Kathryn worked through the crowd in the hotel lobby, berating herself for staying until the end of the last conference session of the day. How on earth have I ended up working in the security industry? Why come to another conference that bores me stupid?

Kathryn often felt frustrated at failing to find a career that motivated her. She pushed towards the lifts to rescue at least some time for dealing with the afternoon’s inevitable onslaught of emails, emails she mostly found tedious or pointless that nevertheless required a response.

The lift lobby heaved. With a determination lacking in those shuffling along in various cookie-cutter conversations, Kathryn made it to a lift. A crush of delegates pinned her against the lift wall. She could see very little and felt compelled to hold her breath; Kathryn was sure the stench of aftershave, perfume and booze would otherwise be nauseating. She reached her floor, desperate to escape.

Kathryn gasped the air in the corridor as though emerging from a deep dive. Striding to her room, she pirouetted around a couple who’d disembarked ahead. 

The corridor was as cookie-cutter as the conversations in the hotel lift, but at least her room was easy to find: the penultimate door on the right-hand side, just before the sharp turn. She arrived at her door with her key card at the ready.

Something was odd. Kathryn stared at the lock. Her door was slightly ajar, resting on its catch. She bristled. ‘Bloody cleaners!’ She’d noticed that the cleaners had a habit of hooking do-not-disturb signs over the catches to stop the fierce door closers from shutting the doors entirely, enabling them to dip between the rooms and their cleaning carts in the corridor. Efficient, perhaps, but they tended to drag the cards out at the end of a clean, scratching them and, it now appeared, shutting the doors so gently in the process that the locks didn’t always engage.

Kathryn pushed inside, irritated that her next call would be a complaint to housekeeping. The door slammed shut behind her.

Kathryn stopped in her tracks.

Her room was oddly uncluttered. Her things were gone. What the?! On the luggage stand was an expensive aluminium rolling suitcase. Not hers, sadly.

She’d barely had time to focus when she heard a key card slide into the door behind her. She spun around. 

A man stepped into the room, tall, broad-shouldered, handsome, and with a face that was rapidly transforming from bemused to angry. 

‘What on earth! Now, look: if you’re from the hotel, I made it plain I was to vet ALL staff that would be servicing my room. I paid extra for that assurance, so YOU will tell me what on earth you’re doing here when I didn’t vet YOU!’

Before Kathryn could answer, his eyes jumped to the conference badge she’d tucked behind a well-placed scarf – a ruse which made it easier to avoid those cookie-cutter conversations. He plucked the badge free, scanning his eyes across it forensically.

‘You work for Christopher Dunlop!’ He knew her boss. ‘He’s a bloody charlatan, that man. Dunlop’s trying to steal secrets from me again?’ He didn’t pause for an answer. ‘You stay right where you are, young lady; I’m calling the police.’ 

It had been a while since anyone had called Kathryn ‘young lady’, but this was no time for luxuriating in unintended compliments.

‘No!’ Kathryn was surprised by the panic in her voice. ‘This is just a mistake, honestly. I- I must have taken the lift to the wrong floor. It was rammed, you see. I’ve ended up in the wrong room. Mine must be above. Or below? Anyway, I haven’t touched a thing!’

He did not look impressed.

‘Utter drivel!’

He whisked the key card from Kathryn’s hand and marched from the room. Kathryn desperately wanted to run after him and attempt to explain. But it felt futile. For a moment, she stood frozen to the spot, uneasy at ignoring his instruction to stay put. She pulled herself upright, told herself she was being ridiculous, and headed for the door. 

Kathryn could hear her key card failing to throw the lock. Mustering as much faux-confidence as she could, she opened the door, intending to pluck her card back and regain some control of the situation. But he stood there resolute, unsurprised by her move. Kathryn found herself disarmed.

‘Well’, he said, holding the card aloft, ‘if you didn’t use this to get in, what did you use? You’ll wait with me while I call the police.’ With that, he returned the key card, then grabbed Kathryn’s wrist and, brooking none of her protests, pulled her back into the room.

He picked up the phone.

‘Really, NO!’ Kathryn insisted. He paused at last. ‘I can’t have the police involved, and this is all perfectly innocent.’

As much as she loathed her job, Kathryn needed it for the hefty mortgage she’d just taken out to pay some debts. She knew her current lack of enthusiasm was not going unnoticed by Christopher Dunlop. In the security business, an embarrassing and avoidable brush with the police was a sackable offence. ‘There must be another way to deal with this, surely!’

He lowered the phone. ‘I can deal with this without police help, but I don’t think for a moment you’d agree to my methods’. 

‘Methods?’ Kathryn was puzzled.

‘Well, it seems to me, Ms Rycroft, that there are two possibilities here. Either, with unforgivable sloppiness, you’ve walked into the wrong room, though how you’d get through a locked door by accident is beyond me. Or you are snooping for Dunlop. Either way, I need to punish you and ensure you haven’t stolen any information from me. If you’ve misappropriated anything, I must get to the bottom of what you’ve taken and ensure I deal with the leak.’

‘So...’ said Kathryn nervously. 

‘So, you need to be spanked and—’ 

‘Spanked!’ Kathryn was so shocked at the suggestion that she hadn’t allowed him to finish his sentence. He looked at her sternly, and she felt it best to let him speak.

‘Yes, Ms Rycroft,’ he continued coolly, ‘spanking is the best way I know to bring about rapid adjustments in behaviour. But beforehand, I need to run a data check on your mobile phone and undertake a thorough inspection of your person to ensure you’re secreting no data storage devices.’

A swarm of nervous energy overcame Kathryn’s stomach.

‘That’s outrageous!’ She struggled to find a convincing tone of indignation. ‘It’s ridiculously OTT when all I’ve done is stray into the wrong roo—’ 

‘So you say’, he interrupted in a calm, unyielding manner, once again picking up the phone, ‘in which case you will be able to explain everything to the police.’ 

‘Wait!’ Kathryn really couldn’t have the police involved. ‘Let me think.’ He cut off the line with his finger but kept the receiver in his hand. 

‘I told you that you would not like my methods, and I will not do anything without your full agreement. So it’s my way or the police. Your choice, but I don’t have all evening; I’ve things to do.’ 

‘Okay,’ sighed Kathryn, ‘this is an outrageous approach, but I can’t have the police involved.’ He started dialing. ‘What! Stop!’ He paused.

‘I won’t have you saying I forced you into something against your will. If you don’t think my methods are justified, I will have to involve the police.’ 

‘No, sorry,’ Kathryn pleaded, ‘I understand you’re simply trying to protect the security of your clients. It just all seems a bit harsh?’ She realised she’d phrased that as a question. She sounded weak. 

‘Security IS harsh. Either you maintain it for clients, or you don’t. I didn’t get my reputation for diligence by allowing sloppiness or failing to ensure that what I am protecting remains secure.’

‘Okay,’ said Kathryn, ‘I understand. And... agree.’

‘Agree to what?’

‘Agree to your spanking and inspecting me.’

‘Very well.’ Much to Kathryn’s relief, he put down the phone. 

‘Now, I need to make some preparations, and I don’t want you looking around this room further until I’ve satisfied myself you can’t see anything of importance. You will stand facing this wall with your hands on your head.’ Kathryn was once again outraged but knew better than to protest. She got into position as directed.

From the corner of her eye, she saw him pick up a teaspoon from a cup and saucer on the desk beside her. He placed it on the wall with the bowl right before her face. ‘You’ll hold this to the wall with your nose and ensure it doesn’t drop. I’ll hear instantly if it does.’ Kathryn was burning with humiliation, but she complied. ‘If that spoon drops to the floor for ANY reason, you shall earn yourself five strokes of the cane on your wetted bottom.’ 

‘Wet bottom!’ Kathryn could contain her outrage no longer. The spoon crashed to the ground. ‘You imagine you’re going to spank my BARE bottom?! That’s completely unacceptable! As for the cane, that’s ridiculous; I am not at school. And where do you propose to get a cane from? Or do you carry one around waiting for your next victim?’ She stared at him, but he remained calm, his eyes moving to the spoon on the floor, then back to her.

‘Ms Rycroft, I remind you that at any point, you may stop this, and we’ll get the police to investigate. Is that what you wish?’ 

‘Well, no, bu—’

‘There are no buts.’ He interrupted firmly. ‘It’s my method or the police, as you know full well by now. Spankings that are not on the bare bottom are pointless. And since you may be concealing a data storage device somewhere highly personal and discrete, my inspection will need to be quite invasive — though be assured I will only go as far as I need to satisfy myself that you are hiding nothing.’ Kathryn stood, her jaw a little slackened from the shock. ‘Well, would you rather I called the police?’ 

‘Not the police,’ Kathryn whispered, ‘we’ll continue.’

‘Very well, as you wish,’ he said, picking up the spoon from the floor and placing it in front of Kathryn’s nose again. ‘You’ve earned five strokes of the cane on your wetted bottom. Let this drop again, and you’ll earn five more. And, since you asked, no, I do not carry a cane. But you will find I am quite resourceful.’ Kathryn fumed. She was quietly furious he wasn’t even letting her off the first five strokes.

She heard him gathering some things from the wardrobe. Then, he stood close behind her. ‘Your phone,’ he demanded. Her phone was still in her hand on her head. That, and her room card, was all she had taken with her that morning. She wasn’t bothering to take any notes at the conference. Her attendance was a way of avoiding her tedious work. She twisted her phone around so he could take it from her, not daring to lift her hand off her head. 

‘What will you do with it?’ She felt she had the right to demand an answer.

‘I’ll run some data checks to ensure you haven’t used your camera or microphone in the vicinity of this room in the last couple of hours. Then I’ll check whether you’ve sent any files into the cloud from here. And I’ll do a complete scan of your phone to ensure none of your data matches the fingerprint of the data I am protecting. Be assured; I won’t retain your data unless I discover anything untoward.’

Kathryn was impressed. He was operating at a much higher level than Christopher Dunlop.

She could hear him connecting her phone to a laptop and the tapping of keys as he started his data interrogation.

Eventually, the tapping stopped. Kathryn’s nerves rose.

‘Come over here and place yourself across my knee.’

Kathryn felt her face burning with humiliation. Over his knee! She thought better than to argue.

Kathryn turned; knowing to leave her hands on her head. It occurred to her that she didn’t even have the name of the man sitting on the side of the bed, about to punish her in such an intimate and embarrassing way. Her cheeks flushed hotter still.

With a stern point of his finger, he commanded her to approach. Kathryn moved towards him, her stomach erupting with nerves. She lowered her hands as he dragged her across his knee. Kathryn clutched the bedspread, bracing herself for the spanking to come.

‘You’ve got a very shapely and ample bottom, Ms Rycroft.’ Given his appreciative tone, she took that as a compliment. 

‘Tha—’ Before Kathryn could complete her thanks, the man continued.

‘I shall need to spank you quite firmly to have a proper effect.’

Charming! thought Kathryn, indulging in sarcasm that she wouldn’t dare utter out loud right now.

He ran his hands across the cheeks of her bottom, relishing the task. Kathryn wriggled, moving towards his crotch. She found what she was seeking: his rigid erection, now pressing into the side of her bottom. As if in annoyance at her having detected his arousal, he withdrew his hand swiftly.

Thwack!

The first spank was much sharper than Kathryn had anticipated. ‘Oww!’ Kathryn uttered an involuntary objection, and her hand swung back, in reflex, as protection.

‘I’ll have none of that nonsense!’ He was quick to pull her hand away. ‘You’ll stay as still and silent as possible. Understand?’

‘Yes.’ Kathryn said. This was much more challenging than she’d hoped.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

He was spanking in a rhythm. Kathryn gripped the bed clothes hard and bit her lip.

He smoothed down her skirt and patted it. ‘Right, now you can get up and remove this. Quickly!’

Kathryn rose to her feet and felt for the clasp on her waistband. She hesitated as she was about to drop her skirt, remembering her choice of sheer panties and a matching sheer bra that morning. She’d left her bush to grow rather full of late; he’d see everything. ‘Oh, do get on with it!’ He grabbed her waistband and whisked her skirt to the floor. Kathryn stepped out of it, trying to preserve her modesty by covering her hairy cunt with a hand. ‘Take off that jacket and blouse while you’re at it, quickly.’

Kathryn let her jacket drop to the ground. She unbuttoned her blouse from the bottom up, trying to cling to the last scraps of modesty for as long as possible. It was futile. ‘Come on!’ Kathryn felt the chill of the air-con stiffen her nipples as her blouse fell away. She tried to cover her see-through bra with an arm. ‘Put those hands on your head, young lady; it’s time I searched you. Now get to your knees.’

He helped Kathryn to the floor and stood before her, moving her hands to her side before working his fingers through her hair. Kathryn recalled the nit nurse at school. He checked every inch of Kathryn’s thick locks to ensure she’d concealed nothing. As he worked, Kathryn looked straight ahead at his cock straining in his trousers. She was desperate to set it free but kept her hands still.

He bent down behind Kathryn, took her gently by the waist and helped her back to her feet.

Kathryn could hear him retrieving things from his case. She dared not glance back, though she was desperate to know what he was fetching. Kathryn shuddered at the unmistakable snap of silicone gloves as he drew them onto his hands. Her heart raced.

He stood alongside Kathryn, shining a torch into her ear and gently checking her lobes with his finger. He moved to the front and examined each nostril. He’d probed nothing intimate yet, but Kathryn flinched at every contact. His touch was electrifying. She felt wetness drifting into the crotch of her panties.

‘Open your mouth.’ Kathryn obeyed, not gagging as he placed a gloved finger deep on the back of her tongue and moved it right around her teeth, top and bottom.

He was behind her now, undoing her bra. Her breasts fell a little as he removed them, then he stepped in front, checking every seam of her bra.

He found nothing. 

He ran his searching fingertips under her breasts and took each nipple between his fingers, squeezing them hard. Kathryn let out a silent scream as the pain scribed itself across her face. ‘That’s good. You’re doing a much better job of taking your punishment now. Turn around and bend over. Steady yourself on the chair.’

Kathryn spun around and did as instructed. He put his gloved fingers behind the waistband of her panties and pulled them to her ankles. She lifted each leg in turn, being sure to bring them high so he could ease her panties below her stilettos.

‘Goodness me, young lady, these panties are in a disgraceful state. They’re soaking!’ He moved in front of the chair, inspecting Kathryn’s underwear with his characteristic thoroughness. He ran his fingers across the crotch, checking she’d tucked nothing in the fold beneath. He withdrew, parting his thumb and forefinger; she swallowed with acute embarrassment as a string of her juices stretched between his fingertips. Kathryn felt mortified at seeing him bring his fingers to his nose and sniff. A burn of humiliation spread at her core.

‘Open your legs; I need to examine your anus and vagina.’ He sounded matter-of-fact, almost medical.

As he inserted a probing finger into Kathryn’s sodden cunt, she shivered in waves of deep pleasure which rushed through her body. He was dispassionate and focused, leaving no part of her cunt untouched. As he pulled his finger over her g-spot, she whimpered and gripped the chair tight, desperate not to orgasm. He was working his fingers through her substantial bush, making it thoroughly wet with her juices and brushing her clitoris with each searching downstroke. Kathryn was in agony, trying to contain herself. 

‘This is not for your pleasure or mine, Ms Rycroft. You are forbidden from orgasming, understood?’ Kathryn’s head was spinning. She couldn’t reply for fear of going over the edge. He didn’t press for an answer.

He stood behind her again, pushing a wet, gloved finger into her tight anus. It was too much. Sharp, involuntary panting took over Kathryn and made her stomach convulse, shaking her onto his finger with each pulse, intensifying her pleasure.

‘Sorry, I’m, oh god, no!’ He held his finger quite still, yielding nothing as Kathryn’s orgasm overwhelmed her.

Her moaning gave way to an awkward silence.

‘Ms Rycroft, you were under a clear instruction NOT to orgasm.’

‘Yes, I, I’m sorry. I’m not sure what came…’ Kathryn paused, embarrassed at her choice of words.

‘YOU came, Ms Rycroft. Quite forcefully. Now, are you able to reassure me you’ve regained control so that I may complete my examination?’ 

‘Yes.’ Kathryn squeaked this out. She wasn’t in control at all; she felt that even saying a few words might tip her into another orgasm.

His finger probed deeply into her anus. She was clenching hard to ward off further embarrassment. 

‘You will need to relax, Ms Rycroft. If I can’t check you fully, you must have a doctor’s examination. One way or another, I have to ensure you’re hiding nothing. Understand?’

As Kathryn relaxed and let his finger deep inside, fresh and strident waves of pleasure drove through her. Satisfied she was free of anything suspicious, he removed his finger swiftly, taking Kathryn to the edge of another orgasm that she barely suppressed.

‘Lie on the bed, I must check your feet.’

‘My feet!’

‘Yes, there are ways to secrete small memory devices between the toes. Lie on your back, and I’ll make my checks.’

Kathryn complied. He slid his arm under her ankles and raised her feet towards his eyes. Katherine squirmed with humiliation as he took both ankles in one hand, which made her wince, imagining he was changing her diaper. He checked diligently between each toe and under her soles before taking the opportunity to give two sharp spanks to her bottom, dangerously close to her cunt.

‘Well, Ms Rycroft, it seems you are not concealing anything, and your phone shows no suspicious activity.’

‘Yes, as I was saying! Are we done?’

Saying those words brought a knot to Kathryn’s stomach. She hoped they were far from done.

‘Absolutely not. You’re to be spanked properly on that bare bottom. First, that’s for your negligence in going to the wrong room, then for the inconvenience you have caused me. After, you shall be caned for your inability to follow a straightforward order. And you can take that pout off your face, or I’ll add five more strokes of that cane. And don’t imagine I’ve forgotten you are to be caned on your wetted bottom.’

Kathryn was trying to contain her nerves. She was thrilled at the prospect, so thrilled that she couldn’t imagine how she would avoid further mortifying orgasms.

‘I’ll have you back over my knee, young lady.’

He arranged Kathryn over his lap; this time, clamping her between his legs. His grip prevented Kathryn from sliding her hip back towards his cock, and it brought her swollen clit in firm contact with his knee. Kathryn was also trapped between two opposing desperations. On the one hand, she yearned for further orgasms; on the other, she was determined not to give him the pleasure of watching her lose control again. 

His spanks were sharper and stingier now. At first, the shock of them helped Kathryn keep her mind off her throbbing cunt. But every spank had her writhing into his knee and grinding her clit against it. She could feel a patch on his trousers becoming sodden from her arousal. Kathryn felt shame and frustration at her inability for self-control. Surely he could feel her anointing his leg? He stopped spanking her and brought his fingers to a tantalising rest on her inner thigh, circling millimetres from her pulsating lips.

‘I can see that regardless of what I say, Ms Rycroft, you are determined to derive sexual pleasure from your punishment. I can’t stop you from doing so, but I will be sure you don’t do so furtively. I want to see your hand working that wet little cunt of yours. You’ll ask to orgasm, and when I give permission, you’re to express your orgasm in the clearest and most vocal terms possible. Understood?’

Before he’d finished speaking, her fingers shot to her damp, desperate lips. She’d placed one on either side of her clit so that she could keep thrusting it into the wet fabric of his trouser leg.

‘Please, Sir, I need to come! Now!’ 

He had not asked her to call him Sir, but Kathryn was approaching her second orgasm across the knee of a man whose name remained a mystery. It felt better to call him something.

‘Not yet; you’ll hold on, Ms Rycroft.’ He slid his forefinger from beneath her anus and down her lips to meet her fingers as they teased her clit. She squealed at the agony of holding off her climax. Then he ran that forefinger, wet with her juices, around the ring of her anus. She was biting her lip, squirming in frustration.

‘You may come, Ms Rycroft.’ As he gave his permission, he slid his damp forefinger slowly, firmly into Kathryn’s anus. The shock of it froze her still for a moment before she gave way to the shudders of an intense and prolonged climax, feeling her ribs pulse as she released staccato cries in time with the shaking of her body. 

He held her as she came back to herself. She curled into his arms, finding a deep sense of security in his embrace.

‘It’s time for your caning, Ms Rycroft.’

‘No, but I—. Surely there’s no need?’

‘You know very well you’re to be caned five times on your wetted bottom, Ms Rycroft. You may count yourself lucky it’s not ten strokes.’ He gave a sharp spank on one of her buttocks, which she took as a sign she should get up. He grabbed the chair and pulled it further into the middle of the floor.

‘Stand behind this with your hands on your head.’ The brief tenderness he’d shown had given way to sternness once again. Standing behind the chair, Kathryn was directly in the path of the air-con unit and the chilled air bit rudely at her skin. A quiet fury was stirring within her. The caning struck Kathryn as especially unnecessary and unfair.

The sudden sound of him turning on a tap in the bathroom made her buttocks clench involuntarily. He returned with a wet flannel and walked behind her. She heard the metallic rasp of the Venetian blind at the window as he fiddled with its settings. Then he was in front of her, holding the nylon wand he’d removed from the blind. Shit! He’s going to cane me with that?! He placed it in her mouth, stoking her humiliation, but the wand was so long, Kathryn had to focus on keeping it balanced.

‘Don’t dare let that drop, or you’ll earn more strokes.’

Her body gave a hard, involuntary flinch as he wiped the cold flannel across her buttocks. The wand twisted in her mouth ominously. The cruel, cold flannel was on her cunt now; he squeezed it as he wiped away the stickiness of her pleasure below, shattering her sexual warmth and sending streams of icy water cascading down the insides of her legs. Goosebumps fizzed across the skin of her cold, wet bottom. She’d never felt so small, exposed, and vulnerable. He took the wand from her mouth.

‘Okay, Ms Rycroft, five strokes. Ready?’

What was she supposed to say? She’d never be ready for this. She held her fury deep inside.

‘Yes, Sir.’ Kathryn’s head was light. Her lips pursed in anger at her unavoidable lie.

‘Then you must ask for your caning. Say: “Please will you cane me, Sir?”’

There were two entirely separate Kathryns now. There was the Kathryn gripped by white-hot indignation at this injustice: that Kathryn was locked deep inside. Then there was the Kathryn on the surface: compliant and electrified.

‘Please, will you cane me? Sir?’

‘Bend over the back of the chair and grip the edges. If your hands leave the seat after a stroke, it won’t count towards the five. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, Sir.’

He laid two light taps of the wand square across her wet cheeks. Her buttocks braced.

SCHWICK!

A stripe of stinging fire broke across Kathryn’s bottom, cutting straight through to her bones. Her mouth shot open, letting out a high-pitched wail. She started breathing in deep shivers. He circled the wand around her butt.

‘You took that well, Ms Rycroft. Be sure that continues.’

SCHWICK!

An intense stinging burn tore deeper than the first stroke. All hopes that she might adjust, that it might become more manageable, were abandoned. The lines scorching along her cheeks contrasted harshly with the cool wetness of her bottom. She was no longer in her head. Her mind and her raw bottom were now one. Kathryn was a mess of tears and shuddered breaths, punctuated by deep sobs.

SCHWICK! 

The first two strokes had not prepared Kathryn for the third, even though the searing sting landed with the same acrylic bite. Kathryn’s mouth parted, giving release to a long, intense scream throttled by her fear that relaxing any muscle would allow the furious pain to consume even more of her flesh.

SCHWICK!

Kathryn’s head was buzzing now. She withdrew deep into it. The pain was every bit as intense, but she became distant, disconnected.

SCHWICK!

Kathryn collapsed in agony and relief, curling tightly into a ball beside the chair.

Through her sobbing, she could hear him searching for something in the bathroom. He emerged, lifting her off the floor. Like a napkin, Kathryn was raised then draped across his lap.

Her buttocks clenched at the cool cream as he smoothed it over her cheeks until his fingers found her wet cunt, still buzzing from the intense strokes.

Kathryn slipped her hand back towards her clitoris, but she turned her palm and grasped the soft fabric of his trousers around his throbbing prick. As he teased her, so she teased him.

Kathryn slid from his lap, spinning to bring her mouth close to his rampant cock. She set it free, easing his balls out through his zip and into the open, taking one of them clean into her mouth.

He was panting now. With a deep breath, Kathryn took his cock right to the back of her throat, stroking his tightening balls with her thumbnail.

‘Let’s fuck!!’ He sounded desperate.

Kathryn was not stopping. It was her turn to torment. She moved the back of her tongue in rapid flicks against the hood of his cock. His fingers grabbed clumps of her hair. On she sucked. Faster. Wetter. Deeper.

‘Arrrgggh!’

She milked down hot streams of his spunk as he wailed in defeat, collapsing flat onto the bed, spent.

Rising, Kathryn lurched over her quarry, bringing her face close to his, running sharp fingernails up his neck to hook his chin. He opened one eye.

‘I’m going to my room now. You’re not to follow me for a couple of minutes. But you’ve just ten minutes to find me. Get to me in that time, and you can fuck me: hard. Take any longer, and your ass is mine. Deal?’

He hesitated.

‘Come on. You’re the shit-hot security guy. I’ve all but told you where my room is; this should be easy.’

He swallowed, then gave one quick, greedy nod.

— • —

Kathryn smiled as she opened her door.

‘You’re a little late.’

‘Really! But only jus—.’

‘Yes. Really. There are no buts. You may come in.

On.

Your.

Knees.’