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 ever since. Donny, Trudy now realised, had simply been taking advantage of an opportunity to upset an old adversary.
Donny’s interference in their relationship had caused a sufficient rift for Bill to give Trudy an ultimatum. She could either be with him at his restaurant, Boui-Boui, or she could be at Sweet Temptation, a company she was supposed to be running with Donny. Even when Trudy and Charlotte found a way to exclude Donny from Sweet Temptation and operate the company without him, Bill still took some persuading to let her pursue both career goals and have a relationship with him. But, eventually, they had negotiated a compromise.
They had called the whole compromise their new arrangement.
‘Our new arrangement is causing you a dilemma?’ she repeated.
Harvey grinned and shook his head. He was clearly oblivious to her thinly veiled fury. He fumbled through the pockets of his jacket and pulled out his mobile phone, a handful of business cards and a sleek, glossy tablet. He placed them on the table by the side of the muffin and then began to inspect the food.
Trudy barely noticed what he was doing.
She and Bill had worked out the details for the new arrangement in Boui-Boui, not two tables away from where she now sat. When she closed her eyes, Trudy could remember every detail of the night when they forged the agreement.
They had celebrated with a night of fine steaks, matured whisky and sharp, painful spanking. Bill had bent Trudy over his knee, exposed her buttocks, and pulled her panties down to the backs of her knees.
She didn’t protest.
The position meant she was thrilled by conflicting spasms of vulnerability and arousal. When he landed the first light slap upon her rear, those conflicting feelings had heightened to a dizzying, delicious degree.
‘We’ll have no more secrets, Ms McLaughlin,’ Bill told her.
He punctuated the comment with another firm slap to her rear. The second blow felt harsher. Trudy made no complaint.
‘No more secrets, Mr Hart,’ she agreed.
His hand landed again and again. Each blow felt firmer than its predecessor. Her cheeks had quickly grown warm and her arousal intense.
It had been an agreement as solemn as marriage vows.
There would be no more secrets, and a revised working schedule that accommodated the needs of both of them. The new arrangement had been settled with a night of wonderful, punishing passion and the memory always left her quivering with excitement.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Trudy worked from nine to five with Charlotte at the Sweet Temptation kitchens. She spent those evenings as sous under Bill at Boui-Boui. When she collapsed into bed on those nights, she was usually so exhausted there was barely time to undress before sleep overwhelmed her.
On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, because Bill was away in the city working on his career as a celebrity chef, the new arrangement allowed Trudy to take over as chef de cuisine. This meant spending three torturous days away from him, busying herself with the management of the restaurant’s kitchens and savouring every Skyped or texted moment they could share.
Sundays were her favourite part of the new arrangement.
When Bill returned on Saturday night they finally got an opportunity to be together. Typically, Trudy spent Saturday nights in a bliss of delicious discomfort and Sundays in a euphoria of wonderful aches followed by more marvellous punishment.
But Trudy didn’t like that Harvey might know about this aspect of the new arrangement. It felt as though Bill had been discussing their private life behind her back. She saw Harvey fumbling with a muffin and asked stiffly, ‘Which specific aspect of our new arrangement is the main issue?’
He put the untouched muffin aside. It looked like he was sneering at the pastry.
She wondered if he had noticed the
