“No buts. Fifteen minutes. Out front.”

“Okay.” She didn’t hesitate, not really. She was a good girl and rarely disobeyed-except when she had to. Or she forgot.

“Pardon me?” The smoothness in his voice turned gruff and Alice straightened up even further.

“I meant yes. Sir,” she corrected herself. “Yes, sir.”

“Fifteen minutes,” he said again and the line went dead.

“Fifteen minutes, Dinah,” she exclaimed, dumping the cat to the floor along with the comforter as she tumbled out of bed. “Goodness! Can we make ourselves presentable in fifteen minutes?”

Dinah sat back on her haunches and began to wash herself with the pink rasp of her tongue, safe in the knowledge she was always ready for anything. Alice wasn’t so fortunate, but she managed to get herself together, just barely, with a five minute wash-down, scrubbed and shaved in the shower. Not her hair though, that was clean already and she brushed it out and left it long and straight over her shoulders like spun gold.

There weren’t many clothes to put on, just the midnight-blue dress, more gauze than material, and her slip-on heels. She considered leaving the light wrap she’d chosen. He hadn’t mentioned her wearing one, but while it was spring, the air outside was chilly and she would be standing on the porch for as long as it took.

“Don’t wait up for me, Dinah!” Alice called, checking to make sure the cat had plenty of food and water before shutting and locking the door behind her.

The day had been a lovely, bright blue thing and the night that had followed was crisp and clean, no hint of moisture in it. She breathed deeply, fending off the lightheaded dizzy feeling that came with Wade’s late night calls and gazed at the stars, wondering just what he had in store for her tonight. His basement-he called it ‘The Sanctuary’ and for Alice, it most definitely was-was crammed full of various implements of pleasure and pain, not the least important of which was Wade himself.