Andy left Candice while he asked the management about their facilities and how he could use them. For five minutes after he’d gone, she stood at the bar and watched the room. Client number two was still talking avidly to his companions. Was he telling them?

Candice nodded to the barman to top up her wine with sparkling water and drifted over to a vacant table, hoping it was close enough to catch a few words. What she would do with anything she heard, she had no idea, but there was a strange excitement, knowing that she knew and he didn’t know she knew.

She sat down, putting Andy’s bag on the table and pulled out her phone in order to look busy. She could hear some of the conversations.

“Can anyone try it?”

“Not now, there’s no one there now.”

“Lucky you then.”

“Would you do it again?”

“Oh, yeah.”

Candice smiled, turning her head away so the group couldn’t see her. She took a drink, holding the glass to her lips until she’d composed her face.

“Isn’t it scary?” someone said, “I mean sticking your dick in a hole like that?”

That drew a nervous laugh. “Yeah,” he chuckled again.

“Is that part of the thrill?”

More laughter. “Yeah, until I felt her teeth.”

“I read somewhere,” said another voice, “that some whores have their teeth taken out so they can do it better... abroad somewhere.”

“We are ‘abroad’. This isn’t Surrey.”

“It’s probably one of those urban myths. So, Joe... moment of truth, did you think she was going to bite it off? Of course, I say ‘she’ but it could have been a guy. Did you think of that?”

Candice took another drink, fighting down the urge to own up. She could offer to blow the whole group. For a second she imagined herself under the table, working her way around, doing the girls too. That was the point, wasn’t it? Being in that room with the anonymous hole had been no fun, but the thought of being under the table with bodies and voices all around was almost overwhelmingly irresistible.

She could feel herself flushing, her pussy getting wet. She tried to take another long sip, fought down the urge to get up. When Andy’s hand touched her shoulder, she jerked in her seat, spilling some of the drink down her chin, feeling it run between her breasts, wetting the chain.

She leaned back against Andy.

“Can we get out of here?”

He helped her up. He said nothing until they got to the door.

“There is a room,” he said. “We could have it tomorrow. Will that do?”

“That will do nicely,” she said. “Can we go for a swim now?”

“In the dark?

“Why not, I’m not planning to strike out for Africa.”

“I think it might be sensible to go via the chalet and unlock you. I’m not sure those vibrators will cope with total immersion.”

Five minutes later they were walking to the water.

“Are you okay? You seemed to be flustered.”

Candice wrapped an arm around him as they walked. “I’m fine... now. I know I copped out earlier, but actually that was very educational. While you were trying to find the whipping room, my brain was in overdrive. I sat by those people to see if I could hear what they were saying.”

“You wanted to find out if number two enjoyed it?”

“Mmmm, partly. Really, I wanted to know if he even talked about it.”

“Did he?’

“Yeah. It was quite freaky. It made me wet.”

“So do you want to do it again?”

“No.... Right now I want to swim, I want to cool off and feel all salty and clean and then I want to fuck you on the beach and swim again. Tomorrow there’s another surprise I want to talk to you about, and then in the evening You’re going to cane me for being a naughty girl.”

The slope of the beach at Cap d’Agde is shallow and, because the sea is the Mediterranean, there is hardly any tide. It is a long way to get into enough depth to swim. In the moonlight, there was something intensely romantic about their walk into the moonlit water.

When they were waist-deep Candice stopped and started jumping up and down, spreading her legs and giggling as she sank back into the calm, warm water.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?”

“It looks as if you are using the Mediterranean sea as a douching device.”

She laughed some more and then threw herself backwards, disappeared for a second, rolled over under the water and came back up into Andy’s arms.

“Have you ever fucked in the sea?”

“Not that I can remember. In England, it’s on the cold side for that sort of thing.”

“So we shouldn’t miss the opportunity.”

“I thought we were doing it on the beach.”

Candice sank to her knees. Andy’s cock was just out of the water. She looked up at him grinning, splashed him a little and gulped him into her mouth.

The next five minutes were hilarious. In order to avoid drowning her, Andy gradually eased Candice towards shallow water. She wrapped her arms around his legs, which made walking difficult. The waves were small, no more than a foot high, but even that was enough to wash over her head.

After dragging her a few yards, he managed to turn her around so that he could push her through the water and she could see the waves coming. Despite the confusion and the laughter, by the time she was grounded, on her knees, in shallow water, his cock had grown hard.

“I don’t want to drown you, love,” Andy said, dragging her to her feet and throwing her over his shoulder. He strode through the shallow water.

“I’m married to a gorilla,” Candice said. “Now throw me on the beach and have your way with me.”

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

“How did you persuade them?”

“My natural charm,” Rhona said.

“You charmed them into turning up the next day? You didn’t offer them something else?”

“They had a cancellation, some deal fell through. It was the right size pool. I guess I’m just lucky.”

The two women watched the digger carving up the back garden.

“So they’ll turn up with the pool on the back of a truck and drop it in the hole?”

“Apparently.” Rhona chuckled. “I’m as amazed as you are, but it should be good. They can do your changing room too. The pool has a filter and a heater if we want it. The pool will be done before they get back, I’m not sure about the changing room and everything else.”

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Andy made breakfast, or more exactly, he walked to the bakery, picked up a pile of croissants and a baguette. A stroll around the small supermarket produced some juice, a bottle of wine, coffee, butter and jam. He was back before Candice woke up.

The smell of coffee brought her out of the bedroom. Andy turned as he heard the jingle of bells. He’d taken the nipple chains off before they went swimming, but smiled when he saw that they were back and ringing.

“Good morning, beautiful.”

“That smells great. Do you have a plan for today?”

“My plan was to find somewhere I can buy handcuffs and try to drag out of you why you want to be whipped.”

“I said yesterday I wasn’t going to tell you until afterwards.”

“So my task is to find a handcuff shop or some decent rope. You said something about another surprise.”

“Yes, I did.”

“And?”

“It’s a surprise, idiot. Did no one tell you about surprises? You only find out when you are surprised; anyway it may have to wait until tomorrow.”  

“When I went clubbing, apart from wanting to keep me safe, did you actually want to watch?”

Andy put his bread down, and for a few seconds, his face was blank, expressionless.

“Honestly love,” he said eventually, “I don’t know. You made it off-limits. If I let myself think about it... Well, I didn’t let myself do that.”

“Did it hurt? I don’t mean physically, I mean inside, did it hurt?”

“Do we have to do this?”

“There’s a lot of stuff going through my mind and I don’t want to screw up.”

“I know that love. I understand that, and we’re going in the right direction. I know the clubbing nearly killed you, and that makes it a big thing, but it was thirteen lots of about five hours over two years. I know you don’t like maths, but it’s less than half a per cent of our lives over those years.”

“So?”

“Our perspectives were different, for you, I think on those nights, every second was probably worth a hundred to you. For me, as long as you were safe, those hours were something I just had to get through...”

He paused. “Through those years, I’ve probably had headaches for more hours. Those hours were something I wanted to give you, something I needed to give to you. Any pain involved was simply what it took. That’s all.”

Candice sat shaking her head.

“That was then, love,” Andy said. “What we’re doing now is now. The only way to find out if I get turned on or off by you playing wild is to do it now.”

“Headache? It was like a headache? Like a hangover, or a full-on migraine? What sort of headache?”

Andy laughed. “I’m obviously not good at interrogations over breakfast. Headache may not be the best comparison, but surely you get the point? I wasn’t sitting there thinking about how I felt.”

“Even though I made you hang around naked in a cock cage?”

“It was weirdly exciting the first time.”

“Just the first time?”

“Okay, the first few times, but it became reassuring. To me, the cage meant you would be coming home. I couldn’t imagine you leaving me locked. Then there was the unlocking and the spanking and the reclaim. All that ritual. I think any bad feelings got wrapped into all that; actually became part of a familiar pattern that was all part of loving you.”

“So, thinking purely theoretically, if instead of working in the glory hole last night, if I had been under the table sucking off whoever was sitting at it, how would that have been?”

“Where would I be? In this theoretical exercise?”

“I think you might be at the bar, or the table next door... or possibly at the table.”

“Wearing the cock cage?”

For a second Candice looked shocked.

“That never entered my head.” She laughed. “That would be something.”

“So what is it you want to know?”

“Think about it, let it play around in your mind, I really want to know how you think you might feel.”

“Before you try it?”

“Let’s just say it crossed my mind when I was listening to number two yesterday in the bar and I couldn’t help wondering how you’d react if you came back and found me doing that.”

She looked up, and for the first time in a few years, he saw the mischievous grin that he fell in love with almost a decade ago.

“You know damn well there is only one way of finding out.”

“If you were certain that you’d be upset I’m not sure I’d want to do it.”

“I get that, but we’d be left with the question of exactly how upset I might be, and how disappointed you might be at not doing it.”

“But—”

“Look at it this way love, I think there are some things I would say no to. A definite no. It’s not one of those.”

“What are those? I mean, do you have a list?”

Andy laughed. “No, I don’t have a list, but here’s one. If you said something like, ‘I want you to go home and leave me here’ then I’d find that hard to cope with. I’d want to know what the hell was going on.”

“Yeah, so would I,” she said. “I’d be heartbroken if you said that to me.”

“Okay, there’s a bottom-line there, but let’s not lose sight of the big picture. There are bound to be some things that give you a kick that don’t mean much to me, or the other way around. We have to find a way to not miss out on things because one of us doesn’t get it.”

“So we let it rip?”

“Last night you did it right,” Andy said. “You blew three guys, didn’t like it, remembered what we said about bail-out words, called for Candy, called time. Dead right. I loved that.” Andy looked at her, grinned. “Maybe I should have told you that last night?”

“I got it,” she said. “I did get it. It was cool the way you dealt with it. I felt safe, just like I’ll feel tonight...Thanks for all that. It really helps. If you go shopping by yourself, will that be okay?”

“Sure, I invited you because I didn’t want you to feel left out.”

“I think it’s best if you have a free hand, and it gives me a chance to work on my surprise for you.”

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Rhona and Marsha inspected the hole in the ground, the heaps of debris, and marvelled at how much a JCB can shift in a day. They toured the internal works, the stripped out kitchen, and the now absent bathrooms.

“What do you think?”

“It’s progress, I guess.” Marsha grinned. “Seen enough? Ready for creature comforts now?”

There was no need to go around the road this time. The JCB operator had carved a neat hole in the back fence and covered the mud with planks.

Standing in the gap in the fence, looking back towards the bungalow, Rhona tried to imagine a pool and found herself smiling. Back in the house, they cooked supper. When they’d eaten, Marsha had an hour before she headed back to the hospital.

“I am curious about this Mistress you’ve all talked about,” Rhona said. “Is she someone I should meet?"

Marsha laughed. “Should is a tough word. Would she be interesting to meet? Sure. What sort of meeting it might be is a whole different thing. Maybe when you have your set up running, it might be good. I don’t think she has anyone like you in her network, so yeah. It could be good.”

“Any chance you could tell me more?”

“Mmmm, maybe. Not tonight. When I have a run of days off. Not before a work night. Sorry.”

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Candice stood looking at the pictures and designs on the studio wall until a woman appeared.

“If I show you a design for a tattoo, could you give me an idea if you could do it?”

“Most things I can do, no problem.”

“Sorry, that’s not what I meant. Would you be able to do it tomorrow? It’s a very simple design.”

“Show me,” she said, handing her a pen and paper.

Candice drew four parallel lines across the page and then a St Andrews cross on top, the two diagonals meeting in the space between the two middle lines.

“Something like that.”

“Where?”

“Here,” she said, pointing at the place her public hair used to be. “Right here.”

“I could do it now.”

“Tomorrow would be better.”

“Okay, tomorrow.” She flipped open a calendar. Her finger skimmed over the page, stopping in the middle of the afternoon.

Candice took hold of the finger and slid it up to the top of the page, above every other appointment.

“I will pay extra to be early,” she said.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

“Did you get what you needed?” Candice said when Andy got back.

“Yeah. Did you?”

“Mmmm, I’m going to collect it tomorrow.”

“Will I like it?”

“You’d better.”

“Oh well, in that case, I will.”

“So, what are we doing today?”

Andy turned to look at her. “I thought you were organising everything for the first thirteen days.”

“Yeah,” she said. “What the hell happened to that?”

“You want to know?”

“Go on. You’re the one with insight? Are you going to tell me?”

“It’s kind of sweet, really. You had this realisation that what you did in the past might have upset me, and you felt bad about that possibility. Fair enough, obviously I approve. Your problem is that once you’ve had that thought, each time you think of some way to test me, you get scared.”

“And I chicken out.”

“And I end up having to take charge — which would be a clever trick if you were doing it deliberately.”

“So?”

“I suggest we hit the beach and play it by ear.”

“Who is in charge tonight?”

“Me, I think. Is that okay with you?”

“Tonight, yes, but maybe we should take it in turns,” Candice said. “Seeing as I need to get to be better at this. There is another thing; I may be useless at pushing you but I’m finding a lot about me.”

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

They spent the day on the beach, Candice plugged and laced as she had been the previous day. Andy kept an eye on her skin, slathering cream everywhere on a regular basis until the sun was past its peak. By then he had noticed who else was looking at her.

“I’m going to get some drinks, anything special you fancy?”

“Surprise me.”

They were at the far end of the beach, the part where the distance from the built-up resort tempted people to indulge in things they might not get away with anywhere else.

“I need to make sure I don’t lose you, it’s a long way back to civilisation.”

“How are you going to do that?”

Andy took a package out of his bag.

“With this cunning device that I acquired in my morning shopping.”

He unwrapped a metal rod and started screwing it into the sand.

“I wondered what that thing was. How does that help, surely someone can come along and unscrew it?”

“Not easy,” he said, grunting with the effort of screwing the thing deep into the beach. “It’s designed to stop windbreaks blowing away. I’m taking the handle with me. I doubt if anyone can grip it hard enough to shift it without the handle.”

He smeared sun cream on the bit of metal still sticking out of the ground.

“Is that so it doesn’t get sunburn?” she said, suppressing a giggle.

“So it’s even harder to grip.”

“So I have to lie here and I can’t go anywhere.”

Andy attached a chain to the device, wrapped it around her waist and padlocked it. Once that was secure he kissed her, stood up and walked resolutely along the beach. He’d been gone five minutes when his phone rang.

“Hi, it’s me.”

“I don’t know why they have those little messages that light up and tell you who is calling.”

“Very clever. Have you got your earbuds in?”

“Yes.”

“Turn your volume up and don’t hang up.”

He heard the sound of the phone being put down, along with a rustling noise. Her towel had a pocket for her phone.

He’d walked another five minutes before the dialogue started.

“Doesn’t she look awesome?” A male voice, barely audible, obviously a few meters away from Candice, but who was he speaking to?

“How would you fancy that?” The same voice again.

“You mean chained to the beach or the other chains?” A girl this time, sounding hesitant.

“Does it hurt?” close this time, the girl must be right by Candice’s head.

“No. The piercings were uncomfortable for a week or so, but this is fine.”

“Why are you laced up like that?”

“Because I’m a wicked slut.”

“Your husband did this?”

Andy heard Candice chuckling. “I got them done as a present to him, and he bought me the vibrators.”

“The what?” The male voice this time.

“You are so dim at times, Michael.”

“Huh?”

“I’m June, by the way. This idiot is Michael.”

“Candice.”

“Are they turned on now?”

“He turns them on when he wants to surprise me.”

Andy was approaching the bar. He paused, retrieved the remotes from his bag and carefully moved the control to a third and then started ordering the drinks. As he was talking, he stopped for a second.

“Can you double that,” he said to the barman, “and chuck some ice in the bag with the cans.”

Candice squirmed a little and let out a little sigh.

“Has he just it switched on?” The girl's voice, close to Candice.

“June.” The male voice, embarrassed, almost a stage whisper.

“Mike, shut up, what’s wrong with asking?”

“If you really want to know, and you’ve got the nerve, put your tongue down there.”

“June, what are you doing?”

“Micheal,” Candice said, “don’t be a prude. I can see that it’s getting you going, either stick your cock in her or let me suck it.”

Andy, strolling along the beach, grinned and stopped. He pulled the remotes out of his bag and dialled the front vibe past half way. He stood listening for a minute before strolling further along the beach.

“What if your bloke comes back?”

“He’s gone to get drinks. If you’re lucky, he’ll have brought one for you.”

“Can you feel it, June?”

“Mmmm.”

“Good isn’t it.”

“Mmmm.”

“Wanna try it?”

“Seriously?” June's voice no longer muffled, she must have pulled back a little.

“Tonight — you know the club at the end of the block, I can’t remember the name.”

“The kinky one?”

“Yeah. Come tonight. Bring the dick, if you like, I know he’s shy, but it is a nice dick.”

Andy heard the laughter from the two girls.

“Poor guy,” he muttered, caught sight of them in the distance and slowed down.

“Haven’t you always dreamed of having  a woman as beautiful as this sucking your cock?”

“Not in the middle of the beach.”

“Wimp.”

“Where would be a good place?” That was Candice speaking, and Andy knew where this was going. Michael did not reply.

“Imagine you were sitting in the bar at that club. How would you like it if I was under the table and while everyone else was drinking and chatting, I started sucking your cock? Would that be a good scene?”

“What if both of us were under the table so you didn’t know which of us was doing it? How would that be?”

“God, I don’t know. Would you actually do that?” Even through the muffled sound of Candice’s phone in the towel pocket, Andy could hear the incredulity in Michael’s voice.

“I don’t know about June,” Candice said, “but I plan on doing exactly that this evening.”

“Cool.” June’s voice.

“Of course it would be better if June was sitting, and then I could repay the favour she’s just done for me.”

Andy could see June still horizontal on the floor between Candice’s legs, but there was no sign of Mike getting any nearer. He picked up his pace and in another minute was standing next to them.

“Anyone for drinks?”

None of them had seen Andy approaching. He put his bag down and pulled out a couple of cans of beer.

“Michael, is beer good for you? You probably need something stronger after the girls have been teasing you, but the beer’s the best I can do.”

“What about us?” Candice said.

“Beer or cola, I couldn’t bring the whole bar.”

“I take it this is your man,” June said.

“You could ask him to prove it by seeing if he can unlock me and show you the little secret I’m hiding.”

June got to her knees and looked Andy up and down. “Why do you have her locked up like that?”

“That’s a secret between us.” He handed a key to June. “Why don’t you open up the magic box and see what she’s got. If you’re very good she might even let you have a play with it."

June unlocked the chain at Candice’s waist and carefully unthreaded the chain through her labial grommets.

“Use your fingers or tell her to push it out.”

“Push girl, let’s see this baby.”

“Best not call it that,” Andy said before Candice could react.

The small vibrator began to emerge. Andy handed June a tissue. She took it, looked at him, looked at Candice and barely glanced at Michael, giggled and took it into her mouth.

“I’ve been sucking her,” she said. “She tastes nice.”

After that, she wiped the thing and lay back on the sand.

“This is what you’re supposed to be doing,” she said, looking at Michael, and slid the vibrator into her pussy.

Andy handed the remote to Michael.

“Here you go, play with her. Start slow unless you’re really pissed off with the way she’s been treating you.”

Michael laughed. “How come you know?”

“Candice left her telephone on when she called me. You guys turned up a couple of minutes later. Go on turn the dial.”

“What’s the range on this thing?”

“The bit that matters is like a phone.”

“Oh, right, so you were listening to us and buzzing her on cue.”

“Got it in one... So how come you didn’t join in? I don’t want to push you, but I’m curious.”

“I could ask you, how come you let her?”

“Better to ask Candice... Honey, Michael wants to know how come I let you fool around?”

Candice sat up, turned towards him and let her tits bounce so the bells jingled. “Why do you think?”

“Because he can’t stop you?”

“No. Guess again.”

“I have no idea.”

“It’s quite simple, Michael; it’s because he knows I will always come back to him. Always, always.”

Candice turned back to watch June. “Kick it up a notch, Michael,” she said and pushed June flat on the sand and started to kiss her pussy. “More,” she said and spread the legs in front of her wider as her mouth covered the slit in front of her.

Andy leaned closer to Michael, so he could talk quietly in his ear. “Watch her breathing, watch her colour, and as you see her getting closer to it, push the dial a bit higher.”

“I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Learning on the job is the only way.”

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

“I spoke to Mistress.”

Rhona spun around, turning away from the stove, a ladle in one hand.

“Sorry, you surprised me.”

“Smells good.”

“Let’s hope it tastes as good.” Rhona turned the stove off and put the ladle down. “It’ll keep. Tell me about Mistress.”

“I hope you are okay with this, I gave her a rough idea of your game, said Candy was your daughter and you were moving down here. I probed a little, didn’t want to give her the idea you were likely to step on any toes.”

“Is she the sort that would be upset by that?”

“Not exactly, but I sort of hinted that you’d be happy to talk.”

“I would. Is there competition?”

“Not as far as I could tell, I think the interest is the other way around. Mistress can recognise a good angle when she sees one.”

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

“About tonight,” Andy said when they had showered off the day’s sand and salt.

“You are not getting out of it.”

“I’m not trying to, I thought we should think about a few details.”

“Why don’t I just say you are in charge and you decide everything as long as I end the evening with your trademark on my bum.”

“By the end of the evening?”

“Actually Andy, I want them to be there tomorrow. So you’ll have to hit me hard enough to make sure... are you going to be able to do that?”

“We’ll find out tonight, won’t we.”

“Very masterful. What will I be wearing for my punishment?”

“I thought the same as today, I’m not sure about the vibrators, they might not be a good idea. If it makes you clench up too tight, who knows what might happen.”

“If I have a choice, I would like both of them please, and a gag too.”

“How do you feel about a blindfold?”

“Why?”

“I could say ‘because I say so,’ but that’s not really my style. I think it would be good for you if you had no idea who the audience was.”

“You mean everyone I see for the rest of the holiday, I might be wondering if they watched?”

“Yeah. Those marks will be there a while. You can wear shorts, or show them off, but anyone who looks, you won’t know if they saw it happen.”

“Okay, I like that.”

“What they’ll think of me I don’t know,” Andy said.

“Yeah, I worried about that. I’ve made you a present.”

Candice ran to the bedroom and came back with a piece of paper.

“It says in my best English that I asked you to do this and asked for it to be filmed. This text goes on the front of the film and at the end. I may watermark the whole film with it.”

“How the hell do I do that?”

“I’ll deal with it in post-production before anyone sees it.”

“Okay. One thing though, this is a one-take job. I am not doing this twice.”

Andy led Candice into the room.

“Oh, wow,” she said. The walls were a deep shade of burgundy, in the middle of the room was a small circular stage and hanging in the centre were two chains. There was nothing else.

“There’s room for about a hundred people, but there’s no one here.”

“I wanted you to have a chance to settle.”

“You want to do it now?”

“Want is not the right word, but, yes, soon.”

“I thought I was going to do the table sucking thing first.”

“I think that’s better later.”

“You mean I am definitely going to do that?”

“That’s what I took your conversation with Michael to mean.”

Andy led her up onto the stage and wrapped a leather cuff around one wrist, lifted her arm up and attached the first chain.

“Okay?”

She held out the other arm, and that was soon attached.

“Comfortable, not too tight or too stretched?”

“No.”

“I may tighten you up when it’s time, just so you know.”

“So, first you’re going to cane me and then I’m spending the evening under a table sucking cock?”

“Cock and pussy. You’ll still be locked, so unless we take advanced bookings, the rest is off-limits.”

“You mean you could sell my pussy or my arse some other time?”

“Why not, you give it away? I have an interesting new gag for you,” he said.
“It kind of turns your mouth into a plug hole. It means you can have a cock in your mouth and be gagged between cocks. Open your mouth. See, it goes like this, just try it for a second.”

“Will I have to use this later on?”

“I don’t know... probably not, but I thought it would be interesting to try.”

Andy held her chin waited until her mouth was open and eased the device into place. He engaged the buckle strap behind her head and then walked around in front of her. For a minute he stood watching, leaned forward and tapped the bells hanging from her nipples.

“You look awesome,” he said and walked back behind her to unbuckle the gag and take it out. “Was that okay? Will you be able to stand that for a long period?”

“How long?”

“Probably until we leave.”

“What do I do if it’s too much?”

“If it happens when you are strung up you can stamp your foot. Shall we say five stamps?”

“Ten.”

“Okay, ten it is. Otherwise, I suggest you tap the top of your head ten times.”

“Can’t I just unbuckle it?”

“I’m going to padlock it. You’ll have an audience, so it has to look right.”

“You think of everything.”

“I try. Now I want you to read the words you put on that paper. I want to play that at the start.”

Andy held up his phone. “Speak now.”

She spoke.

“Thanks,” he said. “Now, two steps to go. I’m going to position the cameras. Tell me if you think they are right.”

“How many are there?”

“Five. One in front, both sides and two behind.”

“Did you rent some?”

“I did a deal with the establishment. 4K movie, plus some stills. I’m going to ban phones so the only output is what we take.”

Andy positioned the cameras and made sure that they were all set.

“Okay,” he said when the last one was in place. “Last chance to call it off.”

He stood in front of her, waiting.

“You’ve done a brilliant job love. Hearing you talk about it has made me wet. Put the gag in and get the audience.”

A minute later it was in place. He tinged the bells again.

“Blindfold now and then I’ll leave you to your imagination for a while.”

Andy wrapped a soft black fabric around her head, twice around and then knotted at the back.

“I love you, never forget that,” he said, and walked out of the room, shutting the door with a firm click.