“I do the same thing. At least I try to. Just because they’re strippers doesn’t mean anyone gets to disrespect them. I have a zero tolerance policy for bad behavior.”

“Good girl. Sam instituted the same policy. Nobody crossed Sam. Not even Kingsley after he bought the place and changed the name.”

“I like this Sam person.”

“You would like her. Wish she still lived here. Sam looked a little like you—skinny twerp, very pretty in a ‘I want to be mistaken for a fourteen-year-old boy’ way.”

“That’s so not true. I look nothing like a fourteen-year-old boy. Just so happens a lot of fourteen-year-old boys look like me.”

“At least Sam didn’t dress like any fourteen-year-old boy I’d seen. I was just a teenager when Sam ran the Möbius. But every time I saw her she had on a suit—old-fashioned suit with vests and suspenders. No jackets, though. It killed me when I saw her. Wanted to snap those sexy suspenders of hers.”

“Damn. I gotta hunt up a pic of her.”

“She even wore spats on her dress shoes. Actual spats. She said it wasn’t a fashion statement, but a necessity for anyone who worked at a strip club.” The Mistress moved the vibrator over Chris’s clitoris as she started to push the smallest of the dildos into her.

“Smart woman.”

“She was. Still is. I mean, she’s not dead.”

“That’s comforting. The way people talk about her...”

“I know. She kind of still haunts the place. Sam started as a bartender at the Möbius when she was your age about. She only kept that job for a year after King bought the place. After buying the Möbius, Kingsley started putting together a new club. An underground S&M club. The underground S&M club to end all S&M clubs. This S&M club that we’re in, as a matter of fact. And it took a lot of work. He decided he needed an assistant. He’d lost his five previous assistants in as many months.”

“Why? Kingsley’s the best boss I’ve ever had. Pays double what I’d make bartending anywhere else. Good benefits. And he’s nice to me—weirdly nice to me—and stays out of my way. He trusts my decisions. Plus, he’s the one who sent me to you and is picking up the tab for this session.”

The Mistress pushed the small dildo all the way into Chris. She winced again and breathed but seemed to be taking it in stride.

“Well, you have to understand the situation here. You are a gold star lesbian. Kingsley’s a gold star seducer. Male assistant, female assistant. Didn’t matter. He slept with them all. Lots of drama with him in his household in the early days. Love, lust, fighting, jealously. He’d sleep with his secretary and then the next day she’d find him making out with some hot guy in the hallway. Big blow-up. She’d quit. He’d start assistant-hunting again. The cycle would start over.”

“So a butch lesbian was his only option?” Chris seemed amused by the idea.