Tied Up With Love. Holly Martin

wouldn’t knock it until you’ve tried it.’

      ‘Sex with you or being tied up and blindfolded?’

      She saw him smile as he looked down and fiddled with a stray thread on his shirt. It was the first genuine smile she’d seen from him. What a bizarre start to the day. She hadn’t known Ethan for twenty-four hours and they were discussing sex as calmly as if they were discussing their favourite pizza toppings. Still, the nature of Ethan’s business was sex, so this conversation was bound to come up at some point.

      ‘It comes down to trust. That’s why we only do this with husbands and wives. The theory being the wife knows the husband and trusts him completely. When you trust the person you’re with, being tied up and blindfolded can be hugely erotic.’

      ‘I take it you’ve tried it?’ she asked.

      ‘Yes. It’s not something I’ve done regularly, but one woman I’ve been with liked it.

      ‘Have you been tied up?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Too emasculating for you?’

      ‘Something like that.’

      Ethan was clearly the sort of man that wore the trousers in a relationship. She imagined the women he went for were petite, blonde, vacuous creatures who did exactly what he wanted. She was definitely not his type, something she was beginning to feel thankful for.

      ‘The husband sometimes takes the role of the rescuer too. We kidnap the wife and the husband will come in and save her.’

      ‘Really? Women want to be saved?’ Were the strong, independent women of the world merely putting on a front to cover up the fact that secretly they all liked the knight in shining armour fantasy?

      ‘Are you telling me you don’t want to be rescued by the handsome prince?’

      ‘That’s not my thing.’

      ‘Well for over half of our clients it is.’

      ‘Do you ever kidnap the husbands?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘You deal mainly with the man, when you arrange these things?’

      He nodded.

      ‘That’s why. You’re predominantly acting out the man’s fantasies. We need to speak to them both so the experience is mutually beneficial.’

      ‘I don’t agree.’

      ‘No you wouldn’t. I’m sure in your world what the woman wants is irrelevant.’

      He glared at her and for a second there was a flash of hurt in his eyes before it was replaced with his habitual anger. Thankfully at that moment there were a lot of male voices outside and suddenly the door was thrown open.

      She couldn’t take her eyes off him and as the boys registered the staring competition that was going on inside the office they all fell silent.

      Ethan was the first to look away as he stood up. ‘Isabelle, you didn’t really have a chance to meet these guys yesterday. Gizmo I presume you talked to on the way home, but this is Kyle.’ He gestured to Black Boots. ‘And behind Gizmo is Jim.’ Baldy peered round Gizmo’s enormous frame and gave her a wave. ‘This is Isabelle, our temporary receptionist.’

      Izzy stood up, ignoring the emphasis that he had put on the word temporary. She held out her hand but Kyle immediately stepped forward and embraced her in a big hug. ‘This place looks great. Sorry about yesterday, no lasting scars I hope.’ He held her out at arm’s length to survey her.

      ‘I could say the same about you, sorry about your nose.’

      He shrugged it off and she turned to face Gizmo and Jim. Gizmo, to her surprise, handed her a bunch of flowers.

      ‘I’m sorry about yesterday too, I’ve never grabbed the wrong woman before. You must have been terrified.’

      ‘Well I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t but it was an honest mistake, you didn’t have to do this.’ She took the flowers and smelled them obligingly. ‘They’re beautiful, thank you.’

      Gizmo blushed.

      ‘I don’t have anything to apologise for, I’m just the driver,’ Jim said. ‘But I’m glad we finally have a woman working here to keep Ethan in his place.’

      Ethan growled from behind her.

      ‘Ignore Ethan,’ Kyle said. ‘He’s a grumpy sod. Let’s go out to breakfast, Ethan you coming?’

      ‘No, and Isabelle has work to do, I’m not paying her to swan around all day, sitting in greasy spoon cafés. The van needs cleaning out so you guys need to be quick. You can bring her back something, by the size of her I’m guessing she’ll have some granola bar or a piece of wholemeal toast.’

      ‘Bacon and egg sandwich please, make sure the egg is extra runny.’ Izzy moved back around the desk to sit in Ethan’s chair and smiled at him as the boys left. The staring resumed for a moment or two and then he walked out, slamming the door behind him.

      *

      Ethan was in the kitchen when he heard Izzy come back from lunch. His heart gave a little leap and he wasn’t sure why. He checked his watch and saw she’d been gone for half an hour instead of the hour she was entitled to. She wasn’t alone.

      ‘I just came by to see if you were ok,’ said the other woman. ‘Those Chase men are clearly dangerous.’

      ‘Bex, are you on this again? Ethan might be a grumpy sod but he’s harmless,’ said Izzy and Ethan heard the squeak of his chair as she sat down.

      ‘It’s his brother I’m more concerned about.’

      Ethan felt his hands curl into fists. He hated people talking about Gizmo. It was never anything good.

      ‘Gizmo is lovely.’

      ‘You won’t be saying that in a minute.’

      ‘I won’t have you spreading vicious rumours about him. This isn’t like you, you hate gossip. And this sort of thing could really damage someone’s reputation. He is not a rapist.’

      ‘Honey, I’m not partaking in idle gossip here, this is fact. I was worried after I left you in the pub yesterday, so I did a little research. Joseph Chase, aka Gizmo, went to prison for having sex with a minor or statutory rape. The proof is here.’

      Bex had obviously handed Izzy something to read because there was a rustle of paper and Izzy went very quiet.

      ‘I don’t care what this says,’ Izzy said. ‘He was obviously wrongly imprisoned. I know he is innocent in this. You spend five minutes in the company of this man and you’d know it too.’

      Ethan frowned. Why was she defending him? Everyone looked at the size and strength of Gizmo and decided straight away that he must have done it. No one knew him like his family did, no one believed him to be innocent.

      ‘Look maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. Just be careful. You’re up here in the middle of nowhere, with a convicted rapist – ’

      ‘He didn’t rape anyone Bex.’ Izzy’s voice had risen, her patience had clearly snapped. ‘And I’ve got work to do, so I’d like you to go.’

      ‘Iz –’

      Ethan walked out into the office and saw Izzy jump with surprise. He looked at her, her eyes were suddenly fearful.

      ‘I didn’t know you were here.’

      ‘Evidently.’ His eyes slid to Bex who quickly closed her mouth. She recovered herself.

      ‘Ethan Chase, I presume, I’m Rebecca Dale – ‘

      He ignored her outstretched hand. ‘I don’t care. If you’re quite finished slagging off my brother, you can