Maybe tomorrow. I bet you?d be happy to take care of it?? ?Oh, yeah,? Carole said, and that big bright smile made another appearance. ?Let?s talk about tonight, Ishy? Mona said. ?Some special ladies Escort Küçükçekmece will be coming over. They?re a really fun group actually. Once the party gets going and everyone has loosened up, we?ll bring you out. You got a look at the table over there. I think that gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect. ?I?ll bring you into the room so everyone can get a good look. And then you?ll get into your down position and wait for someone to come get you and start the ball rolling.? ?You don?t mean you want me kneeling and, you know, using my hands to . . . uh, spread . . .. You can?t mean that. That?s too much. I can?t, I just can?t.? I started to whimper. ?You can and you will,? Mona said. ?They?re going to have fun with you, Ishy,? Carole chimed in. Mona shot Carole a shut-the-fuck-up look and then turned back to me. ?Most of them will just want you to eat them out. You might find yourself in front of the couch, moving down the line, doing one after the other. ?Of course, a few of them are going to want more,? Mona said. I looked over at Carole. She?d taken a strap-on harness off the table and was twirling it in the air around her index finger. Mona took it away from her. ?The important thing, Ishy, is that you do your best to please them. You?re just a nameless little boy to them that they?re using for their own pleasure; that?s all you?re good for to them. They?re not going to be thinking about you, about who you are. They certainly won?t recognize the embarrassment that will be consuming you, that overpowering feeling screaming at you to get up and run, and the naked need that stops you from doing it. ?But we?ll be watching that. We won?t miss a juicy exquisite moment of it.? Mona looked at Carole who was still beaming; she was fondling a bright red dildo. ?Well I won?t. I fear Carole?s going to be in the party mood with our guests.? I wiped my eyes and sniffled. Were they really going to expose me like that? Was I going to let them? How could I? And then I felt some movement in my crotch. My cock was actually getting hard. I held my face in my hands. Did I really want this? Did I need it, like Mona said? I looked over at the two women. They were chatting, heads together. They were having a good time. Mona turned to me. ?There are a few things to remember, Ishy. Don?t talk to anyone. The guests know not to engage you in conversation. They may position you or tell you what they want, but that?s all. Second, don?t resist. Do what you?re told. You?ll be completely safe; nobody?s going to hurt you. There?s no hitting, slapping or corporal correction allowed; no foot worship or other silly ?internet dom? stuff.? ?Spanking is okay, though, right?? Carole said. ?And whatever you do, Ishy, don?t come. That?s for the grand finale.? ?The what?? I said, but no sound came out. ?Doesn?t it ever end?? My lips barely moved. Mona jumped in, ?If you come, Ishy, you come, but I don?t think you will. You?re going to experience a lot of things tonight, but I doubt arousal will be one of them.? There was no mirror but I was sure my face was totally drained of color. My expression must have told Mona that I was close to panic. Mona stood up and put her arm around my shoulder. ?It will be okay, Ishy. You?re going to get through it and when it?s done the relief you feel, the fulfillment, will be palpable. And I know you can do it. I knew it the first time I saw you in the cafeteria.? Where the fuck did that lightening bolt come from? ?The cafeteria?? I shouted. ?What fucking cafeteria?? ?The one at work,? she said. ?We work for the same company.? I was stunned. I covered my cock and balls with my hands. ?Take your hands away from there now, Ishy.? Mona said sternly. ?You?re hardly in a position to get high and mighty, are you? And I can?t see any dignity that I might be offending. ?We all have to earn a living. You and I both have roles to play out there,? she said, looking at the window to indicate the world outside it. "But that?s all they are, roles to pass the time and pad the bank account. Our reality is in here. It?s where we can be who we really are.? ?I?ve never seen you at the office,? I muttered, as if that proved anything. My hands hung limply at my sides. I don?t know why but I wanted to cover myself again, like I?d just eaten Satan?s apple and felt a new shame wash over me. ?I have a low-profile position. I?m an attorney in the corporate legal department. I work on big customer contracts that aren?t the slightest bit sexy but keep the company flush. I live in the software shadows. ?But I?ve seen you a bunch of times. You?re always with that cute blonde girl. What?s her name?? ?Julie.? ?That?s right. Julie. She?s one of the few female engineering managers we have. She?s going places, you know.? ?How do you know that?? I asked. ?I make it my business to know about strong women in the company. They?re the future. Is she your girlfriend?? I shook my head, No. ?But you?d like her to be, wouldn?t you? You don?t have to answer that. I could see it every time I saw you two together, the way you hung a few inches behind her, the way you looked at her with lollipop eyes. That?s when I knew you?d be perfect.? ?Now wait a second,? I started to protest, covering up my crotch again. ?Don?t cover yourself up, Ishy.