Chapter One

“So...you guys will be okay here for the rest of the day?” Claudia asked. She took another look around the office as if trying to pick out which wall or part of the ceiling would fall once she had pulled out of the parking lot. She brushed back a stray lock of her straight, coppery hair. It was getting too long. It just brushed her shoulders now. She would have to schedule a visit to the hairdresser’s soon.

“We’ll be fine, Chief, just fine!” Jerry reassured her. “And if anything happens, we’ve got your phone number.”

“Amanda?” Claudia turned towards the shy little temp. Amanda was smart and a good worker, but no Marabel. She would have felt much more at ease if Marabel were still here.

“I’m fine also, Miss Cole,” Amanda replied. “I know what to do.”

“Well, then…” Claudia looked around the office again.

Jerry laughed once. “Chief…go enjoy your vacation, if that’s what you’re calling it. You’ve been in here every morning this week so far, and we haven’t had to call you at home once yet. It’s slow here now. We’ll be fine, I swear!”

“Okay, Jer.” Claudia had to laugh at herself. She was probably making poor Amanda nervous, and she didn’t live all that far away, so if they had to call her…oh, to Hell with it! This business might be her baby, after all, but she was acting like an overprotective mother. She started towards the door, opened it, and paused to look back one last time. “I’ll probably be in tomorrow morning too.” She had to grin at Jerry’s look of comic exasperation.

It was sunny out today, and the steering wheel of her car was almost too hot to touch. She’d have to get that windshield screen out of the trunk and start using it again. As uncomfortable as her hands felt on the steering wheel, her round little bottom was even more uncomfortable. That horrendous spanking Sam had given her in the motel when she was struggling with him still smarted…and so did the other thing he had done to her that night. She shivered at the memory. It had been a wonderfully intense experience, but she wasn’t at all sure she would like anal sex as a regular thing. It hurt, both during and afterwards. Still, it was the most intense sexual experience she’d ever had…the ultimate in submission. Maybe the pain and discomfort was an integral part of that. She started the car and let it idle long enough for the air conditioning to kick in, then put it in gear and drove off.

The roads were starting to clog up with lunchtime traffic, and it took her a little longer to get back to her apartment than usual. As she pulled into her parking space, she saw that Sam’s rental car wasn’t there. Where could he have gone off to? Well, it couldn’t be very interesting for him to just wait around for her in her apartment half the day. Maybe he’d left a note for her inside?

The parking area was on the shady side of the building, so she didn’t bother with the windshield screen. As she unlocked the door to her apartment, she decided to take a long, hot bath before Sam came back. If she strung the bath out long enough, maybe he’d show up in time to scrub her back. She smiled at the thought. He would want to scrub more than her back.

It was cool and dark inside. Sam kept setting the air conditioning just a little too low, and the feel of the chilled air took her back to that bungalow years ago.Was that why he did it? She shut the door, locked it behind her, and went to her bedroom. She was no more than a few steps into it when she heard a man’s voice behind her: “Don’t turn around and don’t move!”

It was Sam’s voice. She knew it very well now, no matter how much he trie