'Aslam wouldn?t be bothered with us if we weren?t. Any girl who?s beautiful is lucky. Let?s make love. Look, I?m naked too!'
They made love. They adored each other. Drunk with affection and alcohol, Corey remembered something.
'Weren?t we supposed…?'
'You mean about making sure you didn?t escape?' Audrey was herself besotted. 'Do?you really want me…?'
'I expect you should.' Corey was absurdly solemn. 'I?m not to be trusted, am I? I mean, it?s so easy to run away…'
Audrey giggled. 'To find Seth Burdett and get yourself fucked? Y?know, Corey, you?re absolutely wanton. Let?s make love again?' They made love again.
'Feel better now?' It was a long time later. Audrey sounded amused. 'Dammit?, you sexpot, you?re a full time job.'
'I feel wonderful. Think we could do that all night?'
'Corey, you?re a disgrace to heterosexual relations… and I have to get some sleep.'
The two girls giggled steadily in their search. A pair of handcuffs were belatedly sighted where Reid Hunter had thoughtfully placed them on the bedside table. They sparked debate.
'In front? They?re harmless in front. Just a sort of insignia?' Corey wheedled.
'But they don?t stop you going places.'
'No, I suppose not.' Corey grappled with what was obviously a major decision involving more than herself. 'How about behind my back?' She giggled. 'I?d feel awfully silly walking through the brush with no hands.'
'Mmmmmm, but you could still walk. I expect you could run?'
'Gosh, I?d no idea things were this difficult.' Corey wrinkled her brow in thought. 'How about handcuffing me to you? I mean your wrist to my wrist?' 'Too much like that damn coffle, darling.'
'Huh, I suppose so. Hows?bout my wrist to the bed someplace?'
Corey possessed a slander ankle. They compromised by handcuffing it to the bedrail. Giggling, they fell asleep.
It was hours later in the dark when the gunshots brought them back to fear. Audrey was out of bed in seconds, she dragged on clothes and dashed through the door. From somewhere she had produced a revolver. Dazed and fearful, Corey Gibson watched her go. It was all too swift, too much a reversion to what she had wanted to forget. Apprehensively, Corey slid from beneath the covers and headed for her clothes. It took her an appreciable time to understand why she was suddenly flat on the floor with one foot oddly trapped. It was then she remembered the handcuff. It held her prisoner.
Corey Gibson was frightened. She was also angry. She struggled back on the bed and surveyed the metal band round her left ankle in a fury of frustration. To think she had allowed a few drinks and giggles to place herself in this predicament…! But Audrey was fun, it has been a laughing romp between two girls, that was all. Or was that all? Corey Gibson found it all too easy to look into her future and see nothing but a handcuff, a chain, a rope, and the threat of being whipped. She kicked fretfully at her bond, deliberately making it hurt.
But the sounds were still there, and Audrey had not returned. In frantic hope, Corey lifted the pillow atill warm from Audrey?s head. But there was no key. Panting but methodically she stretched her nudity to the limits the handcuff would permit. Her questing fingers found nothing of any help. If the handcuff key was in the room it had to be on the dresser, and for her to reach the dresser she would have to move the bed. Standing on her free right foot, she began to tug and heave…
It was then the sounds became louder. There was one more shot, and another. Heavy footsteps thudded their way upstairs…
Everything was the same except Corey herself. Previously, when she had hung suspended before Abdul Nour?s desk it had been by both wrists, her legs spread wide to present the guerilla with an excellent view of her vulva. Now, she hung by one wrist only, the other was handcuffed behind her back to its opposite ankle dragged up awkwardly from a bent knee. It was a hateful posture. It hurt. She was close to tears.
It was all too unkind. Audrey had vanished. Abdul had found her cuffed to the bed like a neat package awaiting delivery. Smugly he had freed her ankle and clipped both her wrists behind her back. Dragged to the waiting plane, she had beheld with horror the sprawled dead figure of Reid Hunter. There had been two other motionless bundles…
That was all! So simple to alter lives and rob a girl of freedom! Now, Miss Corey Gibson awaited her interview with Abdul Nour. If she was about to be offered employment she could guess what it would be.
'I trust you are comfortable, Miss Gibson?'
The Guerilla Leader loved the suavity which so ill matched the rest of him. With hostile eye, the suspended heiress watched him take the chair behind the desk. 'You know I?m not.' Corey siad flatly. 'If you want to talk I?d be grateful to be untied:'
'I?m sure you would.'
'At least allow my foot down on the floor?'
'No.'
'This is a sort of torture. I?ll be gasping all the time.'
'Good!'
'But please…? I want to talk to you sensibly. Don?t make me hang here like a puppet on a string. You can torture me afterwards… if that?s what you?ve stolen me for.'
He clapped gently. 'Well said, my dear. I have your full attention. I have found these strained postures most helpful in interviewing young ladies of a certain social status. Without the help of the rope they have a tendency to quibble.'
The suspended Corey longed to tell him to?Stow it? or?Dry up? or better still:?Drop dead!?. Instead, she said bleakly: 'I hurt too much to quibble. Please… where?s Audrey?'
'I?d like to know that myself. Miss Cotswold escaped my men. We are still searching.'
Corey resigned herself to the misery of the rope. The Desert eyes were drinking in her strained nudity with avid pleasure. But Audrey was good news. Audrey would not abandon her. Unhappily, she asked: 'What are you going to do with me now?'
'Subject you to imprisonment and mild tortures disigned to humble the proud white maiden.'
'I?d have thought you and that damn coffle made me humble enough.'
'Interspersed, of course, by sojourns in my army brothel.'
So that was it! The thing she feared most. Corey wanted to moan in desolation. Instead, she offered: 'You can still get a huge ransom for me?'
'Perhaps later, after I have relished your humilities. In a few months it may amuse me to accept a few million to return you to the U.S. with a belly full of my soldier?s sperm.'
The penalty of being female! No matter where a girl turned, it would be there waiting. Thrusting away a hateful vision, Corey asked: 'Weren?t we going to get married, or something?'
Abdoul Nour was engrossed in contemplation of the well exposed sex of the girl suspended for his pleasure. Corey?s raised leg cuffed to her wrist enabled an examination of her pubic lips at an unusual angle. She could not thwart the scorch of his regard. The regret in his voice was spurious. 'I?m afraid I can no longer offer you the honour, my dear. I have lost Miss Cotswold as a hostage. I have sold Mr. Aslam back to his business. I understand he has dealt favourably with your father?s crisis. If I now let you loose in Cairo you will promptly go home.'
She could have wept. Everything went wrong. She would be someone?s prisoner forever. Desperately, she pleaded: 'Look, there?s such a thing as a word of honour, a parole if you like. I?ll give you mine. Send me to Cairo. I?ll do what you want me to there. I?ll fill the Press with the romance of Abdul Nour, and I?ll come back here with me as your legal wife. Please…?'
She had captured his attention indeed. 'Why would you do that?' He asked suspiciously.
'To escape the brothel.'
'So!' He was now amused. He was also impressed. 'There are girls in that brothel who have been fucked a thousand times… That?s only three times a day for a year. They and their cunts are no different from the day I placed them there. Why be so concerned about that small slit between your legs?'
'You know why.'
