Backstage

Dane kissed Jamie deeply, feeling the innocence that she brought even to something that was not supposed to feel innocent; the unhurried languidness of their tongues touching, her curiosity to experience more and more.

"You asked what made you different, Jamie. It was essentially that you were different, in the way that I needed."

"You see, most of the girls who come backstage are cynics, in a sense. They know what they want, a kind of glamour, and they think they know just what they need to do to get it."

"Some others are victims: they offer what they think is the only thing they have that anyone else will value, in order to feel a certain kind of safety. Sometimes I try to steer them to better places than the ones they know, but it's hard."

"I don't need cynics or victims, Jamie. I need girls who are looking for a certain kind of freedom. Girls who, at bottom, either aren't ashamed or want to learn how not to be ashamed of their femaleness and sexuality. Girls who want to be like wine, poured out in celebration into my cupped hands."

Dane smiled. "And there you were, trembling while I unzipped your pants even as you refused to back away."

"How do you feel now, College Sophomore Jamie? Now that you've stripped naked and danced for a stranger; been filmed, then restrained and brought to your climax while bound? Do you feel shame, now? Do you wish that you weren't here with me like this?"

Jamie listened to him over the pounding of her heart. She smiled that he seemed so pleased with her. His fingertips brushed her face.

"I am glad I am here, I didn't want you to stop. I might feel shame tomorrow but tonight...." She stopped herself and bit her lip. Her eyes lowered. "I feel a little ashamed, but somehow, that makes it better. I like the way it makes me feel, as if none of those rules matter. I can break them, for you."

Dane smiled again. "That's very good, Jamie. As long as you're so sure, well -"

"Let's just say that you may have the chance to break more rules than you ever planned on."

"But just now, as long as you're alright, I have to run and take care of something. I'll be back in about five minutes - Don't go anywhere, will you?"

With that, Dane quickly stood and disappeared through the door, leaving Jamie very little option as far as "going anywhere" was concerned.

Jamie closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. The room was pretty quiet, she could hear a party going on in the next room though. She imagined it teeming with girls who wanted to be right where she was.

Her heart was slowing back to a normal rate and she concentrated on relaxing as she inhaled and exhaled deeply. "this is what I want." She whispered.

She thought of how foolish she had felt when she had discovered her boyfriend banging her roommate. That would never happen to her again. She wasn't going to lose out on all of this just to be a "good girl."

It wasn't long before Jamie heard Dane's voice just outside the dressing room, then saw the doorknob turn an instant before the door swung open.

Dane stepped back into the room. Unexpectedly, he wasn't alone, but accompanied by a dark-skinned man in an informal version of a chauffer's outfit, wearing a chauffer's jacket and cap along with tight-fitting pants, a sport shirt and a lariat.

"Ah, good, you're still here," Dane said breezily. "Jamie, this is Jacque, my driver."

Jacque tipped his hat. "Good evening, Miss Jamie," he said politely, his French-sounding accent hinting at his Creole heritage.

Jamie found herself drawing up her knees, to cover herself. But there was no way to do that. She was exposed and she couldn't do anything about it. She looked up at Dane wide eyed and surprised. She managed to stammer a hello to Jacque. She wondered what she must look like through his eyes, naked, restrained and waiting?

"Jamie will be ready to go home in about ten minutes, Jacque, if you could bring the car around and call for her then."

"Yes, Sir," Jacque said, and was gone.

Dane came over to Jamie, pulling a key from his pocket and stepping behind the post to unlock her handcuffs. After he'd freed her, he helped her to straighten up, then took her hands in his as they stood facing each other.

"I've enjoyed having you here very much tonight, Jamie," he began. "And, as best I could tell, you enjoyed it, too."

"That's why I was wondering if you'd be interested in coming to one of my parties. I have a residence that I rent in Sky Notch - it's quite nice, really, and my parties are famous" - he smiled - "or infamous. Understand that there will be many people there and, since I'm the host, you might not see a whole lot of me. But, the people at my parties are largely people who are chosen for what they add to the mix, rather than hangers-on or industry types. And the rules are as I mentioned before: Nothing happens to you that you don't agree to. Anyone who causes trouble very quickly learns why that's a bad idea."

"If you'd like to come, Jacque can pick you up at 7:00 on Friday night."

Dane leaned in and kissed Jamie softly, reaching for her breast and copping a feel as he did. "Perhaps you'd better get dressed before Jacque comes back."

Dane took off the cuffs and spoke softly to her. She rubbed her wrists and then he helped her to her feet.

She dressed under his watchful eye. "I will be ready to be picked up on Friday." She answered with only a slight quaver in her voice. She smoothed her cami back on and ran her fingers through her hair. With each second she felt a tiny bit more like her normal self, with her clothes on, talking as if everything was normal she felt less confident than she had trussed to the pole naked.

Friday Night

Jacque helped Jamie into the back seat of the limo, with its windows tinted so dark that no one could see inside. He made sure that she was comfortable, then reminded her about the conveniences that she'd learned of the other night, including the intercom and refreshments. Just before he closed the back door, he mentioned that Dane had thought she might like to watch a video during the drive to Sky Notch.

A couple seconds after she hit PLAY, she heard a familiar voice...

"My name is Jamie and I am a sophomore in college, majoring in history. I have never been on camera before. I have always been known for being shy, but I want that to change..."

Jamie watched herself with awe. Was that sexy creature really her? She watched her reactions, what she had felt as awkward and nervous, played on the tape as sexy and responsive.

She watched herself as she arched her back, as she spread her legs, as she tossed her hair back.

Jamie looked far different through Dane's eyes, than her own. She liked the way she looked in Dane's eyes. She wanted to look that way again.

Cynthia

Cynthia was pretty much Dane's right hand when it came to things nonmusical. Taking care of his guests just came with the territory.

She looked up as Jacque brought Jamie into her office, seeing immediately why Dane would have been drawn to her; the combination of newly formed beauty and nervous innocence.

Jacque introduced the two of them, then quietly left as Cynthia came from around her desk to shake hands, then gently placed her hands on Jamie's shoulders to both welcome her and frame her for a more careful look.

"You're very pretty, Jaime," she said. "Dane has asked me to make sure that you were comfortable and had your bearings before releasing you into the wilds of his house. Dane's parties can be a bit overwhelming if you're not used to them, but safety is the first rule and we're quite careful about who we invite in."

""How do you feel so far? And do you have any questions?"

Jamie smiled at Cynthia's compliment. She did feel sexy. She had on a royal blue slip dress. Underneath it she had the tiniest pair of panties in the exact same color. Her toenails were painted silver and she wore a pair of silver strappy sandals. She had borrowed the dress from a girl down the hall.

She felt sexy and she felt expectant. Something big was going to happen tonight.

"I am good. You won't have to babysit me. I think I can hold my own." Jamie replied with a sweet and confident smile.

"Oh, I didn't mean it that way, Jamie," Cynthia assured her. "Dane wouldn't have come close to asking you here if he'd thought you needed babysitting. But it would hardly be polite of us to just expect you to wander around this big house without even knowing a single soul, except for Dane, who may be kept quite busy, as the host."

"If you'll come with me, I'll show you around a bit. Also, there's someone I'd like you to meet."

So saying, Cynthia lead Jamie out into the hall, then turned to head further into the mansion.

Jamie's tour, such as it was, was actually pretty brief, consisting of Cynthia pointing out a bathroom and a couple of other rooms on the way to a lounge that was located below grade level. Called the Blue Room, it was lit mostly with blue lighting, and furnished with the kind of sturdy yet decorative tables that one might find on a well-appointed patio. The reason for the indoor-outdoor look was that the Blue Room, with its large bar on one end, was located next to an Olympic-size swimming pool and was used mainly by guests who had already gone in for a dip. A high-polished, stone-mimicking concrete floor shrugged off wet footprints with equanamity.

Scanning the room quickly, Cynthia headed for a table towards the left-hand wall where a tall blond man sat alone with a drink. He looked up, smiling, as Cynthia arrived at his table with Jamie in her wake.

Greeting him warmly, Cynthia introduced Jamie as a friend whom Dane had just met at his last performance, then introduced the man as David Reed, photojournalist and contributor to many of the most well-respected publications in the US, if not the world.

David Reed had stood politely when the ladies reached his table, and was still standing, offering Jamie a chair, as Cynthia wished them a good time and disappeared. Nearly of a height with Dane, but fair where Dane was dark, and looking as though he'd be more at home in a sea kayak than on a stage, he held the chair out politely, gesturing for Jamie to be seated and asking if she'd like something to drink. He himself was drinking a Lime Rickey.

Jamie asked for a Midori Sour. Then she turned her sunshine smile onto David. "It is nice to meet you. I am Jamie, I am sophomore at State." She looked him over, he was good looking, he gave the impression of being rugged and outdoorsy, even though he was dressed as well as anyone there. Jamie smoothed her dress.

"This is my first party here. I was wondering if you might be able to tell me what to expect. I assume it isn't too terribly much like the keggers at Alpha Chi."

"Well, for one thing, the drinks are better," David replied, raising his glass to Jaime. "Also, things tend to go further here than at the average college party. For all that those are supposed to be so crazy, most of them are pretty tame; a bunch of kids who barely know what to do besides get drunk and play their music loud."

David leaned forward, resting an arm on the table as he continued to speak. "People here mostly know a little more about "wild" than the average frat brat, and they know that they're safe, here in the mansion. You might not see anything too outlandish if you just stay in the main rooms, but if you wander around and start opening doors, you may need awhile to process some of the sights."

David steepled his hands. "The main thing to remember is to have fun but be safe, as cliched as that sounds. You mainly have to be clear about what you want and don't want, in order to avoid misunderstandings. In any case, Dane's people are very good and I don't doubt that they'd appear like magic if you or anyone else objected to something and whatever it was didn't cease at once."

Jamie looked at David thoughtfully. He had warm eyes and a great smile.
"The thing about that, David, is that I don't really know what I want. I am not sure exactly how I got to be in Dane's line of sight. But really, I want to experience new things, things that make my heart surge. The things I have secretly craved but haven't been brave enough to try."

Jamie looked around the room for a moment and then her pretty doe eyes settled on David's.

"What is it that you want?" Jamie asked in a honeyed whisper.

David pushed back his chair. "You might find it interesting if I showed you the pool," he said, standing and offering Jaime his hand.

They didn't have far to go. Jaime had been sitting with her back to the nearest wall. David now brought her to it and Jaime saw what she hadn't had a chance to notice in the midst of Cynthia's lightning introduction - the Blue Room wasn't just near the swimming pool, it shared a wall with it. Some of the blue light in the room came from windows that looked directly into the pool.

David placed Jaime in the center of one of the windows so that she could see clearly. It only took her a moment to realize something even more surprising than the windows themselves - no one in the pool was wearing anything.

As they stood watching, David's hand on the small of Jaime's back, a guy swam into view from the left. His hair was blond, like David's, but curly where David's was straight. Also unlike David, who appeared to be in his late twenties and probably more or less of an age with Dane, he looked to be perhaps just a bit older than Jaime.

Spotting Jaime through the glass, the young man deftly kicked his legs and propelled himself into an upright position, placing himself nearly on a level with her, then waved, showing not a trace of self consciousness at being naked perhaps two feet in front of the fully clothed Jaime.

David's hand was lightly rubbing the spot on Jaime's back where he'd placed it. "Have you ever gone skinnydipping, Jaime?" he asked quietly.

Jamie looked up at David. "I haven't been skinny dipping except with a bunch of girls in the middle of the night at church camp. So, that doesn't really count." Her smile lit up her whole face.

"Was that an invitation?" She asked. She leaned back a little into his touch. SHe liked the feel of his hand rubbing her back. It made her wonder what it would be like for him to touch her in other places too. SHe closed her eyes for a moment and pictured his hand skimming over her skin with the warm water of the pool.

David lead Jaime out of the Blue Room and over to the pool area.

Although the sexes mixed freely in and around the pool, there were separate changing rooms for men and women. David pointed out the door to the ladies' room and told Jaime that there would be an attendant there who could look after her things.

"See you back here in a few minutes?" he asked.

Jamie nervously went into the changing room. An attendant gave Jamie a key marked with the number seven. Jamie slipped into the number seven changing room and hung her dress and her tiny panties onto the hanger. She shook out her hair and looked at herself in the mirror. She wondered if she had done the right thing by shaving so much of her pubic hair and trimming the little bit that was left. She felt so very naked. She looked over her sleek legs and her smooth tummy. Her nipples were hard, the pink peaks, a nice contrast to her ivory skin.

She took a deep breath and opened the door and walked out. Two other women were walking in front of her. They had their arms around each other's waists. One had a long black hair that cascaded down her tan back. The other was a blond with surgeon sculpted breasts.

Jamie followed them out. Watching their perfect bodies was distracting her from her own discomfort.

David met Jaime at the edge of the pool.

"There you are," he said, doing his best to look her in the eye, although there was really no way not to notice that the girl standing beside him was a gorgeous 19-year-old with no clothes on.

He took Jaime's hand and gestured toward the diving board with his head. "Do you feel like diving in, Jaime?" he asked.

Jamie smiled at David over her shoulder as she walked to the diving board. She took her place and stood on the tip of the board just as she had been taught. Everyone looked up. She smiled down at David again. Then she arched her body gracefully. SHe slipped into the warm water. Every inch of her skin was warmed by the rush of warmth. It felt amazing. She came up for air, her dark hair slicked back. Her face clean of makeup. She looked even more like the all american girl next door. She looked for David, at first she couldn't place him.

David mounted the diving board and walked to its end with the confidence of someone who'd done it many times before.

Spotting Jaime, who was watching him while she tread water, he smiled, bounced once, then dove a couple yards in front of her.

He let the momentum of his dive carry him down as far as it could, then swam forward strongly, passing underneath Jaime before he began stroking to the surface. On the way, he paused just long enough to tickle Jaime's feet, then surfaced, managing as much by luck as by skill to come up behind her. "Hey," he said as she turned to face him, "you didn't tell me you could dive like a pro. Where'd that come from?"

Jamie smiled at David and decided to be bold. She moved close enough to him in the water that her breasts brushed his skin.

"David, would you kiss me?" She whispered. She looked up at him through her eyelashes. She could tell he was attracted to her, she just wasn't sure if he wanted her. She wanted that feeling back. THe intoxification of knowing a man wanted her body, that he desired his pleasure and her own. That feeling made her heart pound.

David thought for just a moment. Not that he had to make up his mind about wanting to kiss Jaime, but it was somewhat difficult for two people to kiss while treading water: both partners had to spread their arms to the side and move them in a sculling motion while simultaneously kicking their feet in short arcs so as not to kick each other.

He was confident that he and Jaime could both swim well enough to do it, though.

"Of course I'll kiss you, Jaime," he responded. "You didn't think I asked you to get naked just to talk, did you?"

Even as he spoke, he was moving towards her.