CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“Oh, Lois,” he sighed. “You have far too much testosterone in you. Never make bets you haven’t a cat in hell’s chance of keeping.”

He shook his head again and got to his feet. He picked up a purple plastic box on the table beside him and opened it. He then plucked out a two-inch long silver needle and examined it.

The box was almost transparent, and I could see there were around another twenty of the wicked–looking things in there. “What colour do you want, Lois?”

“Needles?” I looked at him and winced.

“Not feeling too fussy on that score.” Needles had never been one of my most favourite things.

“No,” he laughed. “For the lacing of your corset. Black or red usually work well, but you can have any colour of the rainbow.”

Thinking long and hard, I finally said, “Pink.” I wondered if he might look a little effeminate and a whole lot less scary when handling pink ribbon.

“Pink it is.” While he went off to look for the ribbon, I calmed myself down. Forcibly pressing my body down into th