CHAPTER 39

With everyone dressed and all the hidden cameras turned on in Monica's room, it was time to start phase two.

All the girls went downstairs to play various roles. The first step was to find an empty room and have Monica lie down in it, as if she'd been there for a while. Kate then had the role of staying with Monica and "guarding" her. Erin went down to the basement to find Jack and Vince. She had told them she would be back in ten to fifteen minutes, and she was still within that range, though closer to fifteen.

Jordan had to be careful. Her task was to find Brandy and Nancy and bring them to the room where Kate and Monica were. Then she and Kate were supposed to lead the effort to convince Brandy to join them, as well as confer with Nancy and make her feel more involved. But Jordan would have to leave quickly, before Erin arrived with Jack and Vince. Since she had broken up with Vince earlier in the evening, it was felt that it would be better that her involvement not be known until after the trap had been sprung.

That left Ryan alone in Kate's room. He wanted to help out downstairs, but the girls all agreed that if Jack and/or Vince saw him too soon, that would be even more of a problematic distraction. As a result, all he could do was twiddle his thumbs and wait.

To pass the time, he wandered around Kate's room. He'd spent a considerable amount of time in it earlier in the evening, but he hadn't paid much attention to the decor due to the fact that he had been overwhelmed by Kate and Erin's raw sexuality from the moment he'd first walked through the door. He'd only been stuck with the general impressions that it showed she was feminine, tasteful, and very wealthy.

Now that he had more time, he stopped to examine the various posters, paintings, and knick-knacks scattered around the room. He was blown away. Upon close inspection, the decorations were much more valuable than he'd realized. For instance, he knew enough about art history to realize that one painting of a busy Renaissance street scene had probably actually been painted in the Renaissance. But he was even more amazed by the fact that some historical artifacts were scattered around the room, including a few that looked to be at least more than a thousand years old, from cultures all over the world.

He was yet more stunned and impressed by her fossils, since he knew more about them. For instance, she had an entire bookshelf devoted to sea shells. The actual sea shells were impressive enough. For instance, there was a perfectly preserved, shiny, and colorful conch shell. But amongst the shells, he spied an ammonite fossil. He knew that the last ammonites had died out with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

He was so astounded that he had to sit down. Holy Toledo! This room is unbelievable! It's like she has her own private museum! Hell, if I were a thief, this would be my number one target! Damn!

He held his head in his hands. What the heck am I getting into?! I thought I came from a solid middle class family, but compared to her I must look like a peasant or a serf or something. I'm kind of falling in love with her, but how could any relationship between us last? We'd have so little in common, except for the sex. Jesus! I'm in waaaay over my head! Talk about someone being out of my league. Hell, she's from an entirely different planet!

He lifted his head up and looked around. It's a good thing I didn't pay close attention to her decorations when I first came in, or I definitely would have lost my nerve. And now I have the audacity to try to claim three, if not four, of these elite and wealthy raving beauties as my "personal sluts"?!

Why? Just because I have a big dick? I must have been barking mad!

He settled down and tried to be more optimistic. No, I can't think of things that way. The fact is, the personal slut thing is a done deal already for Kate, Erin, AND Monica. And Jordan is like a ripe fruit just waiting to be picked. It's all downhill from here. No matter what happens with Jack and Vince, I've already won. So it would be ridiculous to lose my nerve now. So what if Kate is ridiculously wealthy? I obviously fulfill some kind of deep need for her, and it's not just my big dick, because we're developing a strong emotional bond that goes beyond sex.

He sighed. Speaking of Jack, damn him to hell! It's fucked up, because we're in the middle of pranking him, yet I wouldn't be here in the first place if it hadn't have been for his attempted prank. I wish I could get in a time machine and hear that lecture he gave me to psych me up. Obviously he wasn't on the level, but his advice worked! What did he say? "Just be as confident and demanding as humanly possible, like you're the king of the world and she's your servant."

He mulled that over in his mind. You know what? That's just as true as ever. I know it doesn't seem fair, but that's how things always work in the porn stories I've read. It's about mutual pleasure and they're having as much fun as I am, so what's the harm? One can be poor in wealth and vice in spirit, or vice versa. It's all about attitude. I just have to keep acting like I AM the king of the world, and it will kind of become a self-fulfilling prophecy!

He was still thinking along those lines when there was a knock on the door. He went to the door and asked in his best imitation of a high-pitched female voice, "Who is it?"

He heard a giggle. "Ryan, it's me, Jordan. Can I come in?" "Sure." He opened the door.

She walked through the door with a big smile. "Hey."

"Hey." He wanted to hug her, but felt awkward about it. He was still having self-confidence issues, and he was feeling daunted by her extraordinary beauty.

She closed the door behind her and said, "Don't quit your job to become a female impersonator." He forced a grin. "I was just playing it safe. What's the news from downstairs?!"

"Not much to report yet, but things are going according to plan, as far as I know. Remember, all I was supposed to do was get Nancy and Brandy and try to get them to join us. I did that, but I didn't do much talking. I was antsy to get out of there before Jack and Vince showed up, which I did. But the good news is, Brandy told us she was willing to help us pretty much from the moment she heard we were out to catch a couple of date rapists."

By this time, Jordan had crossed the room and sat in a chair. Ryan remained standing because he was feeling antsy. He said, "I don't know how to ask this without sounding like some kind of male chauvinist jerk, so I'll just go an ask it anyway: is Brandy one of those male-hating kind of lesbians?"

"Oh no, not at all. She's really nice to everybody. She's one of those 'smiles all the time' kind of people. So I was kind of surprised to see her get sort of grim and resolute when we explained what we were planning. Maybe there are sides to her I don't know, since I'm still getting to know her. But even so, I know she's not a man hater. In fact, she has some male friends from her classes who stop by to visit from time to time."

"Ah. That's a relief. Sorry for asking. I feel kind of dumb. But there are those kinds of lesbians, aren't there? I'm kind of a small town kind of guy, and pretty much all I know about lesbians come from TV and movies."

Jordan waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. Anyway, the only other news I can report is that Nancy is fully on board and keen to help. In fact, she actually found not one, but two pairs of handcuffs!"

His mouth opened in surprise. "No way! Really?!"

She coquettishly ran a hand through her short, platinum blonde hair. "Really. In fact, I dropped them in my room on the way here. I have all three of them together, ready for action."

"Cool. That's good news."

Jordan said, "Other than that, I guess all we can do is sit and wait."

"Yeah." He ran a hand through his hair unthinkingly as well as he worried about what the others were doing. He had a lot of questions he wanted answers to. But he knew that the best thing he could do was sit and wait.

Jordan nodded at a chair next to hers. "Sit down. Relax. You look stressed out." "That's 'cos I AM stressed out."

She'd been on the verge of trying to sexually tempt him, but she decided against it because he seemed too upset to get aroused. She suggested, "Well, I don't have to ask what you're stressing out about. I'm worried about the same things too. I think the best thing we can do is talk about other things and try to keep our minds occupied until we hear more."

"Yeah, good idea." But he was frowning, just as he had been most of the time since well before Jordan arrived. "What do you want to talk about? I guess we could talk about anything, because I know so little about you and you know so little about me."

She put a hand on her chin. "Hmmm. There's so much I'm just dying to ask you about, starting with this whole 'personal slut' idea of yours. It's true that I've heard some about it, but the more I hear, the more I find it impossible to believe. But you know what? Let's not talk about that, or any of the other likely topics. I know what will put you most at ease: talking about paleontology."

He raised an eyebrow. "You know about paleontology too?!"

She chuckled. "No, unfortunately not much. I've watched a few documentaries about dinosaurs, but that's about it. But I do know a lot about biology and zoology, because I'm studying to be a chemist, so I take classes in related fields."

"Chemistry?! Really?!"

She grinned. "Really. Is that so surprising?" "YES! You don't look like a chemist, like, at all!"

"What do I look like?" She shifted her position in her chair, subtly moving in a sexier pose.

He looked her over carefully. Hot damn! She's such a babe! She's almost like Monica's twin, which is a very high compliment. Same exact E-cup sized boobs. I can't wait to play with those! Same short size. Even their faces have a certain similarity. Except their hair and skin couldn't be more different. Now, what does somebody who looks that sultry do for a living that doesn't actually involve sex?

He finally said, "A fashion model, maybe. Movie star, perhaps? I don't know!" He flapped his arms helplessly. "You do whatever the super beautiful people do. Lifestyles of the rich and famous and all that."

She giggled with obvious delight. "You flatter me. I'll give you all night to stop! The truth is, I'm kind

of a science geek."

He thought, Science geek? First Kate, now Jordan. I thought the "beautiful people" stayed away from geeky fields, but I guess not. God, I'm starting to really love college!

She said, "So tell me about YOUR geeky passion. I overheard some of what you and Kate were talking about earlier and it sounded really interesting. Is it true what you were saying about the 'age of the insects'? Was there really a time like that?"

His face lit up, like seeing a familiar friend. "Oh yeah, sure! That's just what it was. Back in the Carboniferous period, all the anthropoids were much larger. For instance, there was a scorpion, the Pulmonoscorpius, that was over two feet long!" He held his hands out to estimate the size.

"Wow! Seriously?"

"Yeah. And there was a predatory dragonfly, the Meganeura, with a wingspan of almost three feet!" He widened the distance between his hands to show that size.

"No way!"

"That's not all. There was a millipede-like creature, the Arthropleura, that grew up to eight and a half feet long!"

Jordan gave him a discouraging look. "Okay, now you're just making shit up." "No, I'm serious! They were all bigger. Everything was bigger."

She quipped, "So, is your penis from the Carboniferous era too?"

He chuckled. "No. But I'm serious about things being bigger back then. You should have seen the cockroaches." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Ewww!" Jordan lifted her feet up and curled up in her chair, as if a giant cockroach was running around the floor.

He chuckled at that. "In fact, we even sort of have proof in this very room." He strode across the room to where Kate had some objects captured in amber. He picked one up and brought it back to Jordan. "Take a look at this. That's an ant. Now, this isn't from the Carboniferous. It's about two hundred million years later than that, from, oh, I'd guess about one hundred to ninety million years ago. But it's bigger than any ant today, isn't it?"

Jordan held the amber encased specimen with wonder. "Wow! It definitely is! Is this Kate's? How did she get it?!"

"I have no idea. She's got a mini-museum going on here, it seems. It's pretty amazing. But as a chemist, you'll be interested in why insects were larger back then. You see, in the Carboniferous period, the oxygen level was about 33 percent of the atmosphere, way more than the 21 percent today. Even in the Cretaceous period, which is when that ant you're holding is from, the oxygen level was still high, at about 30 percent. And it turns out that oxygen is the limiting factor on insect size, due to different circulatory systems."

He proceeded to explain more on why insects were larger back then. He made a particular point to emphasize the chemical aspect, knowing that Jordan would have a special interest and understanding of that.

Jordan was fascinated, partially due to the chemistry angle, but mostly because giant-sized insects made for a very interesting discussion. She was impressed by Ryan's level of scientific knowledge, as well as his scientific passion. She also was secretly pleased, because her goal had been to distract Ryan

from his worries by getting him talking about something totally unrelated to their current situation. Clearly she had succeeded in spades, and she'd distracted herself from those same worries.

The two of them were talking up a storm when they heard a thump on the door, and then the sound of a key turning in the lock.

Ryan and Jordan froze, and all their worries came flooding back.

Kate slipped into the room. She looked somewhat agitated, but she also had a smile on her face. She bee-lined to Ryan, whispering, "It's happening! Everything is going according to plan!"

Nothing was said for a while after that, because Kate reached Ryan, enveloped him in a hug and began French kissing him. It was an important kiss in their rapidly evolving relationship, because neither of them were aroused at all, and it was all about emotional bonding and reassurance instead. Even though things were going as planned, Kate wanted to feel safe and comforted, and she felt that in Ryan's arms and in his tender kiss.

Neither of them said anything, but they both could sense that this was sealing the fact that they were falling in love with each other. Their kiss and their touch said more than words ever could. They were both grateful that each of them was fully dressed, because that helped them from letting their lusty urges spin out of control.

When the kiss finally ended, Kate looked dreamily up into Ryan's eyes. "Mmmm! Honey! I really needed that!"

He'd been in a dreamy, loving fugue, but now that the kiss was over, his worries returned with even greater force. He whispered, "Me too. But what's happening?! Where are Jack and Vince?!"

Kate remained in his arms as she explained, "You're behind the times. They've been in Monica's room for a while now."

"A while?!" He felt a sense of panic welling up in him.

She squeezed him reassuringly, while subtly pressing her massive melons into his chest. "Relax! We're on top of it. Erin is monitoring things from the cell phone in her room, and Brandy and Nancy are in there too. We decided not to worry you two since there wasn't anything for you to do, and you would just freak out with worry."

"Thanks, I guess, but now I really am freaking out!" He broke the hug and started pacing around. "What's happening to Monica?! Is she okay?!"

Kate spoke reassuringly while still whispering. "She's fine. Erin and I helped Jack and Vince carry her up the stairs, although the two of us mostly just watched them carefully to make sure they didn't try to cop any feels. Monica makes a surprisingly good passed-out body, at least so far. She can't let go with her fiery temper if she's supposed to be sleeping."

He grunted affirmatively, too stressed to talk.

Kate went on, "We put her on her bed in her room and left her with the two creeps, to 'protect' her. As expected, they decided to wait a couple of minutes, just to make sure we went back down to the party. I went to the bathroom, lingered a little bit, and then went back to bother them about some little thing, just to spook them a little bit. And that pretty much gets you up to date. They were starting to talk about taking her clothes off, so I came in here to get you ready. Also, Jordan, where are those handcuffs? We could really use them now."

Jordan had been listening to every word, and snapped to attention like a soldier. "They're in my room! Can I get them? Is it clear to go into the hallway?"

Kate replied, "It is, but don't linger. Just grab 'em and go straight to Erin's room." "Will do!" Jordan was already heading to the door, and was gone in a flash.

With only Kate and Ryan left in the room, Kate looked down at his crotch, and asked, "So how have you been? How is The Beast doing? Has he started to wake up yet?"

"Unfortunately, no. How can it, when I'm all stressed out?!"

She resumed eye contact. "So what have you been doing? I was half-expecting to walk in here and find Jordan naked and kneeling, bobbing on your cock. Haven't you started seducing her to being your next personal slut?"

"Actually, no. In fact, we've been talking about oxygen levels in the atmosphere during the Carboniferous period."

She did a double take, and frowned. "You're kidding me!"

"No, I'm serious. In fact, I was showing this to her a few minutes ago." He picked up the amber- encased ant that Jordan had been holding. "I've got questions about how you..." But then he did a double take of his own. "Wait a minute! What are we doing, just making small talk at this critical moment?! What about Jack and Vince?!"

She shyly admitted, "I'm stalling for time, because they're probably taking Monica's clothes off right now, and I could see how possessive and protective you were getting towards her. That's nice, and I'm not THAT jealous about it, but we don't want you hulking out in some anger frenzy. In fact, we want you as your usual 'cool as a cucumber' self. You see, Erin and I were talking in private a couple of minutes ago, and we decided that it would be good if you go in there first, all on your own."

"What?! Me?! I thought the place was that we'd go as a group and overwhelm them with sheer numbers?"

"Yes, but the problem is we need to whisk all those recording devices out of there and start making back-up copies of all the relevant files ASAP. And that's tricky, because what if they catch on right away and try the violence route? If YOU go in there, alone, Jack in particular is going to be so shocked that he won't know up from down. 'What the heck are YOU doing there'? Right?"

She went on, "So you should distract them by whatever means necessary. Play along with his original prank for a while, if that floats your boat. Then Erin and I will come in a minute later, and that'll further blow their minds, to see that we know you and actually like you. We'll keep distracting them, and more of our team will come in, further confusing them. We'll be able to pick up the recordings without being noticed in all the commotion, I'm sure."

He said, "Okay, but why me alone first? Why not, say, you and me?"

"Ah! That's the brilliant part of the plan. I came up with this part, I'm proud to say. If you go in there alone, you're going to find them AND Monica's naked or nearly naked body. If it's just you, they'll try some bullshit excuse and try to cover up her nudity. They won't know that you know they're supposed to be 'guarding' her. But if Kate or I come in too, they'll know what we know, and they'll realize the gig is up. So your goal is to prevent them from realizing that as long as possible. Hopefully, by the time they do, they'll be surrounded, the recordings will be gone, and we can use the handcuffs on them if need be."

She belatedly added, "Oh! And a key thing is that you need to knock on the door and say who you are. If it was me, they'd know I have the pass key and can get in any room. Or maybe they'd worry we found Monica's keys. With you, they can stall and make Monica's body presentable. That'll make them think they got away with it. You understand?"

He furrowed his brow. "Well, kind of. That's a pretty dramatic change of plan, this late in the game. And shouldn't that be happening, like, NOW, already?!"

"It should. As we-"

He interrupted her by asking, "What about Monica?! I'm getting really worried about them undressing her! At this very second, while we stand here doing nothing!"

Kate soothingly ran a hand across his chest. "Don't be. We've dressed her in more layers than a Russian babooshka granny. And the capper is that she's wearing a corset that takes ages to get off. Even so, as we've been talking, I've been waiting for a knock on the door. But since there isn't one, let's go to Erin's room and see what's up."

Ryan's mind was running a mile a minute as he walked with Kate towards the door. Oh, fuck me! I have to face those assholes alone, and act like I don't know what's going on?! I'm no actor. Actually, it's probably a very good thing I didn't learn this twist until now, because I would be way too stressed out. I'm still playing catch up.

And what about Monica?! Dear God! It doesn't take THAT long to take her clothes off, no matter how many layers she's wearing. What if they're... oh my God! What if they're raping her already?! How can everybody be so calm?! We need to go in there and save her, NOW!

As soon as Kate and Ryan walked into the hallway, Erin opened her door a crack and made eye contact. She pointed toward Monica's door and mouthed the words, "Ryan! You're up!"

Ryan brought a hand to his chest and made a plaintive look as if to ask, "ME?! Are you sure?!"

Erin nodded, and gave him the thumbs up.

Kate patted his back and then rushed to Erin's door. She disappeared inside and Erin closed the door.

He found himself standing in front of Monica's door. SHIT! Scary! But I can't stand here fretting like Hamlet. Monica could be on the verge of getting raped, or they could be raping her right now! Every second counts!

He boldly knocked on the door. "Jack! It's Ryan. Some guy downstairs told me you were up here and you've been looking for me all night. I've been looking for you too. Are you there?"

There was a long pause without any response. Ryan's heart seemed on the verge of thumping right out of his chest. He was starting to sweat from sheer nervousness.