NoEasyWayOut (15 page)

She made fresh coffee then lounged around on the sofa
reading her book until she started to get hungry and they took a break for
lunch. She’d brought fresh bread and a selection of salads and bits and pieces
from the deli.

“I’m doing well. I’ve got some great shots. Daniel has
really given us some beauties.” He grinned. “I’m going to be able to do
something pretty powerful with this material.”

Then he was back to work.

She watched him for a while, fascinated by how he cut and
shifted images, how he zoomed in on certain things, making the image bigger
like a close-up—and then how he manipulated the sound, putting the things she
and Daniel had said in a different order, linking them with different images.

She read her book a bit more, cleared up the lunch, made
more coffee, watched Ed again standing behind him, her hands on his shoulders.

“Right,” he said finally. “I’ve got a rough cut of it. It
still needs work in places but this will give you a good idea of how it will
look.” He fiddled with the equipment again.

They sat on the sofa, Ed’s arm round her shoulders. He
pressed play.

The final video was short. Two hours of sex and the feeds
from all the different cameras had been cut down to a three-minute film. It
started with a close-up of Daniel’s face, then his voice asking, “Do you like
it?” and her reply coming quite clearly saying “No. I don’t. I don’t want you
to do it.”

Then you could hear him laughing and the camera cut to him
ripping her clothes, saying “you’ve just been attacked.” The next shot was of
Daniel brandishing the scissors and Daniel’s voice over the top saying, “You’ll
be punished for this.”

There were images of her being cuffed and the spreader bar
being put on. The soundtrack continued with Ruthanne saying, “I don’t want you
to” and “no, no.”

The next shot was of her rear end being paddled. You could
clearly see Daniel’s face and the cold smile on it. Then another angle showed
the words appearing on her skin with a voiceover of Daniel calling her a slut
over and over again.

Then it cut to the clamps on her nipples and her cries of
pain as Daniel said, “the tighter the better“ and pulled on the chain, making
her nipples pull and her breasts bounce.

In the last section she was on her back on the coffee table.
She was begging Daniel not to put the big dildo into her, the fear clear in her
voice. But Daniel was insisting, laughing at her fear, saying, “It will go in.
And if it doesn’t I’ll strap you down to this table and force it until it does.”

There was a brief shot of him pushing the dildo into her
while she cried out “stop, stop,” and Daniel said “it’s going in.” It cut to
Ruthanne’s body, struggling. She was reaching down with her bound hands, crying
out “no, no,” and Daniel saying “I love it when you struggle. There’s nothing
nicer than a girl all tied up struggling against what’s going in her whether
she likes it or not.”

The last shots were of her head, her face blurred out, hanging
off the end of the coffee table and Daniel pumping hard into her mouth and his
voice saying “Suck me. And do it well or I’ll fuck you right into your throat.”

Then it was clear he had finished and there was a close-up
of his face where he said, “I’d like to tie you down and leave you like this
until tomorrow or send in a few of my friends to come and use you.”

Ruthanne sat in stunned silence. It was awful.

“I’ve edited it fairly heavily,” explained Ed. “Taken the
voice from one section, moved it to another, kept in all the bits where you
refuse and cut out all the places where you consent.”

“It makes Daniel look terrible,” she said, suddenly
doubtful. “Isn’t it really dishonest?” She felt uncomfortable. Daniel was bad,
yes but this made him look like an attacker or rapist and he wasn’t that. She
had consented all the way. The only thing she hadn’t agreed to was involving
Jose Luis and she didn’t even know if that had happened or not. All she had to
go on was the smell of some aftershave and few sly comments from Daniel.

“Yeah,” said Ed. “He looks really bad. But that’s the point
isn’t it? If I put together a tape showing you two having a great time what
effect will that have? With this, you can mail it to him and I’d guess he’d do
anything to stop this getting out there on the internet.”

“It’s blackmail,” she said.

Ed shrugged. “Are you going to ask him for money?”

“No,” she said indignantly. “Of course not.”

“Or favors or any other benefit?”

“No. You know I’m not.”

“Then it’s not really blackmail. Think of it more as an
insurance policy.”

“Yes,” she agreed slowly. “I suppose so. And if it wasn’t so
bad it wouldn’t work.”

“Exactly,” he said. “Daniel will have to really want to stop
this getting out, to think it would really damage his reputation if it’s going
to do you any good. If it just showed him and a lady friend enjoying some
consensual kinky sex then why would he care? I mean he might be embarrassed but
it’s not going to ruin his life. In fact it might even give him a bit of kudos.
But this.” Ed gestured at the screen. “No one would want to be associated with
this.”

Ruthanne nodded. It was the sort of thing she did all the
time—image manipulation, controlling what information went out where and when
to make sure companies got the most credit and the least damage. She’d just
never played a starring role in any of her material before.

“Thanks, Ed,” she said. “I can see why they call you the
Editor. You’ve done a great job. Even if it’s quite disturbing.”

“Makes you think, doesn’t it? Never let anyone film you. The
camera always lies.” He laughed and put his arm around her.

“Just make sure you word the email carefully so it doesn’t
sound like blackmail. You can send it from here. I’ve got an encrypted ISP so
no one will be able to trace where it’s come from. You write something and I’ll
do a few tweaks to the film and get it ready to send.”

Ruthanne nodded, thinking what she could say.

She spent a while composing the message, wanting to get her
meaning across but without threatening him.

Daniel, I am sorry but our relationship will have to end. I
don’t want to see you again. I want you to stay on with my company for your PR
work but work with someone else in the office. I don’t want you to blame me or
to let anyone think there were any problems with the PR work I did for you. I
have attached a memento of our relationship. It will remind you of the things
you did. I am keeping the file with a friend in a safe place so you don’t need
to worry. I will do my best to make sure it never leaks out onto the internet.
And I am sure you will do your best to see that there are no negative
consequences for me as a result of ending our association either.

Ed read it over and agreed it was good. It was clear about
what she wanted and clear too that she didn’t hold the film so there was no
danger of him turning up to her apartment threatening her or destroying her
laptop and phone.

Ed attached the film.

She typed in Daniel’s email address with a shaky hand and
pressed send. It was done. She sighed with relief. “And now we can delete the
rest.”

He nodded. “There is something else, though. All that
footage of you. It was so hot. I couldn’t destroy it, not yet. I put this
together. It’s really rough—I just spliced it.”

Ruthanne turned to the screen again. It was more images from
that night but this time of her, of her face, of her saying yes. Close-ups of
her breasts, of her nipples tightly clamped and her moans of pleasure, every
time she had said yes. Of her being spanked, of her writhing in pleasure, of
her finally crying out “I’m coming I’m coming,” her voice muffled and thick.

Ed was watching her carefully.

“You have to get rid of that,” she said, embarrassed.

“I know. I will. We’ll delete it in a minute. I just wanted
to show you so you’d know how sexy you looked, how sexy you sounded.” He
rewound it to a view of her whole body with her torn clothes, her nipple clamps
and the cuffs and spreader bar. “Just look.”

She glanced at it but it looked so perverse, so wrong. “You
don’t think I’m a slut?”

“No way,” he said earnestly, moving closer to her. “It is
really the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. The only thing that would make it
hotter would be if I was the one doing it all to you.”

“You don’t think there’s something wrong with me for
enjoying that kind of thing?”

“No. You’re a very together woman. You’re beautiful, sexy,
in control of your life. But in the bedroom you like to play. So do I.”

“Like that?”

“Yes. Ever since I met you, I’ve wanted to tie you up, tight
and hard.” He moved closer to her. “So you can’t move and tease you and spank
you and do things to you until you come.”

He leaned in and kissed her, his lips teasing at hers, his
body warm against hers. “What do you think? Do you think one day you might
trust me enough to let me do that? “

“Yes,” she said, imaging herself tied up and Ed touching
her, teasing her. She felt a little flutter between her legs. She wanted him to
do it soon. Now.

“My worst nightmare would be to fall for someone who didn’t
share my passions. Imagine a lifetime without satisfaction. But you’re perfect.
If you were making a singles advert, this would be the picture to put on it.”
He gestured at the screen, smiling. “Sub seeking new master. Do you think I
could be it?”

“You could,” she agreed.

“But right now let’s delete it all except the film for
Daniel. Although the only way I can come to terms with getting rid of this is
the thought that we might make a film of our own one day?” He looked at her
with raised eyebrows.

“No faces,” she said.

“No faces but lots of body. Lots of close-ups of your
beautiful body held in restraints, maybe with wrist cuffs tied up to a hook in
the ceiling with you almost naked, helpless in front of me.”

He leaned over and held her wrists, pulling them slowly
above her head, pinning both of them in one of his own hands and holding them
there. He used his other hand to stroke her cheek softly and down the side of
her neck.

He brushed her lips gently then held her lower lip between
thumb and forefinger and squeezed it. He did it all so slowly and with such
tenderness that she hardly felt the pain. He leaned in and kissed her, licking
at her tender lip, then pushing his tongue into her mouth, slow and hard and
deep.

She gave in to the sensation of his tongue in her mouth, of
his lips on hers, of his free hand moving over her body, stroking her neck and
tangling in her hair, tugging it gently, then gliding lower, to her shoulder,
then lower, finding her breast and skating over the surface gently.

She felt helpless. She couldn’t move. Her arms were pinned
tightly above her head and his weight was pressing into her. She couldn’t
escape and she didn’t want to. She wanted him to hold her like this, to keep
her like this, forever.

She was dreading going into the office on Monday. Would
Daniel have read the email, seen the film? What would his reaction be? Would
she get away with it or would her letter of dismissal be waiting for her on her
desk?

Her phone beeped on the way and she checked the message,
wondering if it was Ian telling her not to even bother coming in. But it was
from Katie. “Best news,” it said. “My turn now!” What did it mean? She couldn’t
think straight, not until she knew if anything had changed at work.

Her stomach sank as she saw Ian at the entrance to their
department. He raised his hand when he saw her. He was clearly waiting for her.
This could only mean that Daniel had already spoken to him and that couldn’t be
good.

“Ah, Ruthanne,” he said as she approached. “Little bit
difficult, this. A few issues came up.”

She couldn’t breathe. Why didn’t he just say it? She was
sacked without a reference? She was being arrested for blackmail and perversion
or pornography or something? What was going on?

“There’s no easy way to say this. I’m afraid there has been
a little rearrangement,” Ian said. “It’s Daniel, Daniel Rolleston,” he added,
as if she wouldn’t know who he meant. “Difficult man. Hard to predict. You’re
returning to your former desk.”

She’d lost her office. Well, that was the least of her worries.
But she still had a desk so that meant she must still have a job?

“Katie is moving into your office,” he said. He shrugged. “I’m
so sorry but it’s Mr. Rolleston’s express wishes. He made it clear he was very
happy with you, very happy and of course you did a wonderful job but he’s a
difficult man. Mr. Rolleston said he feels it is time for a change. No
reflection on you. Katie is delighted of course. But I hope you don’t mind too
much?”

She smiled broadly at him and she could see his surprise at
her reaction. “I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all.”

I’ve published a lot in other much less interesting fields.
But what I really love doing is letting my imagination run wild and thinking
about all the “what ifs” in life. In my stories I try to trace exactly how
ordinary people end up doing really quite extraordinary things, following their
hearts into unknown territories and even falling in love along the way.

Tara welcomes comments from readers. You can find her
website and email addresses on her
author
bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
.

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No Easy Way Out

ISBN 9781419949418

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No Easy Way Out Copyright © 2014 Tara Tennyson

Edited by Julie Naughton

Cover design by Michelle B & Syneca

Cover photography by Guryanov Andrey, F.Schmidt/Shutterstock.com

Electronic book publication January 2014

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