Bind and Keep Me, Book 2 by Cari Silverwood Page A

for a year now. I’m…I was planning on joining the army. Even got my physical done.”
    “You? In the army? Never.” I couldn’t figure that one.
    “I guess I’m a bit of a wanderer. I’ve tried everything at least one time.”
    Now that was the truth. Stephanie seemed to have trouble sticking faithfully to one thing for very long. Was that bad, for us? What if we let her go because she vowed to keep quiet, but then she reversed her decision?
    “I’m done.” Lightly, I tapped her behind. “Let’s go find some breakfast.”
    I’d have her help me. Maybe let her wash and dry dishes. There were knives out there, in the kitchen. It could be a test, of sorts. I think I had her figured out, but I would rather know now, not later. I’d count the knives. Though if she were naked, where could she hide one? In my back was about her only choice, and I somehow didn’t think she was that sort of girl.
    My thoughts went to dirty places.
    If instructed correctly, Stephanie seemed far more likely to cave in, kneel and lick me precisely where I told her to than to want to put a knife in my back. I wanted to test that theory out, soon.

Chapter 8

Klaus

    The big square window in my office overlooking the Nelly Bay road and the beach beyond was suffering the usual seaside ailment of getting all blurry from the salt deposits on the glass. Not that I was enjoying the view. Disgusted by my procrastination, I shoved back my chair from the paper-assaulted desk. No matter how high tech we got, the paper documents piled up.
    The office was the opposite of where I wanted to be. Leaving Jodie home with a woman who had reasons to hate us seemed the stupidest thing ever. Yet the alternative was to do something that would draw attention to this day if suspicion were to fall on us. Plus we had to earn a living and Jodie had little chance of matching my income. The practice was surging forward and my partner, Chris—well he was not a partner yet, though I had great hopes—Chris was turning out well.
    Four reasons had gained him the job. He was a great accountant, innovative at times when it came to promoting the practice, and friendly. And the fourth reason, that he was into kink and one of Kat’s previous Doms…that was why I’d first noticed him.
    I glanced at my watch. Almost two PM, we’d both had lunch in the office a while earlier but, with the lunchtime rush over, we could afford to have a break. Marjorie could take over. She been with me long enough to know the place back to front. I went out to reception and set it up with her.
    After a single, unintelligible grumble at me about losing potential clients, she resumed typing.
    I knocked on Chris’s office door.
    “Come in!”
    No matter how often I saw him, his neatly trimmed, pure-blond hair drew my eye. I doubted he bleached it. It was so close to white I felt like reaching for my sunglasses.
    His desk looked a tad neater than mine, but then I’d been flinging a few docs about like Frisbees today. Not my usual manner. I guess having a kidnapped woman in my basement wasn’t too normal either. I doubted Marjorie would dismiss that excuse with merely a huffed look over her silver glasses.
    “Think you can stand giving me that lesson on fling-dong-doo, or whatever martial art it is that you practice?”
    He grinned. We had a running joke about judo versus more
practical
branches of fighting. I knew he was correct but that didn’t stop me ribbing him every chance I got, and since he happily taunted me back, we got along famously.
    “Now?” Half-disbelieving, he looked from under his brow.
    “Now. If you’ve got a change of clothes? We can go up to the park. I have a sudden desire to learn from you, oh wise one.”
    “No worries. I’ve got my running gear in my bag. Give me five minutes to change.”
    It was the truth. This predicament we were in disturbed me. Learning a better way to kill someone, and defend myself, seemed a good idea. Why? Who knew. I wasn’t about to