‘Did you see him at the Valmont that night?’ Maria cut in.
‘Yes, I did. Just before our meeting.’
‘Well, I’m at the Valmont right now. Why don’t you come over and we’ll discuss this. Meet me in the bar in half an hour.’
‘I’ll be there.’
I put away my phone and stood, leaning against a pillar near the soup counter, catching my breath. What the hell was I doing? This was complete insanity.
Besides, Judd Keane sounded like a dodgy customer from the start. Why would he need his sub to be young and inexperienced? It was creepy as hell.
I reminded myself that I didn’t need to get deeply involved with him. I felt, from what little I had seen of him, that he was the kind of man who would brag about his ill-deeds to an adoring young sub over their first pre-shag drink. That might be all it took. At least, I had to hope so.
I was still hoping so when I walked into the Valmont bar and found Maria waving at me from a mahogany booth.
She was in ‘civvies’ today – skinny jeans and a cream silk shirt, with various gold accoutrements. Surely she hadn’t just come up from the dungeon?
‘I bought you a glass of wine,’ she said, pushing what smelled like a spicy Merlot towards me. It was just what the doctor ordered after my cold, windy walk and I tackled it straight away.
‘Have you been, er, working this afternoon?’ I asked. It was still only about half past three. Hardly the dungeon hour really.
‘I had a lunch date that turned into a three-hour revel,’ she said, with a smile of feline satisfaction. ‘An absolutely gorgeous girl. But her husband can’t know. Thinks she’s buying swimwear for their Christmas break in Barbados.’
‘Doesn’t the, uh, evidence show up?’
‘Oh, I’m an expert, darling. If they don’t want marks, I don’t make marks. There are ways and means. You’ll find out for yourself, I’m sure, one of these fine days.’
‘Perhaps I will,’ I said, feeling weird about it. The thought of somebody other than Tom using me in that way was suddenly real in my mind for the first time. I felt as if I was on a clifftop. I could step back or…
‘Tom’s a very silly boy not to snap you up,’ tutted Maria. ‘I shall have words with him, if I see him again. And I hope I will.’
‘Oh, well, you know,’ I said helplessly, swallowing back an incipient lump in my throat. ‘It wasn’t as if…’ My voice was momentarily too hoarse to continue.
‘I know. You were virtual strangers. But you did seem well suited.’ She smiled wistfully. ‘Perhaps he’ll come to his senses.’
‘Perhaps.’ I gulped down more wine. ‘And in the meantime…’
‘Yes.’ Maria’s extraordinarily mobile face – surely her best professional tool – glowed into new life. ‘Yes, an interesting chapter could well be about to open for you.’
‘The man I saw that night – is he the man who’s looking for a sub?’
‘He is.’
‘But – I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, honestly, but he has quite a carrying voice – you and he didn’t seem to part on very good terms.’
‘Oh, that’s J,’ said Maria, unaware that her casual words had caused me to almost throw up. They knew him as ‘J’? Surely this was it now, surely it had to be. ‘He’s addicted to getting his own way, but he won’t hold a grudge against me. I’m far too valuable to him. It was just a bit of wounded ego – he’s over it now.’
‘He was with a woman,’ I mentioned.
‘I daresay he was, but according to him, that’s all over now. He sold her on.’
I gaped.
‘Sold her?’
‘Not a literal commercial transaction,’ said Maria with a smile. ‘But I gather there was a fun little slave auction in London earlier this week, and J had her entered for it. Don’t look so staggered. It will have been a mutual decision. It just so happens that Olivia’s thing is being treated like property.’ She shrugged. ‘If you’re going to keep being so shocked by everything, this is going to be a very wearing scene for you, darling. I suggest you open your mind a little.’
‘So – he wouldn’t sell me then?’