14 Days To Redemption By Buckaroo Bonzai Prologue Jack stared into the barrel of the gun, mesmerized by its power. The dark steel seemed to absorb the light, and even hope itself, as if the weapon knew that its actions were truly irrevocable. Jack looked into its single black eye for an eternity, allowing himself to be seduced by it. Willing himself to overcome his fears. Fighting his fight or flight instincts. And finally measuring his destiny should the hammer hit the primer. She's not worth it, he decided, putting the weapon on the table. Actually, it amazed him that he'd contemplated it at all. He'd purchased the gun, a German something, to protect them during a spate of robberies in the neighborhood. But, well aware of the tragic results that guns often produced, he'd outfitted it with a trigger guard, and had placed the bullets in a separate drawer. Funny, then, how he'd been drawn to it when he'd first heard the news. Kelli, his wife of seven years, was having an affair. Kelli, his good little girl, Southern Baptist, straight as an arrow, lily-white, no tolerance for human failure wife was spreading her legs for another man. Kelli, the woman who had consistently said that she would kill him and any woman he might have an adulterous relationship with, had herself carried on an adulterous relationship. Kelli, the woman for whom he had turned away sexual advances from two extremely beautiful women, had betrayed him. When she'd first revealed the truth, Jack had felt as if the air had been sucked out of the room. Literally. He'd gasped for breath, punched in the solar plexus by the one thing he'd never expected to hear. But amazingly, he hadn't doubted it at all. Despite the blatant impossibility of it, he hadn't doubted the truth of it. Hadn't even considered that it could all be a horrible joke. Her explanations were as thin as lacquer, and just as revealing. "It just happened," she whined. "I couldn't help myself..." "You've been so distant lately. I needed someone to talk to." He'd been distant? He'd been doing what she wanted, working extra hours to get a raise so she could enjoy a better standard of living. Over the next two weeks he withdrew from her, turning a deaf ear to her apologies and her pleas for understanding. She'd tried to match his silence with her own, but couldn't. Her guilt was such that it needed tobe acknowldged and forgiven. He withdrew from her physically as well, even forgoing the kiss they'd shared every morning since their marriage began. Sex with her was out of the question. He wasn't sure that he could keep himself from expressing his anger in the guise of sex. Then one night she'd changed tactics, coming to him as he sat morosely staring at an insipid TV sitcom. Though the sight of her no longer disgusted him, the fact that she was wearing only a revealing robe didn't begin to turn him on like it had before. When he made it clear that he wouldn't let her sit on his lap, she calmly knelt at his feet, leaning her head against his leg. "Jack, I know I've done a terrible thing to you," she said, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. "I've hurt you, and that's something I never wanted to do. I've said sorry so many times, but it's obvious that isn't enough. But what more can I do? What more can I say? I thought maybe we could get some counseling, but I know how you feel about that. So then, then I thought, maybe if you could get even, maybe then we could get past this. If you could get even, then you might, you and I might...we'd be even then. We could get on with our lives." "Even?" he asked, intrigued despite himself. She seemed to take heart from his response, curt though it was. "I thought, well...maybe...I thought maybe you could have an affair...too. You know, you could go off and have...have sex with some other woman. And then...and then we'd be even." By then she was trying to stifle her sobs. "Sex?" he mumbled, surprised at how little she understood how he was feeling. Still, it was enough to break him out of his passivity. "Sex is the last thing on my mind now," he lectured her. "Sex with another woman wouldn't make it even. Wouldn't make up for your betrayal. Because that's what this is all about," he said, his voice growing angier. "You betrayed me! You were my wife. Mine! You were the prettiest woman I'd ever seen. You were so good, so straight, so clean that you squeaked. And you were so sure, so sure that only you knew the moral boundaries. What we could do in bed and what we couldn't. Even though I taught you everything you know about sex. All that time that I put up with all your crap, all that talk about what's right and what's wrong! Why we could do this but not do that. All that time I put my wants and needs aside because you were too good, too right to do anything new! And now you go out and you fuck some other guy, and you think that if I fuck some other woman that's going to make it even. Even???" He took a breath to calm down as Kelli wept openly at his feet. "You want to know what I feel right now? I'll tell you. First, I feel like I can't trust you anymore. Like the seven years we had are completely gone. But that's not the worst of it. The worst is that I'm angry. So angry that I want you to feel everything that I'm feeling. I want you to hurt like I hurt. I want you to feel the humiliation. To feel the confusion. To wonder where the next punch is coming from. I want you to feel out of control, on the edge. I want you to wonder about trust. Do you understand what I'm saying? For the first time in my life, I want you to be hurt. Not in a physical way, where the pain goes away. But hurt inside, where the pain stays with you. And Kelli, do you understand how impossible it is for me to be this way? How hard it is for me to want to see you hurt? How powerful these feelings have to be?" "I don't know what to say Jack. I don't," she sniffled into his pants leg before gazing up at him with pain-filled eyes. "All I can say is that I'll do anything to help you put the pain away. Anything! Make me hurt if you want. I know I deserve it. Put me on the edge. Put me anywhere you want. I'll do anything you want in bed, in the house, in my life. Just tell me what you want. Just tell me what I can do." From that small seed blossomed his big idea. His plan for his wife's redemption. Day One - Initiation Three days later, at precisely eight o'clock on a sunny Saturday morning, Jack shook his wife awake. Even though she was still half asleep, he could read the shock in her eyes. No wonder. He literally hadn't touched her since the night of her announcement of adultery. But when she shifted her body, clearly inviting him join her for some intimate contact, he simply shook his head and said, "No. Get up. Get dressed. And meet me in the family room." He ignored the disappointed look she gave him. Time enough for that later. Waiting for Kelli to join him in the family room, Jack studied their wedding picture with a critical eye. She'd changed little in the last seven years. Her voluminous hair was now shorter, about shoulder length. Her green eyes still sparkled like dew-covered grass. Her face still looked self- assured, though her laugh lines were a bit more prominent. She still had a smooth, graceful neck, leading the ye to her full and well-rounded breasts. She'd kept her waist slim and her stomach flat. In fact, the only thing that had changed was the muscle she'd added to her ass and legs, which made her look more athletic than she was. On the inside, however, she'd changed greatly, her self-righteous morality growing more strident, making her deviation from the path all the more surprising. Don't go there, Jack had to caution himself, feeling the anger begin to rise. It was important to tell Kelli his plan as dispassionately as possible. She had to understand that this was her only option; that to decline might mean the death of their marriage. Even with that incentive, the odds of her accepting the plan were only about 50/50. The odds of the plan actually succeeding would be even less than that. Jack turned as his wife made her way to the couch and primly sat down. As was her custom during the summer months, she was wearing a long summer dress, the square neckline hiding rather than accentuating her bust. The fabric kept her legs largely hidden, though he was able to admire her shapely ankles and painted toenails. If all went well, she'd have a whole new attitude about dressing before the day was over. "I think I found a possible solution to our problem," he began, pleased to see the beginnings of a smile on her face. "But I'm not sure you're going to like it. It's a little radical..." The key, Jack told her, wasn't in getting even for her transgression. It was in getting rid of the anger and betrayal that he felt. He'd tried to forgive her. He rationalized and thought and prayed, but it still wasn't enough. He needed shock therapy. And their marriage could probably benefit from it as well. So over the last few days he'd come up with a plan. A plan to help him work out some of his aggression. And one that would serve as a cold splash of water on their entire relationship. Working on his plan had been the first time since her bombshell that Jack had felt a real sense of purpose in his life. He would save his marriage. He would dramatically expand their sex lives. But he wasn't so naïve as to think that his plan was completely altruistic. He knew that the line between retribution and redemption was awfully thin. And that if Kelli went for this, he'd have a chance to do some things he'd only fantasized about. The plan appealed to Jack's dark side. It was time for some selfishness. It was time to have fun. "So now that you know where I stand," he continued, taking some papers from the desk, "here's the solution I've come up with. I've even written it down, so you know exactly what you're getting into. And if you agree to go along, we'll both have to sign it." At her nod he began to pace, trying to decide how to present his ideas. "What I want, what I need, is to change our marriage from the 50/50 it's been to 100/0. What that means is that I'll have 100% of the control. For the next 14 days, I'll be making 100% of the decisions regarding both of us. I'll decide what you wear, what you do, where we go, when we do things, how we do them, everything. For the next 14 days, you'll be giving me total control over your life and mine. If any major decisions come up, you'll have to trust that I'll do what's best for both of us. Or, if I can't do make a decision, I'll delay it until the 14 days is up. "The key is that I'll have all the control. It'll be like we're going back to the Middle Ages, where a wife was property and a man could do anything he wanted with her. I can tell that this idea is shocking you, but I really think this is the only way I'm going to be able to let go of how I'm feeling. It's like they say, 'Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.' Your sentence is 14 days, and I'll be your warden. "To help you decide, I've written down the rules you'll be expected to follow. So you won't be surprised by anything I tell you to do. You'll have to agree to every rule for us to go on with this. Otherwise...well, I don't know what we'll do. "Rule Number One: For 14 days, you will submit to me completely. Your body will be mine, to do with as I like. You will keep yourself in the manner which I command, and always be ready to do my bidding. You will also trust that I would do nothing that would cause you permanent harm. "Rule Number Two: You will do everything I command, exactly as I want, no matter how you feel about the action. No amount of embarrassment, fear or other emotions will prevent you from following my orders. "Rule Number Three: You will do everything that I say with enthusiasm, and try to take pleasure in each act, both for yourself and in the satisfaction of pleasing me. Rule Number Four: You will gladly submit to any act of discipline or punishment I command, knowing that I do so with your best interests at heart. Rule Number Five: You will give me the right to restrict you to or from any room in the house, any place outside, or from any person, for as long as I prescribe. Rule Number Six: You will neither look for or take advantage of any loopholes in these rules. Know full well that your good faith will be rewarded and your bad faith will be punished. " Kelli gave him a look that he couldn't interpret before picking up a pen from the desk, "Basically, you want me to be your slave for two weeks? "Basically." She glanced over the rules before measuring him with her eyes. "If this is what it takes..." she sighed, before bending to sign the contract that would enslave her for the next two weeks. "That's what it takes," Jack agreed, signing his name to the paper and starting their two week adventure.