House

Roman, I found out, was also busy. She had finally met a guy and her calendar was full until the following week when he went out of town. We agreed to tell each other everything when we got together then.

In the meantime, unproductive summer days grew long and lazy. Empty hours filled with meditative reverie. Most days, Richard drove to Chicago to work and returned home around seven. While I slept, Richard worked in his study. He rarely spent the night in bed with me and was usually gone from the house before I woke in the morning.

During the day, I swam in his pool or lay in the sun on his pool-house patio overlooking Lake Michigan. At night, we talked about our childhoods or explored some of the things in the contract. He seemed to have an endless supply of gags and rope with which to tie me. And he proved to be an expert in the art of eliciting and then extending a woman’s orgasm.

With Richard’s case closed, I used my leave of absence to figure things out. Was I ready to get back