EXTRACT FOR
Communication Skills
(Author Unknown)

      "Are you ready to start our little game?"

      "Yes, Sir."

      I picked up my glass of wine, took a long swig, and then stood up. The elixir was starting to relax me, and I wondered if that hadn't been part of his strategy all along. But even tipsy, I knew I could give him a run for his money.

      He pulled out one of the two Louis XIV chairs for me and then took the seat opposite. I marveled that he hadn't tied me to the armrests or expected me to play blindfolded. Then again, the evening was young.

      "Here are the rules. All the words you lay down must be sexual in nature or BDSM-related. They are the only ones where the points will count. If you lay down a word that is not sexual at first glance, but you can make a good case for how it can actually be sexual, I'll permit it and count its score??"but only if you successfully demonstrate its usage."

      "I don't understand."

      "Say you put down the word book. Not sexual by nature. But you could defend the choice by explaining that a book can be erotic. Or can be used to spank. And to have the word qualify, you would have to ask me to pick a book and spank you with it. The number of spanks would depend on the number of points at stake. So, book is normally worth, what, ten points? But if it fell on a double-word score, that would be twenty points. Which would mean twenty spanks with a book wherever on your body I chose."

      "During the game?"

      "But of course."

      I blinked, taking it all in.

      "And what about the other way around? What if there's a word that you must qualify? What happens then?"

      "Well, naturally, you will help me find a way to qualify it. And demonstrate its use."

      "So, it falls on me either way."

      "Of course." He smiled, obviously delighted that I had picked up on the fact that my ass would constantly be on the line for as long as the game progressed.

      "And words I can't defend?"

      "No points. You'd be that much farther from winning. And believe me, you want to win."

      "What's at stake?"

      "If you win, you get to stay the night in my bed. And I will skip next week's club tournament, so you can proceed to the finals. I know you're only a few hundred points short of reaching Final Four status, and that participating in the championship is important to you."

      "And if you win?"

      "I'll subtract your score from mine. The difference will be the number of lashes you'll beg me for tonight from a whip you will choose from my collection. Afterward, you'll sleep on the floor beside my bed. And you'll play in that final Scrabble tournament but purposely lose. You'll have to live with the humiliation of having been so close and yet not proceeding to the finals."

      I knew better than to ask what would happen if I refused to play at all.