The covers were on the floor. Sara was soaked in perspiration, though the room felt cool on her naked skin. Naked. Her full length cotton night gown was torn and lying on the floor. Sara's heart was racing. It happened again. Lying there in the quiet room, the distant sounds of the empty house teasing her with their normalcy. Forcing herself to get up, she stripped the bed and made it up fresh, then putting her gown in the trash, she took a long, hot shower that failed to make her feel as clean as she wanted. She looked at herself in the mirror on the back of the bathroom door.

Dark brown hair in full natural waves that fell to her narrow shoulders. Face too thin and eyes too wide, she felt, though many felt she was lovely. Or so they said. Full breasts with nipples that seemed even now to strain forward as though reaching for the lips or fingers of another. She blushed at the thought. Sara was not a virgin. She had had three lovers in her twenty two years. The first, Carl, when she was still eighteen. They had both been virgins and over the next year they experimented together, but the scope of their experience was limited. Brad was more of a challenge. He taught her the thrills of oral sex and the adrenalin wrought kick of public sex, but he seemed to feel that she was too weird for him. She never understood that. Her most recent lover, DJ , was into long and slow sex and though Sara generally had her orgasm, she felt that their had to be something more. Then the dreams started.

Dressed in her casual conservative slacks and blouse, Sara forced her mind to concentrate on her work and tried not to think about the dreams.

"Phillip is such a beast."

"What did the pirate do now?"

Sara tuned in to the conversation of her co-workers. She knew that Phillip was Mary's fiancé and that Mary loved to tell of their latest escapades.

"He took me to an S/M club."

"A what?"

"It's a club for people who are into S & M; you know, the whips and chains crowd."

"Ooooo. Kinky. Is he into that?"

"I don't think so. He just likes to watch. I have to say it sure got his motor started."

"What kind of things did they do?"

"Well, we couldn't get into the private rooms... I hear that is where the good stuff is... but the public room had some girls in skimpy latex outfits and a guy in a leather jock strap and an executioner’s mask who locked them in stock type things and paddled their butts with a wooden paddle. Weird."

"They have that kind of thing around here?"

"Believe it or not, just a few blocks from here."

Both women seemed flushed though they both pretended to be shocked. Sara wanted to ask more, but she had always been shy and she was uncomfortable with letting anyone know about her dreams.

"What's the matter, Sara? You look like you're a million miles away."

Sara looked up. Until today, she would have said that Bobbi was her best friend. Bobbi was looking at her with concern, but she was also looking at the other girls as though not certain of her role. Sara realized she would never feel comfortable telling Bobbi about her dreams. Now, she realized; she truly had no close friends. Bobbi was her work friend. Trish was her neighbor friend.