“I won’t survive forever in your stomach either, but I now fully understand how much you’ve been looking forward to having me in there aware of that fact. If I go over, you lose that privilege forever.”

“You’re right,” she sighed, as her shapely shoulders shrugged beside the straps of her nightie, “So what’s the answer to this little stand-off?”

“I won’t jump, if you give me your word to give me a chance to get out and run for it.”

“You gave me YOUR word to complete the job I hired you for,” she said.

“So sue me.”

“I’d prefer to swallow you,” she said.

He thought about the height of everything in the room.

“Get out of the bed!” he said, “On the other side, of course.”

She moved away from him, and climbed out of the bed.

“What now?” she asked.

“Walk over to the window that’s on my side of the room, but don’t come near me.”

She did so.

“Good. Now open the window.”

She unlocked it and slid it up.

“Very well done, Colleen. Now walk back around to the far side of the bed.”

She made her way. She looked so adorable in her nightie. He felt a brief pang of guilt about turning on her like this. However, he had to think of his own continued existence.

“Now push the bed, until the pillow is as close to the window ledge as possible,” he said.

“Oh no,” she mused, “You don’t really think I’ll allow you to make a career change like that, do you?”

“Push, or I’ll jump!” he said, and made ready to do so.

He was bluffing, and didn’t know what he’d do if she wasn’t willing to yield. He would never kill himself in such a way as to miss out on the enjoyable aspects of the fate she wanted to inflict on him. He had to count on her immediate fear of losing that aspect of the encounter.

“Alright,” she said, “But you’ll be shaken off. Move in just a little bit, not nearly far enough for me to reach you, but just enough to make sure you don’t get knocked off.”

“Thanks for that,” he said, and did so.

As she began to push, he realised that the wall would cut off his suicide opportunity.

He ran past the pillow to the back of the bed, and looked through the posts. There would still be a chance to convince her he could kill himself, if she made it necessary.

He watched her powerful body pushing the bed. When it was up against the wall, he saw that the pillow was still six inches from the edge of the bed and the window ledge.

“Now stay out of the bed, but lean over and push the pillow right up against the wall,” he said.

Colleen complied.

“Good! Now keep back,” he said, and climbed up onto the pillow.

“You’re quite a little engineer of sorts,” she said, “But what now?”

He was now easily able to climb from the pillow onto the window ledge and repeat his threat to jump, only out the window this time.

He quickly pivoted his head, looked out the window, and then turned back to make sure that Colleen hadn’t moved.