“It’s nice to see you too, Blanche,” I say, earning a chuckle from her as she hands me a tea cup and saucer. “I hope you don’t have email notifications on. I didn’t mean to wake you. But, as I’m sure you know, we don’t choose when the muse strikes us.”
Her eyes light up as she leans toward me conspiratorially. “Some of my best ideas have been during the witching hour. My dreams have often led me down creative paths Ineverwould have taken otherwise!”
“This wasn’t a dream, exactly. More like a daydream. I feel less creatively fulfilled lately. I think possibly the lack of directorial input that I had when we were at Rendezvous is starting to stifle me.”
She hums noncommittally, still assessing me with the gaze that I’m sure makes lesser humans cower. “You did have some very innovative ideas when we worked together at the club,” she concedes.
“I’m not saying that I haven’t been enjoying your writing and direction, I have. But I remember you telling me about some of the less…conventional encounters that you and Henry had, and I had the thought that maybe we’ve been playing it safe.”
A raised eyebrow precedes a delicate sip from her teacup before she responds. “Playing it safe? With the billiard room scene and the chase in the woods?”
I chuckle. “Alright, maybe safe isn’t the right word. But the stories you told me about Monaco, the yacht, the basement…I feel like perhaps we’re leaving things on the table that I would enjoy immensely. We have lightning in a bottle now with the chemistry between Lucy and me, and I would hate to waste it.”
At the mention of the basement, her eyes light up, and she blushes. “Oh, you weren’t supposed to remember me telling you about those! Henry was almosttoovoracious in those early stages of our relationship, I must say.” She sighs wistfully, and her eyes flick to a framed photo on her desk. “But, in the end, every single act was so tantalizing and exhilarating that we felt closer together than ever.”
When she finally looks back at me, I can see that I’ve won.
“Anything that Lucy wants to explore is fine with me. The disclosures need to remain the same for legal purposes, of course.”
“Of course,” I reply with my most charming smile.
Blanche gazes at me wistfully. “You really do remind me of my Henry, you know. Something about that twinkle in your eye that shines every now and then.”
I wonder how many men Henry killed in his lifetime to earn his twinkle.
Deciding to push just a bit and see how far I’ll be able to go, I try to steer her farther down memory lane.
“Did you have any…specific favorites? From the darker interests that you and Henry explored over the years?”
A thoughtful hum, another sip of tea.
“Well, I kept him bound and gagged and invited all my former sorority sisters to peg him for our fifth wedding anniversary.”
She cackles as I spit into the side of her desk, choking for air as the mint I had been swallowing floods my nasal passages.
“Oh, dear. I forgot that Lucy wasn’t interested in other women joining. But you can’t fault her for wanting all the cocks to herself!”
I forgot how unhinged conversations with Blanche can be.There’s no way there’s nothing illegal brewed in this tea…
“We had a year where we heavily played into ownership and degradation. It was heady, dangerous, thrilling…he had carte blanche and took full advantage of it. Things that I had originally not been interested to try like needles, body modification, waterboarding—”
“Waterboarding?” I hate to interrupt a woman when she’s speaking, but that’s a new one.
“Can’t say it was my favorite,” she says with a grimace. “But it was certainly an intense experience. The point is, that year we explored and I felt absolutely pushed to my limits by Henry and his demands of me. By the end, we had added a number of things to our usual rotation and a few things to the now-and-then list.”
I’m contemplating how Lucy would look with my name tattooed in block letters when Blanche speaks again, in a softer, more serious tone.
“Forgive me for imposing, Sasha, but we are technically family now,” she says.
I forget this terrifying woman is KitKat’s mother-in-law. Jesus.
“Will you be able to run the ship, so to speak, if I’m away next week? I have pressing business that will leave me without stable cell service, but I don’t want to halt production for so long. As you reminded me earlier, you have plenty of directorial and production experience at the club, so I was hoping you could fill in for me to keep things moving along.”
Oh yes.
“I’ll be happy to, Blanche. Things will run so smoothly, people might not even realize you’re gone.”
Except Lucy. My pitiful little liar will definitely not benefit from the lack of oversight. The list on her next script will be exhaustive and explicit, but she won’t know which combination I’ll have planned. With the go-ahead from the boss, there’s no reason to hold back. I may be rusty, but I’ve tortured plenty in my day. Time to see how far my Sunshine will go before she gives up and goes home. I doubt even her light will be able to withstand the darkness I’ve been holding back.
