Chapter 83: The Virgin´s Summer, Part 34, The Price To Pay...

The following morning, Michael´s phone rings.

"Yup? So? Can´t you get a replacement? No...? Oh, right. Okay, I´ll be there in an hour or so."

He clicks the phone off. "I´ve got to go to the Centre for a few hours," he says to me. "I´d like to take you with me, but I´d prefer to do that on a day when we can relax and I can... er... pamper you a bit... You alright staying here?"

"I´m fine. You go do what you have to do. I´ll have a swim and try to get some sun."

"Don´t forget your sun-blocker." He tosses a tube at me, and I catch it mid-air.

-----

I know what I need to do.

My Master is in the lounge, sitting in an armchair. Hands behind his head, long legs stretched out, crossed at the ankles, he stares, pensively, into space

"Master, may I... come in?"

He tilts his head at me, expression sombre. "Of course you may, Charlotte. It is hardly for me to tell you where you may, or may not, go."

I am wearing only the lightest of clothing, a beach robe, nothing underneath,