Part 1: The Upper Torso

Jay was a mechanical engineer. He loved math and physics which was probably the source of his fascination with three dimensional puzzles. Only a few years out of college, Jay had a solid start on a successful career, but sometimes he wished that he had spent as much time improving his social skills as he did his engineering skills.

Basically, Jay was shy and lonely, and he had few opportunities to change that. With nobody waiting for him at home, he tended to spend more and more time at work, and his cycle of solitude perpetuated itself. Jay thought that he might never find someone to share his life with until he met Vanessa.

Vanessa had started working in his office as about a six months earlier. She went to school at night, just like Jay did. And she was studying to become a mechanical engineer. With so much in common, Jay finally found the courage to ask her out, and they began dating.

Over the first few dates, their relationship grew, and the couple had started to develop the intimacy that Jay had dreamed of. Still, they hadn't been as physically intimate as he would have liked, and there were aspects of Jay's personality and tastes that he had not yet shared with Vanessa. Sadly, he could never quite figure out how to approach the topics. So, he resigned himself to wait for the right moment.

For their fourth real date, Jay had hoped that an quiet meal at his house might help them take things to the next level. So, Jay invited Vanessa to his house for dinner. She thought it was a great idea, and she was surprised that he offered to cook. Although she tried not to boo too obvious, she also wanted to take things to the next level physically, and with high hopes for the evening, she decided to wear a tight wool turtleneck with no bra. Although it was a bit scratchy, she liked the way that it rubbed against her nipples, keeping her perpetually aroused.

She arrived at Jay's house right on time, but he wasn't quite through in the kitchen. He offered her some wine, and she wandered around his living room while she waited. Usually they would meet at Vanessa's apartment or at a restaurant. Vanessa had never been in Jay's house before. As she waited for Jay to finish cooking, she looked around, taking it all in. Jay's house was neat and clean, and there was nothing out of the ordinary. She had seen the kitchen and living room already. She peeked into the bedroom and bathroom and found nothing unusual. Finally, she wandered into his office.

"Mind if I check out your office while I wait?" Vanessa asked from the living room.

"Make yourself at home," Jay called back.

She didn't know what she expected to find. It was pretty much just like any home office except maybe a little nicer. In front of a large bay window, he had a wooden desk and credenza with various photographs. Along the walls were several bookcases and a display case with a glass front. It was all quite ordinary until she looked more carefully at the contents of the display case.

It held an impressive collection of three dimensional, mechanical puzzles. Each puzzle was displayed in two states: solved and unsolved. She worked her way from one puzzle to the next, pausing at each display. After considering each puzzle, she formed a solution in her head, and then she moved on to the next. She had seen almost all of the puzzles before, but the last puzzle was completely foreign to her.

The puzzle seemed to be the centerpiece of the display, and the two versions of the puzzle took up most of the center shelf. Without the contextual cue of being grouped with other puzzles, Vanessa never would have guessed what it was. She had never seen anything like it, and it piqued her curiosity.

The puzzle was a black leather belt about 4 inches wide. It had a mechanism attached that could slide from one end of the belt to the other. The puzzle had colorful trim adorning along either edge of the belt. It seemed to be a colored leather lace covered by transparent piping. Each portion of piping and colorful interior trim ran along almost the entire length of the belt.

The sliding mechanism attached the belt to a pair of parallel tubes, also covered with black leather. The tubes were connected to one another so as to give them the appearance of an oversized double-barrel shotgun muzzle. Each tube also had colorful trim displayed through transparent piping. The trim of the tubes ran around the circumference of the openings of each tube. After removing and examining the unsolved display puzzle, Vanessa found that the tubes not only slid from one end of the belt to the other, but they could also rotate about a central axis, namely directly above the sliding mechanism.

Vanessa's curiosity overwhelmed her, and she began to play with the puzzle. As she slid the tubes from one end of the belt to the other, she noticed that all of the colored laces would move within the piping. They were all interconnected somehow, and as they moved, she could see that different sections of the lacing were dyed different colors

She inspected the solved display puzzle, and noticed that the piping along one edge of the belt was a solid yellow. The piping along the other edge was a solid orange. The openings of one tube were green and blue, and the openings of the other tube were purple and red.

She could see that by rotating the tubes and sliding the mechanism along the belt, one could reposition the trim laces within the piping. To solve the the puzzle, one needed to properly adjust the lacing so that only a single colored portion of the lace would be visible in each portion of the transparent piping.

Vanessa began to think that the puzzle seemed a bit infantile, and rather pointless. Still, she couldn't quite figure out how to solve the puzzle in her head as she had done with the others.

She continued to examine the piece only to discover that there were other ways to change the position of the displayed lacing. For example, within each tube, there were three silver rings that could be slid along the interior of the tube. The rings were attached to an interior sliding mechanism by small but strong cords, much like a pull string on a child's talking toy.

On the display puzzle, the cords and rings were neatly tucked into each tube, but on the unsolved puzzle that Vanessa held, the cords and rings flopped out of opposite ends of the tubes. One tube had white cords while the other other had brown cords. The cords allowed the rings to hang about 5 inches down from the tubes. She slid one set of rings from one end of the tube to the other, and watched the colored lacing move almost imperceptibly. Her engineering background told her that the adjustment mechanism was somehow geared extremely low. She noted that in the solved puzzle, the white cords matched up with the red piping, and the brown cords matched up with the purple piping.

Maybe this puzzle was more complicated than she thought.

"You're awfully quiet tonight. Everything okay in there?" Jay called from the kitchen.

"I'm just checking out your puzzle collection," she replied, still deep in thought.

"They are wonderful," she continued, "I have see many of these before... the Rubik's cube, the Tower of Hanoi, Free the Key, and this horseshoe puzzle... I know how to solve those, but I have never seen anything like this leather one."

"Oh, yeah. I picked that one up in China last year. It's called a 'Body Puzzle,' and you can only solve it while you are wearing it."

As an afterthought, Jay added "You probably shouldn't try that one until we have had a chance to talk about it. Maybe I can show it to you after dinner."

"Well, you seem to have solved it without wearing it. The solved puzzle is sitting right here in your display case," Vanessa replied, undeterred.

"Actually, I had to cheat a bit to be able to display it, but I can show it to you after dinner," Jay explained.

Vanessa looked carefully at the solved puzzle and then back to the belt in her hands. She noticed a black clip on each opening of the tubes.

"Oh, I see. You've used binder clips to apply pressure to some interior mechanism. Do you have any more clips so that I can cheat, too?" she asked.

"Actually, no," Jay replied, "But even if I had them, I wouldn't suggest it. Half the challenge of the Body Puzzle contorting your body into the position needed to solve it while wearing it."

"I see... How long before dinner?" Vanessa asked.

"About 15 minutes," Jay replied, "Probably not long enough for you to solve it."

"Oh, I see. A challenge," Vanessa shot back.

With that Vanessa buckled the belt around her waist and positioned the tubes in front where she could see them. She began rotating the mechanism, and sliding it back and forth. All the while, she took note of how the colored laces change positions in the transparent piping. It only took her a few minutes to get to a point where she thought that she was close to a solution.

She put the rings on her fingers and began to push her arms into the tubes, but her sweater proved to be too thick and bunched up at the openings. She tried to roll up her sleeves, but the sweater was so thick and so tight that she couldn't manage to roll them up far enough.

Glancing at the door, she knew that Jay would still be cooking for another few minutes. She leaned over the credenza and shut the blinds to avoid any prying eyes. Then she removed her turtleneck and laid it neatly over the back of Jay's chair. The rush of cool air over her breasts, and the thrill of being half naked in Jay's house, was even more arousing than the wool rubbing across her mipples.

She felt a rush of adrenalin knowing that Jay might catch her with her top off, but she knew that she could quickly grab her turtleneck and cover up. Besides, if the evening went as she had hoped, the sweater would have come off anyway.

Turning her attention back to the puzzle, she slid her fingers back into the rings and pushed her forearms through the tubes. As she stood there with her arms crossed within the puzzle, all of the colors seemed to line up. She smiled with satisfaction; withdrew her arms; and watched the colors slide back out of alignment.

"That was easy," she called to Jay victoriously.

Skeptically, Jay called back "I don't think so."

"What do you mean? I solved it. All of the colors lined up," she replied boastfully.

"Are you sure?" Jay called out doubtfully.

"Yes. I watched them all lined up," Vanessa said defensively.

"Did you hear a click? The puzzle will click when it is properly solved, and all of the colors will stay in place," Jay explained.

"Well, no. It didn't click, but the colors lined up," Vanessa said with less confidence.

"If you didn't hear a click, then the colors didn't actually line up. People sometimes have trouble seeing the colors right next to the buckle if it is behind them. Could you see the buckle?" Jay asked.

"Well, no. Like you said. It was behind me. I would need to be a contortionist to be able to see it back there," Vanessa reasoned.

"Well, there's your problem," Jay said flatly.

"What do you mean 'There's my problem?'" Vanessa questioned indignantly.

Jay was silent, and in the silence Vanessa realized the solution.

She probably had the belt on backwards. Vanessa figured that the puzzle must have some adjustment mechanism embedded in the belt that matched up with a person's hip bones. She reexamined the solved puzzle, and sure enough, there were two additional clips on the belt portion of the puzzle that she hadn't noticed before.

She swivelled the belt around so that the buckle was in front, but she couldn't swivel the belt far enough so that the buckle was centered. She realized that the belt was tight enough that the internal pressure sensors couldn't slide over her hip bones. So, she unbuckled the belt and repositioned it so that her hip bones depressed the belt at the correct locations. Then, she tightly re-fastened the buckle to keep sufficient pressure on the mechanisms.

With the buckle in front and the tubes behind her, she realized she would still need to contort her body, just as Jay had predicted, but at least that contortion was possible. Looking over her right shoulder, she positioned the rings of the upper tube on her right hand. Then, looking over her other shoulder, she positioned the rings of the lower tube on her left hand.

Arching her back and looking up at the ceiling with concentration, she slid each hand through its respective tube. Then, she glanced down toward the belt buckle. The colors were almost perfectly aligned, but there was still no "click." When she released pressure on the rings, the colors again moved out of alignment. She arched again and stretched her arms across her back as far as she could, but she couldn't quite make the colors align.

With a heavy sigh and determination, she pulled her arms partially out of the tubes. Then, she cleverly made a fist to take up some of the slack in the cords. Summoning all of her strength, with a mighty push, she thrust her fists in opposite directions and she watched as the colors properly and completely aligned.

She knew she was finished when she heard the loud, telltale "CLICK" that Jay told her about. And just as Jay had told her, the colors remained perfectly aligned, proving that she had correctly solved the puzzle.

Unlike every other puzzle that she had solved in her life, instead of a feeling of accomplishment, she actually felt rather stupid.

In concert with the "CLICK," she felt two interior bands tighten irresistibly around her wrists. It suddenly dawned on her that this was a mechanical engineer's version of the classic chinese finger trap. She had not conquered the Body Puzzle. It had conquered her.

The click was loud enough for Jay to hear in the other room, and Vanessa panicked. She twisted back and forth and pulled wildly at the puzzle, but it was well made. Despite her furious writhing, It didn't budge a bit. She could feel herself blushing from head to toe, and she looked helplessly at her turtleneck sweater on the back of Jay's office chair.

Suddenly, all of her senses were heightened. She could hear water boiling on the stove; she could hear her own heavy breathing; and she could hear Jay's footsteps approaching the office.

"Dinner is served!" he called out ominously as he entered the doorway.

Jay was stunned as he took in Vanessa's predicament. Embarrassed, she turned away and looked at the floor. Out of the corner of his vision, he noticed the turtleneck sweater on the back of his chair, but he couldn't take his eyes off of Vanessa.

After a long pause, Jay smiled and suggested "Maybe we should have dessert first."


Part 2: The Lower Torso - Update (2016/04/03)

Try as he might, Jay couldn't stop himself from taking in the full view of Vanessa's heaving breasts. Normally milky white, they were now a bright pink. As she squirmed slightly, quietly struggling against her self-administered restraint, his comment about "desert" hung in the air like the bad joke that it was.

After what seemed like an eternity, Jay came to his senses and offered "Here, let me help you out of that silly thing. I should have warned you about it."

As he moved toward her to help, she shrunk away from him, and he stopped, concerned that he was scaring her. If only he could have seen her face, he would have realized that she wasn't the least bit afraid. She was embarrassed. She was embarrassed and angry with herself for placing herself in this position.

Regaining her composure, she cleared her throat and replied "No, thank you. I got myself into this mess. I will get myself out," and then she looked at Jay and smiled meekly.

Jay again tried to be gracious and offer her an easy way out.

"Actually, I don't really think that's possible. I know how that thing works, and even Houdini wouldn't be able to get out without some help."

Vanessa thought for a moment, and said "Well, let me think for a moment. You have really been quite a gentleman about this. Maybe you could just drape that afghan over my shoulders while we discuss my... situation."

She motioned with her shoulder to the couch where a decorative blanket was folded over the back seat cushion. Jay quickly grabbed the blanket, unfolded it, and draped it over Vanessa's shoulders, allowing her a bit more modesty. Then the two of them sat down on the couch as though everything was perfectly normal. Jay naturally placed his arm around Vanessa's shoulders to comfort her.

"I really wanted to impress you by solving your puzzle," Vanessa explained.

"Now, here I am feeling rather foolish, and putting us both in a really awkward situation," she continued.

Jay reassured her that she could just let him unlock the puzzle and that they could pick up right where they left off - about to eat dinner. He knew that it was no use, though, as Vanessa just looked down at her lap and shook her head.

She explained that if she let him just unlock the puzzle, she would feel even worse. Of course, she didn't want to spend the rest of the evening half naked with her hands trapped behind her, but she didn't want his charity either. Worse still, she didn't want to feel like a failure.

"Why do you have a puzzle like that anyway?" Vanessa asked abruptly.

Jay quickly realized that it was not a rhetorical question when she tilted her head and raised her eyebrows at him as she waited for an answer. With a few false starts, Jay explained that he had a thing about bondage. He couldn't explain why it turned him on, but it did. He told her that he had planned on bringing it up later in the evening, but not like this.

"So, you like your women tied up?" she asked in as non-judgmental a way as she could.

"Well... actually... I guess I would... but I've never really had the chance before tonight... and I wouldn't feel right about doing anything now," he said sheepishly.

"Let's just get you out of that," he concluded.

"Not so fast. I want to get out, but on my terms. I don't want to have solved the puzzle only to admit defeat. If only I could somehow solve my way out of this..." she said trying to save face.

"Well, actually, when you put it that way, you theoretically could, but it is virtually impossible. Let's just move on with the evening," Jay said as he turned toward the back of the couch and lifted the blanket off of the leather sleeve that trapped her forearms.

Vanessa quickly jumped away from him before he could release her.

"What do you mean 'I theoretically could?' Is there a way out of this thing or not?"

Jay reluctantly explained that "The Body Puzzle" actually had two components - an upper torso component, and a lower torso component. She was wearing the upper torso component. He had recently purchased the lower torso component online, but since he had not yet tried to solve it, he didn't feel that he should display it with his other puzzles.

"Well then," Vanessa declared confidently, "the puzzle isn't really complete, is it? I need to see the other part!"

Reluctantly, Jay agreed to let her see the second part of the puzzle. He left Vanessa sitting on the couch, and he went to his closet where he found the shipping box containing the second part of the puzzle. As he turned to leave, he was startled to bump into Vanessa who had quietly followed him like a little lost puppy.

"Don't do that! You scared me!" Jay said reflexively.

"How could I scare you? I'm all tied up!" Vanessa protested with a seductive smile.

Jay straightened the afghan draped over Vanessa's shoulders, and he suggested that they read the instructions over dinner before it got too cold. He escorted her to a padded chair in the dining room where she "let" him serve her dinner. She loved the attention that he gave her, feeding her individual mouthfuls of the dinner he cooked.

As they ate, Jay removed an instruction sheet from the box and laid it on the table between them so that they both could read it. The instructions were arranged in two columns: the left column was in Chinese and the right column was in English, apparently poorly translated from the Chinese.

Then, Jay removed the puzzle from the box and placed it on the floor between them. He spread it out so that they could see all of the parts of the puzzle. It consisted of a belt, four cuffs and two small metal puzzle boxes containing retractable cords.

The instructions read:

Wear black belt around waist. Buckle in back. Belt has puzzle box near belly and red connector. Wear belt. Connect to conceal escape ring of Body Puzzle 1 through legs.

Vanessa examined the puzzle on the floor and identified the black leather belt with a small metal box integrated into the center of the belt. The box included a D-ring and a roughly 3 foot long red cotton cord that passed through the bottom of the box. The red cord terminated with a snap hook at the end.

"The instructions seem to have us connecting that red rope to a ring on the sleeve," Vanessa said as she turned her back toward Jay.

"I don't recall seeing a ring on the sleeve. Can you check?" She asked.

Without even examining the sleeve, Jay replied "Yes, actually, there is a ring hidden underneath near the swivel attaching the sleeve to the belt. That is how you unlock the sleeve. Are you sure that you don't just want me to pull on it?"

Vanessa turned back toward the table, gave Jay a look of disgust, and glanced back down to the instructions which read:

Wear blue cuffs around ankles. Connect blue puzzle box between ankles with short blue connectors. Connect blue puzzle box to belt with long blue connector.

Vanessa looked back to the components on the floor and identified the blue leather ankle cuffs. She also saw a small, blue, metal box with rounded corners. The blue box had a blue nylon cord coming out the top of the box, and two blue nylon cords extending from either side of the box. She could see that the snap hooks from the side cords would connect the box between her ankles, and the cord from the top of the box would connect to the D-ring on the front of the black belt.

The instructions continued:

Wear green cuffs high on thighs. Connect green puzzle box between thighs with short green connectors. Connect green puzzle box to blue puzzle box with long green connector.

Despite the broken English, Vanessa could see that the thigh cuffs would connect in the same fashion as the ankle cuffs. In addition the green puzzle box between the thigh cuffs was to be connected to the blue puzzle box between the ankle cuffs.

Vanessa tried to envision someone wearing the puzzle. She understood the connection between the belt and the sleeve - that was how she could ultimately escape. She understood the connecting cords between the thighs and ankles. Clearly, the cords were meant to be pulled in some way to manipulate and solve the puzzle.

The cord connecting the ankle box to the belt and the cord connecting the thigh box to the ankle box, however, perplexed her. The distance between one's ankles and thighs seemed to be a constant, Vanessa thought, but as she considered the range of motion of one's leg, she realized that bending one's knee could drastically change the distance between one's ankle and one's thigh. The same would hold true of the distance between one's ankle and one's waist.

Feeling confident that she could handle whatever challenge this second part of the puzzle could offer, Vanessa read the final portion of the instructions:

When all parts are worn, stand normal. Reset all puzzle boxes with buttons. Then sit in kneeling position. Reset all puzzle boxes with buttons. Begin. Three outcomes possible. Success, failure and give up. Hint: Do not be fooled. Success may seem like failure until puzzle is solved. Three clicks will tell solution. Best luck.

When they had finished eating and reading the instructions, Vanessa asked "Shall we?"

"Sure, if you really want to do this," said Jay as he collected all of the puzzle components and carried them to the living room.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I was thinking it might be more comfortable to do this in the bedroom. I don't know how much space I will need, and your bed is big and cushy," said Vanessa almost apologetically.

"That makes sense to me. Besides, I don't want you to have any excuses if you fail," Jay said with a smile.

They walked to the bedroom, and Jay laid all of the pieces out on the bed. He fastened the belt around her waist above the first belt only to find that the red cord was too short to reach the ring on the sleeve behind Vanessa's back. When he tried to fasten the belt below the first belt, Vanessa found it uncomfortable to wear over her jeans.

Reluctantly, Vanessa asked Jay to remove her belt, unbutton her fly and fold down the top of her jeans. Unfortunately, with the top of her jeans folded down, the red cord could not reach the ring at the base of the tube behind her back.

"Maybe this is an omen," Jay said. "Why don't we just call this whole thing off."

A wave of determination washed over Vanessa, and she stepped on the bottom of her jeans and walked out of them, leaving her bound and completely naked in front of Jay.

"It should work now," Vanessa said glaring at Jay.

Jay took a deep breathe as he silently and carefully threaded the red cord between Vanessa's legs. He clipped the end onto an inconspicuous ring attached to the base of the leather covered tube that relentlessly restrained Vanessa's arms. It just reached.

As she stood motionlessly in front of him, he fastened the blue cuffs on her ankles and connected them together with the cords from the blue box. Next, trying to avoid brushing against her private parts, Jay wrapped Vanessa's thighs in the green cuffs, making certain that the tops of the green cuffs were as high as possible as the instructions required. Well, at least he tried to make it appear as though he was trying to avoid brushing against them. He may have rubbed against her a bit more than strictly necessary. Vanessa didn't seem to mind. In fact, judging by her increased breathing, Jay thought she might have enjoyed it.

He connected the green cuffs together using the cords from the green cord-retracting box. He then ran the last blue cord from the blue box to the D-ring on the belt, and he ran the last green cord from the green box to the blue box between her ankles. Jay stepped back to admire his work, and Vanessa looked like a colorful marionette.

Briefly reviewing the instruction sheet, Jay directed Vanessa to stand in a straight, but relaxed posture. Then, one by one, he pressed a small button on each of the three p[uzzle boxes. Once finished, he helped her onto the bed and directed her to kneel. Again, he pressed a small button on each of the puzzle boxes. Although they didn't say it, both Jay and Vanessa had concluded that pressing the buttons in each position as a way of calibrating the puzzle to her specific dimensions.

Vanessa looked down to survey the new belt and cuffs that she was now wearing. Jay stood in front of Vanessa taking in the view. To his amazement, he had a beautiful and intelligent naked woman kneeling on his bed in front of him with her wrists restrained behind her, and her head bowed.

"That's it?" Vanessa asked incredulously, breaking the long silence as she looked up at him.

"That's it," replied Jay. "I couldn't figure out what they meant either. That's why I hadn't tried to solve this one."

"Okay, well help me to my feet so that I can figure this out," Vanessa requested.

"I don't think so," Jay responded flatly.

"I just want to get a full view of the cords to figure out what to do," she whined.

"No, you don't really mean that. You wanted to solve this yourself. So, I am going to let you," he responded, smiling.

"Fair enough. You're right," she said with a look of determination.

With that, Jay moved to a chair in the corner of the bedroom to watch the show. From his vantage point he could see he directly, and he could also see an opposite side view using the mirror behind her. Vanessa rolled to her side and straightened her legs. As she did, the green cord connecting the the thigh and ankle boxes unspooled from within the green box. The same thing happened to the blue cord connecting the box on her belt to the blue ankle box. Clearly, the boxes were the key to solving the puzzle.

As long as she continued to stretch, cord continued to be released from the boxes. When she stopped pulling, the loose cords just laid there. They were not retracted into the boxes. Vanessa stopped to think, and then she stretched her ankles as far as she could, and she felt a faint mechanical change in the thigh and ankle boxes. Now, when she stopped pulling on the cords, each of the boxes took up the slack in the cords, allowing the cords to retract into each of the boxes.

To her surprise, not only were the boxes retracting the cords, but she could no longer extract the cords from either box as before. The only thing she could do was to bend her knees so that her ankles moved closer and closer to both the thigh box and the waist box. She eventually ended up lying on her side with her legs almost in a fetal position. She continued to bring her ankles as close as she could to her thighs when she sensed a change in the thigh mechanism, and the green cord was no longer being retracted. Unfortunately, the blue cord connecting her ankles to the belt was still being retracted. After a brief rest to consider her options, she pulled her knees hard into her chest to reduce the space between her ankles and the front of the belt. After compressing herself as much as possible, the belt mechanism changed, allowing her to once again withdraw the cords from both the thigh and belt boxes.

All the while, Jay had watched her, mesmerized.

"So, have you learned anything?" he asked.

"Yes, I know the key to the puzzle. I just need to figure out how to use it," Vanessa replied cryptically.

She sat, deep in thought, for several minutes before beginning again. She knew that each cord was controlled by a mechanism in one of the boxes, and the mechanisms operated in two modes. In the first mode, a cord could be extracted from the box but not retracted, and in the second mode, the cord could be retracted into the box but not extracted. It was essentially a binary mechanism that was either zero or one. Off or on.

There were four mechanisms that she could directly manipulate: One connecting her ankles; one connecting her thighs; one connecting the ankle box to the belt; and one connecting the thigh box to the ankle box. Then, of course, there was also the red cotton rope that ran from the belt, through her legs, to the base of the sleeve restraining her arms. Vanessa knew that the red rope controlled her freedom, but she hadn't quite worked out how to trigger the box on the belt to solve the puzzle. She figured that it would become evident once she properly deciphered the rest of the puzzle.

Unfortunately, simply identifying the two modes of each mechanism didn't allow Vanessa to solve the puzzle. So, more experimentation was in order. This time she would test the mechanisms connecting her ankles and thighs. She rolled over to position herself as she was for the first experiment, but when she tried to fully extend her legs, she found that the cord connecting the ankle box to the belt stopped short. Straining to look down her body, she realized that the cord connecting her thighs and ankles was also shorter than before.

Apparently, every complete cycle through the modes of the mechanisms incrementally took up slack in the cords. She didn't yet understand how that factored into solving the puzzle, but she felt certain that it was an important discovery. She also realized that she would need to cycle through all of the mechanisms equally to keep a uniform amount of slack in all cords. If she took up the slack unequally, there could come a point where one mechanism would restrict her ability to control another.

Jay watched with interest as Vanessa opened her thighs and ankles as far as she could and then brought them back together. Aside from being naked and wrapped in leather cuffs, it looked like she was exercising at the gym. First, she performed a stomach crunch, then she performed a scissor kick, and with each repetition her range of motion became more restricted.

Once she had reduced her range of motion by about half, she stopped to rest and reconsider the puzzle. Frankly, she was having some trouble concentrating. In addition to working up a light sweat with all of the movement, she was becoming aroused. All of her movement had caused the red cotton rope between her legs to work its way into her private areas, and there was nothing that she could do about it.

Although she tried desperately to hide it, every movement she made to solve the puzzle sent shivers through her. Every time she reached the limit of a particular motion, like separating her thighs or bringing her knees to her chest, her arousal would crest, and every successive crest would be more intense than the last.

As she approached the point at which her range of motion was fully restricted, she realized the deviousness of the puzzle. With her range of motion becoming increasingly limited, the apex of each motion was occurring more frequently. With each apex occurring more frequently, her body had less time to adjust before another wave of arousal washed over her.

As she approached the conclusion of the puzzle, she was struggling tremendously against the tube holding her arms. At first, Jay enjoyed watching his date writhe around on his bed, but he was becoming concerned. Vanessa would occasionally emit a small grunt or squeal, and the frequency and volume of her sounds was increasing. No words - just moans, growls and whimpers. He knew what was probably happening. So he was torn between offering to let her go and letting her task take its course.

Eventually, Vanessa had little or no slack in any of the cords. The only thing separating her ankle cuffs was the little blue box. The same was true of her thigh cuffs and the green box between them. Jay watched as Vanessa laid on her side bucking like an animal, her knees swinging from a fully extended position slightly behind her to a fully compressed position tight against her chest.

Vanessa had completely given up on the puzzle that now completely trapped her. She was working on a solution to a completely different puzzle. Her own body puzzle.

She was so close. So close. She continued to rock even though it had no discernable effect on the puzzle. She was a hot, wet, sweaty mess, and she was putting on a show for a man with whom she had only been on a few dates, but she didn't care. Only one thing mattered.

Suddenly, the blue box between her legs let out a loud "Click," and shortly after that the green box emitted a similarly loud "Click." Vanessa ignored them and continued working toward her climax. She was breathing far heavier than she would at the gym. Her breasts heaved with every gulp of air. She couldn't get enough, but she couldn't stop now.

As Vanessa continued to wriggle and buck in frustration, her sexual arousal continued to climb. She was a very sexual person, but it had never been like this before. Her entire body began to rumble and shake.

Jay got up from the chair and quietly asked "Are you alright? Do you want to keep trying?"

Knowing that he was watching sent her into a frenzy.

"Yes! Yes! Yes, I will keep trying," she said throwing her head from side to side and straining to push the red cotton rope deeper into her.

Then it happened. Like a volcano, she erupted into an orgasm. Vanessa tensed up and stayed that way for nearly a minute before the wave of emotion and sexuality began to pass.

There was no third "Click" from the puzzle.

Vanessa collapsed and rolled onto her back into a spent pile of sexuality, and Jay laid down next to her and gently stroked her hair.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let you try this. I didn't think that the puzzle could be solved," he said apologetically.

"I know. I don't care. It was great!" replied Vanessa in a state of bliss.

After a few moments, Jay said "Well, I only heard two clicks, but two out of three isn't bad."

"Yes," she agreed. "I knew I could figure out the blue and green boxes, but I just couldn't wrap my brain around how to trigger the black box. Are you sure that it said three clicks and not two."

"Well, can you get out?" he asked, confident that he already knew the answer.

Vanessa smiled at him and squirmed to demonstrate her utter helplessness. "No. The puzzle won again. I can barely move a muscle."

He rolled over and reached for the instructions on the nightstand. After briefly reviewing them, he confirmed "Yup, it says here that there will be three clicks if the puzzle is solved. Oh yeah, it also says 'Hint: Do not be fooled. Success may seem like failure until puzzle is solved. Three clicks will tell solution. Best luck.'"

Vanessa laughed. "Well, that's a hideous translation. If anything, for me failure feels like success. Even though I didn't solve the puzzle, I still consider this to be an excellent outcome!"

Without warning, Vanessa received a slight electric shock from the thoroughly dampened red cotton rope - immediately followed by a loud "Click." Within the black box on the belt, the dampness of the rope provided enough conductivity to complete a circuit activating a small servo motor.

"Oh my!" yelped Vanessa as the motor pulled the red rope even tighter within her.

Suddenly, the pressure on the rope was relieved when the ring at the base of the leather sleeve was pulled out, releasing Vanessa's arms for the first time in hours.

"You did it!" said Jay in amazement.

Vanessa slowly removed her arms from the leather prison and stretched. Then she wrapped her arms around Jay and kissed him.

She couldn't explain why, but bondage definitely turned her on.