Masters & Lovers Box Set One

"Lovely stonework."

It seems a facile thing to say, but when I see what he and Michael have built between them in the cellars of their mountain home, I am momentarily lost for words.

And it all looks strangely familiar....

James grins. He knows exactly what I'm thinking. "When I saw what you had in your basement, I couldn't resist it."

"Yes...." I circle, admiring the chamber. ".... but I simply built into rooms that were already there. The old kitchen and storage rooms under the house. You must have built this from scratch."

He nods. "In fairness, I designed it. Michael did most of the actual building, along with quite a team of stonemasons and other workers of course."

"What on earth did he tell them they were building?"

He flashes brows. "Wine-cellars I believe. Let me give you a tour...."

He shows me around like a kid showing off his train set. And I can hardly blame him. I couldn't have done better myself. In fact, I didn't do better myself. I stroll past racks of crops, paddles and floggers.... A lot of floggers....

.... Different sizes, materials, some harder or softer, stiffer or more supple....

His favoured tool?

There's all the usual stuff, a spanking horse, a Saint Andrew's Cross, areas with the floor thickly padded over the stone flags. Ceiling rings and hooks. Wall rings and hooks. A colossal four-poster bed to one end. There are radiators dotted around but also a huge hearth with logs stacked up beside....

.... I peer closer....

.... A fridge and a wine rack....

All the home comforts....

The chamber is dull and dark just now, but niches and sconces hold candles and lamps by the score. The lighting in here will be perfect when it's needed.

And James has outdone me in one area....

A door, neatly to one side of the four-poster, leads to a small side-room. Inside, it contains not much more than another enormous bed and a couple of chairs and side drawers, but.... It's mirrored....

Every wall is mirrored. There are a few candles dotted around. James lights one or two and the room is suddenly a brilliant kaleidoscope of fractured light. A thousand flames glimmer and shimmer in a kind subterranean Aurora Borealis. Wow!

What a gorgeous room....

Elizabeth would love this....

James smiles at my expression. "Like it?"

"Oh, I have got to have one of these...."

"Glad you approve." He nods me back to the main chamber. "You happy to have Beth's.... Birthday Party down here?"

"It's perfect. Um.... The three of you use this room much?"

His dark eyes cast to mine, crinkling at the corners. "This is my room. Michael's more of an 'Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere' kind of man."

"Yes, I'd picked up that vibe...." I glance around. "And yet you choose this room for Elizabeth and Michael to, er...."

"Yes. It's a play-room. And you're right. It will be familiar to her and it makes it clear that this is about sex and a bit of fun for all concerned. She'll understand."

Then he turns serious. "Listen, Richard, there's one more thing I want to show you while you're here. But this is a secret."

More secret than a master's dungeon...?

A part of me wants to laugh, but I sober up at the look on his face. "All right, James. It's a secret. What do you want to show me?"

He beckons to a rack, about six feet high, fixed to the stone wall. "You remember the night the gunmen came here, trying to murder Michael and Charlotte?"

"Who could forget it? Escaping into the snow with Michael naked and Charlotte gagging a gunman with his own tie after Michael took him down with his axe...." "Quite. Neither Michael nor I believe Klempner is safe.... Neutralised, shall we say, simply because he's imprisoned. His organisation was too big."

The thought makes me queasy....

And Klempner connects Charlotte with Elizabeth....

"So...."

"So.... as insurance against future emergencies, Michael built this into the house." He presses against what looks like a knot in the woodwork. There's a click and the rack swings smoothly and silently open. My jaw drops. "An escape tunnel?"

"Just so." He faces me but nods towards the dark corridor. "Richard, this may look like just a house, but it's a fortress. We have all kinds of security measures built in against possible future attacks. Michael and I have visited Klempner, spoken with him. He's still obsessed with Charlotte's mother and so with Charlotte...."

He pauses, his silence pregnant....

.... And therefore, with Elizabeth....

Ah, Christ....

"Has he mentioned Elizabeth?"

"Yes. But it was simply to say that he's not interested in her...."

"But who can trust a man like that?"

"Quite."

I peer into the passage. "Where does this lead?"

"Come on. See for yourself." He stoops. "Mind your head, it's not too high in places."

The passage is low and rough, mainly stonework in the first few meters, turning to earth supported by hefty timber beams further along. As the light fades from behind us, James lights our way with his phone. "Michael has plans to install lighting over time, but he's not gotten that far yet."

"Michael dug all this out? By himself?"

"He used a digger for the parts near the house until he got it extended out of sight of the hotel. Since then he's been gradually extending it to get it to the tree-line. He digs out a few feet, then roofs it over. It's become a bit of a hobby for him."

It brightens and abruptly, we are in sunlight. A short ladder takes us up to ground level in a tiny clearing surrounded by brambles and trees. The briars grow thick and luxuriant, a good seven or eight feet high in places, scrambling up and over low branches, obscuring the view of our exit from either the house behind or the woods beyond. Someone climbing a tree might see us, if they knew where to look, but certainly, no-one else would.

James glances around and behind us at a tangle of thorns and herbage. "Whenever he extends a bit and moves the exit, he clears the brambles forward, so we can get out, and just drags others back over where he's covered over. And the earth he's dug out get tossed backwards, so the nettles get a good foothold as well."

Even the nettles are waving gently almost at eye level. The breeze tips one across the back of my hand and I curse, sucking at the spot. I'm pretty much lost for words. How often does a friend show you a secret escape tunnel from his house? But how many of my friends have a madman coming after the woman he loves?

"It certainly seems very secure," I say. "Only a prince questing for a sleeping princess would tackle this lot."

James chuckles. "Michael's been encouraging them to grow."

I pluck at a thorn snagging my jacket. "Has he been fertilising the bloody things?"

Briar Rabbit would have begged not to be dropped in here....

"Wouldn't surprise me." He beckons, ducks under a branch, through a dark gap and abruptly, we are in open woodland.

We are alone, the woodland quiet save for birdsong. "And no one else knows about this?"

"No. Michael, Charlotte and me. And now you. No-one else." He holds a forefinger up to me. "And I want it to stay that way. If there are more attacks in the night, anyone in the house can simply vanish. And, given what we know, that might include you and Beth."

I resist the griping in my gut. "Your secret's safe with me." Then, surveying the mess of undergrowth and trees behind us and the wildwood before us. "Where do you go from here?"

James points up the slight slope. "About a hundred yards that way is the walker's track Michael and Charlotte used the last time to escape. And the shelter they hid in for a while is a couple of hundred yards further along."

If I were using this....

.... Or Elizabeth....

"You would have trouble finding your way to that in the dark," I point out, looking back. Beyond the briar patch, the upper windows of the Threesome's home are visible. "And if you used a light, you could easily be seen from the house." "Ah, yes...." he nods. "That was my comment too. Michael had an answer." He beckons me to the nearest tree, then closes his eyes and lays his hand on the trunk, feeling at the bark at about chest height. After a moment he pauses, opening his eyes again.

"Feel there," he says, his fingers still on the tree. "Close your eyes. Imagine you're blind in the dark."

Under the pads of my fingers, the coarse bark comes alive. And I feel.... what?

Marks. Chiselled deep into the wood; a line of dots large enough to take my fingertips and thumb if I hold my hand just so.

I blink open. "What...?"

"When you have your fingers resting comfortably in those niches, your hand is pointing to the trail."

"But I have to find this tree. If I've already lost my sense of direction in the dark?"

"There's a similar set of marks carved into every tree within five hundred yards."

"Every one? Michael did all this? It works?"

"Oh, yes. It works. He tested it on me, blindfolded...."

James in a blindfold....

Keep your face straight....

".... I grazed my shins a couple of times, but I made it to the trail with no vision. You should try it yourself. Familiarize yourself."

"I'm glad Michael's on my side. He's thorough, isn't he? Handy to have in a crisis."

James clicks his tongue. "That's Michael for you. Then again, he's the one that had to make a quick getaway naked into the snow the last time. I'd say it focussed his attention on the problem in hand."

Part of me is lost in the little-boy-adventure of all this. Secret tunnels. Escaping from the bad guys....

.... but the sheer horror of the actuality barges in, crowding my thoughts.

That night....

James, in pieces....

.... Knowing that Charlotte was running....

.... Hunted by gunmen....

"You really think Klempner is still a danger to her?"

"I'm sure of it."

"And yet you allowed her to see him."

He grimaces, scratching his head. "Charlotte wants to find her mother." His eyes shift to mine. "Michael and I have learned the hard way what happens if you try to stop Charlotte from doing anything she's really set on...."

Haven't we all....

".... If we refused, I think she'd do it anyway; go to see him. To learn what she can. At least if we allow it...." He draws air commas with a pair of fingers....".... Then Michael and I know what's happening and have a measure of control." As we make our way back to the house, I ponder on the difference between having a beautiful sub and having a beautiful woman who is a sub when it suits her mood.

*****

Perched by her on the side of the bed, I lean in to kiss her. "Happy Birthday, my Love."

She smiles up at me, wiping at a face still lax with sleep. " Thank you." Then her eyes flutter open properly. "Oh, you're up and dressed, I thought...."

I know what she thought. On her previous birthdays, I have always woken her up in other ways....

.... But not today....

"Breakfast?"

"Mmm, yes." She sits up while I position the tray for her, one of those short-legged affairs for eating in front of the TV or in bed. Juice, yoghurt, muesli, fruit... All the things I know she enjoys on a morning.

"I have to go to work today, but we're going out this evening. I'd like you to have a good lie in."

"It's going to be a late night?"

"I think so, yes."

"Where are we going?"

"Surprise...."

"How should I dress?"

"Um.... Sexy but demure.... In other words...." I kiss her again....".... Be yourself."