Ann: The Married Years Ch. 19

"So much for being confident... what the hell were you thinking, Thomas?" he chided himself.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ann drove home, thankful it was finally Friday. She was even more thankful that it was the last day she'd be without her husband.

"I'm finally getting laid tonight," she hummed happily as she guided her car through the tight turns of the road that led home. It was a familiar one. She could anticipate every nuance in the pavement; her Civic hugging the curves like it was on a rail.

It had been another good day at work. Mary Ann had returned from her three-week vacation to Hawaii, thrilled about the sales events that Ann had put on in her absence. She'd talked to Camilla several times while she was gone, and she marveled at how wildly successful the How To classes had been.

"What's next?" she teased Ann, thinking she was doing just that.

But Ann had actually put some thought into that question before it was ever asked. She actually anticipated it. "Well, the obvious would be a How To for the dominate side of the equation. And I can do that... but if there are mostly men that sign up, perhaps they'd be more comfortable if a man taught it."

"Neil?"

"I can't think of anyone better," she grinned. "Although I'm not sure he'd do it."

"Hmm... we'll see. Anything else?" she joked.

Ann wasn't joking when she replied, "What do you think about a class on oral sex?"

"What?"

"I was thinking about teaching women the art of fellatio. I think it would be a blast to teach them how to deepthroat."

"You... you know how to deepthroat?"

"Well I wouldn't be much of a teacher if I didn't, now would I?" she winked.

That was still on her mind when she pulled into the driveway, thrilled to see that the garage was actually empty.

"He finished it! I can decorate tonight!" she cheered, thinking she'd have something to occupy her time while she waited for him to come home.

Running into the house, she dropped her purse by the door, running toward the bathroom to see how everything turned out. He'd kept the door closed and locked, taking the key with him every day he went to work, wanting to surprise her when he finally finished. In truth, it was also a way to keep her from seeing how much he'd gotten done each day, knowing there were some days he'd be spending more time under the house than in the bathroom. He didn't want her to know that.

She stopped in her tracks when she saw the box on the island, the UPS sticker on the side grabbing her attention. Her heart went to her throat wondering why it was there, and the thought that her husband had interacted with Douglas. Not that it should have mattered. After all, he not only knew what she'd done with him, he blessed it. But that didn't keep her from feeling uneasy.

Slowly walking toward it, she saw the scattered pictures on the counter, particularly the ones on top.

"Oh my God," she gasped, the stark image of Felicia getting whipped right there for her to see. That in and of itself didn't concern her. After all, she'd not only been there when it happened, she was the one that orchestrated the entire day and she was the one wielding the branch. No, it was the idea that she had this fire inside her, wanting that done to her.

"Oh my God, what if Neil was disgusted by these?" she panicked; wishing it would have been her that was home to intercept the package. If she had, she could have kept them from him. After all he was tied up and blindfolded. He wouldn't have known what happened in the kitchen. Then she realized the folly of her rational.

"He would have figured out they're missing," she surmised as she started leafing through the rest of the large pile. "He knew how many people fucked him. Hell, he'd know that there was someone else on the bed doing her too. And he would know I had pictures of that."

She didn't know what to think. After all, of all the pictures from the box, and there were hundreds of them, those were the ones on top. That couldn't have been a coincidence, because Rose always packaged the photos in the chronological order that they were taken; part of Ann's overwhelming need to be organized. No, it wasn't an accident that he'd left those specific ones on top of the haphazard pile. It had to mean something... but what?

She sighed as she looked at the pictures. On the one hand, she was concerned that Neil was somehow going to be upset by them, although she found that hard to fathom. From what he'd said, he'd enjoyed what she set up that day and he'd never been upset about her delving into that area before. Yet she had a gnawing pit in her stomach, making her feel uneasy about how he might have reacted to them.

On the other hand, they were turning her on to no end. As much as she hated to admit it, her little experiment with tying and abusing herself hadn't helped satiate her appetite for being controlled; it merely whetted it instead. While it had been exciting and she'd had a couple of very nice orgasms, she knew she needed more.

"Fuck it! Why am I so damn timid about this all of a sudden?" she snapped. "He's my husband. He loves me. All I have to do is tell him how I'm feeling and he'll understand," she answered herself in a moment of common sense.

It was the first time either of them had been honest about what was going on regarding the subject. They'd let the number of days that had passed between appearances of Annabelle create a void, as if the expanse of time somehow correlated negatively to the desire they both were feeling. The odd thing was neither one of them had bothered to explain to their partner about what they were thinking. And that was so unlike either of them.

Telling herself that she'd find a way to sit him down when he came home from work, she felt better about things. That moment of clarity brought her mood back to where it had been when she'd walked in the door. She was happy. And she was suddenly curious about the bathroom.

She walked briskly, her heels quieted once she hit the carpet. Flipping on the light switch of the bathroom, she gasped, just like she had when she'd seen the black toilet for the first time. Looking around her bathroom, she marveled at all the work he'd done for her.

"Oh my God! It's perfect!" she squealed.

The tile on the walls that lined the shower was mostly white. Intermixed were some that he added that were either black or red. She was thrilled that there was no discernible pattern, the randomness of them making her giddy. And it went perfectly with the large white tub, big enough for two. Turning, she saw the white vanity, the backsplash being the same as the walls over the tub. Centered in the white countertop was a shiny black sink that matched the toilet.

"Oh my God," she sighed as she ran her fingers along the stylish silver faucet, loving how it rose up high above the sink. Turning on the water, she watched it flow, impressed at how smoothly the knobs turned when she turned them back off. She played with the water several times, like a little kid playing with a new toy.

And then she saw it, the telltale signs of the milky film left behind from the water being too hard.

"OH SHIT!" she said as she lifted the toilet seat, noticing the limestone residue was leaving a ring inside from the water line. "DAMMIT!"

While she loved the contemporary style of the black porcelain, she hadn't considered how it would look if they didn't keep on top of the salt level in the water softener, and it was obvious it needed taken care of right away. She ran to the kitchen, grabbing her cleaning supplies, rushing back to spray and wipe down the sink. Then she scrubbed the toilet vigorously, breaking a sweat to remove any signs of the ring that had stained the inside. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized she'd been able to remove it. But that was just a temporary fix and she knew it.

"I guess I better go put salt in the softener now right before I regret it," she growled.

Putting away the cleansers, she made her way outside through the French door, taking with her the key to the crawlspace. Crossing the back yard, she was cursing Neil under her breath for not thinking of it beforehand, but then she caught herself. How could she be bitching about the very man that just gave her the bathroom she'd been dreaming of.

"He was probably too busy doing all of that to notice," she reasoned, calming down as she slipped the key into the lock.

As much as she hated having to be the one to fill the water softener with the salt pellets, it wasn't like she hadn't done it before. "At least he put that pulley thing in," she said as she pulled the door open, using the hook and eye he had installed on it to keep it from closing on her.

She stepped inside and yanked on the string of the light bulb that hung from ceiling of the crawlspace... which also happened to be the floor joists to her bedroom above. She headed toward the large pile of plastic bags containing the pellets, stacked neatly on a wooden pallet to keep them off the ground. Stepping carefully, her heels digging into the loose gravel that covered the slanted terrain; she wished she had taken the time to change her outfit.

Her hand absentmindedly grabbed for the thick chain of the pulley system, knowing where it would be as she flipped the latch on the lid of the softener. As her fingers felt for the harness at the end of the chain, it seemed much different, and she turned to look. The nylon device was missing, replaced on the end by a black leather dog collar. One she'd never she'd before. It was thicker, with a different clasp and several silver rings instead of just one.

"What the fuck?"

She squinted, wondering why in the world that would be hanging from the end of the chain. Spinning on her heels, she saw some unfamiliar shapes in the shadows and it startled her enough to reach for the pull chain to the other light. When she yanked on it, three other bulbs came on, two of them that didn't exist before.

The brightness made her shade her face, her body literally flinching backward in reaction to the sudden change. She struggled to find focus. When her eyes dilated to the point she could see, she gasped once again, much louder than her reaction when saw her new bathroom for the first time just a few minutes before. It became obvious Neil had been busy with more than one renovation.

Directly across from her, there had been installed a thick plastic sheet that ran from the cinder block wall in the front of the house to the one at the back. He'd created a curtain of sorts, sectioning off the portion of the crawlspace they used for storage from the part where you couldn't stand up. To her right near the door, he'd pitched his pop-up camping tent, the door zippered shut. She was amazed she'd walked right past without seeing it on the way inside. To her left there was the toilet. There was also the old sink and countertop, which happened to be sitting on a new vanity along the wall next to the water softener. Not only where they there, they'd been installed.

Neil had done a lot of plumbing and electrical work, creating the oddest half-bath in history. He'd also installed outlets and lights for convenience. In the middle of the new 'room', he'd put down the carpet that had been rolled up against the wall, covering up some of the rocks that made up the slanted floor; a byproduct of the slope of the terrain underneath the house. In the middle of the carpet, he'd placed his unusual rowing machine.

It was unusual because it was more than a simple rowing machine. It was designed to be able to remove the arms of the rowing part, allowing them to be configured in different ways. The pneumatic cylinders of the arms created resistance, and depending on how they were attached to the base, it allowed for different exercises. In addition to just typical rowing, the machine could be set up to do curls, and bench presses, and arm twists... all kinds of various muscle group workouts to improve your physique.

That is as long as you used it. It wasn't doing him much good underneath the house. Then again, he was already in incredible shape as it was, something she thought about a she looked closer at the machine, her eyes drawn to the shiny silver metal of the bars against the backdrop of the bright red plastic covering on the adjustable cushions one would lie or sit on when using it.

She could see that he'd made some modifications to it. Ones that could only be construed as ominous, considering the ropes that were strewn about the carpet. He'd attached brackets and clamps; things that were obviously there for a specific purpose other than working out. She could only imagine what.

She was about to find out.

Sitting on top of one of the longer rectangle shaped cushions of the rowing machine was a cassette player. Taped to it was an envelope with her name on it. Squatting down, she removed the envelope, carefully opening it to remove the folded paper inside.

Good evening, Anna.

Welcome to your dungeon.

Your instructions, if you decide to accept them, are on the tape. All you have to do is press the play button to begin your adventure. I also know this is not something you expected, so while you have to decide right now, you do have two options.

1.) Press the play button, and you will instantly transform into the incredible woman that I created this room for. Just know that once you've committed to this by pressing the button, you will remain that woman until I decide differently. You have no say in what happens to you, or when it ends. You only have your safe word.

2.) If you're not interested in what I have in mind for you, then you'll remain Anna. I love her, and love spending my life with her. However, if that is your choice, you must leave the cassette player alone.

Please accept the fact that I'll know whether you turned on the tape player or not. If for some reason you do, and then decide to change your mind afterward about accepting the gift I'm offering you, I'll be most unhappy. After all, there are rules to this game, even if you decide not to play. Therefore, I should mention that there would be consequences if that happens. Consequences another alter ego would be accountable for.

No matter what you decide, you'll need to flip the switch on the side of the water softener to turn it back on, because I'm certain that's the reason you've come down to the dungeon I created for you to begin with.

Anna, please know that no matter what you decide, I love you more than I can ever express. I would never push you into something you're not ready for, or perhaps are no longer comfortable doing at all. It is entirely your decision where this goes from here.

Either way, I'll see one of you in a couple of hours. I'm just wondering which one of you will be waiting to greet me.

With all my love,

Neil

Clutching the letter, Ann looked around at her dungeon, marveling at all the work he'd done for her.

"OH MY GOD! THIS IS SO PERFECT!" she yelled excitedly.