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Lying there with my hands behind my head, I contemplated what I wanted for her. She wouldn't leave until the next day. Then she'd take a new apartment, not a good one, not in a nice area, paying cash. She'd furnish it with basic necessities and then she'd scope out area stores, those where girls had been picked up for shoplifting.
It had been decided she'd start with things that weren't necessities instead of working up to them like she'd arrived in town and needed stuff. There might be someone kind hearted that would want to let her go or allow her to work off her pilfering in the store, doing honest work.
Moving fast was important. Moving smart, too.
So we had today together and I was thinking what experience to give her. I'd pushed her hard the night before, making her obey without use of force and submit to the things she hated the most.
I could spend today repeating that. I could take her to the clinic where they discreetly handled the few women who got hurt during play, and ask them to put her through the most humiliating paces they could.
Or I could tie her up and keep her in pain.
But watching her sleep, all I wanted was to arrange a spa day for her, something Annie the cop probably never did for herself. Massage, sauna, whatever else could be done without making her look like a society girl suddenly on the fritz. Just something pleasant.
I realized her eyes were open. "Good morning, beautiful."
She smiled. "Good morning, handsome."
I laughed low in my throat.
"May I ask what you were thinking, sir?"
So I told her. That I wanted to do something nice for her before she went off to do something that would be nice for people who would never know she'd done it but would be unpleasant for her.
I saw her run the word unpleasant around, because that barely covered any of it, but all she said was, "Did you decide on something?"
I told her only about the spa day and asked if there were other things she could do that wouldn't seem like rich bitch slumming.
She chose her words slowly and cautiously and said, "There are. There's a lot to a spa day. A facial wouldn't leave me obviously pampered, just shinier. Plus these guys seem the sort to assume any girl under forty is fresh, nubile and theirs to play with." She looked at my face and apologized. "Wasn't thinking."
Whatever my expression had said – pain, probably – it didn't matter. I brushed her apology aside and said, "What do you want to do before you go undercover again, Officer Knox?"
She considered for almost no time so apparently she'd thought about it herself. "I'd like to go for a run with you," she said.
My eyebrows went up.
"Then have something for breakfast that's bad for me and not fish."
I smirked.
"Food, I mean, sir. But yes, that too."
I laughed.
"And then I'd like to get ahead on my homework, call my teachers, tell them I'll be out a week or two, and go from there."
"You have weird ideas of pleasure, Miss Knox," I said.
"You have weird ideas of food, Mr. St. Martin," she replied. "I mean – fish?"
Later in the day there was one more thing to take care of, that had nothing to do with humiliating or hurting her, or even making her come with explosive pleasure. Just as I had a doctor on call, I had a veterinarian as well.
Annie stopped her packing when I said that and stared at me. "You want me to see a vet?" I could tell by the aggressive tilt of her head she was afraid we were moving into human pet territory and I was tempted to let her believe it but it had nothing to do with it.
I surprised her by putting my arms around her and holding her against me. She stiffened for a long minute before she leaned into me. I couldn't blame her. The sensation took me by surprise every time now too. Tenderness had always been associated with the threat of loss. Ever since losing Emily and seeing the things people had done to Ariel and to the Lily over in Europe, forever damaged, I kept my distance. Shared experiences were one thing. The insta-closeness garnered by a violent scene, by pain endured by one partner for the gratification of – usually both. Sometimes it was all for me.
This was different. I knew what Annie was. A cop, a narc and undercover agent who did deep cover work and wasn't too afraid to do it and wasn't cocky enough to get herself killed. She was steel inside, not often lace but more likely a couple days worn baby doll tee and too short shorts. Lily, that Lily, she was tough in her survival but breakable in reality.
The girl I held felt so small.
