He imagines them dug, hard, too hard, into his back, his bare flesh smarting and clears his throat. ‘Very good, Ma’am, I’m in the laundry if yo...u need anything more.’ ‘Oh,’ She looks up again, ‘have you managed to get the red wine out of the blouse I gave you?’ ‘I’m letting it soak now, Ma’am. Nothing a little baking powder couldn’t fix.’ She watches him tilt his head at her, smiling, sincere, his eyes warm, one hand clasped behind his back, the other holding the small tea tray. The book is. It matched my red and black leather choker collar that had a hook in the centre that I put around my neck. My lips were painted deep red as were my nails. I slipped on my blingy gold necklaces and bracelets and looked at myself in the full length mirror at the end of the room. “Something is missing,” I said out loud, then laughed when I realised what it was.I hadn’t put my boots on, you just can’t judge an outfit until you have the heels on with it, be they boots or shoes. I’d selected a pair. After a few minutes, though, he seemed to relax and the moment passed.A few hours later, I'd gone on to bed while he'd gotten on the computer to do some preliminary research so he'd be a little ahead when he went to work the next day.He is a general practice lawyer here in the small Southern town where he grew up, and he's the best at what he does.About 12 years ago, he traded in the rat race as a high-profile corporate attorney in Philadelphia, where I grew up, for the much slower pace of. "Well, welcome back to the living sleepyhead. I'm sorry about last night, but I was so upset at you not cominghome until 1am that I just needed to go *somewhere*. Promise me you'lltry to be home earlier more often and I'll forget about last night,okay?"Eric rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Huh? What - oh, yeah. I'm sorrytoo. You know me - perfectionist. I just have to learn to trust my teammore. Say, ohmygosh..." Eric's hand flew to his face - and met with thenormal five-o-clock shadow that.