Daring Lisa Marvell

Saturday morning, Lisa Marvell gave herself the luxury of sleeping late and then enjoying a breakfast of eggs, toast, and black coffee. As she sipped on the hot drink, she reflected on the special dares that she had agreed to do as part of the agreement she had made with Channel 4 upon her return to the late night news.

Under the terms of her new contract, Lisa consented to do a series of feature reports that put her in situations where she would invariably end up naked. It was a logical follow-up to her segments on "Women Who Dare to Bare" that had been shown during the preceding months and had led to highest Friday night ratings in the station's history. After her leave of absence, these series of dares were the perfect way to draw the audience back to the broadcasts and attract even more viewers. And, Lisa acknowledged to herself, the new reports would allow her to explore her burgeoning exhibitionist instincts while providing a unique opportunity for the complex private relationship between herself and anchorwoman Natalie Johnson to play out in a very public setting.

Each week Natalie would choose from among the various ideas submitted by viewers and "dare" Lisa to perform the action as part of a segment broadcast during Channel 4's "Friday Night Special 11:00 news report. In addition Natalie managed to find some way to make sure that Lisa had an audience present as she stripped. First, it had been just her colleagues at the station, but the previous night's broadcast had featured the blonde reporter skinny dipping in the local college's pool while the swim team practiced. "Yep," Lisa had tweeted within a half hour of the close of the broadcast, "that was my fat butt featured on our report tonight. Just letting it all hang out for our viewers!" And judging by the texts and emails to the station, the vast majority of the audience thoroughly approved of Lisa's ass.

Finishing her cup of coffee, the reporter picked up her phone and texted her personal trainer to see if she could schedule a session with him at the gym. After returning from her leave of absence, Lisa had vowed to maintain a serious exercise regimen, and that was reinforced now by the realization that Natalie would be devising new ways each week to get Lisa out of her clothes. "If Miss Natalie is going to be daring me to strip each week, I'm at least going to make sure I don't have little rolls of flab on my tummy and cellulite showing on my thighs," she mused to herself. For a 32-year old, she was in fantastic shape with a 34-25-36 figure, and she was determined to keep fit.

Within minutes, she heard back from her trainer confirming that they could meet in an hour. Lisa quickly slipped into a black thong, tights, and a leotard. In recent weeks, she had generally given up wearing a bra and today was no exception. So before heading out to her car, she threw on a light wind breaker to cover her top and avoid the stares from passersby who might notice her nipples prominently straining against the fabric of the leotard. Even so, she got several comments from strangers as she was entering the gym, acknowledging that they had seen her on the news last night and commending her performance.

"Great job," one of them said. "Keep up the dares, Lisa. We're loving them," one older gentleman commented as he held the door open for her at the entrance to the gym.

"Thank you," she replied with a polite smile. "Keep watching," she said.

"Are you really taking suggestions from viewers?" he asked cautiously, and when Lisa replied that she was, he continued. "Well, maybe you could do a workout session here at the gym?"

"Doesn't seem like much of a dare," she laughingly replied.

"Oh, I mean," and he hesitated, "you know, like you did last night."

"You mean without my clothes on?" she asked.

The older man nodded and glanced away.

"Lisa laughed softly and shook her head. "Well, you better send that idea to Natalie. She's the one who chooses the dares, and you never know with her."

With that, the man smiled and said, "Well, I just might do that. And thanks for hearing me out. You're a nice lady," he said and waved to her as she stepped inside and he headed toward the parking lot.

Marc Lenoir, Lisa's trainer, was waiting for her. "And how is my favorite reporter?" he asked with a big grin on his face. "Been swimming lately?" he added, arching his eyebrows.

Lisa had trained on and off with Marc over the last year and really enjoyed his flamboyant sense of humor. "Oh, maybe just a little dip," she said, sticking her tongue out at him. "But how did you know?"

"Hey girl," Marc said sassily. "You know that Jeff and I are two of your biggest fans. And now that you're back on the Friday night news, there's no way we'd go out until after 11:30. We wouldn't miss you for the world."

"Ah," said Lisa, putting on a somewhat embarrassed act. "I had no idea you even paid attention to us girls."

"Only to you," Marc said with a smile. "Plus, it's kind of made me a celebrity at the club we go to. You know, Marc Renoir - trainer to the stars!"

Both he and Lisa shared a laugh but then got down to work. "You gotta help me keep that extra weight off. You know, the camera adds ten pounds to you, and I don't want that showing up on my butt."

"It wasn't there last night," Marc chimed in as he guided her through her initial stretching exercises. "But don't worry, we'll keep that flab away. Just do what I tell you to do."

"Now you're sounding like Natalie," Lisa added jokingly.

Marc's eyes narrowed. "That little bitch. Getting you naked in front of all those guys." He paused. "Not that I wasn't jealous. Looked like there were some cute guys on that swim team."

"Now don't get any ideas. I want them all for myself," Lisa said continuing their playful banter. "And don't be so hard on Natalie. Her instincts are right on target. I thought it made for good TV."

"Can't argue with you there. I just don't like her bossing you around."

"Oh Marc, you should know, sometimes that's half the fun."

Marc paused. "Hmm, I see. There are unexpected depths to our sweet little reporter."

Lisa looked up from her mat, wiped some sweat from her forehead and smiled. "Well, hopefully we'll at least keep you and Jeff tuning in. But for now, let's do some work on these abs. Who knows which side Natalie will have me showing off next week?"

****

Monday morning Bill greeted Lisa as she entered the studio. "Perfect timing," he beamed. "Natalie's in my office and we're just going over the suggestions from viewers. Great response to Friday's broadcast, and we're getting more and more dares from the audience. We wanted to run this week's idea by you."

"Heard anything from standards and practices?" Lisa asked.

"Oh, a few rumblings. But I heard even more from the station manager."

"Really? And what did he have to say?"

"Keep up the good work, or words to that effect."

"Hmmm, from what I've seen and heard about him, it was probably more along the lines of 'nice ass that reporter has,'" Lisa added playfully.

"You wouldn't be that far off. But the point is he's very pleased and for now, we have his full support."

Bill ushered a smiling Lisa into his office where Natalie was already huddled with Danielle King, who had joined the station about six months earlier and was typically assigned to consumer reports on the midday news while occasionally filling in on for others on weekends and holidays. "Morning Lisa," the anchorwoman said with a bit of a twinkle in her eye. "You look happy for so early in the morning."

"Bill and I were just joking around, that's all. Hope everyone had a good weekend."

"What's a weekend?" Danielle joked. "At the last minute, I was called in to anchor last night so there went my Sunday." She quickly turned to Bill and added, "But not that I minded. I'm thrilled to get the chance anytime it comes up."

"And you were first rate," Bill replied. "In fact," he continued, looking over at Lisa, "Natalie and I have asked for Danielle's help on this week's dare, and it looks like Nat's been bringing her up to speed."

"Sounds interesting," the blonde reporter said. "Are we going to be able to get you involved in the dare somehow?" Lisa asked, looking directly at her, clearly intrigued by the possibility of the attractive brown-eyed woman joining her on camera.

"Oh, nothing like that," Danielle replied with a blush. "It seems like my condo is ideally suited for part of the segment and...," she hesitated momentarily, "maybe I better let Natalie explain."

"Absolutely," Natalie said. "First of all, we're going to need someone to provide some narration for this week's activity when you're not close to a mike. Plus, Bill figures that given the positive comments we got from viewers about Sue Thomson's participation in Friday's segment, it's a great idea to have someone else on camera with you. And finally, we need a place that's close to Tony's restaurant downtown. And that's where Danielle comes in."

"Turns out I live just a couple blocks away, so Natalie asked if I was willing to help out," the reporter added cheerfully.

"Now you've got me curious," Lisa replied. "What exactly does Tony's Restaurant have to do with your plans for the Friday Night Special, Natalie?"

The anchorwoman raised her eyebrows ever so slightly, and Lisa could detect just the trace of a smirk on her face. "Ever hear of the pizza dare?" she asked.

"You mean where you have a pizza delivered and then answer the door wrapped in a towel?"

"That's it," Danielle chimed in. "I just googled it and there are some videos posted online. Usually it's some college kid who shows up and the girl answers the door and...," she paused awkwardly.

"And she drops the towel and tries to get the pizza for free," Lisa completed her sentence. "I know, and I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Natalie," she said, turning to face her colleague.

"I was hoping you'd expect a little more from me," Natalie responded playfully. "After all, as Danielle points out, there are already lots of videos of this sort of thing online, and it would seem too boring to have you do the same old thing. So, I thought we could add a twist."

"For one thing, we'll be doing it live," Danielle chimed in. "During the broadcast we can phone in the order from my condo."

"But of course," Natalie noted, "Delivery service may not be reliable that late in the evening and..."

"And for live TV we have to be certain that this all happens at exactly the right time so...," Lisa interrupted as the real intent of the dare dawned on her.

"It might be best if you went to the restaurant to pick up the pizza," Natalie said, completing the sentence for her. "Should be a lot more fun that way."

"A lot more fun for whom?" Lisa asked.

"Our viewers, of course," the dark-haired anchorwoman replied.

"And how does the towel fit into all of this?"

Natalie smiled innocently. "Well, why not have you show up at the restaurant to get your pizza wearing just your towel? Then - oopsy - it just happens to fall off and we'll see if you get the pizza for free."

"And that's not all we'll see, and in front of everyone in the restaurant!" Lisa said, amazed at Natalie's willingness to figure out more and more embarrassing situations for her.

"You know, Lisa, you don't have do this if you're not comfortable with it. It would work well just doing the dare at Danielle's condo," Bill chimed in.

Lisa considered the news producer's comment thoughtfully and then responded. "But Natalie's right. It will be a much better segment if we stage it in the restaurant. The whole point is that I'm not always comfortable with these dares. It's important that the audience have a sense of that and that they wonder if I'll really go through with it. It makes the whole thing that much more compelling to watch. I think we should play this up as something that will happen at home and then at the last minute, let our viewers in on the twist."

"I'm certainly okay with that if you three are," Bill said, gesturing to his reporters. "We'll have to be careful with the camerawork but we managed to pull it off last week. And having Danielle there gives us the flexibility to focus on her whenever we need to."

He looked to Danielle, who took a deep breath and began to speak. "To be honest," she said, looking at the blonde reporter, "I'm a little in awe of your willingness to do what it takes to make this segment the best it can be. I'd never have the nerve to do that, but if you're okay with it, I'm definitely in. I'd be thrilled to be a part of the Friday night special."

"Who knows?" Lisa said with a chuckle. "Once you see how much fun it is, you might be tempted to join me in a dare one of these weeks."

Bill looked mildly surprised at Lisa's comment and turned immediately to see how Danielle would react. The reporter was a dark-haired brunette in her mid-thirties, just a few years older than Lisa and still a bit of unknown around the station. She stood a couple of inches shorter but with larger breasts, slightly broader hips and an appealing butt. "It's really not a bad idea," he thought to himself, but instinctively knew the best thing he could do was to say nothing. So he sat quietly and waited for Danielle to reply.

A subtle smile stole across the older reporter's face. "Well, you've given me something to think about," she said glancing at both Lisa and Natalie. "For this week, I'm fine helping out in any way I can and making sure that Lisa doesn't get, how should I say it, too much exposure."

The group all chuckled and nodded. "Excellent," Lisa exclaimed. "I think we can have a lot of fun with this."

"Oh, I'm sure we can," Natalie added.

"Great," Bill concluded. "We're all set on this. The three of you can work out the details and we can start running short teasers during our 11:00 broadcasts for this segment. And with that, the meeting ended and the three reporters stood up to leave.

*****

By the time Friday had rolled around, the team had worked out the logistics of the shoot. Bill had insisted that they use two camera teams, one in place at Tony's Restaurant before the broadcast began and a second crew starting at Danielle's condo for the first part of the report. And with the close proximity to the restaurant, it would be easy for that crew to stay with the two women be on hand to provide a second camera at the restaurant. Finally, it turned out that Tony's stopped delivering at 11:00, so after that time, it was pickup only. There would be no option to change plans at the last minute and stage the dare in Danielle's condo even if Lisa got cold feet. There was no doubt that she would be picking up the pizza around 11:25 in full view of everyone in the restaurant.

The camera crew assigned to the restaurant were Wayne and Angela, and the duo accompanying the reporters to the condo, Steve and Jamal, had regularly teamed with Danielle for the features she'd shot on remote locations. But neither group had worked with Lisa on her previous "dare to bare" reports, so Bill insisted that everyone first assemble first at the Channel 4 studio to run through a list of reminders and guidelines.

"Wayne, since you'll be handling the main camera, you've got one major rule to follow: when Lisa's actually performing the dare, make sure you're shooting her from behind," the producer explained.

"Just in case you didn't know," Lisa said with a chuckle, "I'm going to be naked."

"Yeah, so I heard," the cameraman responded good-naturedly.

"The signal is going out live," Bill added, "so be careful. Standards and Practices will let us sneak in the occasional butt shot, but definitely nothing from the front."

"Don't worry, Bill," Angela chimed in. "You can trust us to get this right."

"I realize that," Bill continued. "But it's going to get tricky once you're in the restaurant. Just remember, I'll be sitting in the control room and can turn off the live feed at a moment's notice. So, if anything goes wrong and you start to see more of Lisa than you should, let me know and I'll kill the signal. But that would look really amateurish, so let's make sure it doesn't happen."

Steve, the second cameraman, nodded. "We're all set on that, too. I spent part of the afternoon with Wayne and Angela at Tony's and we've mapped it all out. They'll be in the restaurant behind the counter when we get there, and Angela will have a mike so we can hear what Lisa's saying. Jamal and I will follow her in and," he said looking at the producer, "we'll be sure to stay behind her."

"You know," Lisa said turning to Wayne, "that if you don't keep the lens on my face and neck when I drop my towel, we'll be in big trouble."

"Now you're sounding just like Bill," cameraman said. "We actually did a quick run through earlier today with a live feed from the restaurant. And we had Tony stand in for you," he added with a chuckle. "Sure glad we're not having that overweight dude doing this dare. We'd scare all of our viewers away."

Steve added a few more details in order to reassure Bill. "We'll be able to cut between the counter shot and our camera behind Lisa. That way, Wayne and Angela can get the reactions of the crowd in the restaurant and we'll get the people behind the counter."

"Sounds like you've thought of everything," Lisa added. "Thanks."

"No problem, Lisa. Been looking forward to working with you," Jamal said with a twinkle in his eye.

"I bet," Lisa thought to herself, as the three guys and Angela headed out to their vans. She had heard rumors that the crew members were jockeying for the chance to work her segments, calling in special favors and offering to work holiday weekends in exchange. It gave her a warm feeling to think that Jamal might be one of those, especially as she surveyed his muscular 6 foot 4 inch frame and considered his rugged good looks. "Maybe," she mused silently, I'll have to keep the towel off a little longer than necessary just to make sure he's willing to work with me again."

She was interrupted in her reverie by Danielle, who came up next to her and suggested they head over to her condo now. "When we get there, I can brew some coffee or open a bottle of wine and we can relax while the crew does their work."

"Sounds perfect," Lisa responded. "In fact," she continued, feeling the familiar butterflies in her stomach, "I could use a glass of wine!"

At the condo, the two women spent the next hour or so catching up on station gossip and getting better acquainted, interrupted only a few times by questions from Steve and Jamal. It turned out that Danielle was new to the area, having moved from the Midwest six months ago to take the job at Channel 4. She had recently been divorced, so professionally and personally, the change was a good thing.

Around 10:15, Danielle excused herself to retreat to her bedroom to change into her on-air outfit. Lisa asked if she could use the bathroom to do her make-up and check her hair. "One nice thing about this dare," she joked, "I didn't have to spend time picking out what clothes I'd wear tonight. Just this," she said with a giggle, extracting a soft white towel from her dressing bag.

Meanwhile, the crew proceeded with their audio and camera checks, confirming that everything was ready to go. They were expecting to go live with the first part of the report around 11:05, right after the lead story. This would be a short segment, setting up the dare and showing the pizza order being phoned in. That's when it would be revealed that a delivery wasn't possible and that someone would have to pick up the pizza in person. The two reporters had decided that Danielle should do the lead-in, with Lisa already in the shower. With the camera positioned in the hallway outside the bathroom, Danielle would open the door to reveal Lisa in the shower and tell her about the pick-up.