As with most things in life, Anna Chang had planned out her first experiment with self-bondage with her usual careful deliberation, refusing to let the excitement that burned within her distract her from setting things up properly. She’d done enough research to know that accidents could happen when tying someone up, and had no desire to taint the experience with a trip to the hospital or worse. Likewise, she’d been equally careful in assembling everything she’d need. The duct tape was from a local hardware store, one of many items she’d purchased with cash that day so as not to leave a paper trail, while her collection of silk scarves in her wardrobe meant there were plenty of gags on hand. The door to her apartment was locked and bolted, her cats fed, her cellphone turned off and all urgent business dealt with, so there would be nothing to interrupt her. She’d even deliberately chosen to do it on Sunday night as another careful measure; should the worst come to pass and she was unable to escape, her absence would quickly be noted over at the Allanmeyer Institute and someone would arrive to free her… as embarrassing as the resulting questions might be.

She was ready. Taking a series of deep breaths to steady herself, the Chinese woman sat down on her bed, silken sheets tickling her naked skin, and she glanced about, triple-checking to make sure the scissors were in the right place, one pair on her bedside table and a second beside her on the bed itself. Dark eyes lingered on the roll of duct tape, and she trembled in excitement, the memory of being bound and gagged at the Institute’s New Year’s Eve party fanning the flames of her ardour.

Truth be told, in the two months since, she’d rarely stopped thinking about that day. It certainly wasn’t how she wanted to get her fifteen minutes of fame, naturally. For weeks, the entire city had been abuzz about her ordeal; a beautiful archivist taken hostage during a time of celebration, a modern-day damsel in distress discovered bound and gagged at the hands of a thief who’d infiltrated the premises, and with it came a level of scrutiny she found rather uncomfortable. The time she would have normally spent scanning old documents to digitally preserve them or organizing the Institute’s extensive and priceless collection was instead devoted to fending off clickbait journalists eager for salacious details, or seeing her experience become yet more ammunition for partisan editorials about the persistence of colonialist oppression (for the city’s left-wing newspapers) or the need to bring back the death penalty (for the right-wing ones). The endless questions from her coworkers and the police hadn’t helped matters either. The former were convinced she’d been taken advantage of, despite her protests to the contrary, and had treated her with kid gloves lest she suffer further trauma, a well-meaning gesture that nevertheless became frustrating after a time. The latter, meanwhile, were certain she was the linchpin in bringing down the thief, for it seemed that he was the prime suspect in a variety of burglaries across the city, and had been disappointed when her honest testimony brought them no closer to an arrest.

Yet through it all, it was the sensation of being tied up that had lingered with her; the feel of the soft ropes securing her tightly, of the electric pleasure of the thief’s warm lips upon her own, and the taste of the nylons he’d gagged her with afterwards. What should have been frightening was instead oddly thrilling, and in the process awakened something entirely at odds with her normally careful and reserved nature. She wanted this, and without further hesitation, she began to wrap the tape about her ankles, making several passes until they were left firmly secured together. Another circuit bound her naked, supple thighs. Content there’d be no escape for her legs, Anna attended to her gag next. A cream silk scarf, tightly balled up to reduce the danger of choking, filled her mouth, and Anna gave a small moan as she deftly bound a second of blue over her lips, giving a few experimental grunts. “Mmmmpgggh, mmmmpggh!”

Satisfied, the Chinese woman proceeded to the final, and trickiest, stage. Wrapping the tape around her left wrist first to anchor it, she brought her wrists together, and with some dexterous maneuvering of her fingers, bound them in place. Testing her bonds and finding them secure, she took up the nearest pair of scissors in a reverse-grip and snipped away the spare length, letting the roll falling back onto the bed.

With a grunt, Anna strained against her bonds, heart racing with excitement as the tape held firm. “Mmmm…” Her struggles intensified, desire overriding all reason and care, and an elaborate fantasy began to form in her mind’s eye. A local street gang—no, the thief from that night in the Allanmeyer Institute had snuck into her apartment and seized her as she slept, forcing her to strip naked before rendering her bound and gagged and utterly unable to resist him. “Mmmmpph!” Anna cried out, imagining his gloved hands caressing her every intimate region, breath hot and lustful on her skin as he swept her up in his arms and carried her off into the unknown, undeterred by her futile struggles. “MMMMMPPGGGH!”

It could never be, of course. She had her own life to live and goals to pursue, and she’d worked too hard to throw it all away for a man whom she had no real reason to trust. For the moment, though, the thought of him was enough, and Anna sank into the delirium of pleasure. Besides, he’s too careful to intrude on the same place twice…