“Fine,” she agreed, to my surprise. She wasn’t a woman who usually compromised. She must’ve really wanted the deal to work out. “Your client is in the parlor for his interview.”

Ophelia and I glanced at each other to get silent confirmation we were both ready and then headed down the hall to meet a client who was new to the dungeon. Interviews were one of the toughest parts of our job. You had to lay out guidelines for the session while getting people to confess their deep, dark desires without scaring them away.

“Wanna guess?” she asked me.

“I always win. Why do you even try?” I tried and failed to hide my smug smile.

“Because one day I’m going to beat you.”

We popped into the security suite on our way, pulling his file and taking a minute to scope him out on the surveillance footage. He hadn’t given an indication of what his session would be beyond that he was submissive and wanted both of us to top him for an hour.

I watched him closely for a moment. “You guess first. I don’t want to hear you whining about how I stole your guess again.”

She squinted at the screen as though a clearer picture might give her the answer. “Trampling.”

I managed to keep a straight face.

“Then you lose once again because that man is so clearly into puppy play.”

“Bullshit.” She tossed the file down. “Let’s go find out.”

“Every fucking time. You guess what they’re into every single time. You have to be cheating. How did you know he was into puppy play?” Ophelia plopped down across from me in a booth at our favorite after-work hangout.

“It’s my superpower.” I laughed aloud at how indignant she looked.

Our spot to decompress was the cafe attached to the library down the street from the dungeon, which also meant I could exchange books regularly. Reading was one of my greatest joys and the older I got, the less I felt the need to apologize for being happier in the company of books than most people.

“You should have your own TV show,” she said. “We’ll call it Lady Elena: Sex Psychic. I would totally watch it.”

If there was any justice in the universe, Ophelia would’ve withered on the spot in the face of the look I shot her, but all she did was blink innocently at me and pop another french fry into her mouth.

“I’m not dignifying that with a response.” I slid my plate of fries back to my side of the table. “What was your client’s deal when we were leaving? He didn’t exactly look like he was trying to schedule a follow-up from the way he was yelling at V.”

She cackled and my lips automatically quirked in an answering smile.

“He’s been to see me a few times and was a disrespectful pain in my ass. In the interview today, he wouldn’t give me any feedback about what kind of session he wanted and insisted I ‘surprise him.’ Apparently me tying him down and giving him paper cuts between each of his toes wasn’t what he had in mind…”