Ashley's Abduction

Ashley's Abduction

It was a college bar, wild and crowded, and not the kind of place she would have picked. Guys were doing jello shots and beer bongs and the whole scene was loud and messy, even spilling out into the street. Natalie ran interference as she and Ashley worked their way towards the back through the Friday evening crowd, deftly fending off the guys who staggered or stumbled into her, or the hands that reached out offering grotesquely colored drinks in shot glasses.

"You sure he's here?" Ashley shouted.

It was so loud that Natalie instinctively squinted her eyes in order to hear, as if the noise were bright light. "Well, he said he would," she answered. "Maybe way in the back."

"Why would a guy choose this place?" Ashley asked, with no real hope of being heard, but Natalie answered her. "I don't know. Maybe because it's easy to find."

They walked a few more feet and were stopped by a solid wall of guys standing up and cheering as someone emptied a beer bong.

"There he is." Natalie said, pointing to the very back of the bar.

Way at the back of the place, right near the back door was a man that didn't look like he belonged there at all. He was clearly older than the boys there, his hair and black beard sprinkled with gray. He was sober, and he seemed worlds away from the pandemonium that was occurring before their eyes. He seemed very self-possessed; maybe even dangerous.

"Oh God, Natalie!" Ashley said. "I can't go through with this!"

"Come on," Natalie said, "You said you wanted to meet him, and he says he wanted to meet you. Come on, chicken. Just say hello."

Ashley bit her lip and let Natalie drag her towards the back, shaking her hand loose just before the man turned to look at them.

"Doctor M, this is Ashley. Ashley, Dr. M." Natalie said proudly.

He smiled, and when he smiled he didn't look nearly so formidable. He took Ashley's hand. "I'm glad to meet you." he said. "I've really been looking forward to it."

Ashley felt herself blush. "Me too." she said. "I mean, I've been one of your biggest fans for a long time."

"That's why I wanted to meet you." he said with a smile. "Nothing like meeting women who think you're great before you've even done anything."

He turned out to be very easy to talk to, especially since what she really wanted to talk about was his stories, descriptions of erotic kidnappings and abductions of young, innocent girls, and their introduction to rough sex and rape. It was a topic that fascinated Ashley even as it embarrassed her. She'd expected the Doctor to be as harsh and forbidding as the men in his stories, but he wasn't. He was happy to talk about his writing, and Ashley was flattered by his attention.

He went and got some drinks and they moved to a table in the back of the bar, and it became obvious to Ashley that he was coming on to her. He kept on steering the conversation back to her own personal identification with his stories and her own fantasies: what had she actually done, what did she think she would like to do. She was reluctant to talk about that, saying that really, it was only a fantasy. It wasn't something she'd really like to experience.

"Is that right?" he asked. "Well, where there's smoke, there's fire, Ashley."

They both laughed; hers a bit uneasy.

He was charming. He was older than she, and far more experienced, and he made the other men she knew seem like boys. It was flattering to have his attention, and he seemed fascinated by everything she said.

The afternoon slid into evening, the drinks kept on coming, and finally, when he kissed her as they stood once again by the back door, it seemed right. His lips were warm and he smelled wonderful. There was something possessive and manly in his kiss that thrilled her, and when his hand slid up to cup her breast she didn't stop him.

He led her out the back door and she followed. He had a van parked out back and when he pulled her towards it she balked.

"No," she said, "I can't. Really. I've got to get back."

"Come on, Ashley. At least let me drive you."

She didn't know how to say no, so she climbed into the van. She heard the power locks click on, but she didn't say anything.

It wasn't until he ignored her directions for a right turn that she started to worry. But even then she assumed that he was going to insist that she go to another bar with him, that was all, even though from the look on his face he didn't look like he wanted to do any more drinking. He had his dark glasses on and his mouth was set.

"Err… Where are we going?" she asked.

He said nothing.

"Where are you taking me?" she tried again.

He looked at her and she saw herself reflected in his glasses. "To a place I know." he said. "Just relax."

It took her a moment to believe that he was serious. It was just like one of his stories: he was abducting her.

"No!" Ashley yelled. "I want to go home. Now!"

Without a word he pulled the van into an alley, and she thought maybe he was going to turn them around, but instead he got out of his seat and with astonishing speed he grabbed her arms and pulled her into the back of the van, throwing her on the floor. Before she could regain her wits he was kneeling over her and tying her wrists together behind her back. He stuffed a wad of cloth in her mouth and tied it in place with a scarf, then tied her ankles together with another length of rope.

Ashley tried to scream, but the gag made that impossible. He ran another piece of rope from her wrists to her ankles, bringing her feet up behind her and making it impossible for her to even struggle. She was tied helpless in the back of the van.

He knelt there on his knees, breathing heavily and looking at her.

"Yeah," he said in a low voice. "Tell me you don't want this. Your little pussy is probably creaming right now, isn't it? You can't tell me you like the kind of crap I write and not want to do just what I've described, so knock off the innocence act, okay?"

Ashley looked at him with wild fear in her eyes. The change that had come over him was frightening. He had been such a gentleman in the bar, and now he was like an animal, his forehead glistening with sweat, his eyes glistening.

Her skirt had ridden up over her thighs in the struggle, and her arms pinned behind her made her breasts thrust out provocatively against her tight tee-shirt. She tried to scream and kick herself loose but it was useless. She was tied hand and foot, and all she succeeded in doing was make her skirt slide up even higher, exposing a wisp of her panties.

He smiled and reached out and put his hand on her thigh, slid it sensuously up her leg, enjoying the feel of her soft skin. She saw him smile.

"Oh yeah…" he said. "That's some nice stuff, Ashley. That's too good to be wasted on those college boys!" He slid his hand up to her pussy. Because her legs were tied so tightly together, he could just manage to slide one finger against her cunt and press up into her soft and yielding flesh. He groaned with pleasure and then laughed when she tried to scream again.

"Well let's get this show on the road!" he said as he climbed back into the driver's seat.

She still had some hope that this was a joke of some kind, that maybe Natalie was waiting for her someplace up ahead, all ready to jump out laughing when they got there. They drove for a long while, and all she could see of their route was the glare of the streetlights through the windshield as the Doctor casually took them where he wanted. At one point Ashley was aware that they'd gotten on a highway but she had no idea which way they were going. The only thing she knew was that they were very far from where she lived.

At last the van stopped. He cut the engine and got out of the van. Ashley heard crickets, and then the side door opened and he got in. He tied a scarf around her eyes and then checked her bindings.

"I'm going to untie your feet so you can walk." he said. "You try anything and you'll be very, very sorry."

She was not about to try anything. Her hands were securely bound and she couldn't see a thing. He guided her along the uneven, grassy ground, and then up some stairs, across a floor, and down some stairs: basement stairs from the smell of it.

He got behind her and she felt him untying her hands. He buckled some sort of leather cuffs over her wrists and attached them to bar than hung over head, raising her hands over her head. Then he removed the blindfold.

In the harsh light of a naked light bulb she saw that she was standing in the basement of an old house, in some sort of home-made dungeon. The walls were made of big blocks of limestone, and there were ring-bolts and spikes driven into the rock from which hung chains and ropes. There were strange, forbidding looking pieces of furniture—padded tables, chairs—and on one wall hung devices of leather and chrome that looked like they'd come from a medieval torture chamber.

The Doctor let her look. Then he came up behind her and took her breasts in his hand. "How do you like it, Ashley?" he asked. "My little play room. We're going to have fun in here, aren't we?"

"I'll tell you now that it's no use to scream." he said as he untied the gag and removed the fabric from her mouth. "We're out in the middle of nowhere. In fact, feel free to scream as the spirit moves you. It excites me."

"What are you going to do?"

"Give you what you want." he said, caressing her breasts and nuzzling his lips against her neck. "And give you what you need, you little slut! Give you exactly what you need."

As he said these last words he pinched her nipples between his thumbs and first fingers, making her gasp as pain speared through her body.

"No! Don't!" she begged. "I'll give you what you want. Just don't hurt me, please!"

"We'll see, Ashley" he said as his hands traced slowly down her body , over her ribs, her stomach, down over her hips and then into her crotch, pressing up against the soft dampness of her pussy.

She realized with alarm that despite her fear his hands felt good. In fact, because of her fear his hands felt good. Her arms were stretched up over her head making it impossible to defend herself, and her vulnerability was exciting her terribly.

She felt his hands at the waist of her skirt as he unfastened it, and then he pulled it down over her hips, leaving her standing in her panties and tee-shirt. He slowly walked around her, looking her up and down, then he went to the wall and took down a leather crop.

"You're a good-looking woman, Ashley. Made for fucking, aren't you?" He reached out with the crop and pressed it against her nipple. "I'll bet you drive the boys wild with that hot little ass, don't you?"

"No.." she said tentatively.

"Bullshit." he said angrily. "You're a little prick tease and a little slut and don't tell me you're not!"

Suddenly he smiled. "Have you ever been beaten?" he asked.

Ashley whimpered in fear.

"You'll love it, Ashley. Once you get used to it. All you little sluts love it. Because you know you deserve it. You love it because it makes you hot!"

He reached behind her and with a flick of his wrist brought the tip of the crop down on her ass, making her jump and gasp. She felt her ass burning where he'd struck her. He walked behind her, one hand holding one of her up-stretched arms, and he stood where he could whip her with the most ease.

Whapp!! Slapp!! Whackk!! The crop came down on her buttocks leaving a trail of fire and Ashley screamed in pain as she tried to twist away from the punishing crop.

"Stop it! Stop it! You're hurting me!"

He laughed. "Am I?" he said. "Let's see how much I'm hurting you. I'll bet your pussy's wet right now. I'll bet you're getting off on this. What do you say, Ashley? Want to bet?"

She whimpered and turned her head to the side. She knew that he was right. Her nipples were getting hard and she'd felt excited chills up and down her spine as he'd hit her. For some reason she couldn't begin to understand, she loved feeling helpless like this, the prisoner of a man who wanted to do horrible things to her.

The Doctor reached down to her crotch again and pressed his fingers against her pussy.

"You little slut!" he breathed, his eyes glittering as he looked at her. "You're so fucking wet I can feel it right through your panties!"

Ashley mewled in denial and her face turned red with embarrassment but she knew it was true. To her shame she was hot and aroused, and the pain in her ass seemed to be melting into her pussy, filling her with a warm ache to be touched and penetrated; to be fucked.

The Doctor came around in front of her, the crop held under his arm, and he took her breasts in his hand and squeezed, watching the way they deformed beneath his strong fingers and watching her face for signs of arousal. Ashley bit her lip to keep from moaning; it hurt, but it felt good at the same time. She could feel his desire for her in the way he touched her, the way his hands enjoyed her body. It felt good to be treated so roughly.

He reached up to the neck of her tee shirt, took it in his hands and used it to pull her to him. he leaned forward and ran his tongue over her lips, then plunged into her mouth, and Ashley let herself be kissed, knowing she had no choice. But it was hardly a gentle kiss. He began to rape her mouth with his tongue, trying to shove it down her throat, licking the insides of her cheeks, violating her. Again she could feel his need for her, his desire to fuck her hard, and her own body echoed that need..

And then, as he kissed her, he pulled hard on her tee shirt, ripping it down the center. Ashley cried out in shock and fear. He pulled again and ripped it more, then he tugged, leaving the garment in ragged threads hanging from her shoulders. His violence frightened and excited her as she looked down at her own semi-nakedness. He grabbed her bra and yanked till that tore off as well, the straps popping and the hooks in the back letting go. He ripped it from her body and left her tits exposed, peeking through the shreds of tee shirt.

Ashley looked at him with fear in her eyes as he held one of her breasts in his hand and slowly ran his tongue over the nipple, his eyes locked on hers. He raised the crop to it and tapped it lightly against her hard nipple, watching as she winced in fear. Her breasts were very sensitive.

"No!" she begged. "Not there! Please!"

He looked into her eyes as he kept tapping the end of the crop against her nipple.

"No?" he said, pretending innocent ignorance. "No, you don't want me to whip your tits? I'll bet you'll like it."

"No, please!" she was almost in tears. She pulled on the chains, trying to get her elbows low enough to protect her breasts, but to no avail.

She saw him raise the crop over her breast and she closed her eyes and screamed before he even hit her. The crop just brushed her nipple, barely touching her, but the sharp slap sparked through her body like an electric shock, and she felt a thrill of masochistic pleasure. Immediately her nipple hardened as if eagerly begging for more.

The Doctor just looked at her with an evil leer on his face. "Bitch!" he spat. "You do like it! You really like the pain, don't you?"

Ashley couldn't answer. Her body was betraying her totally. As she was cowering in the chains trying to twist away from him, her body was eager for more, more abuse, more pain. She'd never been more humiliated in her life.

He suddenly left her breasts and pulled her panties down around her thighs, exposing her pussy to him. Quickly he marched around her and laid six sharp blows on her ass, one after another, hot and stinging, each slap as loud as a gunshot. The blows left wicked striped welts across Ashley's naked buttocks as she clung tightly to the chains, screeching with each stroke.

He came around in front of her, his eyes blazing, and she had to watch as he treated her breasts the same way, whipping each one three times. These blows were softer, but just as loud, and, worse, she had to watch them. The crop passed so close to her face that she could feel the breeze before she felt the stinging pain surge through her chest. And yet when he was done her breasts felt full and swollen and in need of his mouth on them. There seemed to be a direct connection between her tits and her pussy, so that each stroke on her tits brought forth a spear of hunger from deep within her.

Perhaps he knew this, for now he ran the crop up between her legs, against the sopping crotch band of her panties. But no, he wouldn't dare! Not there…

Slapp!! Whack!! Whapp!!

But he did: he whipped her pussy, sharp little strokes right over her clit, as if punishing her poor defenseless sex. It wasn't the pain so much as it was the shock of what he was doing, and the fact that she could do nothing to protect herself. She was helpless. The crop slapped against the puffy lips of her sex, each blow jarring her clit, which, despite her distress, was eager for the degrading stimulation. He hit her rhythmically so that each blow built on the last, pushing her towards a crescendo of sensation that made her legs weak and tremble beneath her. She realized that she was close to orgasm, and the thought filled her with a wild mixture of shame and excitement. He was right: he knew exactly what she wanted.

When he stopped she was sobbing, tears rolling down her cheeks. This seemed to infuriate him and he threw the crop aside, came up to her and unhooked her hands from the chain.

"You're close to coming, aren't you Ashley?" he asked her as he unbound her hands and clipped her wrists together in front of her. "But we can't have you come like that. Oh no. You need some cock inside you. I wasn't to feel you come on my prick!" He grabbed her by the hair and led her on wobbly legs over to the crude bed, no more than a board covered with a couple of old blankets. He threw her down on it. "On your knees!" he commanded

Ashley tried to kick at him, but he grabbed her ankle and pulled her towards him. She struggled, but with her hands clipped together there was little she could do. She tried to get to the clip to free her hands but she couldn't reach it; things were happening too fast. She had no chance, fighting against him; she knew that, but it was something she had to do. Some part of her wanted to feel his male strength, the hardness of his muscles, the force he was prepared to use against her. It excited her that a man would want her so much that he'd be willing to use his strength on her.

Finally it was no use. He closed his hand on her breast, found her nipple, erect with excitement, He found it and pinched it so hard she screamed. All resistance went out of her.

"I told you not to fuck around with me, Ashley! You don't want to make me mad!"

She collapsed on the bed weeping tears of fear and confusion, and he climbed on next to her. His pants were down and his cock stood out from his loins hard and angry, like a weapon. He took her hair and pulled her head up so that she was inches from the brutal head of his rampant cock.

"You're going to suck me now, baby! You're going to get me good and hard so I can fuck you deep. I want you to take me all the way, cunt! All the way down your throat!"

Ashley tried to turn her face aside, but he held her hair too tight. She felt the soft, hot head press against her lips and she had no choice but to open her mouth. He immediately plunged his prick in so deep that she gagged and coughed as he slammed the back of her throat. He laughed and pulled his cock out slowly, trailing long strings of saliva, precum, and mucus from his shiny cock to her open mouth. He held his enormous cock like a club and smacked her in the face with it, and as soon as her coughing subsided he thrust back into her mouth, muffling her scream of violation, and began to savagely fuck her face.

Ashley groaned around his cock, and she managed to get her bound hands around the base to keep him from thrusting too deeply and making her gag. He pummeled into her mouth with urgent male lust, making her take it so deep that his pubic hair tickled her nose. Ashley tried to suck him, but he was too violent; he seemed to want only to rape her mouth.

Desperately she swirled her tongue around him and sucked as best she could as he slid in and out, and finally it dawned on him that she was no longer fighting. He stopped his violent thrusting and Ashley saw that he was giving her a chance; that as long as she sucked him well he would stop his brutal thrusting. Immediately she began to try all her skills on him, trying to make it good: sucking, bobbing her head, swirling her tongue, and slowly his grip on her hair relaxed. He let her go, then leaned back on his outstretched arms and watched her sucking and slurping at his stiff pole, a barbarian with his conquest.

She got her knees under her and sucked for all she was worth, making love to his hot pole, spearing her mouth on it, licking it and rubbing it over her cheeks as he looked on with quiet approval, brushing her hair out of the way so he could watch his tool sink between her soft pink lips as she slaved over his prick.

She became aware that she was moaning, humming and cooing with slavelike pleasure as she worshipped his cock. It was so hard, so insistent. The feel of it as it slid over her lips was delicious.

He reached over her back and rubbed his hand over her upthrust ass, feeling the hot welts from her beating. Fearful that he would hit her again, Ashley redoubled her efforts, and the sounds of her sucking grew louder and more desperate. She did all she could do to please him, trying to bring him off in her mouth.

She felt him run his hands over her ass and his fingers went between her legs and found her sodden pussy. She was wet and wildly aroused, and she was totally humiliated when he laughed and pulled his fingers out of her, glistening with her own lubrication. He smeared it on her cheeks so she could smell her own shameful arousal, and she knew she could no longer pretend that she wasn't turned on by what he was making her do. It was obvious to him. He'd been right about her all along.

"Yeah, Ashley. You're fucking as wet as they come! You little slut!"

He dipped his finger into her pussy again, brought it out and she felt him circling her anus with his greasy finger. Oh no! she thought, not that! Oh God, not that! But her thoughts were in vain. He pushed his fingertip against her little asshole harder and harder, till the tip popped into her rectum.

"Unnnghhh!" Ashley groaned, opening her mouth wide around his cock. He barely had the tip of his finger inside her but it felt like he was splitting her open. Her mouth hung open and she panted for breath as he twisted his way deeper into her ass, making her grunt and moan.

Her humiliation was complete now. She was slaving over his thick, throbbing cock, saliva dripping from her mouth while she knelt before him with his finger in her whipped and beaten ass, and with the realization of how low she had sunk came a thrill of pure sexual heat. She was a whore, nothing but a slut, fit only to suck cock and get fucked in the ass and beaten like an animal, and her shame and her excitement fed off each other until she was hotter than she'd ever been in her life. He didn't care about her. She was nothing but a mouth and a cunt to him, and that's just what she wanted to be.

Nothing mattered now but her own humiliation, and she started hungrily sucking on his prick, really trying to milk the come out of him so she could taste her own degradation and fulfill all his obscene expectations of her. Let him see what a whore she was: that's what he wanted to see anyhow, wasn't it?

He sensed the change in her too. She'd abandoned all attempts to maintain her dignity, to fight what he was doing to her, and now she seemed to revel in it. She wiggled her hips, as if inviting him deeper into her violated ass, and her fingertips caressed his balls, trying to coax their load of hot semen into her sucking mouth.

But he wouldn't give it to her. Not like this. She had to suffer some more.

He grabbed her hair and pulled her off his cock, ignoring her groans of frustration, and he pulled his finger from her asshole as well, leaving her feel strangely empty. She missed him there.

"Stay!" he said to her, as if she were no more than a dog. He got up off the bed and found a tube of lubricant. He stripped off his clothes and climbed back onto the crude mattress as Ashley lay there on her knees with her ass still in the air, panting like a bitch in heat, waiting for what he would do to her next, ready for it, wanting it.

She squealed when she felt him squeeze the cold lube onto her asshole, then moaned in masochistic pleasure as he worked it into her hole, finally getting two fingers inside her. She didn't want to think of what he was doing or of what was going to happen. She wanted to stay as she was, a sexual animal, waiting for him to use her.

He got to his knees behind her and fit the head of his cock against her anus, and Ashley started making little mewling sounds in her throat, waiting for what was coming. She pressed her face into the bed and gritted her teeth as she felt his cock pressing dumbly against her asshole looking for a way inside. She tried to relax, but no matter how she tried her little sphincter would only close tight against this assault, like something afraid.

"Bitch!" he spat at her. "Open up!"

"I can't! I can't!" she moaned.

He reared back and slapped her hard on the ass, and his hand, falling on the raised welts of her previous beating filled her with a bright flash of pain and made her jump. He took advantage of her shock to press all his weight forward and she felt him push into her rectum.

"Oh Goddd!" she screamed. He was tearing her apart. His cock was just too big. She bit the blankets and her bound hands clawed at the bed, her toes drew up tight against the soles of her feet and she panted like a wild animal at the terrible intrusion. But now that he was in he wouldn't let her get away, and he pressed steadily forward, his greasy cock sliding into her well-lubed anus, filling her belly with his implacable hardness.

"I'm in your ass, bitch!" he said to her. "I'm in your fucking asshole! How do you like that? Huh? How do you like that, whore?"

He slapped her ass again, but this time the pain hardly mattered compared to what she was already feeling. Everything down there was throbbing, aching. She was taking his big cock up her tiny ass, and it was so filthy she groaned at the very thought of it.

He stopped with enough of his cock in her for her to feel it all the way up into her throat, and he reached under her and found her breasts through the shredded tee shirt. He squeezed them, grabbed her nipples between his fingers and pinched, but with the welts from the whipping and his big log stuffed up her ass, pain and pleasure were all the same to her now, and she only squealed excitedly as he crushed her tits in his hands and pushed them around on her chest..

He leaned back and pulled her upright by her breasts so that she was standing on her knees with his cock up her ass, and she suddenly felt a surge of perverse pride that she had taken him inside her like this, as if she had survived the worst he could dish out and had nothing to be afraid of anymore. He was groaning himself with pleasure at the hot virgin tightness of her asshole and Ashley, overcome with the obscene thrill of what he was doing to her, boldly screwed her hips against him, pushing him around inside her ass, seeing how much he could take, how he liked it.

"Oh fuck!" he groaned, stunned by her own lewdness. This couldn't be the same innocent girl he'd picked up at the bar. She was a hard-core slut now, urging him to fuck her in the ass, to do his worst.

He pushed her down on the bed and held one hand against the back of her neck to keep her pinned there, but he needn't have bothered; Ashley wasn't going anywhere. She wanted to be fucked now, fucked hard and deep, and she spread her legs wide to open her ass to him, ignoring the pain as his belly pressed against the welts on her cheeks. She reached her hands back between her legs and began to play with her pussy as he fucked her, masturbating shamelessly with his cock inside her, grunting each time his hips jarred into her ass. She could feel his balls, big and heavy-laden with semen as they bounced against her searching fingers, reminding her of what was in store for him: all that come, deposited where no one had ever been before

The Doctor looked down at her with his eyes wide with lust. Her hips were rolling and humping like a stripper's, her smooth asscheeks flexing to draw him in, while her fingers were busy digging at her pink and sopping pussy. Her face was red with hot blood and excitement as she concentrated on her own pleasure, on wringing every bit of sensation out of her degradation.

She was too tight and too fucking sexy for him to last and he'd been hard for her too long. He felt his come boiling up from his balls as hot chills ran over his skin and in the last moments before he started to spew his seed into her ass he began to slap her behind again and again, making her scream like a wild animal and knocking her flat on her face and sending her into her own obliterating orgasm.

"Fuck me! Fuck me!:" she shrieked as she felt his hot lava shoot into her rectum. Her hands were trapped beneath her, her fingers still clawing at her pussy. She was overcome and delirious with wild sexual fever, her body spasming and quaking as he unloaded into her and her own cunt spasmed with deep, powerful contractions on her fingers, her hot oil pouring over her hand and onto the blankets below. The feel of her pussy clamping down on her own fingers was thrilling and obscene and further proof of what a whore she was, but she didn't care about that She twisted around awkwardly and tried to find the Doctor's mouth so she could lick his lips as he held her to him and filled her ass with his come.

Her orgasm left her weak and trembling, her legs twitching with jerky convulsions of shameful pleasure. She moaned into the blankets as he pulled her hips up tight against him to receive every last drop of his load.

With a deep groan the Doctor fell on top of her, his cock popping from her ass and leaving her empty and stretched out. The two of them lay there panting and shaking, sweating from there efforts. and slowly Ashley began to drift back into her normal mind.

What had she done? What had happened to her to turn her into that kind of willing slave and victim? How would she ever face him again after he'd seen the way she'd acted.

And more than that: how could she ever be satisfied with anything less from now on?