Chapter 2

      Her mobile buzzed again, reminding her she had an unread text message.

      At the photographer’s request, she’d muted the phone before the photo shoot began. Under other circumstances she might have glanced at the screen to see who was trying to get in touch. But Harvey’s solemnity suggested he needed to discuss something serious and Trudy figured the text message had already waited for five minutes, so another five wouldn’t hurt.

      ‘Is something wrong?’

      ‘No. Not wrong. But I want to ask you a favour.’

      She remained silent, encouraging him to continue.

      ‘Billy’s my biggest client at the moment,’ Harvey explained. He gave a nod towards Bill and his smile briefly broadened.

      Trudy made the mistake of following the direction of his gaze and glancing at Bill. The photographer now had the six women surrounding Bill as though he was posing for an old-fashioned James Bond promo. Two of the women knelt by his hips, their jaws tilted so they were facing up to him with adoring smiles. Their breasts were still embarrassingly visible. Their thongs were revealingly tight. Their heads were disconcertingly close to his groin.

      Trudy quietly seethed.

      She remembered the last time her own face had been so close to Bill’s groin. It had only been the previous evening, when Bill returned home from his three-day stint in the city. But it had been good. Under the new arrangement it seemed the sex between them was always good.

      The memory of what they had done the previous evening made her stomach muscles tighten with a pang of delicious excitement. She felt momentarily resentful of the models being allowed to be so close to him. They had no right to be kneeling with their heads close to any part of him. They certainly had no business putting their faces so close to that particular part of him.

      That, she decided, was her position.

      She tried to drag her gaze away before her glare could become withering. There were two more models at Bill’s side. The women draped their hands possessively over his shoulders. The final pair, including the blonde with the pierced belly button and the yin-yang tattoo, embraced Bill intimately from behind. Their bare chests were pushed firmly against his back.

      All of them were grinning broadly.

      Too broadly, Trudy thought.

      She finally managed to wrench her gaze away.

      She fixed her scowl on Harvey. It occurred to her that he was the one who had organised this photo shoot. He was the one who deserved her anger. She tried not to make her hostility too obvious.

      A passing waitress deposited a plate of muffins on their otherwise empty table. Trudy was so distracted that, if it hadn’t been for the flounce of fuchsia hair, she wouldn’t have known who it was. Absently she mumbled, ‘Thank you, Nikki.’

      ‘I don’t doubt Billy will be even bigger in a few months if all my plans work out,’ Harvey continued. ‘We’ve got quite a few companies interested in having him as their representative. There are some lucrative overseas markets beckoning. Our Billy is becoming quite a popular brand in his own right.’

      ‘That’s great.’

      Trudy tried to say the words with genuine enthusiasm. The truth was, it would only be great if Bill thought it was great. If he thought the nuisance of celebrity was becoming an ordeal she knew he would stop it immediately.

      ‘But,’ Harvey continued, ‘I have to say that this new arrangement of yours is causing me a bit of a dilemma.’

      Trudy paused.

      She was momentarily too shocked to respond.

      Had Bill told Harvey about the new arrangement? How much had he told him? She willed herself not to blush. Surely Bill would be more discreet than to share their intimate details with someone else?

      ‘Our new arrangement is causing you a dilemma?’ she repeated.

      Did Harvey know that she usually spent Saturday nights being disciplined until her buttocks were a bright-pink blaze of heat? That was one of the main things she associated with the new arrangement. Had Bill confided that they kept a special spatula in his country cottage kitchen which he used throughout Sunday mornings while she took on the role of being his spankmaid? That was another key aspect of the new arrangement. Did Harvey know that she usually spent most of Sunday, her one free day of the week, naked in the bedroom or the kitchen, thrilling to Bill’s innovative, masterful and wonderful discipline?

      ‘Our new arrangement is causing you a dilemma?’

      She tried not to let the rising anger show in her voice. Her cheeks seared. She felt ill with embarrassment at Harvey’s apparent knowledge. How indiscreet had Bill been?

      The new arrangement had been Bill’s response to the situation that had nearly driven them apart half a year earlier. They had just been getting to know each other and exploring the boundaries of their new relationship. Bill was introducing Trudy to the pleasures of sexual discipline and she had found the experience incredibly exciting. Sexually, he was a natural master and she had discovered, much to her surprise, that she enjoyed being a natural submissive for him.

      It was the perfect balance for a sexual relationship. It would have been a perfect romance if not for Donny, one of her former friends from university.

      Donny, along with Charlotte, had been a collaborator in the idea for the online catering company Sweet Temptation. Donny made it known that he wasn’t happy that Trudy was in a relationship with Bill. He claimed the age difference was too great and he had gone out of his way to cause her upset and distress. To make matters worse, because it suited a private vendetta he was pursuing, Donny had also tried to hurt Bill’s career.

      Bill had spent a night in jail cells because of Donny’s machinations.

      As it turned out, Donny’s grudge had little to do with Trudy finding happiness with Bill. Donny had briefly dated Bill’s daughter, Imogen. He had abandoned her when she became pregnant and Donny and Bill had loathed each other