"Yeah."

We shared some more silence.

"Moghul, you're so patient you'd give a statue a run for its money.

"Nah. It's important. The mind's a funny thing. You haven't asked me again if you're a bad man or a sociopath."

"Ah." I sniffed and cleared my throat. After so many years as a pillar of the community, that was hard to get used to. "It's the sort of label I will never be sure of unless I try and fail." I eyed him. "I do not want to fail."

"Then don't. I told you how to play it safe."

"Public BDSM?" I turned the idea over. "I'm not sure it's for me. What we did with Kat and Damien was about my limit. You know? I'm not that much of an exhibitionist." I stroked into the water to turn my ski back toward Horseshoe Bay.

We put our backs into the strokes until the skis were sizzling through the water.

"You're overthinking it, Klaus."

I glanced across. "What do you mean?"

"Not everyone is into public or play parties. Kat would be more than happy to help you out. Think you could bear that?"

"Like an observer?" I thought while we powered along, getting into a nice matching rhythm. "I guess. Not Damien?"

"No! They split. He's found a Domme. So you'd trust her to teach you?"

"Teach? Hell, I wasn't thinking teaching. Just observing, you know? She can stop me if I go too far. I'd trust her to do that."

We rounded the point and caught sight of the farthermost spur of the super-long stretch of beach that was Horseshoe Bay.

Moghul laughed. "Sounds like a deal. But you better watch her too. She has designs on Jodie's ass."

"Yeah? I recall that." I grinned back at him. "That makes two of us then."

For the first time in ages, my heart lightened. Now I only had to tell her.

What if...what if I'd left it too long? She might say no. My little stew of panic came back and parked itself like a blob in my stomach. It would be pure, unadulterated karma if she did.

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

Jodie *

My phone buzzed while I was gulping down some spring water in the little waiting room they'd given us. My act had gone down okay, thank God. I placed the bottle on the glass coffee table.

The screen showed Klaus was calling.

"Shit." I let my hand holding the phone flop to my lap. "It's him."

"Who?" asked Jane, the comedienne from Hobart, as she hopped on one leg adjusting the heel of her shoe.

"Old boyfriend."

"Oh?" She tottered back onto two feet. "Ahh. That's better. I'm up next. Oldies are goodies." She gave me a thumbs up. "Good luck with him. Break a leg!"

I rolled my eyes. "You too!"

I pressed answer, and put the phone to my ear, blanking out the distant cheers from the audience, then I strolled toward the door that led out to the parking lot. Despite my casual attitude, I was nervous as hell.

All I could hear was the audience. Even after the door swung shut, the other end was silent. I swallowed, checked the screen. Yes, it was Klaus.

"Hi." I settled my shoulders against the cold brick of the outside wall. It was quiet out here apart from distant cars on the highway. "Hey, Klaus, for this sort of call you're supposed to breathe heavier, you know?"

He chuckled.

And my heart ceased to beat, just for a second. I laid my palm over my chest as if to calm my heart. Oh my God. That husky tone. I'd heard him say so many things. I clamped down on the vivid memories...the dark, pain-edged, orgasmic ones. I shivered.

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Be calm.

"How are your shows going?"

"Good."

"Glad to hear it."

Fuck. You didn't ring me just to ask that did you?

I massaged my forehead.

What else would he ask? Hope was banging at my head screaming just a bit.

"Hey, Klaus."

"Yes?"

Here goes. "Is this a...a good sign? You ringing me?"

Pause.

"Yes. I think so. I've talked to Moghul again. It depends on whether we're still on the same wavelength."

"Wavelength?" I giggled with relief, mad elation, and stupidity too, maybe. "Is this a physics lesson or a kinky-as-shit phone call about us, like, doing kinky things together again?"

Talk about laying it on the table. The phone shook; my hand shook, as I waited for his reply.

"Guessing here but, the second one. A kinky-as-shit phone call."

"Good," I whispered. I wiped away the tears meandering down my face. "Good." I sniffed.

"You crying, Jodie?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry-"

"Don't be. Please don't be."

Pause. "Okay. But Jodie, you're back tomorrow, aren't you? Flying back?"

"Yes." Now my pulse was hammering so hard I could barely breathe.

"Then I'll meet you where you said last time. You said if I changed my mind you'd meet me there."

Suddenly I remembered-outside the hotel. "Oh! Sure. When?"

"Tomorrow night. Eight PM."

"What should I wear?"

"You're asking for instructions?"

That woke me up. "Umm. Um, yes?"

"Wear something pretty. A dress. No panties."

Then he hung up.

Hell. I stared at the phone, then I pressed it within both my hands and squeezed. "That sounds good."

Damn, I wanted a plane, fast. "Where's the batman spotlight in the sky when you need one?"

I was going to die before tomorrow.

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

Klaus *

I made sure to arrive before she could. Eight PM in a poorly lit car park outside a hotel wasn't the place to leave a woman alone. When she emerged from the hotel entrance wearing the same blue dress as that other night, I smiled.

"Hi," she said quietly as she approached. The closer she came the more my guilt surfaced. She was thinner, if more confident than when she'd been my slave, but anxiety lurked in the straightness of her mouth and the way her eyes searched mine.

"Hi, yourself."

I stepped close, and with the smallest of pressure, tipped up her chin with my forefinger. The trembling beneath my finger said a lot. I gently tucked some loose strands of her hair behind her ear. Hugging would have helped her, perhaps, and me certainly, but I didn't have that right, not yet.

"We're going to go sit on the beach and talk. That is, if you're agreeable?" I twitched my eyebrows upward, and I prayed.

If she was here, she was most likely agreeable, but still, us humans are strange. Had she changed her mind? Maybe she'd come to say goodbye? Maybe she just wanted to kick my shins and stalk off fuming? Maybe I'd get shafted like I probably deserved.

She licked her lips and made a funny little noise in her throat. "I...uh yes, I'm agreeable. Of course I am. You know I wanted you back."

That little statement sent my heart thumping faster.

I stooped and kissed her on her mouth, a slow, gentle kiss. "Remember when we made up those rules all that time ago about your capture fantasy? I said no abduction because it'd be too dangerous?"

She nodded, her eyes dark.

"I'm fixing that now. Don't scream." Then I ducked and picked her up with her top half dangling over my back and her legs held down by my arm. She gasped once. For a second I braced my muscles-a woman isn't light, and besides I liked the soft weight and scent of her there, caught over my shoulder. I restrained myself from turning my head to bite the side of her ass.

"Good girl," I whispered. "Consider yourself abducted."

Then I crossed the road with my little captive and strode through the thin gathering of palm trees and down onto the beach where I set her on her feet.

"That was pretty amazing." Jodie giggled. "Am I in the harem of the Prince of Zanzibar now?"

"Is that my rival? The Prince of Zanzibar? I'll remember that name. No, we're still on Magnetic Island, but..." I took her hand "... we are about to begin a new adventure. And we need to talk about it, because this time we both get to make up the rules."

We left our shoes by the footpath and ventured onto the cool sand, sitting in the softer drier zone halfway between the trees and where the waves surged up and down on the beach. A few ghost crabs toddled about sideways.

"Can we just hold hands for a minute?" she asked. "I want to feel you touching me. It will mean a lot to me."

"Sure. I'd like that too."

Her smile caught the moonlight and lifted my heart. I heard her inhale deeply before she put out her hand.

Those delicate fingers resting in mine-I hadn't realized how much I'd missed them. We sat together, her thigh resting against mine and we looked out across the sea.

I could barely believe she was here.

Slowly, the never-ending soft roar of the waves coming in and going out smothered the thoughts in my head. I licked the salt off my lips. The important ideas stuck up above the rest of my thoughts like the dinghies moored out there, rocking on the water.

I squeezed her fingers. "First. This is new, and not what we had before. Negotiation is a crucial part of BDSM. And it has to be consensual. That's the absolute bedrock. You're a part of this. Where do you want to start?"

"Oh. Umm. Anywhere you like. I think maybe that's best."