The First Annual UK TickleFest

[BOFH666]

The rain lashed against the windows of my car as I peered out into the gathering dusk, the windscreen wipers fighting a loosing battle against the seemingly endless torrent of water that poured from the heavens. Wishing for the hundredth time that day I’d swallowed my pride and bought something with a navigation system I finally made out the beckoning neon sign of the hotel up ahead. Even with the advance warning I almost missed the turn and the back of the people carrier twitched nervously as I hauled it round onto the narrow drive.

The hotel itself was, well, unusual to say the least. The main reception and facilities where held in a modern, upmarket building while the rooms themselves were in a separate building set slightly further back. Adding to the uniqueness of the place was the fact the second building was an old Georgian mansion, enough space for almost a hundred rooms with en-suite and quite a popular place during the summer for upper-middle class families to use as their base from which to explore the Welsh countryside.

Of course, that was in summer, in the heart of winter things were a little different. Aside from the occasional booking to a company for ‘team building events’ and a busy season over the Christmas holidays the hotel was almost dead from October onwards. Not that I was complaining as it had given us a unique opportunity that I’d been looking forward to for months, the first national tickle meet in the UK for years was coming to town.

Actually, judging by the number of cars already parked up, the first national tickle meet had come to town already and from a quick count it looked like it was going to be a pretty damn good turnout. Ever since we’d started putting the tickling scene back together almost a year ago we’d been building up to this, and it looked like it was going to be as good as we had hoped. Not that any of that really mattered at the moment, as my immediate priority was to get the equipment I had loaded in the boot out and in place in record time to make up for my late arrival.

Reversing up to the front door of the hotel proper I grabbed a waterproof jacket from the passenger seat and stepped out into the driving rain. There was a gentle splash and a quick glance down showed almost half an inch of water lapping around my boots as I sploshed my way over to the hotel entrance. As I got within a few yards the door swung open and a group of a dozen people swarmed out, all dressed for the weather and eager to help. They swept past me in a tide, most I recognised, a couple I didn’t and then one in particular caught my eye. God she was gorgeous, every time I met her it was like I was seeing her for the first time, and true to form I pretty much stood and stared for a few seconds as my brain tripped out. Still, we’d been through this so many times by now Mary knew it wasn’t anything to worry about, and in fact she’d rather come to enjoy the attention.

Once she was sure I’d recovered enough to at least try and speak she dashed out and grabbed me in a hug that threatened to send me right back into my coma, a spell she quickly broke when a hand slipped up under my coat and t-shirt to goose my ribs. A quick snort of laughter escaped my lips and she backed off, grinning, as she knew she’d just fired the first shot in our inevitable war that’d last the whole weekend. Sighing with longing, squashing down the impulse to give chase and retaliate, I turned back and helped with the unloading. With so many hands pitching in we had everything out in less than two minutes and I quickly parked up in a more official spot and headed inside.

The hotel was, surprisingly enough, quite tastefully decorated. They’d kept a lot of the original architecture and gone for a simple cream as the predominant colour, which leant an air of calm refinement to the place. Everywhere you looked it seemed like there were people milling about, dozens at least, maybe hundreds though that could have been my imagination getting carried away. For now though I couldn’t have much to do with them, there was too much else to do and my mingling time was practically non-existent thanks to my late arrival. Still, I thought as I headed for my room, there’d be time for that later, providing I was still breathing after what I knew was coming up.

The room itself was quite large, hell, everything was large in this place and with the entire hotel booked out just for our little convention we weren’t short on rooms. Two double beds, a sofa against the window and a large desk against one wall, the bathroom off to the right as you walked through the door and even a small breakfast bar at the far end. A glance in the mirror showed the results of five hours travelling and I threw my kit bag onto the spare bed and headed for the shower.

As the hot water flowed over my rather stiff body I thought about what I’d agreed to and, for the first time ever, felt a touch of nerves at what was to come. The general idea of this particular gathering was to provide somewhere that everyone could relax, chat and share in our mutual affection for this wonderful pastime. As part of that we had decided to copy an idea from the American meetings and put on several ‘demonstrations’ of proper tickling technique, both for education purposes and, more importantly, as a good ice breaker. Perhaps unsurprisingly there’d been reluctance amongst the attendees to volunteer for these demonstrations, something I could well understand. After all it was one thing to be tickled in front of six or so people as all our other local gatherings had been up to this point, something altogether different to put yourself in that position in front of a hundred or more. And so, to get the ball rolling I’d agreed to put myself forward as the opening act.

Now this wasn’t the first time I’d done so, in fact of the six other meets I’d been to I’d volunteered at four of them and had actually enjoyed the experience. For me it was a way to push my own boundaries, always finding out a little more about what I could or couldn’t take and those doing the tickling had always been sure to back off when I needed them to. This time however, it was going to be a little different, and it was that, rather than the scale of the event that had put the butterflies in my stomach.

The rules this time were simple, no time limit. Before it had always been a set time and if I held out, so much the better. Now though I’d put myself in a position where I’d have to break sooner or later. In all honest, that didn’t worry me overly much, I’d ‘gone long’ before and survived with nothing more than sore ribs for a few days and was looking forward to the challenge. What did worry me though was what the grand high poobah of the meet had mentioned in passing a few days earlier when we’d been hashing out the last little details. Something about a ‘special guest’ coming in for the demonstration that I knew on-line, and on-line only. I think it was the chuckle in his voice as he said it that set off the warning bells, and I’d spent a couple of sleepless nights wondering about who it was going to be, knowing that against some of the more…inventive members of the TMF I’d be reduced to a screaming, hysterical mess in about ten seconds flat.

All those thoughts I put to the back of my mind as I stepped from the bathroom and finished drying off. Pulling on a pair of black briefs, cycle shorts and jeans I turned and glanced in the mirror, pulling my game face on as I stared. My usually open personality sank down and was replaced with a far harder mask that, on occasion, has actually surprised me with how much it changes my normal expressions and mannerisms. Satisfied I grabbed a black t-shirt, pulled it on over my head and turned to the door, waiting patiently. I didn’t have to wait long.

The knock was quiet, polite but with the full force of destiny behind it. I stepped into the corridor and followed the two men that were waiting there down the hall to the conference room. Designed to hold two hundred suited and booted office workers, it easily accommodated almost a hundred tickle fans, even with the various bondage equipment that decorated the edges of the room. A glance over the faces looking towards me as I entered, still under escort, showed about a fifty / fifty split between those I knew and those I didn’t, not bad under the circumstances. We’d decided to play this almost as a piece of theatre, really start things off with a bang so to speak and I pulled every scrap of arrogance I could out of my rather limited acting repertoire as I walked casually towards the raised stage in the centre of the room.

There, waiting for me surrounded by a sea of people, was a simple enough setup, but one to strike fear into the heart of any ‘lee. A large, sturdy pair of stocks at one end of a metal frame that rose about six foot off the floor, it’s heavy construction hinting to it’s previous life as a multi gym. From the back of the frame a long metal rod extended with a set of padded restraints attached to one end, and several thick straps hung from the frame itself. It looked evil somehow, its purpose clearly to prevent any kind of escape and expose its victim to whatever devious punishments their tormenter could dream up.

Not a word was said as I stepped up to the stage, turning to stand next to the device and stare out over the crowd, controlling my rising excitement and nerves as best I could. That calm façade wavered and almost collapsed as Mary stepped from the crowd, walked up to the stage and without a word pulled the t-shirt up over my head and the jeans down from my waist, leaving me only the cycling shorts and briefs for modesty, everything else exposed. She carefully folded the items she’d removed and set them aside, then guided me into the middle of the contraption and started to secure me.

The straps looped around my thighs, calves and back; effectively acting as a suspension harness and supporting my weight easily while, unlike a bench, giving full access to both sides of my body. My ankles slipped into the stocks and the wood dropped into place with a rather permanent sounding click as the lock was snapped shut. Finally my arms went back to the pole, wrists securely locked into position, pulling my arms above my head, stretched out but in a fairly comfortable manner in a position I could maintain for hours if necessary. Then, the final touch, a blindfold slipped over my eyes and buckled behind my head, perfectly placed to block any view whatsoever of what was to come.

As I hung there, waiting for the inevitable, I heard the poobah himself take on announcing duties, putting on his best ‘big fight announcer’ voice for the occasion.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first annual TickleFest UK! Now as you all know, we’re here to have some fun this weekend, and we hope you’ll all enjoy your time here. We’re delighted to see such a turnout, especially considering it’s been less than a year since our first local meeting.”

He paused for a second, switching gears slightly before continuing.

“As you’re probably aware, this man..” a pause as I assume he waved in my general direction “has issued a challenge to anyone that thinks they can break him in less than thirty minutes.” That was news to me, and I swallowed, wishing suddenly that I’d not let him write his own script for this. “We’ve had a lot of volunteers to prove him wrong, but in the end we went for one very special young lady who’s only just arrived here in the UK, though she’s been part of this community almost from day one.” Oh no, he couldn’t mean…

“So let’s give her a big round of applause, and of course, one soon to be broken victim, all the way from Canada…” I stopped listening, I didn’t need to hear the name to know what was about to happen and just for a moment I was truly scared. For months on the UK forums we’d been playing a little verbal game, her promising revenge every time I came up with a smart-arse interpretation of one of her postings. Not that I’d mind such revenge of course, but this wasn’t quite the circumstance I’d envisaged it happening in.

Straining my senses I caught the sound of light footfalls approaching me, a slight disturbance in the air as someone lent over me and waved a hand in front of my eyes to make sure I couldn’t see, a warm rush against my already sensitive skin as she breathed in my ear, whispering words meant only for me.

“Nice to see you at last my dear, I told you you’d regret your ways didn’t I?” The voice was everything I could ever have hoped for in a tickler, rich, breathy, playful but with enough menace behind it to send a shiver down the spine. At that moment I found myself torn, excitement at what was about to happen tempered with a growing sense of fear, the mix heady, intoxicating as I could do nothing but wait.

Seconds seemed to stretch into hours as I braced for the first touch against my flesh, every sound in the room magnified a hundred times, the audience going silent in anticipation, every eye drawn to the spectacle laid on for them. The sense of occasion was everything we’d planned it to be, a great gathering of tension not just for those directly involved but also for all those present. For my part, I now had some idea what being a sacrifice in ancient Rome would have been like, the eager anticipation of a crowd for acts that would, under other circumstances, be considered inhumane to say the least. And still I waited, no hint of movement to show me where she was, no sound to lock on to as the entire room settled into a great cacophony of silence.

Then the touch came, and it was devastating. Something long and soft dragging over my arches, up my soles, through my toes and back again. The feather, for surely that’s what it was, caught me totally off guard and a burst of laughter was pulled from me before I could do anything to prevent it. Desperately I grabbed at my self-control, pulling it in tight as I fought for balance, for calm, knowing that if I was to have any chance of surviving this I had to hold my physical reactions at bay for as long as possible.

The feather danced again, still caressing my bare feet, over and over again in a pattern that, to my great relief quickly became predictable. With an effort I stilled my body, forced my mind to relax and accept the ticklish sensations as just that, another sensation to be controlled. My breathing slowed from the staccato riff it had been beating and settled back to normal, and I could almost feel the surprise pouring from both the audience and my tickler. One last swipe against my soles and the feather vanished for a second, only to reappear at my calves, travelling slowly upwards over my legs. Against my calves it was bearable, but that was only going to be the warm up. With the exception of my feet most of my more ticklish areas are between knees and chest, and from the deliberate touch of that feather she had every intention of testing them all.

Sure enough, with the dreadful inevitability of the rising tide the feather flowed up my body. Around my knees, swirling in the hollow behind them until I thought I’d go insane from trying to hold on to my control. Then the long, slow, torturous climb up my thighs, the only saving grace the bicycle shorts that at least prevented the feather from touching the upper thighs, I didn’t know then if I could take that, even after such a brief period of time. Up to my hips and stomach it moved, and as the minutes dragged slowly by I started to realise the truly devilish nature of this woman, her touch intended not to break but to tyre, to wear down and to explore. Every seemingly random touch was telling her more about my body and its reactions than I probably knew myself, and by the time she reached my arms I was gasping for air between clenched teeth, eyes screwed tight behind the blindfold as I tried to retreat into myself, only to find that path blocked by the rising laughter that now bubbled just under the surface.

Suddenly she switched directions and tactics, a hard, scratchy point flicking over my ribs and stomach, such a different touch than what had gone before it was almost impossible to resist it. Almost, but not quite as I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood and battled onward. My mind registered she must have flipped the feather end for end, using it as a quill now to pick and prod at those areas she’d seen affect me so badly before. She flicked the quill along my hips, tracing the line of my waist as I yanked futilely at the restraints around my wrists. My entire body was vibrating with the effort of keeping the laughter dammed up inside, bright lights flashing behind closed eyelids as my usual resolve faltered, wavering on the very edge of collapse.

Then, suddenly, miraculously, it stopped, the quill pulling back and away from my skin, the faint sounds of her bare feet on the stage moving away from me slightly giving me a chance for pause, to draw a breath and try to recover. That break lasted for all of ten seconds, and then a new sound reached me that sent shivers down my spine. A strange, yet horribly familiar, electric sound, as if a small motor was working at high speed somewhere close by. I could think of a half dozen devices that would use such a motor off the top of my head, and knew that any one of them would be capable of delivering that last fatal blow to my control. I tensed as the buzzing came closer, moving around my head, held so close to my ears I could practically feel the vibrations it caused yet never quite touching. The sound moved down, over my chest, over my stomach and hips, over my thighs and I curled my toes as I guessed the final destination of this new instrument of torment. I guessed wrong.

[BOFH666]

The rain lashed against the windows of my car as I peered out into the gathering dusk, the windscreen wipers fighting a loosing battle against the seemingly endless torrent of water that poured from the heavens. Wishing for the hundredth time that day I’d swallowed my pride and bought something with a navigation system I finally made out the beckoning neon sign of the hotel up ahead. Even with the advance warning I almost missed the turn and the back of the people carrier twitched nervously as I hauled it round onto the narrow drive.

The hotel itself was, well, unusual to say the least. The main reception and facilities where held in a modern, upmarket building while the rooms themselves were in a separate building set slightly further back. Adding to the uniqueness of the place was the fact the second building was an old Georgian mansion, enough space for almost a hundred rooms with en-suite and quite a popular place during the summer for upper-middle class families to use as their base from which to explore the Welsh countryside.

Of course, that was in summer, in the heart of winter things were a little different. Aside from the occasional booking to a company for ‘team building events’ and a busy season over the Christmas holidays the hotel was almost dead from October onwards. Not that I was complaining as it had given us a unique opportunity that I’d been looking forward to for months, the first national tickle meet in the UK for years was coming to town.

Actually, judging by the number of cars already parked up, the first national tickle meet had come to town already and from a quick count it looked like it was going to be a pretty damn good turnout. Ever since we’d started putting the tickling scene back together almost a year ago we’d been building up to this, and it looked like it was going to be as good as we had hoped. Not that any of that really mattered at the moment, as my immediate priority was to get the equipment I had loaded in the boot out and in place in record time to make up for my late arrival.

Reversing up to the front door of the hotel proper I grabbed a waterproof jacket from the passenger seat and stepped out into the driving rain. There was a gentle splash and a quick glance down showed almost half an inch of water lapping around my boots as I sploshed my way over to the hotel entrance. As I got within a few yards the door swung open and a group of a dozen people swarmed out, all dressed for the weather and eager to help. They swept past me in a tide, most I recognised, a couple I didn’t and then one in particular caught my eye. God she was gorgeous, every time I met her it was like I was seeing her for the first time, and true to form I pretty much stood and stared for a few seconds as my brain tripped out. Still, we’d been through this so many times by now Mary knew it wasn’t anything to worry about, and in fact she’d rather come to enjoy the attention.

Once she was sure I’d recovered enough to at least try and speak she dashed out and grabbed me in a hug that threatened to send me right back into my coma, a spell she quickly broke when a hand slipped up under my coat and t-shirt to goose my ribs. A quick snort of laughter escaped my lips and she backed off, grinning, as she knew she’d just fired the first shot in our inevitable war that’d last the whole weekend. Sighing with longing, squashing down the impulse to give chase and retaliate, I turned back and helped with the unloading. With so many hands pitching in we had everything out in less than two minutes and I quickly parked up in a more official spot and headed inside.

The hotel was, surprisingly enough, quite tastefully decorated. They’d kept a lot of the original architecture and gone for a simple cream as the predominant colour, which leant an air of calm refinement to the place. Everywhere you looked it seemed like there were people milling about, dozens at least, maybe hundreds though that could have been my imagination getting carried away. For now though I couldn’t have much to do with them, there was too much else to do and my mingling time was practically non-existent thanks to my late arrival. Still, I thought as I headed for my room, there’d be time for that later, providing I was still breathing after what I knew was coming up.

The room itself was quite large, hell, everything was large in this place and with the entire hotel booked out just for our little convention we weren’t short on rooms. Two double beds, a sofa against the window and a large desk against one wall, the bathroom off to the right as you walked through the door and even a small breakfast bar at the far end. A glance in the mirror showed the results of five hours travelling and I threw my kit bag onto the spare bed and headed for the shower.

As the hot water flowed over my rather stiff body I thought about what I’d agreed to and, for the first time ever, felt a touch of nerves at what was to come. The general idea of this particular gathering was to provide somewhere that everyone could relax, chat and share in our mutual affection for this wonderful pastime. As part of that we had decided to copy an idea from the American meetings and put on several ‘demonstrations’ of proper tickling technique, both for education purposes and, more importantly, as a good ice breaker. Perhaps unsurprisingly there’d been reluctance amongst the attendees to volunteer for these demonstrations, something I could well understand. After all it was one thing to be tickled in front of six or so people as all our other local gatherings had been up to this point, something altogether different to put yourself in that position in front of a hundred or more. And so, to get the ball rolling I’d agreed to put myself forward as the opening act.

Now this wasn’t the first time I’d done so, in fact of the six other meets I’d been to I’d volunteered at four of them and had actually enjoyed the experience. For me it was a way to push my own boundaries, always finding out a little more about what I could or couldn’t take and those doing the tickling had always been sure to back off when I needed them to. This time however, it was going to be a little different, and it was that, rather than the scale of the event that had put the butterflies in my stomach.

The rules this time were simple, no time limit. Before it had always been a set time and if I held out, so much the better. Now though I’d put myself in a position where I’d have to break sooner or later. In all honest, that didn’t worry me overly much, I’d ‘gone long’ before and survived with nothing more than sore ribs for a few days and was looking forward to the challenge. What did worry me though was what the grand high poobah of the meet had mentioned in passing a few days earlier when we’d been hashing out the last little details. Something about a ‘special guest’ coming in for the demonstration that I knew on-line, and on-line only. I think it was the chuckle in his voice as he said it that set off the warning bells, and I’d spent a couple of sleepless nights wondering about who it was going to be, knowing that against some of the more…inventive members of the TMF I’d be reduced to a screaming, hysterical mess in about ten seconds flat.

All those thoughts I put to the back of my mind as I stepped from the bathroom and finished drying off. Pulling on a pair of black briefs, cycle shorts and jeans I turned and glanced in the mirror, pulling my game face on as I stared. My usually open personality sank down and was replaced with a far harder mask that, on occasion, has actually surprised me with how much it changes my normal expressions and mannerisms. Satisfied I grabbed a black t-shirt, pulled it on over my head and turned to the door, waiting patiently. I didn’t have to wait long.

The knock was quiet, polite but with the full force of destiny behind it. I stepped into the corridor and followed the two men that were waiting there down the hall to the conference room. Designed to hold two hundred suited and booted office workers, it easily accommodated almost a hundred tickle fans, even with the various bondage equipment that decorated the edges of the room. A glance over the faces looking towards me as I entered, still under escort, showed about a fifty / fifty split between those I knew and those I didn’t, not bad under the circumstances. We’d decided to play this almost as a piece of theatre, really start things off with a bang so to speak and I pulled every scrap of arrogance I could out of my rather limited acting repertoire as I walked casually towards the raised stage in the centre of the room.

There, waiting for me surrounded by a sea of people, was a simple enough setup, but one to strike fear into the heart of any ‘lee. A large, sturdy pair of stocks at one end of a metal frame that rose about six foot off the floor, it’s heavy construction hinting to it’s previous life as a multi gym. From the back of the frame a long metal rod extended with a set of padded restraints attached to one end, and several thick straps hung from the frame itself. It looked evil somehow, its purpose clearly to prevent any kind of escape and expose its victim to whatever devious punishments their tormenter could dream up.

Not a word was said as I stepped up to the stage, turning to stand next to the device and stare out over the crowd, controlling my rising excitement and nerves as best I could. That calm façade wavered and almost collapsed as Mary stepped from the crowd, walked up to the stage and without a word pulled the t-shirt up over my head and the jeans down from my waist, leaving me only the cycling shorts and briefs for modesty, everything else exposed. She carefully folded the items she’d removed and set them aside, then guided me into the middle of the contraption and started to secure me.

The straps looped around my thighs, calves and back; effectively acting as a suspension harness and supporting my weight easily while, unlike a bench, giving full access to both sides of my body. My ankles slipped into the stocks and the wood dropped into place with a rather permanent sounding click as the lock was snapped shut. Finally my arms went back to the pole, wrists securely locked into position, pulling my arms above my head, stretched out but in a fairly comfortable manner in a position I could maintain for hours if necessary. Then, the final touch, a blindfold slipped over my eyes and buckled behind my head, perfectly placed to block any view whatsoever of what was to come.

As I hung there, waiting for the inevitable, I heard the poobah himself take on announcing duties, putting on his best ‘big fight announcer’ voice for the occasion.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first annual TickleFest UK! Now as you all know, we’re here to have some fun this weekend, and we hope you’ll all enjoy your time here. We’re delighted to see such a turnout, especially considering it’s been less than a year since our first local meeting.”

He paused for a second, switching gears slightly before continuing.

“As you’re probably aware, this man..” a pause as I assume he waved in my general direction “has issued a challenge to anyone that thinks they can break him in less than thirty minutes.” That was news to me, and I swallowed, wishing suddenly that I’d not let him write his own script for this. “We’ve had a lot of volunteers to prove him wrong, but in the end we went for one very special young lady who’s only just arrived here in the UK, though she’s been part of this community almost from day one.” Oh no, he couldn’t mean…

“So let’s give her a big round of applause, and of course, one soon to be broken victim, all the way from Canada…” I stopped listening, I didn’t need to hear the name to know what was about to happen and just for a moment I was truly scared. For months on the UK forums we’d been playing a little verbal game, her promising revenge every time I came up with a smart-arse interpretation of one of her postings. Not that I’d mind such revenge of course, but this wasn’t quite the circumstance I’d envisaged it happening in.

Straining my senses I caught the sound of light footfalls approaching me, a slight disturbance in the air as someone lent over me and waved a hand in front of my eyes to make sure I couldn’t see, a warm rush against my already sensitive skin as she breathed in my ear, whispering words meant only for me.

“Nice to see you at last my dear, I told you you’d regret your ways didn’t I?” The voice was everything I could ever have hoped for in a tickler, rich, breathy, playful but with enough menace behind it to send a shiver down the spine. At that moment I found myself torn, excitement at what was about to happen tempered with a growing sense of fear, the mix heady, intoxicating as I could do nothing but wait.

Seconds seemed to stretch into hours as I braced for the first touch against my flesh, every sound in the room magnified a hundred times, the audience going silent in anticipation, every eye drawn to the spectacle laid on for them. The sense of occasion was everything we’d planned it to be, a great gathering of tension not just for those directly involved but also for all those present. For my part, I now had some idea what being a sacrifice in ancient Rome would have been like, the eager anticipation of a crowd for acts that would, under other circumstances, be considered inhumane to say the least. And still I waited, no hint of movement to show me where she was, no sound to lock on to as the entire room settled into a great cacophony of silence.

Then the touch came, and it was devastating. Something long and soft dragging over my arches, up my soles, through my toes and back again. The feather, for surely that’s what it was, caught me totally off guard and a burst of laughter was pulled from me before I could do anything to prevent it. Desperately I grabbed at my self-control, pulling it in tight as I fought for balance, for calm, knowing that if I was to have any chance of surviving this I had to hold my physical reactions at bay for as long as possible.

The feather danced again, still caressing my bare feet, over and over again in a pattern that, to my great relief quickly became predictable. With an effort I stilled my body, forced my mind to relax and accept the ticklish sensations as just that, another sensation to be controlled. My breathing slowed from the staccato riff it had been beating and settled back to normal, and I could almost feel the surprise pouring from both the audience and my tickler. One last swipe against my soles and the feather vanished for a second, only to reappear at my calves, travelling slowly upwards over my legs. Against my calves it was bearable, but that was only going to be the warm up. With the exception of my feet most of my more ticklish areas are between knees and chest, and from the deliberate touch of that feather she had every intention of testing them all.

Sure enough, with the dreadful inevitability of the rising tide the feather flowed up my body. Around my knees, swirling in the hollow behind them until I thought I’d go insane from trying to hold on to my control. Then the long, slow, torturous climb up my thighs, the only saving grace the bicycle shorts that at least prevented the feather from touching the upper thighs, I didn’t know then if I could take that, even after such a brief period of time. Up to my hips and stomach it moved, and as the minutes dragged slowly by I started to realise the truly devilish nature of this woman, her touch intended not to break but to tyre, to wear down and to explore. Every seemingly random touch was telling her more about my body and its reactions than I probably knew myself, and by the time she reached my arms I was gasping for air between clenched teeth, eyes screwed tight behind the blindfold as I tried to retreat into myself, only to find that path blocked by the rising laughter that now bubbled just under the surface.

Suddenly she switched directions and tactics, a hard, scratchy point flicking over my ribs and stomach, such a different touch than what had gone before it was almost impossible to resist it. Almost, but not quite as I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood and battled onward. My mind registered she must have flipped the feather end for end, using it as a quill now to pick and prod at those areas she’d seen affect me so badly before. She flicked the quill along my hips, tracing the line of my waist as I yanked futilely at the restraints around my wrists. My entire body was vibrating with the effort of keeping the laughter dammed up inside, bright lights flashing behind closed eyelids as my usual resolve faltered, wavering on the very edge of collapse.

Then, suddenly, miraculously, it stopped, the quill pulling back and away from my skin, the faint sounds of her bare feet on the stage moving away from me slightly giving me a chance for pause, to draw a breath and try to recover. That break lasted for all of ten seconds, and then a new sound reached me that sent shivers down my spine. A strange, yet horribly familiar, electric sound, as if a small motor was working at high speed somewhere close by. I could think of a half dozen devices that would use such a motor off the top of my head, and knew that any one of them would be capable of delivering that last fatal blow to my control. I tensed as the buzzing came closer, moving around my head, held so close to my ears I could practically feel the vibrations it caused yet never quite touching. The sound moved down, over my chest, over my stomach and hips, over my thighs and I curled my toes as I guessed the final destination of this new instrument of torment. I guessed wrong.

[BOFH666]

“That’s better, and I didn’t even have to ask for the apology. That deserves a reward.” I said, coming in front of her again and kneeling down, capturing her lips in a kiss that contained all the passion I had for this incredible woman. As I pulled back I heard her moan in disappointment, and it took every bit of control I had not to grin in front of her. Yes, she was enjoying this, and whether she knew it or not, it would be that enjoyment that broke her will.

“Now, where were we? Ah yes, you were saying something about waking up?”

“Yes, there’s a part of me that only wakes up when you tickle me, that makes me feel alive like nothing else can.”

“I’m glad, because I want you to bathe in that feeling. Imagine it my love, an ever-rising tide of ticklish delight washing over your body as my hands explore your soles, finding every single ticklish spot you posses until your entire body is on fire with sensation and pleasure. Then, after I’ve tickled the very last spot on your feet with my nails, you hear a gentle whirring noise approaching…” I paused in my monologue, flicking on the electric toothbrush I’d pulled from my kit bag as I walked past and moving it slowly closer to her body, approaching from behind so she couldn’t see me.

“You know instinctively what it is don’t you?” Mary couldn’t answer verbally this time, her mind was struggling to cope with the tremendous excitement building in her body and all she could do was nod quickly as best she could in her bondage.

“You remember what this did to you when it was placed against your delicate, ticklish soles?” Again the nod came back, and now I could see her upper body trembling with anticipation. I twisted the brush in my hand so the flat plastic rather than the bristles were pointed towards her body.

“Well this time, I’m curious to see what will happen when this is used elsewhere. It’ll start at your feet…” I hovered the brush just over her soles, so close she could actually feel the vibrations on her skin but not quite touching. “… and then ever so slowly I’ll work my way up your body. Think of it; think of how wonderful it will feel travelling over your bare skin as it moved up your calves to your knees. Think of how it will feel to have it pressed in that special spot behind your knees, tucked into that little hollow.” Mary was panting now, her head pushed into the cushions as she tried to block her own imagination’s images of what I was describing, the low pitched hum of the toothbrush a constant companion as I hovered it over her body, following the path of my descriptions.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever told you this before, but you look so beautiful when you’re being tortured, it’s like a drug my love. I’ve found myself staring at you, unable to stop and, in my heart, not wanting to, just wanting that moment to go on forever. Well, I guess this is my chance, hell, I could just tape this in place and watch you writhe as your laughter washes over me. Would you like that my love?”

“N…. no, please don’t do that, please, please don’t.” She was babbling already, god it was as if I was actually tickling her so vivid was the scene in her imagination.

“But I thought that was what you wanted, what you needed?” Push on, that was the key, leave her confused, disorientated.

“Yes, but, I mean…” Mary trailed off and I knelt at her waist, the ominous buzz of the toothbrush becoming much louder as I laid it on the oak coffee table. My hands moved under her, unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them up slightly, leaving them loose over the curve of her ass. Without a word I picked up the brush and slid it under the denim, the bristles caressing the soft flesh and sending her into hysterics. She thrashed in her bonds, and I was forced to place a hand on the small of her back and hold her on the couch. For ten long, agonising, delightful seconds I ran the brush over her left cheek, then another ten seconds on her right before pulling it out and away, leaving her twitching in the aftermath for almost a minute. Once I was sure she had her breath back I started again.

“What did I say about hesitating my love?”

“Not to.”

“So why did you?”

“Because I didn’t know the answer.”

“Do you know it now?”

“Yes, I want your touch more than anything, need to feel you tickling my skin, but not like this, not after wearing me out, not pushing my limits like this. Please, don’t do this.” I could barely contain my joy at the slip, she’d acted as if I’d already tickled her into exhaustion, the lines between fantasy and reality had blurred for her and it wouldn’t take much to push her the rest of the way, even if only for a few seconds.

“Good girl” I said, leaving the brush on the table, walking up and giving her another kiss, this time running my hands back and over her shoulders, easing the tension in her muscles that the hogtie had caused. “You see, I don’t want to hear what you think the right answer is, only the truth.” I said, the hum of the brush adding an odd, almost sinister harmonic to my voice.

“But of course, we’re not done yet my love, after all there’s still this fabulous stomach to explore, and I remember just how sensitive you are around your ribs and breasts. Yes, I remember very well indeed. Tell me something, do you remember how we finished our last session together?”

“Yes…” Mary’s voice was a whisper now, so quiet I could barely hear it. Reaching into the champagne bucket I pulled two ice cubes out and held them in front of her eyes. As my hands moved in front of her, so her eyes tracked the ice, locked on it like a rabbit watching an oncoming truck. And then I knew exactly what it would take to break her, the last piece of the puzzle.

“I have to confess my love, I wasn’t sure how you’d react to this but there hasn’t been a single day go by when I didn’t think of you thrashing in ecstasy as the water dripped slowly off your body, seeing your flesh twitch and writhe at such a simple touch was just extraordinary, I’m glad we have this chance to repeat the experience.” With that I lent forward and slid one cube under the lip of her t-shirt, the cotton holding it in place against her neck.

Mary squealed and rocked, trying to escape as her body trembled from the new sensations at her neck. Again I placed a hand on her back to steady her, then placed my fingertips at the very bottom of the v-necked t-shirt, the tip of the second ice cube coming within the merest fraction of an inch of the tops of her breasts.

By now Mary was a panting mess as her own mind turned on her, the mere thought of what I was describing enough to have her giggling madly, every touch against her skin sending her into hysterics. It was a remarkable sight, but it was also one that I knew couldn’t be maintained for long as I knelt down in front of her, waiting for her eyes to swing up to meet my gaze before speaking, still holding the ice in place.

"Of course, there is a way for you to end this my love, a simple favour you could do for me."

Mary was physically shivering in her bonds now, and I could only imagine the war going on in her mind between the real and the imagined. "What... what's the favour?" She asked, the last word ending in a moan as my hand brushed down her back between her shoulder blades.

"Remember the lass that tickled me half to death last night?" I asked, my hand stroking slowly over her back, shoulders and arms now as I talked. Mary nodded quickly, her eyes trying to roll up into her head at the maddeningly light touch. "Well, I've a hankering for revenge, and you my love are going to help me."

"Hooooh....how?" Mary moaned as my hands swirled over her skin just below her armpits.

"Simple, just do what I ask, when I ask this weekend, that's all."

Mary paused, trying to marshal her thoughts as she considered my offer. "Okay, I'll do it but on twooooh condit..mmmmmm conditions." I stayed silent, the invite for her to continue hanging unspoken in the air. "I want to get a chance at her as well." Mary said, and despite my best efforts I felt my libido sit up and beg at the thought of those two going at it.

"Alright, I think I can arrange that. What's the other condition?" My hands were fluttering on the gentle curve of that normally flat stomach and Mary's eyes were flickering as if she were being electrocuted.

"Ahhhh, mmmm that feels goooooooooooh. I... .I want you to..... oooh yes... untie me, take me ohhhhhh just a little lower..... take me over to that bed and do what you did last time we........." Mary's words became a long, drawn out sigh as my hands moved to her hips, her eyes drifting closed just in time to hide my grin from her sight.

Working as quickly as I could I released her bonds, retrieving the now half-melted ice cube from her back and dropping them both back in the ice bucket. I slid my arms underneath her body and waited a moment for her to squirm round to face me, her arms looping around my neck as I lifted her up. For a long moment I just held her, luxuriating in the feel of her body, her beauty once again catching me a little off guard as I stared down at her. Her fingers found the back of my neck and wiggled gently over the skin, a subtle hurry up that betrayed her desires more clearly than any words could express. I covered the few steps to the bed in record time, depositing her onto the duvet and sliding down on top of her all in the same motion. My hands flew over her body and within the blink of an eye she was naked, her back arched up, her need and desire clear.

My hands found her ribs and started to build up a rhythm against her flesh. It wasn’t exactly a tickle, not really, though in her current state I think a simple flick of the wrist would have been enough to have Mary in hysterics. As she giggled and squirmed under me I brought my thigh up between her legs and she gripped me tight as I kept speeding up my teasing, tantalising touch. It was an odd thing, but we’d tried this the last time we’d spent the night together after she’d literally left me so exhausted after a prolonged tickle session I couldn’t move more than my fingers. The much slower build up this offered her seemed to just keep her climax building way beyond her normal limits, the tickling adding an extra distraction to keep her slightly off balance. It also had the distinct advantage of letting me concentrate on her fabulous body with my hands, lips and tongue, my entire focus now on giving her the release she craved.

For the next half an hour or so I teased her body, feeling her heart beat faster under my fingertips, her moans sending bolts of fire through me as she writhed with pleasure beneath me. Finally, I reached down with my right hand and caressed her mound, fingers spidering around her sopping core and one finger nail gently, oh so gently, caressing her clit. The reaction was instant, her legs locking tight around my thigh, squeezing so hard I thought for a moment she was going to do permanent damage to the muscle. Her back arched until only the crown of her head touched the pillows, her arms wrapping around my body and holding on as her cries echoed through the room. On and on it went, my fingers playing their own tune against her womanhood and pushing her onwards, her initial orgasm giving way to a second, then a third before I slowed my movements and allowed her to come down.

Gasping she lay under me for a long time, eyes closed as she waited for her body to recover from its experience. Finally her eyes fluttered open and locked on mine. She reached up with a hand, pulled me down and kissed me with a warmth and passion that left me stunned. With a look that seemed to shoot straight through me, down my spine and come to rest in my crotch, she reached out and slid the shorts off my thighs, hand trailing up my legs before guiding me into her…

How much time passed I didn’t know, and frankly didn’t care. All I cared about was the woman lying next to me, her arms and legs wrapped around me as we gazed at each other, lost in thought and wonder at the mere presence of the other. Our introspection was broken by the sound of running footsteps pounding up the hallway outside, followed closely by at least two more pairs of feet. There was a pause, the sound of a scuffle and a burst of hysterical laughter, another scuffle and then the running resumed. I turned and raised one eyebrow in my best 'what the heck was that' look and Mary cracked up. "Sounds like this party's getting into gear at last." She chuckled, hands goosing my ribs as she did so. I swallowed my own laugh with an effort and leant over to kiss her, still marvelling in the fact that a woman like this would not only be here with me, now, in this place and in this way but that she'd actively seek me out.

"Come on," I replied, somewhat reluctant to leave her embrace. "if we don't surface soon there's going to be all kinds of rumours about what we're up to."

"Mmmm, well we could always make sure they're all accurate..." Mary suggested, the look on her face enough to make me wish for a cold shower.

"True, but John's going to kill me if I don't at least make an appearance, I am meant to be helping him run this thing after all."

"You sure I can't tempt you...?" Mary purred, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into her embrace.

"Of course you can tempt me lass, that's kind of the point." I grinned "Tell you what, you doing anything tonight?"

"Nothing I couldn't cancel, why?"

"Come back here when things get quiet and we'll play, how's that sound?"

"Torturously far off, but you're on."

And so, five minutes or so later, we emerged into the hall and headed off towards the main room. We didn't make it ten yards before we heard a commotion behind us and turned.

"Make way!" came the shout as Keith rounded the corner and charged towards us. I'd known the guy for about a year and hadn't guessed he possessed such a good turn of speed. Somewhere along the line he'd lost his shirt and, I couldn't help noticing as he raced towards us, his shoes and right sock as well.

"Hi guys, great to see you and all that, can't stop, catch you later bye." Keith said as he skidded past us as we flattened against the walls. A glance in the direction he'd come from revealed the cause of this impromptu land-speed record attempt as two women I didn't recognise came into view, both brandishing a single feather as they pursued their prey. Chuckling I looked at Mary, who shook her head helplessly "Hey, at least everyone's loosening up." She said, and I was forced to agree.

We tracked John down at the 'relaxation area' setup in the main room. A small chunk of floor space, surrounded by velvet ropes and filled with comfy, squashy bean bags and a couple of soft chairs and sofa's there was a discrete sign on the entrance: “This is the relaxation area, no tickling allowed.” Another neat idea of John's, it gave people a sanctuary from the madness if it all got too much while keeping them in the mix. Surprisingly considering we were coming up on midday there were very few people occupying the seats, and we dropped onto a sofa opposite John without having to fight over it.

John took one look at us and grinned, turning to look out over the room until he spotted his target. "Tracy!" he called, waiting for a very pretty brunette to turn towards him before pointing to Mary and myself. A mix of annoyance and amusement passed over Tracy's face as she walked over and with good grace pulled a fiver out of her jeans and passed it over to John.

"And that was for...?" I asked, curious despite myself.

"Huh? Oh, just a little side bet on you two, nothing important."

"Oh come on," Mary replied, putting on her best 'little girl' look, "if it involved us I think we've got a right to know, surely?"

John had no more resistance to that look than I did. "Well, if you must know, I said it'd be less than twenty four hours before you two started acting like newlyweds again. Besides it doesn't even start to cover the dent you put in my account yesterday." I realised with some surprise the last comment had been aimed at me,

"Me? What did I do?"

"You lasted over an hour, that's what you did. I thought for sure you'd break before that."

"How sure?"

"Fifty quid sure."

"Ouch! Still, you should know better by now than to bet against me so you ain't getting any sympathy from me on that one." I said, leaning back into the sofa.

"Yeah yeah, she broke you didn't she?"

"After almost an hour and a half non-stop, yes. Plus I've been meaning to ask you, just how long have you two been planning that for?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"My friend, you are many things but a good liar ain't one of them. You had to have had that set up months ago for everything to come together as well as it did."

"Well, okay. She put the idea to me when we first started discussing this meet on the forums, I thought it'd be a chuckle, end of story."

"Fair enough, though you do know I'm going to be looking for some payback, yes?"

"Yeah of course, in fact I kind of mentioned that to her sometime in the planning stages, she seemed to think she could handle whatever you dished out."

"Really? Well, we'll have to see about that. Anyway, how's everything going, anything you need a hand with?" I asked, glancing around at the throng of people wandering through the room, the occasional head vanishing from sight as it's owner doubled over, their laughter ringing out above the general background noise.

"Nope, not really, everything seems to be running nice and smoothly. Just do me a favour and do a walkthrough of the corridors every so often would you? It's great that everyone’s so into this, but..."

"Yeah, I know, it'd be easy to go that bit too far. Okay, I'll keep an eye open, but if you don't need us, we're going to go a-wandering."

[BOFH666]

"Knock yourselves out. Oh, and Steve?"

"Mmm?"

"Almost forgot, the folks over at stand six asked me to give this to you last night, some sort of coupon or something, they didn't say exactly what it was." I took the small square of card, black with a gold border and a big gold "1" in the middle. Shrugging I pocketed it. "Thanks mate, if you need us, yell."

"Will do, now go have fun you crazy kids."

We walked off into the crowd as I tried to wrap my mind around the sheer number of people that had turned up. It might sound silly, but to go from six people in a North London flat to well over a hundred in less than a year just blew me away. The atmosphere was electric, the slightly reserved air of the previous night replaced with what could only be described as a party feeling. Everywhere you looked people were chatting, laughing, tickling and, if I was reading the hand gestures properly, swapping hints and tips with folks who had in many cases been total strangers less than a day ago.

Of course it didn't hurt my mood any that Mary had looped her arm around mine and was walking close enough to my side that she could lean her head on my shoulder and keep walking. Her scent wafted up and as always I found myself having to fight to resist her. Why she had that effect on me I'd never been able to work out, but from the first time I'd laid eyes on her it had been like a moth to a flame. Sure, she was beautiful but there was something else, something I couldn't describe and frankly I wasn't keen to try in case it broke whatever spell she'd weaved on me, and thankfully the reverse seemed to be true as well. Frankly the only reason we hadn't hit it off as a fully-fledged couple to this point was the slight problem of a three hundred mile round trip separating us when we were at the day jobs and a work schedule that meant we'd get at most one weekend in four together. So we went through the same routine every time we met up, common sense lasting for somewhere in the hour to two hours region before getting melted out of the way by passion. We'd come to terms with this odd on and off relationship over the months and had agreed that, no matter what happened in the long run, we were damn sure not going to regret anything we did together.

It was actually quite an odd experience walking through the crowd, stopping every few yards as one or the other of us spotted someone we knew, or when someone wanted to introduce themselves. It's always a big highlight of these meetings when you start putting faces to screen names, and I was delighted to finally get the chance to meet not only some of our more northerly UK members (the northern meet was the only one I'd never managed to attend thanks to a last minute job crisis) and, to my astonishment, a couple of upstanding Americans that had hopped a jet to our side of the pond just for this event. To my embarrassment more than one person had words of praise for the 'demonstration' they'd seen the previous night, with one of our American visitors striking up a conversation with Mary about what I was like as both tickler and ticklee while I squirmed in a mix of pride and horror as she didn't exactly hold back on her descriptions. It didn't help that Judy was a real looker too, slightly shorter and with a heavier build than Mary but by no means the worse for it. She didn't have the same primal attraction that I felt for Mary, but she was certainly desirable and the thought of having her at my mercy, or better still, all three of us in a mad free-for-all tickling session was enough to have me wishing I'd worn slightly looser jeans.

"So what you're saying is basically that he's ticklish as all hell, prideful enough to make it a challenge and is rather... inventive when it comes to retribution?" Judy asked with a grin that wasn't entirely innocent.

"Pretty much, just don't ever let him get his lips on you..." Mary replied, her own grin not entirely evil but as close as I think a human being can get.

"Huh?" Judy asked, confused. "His lips? Why would that be a bad thing?"

"Because he's got the lightest, most devastating touch with his mouth I've ever felt."

"You're kidding me?"

"I kid you not, the first time he used that little trick on me I damn near passed out."

"You're kidding me!"

"Nope, just the feeling of his lips vibrating against my skin as his tongue worked me over, god it sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it."

"Umm, I don't suppose there's any chance of a sample is there?" Judy asked, her tone light but her expression deadly serious.

Mary looked at me and raised one delicate eyebrow, mimicking my earlier expression. "Fine by me, you game?"

I grinned back, glancing around for a suitable spot, knowing what effect this was likely to have on the unsuspecting young woman before us. "Sure, umm, step this way" I said, guiding Judy over to a bare bit of wall a little way away from any booths or stands.

Taking on the role of tickling assistant Mary stepped forward and wrapped her right leg around Judy's and threw her left arm over the shorter woman's shoulders. With her free hand she rolled up Judy's t-shirt until her stomach was exposed to the air from her waist to a point just under her bra. I knelt down in front of her and wrapped my arms around her waist, partially to help my own balance and partially to hold her in place.

"Ready?" I asked. The only reply was a nod as Judy chewed her bottom lip and tried to prepare for what she was almost sure was going to be a pretty wild ride. She didn't know the half of it.

The instant my lips touched her skin I clamped them around her navel, leaving just enough of a gap to let them vibrate as I blew the air out of my lungs. The effect was simple enough, a 'raspberry' against her skin, a rapid vibration against already tensed muscles and a jerk of surprise from Judy that only proved just how good a hold we had on her. She wasn't going anywhere until we decided she could leave. Grinning I pulled back, looking up the length of her body as she recovered from the initial shock.

"More?" I asked, not that she really had a choice in the matter now but hoping I'd get the right answer anyway.

"God yes!" She replied, eyes wide in shock. That was all I needed to hear and this time I didn't take it easy or give her any chance to recover between blows. Within a few seconds she was laughing, within thirty she was twisting and turning to try and escape, within a minute she was begging for it to stop, and within two minutes Mary was actually supporting her weight as her legs gave out. As soon as that happened I stopped the rapid blowing and started a gentle series of kisses around her flat stomach, circling her belly button and giving her a chance to catch her breath.

"Oh...oh my god." Judy moaned, struggling to regain her balance. "That was... and this feels so.... you guys do this every night?"

"More or less." Mary replied and the affection I heard in her voice made my heart leap. "Of course, that's only when we're actually together but whenever we're not I can never go to sleep if I imagine him doing this to me in my own bed." Now that was news to me I thought, trying to judge my timing to perfection as my lips caressed Judy's stomach.

"Oooh, I can see why. Good lord this feels sooooo good."

"It gets better." Mary said, leaning in as she matched her words to my movements. "You see, that was only half of it..."

"What? What do you...ahhhhhNOOOO!" Judy cried as my lips locked back onto her belly button. Now though, while I was sucking air back into my lungs after each raspberry against her skin, my tongue dove out into that tempting hollow, lapping and licking at the sensitive skin and adding a whole new dimension to what had already been a pretty intense sensation. Suddenly it was proving to be rather difficult to keep Judy in one place even with both Mary and myself holding on to her. Judy jerked and bounced in our grasp, and it took every once of skill and concentration I had to keep my mouth in contact with her skin. Her laughter had shot up into the silent range almost immediately and I swear every dog for five miles around must have had its paws in its ears as a result. Again we gave her two minutes of this torment, and by the time it was over I was sweating from the effort to keep hold of this attractive tickle toy. Much to her relief she felt me pull back and away, and I got smoothly to my feet, making sure to end up at Mary's side as she checked Judy was able to stand on her own.

"So what did you think?" Mary asked, her hand slipping back to rub against my side, a 'good job' gesture intended more to reassure me she wasn't mad than anything else.

Judy meanwhile was staring off into space, eyes wide as she came back from wherever her ride had taken her. "That... that was... wow!" Both women dissolved into giggles, and I found myself wondering if I'd missed something.

"I know, he doesn't think it's anything special but..." Mary said, tailing off as she got lost in her own memories.

"Ohhhh yeah, god if you could bottle that you'd make a fortune. One thing though, umm, how can I put this?" Judy paused then leant forward and whispered into Mary's ear. Try as I might I couldn't catch a single word, but it was enough to set Mary giggling again.

"Yep, that sounds about right. And sorry, but no, you can't." She said cryptically.

"Damn, oh well, some people have all the luck. I'll see you guys around." Judy said, heading into the crowd.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"What was what about?" Mary replied, playing dumb.

"What was that whispered conversation about?"

"Oh.... nothing." Mary said, deliberately trailing the answer for me to follow up.

"Come on, 'fess up or I'll strap you into the nearest x-frame and tickle you into oblivion."

"This is meant to be a threat?"

"Depends, how embarrassed would you be to be forced to climax in front of everyone here?"

Mary swallowed at that, the thought generating equal parts excitement and fear. "Okay, fair enough. If you're going to do that, might as well wait until I've got something really juicy worth protecting. Judy just asked if it was normal to feel like she'd just had the worlds best foreplay after only a couple of minutes."

"Ah-ha, and the "No you can't" bit?"

"Oh, she wondered if I'd let her borrow you for a few minutes, can't imagine why of course..." Mary said, leaning forward to kiss me as she said it.

"So you're my pimp now?" I asked, as our lips parted. Mary instantly collapsed against my shoulder, shaking with laughter at the image that had popped into her mind.

"Oh god, that's... that's priceless it really is. I must admit though, there's something satisfying about that image, so yes, until tonight anyway, I be pimpin’ your services to whoever may need them most. Well, most of your services anyway." She grinned on the last and threw me a look that almost set my shoes on fire. "Some of 'em I wouldn’t want to share..."

"Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?" I asked, sliding my arms around her waist and pulling her body to mine.

"Not in the last hour or so, no." She breathed, tracing her fingers over m back in a random pattern that raised goose bumps under the t-shirt. "But you can make up for that little omission later on. Now come on, I think for once I've found somewhere to shop that you won't mind giving me your opinion on." She turned, snuggling up against my side as we headed for the first of the booths, stands and displays that ran around the edge of the room.

We'd put a lot of effort into this part of the event before hand, and I think it showed. We'd deliberately limited the number of vendors that could display their wares to eight, and had hand picked those that were given floor space to try and avoid duplication in what was available. The results were impressive to say the least, with seemingly every possible approach, method and tool that could be applied to this particular interest on display.

The first two booths were devoted to bondage and costumes respectively, and while we browsed there wasn’t really a lot that caught the eye. The simple fact of the matter is that we both found ourselves more inclined to improvise with whatever came to hand for restraints, and while we had used 'proper' bondage gear before, and probably would do so again, we didn't really feel the need to buy anything elaborate. That said, if we had done there was a hell of a range to choose from, with everything from furry handcuffs to full swing sets (including the frame) on display.

The next three displays seemed to have flowed into each other with the owners collaborating to produce one big stage area for their wares. It was actually a pretty good idea, as they were all selling what had been classified as 'furniture'. One specialised in the more medieval looking equipment, with stocks, pillory, x-frame and even a rack on display. The second had gone the other direction and had a range that was designed with a definite futuristic element in mind. All gleaming chrome and electric motors they looked like something out of a movie and more than one carried a discreet, yet highly visible, warning card that certain people (and here it had a long list of conditions like an amusement park ride) should not use this particular bit of equipment. They certainly seemed to be gathering a lot of attention, with more than one device occupied as particularly brave souls agreed to try them out and found themselves suspended and helpless and, of course, perfect tickling targets. Marvelling over the creativity shown in their construction I left Mary enthralled in a demonstration of what was billed as a 'fully independent frame' (basically an x-frame on a pivot that could rotate the victim through 360 degrees and vary the angle of the X to boot) and went to look at the rest of the display.

For me it was the third and final vendor that was the most interesting, and I suspected that while all the oooh's and ahh's would go the first two it was this man who'd go home with the majority of the orders. He'd specialised in turning common household items into rather ingenious restraints in such a way you could hide the modifications and display (and use) them as they were originally designed. As most of us don't have our very own dungeon at home I suspected these would prove quite popular. My eye was drawn to an elaborate multi-gym that was currently being demonstrated on a very attractive young redhead who looked like she was regretting volunteering.

She was currently lying on the weightlifting bench of the gym, her feet strapped to a bar that dropped from a long metal arm overhead. The bar itself was connected by a cable to one of several stacks of weights, although only one weight of the stack was actually attached to the cable at the moment. Her hands were held behind her, practically touching the floor in a pair of fur-lined restraints, which were connected to the same weight stack as the foot bar. As I watched a young man armed with a wickedly stiff blue feather stepped up and started to scritch his way over her helpless soles, sending the hapless volunteer into fits of giggles. As she thrashed on the bench the full evil ingenuity on display was made abundantly clear: if she managed to pull her feet down it pulled the weight up. While this obviously made it far more difficult for her to try and escape her ticklish torment it also pulled the cable attached to her hands, pulling her back slightly on the bench and in effect using her own body as a counterpoint to limit her movements and using up her energy at the same time.

Several other modifications had been made to the gym, and just from where I stood I could see a set of restraints attached to the side of the frame to hold a victim spread-eagled as if they were attached to an x-frame, a second hanging bar that was attached to a sliding support strut to hold someone off the ground completely, and a sit-up bench that had had restraints added at both ends. It was an impressive bit of kit, an impression that was reinforced a few minutes later when the proprietor released the still-giggling victim and demonstrated how all the modifications could be removed and added quickly and easily to leave no trace whatsoever of the alternate uses the gym could be put to.

A pair of hands slipped round my ribs and goosed up and down against my t-shirt covered sides. I jumped and spun around to grab Mary in a bear hug, pinning her arms in place as I managed to stop squirming long enough to kiss her.

"See anything you like?" I asked, shifting my grip to let my fingers play over her hips.

"Ohhh, yes. Sadly I haven't got a dungeon to keep them all in." She replied, fingers still moving gently over my sides.

"Shame, though that might be a blessing in disguise."

"Huh? Why exactly?"

"Because this way I won't have to lock you in your own dungeon for, oh, say a week of ticklish fun. That'd just be embarrassing wouldn't it?"

"..." Mary stared into space for a moment, lost for words as she pictured that little scenario in her mind. "Ummm, yeah, yeah that'd be embarrassing."

"Oh I'll bet. " I replied, slipping my hands down to tickle her ass through the denim. "I mean, could you imagine the shame of being caught in your own dungeon, strapped into your own restraints while still wearing that 'kneel before me' dominatrix outfit, and tickled non-stop for hours at a time. I don't know about you but I'd just die..."

"Hey, stop that." Mary laughed, her hands wiggling briefly under my arms as I fought back a rather un-manly giggle. "No far getting me all worked up like that."

[BOFH666]

"But it's so much fun..." I whispered, leaning in close and licking her sensitive earlobe. "You're just so damn hot when you're like this, I really can't help myself."

"Hey... come on, quit ieeeh it!" Mary laughed, twisting and turning in my arms as I kept up my lapping, dipping down the side of her neck and running my teeth gently over her skin.

"Nope, not gonna." I mumbled into her ear as my hands travelled up her sides, partially to add a little more to the game, and partially to hold her steady.

"Hey, come on, nooooo fair." She chuckled, squirming as I drew little circles on her thighs as my tongue ran round her ear.

"Who said life was fair?"

"Gah... no don't, wait ahahaha... a minute, don't...mmmmphh, stop!"

"Don't stop? Okay, if you insist, now let's see, done your legs..."

"Gahahahahah, noooo."

"Done your ass... I wonder what's left?" I paused for a moment, hands hovering on her hips, framing the only logical target that could be next on my list.

"Ohh. Oh no. You... you wouldn't? Come on, please don't okay, just..."

"Give me one good reason and I won't"

"You know what it does to me and I don't want to spend the rest of the day frustrated and horny, ‘kay?"

"Nope, not good enough" I said, my hands shifting quickly to the attack, scritching and scrabbling between her legs, her jeans protecting her from the worst of the tickling but not all of it. She jumped as I touched her, and I took advantage to slide my hands into the proper position when she was airborne so that she ended up practically sitting on my wiggling fingers. Her mouth was wide open, and the only sound coming from her throat had a lot of g's in it. After a few seconds I pulled my hands away, wrapping her in a hug as she regained her senses.

"You bastard." She gasped, smiling as she said it to remove any possible sting. "You do know I'm gonna get you back for that, right?"

"You're welcome to try my dear, in fact I'm looking forward to it."

"What am I gonna do with you?" She said, her arms looping around my neck and pulling my lips to hers.

"Don't know, but that was a good start." I replied, as we broke apart, turning and guiding her on to the next stall.

The design of the stall matched the card John had handed me and I felt my curiosity peak as I glanced over the display stands. On the left was a vast array of implements, seemingly every shape, size and colour of feather imaginable, both normal and electric toothbrushes, a vast range of brushes with any type of bristles a tickle fan could dream of. Moving to the right though there was a display of items that showed a great deal of creativity in their design. Most were powered in some way and the designs ranged from purely functional to sleek, futuristic items that looked like they could break the speed limit, or at the very least, make the ticklee break the sound barrier. Most of the more exotic stuff was priced a little too high for my wallet, though one or two really were crying out “buy me!” Instead I settled for watching Mary flick through the rows of feathers with a practiced hand, wincing only occasionally as she picked up one of the smaller, stiffer varieties and twirled it expertly between her fingers. Now I'd like to think I'm a pretty good tickler with anything that comes to hand, but from past experience I knew that Mary was so far ahead of me when it came to feathers I couldn't even see which way she'd gone.

Eventually she selected four, all a rich dark blue and seemingly a matched set, going from a very large, fluffy item of the sort you'd see in a period drama in someone's hat, to a tiny one about the size of a fingertip that I somehow knew would be an absolute nightmare in her hands. I saw her reach for a pocket and placed a hand on hers.

"It's okay lass, this one's on me."

"No, no that's..."

"I insist, besides it might make you take things a little easier when you get round to taking them for a test drive."

"Don't count on it." She said, wiggling the smallest feather menacingly in my direction. I passed the cash over and, almost as an afterthought, pulled out the card John had given me.

"Oh, someone told me to hand this in here, is that right?" I asked, wondering what all this was about. The owner took a look at the card then back up at me, then a big, toothy grin slid over his face.

"Ah yes, yes I was hoping you'd swing by. Can I ask you a question, I mean I asked John but I wanted to make sure, you're a writer aren't you?"

"Well, sort of." I said, as always a little uncomfortable to discuss my (in my opinion anyway) overrated contributions to our little community. "I mean, no it's not my day job, but I do post the occasional story to a couple of forums, yes."

"Username's BOFH, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then I've got something here I know you're going to like." He said, rummaging around under the display for a moment until he came up with a rather elegant black box, maybe a foot long and with the same gold edging that adorned the stand.

"You see, I've been quite the fan of your writing for a while, so... inventive when it comes to new ways of tickling. It took us nearly a month to work out how to do it, but... well, take a look."

He lifted the lid on the box and slid it over to me. I looked inside and froze in surprise. It had started life as a vibrator, one of the more upmarket metal units, but the modifications were... extensive to put it mildly. Two small arms hung off the end, extending out for a short distance before dropping down towards the business end, both of them armed with what looked like miniature toothbrushes. The arms themselves were flexible at several points, presumably to allow them to follow the curves of the victims’ body. From the flat end of the vibrator came a thick power cord, and in it's own compartment in the box was a small control unit. The workmanship was first class, it genuinely appeared to be one unit rather than some kind of Frankenstein monster and I shook my head in admiration.

"It's a beautiful piece of work, really, I mean that. This must have taken an age to... is this hand built?" I asked, spotting something that looked suspiciously like a signature etched into the metal case.

"Yes, and it did indeed take a while to get that sort of finish on it. It works too, every detail exactly as you described it."

I racked my mind for a moment, trying to remember the details of one of the first stories I'd ever written when I'd first come up with the idea for this tickle toy. "Wait, every detail?"

"Yes, every detail."

"Even the..." I trailed off, not wanting to believe it.

"Why do you think it's main's powered?" He said with a grin and I could only gawp for a minute as I tried to think what that little trick would do to an unsuspecting victim.

"Strange though, I haven't seen any mention of something like this being for sale?" I asked, still staring at the very weird sight of one of my more left field imaginings becoming reality.

"Well, it's not really, not yet anyway. This is the first proper one, and I only got it finished a couple of days ago. Now we've worked out how to do it we'll get a batch made up and put them on the market in a few weeks, but I wanted to show you before anyone else, it was your idea after all..." From the way his voice trailed off I realised he was waiting for something and it took me a minute to realise what it was.

"Hey, if you're worried about me suing you for making it, don't." I said with a laugh. "Hell, it's not like I was going to make one anytime soon, I wouldn't even know where to start. For that matter, if I can help promote it in any way, just tell me."

"Oh, no, of course I wasn't worried about that." He said with a theatrical wipe of the brow. "But I do want you to do one thing for me."

"And that may be...?"

"Take this as a gift, seems only right the first one should go to the guy who dreamt it up."

"What? No, no I couldn't possibly, this…"

"Look, we're giving rewards to anyone that volunteers for a demo, though we're not advertising that fact. Considering what you went through last night, and by the way that was a damn brave thing to volunteer for and it's appreciated, I'd say you've earned it. Go, take it, treat this gorgeous woman to something new." The last was said with a grin and I knew I'd lost. I also realised as Mary leant over that she hadn't seen inside the box yet and I slipped the lid on quickly to keep it a surprise.

"Alright, but I owe you a favour okay?"

"Fair enough. Hey, I think John wants a word with you." I glanced over my shoulder at the distinctive shape waving to us over the crowd. Thanking the vendor I took the bag he offered and, as Mary slid her arm around me once more, made my way through the crowd. When we got a few feet away the throng seemed to part and I found myself staring at a very familiar face.

"Ah, Steve, thought you might like to meet this one." John said, his grin so big I thought his head was going to hinge open. "This is Amy, fresh from the other side of the pond."

My initial impression of the woman had been about right despite my dishevelled state at the time. The overriding word that kept popping into my head was 'cute', but there was something about her that set off alarm bells. She had a very nice figure with curves in all the right places, somewhere around five three, five four and with a look that was the very definition of 'innocent'. Actually, that was the problem, that look was too perfect, especially considering just how thoroughly she'd tickled me the previous night. It was the eyes that gave her away, a mischief dancing there that hinted to the devil held in check within that angelic exterior.

I reached out a hand and was surprised when she almost jumped into my arms, giving me a big hug before stepping back. Not for the first time I was glad that Mary had a pretty calm disposition to that sort of thing, some women I've known tend to get a little tetchy about things like that.

"Sorry." Amy said, in a tone of voice that made me doubt her sincerity somewhat "But I've wanted to meet you for over a year and after the welcome you gave me last night I couldn't resist."

"That's alright lass, and after last night I think you've kind of earned it anyway. This is Mary, my... um, ah, now this is awkward."

"Hi" Mary said, reaching out and pulling Amy into a hug of her own "Welcome to the UK and may I say you did a hell of a job in reducing him to a broken mess? You've got to teach me how to do that."

"Or you could not." I quipped, leading the way to a set of armchairs set around a small table. "She's bad, or maybe I should say good, enough as is, add some of your tricks to the mix and I'll be heading for the loony bin within a week."

"Oh, are you two...?" Amy asked, surprised and a little hurt that I hadn't actually mentioned that fact on-line.

"Well, yes and no." Mary replied, saving me from trying to come up with an accurate answer. "Officially, no, we're not. But when we see each other at these things, I don't know, something just sparks I guess."

"So kind of yes, until the end of the weekend, then no till the next one?" Amy asked.

"That's about right." Mary said with a glance in my direction that left me squirming in my chair.

"If it's not a rude question, why only for the weekend?"

"Simple mathematics for the most part." Mary said, leaning back in her chair as I decided to let her carry the conversation for a while. After all, it was rare that I got to hear her talk about her feelings towards me and I'm only human after all, so I wasn't about to object to a beautiful woman stroking my ego for a bit.

"See, he lives in London, I'm down in Cardiff and that's a bit too far to end up doing weekend runs. We're both in jobs that have us working the occasional weekend and when you add in days where you've got other commitments, well, we just wouldn’t get enough time together as it is now."

"Now that's a shame." Amy said, and sounded as if she meant it too.

"Yeah I know, but it's the right call I'm sad to say. If we were a full-time couple it'd drive me nuts thinking of him and knowing I wasn't going to see him for another three weeks. At least this way I can, oh let's say, relieve the frustration a little when that happens and not feel too guilty about it." I raised an eyebrow at that one, well aware of what Mary was suggesting with that particular aside and surprised despite myself.

Amy laughed, a deep throaty chuckle that immediately made me wonder what she'd sound like stretched out under my fingers. With an effort I shoved that particular question down, plenty of time for that tomorrow after all. "Hey, look on the bright side, my last relationship moved about a thousand miles south, now THAT's a long distance relationship."

"Good lord my dear, what did you do to the poor guy to get him to run that far away?"

"Nothing, well, I did tie him up and tickle him for an hour or five without stopping, but that's only fair right? I mean he'd done the same to me before, and it's rather fun to see a grown man cry."

"I wouldn't know." Mary said, looking over at me as I attempted to relax in my chair despite the sudden attention. "He's never done that."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"How hard have you pushed?"

"He's stood up to a whole weekend of teasing before now without cracking, in fact I've only ever really broken him myself once before, and that was with certain extenuating circumstances."

"Ummm, what exactly do you mean by that?" Amy asked.

"She means she called in reinforcements." I joked. "Her and two friends ganged up on me."

"Hey, we still got you!"

"Yeah, after six hours and a pretty underhanded trick with a shaving brush."

"I didn't hear you complaining at the time love."

"And I'm not now, just want you to keep your facts straight." I grinned, loving the fact that this was someone who'd give me back everything I threw out and then some. It made life so much more interesting.

"Anyway," Mary said, dragging the conversation back on track. "I honestly don't think it's possible to reduce this one to tears without setting something on fire, know what I mean?"

"Oh... I don't know." Amy said, and now there was nothing of the Angel left, just the devil. "The two of us could probably do it."

"You think?" Mary replied, sceptically "How?"

"Well, just as an example, you take hold of his, umm, attention so to speak and take him to the very edge, then drop him back, edge and back, edge and back, edge and back for as long as you like, I'll take his feet and tickle him silly. Trust me, after he hangs on the edge for the hundredth time, he'll be putty in your hands."

The two women looked at each other as the same double entendre went through their mind and collapsed laughing. I was busy trying to look as if I was completely happy with the conversation but inside I was squirming. The fact was, if they did ever get the opportunity to do what they were describing I doubted any man could have resisted them, and I was almost certain I couldn't. And yet somewhere deep inside a treacherous little voice was wishing I’d try.

"Now that sounds like fun." Mary said, flashing a very predatory smile in my direction. "Sadly though I think it'll have to wait for next time, after what you did to him last night I don't think he'd be too happy if we put him through that sort of torture twice in two days. And frankly, I want to get laid tonight."

"Wow. Must be good in bed if you'd rather get laid than tickle him silly."

"Well...." Mary's voice trailed off, and I picked up the subtle signs of a plan forming. "I tell you what, you want the answer to that question, you're going to have to work for it."

"Huh?"

"After seeing you in action, well, I want to feel what you're like for myself. Here's the deal, we'll head into one of the private rooms and you can tickle the answer to that question out of me. In return, I get a shot at you afterwards."

"For how long?" Amy asked, but her excitement was obvious and I wondered idly if Mary had let herself in for something she couldn't handle here.

"Umm, how about, half an hour?" Mary replied. "That way you can tickle me for as long as it takes until I give you what you’re after and all I get is thirty minutes for revenge.”

"Deal." Amy said, standing up and eyeing her next victim. "You know you'll be the first woman I've ever tickled?"

"Then I hope I'm not a disappointment." Mary replied, leading Amy towards the exit as I followed them. We stepped out of the main room and headed to one of the smaller ones set aside for private sessions. These were intended to provide a more comfortable environment for people to play around and as we stepped inside first impressions were good.

A long table held an assortment of ticklish implements, from feathers and Q-tips to forks and pens, anything a discerning tickler could want. The lights were low and the walls seemed more substantial than you'd find in a normal hotel room. The bed had been moved to the far end of the room and in the middle of the floor was a seven-foot tall board set at about a sixty-degree angle. From the top and bottom simple hand restraints hung on chains and a belt looped around the middle of the board to pull a victim close to the wood. It was quite an elegant set-up, not so complex you needed to be trained how to secure your victim, very few moving parts to mess up and still intimidating enough to set the mood for your hapless ticklee. I made a mental note to pass congratulations along to whoever had come up with the layout and returned my attention to the scene in front of me.

[BOFH666]

Mary had pulled her t-shirt off and was now standing with her back to the board, her arms already secured above her head as Amy worked quickly to put the restraints around her ankles. When she was sure she was held securely Amy pressed the green button on the side of the board and a hidden motor pulled the slack from the chains, lifting Mary squarely onto the board and stopping once it felt resistance on the chains from her bodyweight. I could feel my hands itch as I stared at her, wanting more than ever to take hold of her and tickle her until the sun went cold but held back. This was Amy's show and I was interested in just how she was going to play it.

“Where to start, where to start, where to start…?” Amy muttered, standing in front of the board and hovering her hands over Mary’s body, moving them slowly up and down, pausing over the more ticklish areas as she drew out the tension nicely. “How about a little armpit action as a warm-up?” So saying she reached up and dug her fingertips into Mary’s smooth hollows, whirling her fingers in a fast swirl over the skin.

“Mmmmm…. Okay, okay, he’s great! Inventive as hell and always totally focused on me.” Mary yelled barely five seconds later. I shook my head as I tried to hide my smirk at the look on Amy’s face.

“What?” Amy asked, almost disbelieving. “That’s it? But…”

“What can I say, that teasing got to me, now untie me and we’ll see just how ticklish you are.” Mary grinned.

“That’s not fair, you didn’t even try to hold out.” Amy protested, knowing there was no real way out of this but figuring it was worth a go.

“You know…” I said, walking up to join Amy in from of the bound and helpless Mary. “I can’t help but agree with her my love. That really wasn’t fair.”

“Hey, a deal’s a deal and I did my part. Now let me down.”

I stared at her, drawing out the moment as long as I could. “No…no I don’t think so, not for a little while anyway. Amy, I have to say Mary’s right, she did follow the letter of the law, but that really wasn’t fair. So here’s my deal, and this is most definitely a one-time offer. Five minutes, I’ll give you five minutes to tickle my pimp-wannabe here any way you like. After that you take her place on the board, with one extra condition.”

“And that would be?” Amy asked.

“That both of us are going to tickle you, and that nothing’s off limits.”

“That’s two conditions!”

“Well, sort of, but I’ll add this in to even things out, I promise that we won’t touch any skin directly that’s covered by your underwear. So that means no stripping and no… inappropriate contact. Fair?”

“Not really, but it’s better than nothing. Five minutes right?”

“Five minutes starting from the time you touch her.”

“Hey, wait a minute, don’t I get a say in this?” Mary asked, twisting in her bonds as best she could.

“Ummm, let me think….” I said, walking slowly over to her and running a hand over her bare stomach. “No. Sorry love but you really should at least try and play fair.”

“Ohh, I’ll get you for this.”

“Maybe, maybe not. For now though, I hope you’re vocal chords are in good shape, I think they’re going to get quite a workout.”

I stepped back and the instant I did Amy practically flew past me, jumping up onto the board, her feet planted on the floor as she dug her hands into Mary’s hips and stomach.

“Wha…No, NO! Not there, pleasepleasenahahahahah!” The reaction was immediate, Mary dissolving into hysterics as Amy’s fingers poked and prodded that oh so ticklish flesh, sending her into howling fits of laughter, her legs banging against the board as she tried to twist away from her now-royally-pissed tickler. Amy was merciless, her fingers constantly moving, flying over the taunt skin as she pushed Mary into hysterics faster than I’d ever managed. Then a single finger brushed her belly button and Mary practically broke the board in her attempts to escape.

“Ohhhhhh.” Amy teased, her hand moving to cover the newly discovered tickle spot. “Is someone’s belly button ticklish? Why yes, it seems it is. Oh come on, it can’t tickle that much can it? I mean, it could be worse, I could, oh I don’t know, dip this in there?” So saying she held up a small pink feather, maybe an inch long and seemingly designed to slip into Mary’s navel. The screams that followed were incredible, and I made a mental note to ask Amy to show me how she used a feather before the weekend was over.

All too soon though the five minutes was up, Mary a giggling mass on the board as I had to physically pry Amy off her. Once the red mist had left her eyes, Amy quickly moved to help me release Mary’s bonds, even lending a hand to help her walk away from the board and over to the bed to recover. Not wanting to waste time, I reset the board for its new victim and turned to find Amy already stripped to her bra and panties, a very nice black and red silk set a distant portion of my mind noted as I drooled for a moment. Mary caught my momentary lapse in concentration and fired a look that wasn’t quite as cross as it should have been in my direction and I thanked my lucky stars that she understood that the male reaction to an almost-naked angel couldn’t be completely suppressed no matter how hard the guy tries.

I fastened Amy in place and pushed the button to pull the chains tight, leaving her no real wriggle room to play with. Mary was by this time already at the table of goodies and had picked out a brace of feathers, which she gathered at one end of the table carefully sorted into order. I winced as I saw a couple very similar to ones I’d had used on me in the past, remembering with crystal-clear clarity just what they’d felt like. I was looking for something a little more unusual, and found it in what looked like an aerosol can and a black marker pen.

We walked over to our now squirming captive, Mary twirling two long, luxurious feathers in between her fingers like some kind of action movie heroine. “Ready?” She asked, voice playful.

“N... no, not really.” Came the stuttered reply.

“Too bad!” Mary said, and reached out, flicking the feathers up and down the length of Amy’s bound body, long sweeping strokes that was at least half erotic rather than ticklish. Amy giggled and twisted, but I couldn’t help but notice that, as Mary kept up the strokes in a pretty regular pattern, Amy’s gyrations more often than not brought her closer to the ticklish fronds rather than away from them. Taking my cue from the gorgeous tickler I crawled over to the foot of the board, reaching up to run my fingers over Amy’s soft, tender soles.

There was no doubt whatsoever that this tickled, as Amy suddenly jumped in surprise and squealed out loud. Encouraged I started to drag my fingernails over her arches, enjoying the twitches and curls each touch caused in first one foot then the other.

“Noo. Please..not the feet, notthefeEeeeehhhhhahahah” Amy’s pleading fell on deaf ears as she suddenly found herself faced with two ticklers who were both well motivated and eager to dish out a little retribution. For my part, this was simply a warm up to tomorrows festivities, a handy chance to learn this lovely lass’s tickle spots and have a little soupcon of revenge to ease that particular temptation. Mary on the other hand was fired up, having been tickled for most of the day already she was more than ready to dish out some ticklish fun and Amy just happened to be a very handy target. Add in the fact that Mary was also more than a little turned on; something that from long and occasionally torturous experience I knew was a great motivator for her and Amy was in trouble.

I heard the pitch of her laughter change, heading upwards into a far more desperate tone than before and I glanced upwards past her feet to see what had caused this sudden change. I must admit that that particular viewpoint, with the long legs and toned bodies of two beautiful women stretching above me, one of them writhing in ticklish torment, the other obviously having the time of her life, left me breathless and it took a while to focus on the cause of Amy’s new-found laughter.

Mary had, quite simply, switched feathers, going from long and soft to a medium length and stiff set that she was currently dabbing around Amy’s armpits, neck and over the tops of her breasts. It was an impressive sight as Amy bucked and writhed under this new attack, her eyes wide as, much to her surprise, she laughter was interrupted by a moan as the feathers ran over those sensitive orbs once more.

I grinned and ducked back to those precious feet, knowing now exactly what Mary’s plan was and shaking my head at the sheer audacity at it. I guessed there might just be a little spark of jealousy in her after all. Still, I had my role to play as well, as Mary started to work more erotic touches into her performance I concentrated on upping the ticklish torment upon Amy’s helpless soles. Abandoning my finger trip I reached down and pulled the lid of the black marker pen. It had a narrow nib with a wicked little point on the end and I made a mental note to see if anyone in the display area had a set for sale. Reaching up I took a firm grip on Amy’s right sole and brought the pen up. Working with a slow, torturous rhythm I started to write “I will not make foolish deals” on the untouched canvas before me. It proved a little difficult to write accurately as Amy almost went ballistic at the first touch of feather on flesh and for a moment I honestly thought she was going to rip the restraints clean out of their mountings. My fears proved groundless though and adjusting my grip I started to repeat the line, over and over again until I ran out of space, and then I started writing over what had gone before.

Amy’s laughter was now almost silence, heaving gasps for air broken only be the occasional squeal as I found a previously untouched spot and the more frequent groan as Mary kept the feathers swirling over her upper body. I watched, fascinated as Mary swept the devilish fronds all over the front of Amy’s bra, the feathers just stiff enough to tease and tickle through the silk, but not so much they provided anything more than teasing frustration to her growing need.

With ten minutes of Amy’s session left it was time to break out the big guns. Mary swapped her feathers again, this time reaching for two tiny, stiff feathers that were almost the exact shape and size of guitar picks while I put the pen down and reached for the aerosol can. Amy was a mess by now, lying on the board, all fight gone as she twisted and giggled, her body betraying just how turned on she was feeling at that moment. Mary stepped close and slid an arm around her exhausted victim, not really to hold her in place, more to provide that extra bit of stimulation that she knew from her own experiences in such situations Amy would be craving. That brought her left hand into perfect position to tickle Amy’s ribs, and Mary didn’t waste any time in doing just that.

I watched and waited, sure now about how Mary was going to do this, and wanting to get my timing as close to hers as I could. Sure enough, as Amy returned to that silent laugh Mary’s right hand flicked out, running the stiff feather across Amy’s waist, down the top of her left leg, across to her right thigh and up before diving across to flick over Amy’s silk-covered mound. Once again the underwear prevented any real stimulation, leaving only a brief trail of fire over her skin and an aching longing deep inside her as Amy twisted to the side, her face pushed into Mary’s arm and shoulder as she moaned in delight. I waited for the moan to trail off and, as the last syllable died, pointed the air duster at her soles and pressed the top down.

The jet of compressed air was cold, fast and totally unexpected, causing Amy to jerk in her bonds from the shock, her eyes bugging out as she looked down frantically, trying to see what was going on only for her own feet to block her view.

“Whatwasthat? Ohgodthattickled. Pleasepleasedon’tdothatagain.” She was babbling, trying to get as much in as she could in the brief moment before Mary passed the feather over her hips, legs and core once again, followed almost immediately by another blast on the air duster, this time aimed between her previously untouched toes.

Now she screamed, the first real scream we’d heard from her, but she didn’t have enough air to plead with us anymore, or maybe she just realised it wasn’t going to help. Knowing what had to be going through the poor woman’s mind Mary immediately started to increase the speed of her ticklish touch, both on Amy’s ribs and between her legs. My own tickles were administered only when she acknowledged the pleasure my darling Mary was giving her, and that left me time to admire Mary’s form, her skilled, light touch as she turned the ticklish lass into a quivering mass before my eyes.

Finally, with only a few seconds of the session remaining, Mary reached a hand down towards me and I passed the half-used air duster up into her waiting palm. Aiming carefully Mary pulled her arm out from behind Amy’s back and dipped the feather into her belly button. As Amy jerked forward in her bonds, an impressive feat in and of itself considering what she’d just gone through, the tip of the nozzle just touched the now damp silk of her panties. Mary jabbed down on the top of the can and the cold jet blasted through the silk as if it wasn’t there, pushing Amy right to the edge just as the alarm went off to signal time was up.

Amy hung limp in her chains and it took both of us to help her over to the bed as she tried to catch her breath.

“Ohhhh my….” She moaned, staring at the ceiling “that… that was incredible. But why did… I mean why didn’t you….. you know…”

“Finish you?” Mary asked, brushing Amy’s hair back gently and rubbing her shoulders.

Amy couldn’t speak but nodded quickly.

“Well, we promised we wouldn’t for one thing. Besides,” and Mary grinned as she continued, “this way it’s a real incentive for you to go get tickled some more. Shouldn’t take much to give you that last little push.”

“That’s evil.” Amy complained, but the look on her face suggested she wasn’t really complaining.

“That’s life.” Mary laughed. “Oh, and while I remember, look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

“Huh?”

“I’m gonna be your tickler in the demo and now I know your tickle spots.” Mary wiggled her fingers threateningly.

“Good, then maybe you can give me a real workout.” Amy said, the challenge clear as crystal.

I leant over and kissed Amy on the forehead. “In case I forgot to mention it earlier lass, you really are a phenomenal tickler, hope you don’t mind that little bit of revenge?”

“Not at all, though it’s a shame I can’t have both of you tomorrow.” Amy said. If you only knew, I thought to myself.

“You going to be okay?” I asked, wanting to make sure we weren’t leaving her in any sort of difficulty.

“Yeah, I just need a minute to catch my breath. I’ll be fine. Oh, and Mary?”

“Yes?”

“You do know how lucky you are, right?”

Mary slipped her hand into mine and squeezed “Oh yes.” She replied before leaning up and whispering into my ear “and you know how lucky you’re about to get, right?”

I leant in and kissed her, and she practically melted against me. Grinning like an idiot I led the way out of the room and upstairs, so concentrated on getting this incredible woman to somewhere private in the next ten seconds I barely caught Mary’s call to Amy:

“See you tomorrow my dear!”

In fact I was so preoccupied I didn’t notice that Mary wasn’t following me until a discreet cough caught my attention. Turning I saw Mary leaning against a wall, one foot planted flat on the wall to bring her leg up, her arms up above her head.

“Haven’t you forgotten something?” She asked, tilting her head back in what was possibly the most blatant display of her curvaceous form I’d ever seen from her.

“Nothing springs immediately to mind…” I said, walking back to her. As I reached her she opened her eyes, stared into mine for a long moment that sent a shiver of anticipation through my body, then lunged forward, shoving me back against the far wall, her hands on my shoulders as she pressed against me.

“I think I owe you a little payback for that trick…” She whispered, tongue darting out to touch first my ear then down the side of my neck and across my collarbone, making me squirm under her touch.

“Oh, if you must…” I joked, placing my arms out to my sides as if crucified on the wall. “Take your best shot my love.”

“My…best shot?” Mary said, a teasing tone in her voice that I wasn’t a hundred percent sure I was happy to hear. “You want me to take my best shot?”

What the hell I thought, how bad could it possibly be? “Yep, give me everything you’ve got, I can take it.” I replied, putting on my best arrogant defiance for the occasion.

“Alright, come on lover.” Mary said, taking me by the hand and leading me back into the main hall. It was much, much quieter now, with most people hunting down lunch and a chance for a few minutes rest and recovery time. In fact there were only three other people in the whole hall, and they were engaged in a hectic two-on-one session that was most definitely occupying their attention. Mary led me over to a simple set of stocks and motioned me down into position. Keeping the look of smug superiority on my face I settled down onto the padded bench and placed my ankles into the wooden grooves. Mary clicked the top half of the stocks down and fastened my hands to set of restraints hanging from a pole above my head. She tugged on both arms to make sure they couldn’t move more than a few inches then knelt down by my feet, her chin resting on top of the stocks, her hands hidden from view.

[BOFH666]

“You’re sure about this?” She asked, “You’re absolutely sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Alright then, same as always my dear, when you’ve had enough, just say the magic words, okay?”

“As if you could get under my skin like that…” I replied, knowing just how dumb teasing her like this was in my current predicament but not able to help myself.

“Ohhh. That does it, you’re going to get the worst lesson of your life!” She threatened, “I’m going to leave you a squirming, horny, desperate mess and there’s nothing, absolutely nothing you can do to stop me.”

I stayed silent, waiting for what I knew was going to be the tickle session from hell. Then, finally, I caught the slight smile on Mary’s lips, the change in body language that I’d seen earlier when she’d pulled Amy into her little trap and I realised I was in big trouble. She got up and walked round to stand beside me, threw a leg over my lap and sat down straddling my thighs. Her hands reached out and ran gently, lightly over my sides, enough to make me shiver but nothing more.

She kept that gentle, teasing, maddening touch up as she ran her hands over my body, seemingly delighting in the feel of my muscles tensing under her fingers as I wondered if this was the moment she’d try and ambush me. Over and over again she travelled down one side, over my hips and stomach, back up the other side, over my chest and up my arms, sending me slightly insane in the process. Finally my resolve failed and through clenched teeth I blurted out: “This is your best shot? I’m disappointed lass, it barely tingles.”

Mary laughed then, a delighted giggle as she wrapped her arms around my neck and shifted up into my lap. “When did I say I was going to tickle you?”

My blood ran cold but I pressed on regardless. “Well, seeing as how we’re at a tickling convention, and you’ve been driven into hysterics more than once already today, it seems like a logical assumption.”

“See, that’s your problem my love, sometimes you try and look too far ahead and end up tripping over something right in front of you.”

“Huh?” I replied, confused now and ever so slightly worried that I’d gotten in to more trouble than I really wanted.

“I never said I was going to tickle you just that I was going to leave you a squirming… ” Mary’s hand slid down my chest and rested in my lap, her index finger tapping my already hard member through my jeans in time with her words.

“…horny…”

“…desperate…”

“…mess.”

On the last word she didn’t tap but wrapped her fingers around me and squeezed hard, stopping just short of causing pain. I couldn’t help but respond, a groan slipping from my lips as I tried to move my hips forward into her grip. Laughing she moved back in time with my rocking, not letting me get any sort of satisfaction from my movements and waiting until I settled down again.

“My, my, my aren’t we the eager beaver?” She joked.

“I thought that was you…” I replied, trying to pretend that having this beautiful woman sat in my lap and playing with my body like it was silly putty wasn’t affecting me in the slightest. Not that I was fooling anyone of course, even as I said it my eyes were sliding shut as those talented fingers pushed up against my nuts, rolling them like marbles and sending wave after wave of excitement through me.

“That’s a good point, but you see unlike you, I can do something about my…needs without having to rely on the mercy of others.” As she said this she pulled her legs up under the board, letting my thighs take her weight as she slid slightly to the left, rubbing up against me and clearly enjoying the sensations. “Which is a good thing, because as far as you’re concerned the only, and I do mean only, chance you’ve got of any relief is those three… magic… words.” Again she tapped along in time and again I felt my whole body shiver.

“Still, while you’re here, I might as well make use of you. Hmm, what to do….? Ah, I’ll tell you a story, no, better, I’ll tell you the future.”

“Whose?” I grunted, fighting to keep my hips still as she started sweeping her free hand over my hips, ribs and stomach again while the other busied itself with seemingly random touches between my legs, the thick denim of my jeans turning what should have been a delicious caress into a frustrating, fleeting sensation.

“Why mine of course!” She grinned, “after all how would I know anyone else’s future?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I could take a pretty good guess at what’s in yours right about now.”

Mary laughed and ran a single delicate finger in a straight line from my throat to my waist. “Promises, promises. Besides, it’s only prophecy if you can say what someone else is going to do, and I’m gonna tell you exactly what you’re going to be doing about thirty minutes from now.”

She paused, gathering her thoughts before starting her ‘prophecy’.

“You’re going to try to jump off that bench in a single smooth motion, intending to grab me, scoop me into your arms and take me to somewhere a little more private. Only, as you won’t be your usual thoughtful self you’re going to forget your legs have gone to sleep from being in one position for so long and the only thing you’re going to grab is floor.” Mary lifted her fingers to the crown of my head and started running her fingers down through my hair, stroking with a touch so light she didn’t even touch my scalp.

“You’ll look up at me from your hands and knees, thoughts of revenge burning in your mind while you wait for your body to co-operate. That might take a few minutes so to keep you from getting bored I’ll stand astride you and give those helpless ribs a good going over. You’ll go down to the floor, flat out on your belly as you find yourself overcome with those little tickles racing up and down your sides.” Her hands reached my ears and started rolling the very edge of them gently between thumb and forefinger.

“Of course, by then you’ll have regained enough control to wait until you know you can stop me before even trying, so you’ll take more tickling than you perhaps have to as you wait. Then you’ll roll over onto your back, your knees coming up to slide under my ass as you lift me off and make it back to your feet. You’ll get behind me, hold me close and look over at the wonderful array of torture instruments here, trying to decide which one you’re going to use to teach me a lesson.” As she said the last her body shuddered and I felt her squeeze me with her thighs, her eyes locked on mine as she watched my reaction, her fingers never stopping their teasing journey.

“After a few seconds you’ll decide what you want to do to me in retaliation needs privacy, and walk me out that door,” here she gestured to the main door with a casual wave of her hand “down the corridor, up the stairs and into your room. You’ll throw me on the bed and pull out that evil little toothbrush of yours, the normal one not the electric one, the one with the really stiff bristles, and start to scrub away at my bare soles, sending that brush right between my toes almost immediately, not giving me any sort of chance to prepare.” By now her hands had reached my shoulders and she was occasionally interrupting her monologue to give me quick, sweet, and above all, frustrating kisses.

“When you’ve got me hollering for mercy, you’ll switch over to the electric toothbrush, going after my arches with the first brush as the new one takes its place between my toes. You’re going to feel that familiar rush of power, that desire which threatens to take you over, forcing you to shove it back down again, for the time being at least.” I was finding it hard to draw breath, her touches were lighting me up like a Christmas tree, little sparks of erotic energy flying from her fingertips to my skin as she went. The world started to shrink, the edges of my vision going dim, as she seemed to become brighter.

“Then, once you’ve got me thrashing about like a fish out of water you’re going to strip me naked, just by grabbing onto one bit of cloth at a time and letting my own movements pull it off me.” Mary was really getting into her storytelling, her body grinding into my legs and lap as she started to build towards the inevitable. Her hands by this time were moving over my chest and I could feel each individual muscle tense and relax in turn as she passed over them. Everything else in the room was effectively gone by this point; only she remained glowing as bright as the sun before me. And it was then, in that moment, I realised how I could start my own revenge a little early.

“You’ll ditch the brushes and go exploring with your own two hands as I bump and grind helplessly into the bed.” Mary continued, her eyes fluttering shut, her right hand moving quickly to my waist, unbuttoning my jeans and massaging my now aching member as her left toyed with my ribs.

“You’ll tickle me with one hand skirting the tops of my thighs while you strip with the other…ohhh” Mary moaned as I felt a shudder pass through her and she adjusted her weight slightly on my legs, building towards her peak.

“You’ll slip inside me while your hands scrape and scritch over my hips, my waist, my ass and my stomach, taking me from behind and staying still, letting me do…ah… all the moving as you….ohhhh yes…. provide the motahhhvation, the only sound my laughter and you purring just like you are now.” Purring? Shit I was too, I hadn’t even realised it as she worked me over. Damn she was good. Now I was aware of it I dropped the pitch of my voice, turning the purr into a growl and sending a shiver of pleasure through Mary’s body at the sound.

“Yes my love, you’ll take your….. mmmmmmm …. pleasure as you push us both onwards towards as we bohhhhhhhth build towards out climax…” Mary was bouncing now, small hops that drove her core down into me on every bounce, her thighs trembling as she fought to hold off her own peak.

“Then finally you’ll feel my body tense, I’ll grip you….” Her hand tightened around my manhood and she started to gently work it up and down.

“…squeeze you…” Mary’s breathing was ragged, her eyes closed as she matched actions to words. I knew I was only seconds from the point of no return myself and that what I had in mind would be just as cruel on myself as it would be on her. Still, I couldn’t let her have things all her own way now could I?

“… and milk you until…” She started racing her hand up and down, her thighs squeezing me so hard I could feel my own muscles protesting at the pressure.

“…you just explo..”

“Okay, okay I quit!” I groaned, the feeling of disappointment racing through my body tempered by the look of shock in her eyes.

“W… What?” Mary gasped, her eyes snapping open, her hand still locked around me but still now.

“I quit, you win.” I said, unable to keep the tremble of desire from my voice. “You know the rules, one of us quits and you’ve got to stop.”

“But…. But… that’s…. I mean…. You want this too, right?”

“Yes, of course I do. But you see my love, there’s something I want more than the world’s best hand job right now.”

“And that is…?”

“I want to see you squirm. And to see how accurate your prophecy is of course.”

Reluctantly, very reluctantly Mary undid the restraints around my hands and released the stocks. I pulled my arms down and my feet clear, then stayed in the sitting position on the bench as I waited for the feeling to return to my legs. She was right, I thought, if I had gone for her I’d have just collapsed. Instead I waited patiently, Mary standing just behind the stocks, making sure to keep something substantial between us so I couldn’t jump here right there and then. I had something else in mind though.

After a few minutes I got tentatively to my feet, stretching to get rid of the last few kinks in my shoulders and back as Mary backed up a little, her eyes never leaving mine as she tried to anticipate when and how I’d make my move. With one final push I worked the last crick out of my neck and started to walk towards her, then past her and on to the door. Reaching the corridor I looked back at a very confused Mary and grinned. “You coming or what?” I asked.

I saw the light of comprehension dawn as Mary realised I was playing her at her own game and she almost ran to join me. Her hands slid around me from behind, fingers landing splayed on my ribs and stomach as she dug in. I didn’t even try to fight this time but just let myself go, enjoying the feeling of this incredible woman pressed against me as her hands poked and prodded some of my more sensitive areas. Slowly I started walking, giving Mary time to adjust and keep her rhythm while moving with me, heading down the corridor towards the stairs, my laughter steadily increasing as she kept finding new spots on my ticklish body.

Anyone walking down the first floor hallway would have been treated to a very odd sight indeed as we made it to the top of the stairs. By now I think everyone in the hotel had gotten used to an almost constant background noise of squeals and laughter, so the gradually approaching noise filtering up the stairs wouldn’t have been a huge surprise. The sight of a very attractive woman crouched over, her hands busy on an almost-helpless body below her as it tried to crawl up the stairs however might have attracted some stares.

My legs had given out under Mary’s constant tickling on the landing and, still annoyed by the tactical use of our safe words she hadn’t let up. Somehow though I managed to keep going crawling on my hands and knees up the last few steps to the corridor and wriggling my way along the carpet like a snake until we reached the door to my room. I felt a hand dip into the pocket of my jeans and Mary swiped the card key through the door lock, pushed the door open and kept right on tickling me. I didn’t even have to stop but pulled myself over the threshold and on towards the bed.

“Ohh, now where do you think you’re going, huh?” Mary teased, ki