The Brat and the Master - a BDSM Erotic Novel (13 page)

‘You’re going to come, aren’t you, you dirty little bitch?’ he drawled. You’re going to come because you’re being beaten, because you’re naked and strapped up tight and your bottom’s being whipped. You little slut, Jasmine, you filthy little tart, getting off on a beating … getting off on having your virgin bumhole prepared for buggering … getting off on the thought of my cock up your bumhole, which is exactly what you’re going to get.’

And now she
was
coming, her muscles locked in orgasm as her bottom quivered under his belt, and he gave her a final few strokes, as hard as he could, to finish her off before jerking down his fly. Dropping the belt, he freed his cock, pulling urgently on the shaft as he guided it towards and then up her dripping cunt, entering her while she was still going through the contractions of her climax. He nearly came, and had to pull out quickly to stop himself wasting his spunk in the wrong hole.

‘Now your bumhole, you darling little slut,’ he grated, pulling on the end of the cucumber.

As she began to come down from her orgasm, Jasmine let the dildo slip from her mouth, then gave a sharp, pained gasp as the cucumber popped free of her arse. Adam ignored her, pressing his cock to the pink, now gaping hole that led up into her body. Her anus gave, opening up slowly around the meat of his helmet as he pushed in, but only so far, leaving him with gritted teeth and Jasmine sobbing and clutching at the frame of the fucking machine.

‘Christ, you are tight – maybe too tight!’

‘I’m not too tight,’ Jasmine protested. ‘You’re too big, you great oaf!’

Adam slapped her bottom and she shut up, but he pulled back out. Taking up the olive oil, he poured a liberal helping over his shaft and helmet and rather more into her open hole, until it overflowed and began to trickle down into her cunt. She made a noise of mock disgust in her throat at the sensation, but quickly raised and tilted her bottom, making her anus open like a wet, pink rose. Adam put his cock to it again and pushed, once more going in only a little way before she tightened on his meat, but he was almost there. Another push and a sharp cry from Jasmine and he was inside, her ring now tight on the neck of his penis.

‘Got you,’ he sighed. ‘That’s it – no more virginity in either hole, and now I’m going to bugger you.’

Jasmine gave a single, hard gulp, turned her head and took the dildo back in her mouth once more, making a cunt of her lips as Adam began to push himself slowly in and up her bottom. He took his time, not wanting to hurt her and knowing that a few hard shoves would be enough to bring him to orgasm. The deeper he penetrated her, the more urgent her reaction became, sucking hard on the dildo and snatching at the machine’s frame with her fingers, while every so often her feet would give a sudden, violent kick against the leather of the straps holding them in place.

‘That is so good,’ he sighed as his balls finally met the wet, squashy flesh of her empty cunt. ‘So good – like pussy only tighter, and you really should see yourself, with your sweet little cheeks splayed open and your arsehole stretched out around my cock-shaft. And how does it feel for you, Jasmine darling, with my cock up your bottom?’

She answered with what might have been a sigh of ecstasy or a groan of despair but didn’t pull back from the dildo, still sucking earnestly on the fat rubber shaft as he continued to bugger her, and to talk.

‘I bet it’s good, isn’t it? I bet it feels nice, and even nicer because you know how rude it is to let a man up your bottom, don’t you? How dirty … how utterly filthy. Such a pretty girl – a girl who was going to be married in white just a few weeks ago, and now you’ve got a big, fat cock up your bottom-hole, Jasmine, you little slut, you lovely, filthy little slut …’

He lost control, grabbing her hips and ramming himself as deep up her bottom as he could go, and again, his hard thrusts had her clawing, kicking and gagging on the dildo, her entire body jerking to their rhythm. Adam snatched up the belt and cracked it down across her already badly welted bottom, the fingers of his other hand digging into her flesh as he began to thrash her, his cock pumping furiously hard into her body. Then, suddenly still, he gave her the final indignity of her buggering – he spunked up in her rectum.

His eyes had been locked on her body as he’d used her, but they closed as he came, with his head thrown back and his mouth wide in a long cry of pure bliss. Now everything was forgotten but the ecstasy of the moment as he played back what he’d done to her in his mind – stripping her and fixing her to the machine; groping and beating her; lubricating her anus with the oil and sodomising her with the cucumber to get her ready; fucking her and making her come as he thrashed her; and finally forcing his cock in up her tight little bumhole to take her anal virginity before coming deep inside her.

‘That’s it, you’re done,’ he sighed as he began to move back, ‘and so am I.’

Jasmine released the dildo and grimaced as he eased his length out of her arse, but said nothing. Adam flopped back onto the bed, watching as her bottom-hole closed slowly to form a wet, pink polyp, like a pair of lips pursed for a kiss … only to open once again. Fluid squeezed out to run down into her open vagina and along the slit of her vulva, between lips puffy and swollen with arousal – a sight at once exquisitely desirable and utterly obscene.

‘Could you untie me now, please?’ Jasmine said at last. ‘I need the loo.’

Adam hastened to unfasten her straps, then followed her into the bathroom to clean up. She seemed a little ashamed of herself at first, which he found rather charming, but once she’d washed and pulled on a pair of panties and a clean dress, she returned to her normal, bubbly self, teasing him for the way he’d handled her and joking about the state of her bottom.

‘… so Mark’s just going to have to wait,’ she finished. ‘I’m not even sure if I dare sit down, you pig, and it feels like I’m going to go in my panties at any second.’

Adam laughed and dropped down onto the sofa, one arm held out to offer her a cuddle. She accepted, nestling into his side with her head on his chest and her body curled up, one hand reaching back to stroke her bruised bottom.

‘That was nice,’ she sighed after a moment, ‘and so dirty. Thank you.’

‘Any time,’ he assured her. ‘And I don’t suppose Steelhand would have done as well.’

‘No,’ Jasmine agreed, ‘although I would have had Lucy to hold me, and maybe Della too, and he has this sort of stern way about him, like there’s no going back. But you’re much nicer, and you did have me first. Do you really love me?’

‘Yes,’ Adam told her, hoping she’d answer in kind, but she merely snuggled up to him a little more tightly.

‘Could I ask a small favour?’ he said after a while. ‘I appreciate that you love your freedom, and I don’t mind you playing with other people, but could you ask first, please? Especially if you want to go to Mark.’

Jasmine didn’t respond immediately but stayed as she was, now fiddling with one of the buttons on his shirt, only to give a sudden, happy answer.

‘OK, that’s fair. And now I’m hungry. Is there anything to eat?’

‘Cucumber salad?’ Adam suggested.

‘What do you mean you were too sore?’ Steelhand demanded.

‘I was too sore,’ Jasmine repeated. ‘Adam decided he wanted me first, you see, and I wanted to be beaten as well as bum-fucked, and I suppose we got a bit carried away, so there wasn’t any point in my coming over to you. I was too sore.’

For once, Steelhand seemed lost for words and took a pull from the bottle of beer he held instead of replying. Adam turned to speak to the barman, deliberately ignoring Steelhand but very much aware of the other’s presence. He’d been hoping Steelhand wouldn’t be at the fetish market, or that Jasmine would want to do something else with her Sunday, but she had insisted on coming. Despite that, having been the one who had taken Jasmine’s anal virginity, he now felt more in control and inclined to compromise, but it was difficult to know what to say and he feigned absorption in the simple act of ordering his drinks.

The barman filled the order with his usual efficiency while Steelhand waited, brooding, but as Adam turned to pass Jasmine her drink, Elaine and Caroline approached, hand in hand, before breaking apart for an exchange of kisses.

‘What’s the matter?’ Caroline asked as she drew back from Steelhand’s half-hearted peck.

‘I’m really not sure,’ he answered, ‘or what I’m going to do about it, but it seems that a certain somebody doesn’t understand proper etiquette, or good manners.’

‘How do you mean?’ Elaine asked.

‘You friend here,’ said Steelhand, indicating Adam. ‘He seems to think it’s acceptable to take one of my girls and use her in a fashion I had reserved for myself. I think you’d better explain things to him before I hit him.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ she chided. ‘What have you done, Adam?’

‘He bum-fucked me,’ Jasmine supplied happily. ‘Mark wanted to be the first.’

‘I’m confused,’ Caroline put in. ‘I know you went with Mark, Jasmine, but you’re with Adam, aren’t you? Or have things changed?’

‘No,’ Adam stated.

‘Yes,’ Steelhand countered. ‘Jasmine was with me at the last Dark Angels and agreed to take my collar. Mr Mistoffelees doesn’t seem to get what that means.’

‘Jasmine didn’t understand, that’s all,’ Adam said. ‘And relax, will you? You can still play with her, although I’d appreciate it if you asked me first.’

‘You expect me to ask?’ Steelhand retorted. ‘I do not ask permission, ever, least of all from you.’

‘I think you’ll find you have to,’ Adam insisted. ‘At least if you want to play with Jasmine again. Jasmine?’

‘It’s only fair, Mark,’ Jasmine answered with an embarrassed shrug. ‘Sorry.’

Steelhand didn’t answer her but instead turned slowly to Adam.

‘Do you want to challenge me?’

‘How do you mean, challenge you?’

‘To challenge my authority. I’m suggesting a duel, Mephistopheles. You’ve insulted me, you’ve stolen a woman who had promised to be mine, and I want satisfaction.’

‘A duel?’ Adam retorted. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. This is the twenty-first century, not the eighteenth!’

‘Should that matter? I don’t play by the normal rules, Mephistopheles. Besides, duels need not be fatal. First blood will suit me well enough.’

‘First blood?’ Adam echoed, horrified.

‘Yes, unless you lack the courage to go through with it? I should warn you, though, I’ve fought before, twice – once against a man who accused me of cheating and once to defend a lady’s honour against an Italian count. I also won a Blue in fencing while I was at Cambridge.’

‘Rubbish!’ Adam snapped, finally losing his patience. ‘I don’t suppose you were even at Cambridge, and as for Italian counts …’

‘Are you calling me a liar?’ Steelhand cut in, his voice now quiet.

‘Yes,’ Adam replied. ‘As Elaine will vouch, I really was at Oxford, studying zoology as an undergraduate at St Michael’s College, and genetics as a graduate, at Newton. My tutor was Dr Burling and you’re welcome to check any of those facts. Would you care to supply me with the equivalent details from your time at Cambridge?’

‘You’re evading the issue,’ Steelhand answered. ‘Are you going to fight me or not?’

‘I know what you’re trying to do, Mark,’ Adam went on. ‘You know I’ll back down and you’ll end up looking like the big man, so fine – I accept.’

‘Are you two really going to fight?’ Jasmine asked. ‘Over me?’

She was obviously delighted by the idea, but Elaine cut in before either man could reply.

‘For goodness sake, grow up, both of you – and Jasmine, don’t be such a little bitch.’

‘Oh come on, Elaine!’ Jasmine answered. ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful, to have two fine young men fighting over you, willing to risk being injured for the sake of your favour? OK, maybe that’s not your thing, as you’re only into girls, but can’t you imagine it? What about you, Caroline?’

‘I have to admit the idea turns me on,’ Caroline answered, ‘but it’s not really very practical, is it?’

‘Why not?’ Steelhand asked. ‘We fence a little, I pink Mephistopheles in the shoulder, or perhaps the leg, and that’s that – a demonstration well made by me and a lesson well learned by him.’

‘The lesson being?’ Adam demanded.

‘That a very real difference exists between people like you and myself,’ Steelhand answered. ‘Or if you don’t even have the courage to face me you can apologise, although I might have to spank you. If you accept but fail to turn up, I’ll definitely spank you, at a club, in front of everybody, Jasmine included.’

‘Do you have to be such a bully, Mark?’ Elaine demanded.

‘Don’t worry,’ Adam assured her, ‘I’m quite capable of looking after myself, and I’m not backing down. Also, as you’re the one who’s challenging me, doesn’t that give me choice of weapons, Mark?’

‘That’s traditional,’ said Steelhand, with a shrug.

‘Good,’ Adam answered. ‘In that case, I choose pistols.’

He watched Steelhand as he spoke and thought he detected a flicker of unease before the reply came.

‘That would be a very foolish choice.’

Adam laughed.

‘What are you going to do, you fucking buffoon? Shoot me down in cold blood and spend the rest of your life in a prison cell?’

Steelhand’s face went dark with anger, but he managed to compose himself, his voice cold as he addressed Adam. ‘Very well, if that’s the way you want it, and as you seem keen on formality, no doubt you’ll allow me the choice of time and place? I suggest dawn tomorrow, on Chobham Common in Surrey.’

‘Chobham Common sounds reasonable,’ said Adam, ‘but I can’t do tomorrow. I have to go up to Oxford first thing, to see my old tutor. Besides, I have to get hold of a pair of duelling pistols.’

‘Are you taking this seriously?’ Steelhand demanded. ‘Because I am.’

‘Absolutely,’ Adam assured him in the same matter-of-fact voice, ‘but I can’t do tomorrow. I can probably pick up some pistols in Oxford, though. Thursday?’

‘Thursday at dawn,’ Steelhand responded and walked away.

Chapter Eight

‘You’re not really going to fight Mark, are you?’ Elaine asked as Adam accelerated onto the A40. ‘I thought you had more sense.’

‘I intend to be on Chobham Common on Thursday morning,’ Adam answered her, ‘and I intend to have a pair of duelling pistols with me, but he won’t be there. He’s a bully, nothing more, and the thing to do with bullies is to call their bluff.’

‘Well, he sounds serious to me,’ said Elaine. ‘Della’s already sent a text with the exact details of where we’re to meet.’

‘There’ll be some excuse, you’ll see,’ Adam assured her. ‘Anyway, down to business. This is all a bit awkward. I really should have told Dr Burling about the deal with Haardt-Biomass at the start, and definitely before the business with Pointe Verte. He’s a nice man, but he seemed very insistent on seeing me in person and it might take a lot of tact to come to an agreement with him, so I’m relying on you to exert your charm as much as your legal skills …’

He continued to talk as they drove west and north, explaining the situation and answering Elaine’s occasional questions. It was difficult to keep his mind on the task in hand, with the constant, sickening doubt that Steelhand might prove not to be bluffing after all, and worry for what might be going on in London. He’d considered inviting Jasmine to Oxford despite her capricious behaviour, although it seemed unwise when Elaine would be in her professional role. After some discussion, they’d left her at Caroline’s flat with one ankle shackled to a ring in the wall, an arrangement which had turned her on so much he’d had to fuck her in front of both girls before she’d let him leave. Caroline was under strict instructions not to let anybody in, especially not Steelhand, although it seemed unlikely he would do anything, but just the thought of him touching Jasmine was now enough to make Adam’s stomach twist in cold rage.

Only Elaine’s calm, detached manner allowed him to focus on their discussion, and by the time they reached the Oxford Ring Road they had agreed on what to do. Adam had already begun to feel nostalgia for the time he’d spent at the university and explained his choice of accommodation to her as they drove through St Clement’s.

‘Once you’ve been accepted at a college you become a member for life, unless you do something really appalling. That gives you the right to stay there, if there’s room, so we could use either of my old colleges. Newton’s modern, relatively, built in the ’30s with architecture in the best traditions of Albert Speer. St Michael’s is the real thing, built with stone from Headington Quarry in 1548, so not the oldest by any means, but undoubtedly the most beautiful. That’s where we’re staying, and here we are.’

As they crossed Magdalen Bridge the terraced houses and ordinary streets were left behind, to be replaced by the pale-gold stone of the ancient colleges, a multitude of sunlit spires set against the eggshell-blue sky.

‘Beautiful,’ Elaine said as they turned into St Michael’s. ‘It must be wonderful to be able to stay here whenever you like.’

‘Almost whenever I like,’ Adam replied. ‘Fellows and guests of fellows have priority, but it’s usually possible to get the smaller rooms. I’ve booked us one each, naturally.’

He stopped to speak to the college porters through the car park intercom and didn’t hear Elaine’s answer, then as he pulled his car into a space he saw Dr Burling himself, walking towards them along the paved cloister that led to the rear gates. Introductions were quickly made, but Adam was struck by his old tutor’s curious, almost apologetic manner, which was very different from what he’d been expecting.

‘I might as well tell you now as later,’ Dr Burling stated as they started back along the cloisters. ‘As you may remember, I was working on a book, just a piece of populist genetics designed to make the subject a little more accessible to the general public. I’ve now finished, and it’s been far more successful than I’d anticipated, mainly because it has been chosen as a GCSE text, for general science as well as biology.’

‘That sounds very positive,’ said Adam, increasingly puzzled.

‘The thing is,’ Dr Burling continued, ‘the success of the book is due in no small part to your work rather than to mine. I thought the idea of the black rose might capture the public imagination, and it has, to an extent that’s quite taken me aback. I was already beginning to feel a little guilty, but when you contacted me the other week about this business with Pointe Verte, I thought it would be best to ask you to come up and see me.’

‘Thank you,’ Adam began, ‘but …’

‘The book,’ Dr Burling went on, ‘is called
The Black Rose and the Altered Eggplant
, the latter from my own research, of course. The cover is illustrated with one of those beautiful photographs you took of your first successful plants. I have given you the relevant credits, naturally, but there is the question of royalties,’

‘I don’t expect a penny,’ Adam answered him. ‘Far from it. In fact, I’d assumed you wanted to talk about my deal with Haardt-Biomass and your contribution to my research.’

Dr Burling gave a somewhat self-conscious laugh, echoed by Adam, then carried on.

‘I’m sure it can all be worked out, with a little assistance from Miss McNeil, but let us set that aside for the time being. I’ve taken the liberty of booking you into the Fellows’ Common Room for lunch, and having a bottle of something you’ll remember with fondness dredged up from the cellar – the La Chapelle ’78. We’ve improved our stocks of Port as well, although they still fall short of what I was used to at Corpus.’

‘I’d forgotten you were at Cambridge,’ Adam replied. ‘I don’t suppose you knew anybody called Mark Langley? Although he’d probably be a few years after your time.’

‘Mark Langley? No, not at all, I’m afraid, but I could make enquiries.’

Adam and Elaine lay in a rosy glow brought on by lunch at St Michael’s – quails’ eggs, asparagus, venison from the college’s own herd, pineapple in kirsch, and Stilton washed down with a Port older than either of them. They’d then retired to their rooms, glad of a chance to rest before their official meeting with Dr Burling, who had a tutorial in the early afternoon. The two guest rooms were side by side, three floors above the main cloisters, and looked out over the college water meadows. Elaine had gone to her own room first but quickly returned to Adam’s, to flop down in a chair while he lay flat on his bed.

‘Do they always eat like that here?’ she asked. ‘And if so, why don’t you weigh 30 stone?’

‘Hall is much less grand,’ Adam explained. ‘The Fellows’ Common Room is a bit like an exclusive restaurant, only for special occasions. That’s the thing about Oxford, and Cambridge. The stuff you read about – huge dinners, strange medieval customs, mad old scholars studying archaic and abstruse subjects – it’s all there, but only as a tiny part of the whole. Which reminds me, Oxford also has the sort of antique shops in which we should be able to find a pair of duelling pistols – or should that be a brace of duelling pistols?’

‘Neither, if you’ve got any sense,’ she answered. ‘He really is mad enough to do it, you know. When a reporter tried to bribe him to help with an exposé of Juliette’s Masque, he took the guy’s camera away and threatened to make him eat it.’

‘Threatened to,’ Adam replied. ‘That’s the thing about Steelhand, he’s all talk. He claims he’s fought two duels already, which you’d think might get noticed, but can I find anything on the net? No. The second one was supposed to be against an Italian count and in defence of a lady’s honour, but doesn’t that strike you as being a little too conveniently romantic? The man makes Baron Münchhausen seem reserved and truthful. However, given that you’re convinced I’m going to get shot on Thursday, perhaps you’d be kind enough to grant me a dying wish?’

‘Which is?’ Elaine asked cautiously.

‘I won’t ask you to get up,’ he went on, ‘not after that lunch, but it would be ever so sweet of you to unfasten your blouse so that I can admire your lovely breasts while I come.’

‘I suppose so,’ she sighed, ‘but you really are the limit. Shall I take my glasses off?’

‘No, I like you with them on. I’ll just lock the door, then.’

‘Don’t bother. I locked it when I came in. Out with your cock, then, you dirty little pervert.’

Adam complied eagerly, propping himself up to improve the view and quickly pulling his cock and balls from his fly. Elaine watched, her hands on the top button of her smart white blouse, which she tweaked open as he began to stroke himself. All she revealed was the first swell of her breasts, then a tiny piece of white lace, but his cock began to grow immediately. A second button popped open and he was given a full view of her cleavage, with each well-rounded breast cupped in white silk and edged with lace.

‘You do get excited over me, don’t you?’ she said softly as he took a grip on his now swollen shaft. I thought you might not, once you’d had me, and with little Jasmine at your beck and call.’

‘Are you crazy?’ Adam demanded. ‘You’re beautiful, and what happened at the lake just makes it easier.’

Elaine smiled and undid a third button, allowing her to pull her blouse open in such a way that the sides pushed her breasts up and together. Her nipples showed through the silk of her bra and she began to tease the little bumps, tickling each in turn with a single finger until they’d grown properly stiff. Adam slowed down a little, not wanting to waste himself too soon, although the sight of Elaine with just her bra showing would have been enough.

‘It was fun in France,’ she went on, ‘and it was sweet of you not to try and take more than I was willing to offer, which is why I chose you to be the one to take my virginity. I had to have it, you see, just to know what it was like, and … for personal reasons. You were the right man. There – I’m quite big, aren’t I?’

She unfastened her bra as she spoke, then lifted the silk cups clear of her breasts before holding them up for his inspection – two generous handfuls of soft, pink flesh topped by straining nipples. Adam nodded, entranced by the way she was playing with her breasts and also thinking of how she’d felt in his arms beside the lake in France, and beneath him, with his cock pushing into her virgin cunt.

As if responding to his thoughts, she quickly lifted her bottom and tugged up the tight, knee-length skirt of her navy blue suit to allow her to open her legs, just enough to show off the tops of her stockings, twin suspender straps stretched taut over the soft flesh of her thighs, and the bulge of her pussy beneath white silk panties.

‘Is that better?’ she asked. ‘You like to see a lot, don’t you? What is it with you men? You’re never content with the pretty bits, you always want to see it all – boobs and bums, but pussies too, every little detail. You really like to rob us of our modesty, don’t you? To have us with our legs wide apart and everything open, even if it’s only to look at, or on our hands and knees with our bottoms in the air and our cunts all bare, and our bottom- holes. Why do men love to see girl’s bottom-holes so? Is it because it’s rude?’

‘I don’t know and I don’t care,’ Adam gasped, ‘but I want to see yours, right now. Please, Elaine, I’m begging you! Sorry, but …’

She laughed and slid forward in her chair, to roll her legs high and tug her panties up over the cheeks of her bottom, showing herself off in a position every bit as rude as she’d described, her cunt on full show and her bottom-hole making an inviting star between her open cheeks. Adam was mumbling his thanks as he began to tug on his cock with full force, already at the edge of orgasm, but Elaine wasn’t finished.

‘You wanted to spank me like this, didn’t you?’ she taunted. ‘With my bottom all bare and my legs up as if I was having my nappy changed, didn’t you, you dirty little boy? Oh yes you did, Adam Tyler, you wanted to spank me just like this, like you’d put me in a nappy and decided a spanking was needed before you covered me up. It’s a good position isn’t it, Adam? A really humiliating position for the poor girl, with her pussy and bumhole both showing, and a lovely one for the boy, because …’

She broke off, laughing, as come erupted from Adam’s cock, all over his hand and all over the bed. As he’d climaxed, his head had been full of confusing pictures – of Elaine naked by the lake and Jasmine strapped down on the fucking machine with her bottom spread for entry. And there had been one last image too – strange, compelling and taken from fantasy rather than memory – of both girls in nothing but huge, white nappies, with their smacked bottom cheeks peeping out beyond the edges of the soft material. An image so perverse that, as his orgasm faded, it left an echo of shame, the first he’d experienced in some time.

‘You …’ he sighed as he cast around for something to clean himself up with. ‘You’re worse than Jasmine, sometimes.’

‘I can play the brat too,’ she answered as she tugged her panties down her legs. ‘Here, have these, they’re wet anyway and I’ve got some clean ones in my travel bag.’

Adam caught the white silk panties and began to mop up, wondering if Elaine was going to masturbate in turn, but she simply rose and walked into the bathroom, her bottom wiggling bare behind her. He blew out his breath, wondering how far things might have gone if he’d been able to hold back but sure of only one thing – that he’d have had to let her call the shots.

A glance at his watch showed that it was 20 minutes until their appointment with Dr Burling, and he entered the bathroom as soon as Elaine was finished. She went to her room for fresh panties and returned, brisk and efficient once more, every inch the reserved younger lawyer. Indeed, she seemed so cool, smart and professional that it was close to impossible to imagine her showing off her bottom-hole to help a man come.

‘This is going to be a lot easier than I’d anticipated,’ she said as they reached the foot of the staircase, ‘but I need to know if you’re content with a mutual agreement that you won’t benefit from each other’s work?’

‘That seems the best choice,’ Adam agreed. ‘I don’t want to get bogged down, and I certainly don’t want any publicity.’

‘You may find you get that anyway,’ she answered, ‘but only among those interested in science, so I doubt it will be a problem. Where are we going?’