Chapter One

Beware of Friends Bearing Promises

 

What am I doing here? I must be nuts! I wished I could see the faces of the other women in the soft overhead light of the windowless private jet. I guessed their faces had the same expression as mine; curiosity, excitement, and more than a little anxiety. The almost invisible hairs on my arms prickled into erection each time I smelled the cologne of a male flight attendant striding past my seat.

We had been blindfolded when they took us to the private airfield in the disguised cargo truck fitted with seats, and they warned us to keep them on when we arrived at the airport, while some men escorted us into the jet plane. Later, when we got off at our destination, we would see there were no windows, and it was painted to represent a cargo plane. No one in the mundane world would know where we had been taken, and what would be done to us. I heard the plane's door shut and the hiss of the pressurizing seal. I heard a man's voice, then felt his hands gripping my arms. He strapped my elbows and wrists down against the armrests. From the other girls' surprised and anxious voices, I guessed he was doing the same to them. Then we heard a stewardess' sweet, lush voice. "You have to keep your blindfolds on. For the sake of your reputations, none of you must recognize each other. When you speak to the other passengers, remember to use your pseudo names we assigned to you during your successful interview. No one here is to reveal their true identity or address. If you try to discover anyone's name or address, we will return you on the next flight, and you forfeit all future opportunities to participate in Harrowcroft sessions."

I whispered in my favorite friend's ear. "Why does everyone refer to our vacation as 'sessions'?"

She responded in a sly whisper, "Don't you just love surprises that shock you and take your breath away?"

The seats were comfortable, the ride was smooth and felt safe, even with my arms strapped down to the armrests. The droning whisper of the powerful engines was reassuring and I soon fell asleep. Up forward, on the other side of the locked cockpit door the pilot and copilot were whisking us up over the ocean at more than 600 miles per hour. Flying on this magic carpet away from our dull, apathetic reality into a land of incredible fantasy.

Laura, my best friend, dozed next to me. She was the one who talked me into signing up for this adventure. It wasn't easy to persuade me. It sounded so crazy and scary; signing away all our freedoms and legal rights to spend three months behind the sixteen feet-high concrete walls capped with razor wire on the twenty-four thousand acre island not shown on any map. A twenty-miles-square realm of unbelievable wonders, unknown to the world and hidden from all but those lucky enough to be allowed inside.

For weeks Laura had chattered on, ecstatic about how all her most wild and impossible dreams became her real life there. When I pressed her for details, she became vague and evasive, telling me only that if I were really interested, I had to find out for myself.

After three months of her repeated pleading for me to come with her, I finally consented. It wasn't just because she had convinced me, though. Tom, my fiancé, had left a note on the pillow. When I woke that morning, he was gone. "Dear Vallerie, I have found a younger girl I love more than you..." that's as far as I could read. The tears and anger blotted out the rest. I tore the paper into a hundred bits while I wept.

Then the doorbell buzzed. It was Laura. She comforted me, and when we were drinking our coffee, she renewed her campaign to convince me.

"The place is full of handsome men. Really, Val, we are always the center of their attention, and they spend all their waking hours seeking our companionship. No other women are available to them...we are the only female partners available to them, and they absolutely love having us in their...um-m-m...chambers. Every time I vacation there they chase me day and night to seize me and make me feel so beautiful and desirable. I've never felt so physically and sexually hunted as I do while I am confined there."

I twisted my tear-soaked handkerchief in my fingers. "But it seems so...unreal."

Laura leaned forward, placing both her hands on top of mine and squeezed. "That's what makes it such a wonderful place. You'll never experience such stunning and unanticipated kinds of scandalous encounters anywhere else in the whole world. But it is real, and what's done to us there is real," she said with a husky earnestness in her throat. "and the men are so masculine, controlling and magnificent." A dreamy haze drifted in her eyes, "It's so real and...well...very peculiar and ominous domain, that it makes this world seem like..." she swept her hand toward the city skyline outside my tiny apartment's window, "...only a coward's mirage."

"Peculiar and ominous? That frightens me. How could anyone..."

She slid off her chair, kneeling in front of me, hugging me while I burst out in renewed tears. "Come with me, Val. A few of my friends and I are scheduled to leave Friday night. Become one of us, and you will escape from broken hearts for a lifetime. I'll arrange for the tickets and your interview."

"Interview?"

"Yes. Harrowcroft is not one of those boring, stuffy resorts where you are forced to rub elbows with fat, surly tourists in ridiculous clothes. It's so...exciting and unusual! It's so much more than a mere vacation. It's a whole new life for you. Oh, do come with me! I'll call them right now, and arrange for your interview." She sprang to her feet and snatched up my phone.

"Interview? Why must they interview me?"

"It's very exclusive," she answered with a strange grin. "They are extremely picky about who gets inside their high stone walls. They want to be sure you're the kind of woman that will enjoy being in restrain...Oh, hello," she said into the phone. "I'm Laura Chantel. I'm registered for next session at Harrowcroft beginning this Friday evening. I'd like to recommend a friend of mine as a novice captive." She winked at my astonished reaction to her words. "It's only an expression," she whispered to me. "Just a silly way of designating women visitors."

She turned back to the phone. "Yes... Of course. I've known her for seven years...Yes, she's perfectly healthy and free of disease..."

"Free of disease! Of course I am! What does that have to do with taking a vacation?"

"Sh-h-h-h! We will be leaving the country, and there are regulations!" She turned back to the phone, "...Yes, I can vouch for her assent to the rules, and her guarantee of sworn secrecy about Harrowcroft...No, I haven't said anything about all that. I know how much fun it is when a new woman doesn't know about..."

"About what?" I interrupted.

She turned to me and whispered. "You'll see," she said with a girlish giggle.

"What is..."

She was back to the phone now, waving the palm of her hand at me not to interrupt again. "I know she will...She's in a perfect mood for her first time...Her fiancée just dumped her for a teenager. She will be thrilled with the attentions of handsome young men no matter what they...Yes, I'm sure she will eventually adjust without any trauma...Good, I'll have her there."

Laura hung up the phone and turned to me with the biggest, sweetest smile I ever saw. "It's all arranged!" She grabbed me, yanking me out of my chair and dancing me around the room. "They will interview you tomorrow. I'll drive you there myself."

"But will they want me?"

"Want you," she said with a sudden, strange laugh, "my dear, you won't be able to get away from them!" She collapsed into her chair, weak with laughter. I had never seen her act this zany. "And," she said with a wicked wink, "the place is just crawling with gorgeous men; athletic hunks just dying to spend time amusing themselves playing such thrilling games with women like us."

"Games? What sort of..."

She grabbed my hands again and squeezed so hard it brought more tears to my eyes.

"Oh, Laura, we are going to share such a wild, fantastic and tempestuous adventure together! I promise you, dear, when we finish our three month adventure being served up to those wonderful men, you will never be the same again!"

She wasn't lying.