room while Lille dressed.
âYou think theyâll be okay?â Mary was sitting behind the counter reviewing the inventory list, but she kept tapping her lip with a pencil and drawing little doodles in the margins. Kim tried to zoom in on a few, but she didnât want to interrupt. The couple was just starting to forget she was there.
Jordan, however, had not forgotten her for a second. He was supposed to have gone homeâthe idiot was red-eyed and jittery from lack of sleep, but heâd stayed and had even volunteered to be the whipping boy. She thought he was a good choice, actuallyâhe looked like someone who would want to be whipped. She wouldnât mind whipping him herself, if she didnât think heâd like it so much and fall more in love with her. Sitting in a pink velvet cushioned chair next to the stack of porn, he pretended to read one of his comics.
âI know Iâm not leaving you here alone,â John replied firmly. âSheâll be with Carl, Max, and Jordan in a public place. My love, Lille will be just fine.â
Mary didnât look so certain. âI guess. I wish I knew what the big secret is.â She looked at Jordan. âDo you know?â
âHoney, if I knew, Iâd tell you.â
Mary looked straight at the camera. âDo you know?â
Kim hated it when people did that. She wanted people to forget that there was a camera. She looked up briefly and said, âDonât know. Donât care.â
âGreat.â
Just then a voice came from the officeâCarl. âOkay, Jordan, Kim, get in here.â
âDonât I get to come?â Mary demanded, yelling back.
âAsk John,â Carl called back, and snickered.
Mary rolled her eyes and looked up at John on the ladder; he gave her a seductive eye wiggle. Kim caught her laughing response before pressing Pause and following Jordan into the office.
Theyâd dimmed the lights, throwing a red scarf over the lamp and closing the blinds completely, though the sun was fairly low in the sky.
âWhere did you find this?â Lille, her hands on her hips, was standing in front of a black leather-covered cross. It had ring hooks attached to leather cuffs, with which a submissive would be secured, his arms outstretched. A whipping cross.
Jordan whistled and laughed a little nervously; he ran a hand through his hair, messing it up even further. âShit. I forgot about that. Mandy bought it as a Halloween decoration. Where did you find it?â
Lille reached out and rubbed the leather of one of the cuffs between her fingers. Dressed in the pencil skirt and form-fitting leather top, she had a perfect hourglass figure, but it was a busty, hippy hourglass, like drawings Kim had seen of women in high-fashion magazines from the 1920s. Lips candy-apple red, eyes framed by a domino mask, and hair teased into a high bun, Lille swung the cat absently against her thigh, the leather tendrils brushing against her skirt.
âIt was buried in the closet.â Lille glanced slyly at Jordan. âWhy do I get the feeling youâve enjoyed this cross before?â
Carl laughed. âI know I have.â
Jordan glanced at Kim and blushed. âI think Iâll enjoy it more this time.â He tried to sound naughty, but the blush ruined it.
Kim zoomed in, incredulous that a man his age who worked in a sex shop even could blush.
âWell, get over here and strip to your boxers. The sooner we get started, the sooner we can cause trouble over at Maxâs pub.â Lille waved a hand over at the desk, which had an assortment of whips, chains, floggers, and fluffers.
Kim dutifully panned slowly over the toys, catching the pulse and bleed of the warm reddish light cast from the various lamps over the metal handles of the whips, capturing the dance of the feathers in the small breeze created by everyoneâs movement through the room.
Quietly, so Lille wouldnât notice
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