She slipped on the underwear, sitting on the side of the bed to slide on the stockings. Standing up, she clipped the tops of the stockings to the garter belt and looked at herself in the full-length mirror which stood in the corner of the room. She suddenly felt burningly self-conscious, dressed like this, all too aware of the cigarette burns and the razor scars that crisscrossed much of her torso. The thought of Dale looking upon her body as she was looking upon it now filled her with both deep apprehension and sensuous excitement. Shaking off any misgivings, she pressed on.

She took out her tight black shoulderless cocktail dress and pulled it on. She wouldn’t normally have worn something as revealing as this on a date with Dale as it displayed too much of her disfigured shoulders and cleavage. But tonight would be a test of sorts. If he was fine seeing more of her scars than usual, then he was probably fine seeing her naked.

Likewise with the scar on her face. Tonight she wouldn’t be hiding it behind her loose-hanging lock of hair. She pulled her hair up and looked for something to tie it back with. Lying there on the top of the dresser was the Christian-themed hairgrip that her mother had given her for Christmas. She smiled to herself. That would do perfectly.

Pouting in the mirror, she put on a dash of lipstick, then applied a touch of eyeliner, and then, to finish, a squirt of Coco Mademoiselle perfume. And, last but not least, she slipped on a pair of sharp black heels.

She assessed herself in the mirror. Even if she said so herself, she looked pretty damn hot.

There was one last thing she needed and that was a phone. Seeing as this was just a date, she decided to bring her normal phone rather than her undercover phone. She went into the bathroom and opened up the secret compartment. Pushing aside her warrant card, she took out her normal phone and switched it on. However, it appeared that the battery had gone dead. Not surprising really, considering it was tucked away in here most of the time.

Cursing under her breath, she took it out into the living room and started to search for the charging lead. At that point the entry buzzer rang. She lifted her head with a little thrill of anticipation. He was here.

Giving up the search for the charging lead, she discarded her normal phone on the sofa and picked up her undercover phone instead. The undercover phone would suffice for this evening. At any rate, that was the phone she currently used most of the time anyway.

Dropping her undercover phone into her handbag, she excitedly went over to the intercom panel by the front door and pressed the button.

‘Dale?’

His voice came out of the small tinny speaker. ‘Hi, Bailey.’

‘I’ll be down in just a minute,’ she said breathlessly.

‘Actually, do you mind if I quickly come up for a sec?’