School Ties

Excerpt:
I trust him. I've known him for years. He's not going to hurt me now. Linda Alston raised her head slightly and watched as Bruce Harmon tied her left ankle to a slat in the footboard of the hotel bed. Her right ankle had also been bound with one of his neckties, and her hands were tied together and fixed above her head to the headboard.

As if he heard what she was thinking, Bruce looked up at her and grinned that mischievous, tousle-haired grin that always made her want to laugh, and she relaxed. She had forgotten how bright his blue eyes were when he took off his glasses. "You know," he said, "When the brochure for this fundraiser came, I never expected this to be one of the activities."

Linda had to laugh. She never would have expected this, either. Not when the brochure came in the mail, not when she registered, not even three hours ago when she first entered the reception area and looked around for familiar faces.

* * * *

Her friends back home had teased her about attending when she first announced her plans. "Who goes to a college fundraiser?" they all asked. Admittedly, the idea seemed a little off the beaten track for her. The fundraiser was to put a new roof on the library, update the plumbing in the men's dormitory, and replace worn-out apparatus in the Phys Ed building. When she thought about it, it was unlikely she would know anyone who would actually show up at one of these things. The word had gone out to the entire alumni association. Chances were she would be surrounded by graduates from forty years ago who were retired and had enough disposable income to shell out a few thousand for a good cause.

Still, Colgate was a small school, and most of her friends had attended the big state university. Linda doubted they had the same sort of college memories she did.

So she booked a flight, made a hotel reservation, shopped for at least two new dresses, and arrived at the reception feeling both nervous and suddenly shy. In spite of the fact that Colgate had been small, she had not stayed in close contact with any of her roommates. When she entered the reception area, eyeing all the knots of people getting drinks at the bar, laughing over small plates of crackers and cheese, exchanging hugs and loud greetings, she had stopped and stared. Did she know any of these people?

Then she saw Bruce.

He didn't notice her at first as he stood and chatted with a group of men in suits, drink in hand, shoving his glasses back up onto his nose the way she remembered. She knew him from his height and slender build. In college, he had been one of her best friends: sweet and sensitive, almost as attentive as one of her gal pals when he wanted to be. Yet always a guy when she needed him to fix something. Or when she needed sex.