Jay woke to the smell of breakfast cooking - including what he swore was smoked bacon and coffee. Where Callie had managed to find the bacon, especially way out here, was anyone's guess. Yeah, this was shaping up to be way better than whatever regular quarantine had in store.

Something rattled, a metal-on-wood noise, as he got up. Great, I broke the bed. Nice way to start the first full day. He wasn't terribly mechanically inclined, but if it wasn't too serious, he might be able to fix it. It sounded like something where the leg and the frame met; he knelt and pushed aside the sheet he'd pulled up.

He couldn't see it even down low like that; he felt it when he reached under to find what was making the sound. He tried not to think too hard about how he knew by touch alone: It was a handcuff with a slightly longer than normal chain. A restraint. A quick trip around the bed revealed one at each post, carefully tucked up against the leg and under the mattress. He was a restless sleeper; the one he'd heard rattling had worked partly free.

"I was hoping I'd have at least a day or two before this happened. Maybe even that it wouldn't happen at all." Callie was leaning in the doorway, looking a bit miffed. "It would have been a much more comfortable two weeks, huh?"

"So, was I going to be in these at some point?"

"No. You didn't ask to be. You didn't ask anything, actually." She smiled. "And you didn't pay for it, either."

"Ah. Oh."

"Ah and oh, only rarely. It's about giving up control, not getting off. So, are you game to talk about this over breakfast? I'm hungry. How do you like your eggs?"

"Over easy." He followed her out of the room to the kitchen. "How do you get bacon way out here?"

"I have my sources. Or my patron does."

"So the term is 'kept woman'?"

"The term is not. Look, let's just get it all out there to look at. I'm not a whore. I sleep with who I want, when I want, how often I want. It doesn't cost any more or less if I do. I have eight regular clients; I'm sleeping with one of them, because I like him and he's a hell of a good lover. I don't sleep with non-regulars. Good?"

"You didn't have to tell me shit if you didn't feel like it. So thank you. This is a dominatrix thing, then?"

"Closer to that than the other. It's about surrender of control, like I said. A client comes here for a weekend, and once their shoes are off at the door, I decide everything, within whatever limits are set. What they wear, or if they wear anything at all. When they eat and sleep, what they do when they're not eating and sleeping, when they're allowed to bathe and go to the bathroom, in the most extreme cases."

"And your clientele is all Japanese businessmen, yeah?"

"All Japanese, probably about 98% men, and you'd be surprised at the range of all the rest of it. People don't have to be total control freaks to want to let go sometimes."

"So, eh..."

She smiled. "Go on, you're not going to embarrass me."

"You're not sleeping with them all, but how many do you think want you to?"

She considered, and her smile widened. "All of them but one. She's straight. But most of them probably think that's when they get to be boss again. They're wrong, and they wouldn't be able to handle how it really would go."

"And your...special client does?"

"I make an exception to the rule for him. I need to let go sometimes, too. He's not a client then."

He looked around. "The house must drive about half of them completely nuts."

"You noticed that. It's intentional, besides being for my comfort. The food, too. Nothing usual, nothing normal, nothing they can feel like they have ownership of. The only thing they own when they come here is a safeword."

"The rest of the time, this is your private sanctuary. And here I am fucking that up."

She smiled. "No, not really. I haven't had much company lately. It's nice to have some."

"Right. One more question that you probably won't answer. Would you maybe want to be a little more specific now about how you do know Gedo?"

She burst into laughter. "Not that way. Remember I said friend of a friend? My patron is the mutual friend."

"Good. It was going to be a long two weeks if I had to keep thinking about you letting Gedo get on top."

She laughed again. He was finding he liked making her do that. Making her do much of anything else probably wasn't easy. He thought it would be a good idea not to look at that as a challenge. It wasn't what he was here for.

He did manage to talk her into leaving the dishes for a while and going for a walk with him so he could see everything. He didn't think it was because she needed much convincing.

The path on the bluff was clear and well kept. The one down to the water was more rugged, and quite steep; it would present a good challenge. He was already planning a route: Run twice around the top, down to the water, have a swim, run back up, once around the top again.

Callie smiled when he mapped out the plan. "I'll pass. I walk around the top once a day, and go down to the strand when I want to swim. That's about it."

He'd been a bit surprised to have to amend some of his impression of her in full sunlight. He'd for whatever reason assumed she was his age or maybe a touch older; now, he thought it was more than a touch, maybe early to mid 40s. It wasn't anything physical he could put a name to, more a sense that she was the kind of at peace with herself that only seemed to happen with time. It didn't make her any less attractive as far as he was concerned, just a bit more intriguing.

He also noticed over the next three days that while she wasn't averse to putting little indulgences in a meal, she was tailoring her cooking to a diet that suited his usual one admirably. He asked about it over dinner one of those nights - how did she know?

"Healthy is healthy, and that works up to a point, right? The rest is...past experience."

"Yeah? You won't tell me where you got that experience, will you?"

"No."

He'd been trying, more in a spirit of play than anything else, to fish a little about her clientele out of her. She was a good and a cheerful conversationalist, but as tight-lipped as humanly possible on that subject. She didn't seem to mind the verbal fencing, but she was winning every contest without even making an effort. So maybe a different kind of dinner conversation tonight. "Do you ever get a vacation?"

"Two weeks, twice a year." The smile that was already becoming familiar flickered over her lips. "Most of my clientele think that's what all lazy Americans get. I let them think so. It drives them nuts that there's a month out of every year that they can't come here no matter how much they beg or how much money they offer."

"The ultimate no-control. And what do you do on your sinful, indulgent gaijin vacations?"

"Stay here and relax, mostly. I go into the city and do some shopping, but I never manage to stay as long as I think I'm going to. Two or three days and I'm out of there on rocket-skates. I'm not a Tokyo kind of girl."

"But you must have started out there. This doesn't seem like the kind of place you get a clientele so, eh...specific started."

"Are you twisting my arm for information?"

He considered. "Yeah."

"Just for being honest about it, I'll give you some. I lived in Tokyo for two years. They weren't great years for me, but I made a friend, and that helped a lot."

"Your patron?"

She looked startled. "Yes."

"It wasn't going to be some rando who set all this up."

"Nice catch. No, it wasn't. I couldn't even afford rent on a place like this. He bought it outright, asked what I needed, and handed over enough to get everything done the way I wanted."

"For which he gets...?"

She looked at him sharply.

"You said you're not a kept woman, so what does he get?"

"A quarter of the profits and walk-in rights whenever I don't have a client."

"He must have been one first. Some rando wasn't going to understand any of this, either."

"Yes, for a while. Until a little digging beneath the surface uncovered that what I do wasn't what he really wanted or needed. That happens sometimes."

"And what did he really want?"

"That's enough about him. Too much, actually. Private stays private."

He'd heard those three words a few times this week; they meant fencing was over and she wouldn't say any more on that particular subject. "Right, then. What do you think I need?"

"A little surrender of control wouldn't kill you, but not the way I do it."

"Why not?"

"Because down there underneath, all of my clients want to give in. You don't. You hate when things don't go as you planned them. You'd do it once and never come back. And just possibly burn the place down, plow it under, and seed the ground with salt on your way out."

"You've figured out all that in four days?"

"No. But you've been quite a study the past year. I do watch TV sometimes."

Well. Shit. "And you still agreed to this? I know Gedo's persuasive, but seriously."

"He had nothing to do with it. My patron did. I don't say no to him very often. Mostly because he doesn't ask much of me."

"But you're still not going to tell me who he is?"

"No. If he wants you to know, he'll tell you." She burst into laughter so unexpectedly that it startled him into joining her even though he had no idea why. "You're making the Oh fuck, Yakuza face. I promise, absolutely not." She got up, looked at the tableful of dishes, and grimaced. "Want to take my walk with me?"

It was the first time she'd invited him. There was no way he was going to turn her down.