“I can’t come back to the dungeon for a month after today, but you can always call or text me if you need something.”

“It’ll be fine,” Ophelia insisted for at least the fourth time in an hour. “If this is what your schedule looks like all the time, then you need a vacation, girl. This is fuckin’ bonkers.” She held up a notecard from one of my client files. “Is this the raincoat guy?”

I squinted to see what she was holding. “No. That’s the one who reenacts classic cinema, but kinky.”

“The one who brings all the costumes?” she asked.

“Yeah, that’s him. I need to double check, but I think this month is Casablanca themed.” I glanced at my notes. “My bad, it’s Mary Poppins. Bummer, I’ve been training my whole life to be Mary Poppins but with cock and ball torture.”

Ophelia cackled. “A spoonful of sugar indeed…”

“Here, I’m forwarding you the scripts and all the notes I have. Whoever takes it will have to be off book, so make sure it’s someone who’s going to prep.”

We flipped through the remaining stack trying to see if there was anything else that really needed my input to hand it off.

“This one’s just foot worship. This one is fantasy wrestling as opposed to this guy who wants real wrestling. You’ll probably need to take him, Ophelia. He doesn’t mess around. Here’s the raincoat guy. He’s mostly into forced femme, but sometimes wants corporal. He’s a total sweetheart, so you could work through that in an interview.”

“Is this whole stack mostly bondage?”

“Yeah, here, let me mark what’s actual Shibari and what could be fudged with cuffs by someone newer if need be.”

I had a sudden moment of panic. I’d spent years learning all of my clients’ tastes, building my list of regulars. Was I going to blow all the work I’d put in for an opportunity that could very well backfire horribly?

Being debt free was one thing, but this contract wouldn’t pay my bills forever, so I still wanted the career I loved to come back to. Would my clients still want to see me if I was all over the tabloids or would it feel like I was publicly cheating on them? Being splashed on the news for one brief video of me in character was one thing and I wasn’t even sure what the fallout from that was going to be yet.

What if I lost control of the situation with Alex and made a fool of myself? I didn’t want to become a joke. I was spiraling to the point of calling the whole thing off when Ophelia held up a card. “Who’s Mickey Mouse? I don’t know this code name.”

Victoria looked up sharply from her computer, glaring daggers at me. “He’s this month?”

“Shit, shit, shit. I forgot he moved it earlier this year.”

“What am I missing?” Ophelia asked, glancing between the two of us.

We didn’t answer her. Crown Prince Erik of Luxenmark had been a client for many years and was one of the dungeon’s most closely held secrets. He came precisely once a year for a full 24-hour session that was never spoken of except between the dungeon owner and the Domina he was seeing, which had been me for the last two years since Victoria had retired. I wasn’t sure how long he’d seen her for or who her predecessors were since it was all top secret.