“Oh, look.”
Sondra’s eyes were on the cute top in the Forever 21 window, but she accommodated Janey with a turn of the head. “What?”
“That new store. Look.”
Sondra followed her friend’s gaze down the hallway of the mall and her blue-gray eyes widened. “Oh, wow. Seriously?”
“I can’t believe it. We got one!” Janey giggled.
“That’s amazing!”
“Let’s go look.”
Sondra’s heart skipped a beat. “No! What if someone sees us?”
“We’re in a mall. And it’s legal now. Come on!”
Janey strode off towards her destination, her curly dark hair and tiny derriere bouncing with every step. Sondra wrestled with the decision for only a moment. “Wait for me!”
Sixty seconds later, the two young women stood at their destination, studying the window.
“You can’t really tell what they do from the outside, can you?” Janey noted.
“No.” Sondra studied the tableau in front of her. Unlike most mall stores, this one had no huge glass windows, only a blacked-out door and a big photographic sign showing a crowd of life-sized women. There were women in doctor’s coats, women in business suits, women in running shorts, even a pregnant women, standing confidently together and looking out at passersby with polite but mysterious smiles. The only hint of what happened inside was the name and logo emblazoned above the store: The Inner Haven.
The Inner Haven had quickly achieved social icon status. Since the Supreme Court had ruled that prostitution didn’t exist if the acts were performed by machines, an entire industry of legal sex stores had suddenly blossomed into existence. Most serviced men, of course, but a few catered to women, and the upscale Inner Haven was the unquestioned leader. It supposedly had a well-designed business model, and had gone so mainstream that branches were showing up in malls – not without controversy, but showing up nonetheless.
Sondra and Janey stood for several moments without speaking, each knowing the implications of the store’s presence.
Janey broke the silence. “You know what we promised.”
Sondra nodded and gulped. “We promised that we would visit if we saw one.” She glanced sidelong at the mall’s passersby, cringing at their knowing smiles.
Janey flashed her infectious grin. She was a petite bundle of energy whose joie de vivre knew few limits, and she was Sondra’s best friend in the world. She said nothing, but tilted her head quizzically and arched her eyebrows.
Sondra suddenly had a rock in the pit of her stomach. Whereas Janey was naturally bold, Sondra was the opposite. Nearly every exhilarating thing she’d ever done in her life was the result of being dragged forward by Janey, and nearly every disaster had the same genesis. “I don’t know,” she laughed nervously.
“You know you want it,” Janey teasingly admonished. “We’ve talked about it.”
They had indeed talked about it. Every woman in America had talked about it. The Inner Haven was a national phenomenon that was sweeping the country. But at the same time, it seemed so wrong, so brazen. It was at the mall, for crying out loud!
Sondra knew that she would give in, because the truth was that she did want it. She was grateful to always have Janey to pull her forward. But a good girl had to be hesitant. A good girl had to be convinced.
Right?
“Come onnnnnnnn.” Her roommate danced in frustration and playfully stamped a foot. She was adorable in so many ways, but when she pouted it always made Sondra laugh. Sondra could never pull off such an act with her figure, but it worked for Janey with her cute face and Peter Pan build.
The two women were opposites in so many ways that their friendship seemed incongruous. But they had met in kindergarten and had been running in lockstep ever since. Over the next twenty years, Janey had grown in personality and panache, but not so much in stature, standing only a shade over five feet. Her figure was defined by perky little A cup breasts and the informal Best Ass award as decided by the senior boys back in high school.
Sondra had gone the other direction, quiet and shy, but with voluptuous long red hair and a figure that spoke for itself. To her embarrassment, she had received the informal “Best Tits” award from those same senior boys, leading the girls to be nicknamed “T & A” for much of their senior year in high school.
Sondra looked up at the sign, then scanned the faces of the women in the advertising mural. It was mainstream, right? Doctors did it, lawyers did it, even soccer moms did it. The ads wouldn’t lie.
She grinned shyly and bit her lower lip, her toes curling inside her ballet flats. “You really want to do this?”
Janey practically leapt toward the door.
****
“Welcome.” The woman at the reception desk was an imperturbable and worldly looking blonde in her thirties, impeccable in makeup and fashion. “Have you visited The Inner Haven before?”
Sondra and Janey both shyly shook their heads. Looking around, Sondra saw nothing different than one would see in an upscale spa lobby. There were healthy plants, a water bubbler, and nice wood trim everywhere. A single door led back from the waiting area, presumably to where the services were provided. The only oddity was the photos on the wall, which were all head shots of attractive women experiencing bliss of an obvious kind. The pictures were reassuring while at the same time making Sondra’s pulse accelerate.
“Okay, no problem. Here’s how it works.” The woman had obviously done this routine before. She blithely handed them each a brochure and a clipboard. “You can decide on the specific services you want from our wide list of options. This brochure describes them in detail. Have a seat and read through them, and you just check the ones you want on this form and bring it back to me. Once you do that, we’ll get you in the queue. And don’t be shy; we have customers who select anything and everything on the menu. We’re here to give you a great experience.”
The two young women took their clipboards and brochures and turned toward the seating area. Several women were already waiting there, displaying a variety of ages and appearances.
“I can’t believe we’re here,” Sondra giggled conspiratorially. Janey concurred with a wide grin and offered a reassuring squeeze on Sondra’s forearm.
Sondra found a comfortable chair and sank into its soft cushions. Her eyes widened immediately as she scanned down the menu. At the bottom, it had some basic choices such as 20 minutes with a vibrator for only $12, and a “Vibrator Ride” for $25, whatever that meant. At the top were full-day packages that seemed to combine services, and were quite expensive. There were animated illustrations throughout of faceless feminine figures in different positions.
And in the middle. Oh, boy. Sondra felt herself blushing just looking at the list.
Janey had fewer inhibitions. She was sex-obsessed anyway, and this was undoubtedly revving her up even more. “What are you going to do?” she asked, in a tone that was only slightly hushed.
“I don’t know. Why are you asking me?”
“I want ideas. There’s so much stuff here.”
A woman across from them glanced up from her magazine, then back down as she tried to suppress a smile. Sondra blushed again, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. Janey continued unabated. “I really want to try this,” she said, pointing at a spot on Sondra’s brochure. “What do you think?”
Janey’s finger was on the “Slingtastic” option. It showed a drawn feminine figure reclining in what looked like a hanging chair, her legs splayed wide as a machine with a dildo sat positioned between her legs.
Sondra tried to respond, but wasn’t sure what to say. It looked quite exciting, but then again so did everything. She could feel her excitement building, both physically and psychically.
“Oh, wow! Look at that!” Janey pointed again. “Do that one with me!”
Sondra and Janey talked about everything. Janey’s boyfriend had been hounding her about trying anal sex, and she was concerned due to the size mismatch, Jason being nearly a foot taller. The diagram that Janey was pointing at showed a female figure bent at the waist, lying over a short bench, as a horizontally oriented dildo machine posed behind her, two dildos at the ready.
“I don’t know. A machine?”
“Let’s both do it. We can compare notes afterward.”
The woman across from them almost laughed aloud, eyes still buried in her magazine but alight with mischievous amusement.
At that moment, a customer came from the back, exiting under escort from a spa employee. The woman looked to be in her late forties, classy in dress and demeanor. She had a pleasant, curvy figure and wavy brunette hair down to her shoulders. She had the flushed look and slightly damp hair of someone who had just worked out and showered.
The receptionist smiled. “How was your session, Mrs. Bradley?”
“Oh, it was divine, Brooke. The best one yet.”
“Did you end up trying the nipple clamps?”
“Yes. They were wonderful. You were right. I loved how they pulled! It was just the right amount of pressure.”
“Oh, yeah. I pretty much have to have them nowadays.”
Janey and Sondra locked eyes in wonderment. These women were so open, so casual. Sondra’s heart pounded as she began fully realizing that this was real.
She tried to read each menu option, but her eye kept coming back to one item in particular. The “Tie and Tease” showed a drawn female figure on her elbows and knees. She was on a raised platform, her waist locked into a large frame that separated her front half from her rear, and her forearms, wrists, calves, and ankles were held fast to the platform by thick leather sheaves. Underneath, between her knees, a feather rose from the platform she was on, rising toward her vulva while another piece of machinery pressed up against her from the rear. The description said, “Held in place and unable to escape, you will be mercilessly teased in increasing cycles as your heat rises Our patented machines will ensure you an hour of blessed torment culminating in a mindblowing grand finale…or not. Great for the woman with submissive or masochistic fantasies.”
She squirmed in her seat, feeling herself heating up at the very thought. She enjoyed being taken, and routinely masturbated to fantasies about being tied up in a dungeon or being inspected in a slave auction. She loved it when her boyfriends pinned her down and forced her to enjoy sex, which rarely happened in this dual-edged era of equality and enlightenment.
Her pen wavered over the description. $125 for an hour. She absentmindedly chewed a thumbnail as she weighed the cost against her desires. The Vibrator Ride was a lot cheaper and less risky.
“Have you seen this one?” she whispered, gesturing to Janey.
Janey nodded enthusiastically. “That looks great. But I think I’m going to try this one. I just noticed that you can combine this – ” she pointed at the Slingtastic, ” – with this.” She pointed at a feature called, “Personal Growth”, which featured a ‘dildo machine’ that promised to automatically provide larger and thicker dildos as the session went on. Given Janey’s small size, Sondra was surprised that she would pick that – the largest dildo was huge.
“You saw the maximum size on that, right?”
“Yeah.”
Sondra couldn’t help but smile. Her friend was indeed adventurous.
The two young women locked eyes. With a mischievous grin, Janey said, “Pick one and let’s go! I can’t wait!”
As Sondra stood, the woman across from them looked up. “You’ll love it,” she said to Janey in a motherly tone. “I do that one all the time.”
****
The girls made their way to the front desk, where Brooke The Worldly Blonde awaited. . “Hmm, okay,” she said. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”
She took their forms and examined them, then began typing into the screen, starting with Janey’s name and contact info. “You’re doing the Slingtastic with the Personal Growth option. That’s a nice one. Now, a lot of women will also get the Double Down Under option with that. Did you see that?”
“No, what’s that?”
The receptionist flipped through the brochure. “It’s the Double Down Under option because you do it with two dildos, one vaginal and one anal. The standard anal is three inches shorter and roughly half the width at each stage, unless you want to supersize. It’s only $15 more.”
Janey stared wide-eyed at Sondra, her beautiful brown eyes mixed with wonder and fear. Her smooth brow furrowed, she hesitated, and then finally smiled wickedly and nodded. That girl was crazy, Sondra thought. She felt her own sphincter pucker just thinking about it.
“Okay, that’s a 45 minute session. We’ll be able to take you shortly. And now for you.” The woman perused Sondra’s intake form. “Oh, a one-hour bondage session. Very nice.”
Sondra felt her face flush red. Nobody knew her fantasies, nobody at all other than a few vague bar discussions with Janey over the years. Yet now this woman was discussing them openly in a lobby. She girded her courage. “Yes, please,” she said quietly.
“Okay, with the bondage sessions we have to have a spotter. Since you’re restrained, a woman will stay in the room with you to be sure that you don’t have any problems. Is that okay?”
“In the room?” Sondra was horrified at the thought, though secretly intrigued. “Uh – I – uh …”
“Your partner here can also do it,” the woman added. “It’s $25 cheaper, and if you’re in the same room anyway …”
“Oh, we’re not partners,” Sondra blurted. “We’re just friends.”
“I’ll do it!” Janey said almost at the same instant.
Brooke The Worldly Blonde sat motionless, waiting for a decision. Her eyes shifted noncommittally from Sondra to Janey and back.
“The same room?” Sondra questioned, looking at Janey. “Really?”
“We can do it. It’ll save you $25.”
Sondra stared at her friend in disbelief. They were roommates now and had been friends forever. They’d seen each other naked, of course, but only in passing. And they had even slept in the same bed back at slumber parties back in their younger days. But there’d never been anything like this.
“Okay,” she said. She tried to suppress her smile.
They handed over their credit cards and waited for the paperwork, then went back to their comfortable chairs in the lobby. Sondra’s mind was racing, her pulse pounding. She was really going to do this! And on top of that, she was going to be naked in the room with Janey. Cute, adorable Janey.
Their relationship had always had an extra layer, at least in Sondra’s mind. They were friends back before they even knew what sex was, and they had learned about it together. Not really together, but … together. They had gossiped about boys and critiqued each other’s boobs and talked in delighted horror about their pubic hair. They had innocently slept in the same teenage bed, showered together, and played all kinds of sexy dressup. They were both interested in boys, and then men, and each had heard the other through the walls absorbing male suitors. But underneath it all, at the foundation of their friendship and also perhaps its culmination, they had the kind of loving and playful relationship that couples did.
Everything except the sex, that is, and it had come close even at that. They had snuggled under the covers on cold nights, even practiced kissing on each other back in the beginning, but every time they stopped short to giggles and Sondra’s secret frustration. In fact, Janey’s teasing was perhaps what had created Sondra’s fetish about being tied and teased. Her constant proximity and unceasing denial had become almost an obsession in Sondra’s fantasies.
Sondra studied her longtime friend. It was so complicated. Sondra wasn’t attracted to women. But she was attracted to Janey. Everything she sought with a man was what she had with Janey. And the only unique thing she could get from the men was sex, which was the only thing she was missing with Janey.
Not that she wanted sex with Janey.
Not really.
Not exactly.
Sondra sighed.
They sat for another ten minutes before an attendant opened the inner door. She was an attractive woman, olive-skinned and dark-eyed in the manner of a Greek or Italian. Her white coat and polished demeanor inspired confidence. “Janey and Sondra?” she asked, scanning the room.
“Here!” Janey said. She and Sondra leapt to their feet.
****
Behind the door was a long hallway. The Mediterranean woman stopped and shook hands once they were inside. “I’m Gabrielle,” she said, smiling politely. “I’ll be setting you up today.”
She led them back, chatting politely, then motioned them into a room. It was quite small, perhaps 8 feet by nine feet, and Sondra stopped cold at the entrance. Inside was a bondage table exactly like the one in the brochure, and a hanging sling like the one Janey had liked. This was really going to happen.
“You can remove your clothing now and put it in the lockers over there. You won’t leave this room, so you don’t need to wear anything. Just get naked. I’ll give you a moment to undress and then I’ll come back in and get you set up.”
She smiled and stepped out, shutting the door. Sondra and Janey looked at each other with embarrassed smiles.
“I guess this is it?” Sondra asked.
“I guess so. Don’t make fun of me,” Janey cautioned. “I get excited easily.”
Sondra laughed. Their bedrooms were right next door. She’d known for several years that her friend was oversexed. She could hear the buzzing through the wall when there wasn’t a guy over, and she could hear the choreography when one was. Not to mention that Janey went through D-cell batteries like they were Oreos. “We’ll both promise not to laugh,” she replied.
The two women began removing their clothes, the silence in the room awkward. First the shoes, then the tops, then the skirts and underwear. Within moments, they were both nude. Sondra crossed her arms over her large breasts self-consciously. She felt a little guilty having such prominent curves when Janey was built so small, but at the same time she openly envied Janey’s tiny hips and derriere. A man’s penis would look goliath as it glided in, and Janey had no shortage of suitors.
She snuck a peek as her friend put the last of her clothes in the locker. Janey’s breasts were small but well shaped, topped with small dark areolae. Her hips were perfect, her mound shaved to perfection. Sondra had seen it all before, of course; Janey had either a strong exhibitionist streak or little modesty, as she had no hesitation to walk through the apartment naked if she needed something out of the dryer. But today was going to be different. She wasn’t sure if she was more excited about her own upcoming experience or watching Janey.
There was a knock on the door, and Gabrielle swiftly opened it and walked in. Out of instinct, both Sondra and Janey tried to cover themselves with their hands, and Gabrielle laughed, her dark eyes bright. “Don’t worry about that,” she said. “I’m going to see a lot more of you!” She checked her forms. “Sondra, we’ll set you up first since your session is longer. Up on the table!” She patted the platform. “Get on your elbows and knees, and position your waist over this frame.”
Self-consciously, Sondra stepped to the frame and clambered aboard. Settling onto her knees, she leaned forward to all fours, resting on her elbows and enjoying the swaying of her breasts. Gabrielle ran a hand along her back from shoulder to rump, gentle and soft and appraising. Even as Sondra jumped, it felt divine.
The frame at her waist was the bottom half of an ellipse, and Gabrielle cranked a foot pedal until it rose comfortably against Sondra’s stomach. Then, reaching under the table, she rotated up the top half of the frame on a hinge, over Sondra’s back and down. This top half of the ellipse locked into place and Gabrielle made some adjustments to tighten it. The opening was now too small to slide through for either Sondra’s hips or her ribs, effectively trapping her in place.