Revenge - Chapter 36

Revenge

By Karen Singer

Chapter 36

“Damn it all!” Steve muttered angrily the moment he heard his doorbell ring.  He had spent a rather angry morning fussing around his apartment, fuming over the day before.  For the afternoon, he had major plans to park himself in front of his TV and watch games all afternoon.  And there was one coming later that he figured should be a really good one.  But the last thing in the world he wanted was company.  After yesterday, he just wanted to be left alone!  Forever!  Besides, he needed to continue thinking about something.  Something he was strongly considering since early that morning.  Something that would be a way for him to finally get back at those damn witches.  A way for him to get some revenge against them.  And it would certainly serve them right.  All of them!

Now he had company again.  And lately, the only ones who came around were the damn witches themselves.  His doorbell rang again.  He knew they weren’t going to go away.  And with their magic, he didn’t dare ignore them and not open the door.  More than likely, they were just there to make sure of what underwear he was wearing again.  But after yesterday, and so many days before, he wasn’t worried about what they would find under his clothes.  Women’s underthings were the only kind of underclothes he owned!

The bell rang a third time just as he was opening the door.  “Diane!” he said, somewhat surprised that she appeared to be alone.  He looked past her.  “You’re alone?”  It was only then that he saw the things she had in her hands.

“Just me,” Diane replied.  She held up the six pack of beer and the pizza in her hand.  “Lunch?”

He looked at what she had, then he looked at her face.  Something inside of him, for whatever reason, didn’t seem to mind her being there at all.  Yet at the same time, most of him didn’t want to see her at all!  “So you’re not here just to see what panties I’m wearing today?”

Diane giggled.  “Well, I wouldn’t mind, to be honest…”

“I knew it!” Steve exclaimed with more than a hint of anger.

Diane giggled again.  “But the truth is, I never even thought of it.  I came with…kind of a peace offering?”

“Peace offering?”

“Well, maybe not exactly.  I just wanted to come by and…I don’t know…talk.”

“Talk?”

“Can I come in?  This pizza’s heavy.”

Steve grabbed the pizza and turned back into his apartment, leaving her to close the door and carry in the beer.

“I know you hated it yesterday,” Diane said as she set the beer on his kitchen counter.

“That’s an understatement.”

She giggled.  “I did enjoy it though.”

“You would!”

“Well, I can’t help it.  I did!”

“Figures,” Steve mumbled as he opened the pizza box.  Meat lovers!  At least she had gotten something he liked.  He grabbed a piece and stuck part of it in his mouth as he leaned against the counter to eat it.  Diane, watching him, would have much rather sat down at the table, but she did the same. 

“So what are your plans for this afternoon?” Diane asked him.

Steve looked at her and shook his head.  “Whatever they were, I’m guessing they’re all out the window.  What new and miserable things are you witches going to do to me now?  Huh?  Because I don’t know that I can take much more!”

Diane giggled.  “I’m sure,” she said.  “But no, we’re not planning anything today.  I just thought I’d come by and say hi.  Talk for a bit.”

“Talk,” he said.  “About what?”

She stopped eating and looked at him.  “Do you remember what I said before I left last night?”

“Last night?”

“I told you…I’d really like to be your friend.”

“Some friend!” Steve replied.  But even as he said it, something inside of him seemed to lurch with happiness. 

“Steve.  I meant that!  I still do.  I’d just like to be your…friend.  Is that so hard to understand?”

“Hard to understand?” he asked incredulously.  “After everything you’ve done to me?”

She looked at him for a moment.  “Yeah, I guess I understand that.”

“So how the hell can you come here saying you want to be my friend, after all that?”

“Because I do!”

Steve shook his head.  “It makes no sense!”

“No, maybe doesn’t.  But it’s true.  I still want to be your friend.  A good friend.”

Steve shook his head.  There was something inside of him that felt a yearning for her to be a friend, but there was far more of him that absolutely hated her. 

“Was I that horrible to be with yesterday? She asked.

“Horrible?  Yesterday was nothing but horrible!”

“No you idiot.  Me!  Was I that horrible to be with?  I tried to be your friend all day yesterday while we shopped.  I tried to make it so that everything you were doing would at least seem interesting.”

“Interesting?  Do you know how many lipstick samples I tried yesterday…on my face?”

Diane giggled.  “Yeah, that was funny.”

Steve shook his head.  “That’s what I’m talking about.  You’re cruel!”

“Maybe I am!” she shot back.  “But you have a tendency to be all too cruel yourself.  Don’t you!”

Steve glared at her.  Refusing to answer.  “So like it or not, I’m now supposed to be your friend?  Is that what this is?  Is that the way this is supposed to work now?  Is that Monica’s latest little scheme against me?”

“Damn you!” Diane yelled.  “I could just hit you!”

“That much I’m expecting.  Except I expect you’ll hit me with magic instead.  You…or Monica.”

“I’m not a witch!”

“Maybe not.  But Monica sure is.  Where the hell did she learn to do what she does?”

Diane shook her head as she remembered something.  “I don’t know.  But wow, I’ve seen her doing a lot of studying and reading about witchcraft and magic lately.  She’s become…obsessed.”

“More studying?” Steve asked, horrified.  He was beginning to panic, because as powerful as he knew Monica was, that could only mean she had plans to do something far more powerful to him…as soon as she learned how.

“Believe it or not,” Diane replied offhandedly.  “She really does like this witchcraft stuff.”

“I wonder why,” Steve replied sarcastically.

Diane could only look at him and nod in agreement.  “So how about it?  Truce?  At least between you and me.  Can we at least hang out together once in a while?”

“And there’s no magic involved?  No witchcraft.  And Monica isn’t making you?”

“Monica doesn’t know!  She doesn’t have to know.  Even though knowing me, I’ll probably mention it at some point.”

Steve shook his head.  “See!  And you still want to be my friend?”

“I do!”  She looked at him.  “Steve?”

“What?”

“I know I don’t look like the other girls.  I know I’m not beautiful or pretty.  But am I that bad looking?  Am I that bad to just hang around with you?”

“Diane…”

“Do I turn you off so much that you don’t want to be seen in my company?”

“Diane!” Steve said quickly to stop her.  “I did ask you out once.  Remember.  You’re not…that bad.  Just…not my type.”

She stared at him, not sure if she should be angry at what he said or not.  “Yeah,” she finally replied.  “You did ask me out.  And I’ll never forget it.  Thanks for that by the way.  Few guys ever ask me out.”

“Sorry,” he said.  “You and I just didn’t…connect.  You know?”

She nodded.  “Yeah.  I know.  And I know you too, I guess.  You go with dozens of women, all the time.  A good looking guy like you knows how to pick them up easily.  I’m just grateful that you did ask me once…even though I’m sure you were pretty desperate that night and scraping the bottom of the barrel.”

Steve looked at her.  The problem was, that one night that he had dated her, that was exactly the case.  He had needed a date, and couldn’t find anyone else. 

His silence confirmed what she had already known.  “This was a bad idea,” she said, putting her pizza down and grabbing her purse.  She headed for the door.

“Diane!” Steve found himself saying, even though he didn’t know why. 

She turned. 

Something inside of Steve seemed to not want her to leave.  More of him did want her to leave.  But that one inner part was pushing harder and harder.  “Stick around,” he finally said.  “If you want.  I don’t care.  I was just planning to watch a couple of games on TV this afternoon.  That’s all.  Unless you have some other idea that somehow you’re going to make me do.  But watching TV is all I’d rather do.  Yesterday was…hard on me.  Very hard.”

Diane looked at him for a few moments.  Slowly, she walked back to the kitchen counter and set her purse down again, never taking her eyes off of him.  She picked up her beer and took a big swig, her eyes still watching him.  She picked up her pizza and took a large bite.  With her mouth full, she asked.  “So, who are you rooting for today?”

Diane sat on Steve’s couch and watched the first game with him while he sat in another chair.  She got the impression that he usually sat, or probably laid on the couch more often than sitting in the chair he was in, but every time she offered to move, he told her it was okay, he was fine.  So she watched the game.  And him. 

The game didn’t interest her at all.  But he certainly did.  The Sorceress wouldn’t make him love her, so she was trying the next best thing.  She was trying to be his friend – even though right now things were probably off to a very rocky start.  But at least she was still there.  At least he had actually invited her to stay.  So she sat and watched the game.  And him.  But her mind was on more than just him.  Her mind was on the things she wanted to do with him.  And even more, the things she wanted him to do with her. 

The second game finally started.  Diane knew that this was the game that Steve was the most interested in.  But she had been in his apartment, all too close to him, for most of the afternoon now, and her thoughts and fantasies were beginning to get the best of her.  Taking a large swig to finish off her third beer, she got up from the couch and threw the can into the trash.  She looked back at him.  He was still absorbed in the game.  She grabbed her purse and headed for his bathroom.

Was she really going to do this?  She had thought about it all afternoon.  No, she had been thinking about it since she had read the Sorceress’s reply last night.  That unfulfilled submissive side of her yearned for him to take charge of her.  And the Sorceress had said she had already taken care of what she had asked.  The Sorceress had fulfilled her request that Steve would never leave her helpless…for too long.  Part of her was scared.  Part of her trusted the Sorceress and her power implicitly.  But most of her, was desperate.

She removed every stitch of clothing she was wearing.  From her purse, she pulled a length of rope.  The only bondage toy she had brought with her.  It took some courage, but she was desperate enough that she didn’t delay long.  Silently, she opened the bathroom door, and went out.  Steve was still intent on the game and didn’t see her behind him.  She could wrap that rope around his body and have him tied up and in her power in no time.  But that wasn’t what she wanted – this time.  This time she needed something for herself. 

As Steve watched the game, Diane did her best to wrap the rope several times around her wrists, holding them lightly together.  But that’s all she did.  Nothing fancy.  She didn’t even tie a knot.  Her eyes still on Steve, she forced herself to walk around, right in front of him – stark naked.

Steve was into the game.  It was early on still, but it was already living up to all the expectations he had for it.  And then suddenly, his view of the TV was blocked by Diane…totally naked.  “Diane?”  He was shocked.  “What the hell are you doing?”

Diane knelt down in front of him with her rope wrapped wrists held out toward him.  “Tie it,” she said. 

“Do what?”

“Tie me.  Tie my wrists.  Bind me up.  Tightly!”

“What?  Why?”

“Because I want you to.”  She held her wrists out further toward him.  “Please?  For me?”

Steve wasn’t sure what he should do.  “You want…”

“Tie me!  Tightly!” she said. 

“But the game…” he replied somewhat halfheartedly.

“Keep me tied through all of it,” she replied.  “And then some.  The rest of the night if you want.  Just…tie me.”

Steve swallowed, unable to look away from the naked woman kneeling in front of him.  Very slowly he grabbed the ends of the rope and began to make a knot.

“Not like that,” she said quickly.  “See the way I wrapped it around my wrists?  Wrap the rope the other way now, between my wrists to make it tight.”

“Uh…like this?” Steve asked as he tried to do as she said.

She nodded.  “Much better, and don’t be afraid to pull.  I like it tight so I can’t get loose.”

Steve wasn’t sure about anything here.  But he did as she asked, wrapping it and tying it under her careful instruction.  He finally finished tying his knot, noting that it didn’t look like there was any way she was going to get out of it.  “Now what?” he asked.

“Now…watch your game,” she said.  “Or, if you want to do anything else to me, or tie me some other way, that would be fine too.  If not, I’ll just stay here on the floor out of the way.”

“You’re going to just stay there on the floor.  With your wrists bound up like that.  Through the whole game?”

She nodded.  “Right here.”

Steve wasn’t sure what to make of that.  “But I wanted to watch the game.”

“And I want you to watch the game too,” she told him.  “Ignore me.”

“Ignore you?”

She giggled.  “If you can,” she said.  “I’ll just stay right here.  I’ll be good.  I promise.”

Steve stared at her for a moment, then finally said.  “Uh…okay.  I guess.”

Diane smiled at him, rolled over away from him a few feet and laid on her back, relishing the fact that her hands were tied – by someone else, and she couldn’t get them loose if she tried.  She was now his captive woman.  She was now under his control.  She didn’t care about the game on TV, she had her own fantasy games thriving in her head. 

Steve tried to watch the game, but more often than not, he stared at Diane laying on his floor just a few feet away from him.  Totally naked.  Only moving her bound hands once in a while as if to test her bonds.  He remembered that one night with her when Monica had plagued him to act all too much like a dog.  Diane had done something similar with him then.  She had asked him to tie her up and make love to her.  And he had.  Was this the same thing?

Over and over again he forced himself to go back to concentrating on the TV, and over and over again he found himself looking at the naked woman in front of him.  She wasn’t his type.  She wasn’t built like Carla.  She wasn’t built nearly like any of the other women he dated.  She was…skinny.  Scrawny.  Not beautiful at all.  But she was still without a doubt, a woman.  And she was lying naked in front of him.  Things like that can’t be ignored – by any man. 

He finally couldn’t help himself.  Getting up from his chair, he laid down in the opposite direction.  Her head and feet went one way, his went the other.  But his head was in front of her head.  She had turned to look at him.  To look into his eyes.  He reached out with his mouth, and kissed her lips.  Tenderly.  But the kiss she returned was anything but tender.  It was hungry.  Passionate.  Yearning. 

And desperate.