Only one more week to go! I was counting the days, counting the hours until my wedding. All the preparations were done; I had my dress and everything. And tonight was my hen night. I hadn't particularly wanted to bother with one, not being a great party animal, but my bridesmaids, Helen and Fiona, were most insistent.
"Look, Mel, on your wedding day you'll have a whole lot of other things to worry about and you'll have to spend your time being nice to all Craig's great-aunts," urged Fi. "A hen night is your chance to spend some time with your close friends. I'm not saying we should go to a male strip show or something, just a night in."
Put like that, it all seemed very reasonable. Anyway, in the twenty years I'd known her - since we were three year olds together at nursery - I'd rarely been able to resist giving in to her. Some people are natural dominants and she's very much one. She really looks the part, tall, well-muscled for a girl and with flaming ginger hair and flashing green eyes. When she's in her high-heeled boots and leather suit, she'd be able to cow anyone. Helen too is very tall, though she's less muscled and a classic blonde, blue-eyed English rose. I was really a bit worried about having them as bridesmaids as they would both tower over me, but Fi insisted.
So on Saturday night the girls assembled in my place. I was quite proud of it, the entire downstairs of an old Victorian house with an attached garage I'd had built. The upstairs had been converted into two flats, but one was vacant and the chap in the other one was on holiday so nobody would be disturbed by the party. So there were fifteen of us in my lounge, all girls in their early twenties and dressed in minis, knee boots and tight tops (don't ask me why, it was Fi's idea). We ate, drank and were merry.
Some of the girls hadn't been there before, and I was very pleased to see them look round admiringly. "Where's that door go?" asked Katie, pointing an impeccably manicured finger at a solid wooden door next to the fireplace.
"Oh, that goes through into my garage, saves having to go out in the rain and cold to get into the car," I explained. "Quite a performance getting a new doorway cut in an outside wall, I can tell you."
Suddenly, Fi stood up and made a gesture. Instantly, everyone fell silent. That's the effect she has on people. "Right, girls, Mel's going to model her wedding dress for us now. We'll just nip next door and change." I was taken aback by this announcement - I hadn't intended to do any such thing. I'd have said so, but Helen and Fi bundled me out of the room before I had a chance to say anything.
"We told everyone you were going to show it tonight," explained Helen. "I know what you're going to say. You want the dress to be a surprise next week. But these are your oldest friends, after all."
"Now, get changed," said Fi, leading the way into my bedroom. Compliant as I always seemed to be with Fi, I took off my boots, top, skirt and tights, and stood there wearing just my bra and panties.
"Right, the dress is in the wardrobe," I said, taking a step towards the wardrobe.
"Surely you're not going to wear underwear like that on your wedding day," said Helen, regarding me with an expression of almost horror on her face.
"No, of course not, I do know what brides are supposed to wear. I've got the stockings and everything in that drawer," I said defensively, pointing to a chest of drawers.
"Then you'll wear them now," said Fi, opening the drawer and pulling out a white satin corset. "Starting with this, obviously."
"But I don't want them damaged ..."
"How will they get damaged? It's only for a few minutes."
As usual, I stopped arguing. Helen undid my bra, whipped it off and flung it on the bed next to my other clothes. Fi stood behind me and wrapped the corset round my body. Helen came round the front and fastened the rigid steel busk. Immediately, the steel ribs started to squeeze my body and the half cups at the top lifted my breasts.
"That's a good design for a corset," said Helen approvingly. So you don't need a bra and you can have an amazing cleavage." I blushed slightly at Helen's description, though she was of course quite right.
Fi started tugging at the laces, making the corset tighter. "Hold still, Mel, or I won't be able to do this properly," she said crossly.
"That's a lot tighter than the lady did it in the shop," I gasped, as Fi continued to tug the laces. It was getting hard to breathe.
"A corset is meant to pull you in, and make your waist a lot narrower, or there's not much point," replied Fi. With her considerable strength, she had made the corset close completely, and she tied off the laces. I felt as if I were being crushed in a vice.
"Let's not dawdle," said Helen sharply, pulling down my panties. That really made me blush. It was scarcely the first time that either of them had seen me without underwear - we'd changed for games and swimming at school together often enough - but it was the first time I'd been forcibly undressed.
Fi had located my stockings. They were white of course, made of silk and had rear seams and lacy white tops. "Three pairs," she said approvingly. "Very wise; you wouldn't want to be in trouble if one of them got a ladder." She opened a packet.
I obediently stood on my right foot and leaned on Helen for support while Fi put a stocking over the other foot and slid it up my leg. She fastened it to the suspenders dangling down from the bottom of the left side of the corset. Continuing to cling tightly to Helen, I stood on my other foot while Fi put a stocking on my other leg. "You know," she said as she adjusted the suspenders to be as short as possible so that the stockings were pulled taut, "silk stockings aren't very stretchy. It's actually almost impossible to kneel in them if they're pulled taut enough." The girls fussed around, making sure the seams were straight and the suspenders in the right place.
It was funny, I mused, to think that I had gone to so much trouble to choose the right stockings but nobody would see them below my ankle-length bridal gown. They were purely for Craig's benefit. I blushed again, thinking of what would happen after the ceremony was over and we got to be alone together. I hoped he'd appreciate all the trouble I'd been to.
Fi found the thong, again white of course, and made me stand first on one foot and then the other while she put it on me. She pulled it up my legs and tugged it up over my waist, forcing it well in between my rear cheeks. "Craig will love that," she said, examining my bottom and giving it an affectionate pat. "It's nicely framed with the white corset and suspenders and those cute lacy stocking tops." I blushed again, thinking what Craig would be doing with me in just a week's time. Could I wait that long?
The white silk satin gloves were very long; on my short arms Helen and Fi could pull them right up to my armpits. There were some buttons at the wrist; the girls did them up with some difficulty. It was as well for them to practise now, I thought, rather than getting into a flap on the big day. The gloves were so tight, and the silk so soft yet so unyielding, that I could barely move my fingers with the gloves on. It would not be easy, even signing the wedding register.
"What beautiful sandals!" said Helen admiringly. They were indeed magnificent, very delicate, white with silver ornamentation. "And look at how long and thin the heels are. Can you walk in them?"
"I'll only be wearing them for the ceremony," I explained. They make me look taller and ..." I stopped. I didn't want to admit that I was embarrassed to have two bridesmaids taller than me and had chosen the highest heels I could find to minimise the height difference. "Anyway, I'll change into different shoes for the dancing afterwards. There's no way I could dance in these."
Once again, I stood first on one foot and then the other, leaning on Helen, while Fi put the sandals on my feet and buckled up the straps, pulling them tight to the last hole. I took a step and immediately realised how difficult walking would be with the tight corset, taut stockings and excruciatingly high-heeled sandals. I began to regret the sandals, then I realised how much taller they made me. I couldn't have been that much shorter than the other two in their low-heeled boots, and of course I had chosen their bridesmaid's shoes to have even lower heels.
Turning round carefully, I looked myself up and down in the mirror. Though I say so myself, I definitely looked pretty good. The painfully tight corset gave me a real wasp waist and made the most of my breasts, pushing them right up. The high heels made my legs look long and shapely. "You know, it's a pity that nobody but you two, and of course Craig, will see me like this," I said.
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong," said Fi, with a wicked smile on her face.
"What?" I replied, puzzled,
Fi didn't answer me; instead, she opened the door and yelled, "Come in, girls!"