Secret Promise

Penny's Rare Books. Pt 3: Time management

Penny ushered Laura to the heavy oak door leading to the flat above the shop. "We won't be long, Jane. I'm sure you'll cope on your own for a moment." The door swung closed behind them with a clunk. Laura's Chanel No.5 hung in the air, clawing at Jane's tastebuds. She coughed and shook her head.

A queue quickly formed at the counter; the phone rang; a browsing customer called for assistance.

Jane looked up, "I'll be with you as soon as I can."

The shop door's brass bell tinkled. A man entered and went straight to the Victorian rarities' cabinet. He looked at Jane. "Excuse me."

Jane recognised him as a collector. "I'll be over shortly, Mr Hardwick, once I'm done here and seen to that lady over there."

"It's the Wuthering Heights I want," he looked at his watch, "but I have a train to catch. And the cabinet's locked."

"My colleague has the key, sir. But she'll be with you shortly." Jane glanced at the clock and continued serving. The minutes ticked by, but Penny failed to appear.

"This is ridiculous!" muttered Mr Hardwick. Customers stepped aside as he stormed out.

***

Five o'clock arrived and the closed sign was put up. Penny swallowed the final mouthful of tea that Jane had made for her. "Thanks. I needed that."

"What on earth did you do with Laura for forty minutes? It was manic down here. A customer walked out." Jane took a roll of duct tape from the counter drawer.

"We put some dates in the diary, that's all. Horse riding, cinema, art gallery, that sort of thing." Penny retied her ponytail. "Oh, she's invited us both to a wine tasting tomorrow. Her treat."

"Great. I look forward to it." Jane pulled the rail ladder towards the shopfront. She stopped it at Penny's heels. "Remove your skirt." Penny reached back and unzipped the skirt. The grey tweed garment fell to her feet and a draught of cold air chilled her thighs.

"Reverse up the ladder, facing me. Grip hold of the rail when you get there."

Penny reached back and grabbed the ladder's sides. Her heartrate increased. She placed a heel on the bottom step and cautiously climbed backwards until her shoulders were level with the rail. She stretched out both arms and gripped the rail, forming the shape of a crucifix. Jane dragged a chair across the parquet floor and climbed onto it. She taped Penny's wrists to the rail. She jumped down and taped Penny's ankles to the ladder, one to each side.

Jane's face was now at the same level as Penny's pudendum. A moist patch was visible in Penny's red lace knickers. Pubic hair was flattened behind the lace gusset. Wet. Clumped together. Jane moved closer and she touched her nose on the lace. She continued to smell the area and moved across to Penny's inner thighs.

"Just diary entries you said, Penny. So why does it smell of Chanel No.5 between your legs?"

Penny trembled. "Forgive me Miss, for I have sinned."

Jane pulled Penny's knickers down to her knees. The pubic hair in the centre of Penny's mound clung together in wispy peaks. Droplets of lubricant glinted like glitter.

Passers by outside cast shadows against the cream roller blinds covering the shopfront window. Shoppers stopped to chat, then went on their way, their muffled voices audible from within. Jane raised the blind by one foot. The ladder creaked as Penny shifted. "I can see people's feet, Miss."

"You can't hide, Penny. Not yet. Not until you've waited the way you made our customers wait today. I'll say when your wait is over, not you." Jane pointed to the gap under the blind. "Protest, and I'll raise the blind even higher."

Jane ran the tip of her index finger along Penny's wet labia, backwards and forwards, gently and slowly.

"Mmm, that's good." Penny closed her eyes as a tingling swept through to her shoulders. She relaxed into the feeling.

Jane slipped her finger inward between the lips and found Penny's opening. It clenched and released as the digit entered.

"You're very wet, Penny." Jane added a second finger and inserted both, pumping slowly in and out. She entered as deeply as she could and held that position. "Let's see if the tea has started to work." Jane positioned her two fingertips against the anterior wall of the vagina and applied pressure to Penny's bladder.

"Ah." Penny winced. She drew her knees closer together and her eyes opened.

"You're filling up nicely, Penny. You won't last the hour." Jane withdrew her fingers.

Outside, pushchair wheels, feet and shopping bags continued to pass by, their owners unaware that the bookshop owner was trussed up, half naked, just feet away behind the shop's door. Inside, the only sound came from Jane. She sat on the stool at the counter and took two bulldog clips, some elastic bands and a pencil from the drawer, laying them out in front of her.

Pinpricks of perspiration began to glisten on Penny's forehead. "I need to wee, Miss."

"You'll have to wait, Penny." Jane walked to the blind and raised it another six inches. "That's for complaining." She returned to the counter and looped one elastic band onto the wire handle of each bulldog clip. She held them up. "There, Penny. I just have to daisy-chain five bands between them, then I can open you up."

Penny's thighs quivered as she looked at the metal clips.

Jane bunched the pubic hair together on one of Penny's labia and attached a bulldog clip. She tugged it and passed the chain of elastic bands around the back of the ladder. Penny closed her eyes. Jane stretched the bands and clipped the second bulldog clip to the hair in the other labia. She let go of the elastic and the clips pulled open Penny's vulva, maintaining a constant tension on her pubic hair. Her vagina contracted and lubricant excreted from her opening.

"Oh, that's much better. I can see exactly what I want now." Jane fetched the pencil from the counter. "The customer that walked out, Penny. It was Mr Hardwick." She tested the pencil's rubber tip with her thumb.

"The collector?"

"Yes. He wanted to buy Wuthering Heights. For £2,000." Jane unlocked the rarities' cabinet and held the book up for Penny to see. Dark green, leather bound, with gold leafed text on the cover and spine. "But you were upstairs. With Laura and the cabinet key. You made him wait, until he could wait no longer."

"I'm sorry." Penny grimaced and shifted her pelvis uncomfortably on the ladder. "I'm bursting, Jane. I don't know how much longer I can hold it."

Jane picked up the steel wastepaper bin from under the counter. She removed the liner and placed Wuthering Heights into the empty bin.

"No, Jane. Please." A bead of sweat trickled down Penny's forehead.

"Yes, Penny." Jane hugged the bin with her left arm and positioned it underneath Penny. With her right hand she dragged the pencil rubber across Penny's urethral opening. It flinched involuntarily.

"Nggh!" Penny groaned and leaned forward attempting to relieve the pain in her abdomen.

Jane continued stimulating the peehole, stretching and releasing it, again and again. Penny writhed on the ladder, her chest rose and fell as her breathing quickened.

"One more bladder examination, Penny." Jane slipped two fingers back into Penny's vagina, withdrew them then pushed four fingers in up to the hilt of her thumb, stretching the opening. She pushed her four fingertips against Penny's bladder.

"Oh my god! Agh! No!"

"You're as tight as a drum, Penny. Let it go. You won't be able to hold it much longer."

Penny took a deep breath and glanced down at the expensive vintage book below. She closed her eyes, relaxed her knees and finally released the pressure within.

"Jeee-sus! That feels good!"

Hot piss sprayed from her opening and drummed against the side of the sheet steel bin; the container's acoustic round construction amplified the sound in the quiet shop. The cover of Wuthering Heights increasingly darkened in spots as spatters of liquid landed on it. The powerful stream continued and urine circled and curled around the base of the book until the bottom of the bin was completely covered. The books backboard became completely saturated.

"Good girl, Penny. Piss like a dog-bitch in the park." Jane held the bin in position with both hands. "I can feel your warmth through the metal now Penny, keep going."

Penny threw her head back and sighed as she continued to evacuate the contents of her bladder. The level of the straw-coloured liquid rose higher, up the spine and text block until the book was completely submerged and invisible underneath the white froth. The stream began to peter out to a trickle until finally Penny pushed out the last few drops that tinkled onto the froth.

"You'll get a small second wave, Penny. I want everything you've got."

Penny's head lolled from one side to the other, her eyes half open. "Yes, it's coming."

Jane collected the final small fountain of pee in the bin and placed it on the floor. The bubbles on top had almost dissipated. The rare volume could be seen beneath the murky golden translucence of Penny's liquid waste.

"The leather cover has started to peel away, Penny, and the whole book is beginning to warp. You've done a good job."

"Jane, I really need to come. Help me out this once. Please."

"You're right. You deserve an orgasm."

Jane grabbed the control cord for the blinds and climbed onto the chair to reach Penny's left hand. She deftly tied the cord to Penny's left wrist and cut the tape that bound her wrist to the rail.

"You can sort yourself out now."

"But I'm right-handed. And desperate." Penny lowered her left hand a little and the blind raised another few inches as she did so. "People will see." Shoppers still passed by, though less frequently.

"You'll have to manage and be quick about it. I'll do you a favour and switch the lights off." Jane flicked the switch on the wall and the room dimmed.

Penny brought her hand down and found her clit, simultaneously the blind raised until it was fully open and exposing her to the public. Her heart thumped and her breathing quickened. She looked directly into the faces of each man and woman that passed as she clumsily masturbated with her left hand. Whether the townsfolk ignored the spectacle or were unable to see because of the reflection is unknown. But the thrill and heightened arousal enabled Penny to bring herself to a climax quickly.

Jane untied the cord and lowered the blind. She cut Penny free and took the laden bucket to her bookbinding workshop in the basement.

***

The following evening, Penny, Jane and Laura made their way through the busy bar of the wisteria covered Hare and Hounds Hotel. They entered the dim calm of the oak panelled function room beyond for the wine tasting event. A hint of woodsmoke emitted from a smouldering log in the inglenook.

Laura and Jane took their seats at a table in the corner. Penny put her bag down. "Do excuse me, I need to wee. I'll grab our first wine on my way back. You two get to know each other." She walked off.

"Jane. Is Penny okay? I noticed red marks on her wrist just then."

Jane placed a hand on Laura's. "Please don't mention it to her. You've done the right thing raising it with me."

"I understand. It's just that when we went riding, she seemed in pain. And I felt -- something, beneath her jodhpurs."

Jane frowned. "You put your hand inside her jodhpurs?"

"No! No! Sorry, it wasn't like that. I helped her up onto the saddle." Laura shifted and Jane moved her hand away. "Forget I mentioned it. I don't want to pry. I've said too much already. I just wanted to make sure she isn't suffering."

"It's fine, Laura. You're concerned and that needs addressing." Jane looked around and her voice softened further. "Look, Penny's away for a night next Friday. She's heading to a family funeral in the West Country. Why not call in at five when I close the shop? I'll buy one of these lovely wines tonight for us and I'll reassure you about Penny. I can even give you an introductory lesson to binding if you like? It'll help us get to know each other."

Laura smiled. "Okay, yes. Why not. I do love vintage books. The smell. The textures. The stories within. And you can tell me more about Penny."

Jane gave a little nod. "Perfect."

Penny returned. She smiled and held up a small carafe. "Petit Chablis is our first wine."

Jane poured equal measures into three glasses. They each held a glass up to the table lamp.

Jane looked at Penny. "Straw-coloured, I'd say."

Penny smiled and wafted its bouquet beneath her nose. She sipped. "Sharp. Citric. Acidic."

Jane stifled a laugh. "What do you think Laura?"

Laura put the glass to her lips, slurped noisily and giggled. "Ooh, yes! Fruity. I could get used to this one."

Penny put her glass down. "I saw you two chatting."

"Oh, yes. Jane's invited me around whilst you're away. She's going to introduce me to binding."

"Is she?" Penny raised her eyebrows. "Have you done anything like it before?"

"Nope. Never."

"Well, I'm sure you'll love it."

Jane placed her hand on Penny's. "That's right, darling. I'll make sure she loves it."

Laura beamed.