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			DAMSELS UNDER GLASS: THE SERIES
			Anne's Story  — by Van Chapter 2

"Elke?  Jodi?  ...Anybody?"  Anne nervously pulled against the sleeve.  "This isn't funny you know.  I'm not scared."  Her only answer was the wet echo of lapping water. 

Actually, Anne was a little scared.  What if someone came in and found her like this?  She looked to the side, and saw the looped end of the lace webbing attached to the sleeve's zipper floating to her left.  She lifted one leg and tried to hook the loop with her big toe, and tried... and tried... and tried.  It was just too hard while in the water.  Anne hopped/walked to the nearest wall and eyed the minimal, recessed ladder, useless to her with her arms bound behind her back.  This was an adult diving and lap pool designed for athletics, not entertainment.  Even the shallowest end was well over four feet in depth.  After several exhausting tries, and only one marginal near success, Anne resigned herself to not being able to leap out of the pool and onto her stomach. 

Finally, Anne formulated a plan.  She backed up to the ladder, leaned forward until her face was in the water, and braced her encased arms between the hand rail and the lip of the pool.  She then folded one leg and groped 'til she found the drifting zipper-pull with her toes.  Grasping the thin webbing between her first two toes, Anne slowly extended her leg, letting the lace slide until she felt the knot of the terminal loop.  In triumph, she maneuvered her big toe through the loop, pulled her arms free from the wall, and pushed off with her other foot.  Rolling until her head cleared the water, she took a deep breath, extended her leg, and pulled against the zipper.  Nothing happened.  Anne pulled harder.  Still nothing.  Anne groped with her other foot and guided her other big toe into the loop.  Now, with the power of both legs, she pulled again.  Still nothing.  Anne rolled in the water, took another big breath, and pulled with all her strength.  The zipper didn't budge—but, to her alarm, the knot and loop closed on her big toes!  Anne pulled and thrashed, but her toes remained caught, good and tight.  Now, not only were her arms useless to her, but she was floating in a loose hogtie! 

To her credit, Anne didn't panic.  She knew she was in trouble, but she also knew that she could float and do some form or rescue breathing for hours if she had to.  She found that by arching her back and spreading her legs, she could float on her back, but the pose was precarious, and would eventually get tiring.  Anne bobbed in the cool water, staring up at the ceiling lights, her face, breasts, and stomach the only parts of her body breaking the surface of the rippling water. 

Suddenly, Anne heard a burst of girlish laughter.  With minimal movements, she carefully maneuvered her captive, floating form until the image of a much amused Jodi drifted into view. 

"What in the world have you done to yourself?" Jodi gasped. 

"I've managed to discover a manufacturing flaw in your design," Anne answered, more than a little embarrassed to be discovered in such a ridiculous state.  "Where the hell did you go?" 

"My pizza delivery arrived and I had to run down to the guard shack at the front door to get it.  I'll have you out of there in a jiffy, then we can share it.  Veggies, mushrooms, and shrimp with double cheese.  It's the least I can do.  Take a deep breath," she ordered, then jumped into the pool.  Anne sputtered as water splashed over her face and she began to roll onto her side, but before her face went under, Jodi was beside her, one arm thrown across Anne's shoulder and breasts, holding Anne's head above water with a tight rescue hold.  Anne could feel Jodi's other hand fiddling with the "flipper sleeve" zipper.  "You really jammed this thing good," Jodi muttered. 

"Well excuse me," Anne responded with deliberate sarcasm.  "Next time I'm helpless, abandoned, and drowning I'll be more careful." 

"Oh, I'm sorry, Anne," Jodi gushed.  "Elke answered a page, and I thought I'd only be a second, and I sorta forgot you wouldn't be able to get out of the pool by yourself, and—" 

"It's okay," Anne sighed, unable to stay mad in the face of Jodi's perky enthusiasm.  "I'm not angry.  Just get me out of this thing."

There was a wet snap, and Anne felt a jerk at the back of the sleeve.  The pressure on her toes abruptly disappeared, allowing her to straighten her legs, but her toes remained bound tightly together.  "Whoops," Jodi said quietly. 

"Whoops?  What whoops?"  Anne rolled her eyes, trying to see what was happening. 

With a sheepish grin Jodi released her rescue hold and allowed Anne to stand.  "Uh... the webbing broke," she explained. 

"No kidding," Anne remarked.  "Let me guess.  The zipper's still jammed?" 

"It's jammed," Jodi confirmed.  "In fact, the end of the pull tab thingie twisted and broke off, and it looks like the first few rows of teeth of the zipper might as well be welded together.  It's a mess.  I guess I should have used a better brand of zipper." 

Anne glowered at her, saying nothing. 

"Okay, okay, I'll get you out.  Let's get over by the other ladder and go into the pool office.  Maybe I can find some tools or something."  Without waiting for a response, Jodi resumed her tight rescue hold, and started scissor-kicking to the far side of the pool.  Anne let her legs trail behind until her feet cleared the water.  She could see the tight band of black webbing encircling her big toes, but the rest was lost in the wake of their passage through the water.  

Jodi's arm and body felt hot against Anne's breasts and side.  She flexed her shoulder and toes, feeling then pull against their respective bindings.  I'm really helpless, Anne thought, feeling a slight stirring in her loins as Jodi pulled her through the cool water. 

"You okay?" Jodi asked, her face inches from Anne's as she stroked for the ladder. 

"Uh, yeah... sure." Anne answered. 

When they reached the side, Jodi said, "Hop on my back," then dove under Anne's feet to the base of the ladder.  Anne hopped as directed, and found she had gained enough height to easily roll onto her stomach and out of the water.  As Anne's feet cleared the side, Jodi bounded out of the pool, knelt at Anne's feet, and inspected the lawyer's captive toes. 

"This is tight," Jodi remarked, her fingers struggling with the knot in the webbing.  After several seconds of fumbling, the band loosened and Anne's toes were free.  Jodi lifted Anne's feet with one hand and gingerly examined each big toe.  "None the worse for wear, it would seem," she remarked, then with an impish grin, ran her fingers down the soles of Anne's feet.

Anne squirmed and giggled, pulling her feet free.  "Stop that," she gasped. 

"Just checking your circulation," Jodi explained, with exaggerated innocence.  "I didn't realize you were so... ticklish." 

"Never mind how ticklish I am," Anne said with a grin, then gracefully folded one leg under herself, bent at the waist, and stood upright.  "Let's get on with it." 

Jodi gestured towards the pool office door with a graceful bow.  "This way, 'Your Helplessness'," she chuckled. 

Anne walked to the door, then waited for Jodi to turn the latch and let her inside.  Jodi flipped on the lights and closed the drapes of the office window, shutting off their view of the empty pool.  Anne flopped into one of the chairs in front of the desk while Jodi methodically searched for something to use on the recalcitrant zipper.  Anne noticed a large pizza box and a bottle of wine on the desk and her stomach grumbled.  The aroma of the pizza was delicious, and she'd skipped lunch. 

"No luck," said Jodi, rummaging through the last of the desk drawers.  "I'll have to go get my toolbox from the main office.  Let's eat first." 

"And how am I supposed to eat anything with my arms bound behind me like this?" Anne asked. 

"Why, I'll feed you, of course," Jodi answered, opening the wine and filling two paper cups.  She held one to Anne's lips.  "Here," she offered.  "It's a nice Chianti, robust and impudent, but cheap." 

"Like you," Anne joked.  "Why am I letting you get away with this?" she asked, then took a sip. 

"I don't know," Jodi answered, carefully holding the cup so as not to spill any of the deep red liquid.  "Why are you letting me get away with this?" 

Anne's cheeks colored a little.  "Uh... I..." 

Jodi held up a piece of pizza, giving Anne an excuse to stop groping for an answer.  Anne took a bite and began to chew.  The pizza was delicious. 

"You're letting me get away with this 'cause it's kinda fun, isn't it?" Jodi suggested.

Anne's blush deepened, and she mumbled something through her full mouth. 

"No need to deny it.  I used to do this with my girlfriends all the time.  It's a hoot.  Once a bunch of us went on a camping trip, and I spent nearly the whole first night tied to a tree and gagged... until I got loose.  Then I got to take revenge.  That's how the game worked."

Jodi helped herself to some pizza as Anne carefully swallowed. "You let yourself be tied up for fun?" 

"Mmmpf... yeah."  Jodi swallowed and took a gulp of wine.  "Here, have some more," and the bizarre meal continued. 

Anne swallowed and chewed, accepting the occasional sip of wine, and her continued helplessness.  Why am I letting her get away with this? Anne thought. 

Jodi continued recounting her adventures as a bound captive and a diabolical captor.  Finally, after most of the pizza and all of the wine was history, she gave Anne an inquisitive smile.  "Well?" 

"Well what?" Anne responded. 

"What about you?  Are you telling me you've never been tied up before?" 

Anne squirmed in her chair.  "Not like this," she answered.  "We played the usual Cowboys-and-Indians, Cops-and-Robbers stuff when I was a kid, and I got captured once or twice.  Each time I was sort of tied up, but I could have escaped easily if I'd wanted to... if I'd wanted to spoil the game I mean... but that's it." 

Jodi put the empty cups and bottle into the trash can and after offering the last slice of pizza to Anne, ate it herself.  "Chammf... 'scuse me... {gulp}... that's hard to believe, seeing as how you're enjoying this so much." 

"I'm not enjoying this," Anne protested. 

"Sure you are," Jodi said with a knowing smirk, "and you're not even fully helpless." 

"I am not... what do you mean 'fully helpless?'" 

"Why, your feet aren't bound, anymore... and you aren't gagged," Jodi explained with a grin.  "Just think how much fun that would be." 

Despite herself, Anne felt a momentary thrill at the prospect.  What would it be like to be bound hand and foot and gagged? 

"What did you say?" Jodi asked. 

Anne blushed bright crimson.  "I didn't say anything." (Had she?)  "Enough is enough.  Get me out of this thing like you promised." 

"Like I said, I'll have to go get my tool box," Jodi answered, clearly amused by Anne's discomfiture. "Why don't I make you... more comfortable while I go get it?" 

"What do you mean?"  Anne twisted in the sleeve, finding it still as tight and secure as ever. 

With an impish grin Jodi opened a desk drawer, took out a new roll of black sports wrap, and peeled open the cellophane wrapper. 

"What... what are you going to do with that?" Anne asked in alarm. 

Jodi knelt at Anne's feet and holding Anne's ankles in one hand, began wrapping them together. 

"Hey, stop it!" Anne protested.  "I don't want you to..." 

"Then why are you letting me?" Jodi asked quietly, continuing her wrapping until Anne's legs were joined from the ankles to just below her knees. 

"What?  I'm not letting you, I—" 

"Of course you are, Anne," Jodi said with a grin.  "You didn't even kick... did you?" 

"Well," Anne answered, "I didn't... I couldn't... I..."  Jodi had gone back to the desk and retrieved a second new roll of sports wrap which she was busily unwrapping.  "Look, Jodi..."  Anne watched apprehensively, as Jodi reached back into the drawer and pulled out a can of handballs.  She popped the lid, and a ball bounced onto the desktop.  Anne gulped as Jodi approached, sports wrap in one hand, handball in the other.  "Jodi," Anne began, squirming in her bonds, "I said I don't want you to—Mmmpfh!" 

Jodi popped the ball into Anne's mouth and held it there with her small but surprisingly strong hand.  Anne squirmed and mumbled gagged protests as Jodi pulled the end of the sports wrap free from the roll with her teeth, and began wrapping the roll over Anne's lips and lower face in carefully applied overlapping bands.  After eight turns around Anne's head, Jodi tore the wrap from the roll and smoothed the end.  For the first time in her life, Anne was completely helpless and tightly gagged.  She squirmed and fought her bonds, then settling back into the chair.  The ball was hard and dry and tasted terrible, the windings around her face tight and solid. 

Jodi loomed over her, a feral grin on her face.  "It's a delicious feeling, isn't it, Anne?" Jodi whispered.  Taking the remaining sports wrap, Jodi began wrapping it around Anne's legs, just above her knees.  Anne watched mesmerized as the wrap encircled her legs.  One pass.  Two passes.  Three.  The roll lasted through seven tight turns.  The flesh of Anne's legs bulged slightly above and below the tight, black fabric.  

Anne lifted her eyes to Jodi's gloating smile.  "Poor little Annie," Jodi teased.  "All bound and helpless."  Anne squirmed and blinked, her cheeks hot and blushing as they bulged above the tight gag.  Jodi reached over and wiped moisture from under one of Anne's welling eye, then slowly put the finger to her lips and tasted the salty tear.  "I could do anything to you, couldn't I Annie?" Jodi continued, "and you wouldn't be able to do anything to stop me.  For instance... I could tickle you!"  Anne squealed through her gag as Jodi's fingers dug into her ribs.  She doubled over, the bindings on her legs pulling even tighter as she lifted them off the floor and crouched forward in the chair. 

Abruptly as it had started, the tickling assault ceased.  Jodi grabbed a handful of Anne's hair and pulled her captive's head back.  "I could do... anything," Jodi repeated, whispering in Anne's ear.  Anne shivered in her bonds.  The thrill she had felt earlier was back—in spades. 

Jodi released Anne's hair and walked to the office door.  "Now you see why it was so much fun," Jodi said with a chuckle, then turned out the office lights and opened the drapes.  "I'll go get that tool kit."  Anne moaned through her gag as Jodi pulled the office door shut and walked away.  Anne watched her captor's swaying bottom disappear to the far side of the pool, then out the double doors to the main corridor.

The doors swung shut and Anne was alone... alone with her bondage, and her tight gag.  Anne squirmed in the chair and moaned through her gag.  That thrill was building to definite excitement, the kind she only felt when playing with herself.  Anne savored the delicious, wicked feeling.  She'd give that idiot Jodi a piece of her mind when she came back, but this was fun.  Now that she knew what it was like, how it felt to be helpless and bound, what the maiden in those illustrations on her desk had felt, when she got home she would...

Anne caught movement in the pool area out of the corner of her eye.  A lone female figure clad in a blue silk robe was gracefully striding into the pool area from the locker room.  Anne crouched down in her chair.  Could she be seen?  Why did that little idiot Jodi have to open the drapes? she thought, frantically.  The figure continued until she was at the end of the pool nearest the office (and its crouching, highly embarrassed, helpless, thankfully unnoticed occupant).

Suddenly, Anne recognized the robed woman.  Oh... my... God! she thought.  It was MARGO WELLS, herself, the CEO of TESSERACT, one of the wealthiest, most powerful women on the planet... and Anne's ultimate boss!  What if she finds me like this? Anne thought, horrified at the prospect.  Should she roll onto the floor?  No!  Stay perfectly still, she decided. 

Margo continued to the edge of the pool.  "Eve, seal the pool area," she said.  Anne could hear Margo's echoing, authoritative voice quite clearly, even through the glass and closed door of the pool office. 

Anne watched huge mirrored glass panels slide over the corridor and locker room entrances to the pool.  "Pool area sealed, Margo," a disembodied, melodious, strangely sensual voice announced.  "Enjoy your swim." 

"Thank you, Eve," Margo remarked, then removed her robe.  She was naked underneath.  Margo began a series of slow, deliberate stretching exercises.  Lithe and toned, with well sculpted muscles, a flat stomach, pert breasts, and, Anne couldn't help but notice, a thick dark mat of pubic hair, Margo Wells was an exceptionally attractive woman, especially nude and in graceful motion.  After several increasingly complex and yoga-like stretching poses, Margo executed a graceful dive into the pool and began to swim. 

As soon as Margo was in the water, Anne rolled out of the chair and onto the floor.  She struggled in her bonds, desperate to get free.  Finally, after several minutes, she admitted to herself what she had known before she began.  The sleeve and tight windings of tape were inescapable.  It was useless.  I'm not going anywhere, she thought.  And how will Jodi be able to come back and release me?  The doors are sealed!   All Anne could do was wait.  

Anne lay on the office floor, feeling increasingly cold and sorry for herself... when suddenly the office door opened, and Margo strode in, nude and dripping.  She walked to the desk and activated the computer, tapped the keyboard several times, then stretched luxuriously, arms overhead, outstretched fingers reaching for the ceiling.  "Eve, route temporary executive access to this terminal.  Show me the file on..."  Margo stopped in mid-sentence, her gaze happening to have passed down to the floor... and directly over the bound and gagged spectacle of Anne.  "Never mind, Eve," Margo said quietly, and turned off the terminal.  

Margo stepped forward until, hands on hips, she towered over her helpless, mortified employee.  "This is the work of that little scamp Jodi Weber, isn't it?" she asked quietly.  Anne nodded her tightly gagged head to the affirmative, then broke into gagged sobs, tears streaming down her face.  Margo knelt, and cradling Anne's head in her wet, nude lap, began unwrapping the tight windings of the weeping captive's gag.  "Shh, don't cry," Margo cooed.  "It'll be all right.  Eve..." 

"Yes, Margo?" answered the voice of what Anne surmised was TESSERACT's legendary artificial intelligence, the Eve 6900. 
 
"Locate Jodi Weber, and have her report to this location... immediately."

"Yes Margo.  Right away."