on the degree of control she seems to require.”
“You wouldn’t, for instance, lock her in a closet if she disobeyed you?”
“Certainly not!”
“Have you ever spanked a girl until she cried?”
“A few times.”
“How did you feel about that?”
“I enjoyed the hell out of it.”
“How about the girls? Do you think they enjoyed it?”
Dr. Honeywell perceived he was being baited. Though, in point of fact, every girl he had ever made cry was a B&D player whom he’d spanked at a club for allowance and he had no way of knowing how any of them had truly felt about being punished so severely.
“Please stop filming,” he said. She complied and the next moment he was standing a foot away from her with an unpleasant look in his penetrating eyes.
“Laura, whose side are you on here?”
“Excuse me?”
“This interview seems designed to vilify me.”
“I’m just asking the questions that occur to women into spanking when they’re considering a partner.”
“But I understood that most of your female subscribers were submissive.”
“They are.”
“Then why do I perceive an undercurrent of challenge, and even hostility in your line of questioning?”
“I don’t know,” she equivocated.
“I suppose you’re anything but submissive yourself,” he snapped.
“Me?” Laura fell back a step.
“If you have such a problem with dominant men why did you pick this job?” he demanded.
“I don’t have a problem with dominant men,” she replied with amusement.
“Then why don’t you ask me some good questions, like how I plan to spoil the lady I pick?”
“Okay. I will,” she agreed timidly, eager to neutralize his pique as quickly as possible.
“Good!” he said and took his seat briskly with a glance at his watch.
“Are you in a hurry Dr. Honeywell?”
“No, why?”
“Because after we get done here you’re scheduled for a strategy planning session with my partners and me.”
“I hope it will be a more positive experience than this interview has been so far.”
“You know,” she said, focusing her Nikon on his face to snap some stills for the club’s catalog, “I’m only asking the questions, you’re providing the answers. If you think you’re coming off like a male chauvinist, it’s likely that some women will too. I do think it would help if you smiled, though.”
Julian attempted to ignore this recommendation but she was far too attractive to stay mad at for long, particularly in her cardigan, tweed skirt, stack-heeled oxfords and anklets.
“Great smile,” Laura said encouragingly, snapping several portrait shots. “Now do me a favor and fold your arms. Go back to being stern.” Laura took her shot. “Thank you. Now may we continue taping?”
“Yes,” he said, unable to remember for a moment why they had stopped. The fact that he had been powerfully annoyed by Laura Random only minutes earlier suddenly eluded him, though he remembered as soon as she got the camera rolling again.
“Julian, would you spoil your submissive?”
“I’m looking for a girl to spoil. I enjoy going shopping and live only a couple of blocks from Rodeo Drive.” Now Dr. Honeywell smiled again.
“And I suppose that for the right girl you’d throw in a nose bob?”
“Cut!” cried Julian in exasperation. Laura hastily paused her camera and peeked out from behind it.
“Is something wrong?”
“I don’t appreciate that kind of sarcasm. Particularly not at my expense. Now, are you going to start behaving like a professional?”
Laura stood up to him with a pounding heart and shakily replied, “I apologize if I offended you, Dr. Honeywell. I see now that my lightheartedness was inappropriate.”
Julian looked skeptical.
“I’m very sorry.” She hung her head meekly. Then she peeked up at him. “Can we finish the taping now?”
“Haven’t you got enough?”
“I have pages more questions.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I offered to let you see them.”
“I’ll take two more questions. This is far too nerve wracking to endure any more than that.”
Laura set the camera rolling again and glanced through her questions. Then she smiled and plunged in once more.
“Julian, could you relate to a woman who entertained anal-erotic fantasies?”
“Actually, as a physician, I have a state of the art examining room and am extremely interested in meeting women with medical fantasies. I would guess that any woman who was anal erotic would be a natural candidate for enemas. I can certainly administer them and enjoy doing so.”
“Finally, Julian, what’s your favorite way to make love?”
“I’m flexible, but have a partiality for taking ladies from behind.”
Some twenty minutes later, Patricia Fairservis and Marguerite Alexander sat with Julian in Patricia’s lighthouse reviewing the tape. Both were smartly suited and alert as they considered their first wealthy client’s possibilities. Laura busied herself making coffee and pleased Julian by serving him.
“Well, I see no problem here,” said Patricia enthusiastically. “You’re a great catch.”
“Laura seemed to think I was conveying the impression of being chauvinistic,” he told them, giving Laura a glance as she sat down.
“Well, naturally your requirements for a classic submissive are going to lose you some possibilities, but not a significant number,” Marguerite informed him.
“I understood that most of your female subscribers were submissive,” he said, becoming irritated all over again.
“Oh, they are,” said Marguerite, “but to varying degrees.”
“We can always edit the tape
