"So what's up?" Lisa asked as she shut the door to her bedroom. Ruby had approached her at school to ask if she could talk about a problem with Lisa. Ruby had refused to talk about it at school or even during the walk home. Only now that they were alone in Lisa's room did she start explaining herself.

"I have a - sort of a - sex problem."

"With Tim?" Lisa asked. Ruby and Tim's relationship was now common knowledge, having been going on for over a month.

"Yes and no. A month or two ago I got involved with another guy - before Tim."

"Really? Who was that?"

"I can't really say. So with this other guy, I fooled around a bit, and we did a certain sex thing. That went wrong at the end, which was why it finished, but now I find that with Tim I want this thing but I'm worried about doing it after what happened." Ruby looked up at Lisa to see what she would say.

"Ruby, I'm hear to try to help, but I'm not following," Lisa explained, unable to make sense of what the other girl had just said. "You need to start being specific if you're going to make any sense. I won't tell anyone, I won't judge you, but I need to understand before I can help."

"Ok," Ruby said and paused. "So," she started, trying to summon some courage, "I like the idea of being tied up by a guy - for him to take control." Lisa tried to remain expressionless in case she gave away the appeal the idea held for herself.

"Ok," Lisa said flatly and realised that she sounded uninterested. "Go on," she said, with a more encouraging tone.

"Somehow I found a guy that liked the idea too. He had a girlfriend but she didn't like this sort of thing at all. But he was so into it that he wanted to do it with me, behind her back." Lisa could not help but think of Matt, who liked the idea. For a brief moment she wondered if Ruby was actually talking about Matt but then dismissed the idea; Ruby would not be so callous as to be talking to Lisa about cheating on Lisa's boyfriend!

"So we ended up trying it out together; he came over to my house while my parents were out and tied me up. And then we did things."

"What things exactly?" Lisa asked, half-motivated by a desire to help and half-motivated by sordid curiosity.

"Well, he took my underwear off and licked me down there."

"Did you come?" Lisa asked.

"Yep," Ruby said and could not help smiling. "Then after that things went a bit iffy. He wanted a blow-job but I refused."

"Did he force you to do it while you were tied up?" Lisa asked, concerned. Deep-down, although she refused to admit it to herself, her horror at the idea of this guy forcing Ruby to give him a blow-job was accompanied by some arousal at the idea.

"No, he made me give him a hand-job instead. I felt really bad afterwards that I'd not been able to do what he wanted."

"You shouldn't feel like that," Lisa said genuinely. "Just because you didn't want to give him head doesn't mean you were bad. I mean, had you actually given head before?"

"Never," Ruby explained.

"In that case you definitely shouldn't feel bad! These things take time to build up to, not just being made to do it while you're tied up, for goodness sake!" The penny dropped for Lisa: "So your first sex experiences were while you were tied up?" she asked incredulously.

"We didn't have full-on sex, but yeah," Ruby said.

"Wow," Lisa said, stunned. "Wow. Kinky," she added before realising that she was probably sounding unkind. "But hey that's fine. So what happened after that?"

"Well, we met up again a few weeks later to do more of the same. By then I was all ready to do the blow-job thing, but not sex - and he knew that."

"So what did he do to you this time?" Lisa asked eagerly.

"He tied me up on all-fours - with my clothes still on. Then he took my trousers and knickers part-way down my legs and, ummm, spanked me a bit."

Lisa could not help but raise her eyebrows. "What was that like?"

"Erm, quite good," Ruby admitted and felt ashamed.

"Fair enough," Lisa said.

"So then after that, he - ummm - put his fingers, erm, well, in my bum."

"What did you think of that?" Lisa asked, thinking back to her own experience of having her ass fingered while she was tied up. She was finding this conversation much more erotic than she thought she should.

"Not too terrible. Two fingers was ok as well, and he was fingering my, err, vagina, too so that was fairly enjoyable. But then it started to go a bit wrong. He tried putting a third finger in and that really hurt. We paused for a bit and then decided to continue."

"He decided or you decided?" Lisa asked.

"Me, I think. So he made me give him head."

"Was that hard without your hands?"

"Well, I didn't really do much. He just thrust into my mouth so I couldn't actually do much. But then, at the end, he pulled out and then he came all over my face."

"Oh god," Lisa said in shock. "I bet that wasn't nice."

"No. It was really horrible. And then - this will sound silly - I just started crying. He left, and we haven't really spoken since. It sounds silly now that I say it, I mean most of it was fine, it was just a few bits that went wrong, but it was upsetting."

"Well, it was not nice was it. I mean, you were enjoying it but then he went too far and it probably felt a bit like a betrayal didn't it?" Lisa asked and Ruby nodded. "Guys eh! They just have to take it too far. I mean, it has to be worrying when a guy ties you up, as to what he might do to you," Lisa said, subconsciously voicing her own fears.

"I think it would be better if it was with someone you could trust a bit more. Now that I've had a bit of time after it, it hasn't really put me off. Which is the problem really."

"Oh?"

"With Tim, it feels like sex was always meant to be. He likes my body, he kisses me - everywhere - and, well, I lost my virginity to him."

"Ahhhhhh," Lisa said in a patronising isn't-it-sweet tone.

"And that's all good, and I'm sure most girls would be happy with that. But..." Ruby's voice trailed off as she searched for a way to express her feelings.

"You want the kinky stuff?" Lisa suggested.

"Yeah, put simply. But I'm a bit worried after what happened with the other guy, and also a bit worried if Tim will be into it, or whether he'll think I'm weird, because I mean - I'm really into the tied-up thing. Sex without it seems like it's lacking something, and I mean it's not like it's because I'm bored of it - some middle-aged add-some-spice thing. I just want sex like that, and I think that's just the way I am," Ruby said defensively.

"I don't think there should be any shame in enjoying it," Lisa said. "And if it's with someone you trust then you should be alright," she said, lacking conviction in her opinion, even though she knew it was the right thing to say.

"I guess so. I suppose it's probably time to see what Tim thinks of the idea then," Ruby said. "You're lucky that you don't have to worry about these things with Matt - sometimes I wish that I didn't have this... fetish, if that's the right word."

"Yeah," Lisa replied, forcing a nod. "So," she said, trying to change the subject, "what happened to the guy - did he go back to his girlfriend?"

"Yep. He's still with her. Although to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if he cheated on her with someone else - I don't think he was very happy with her, sex-wise."

"Men eh? They feel happy to shop around if they haven't got exactly what they want!"

"I guess so, but then - if Tim doesn't like what I like, what would I do? I mean, I'd just end up quite unhappy with the sex if we stayed together, but it seems like a stupid reason to break up. It can be hard, so I don't view the guy as being that terrible. But you'd hope that your partner indulges you in what you want, even if just as a compromise. She was so closed to the ideas of what he wanted that he ended up unhappy."

"Mmm," Lisa said guiltily.

"Anyway, this has been really useful. Thanks for the chat, hope you don't think I'm too weird," Ruby said, smiling.

"No, not at all. Come back if you need to chat again."

"Ok, will do," Ruby said as she got up. "I'll see myself out." Lisa closed the door after Ruby had gone and then sat on her bed, mulling things over.