Or died. Her Master wasn’t a “glass is half full” sort of man.

“Why are they here if they aren’t a real D/s couple?” She felt like she could safely ask the question since she’d been in an actual D/s relationship for a week. It hadn’t been long, but it had been immersive. She really was Damon Knight’s submissive. She’d surrendered utterly to him.

“That’s a very good question. I think we should find out. Unless you would rather play. There’s an empty spanking bench.”

She knew exactly what he would do. He would spank her senseless, fuck her until she couldn’t breathe, and carry her upstairs and tuck her in. Then he would put a guard on her door and come right back here and do the damn job himself. “Tempting, but I think we should figure out if they’re our targets. We dock in Helsinki tomorrow. The switch could happen at any port.”

He growled against her skin, giving her a good nip that let her know how frustrated he was. “All right then. I’m going to go talk to Tag. You stay here. Simon is at the stairs, Jake is at the lifts, and I’ll be right over there.” He kissed her cheek and stepped away, moving toward where the Taggarts stood watching a whipping scene play out.

She hugged the wall, though she didn’t really have to. No one bothered her. Her collar protected her from unwanted attention. She reached up and touched the silver chain Damon had placed around her neck. He’d clasped it around her, not allowing her to touch it until he was satisfied with the way it laid. There was a small heart with a diamond in the center that touched the hollow of her neck. She wanted to keep that damn chain around her neck forever, but might only have these few days with him before he went back to being the cold, shut-down agent he’d been before.

Although she held his fate in her hands, and he didn’t even know it. She could save him from himself by telling Nigel he wasn’t fit for duty. Not physically or mentally. He was too emotional. That would be a bitter irony for him. The one time he got emotional, the object of his feelings betrayed him.

She couldn’t do it. No matter what it cost her, she couldn’t hurt him like that. He’d never recover.

She stared at the couple in front of her, keeping them in her sights, forcing herself to focus on the problem at hand. Candice was a pretty woman, probably in her mid-twenties. Robert looked to be roughly the same age.

They were watching a scene with a Domme and her male submissive. The Domme had her sub tied to a St. Andrew’s Cross, his naked body on display. She was whipping him with a singletail and now she tugged at his balls, squeezing them until he squawked before she went back to flicking the whip in her hands.

Candice’s eyes widened and then she turned away. Her boyfriend went green. Penny had to stifle a laugh. A few weeks before perhaps she would be the one turning green, but she stood there feeling not an ounce of concern for the sub. Yes, he cried out, but she could read him. He actually relaxed as his Domme handled him. He liked the pain. She understood him. The Domme tenderly kissed him between snaps of the whip, likely telling him how good he was, how proud she was of him. Despite his occasional grimaces, the sub practically glowed with pride.

It was so blatantly obvious that neither of her two targets understood. Robert stepped back away from the crowd. He had to put a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. She was shaking her head, her hand over her mouth.

The two stepped back to the wall, and Robert set down the leather bag he was carrying. Like most of the other Doms in the dungeon, he carried his own kit. Unlike other Doms, he hadn’t checked it at the entrance until he needed it. He’d spent the whole night clutching it. He let it drop as he found a place against the wall. He slumped into the seat, but his sub frowned at him and he immediately surrendered the seat to her.

It was time to listen in.

She glanced over and Damon was deep in conversation with Ian Taggart. Charlotte stepped away from them at her husband’s nod and began walking toward Penny. So she had a babysitter.

Although it was a bit like asking the fox to watch the hen house.

The minute Charlotte joined her, she glanced over at the targets. “What’s up with that?”

“I think they’re tourists.”

Charlotte grinned. “I love hearing you spout lingo.”

Penny sighed. “I’m not a tourist anymore. I passed tourist when Damon used that slappy thing on me.”

Charlotte laughed. “I’m so sorry about that. Ian made the thing. I like to call it the Fucking Bastard, but not around him because then he uses it on me. It’s a repurposed fire hose. He’s obsessed with pervertables. I don’t let him go to home improvement stores anymore. I sent him for a new light switch, and he came back with fifteen things to torture me with. So, the tourists aren’t liking the dungeon much, huh? I’ve been watching them all day. They’re really out of place. And what the hell is in that kit that he won’t let it out of his sight? He had it with him at dinner. And the pool.”

She and Charlotte looked at each other, understanding obviously dawning. “We need to get into that kit.”

“Okay.” Charlotte’s eyes trailed over to the men, but they’d stepped away, conferring in a quiet section of the bar. “I really should go and talk to them.”

Yes, it was what they should do, but unfortunately, their targets were about to be on the move. Candice stood up, a distressed look on her face as she pulled at her corset. She had another couple of words with her boyfriend and stalked off toward the bathroom. “If we wait too long, we’re going to lose them. It would be easier to get the kit here. Everyone’s watching scenes, not each other. And I don’t know that those two will be back in the dungeon for the rest of the trip.”

“Damn it. We’re both going to be spanked, you know. Okay, we’re going to have to run a distract and dash, and I think it has to be you. The distraction that is,” Charlotte explained. “I think I scare him. I know Ian does. We tried to talk to them earlier by the pool and that dude practically ran away.”

Penny’s stomach dropped. She wasn’t good at flirting. “You want me to talk to him?”

Charlotte nodded. “Yep. Just bat your eyes and ask him a couple of questions. Like you don’t know anything. I’ll get that kit and then go straight to our rooms. When I’m free and clear, you get the boys and meet me. Maybe it’s nothing and then I’ll find a way to get it back to him, but I’m suspicious.”

Penny was, too. She glanced back to where Damon was talking to Ian. Neither man was looking her way. If she stepped away to talk to him, she and Charlotte would likely lose the chance.

And no matter what he said, this was her operation, too. “All right. Go and get in place. We might not have much time before she comes back.”

Charlotte winked her way. “Not a problem. Just give him a sweet face. He’s been flirting with anything with breasts all day when his girlfriend isn’t looking.”

Charlotte strode away, having not a bit of trouble with her five-inch heels. She was a bombshell of a woman, but Penelope had learned that bombshells didn’t work for every man. Sometimes a round pixie with a nice big bum was called for, and that was when she went to work.

She sent another slightly nervous glance her Dom’s way before she slipped her collar off. She needed to seem available. Hopefully Charlotte would work quickly and she could get it back on before Damon even noticed she’d stepped away. He might forgive her for working without him, but she doubted he would forgive taking off her collar.

Shoving the silver necklace into her bodice, she drew a deep breath before walking toward the target. Oddly, it wasn’t as hard as she would have thought. She’d never seen herself as a femme fatale until Damon had shown her she could be sexy.

He stood in the back of the room, his kit in his hand. Every now and then he glanced toward the bathroom before watching the scene in front of him. He’d moved from the Domme and her sub to a Dom who was plugging his petite sub with what looked like an elephant penis.

Just as she was going to move past him, she forced a slight stumble, moving her body toward him. Sure enough, he dropped the kit and caught her.

“I’m so sorry.” She kept her voice down, not wanting to draw attention away from the scene. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Simon moving toward her, but he stopped, likely noticing Charlotte in the vicinity.

“It’s all right.” Robert gave her an open smile and helped her back to her feet, his eyes going straight for her breasts. “I don’t know how you ladies walk in those heels without killing yourselves anyway.”

She flushed a little, showing him her bare feet. “I’m just clumsy.”

“Oh, don’t talk bad about yourself now, love. I’ve heard that can get you in trouble in a place like this. What’s a pretty girl like you doing in a dungeon?”

She bit back a groan. “Oh, I’m just here with some friends.” Charlotte was being cautious, waiting back while one of the dungeon monitors walked by. Damn it. Naturally they showed up when she needed a clear path. She glanced back and Simon moved away from his post.

“Jerry?” Simon called out.

The DM turned and walked back by, rushing to get to Simon, who started pulling him out of the way as he spoke.

One problem down.

“Those blokes are kind of scary.” Robert gestured to where Simon had the DM by the stairs, likely explaining some imaginary story. She’d always wondered about Simon out in the field. He seemed so urbane, but he had incredible instincts.

“They are. It makes me wish I’d come with my boyfriend.” She needed him to think she was free to flirt. He seemed touchy.

“I thought you had to have a partner to get on the boat.”

“That’s only for men. Women can come in singles.” It was sort of true. From what she’d learned, there were some unattached Doms, but they were teaching classes and running the dungeons. It was time to really get his attention away from the kit at his feet. Charlotte was moving in. “You know, in case a couple wants to be adventurous.”

Robert’s eyes widened. “Adventurous? Bloody hell. Are you talking about a threesome?”

Unfortunately, he practically yelled the question. Several heads turned.

“Sorry.” He went back to whispering.

But Charlotte had been forced to back off. Bugger. She quelled her frustration, forcing what she hoped was a seductive smile on her face. “Yes. Sometimes we singletons get lucky and find a couple to play with. I saw your sub. She’s very pretty.”

His mouth curled up in the first real smile she’d seen out of him. “That’s brilliant. Actually, Candy and me like to play like that. It’s probably why we thought we’d like this kind of thing. She read that Grey book one too many times, if you ask me. I don’t think they crushed some bloke’s balls in that book though.”

Charlotte very carefully reached down and had the kit in her hands as she moved back toward where Simon was still talking to the DM. He held the door open for her as she slipped away.

Brilliant. Now to get back to Damon and then up to their cabins. She smiled a little. “I haven’t read it, but it sounds interesting. Well, maybe I’ll see you around.”

He reached out and caught her. “Hey, don’t go. Let’s go up to my room. We can have a good time.”

“Or you can take your hands off my property this bloody minute before I fucking cut them off,” an arctic voice said from behind her.

She closed her eyes. How to handle this? Damon wasn’t exactly being professional, but she couldn’t explain why she’d disobeyed him here in the open.

“Hey, mate. She’s single. She told me herself.” But Robert seemed to have some sense of self-preservation since he’d taken his hands off her.

“Do you not have a bloody brain in your thick head? Can you not see the collar around her throat? In this world, that means she’s taken and I can slit your throat for touching her.”

Penny flinched and kind of prayed she wouldn’t have to turn around because he was going to be angry with her whether or not he was happy with the outcome of her endeavor.

Robert backed up. “She’s not wearing a collar.”

She felt Damon’s hand grip her elbow as he whirled her around. He had to know she was working. She was sure he would be upset, but she hadn’t counted on the utter rage she saw stamped on his face.

“Hey, Damon. Do you need me to get a bench ready?” Ian Taggart stood behind him, his face in a forbidding frown.