by Van ©2012
		Chapter 4

Tiffany crept down the hallway towards the bedroom she shared with Ashley.  It was dark, but the sun was just beginning to rise and she had sufficient light to make her way.  She'd already donned her tank-top, panties, and robe and had stopped in the bathroom to splash her face and relieve herself.  She slowly... quietly... opened the bedroom door, tiptoed across the threshold, slowly... quietly... closed the door behind her, and—

"Okay, what happened?" Ashley demanded.  "Tell me everything."

"Geesh!" Tiffany gasped.  "Right after I change my shorts.  Don't do that."

Ashley sat up in bed.  "Spill!"

Tiffany shrugged out of her robe and climbed into her own bed.  "Well... she tied me up."

Ashley gave her BFF an even stare.  "Oh.  Your 'bondage lesson' involved getting tied up.  Thanks for explaining."

"It was hands behind the back and ankles crossed," Tiffany said.  "And I was gagged, with tape."

Ashley waited a few seconds, then rolled her eyes.  "And?"

"Uh, we shared the bed," Tiffany continued, "so I wouldn't get cold, I guess.  Cassie is so nice."

"She's a saint," Ashley agreed.  "So?  What else?"

Tiffany shrugged.  "That's about it.  Her alarm went off, she untied me, and here I am."

"Here you are," Ashley muttered.

Tiffany smiled.  "Oh—and I was naked, and she grabbed my boob."

Ashley rolled her eyes, again.  "Bury the lead much?  Naked?"

Tiffany nodded.  "Uh huh.  She said lessons will always be naked—me being naked, I mean.  Cassie was wearing a really pretty nightie.  Remind me to ask her where she shops.  I think I'd look good in a babydoll like that.  Maybe in jade-green or a smokey black.  Black always works.  Or—"

"Hello!" Ashley interrupted.  "Boob?"

Tiffany's smile broadened.  "Is that an offer or a true-false question?"

Ashley's response was another even stare.

"My right boob," Tiffany clarified.  "She grabbed my right boob, but it was nice.  We cuddled."

"You cuddled."

"We cuddled," Tiffany confirmed, "and then we went to sleep.  She's so nice."

"Saint Cassie," Ashley nodded.

"I can't sleep," Tiffany announced and bounded from her bed.  "It's almost time to get up, anyway.  I'm gonna take a shower and start getting breakfast ready."  She grabbed her robe and padded out the door.

Ashley lay in bed and stared up at the ceiling.  Bondage lessons, huh? she thought.  Maybe Cassie will let me watch... or I'll find a way to watch anyway.

Sarand-ip did a modest Sunday business.

The week continued with more customers coming and going.  Evenings were spent in the usual way: TV, books, and boardgames.  Games included chess (on a magnificent old set that looked like it might have been more than a century old), Monopoly, and Parcheesi.   Also, Cassie introduced the girls to the deceptively simple game of Go.  Ashley and Tiffany learned the rules quickly and easily, but were repeatedly trounced by Cassie.  The Chinese "game of encirclement" required a mode of thinking they had yet to master.

The only change in the daily routine was that Cassie began taking runs during business hours on the trails that climbed up and down the bluffs along the coast.  The girls noted the confidence Cassie was exhibiting by leaving them in charge of the store.  They also noted the shorts, sports bras, and hoodies or jackets Cassie wore for her runs—both as fashion statements and the way their boss filled them out.

Cassie didn't broach the subject of more bondage lessons and Tiffany didn't press the issue.  It would happen when it happened.

Around noon on Thursday, a panel truck with "Archer Metals" emblazoned on the sides pulled into the parking lot and two men in work clothes unloaded a piece of furniture shrouded in plastic.  It was chair-shaped and appeared to be quite heavy.  At Cassie's direction they carried it to the Houdini Room, the space off the Leather Room with the magic props.  Cassie signed for the delivery, the men left, and she returned to the Houdini Room to find the girls staring at the mysterious object.

"I'll find a knife," Tiffany offered, "and we can—"

"Lunch," Cassie interrupted.  "We can have lunch."

"Awww," Tiffany whined.  "Now?"

"Sandwiches?" Ashley asked.  "It's my turn."  Cassie nodded and she headed for the kitchen.  "C'mon, geek," she chuckled as she passed Tiffany.

Still pouting, Tiffany heaved a sigh and followed.

Cassie also followed.  "So much fun," she chuckled.

Ashley prepared a repast of smoked turkey and Swiss cheese sandwiches (with lettuce and mayo) and it was consumed with dispatch—or rather would have been consumed with dispatch if Cassie hadn't insisted they all enjoy their lunch in a polite, ladylike manner.  The girls could tell she was doing it to annoy them—in a big-sister-teasing-her-kid-sisters sort of way.

Finally, stomachs full and the kitchen clean, they made their way back to the Houdini Room.

"Okay, now I'll find a knife," Tiffany said.

"Why?" Ashley asked and held up a box-cutter.

"Show off," Tiffany huffed.

Cassie watched as the girls sliced and ripped away the plastic.  Underneath was...

"What the hell is this thing?" Tiffany asked.

It was a chair—or a piece of machinery—or both.  Victorian in style, it was something like a barber's chair, only with a minimal seat and backrest.  Meshed gears and articulated arms of steel and brass connected a series of leather-covered pads and cushions.

"It's a new model of therapeutic spa chair," Cassie explained, "for Silverberry Manor."

"The Steampunk place?" Ashley asked.

"Victorian-slash-Steampunk," Cassie corrected.  "They host Steampunk parties and events, but the majority of their patrons are, shall we say, 'normal' Victorian/Edwardian role-playing guests."  She turned to Tiffany.  "Please fetch four padded cuffs from the top shelf of the display case in the Leather Room.  The ones with two D-rings and narrow outer straps closing over broad inner straps."

Tiffany nodded and scampered away.

Cassie smiled at Ashley.  "Well, are you ready?"

Ashley swallowed nervously.  There hadn't been much discussion, but it had been established that it was her turn to test the next special delivery.

Tiffany returned with the requested cuffs.  "Don't worry," she told her BFF as she handed the cuffs to Cassie.  "I'll take your clothes back to the bedroom and hang them up for you."

"My clothes?  What the hell are you—"  Ashley's eyes widened.  "Oh no!  I'm not gonna—"

"Yes you are," Tiffany interrupted.  "It's only fair."  She nodded at their grinning boss.  "Cassie had to strip for her test.  It's only fair."

"She had to strip to put on a corset, moron."  Ashley indicated the chair/machine with a gesture.  "That's just a..."  She turned to Cassie.

"Therapeutic spa chair," Cassie reminded her.

"Therapeutic spa chair," Ashley continued.  "You don't have to be naked to sit in a therapeutic spa chair."

"Actually," Cassie said, "Silverberry Manor's Beauty and Therapy Salon is located off their Turkish Bath and indoor swimming pool.  Guests are usually nude."

"Well," Ashley huffed, "that's no reason why I should have to..."

Cassie was still smiling, but Tiffany's pixie features were gazing at her BFF with an expression of profound disapproval and disappointment.

"Don't have a damn cow!" she barked as she began unbuttoning her blouse.  "I don't know why I'm doing this," she muttered under her breath.

Ashley continued to disrobe and hand (meaning throw) her blouse, sandals, jeans, bra, and panties to (meaning at) Tiffany.  Meanwhile, Cassie opened a side compartment in the base of the chair, unreeled a heavy-duty extension cord, and plugged it into a wall socket.  She then turned a key in a panel behind what was obviously the headrest and opened an ornately engraved panel.  "Ah, Cody shipped it with the battery already charged."

"Cody?" Tiffany asked.

"Battery?" Ashley inquired.

"A friend, Cody Archer, designed and fabricated this thing," she answered Tiffany, then turned to a now naked (and somewhat ill at ease) Ashley.  "The chair has motors to allow for ease of adjustment," she explained to Ashley, then turned back to the panel, "and there's a battery for backup power.  Let's see now, five-foot-two is sixty-two inches."  She turned a dial—Click-click-click—threw a switch—Hum-whirrr—and the chair's gears began to turn.  The pads moved together, closing the gaps between the various elements by about an inch.  Then, an audible click sounded and the gears locked.  "Doing that with a hand crank would be tedious," Cassie explained with a grin.

Ashley continued staring at the chair.  Her right arm was "casually" across her chest (coincidentally covering her breasts) and her left palm was over her crotch.  The seconds ticked by.

Now, it was Tiffany's turn to roll her eyes.  "Well?"

"Okay, okay," Ashley sighed.  She padded forward and gingerly climbed onto the chair.  It had a pair of pads under her rump, much like an ergonomic bicycle seat, an elongated, curved pad to support her spine, as well as armrests, a pad under each thigh, footrests, and a comfortable headrest.  The whole thing was comfortable.  "Wow," Ashley exclaimed.  "It's better than it looks."

"That's the purpose of the test," Cassie explained as she picked up a cuff, "to evaluate the comfort."

Tiffany and Ashley watched as Cassie fitted the cuff around Ashley's left wrist, secured the buckle, then lifted a pair of hooked flanges on either side of the armrest and slipped them through the D-rings on the cuff.  She pressed on the flanges and they locked the cuff in place.  Click-click.  Ashley's right wrist was next—click-click—followed by her right ankle—click-click—and left ankle.  Click-click.  Cassie then lifted small loops of leather from the footrest pads and slipped them over Ashley's big toes.  She reached under the footrests and pressed something—snick-snick—and the loops tightened, but not by much.

Ashley wiggled her feet, but found she couldn't lift them from the padding.

Tiffany was running her fingers over U-shaped steel staples running along the undersides of the other pads.  "What are these for?"

"Additional straps," Cassie explained.  She smiled at Ashley.  "But I don't think they'll be necessary."

"Me neither," Ashley muttered as she tugged on the wrist cuffs.  She sighed and favored Cassie with her best puppy dog pout.

"I'm going for a run," Cassie chuckled, then turned and headed out the door.

"Wait!" Ashley yelped.

Cassie turned in the threshold and smiled.  "Yes?"

"How long?" Ashley asked.

"Oh, maybe an hour," Cassie answered, "unless it rains.  I hate running in the rain."

"No, the chair," Ashley clarified.

"Oh, hours and hours and hours," Tiffany cackled, rubbing her hands together like a cartoon villain.

"Shut up, geek," Ashley huffed, then focused on Cassie.  "How long?"

"Until closing," Cassie answered, then crooked a finger towards Tiffany.  "Come.  And keep this door locked.  I don't want customers disturbing Ashley."

Tiffany strolled towards the door.  "And I don't want having to explain why there's a naked idiot strapped to a chair in the back room."

"Hearty har har," Ashley muttered.  The door closed, a key turned in the lock, and she was alone.  She tugged on her wrists, again, with predictable results. 

Why the hell did I let her do this? Ashley wondered.  And what kind of 'therapy' involves getting strapped naked to a chair?

Several minutes passed...

Then, the door was unlocked, it opened, and Cassie reappeared.  She'd changed into anklets and trail-runners, black spandex running shorts, a pastel-blue sports bra, and a heather-gray training jacket.  Her long raven hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail.

"Still doing okay?" Cassie asked.

"Uh, yeah," Ashley muttered.  "I'm okay."

Cassie walked a slow circle around Ashley and the chair.

"It doesn't even shake when I try and throw my weight around," Ashley said, then thrashed a little to demonstrate.

"All hundred odd pounds," Cassie chuckled.  Her eyes were on Ashley's petite but firm body.  "You girls run, don't you?"

Tiffany breezed into the room.  "We do," she confirmed on behalf of her captive BFF.

"I'll take one of you with me from now on," Cassie said.  "Once you learn the trails you can run on your own."

Tiffany grinned.  "Assuming the only other lowly clerk isn't strapped to something and thus unavailable to wait on customers."

Ashley favored her grinning friend with a sullen stare, then smiled at Cassie.  "That would be great.  Thanks."

"You're welcome," Cassie said with her usual smile.  "Also," she added.  "I do Hatha Yoga.  I can teach you girls the basic asanas.  It's very good for flexibility and even muscle development, as well as being quite relaxing."

"Relaxing is good," Ashley muttered, then smiled at Tiffany.  "Especially when others are working."

"You have a big mouth," Tiffany muttered under her breath.

Cassie laughed, kissed Ashley's lips, then Tiffany's, then strolled out the door.  "Don't forget to lock that door!" she called back over her shoulder.

The girls watched Cassie depart (including her spandex-covered rump and long, tan legs), then Tiffany followed.  She paused in the threshold to smile at her BFF.  "I'll make sure she's gone," she whispered, "then be right back."

"Right back for what?" Ashley whispered, but the door was closing.  "Tiffany?"  No answer.  Ashley sighed and settled in to wait... again.  Surrounded by magic props, the two cages and the pillory, it was kinda spooky... but not too spooky.

A couple of minutes passed...  and finally the door opened and Tiffany returned as promised, accompanied by the ominous rattling of the bundle of black leather straps clutched in her right hand.

"She's off," the redhead giggled with a perky smile.  "Cassie, I mean."

Ashley's eyes were on the straps.  "Okay."

Tiffany brandished the straps—Rattle-rattle-rattle—then dropped them on the floor and began sorting them by size.  "This is a surprise for Cassie," she explained.  "I'm sure she'll appreciate us showing some initiative.  We're gonna give her new chair a real test."

"We?" Ashley demanded.  "Look, you little—No!  Don't you dare—M'rrrpfh!"

Tiffany had stood, pulled a blue ball-gag with a black strap from her hip pocket, stepped behind the headrest, and thrust the ball into Ashley's mouth.  It might have gone differently if Ashley had kept her mouth shut, but she'd decided to protest.  Big mistake.

"Nrrrrf!"

"The blue matches your eyes," Tiffany said as she threaded the two ends of the gag's strap through staples in the back of the headrest and buckled it tight, tight enough to pin the back of Ashley's head against the headrest.  "Don't be a big baby," she giggled as she selected a strap from the floor.

Ashley squirmed and tugged on her wrist and ankle cuffs, but could do nothing to prevent Tiffany from threading the strap through two staples slightly higher on the back of the headrest and tightening and buckling it across her forehead.  She continued squirming and complaining as additional straps tightened and were buckled around her upper arms, forearms, across her chest—above and below her breasts—as well as her waist, thighs, and calves.

"There," Tiffany chuckled as she gathered the remaining straps, folded them in half, and tucked them in her right hip pocket.  The buckles and free ends of the straps rattled and tinkled as she walked a slow circle around the prisoner-of-the-chair, absorbing Ashley's lethal stare with smiling impunity.  She then gathered and rolled up the shipping plastic from where it had been tossed in the corner.  In the process, she found a paper booklet that had been tucked under the wrappings.  She folded it without really looking at it and tucked it in her left hip pocket.

Ashley continued glaring.  "Nrrr!"

"Down, girl," Tiffany giggled.  She tucked the plastic roll under her left arm and strolled to the control panel behind the headrest.  The cover was closed and locked and Cassie had taken the key, but a pair of brass knobs with graduated dials were still exposed.  The dial on the left was marked with the letters L, M, H, and R.  The right dial's markings were the numbers 0 through 9 and, again, the letter R.  "Hmm...  I wonder what they do?"  She turned both dials to R.  Nothing happened.  She waited a few seconds, then tried turning the dials back to the off positions, but they were now locked.  "I guess the controls under the panel have to be set for something to happen," she muttered.

"Mrrf?"

Tiffany smiled and strolled back into the now very helpless Ashley's rather limited range of vision.  "I was talking about the controls back there," she explained, gesturing behind her glaring BFF's head.  "The only dials I could fiddle with don't seem to do anything."  She added Ashley's folded and bundled clothing to the plastic mass tucked under her left arm, then turned and strolled towards the door.  "Have fun," she said from the threshold.  "I'll pop in every now and then to gloat."  She then closed and locked the door.

Tiffany returned the unused straps to the bondage display case, carried the plastic to the big trash can off the kitchen, and dropped Ashley's clothes on a kitchen chair.  She pulled the booklet from her hip pocket as she strolled to the front shop—but before she could start reading a van pulled into the parking lot and four customers (she assumed they were customers) emerged.  She tossed the booklet on the counter behind the candle display and went to greet the three women and one man approaching the front porch.

Later, Tiffany would come to regret not having read the booklet... or at the very least, the cover.

Dr. Patricia Ballard B.S., M.S., Ph.D. Professor of Orgasmatology at Lewis & Clark Women's College   with Fully Justified Pride Presents Her Automated & Articulated Throne of Excelsior! U.S. & International Patents Pending ~~~ for the Treatment & Total Amelioration of ~~~ Hysteria & Feminine Ennui To be used ONLY under the Direct Supervision  of a Physician or Licensed Vibratory Therapist or for purposes of Research & Experimentation {as sanctioned by the League of Erotic Scientists}

I'm gonna kill her! Ashley fumed as she sat in the chair.  Sitting in the chair was her only option... other than fluttering her fingers, a little pathetic squirming, and drooling.  The blue rubber ball her ex-BFF had strapped in her mouth was big, but not big enough to keep saliva from leaking around the edges, dripping down her chin, dropping on her chest, and running between her breasts.  Disgusting!

Ashley paused in the midst of fantasizing about pummeling Tiffany with various blunt objects.  The Houdini Room was silent... except for the quiet creaks when she struggled against the straps pressing her into the chair—or the quiet squeak of her bare skin sliding against the padding.  However...

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...

The sound was barely audible, and seemed to be coming from behind Ashley's head.  It's the control panel, she realized.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...

Ashley squirmed in the chair.  Squeak, creak, squeak.  Then sighed and tried to relax.  This kinda... sucks.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock—Ping!

Uh oh!  Somewhere under Ashley's butt, gears were turning.  Whirrrrr...  And then—"Mrrrf!"—a rounded, cylindrical something nudged her crotch.  "Mfph!"  Whatever it was, it was rocking back forth against her labia, and slowly spinning and—"NRRRF!"—vibrating!

Buzzzzz...

The damn thing felt like it was covered with smooth knobs and it was varying the pressure against her pussy as it oscillated and turned and vibrated!

Buzz-ZZZ-zzz-ZZZZZ-zzz-ZZZ-zzzzz...

Ashley fought the straps pinning her to the chair with all her strength.  This isn't happening!  "Mrrrpfh!"

But it was happening, and Ashley's body was responding.  There was no penetration, but her pussy was getting slippery.  Also, her nipples were standing at attention and her skin was beginning to shine.

Buzz-ZZZZZ-zzz-ZZZZZ-zzzzz...

The ordeal continued.  "Mrrr."  Okay, "ordeal" was a tad melodramatic, but Ashley still intended to murder her BFF, first chance she got... right after... right after... "Mmmpf!" 

The damn thing is playing me like a damn fiddle! she thought, a quivering, sweaty, bound and gagged fiddle!

"Mrrf?"

And now, the pads under her bare feet were vibrating!  "Nrrrf!"  And it tickled!

Buzzzz-ZZZ-zzz-ZZZZZ-zzz-ZZZ-zzzzz...

Oh GOD!  Ashley knew she was going to cum!   Buzzz...  And she couldn't stop it!  Buzzz...  And finally, after several VERY long seconds of squirming against the pads supporting her shining, flushed body, and struggling against the straps pinning her in place, and trying her very best to ignore the monster between her legs and its evil friends under her feet...  Ashley did cum!  Buzzz...  And it was glorious!  Buzzz... Really glorious!  Buzzz...  And she thought she might pass out.

Buzz-ZZZZZ-zzz—Ping!  Abruptly, the cylinder stopped wobbling and spinning and vibrating and lowered itself several inches, breaking contact with her tingling pussy.  Whirrr...  Also, the pads vibrating under her squirming soles went still.

The straps above and below Ashley's perky, glistening globes tightened and went slack as she panted for breath.  She forced air through flaring nostrils and past the rubber sphere imperfectly plugging her mouth.  "Mrpfh."  Ashley's angry complaint  (and plea for help) was weak and pathetic, even to her own ears.  Her pussy and the soles of her feet were throbbing, her nipples were still pointing, and her skin was now dripping with perspiration.  And she was still drooling.  At least it's over, she thought.  Beating Tiffany to death is too quick.  I need to do something else, something slower... something much slower.

Ashley's breathing and heart rates returned to normal... and all was quiet in the Houdini Room.

Almost.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...

The control box was still making that noise.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...

Ashley squirmed and tugged on her bonds.  Nothing gave, not even a millimeter.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock—Ping!

"Nrrrf!"

Whirrrrr...

The machine was active again, the gears under the seat turning and (Ashley assumed) the vibrator rising.  "Mff!"  And then it nudged her now flushed and wet labia.  "Nrrrrrf!"  Buzzzzz...  And once again, it began to oscillate and vibrate!  "Mfff!"  And the waves of titillating energy were once again pulsing under her feet!

Tiffany! Ashley silently screamed as she frantically fought her bonds—get your ass in here and get me OFF this damn thing!  So I can KILL you!