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Only six more hours, Peter thought as he stood outside Director Upwood’s door. In six hours, barring anything unfortunate happening, he would be off for the next thirty days and he was looking forward to it. Over the last two days, he’d been easing Carrie into a D/s dynamic. A new rule here, a challenging command there. And lots of sex mixed with a little kink. He was ready for this day to be over, because she’d agreed that tonight at the party she would have a scene with him and remain his submissive until she had to go back to work on Monday. Her only requirement was that he spend the day with her at a nearby amusement park doing whatever she wanted. That was the adventure she’d picked for them. It could have been a lot worse.

The supervisor for the next thirty days was reporting at three, and Peter planned to be gone by four, but even that felt like ages away.

With a grin, he thought of the plans he was making for them. It would be a fun night as long as he could get her to relax into her role as a submissive. He hoped to show her that power exchange wasn’t as awful as she thought it was, and the last couple of days had laid the groundwork for that. The door to Director Upwood’s office flew open and Peter quickly reverted his expression back to neutral.

“Mercer, I need to make a trip to Chicago.”

“Chicago, sir? What for?” He felt his heart drop. This could ruin his plans with Carrie.

“My oldest daughter has a recital. I want to go. I just found out about it this morning. Damn girl doesn’t talk to her old man enough.”

Something about this didn’t feel right, but he couldn’t stop the director from going to his daughter’s recital.

“When do you want to leave?”

“By noon today.”

Damn it. That meant he might wind up in Chicago overnight instead of with Carrie. This job sucked sometimes.

“I’ll see what I can do to arrange it, sir.”

The director grunted his approval and retreated into his office again.

Peter got on his communicator and called for Agent Savko to join him outside the director’s office.

When the junior agent arrived, Peter parked him in his place and went to the conference room they were still using as a base of operations. The room was empty, so he locked the door and pulled out his personal cell.

Carrie answered on the first ring.

“Good morning, good morning. How’s life at the Secret Service?” It sounded like she was bouncing up and down.

“How much coffee have you had?” he asked sternly.

“What’s it to ya?” she asked.

“I just don’t want you crashing in the middle of our scene tonight.” He winced. Technically, he was calling to prepare her for the chance that he might have to cancel. “Actually, that’s why I’m calling. Something has come up.”

“Bailing on me, are you?” Her voice still held a hint of teasing, but her tone had shifted, and he was sure he could hear disappointment.

“I’m trying really hard to get out of it, but Upwood has a last-minute trip out of town, and he wants to leave in two hours.”

“It’s fine. Really. There’s always next weekend.” Her voice was quiet now, and the disappointment sounded like downright hurt. From what he knew of her family life, she suffered from abandonment issues. Damned if he would contribute to them.

“Damn it. No. We’re doing this tonight. I just might be a little later than five.”

“If you say so,” she said.

“Hey,” he said, keeping his tone quiet and kind. “I promise, I’ll see you tonight, little one. Be ready for me. I’ll text you instructions.”

“I’ll be waiting,” she said, sounding hopeful again.

“Good girl. I should get back to work.” He ended the call determined not to go to Chicago even if that meant faking a family emergency of his own.

He called his replacement for the month and asked him if he could come in and do the transition early. Then he convinced Upwood to push his departure time back an hour, citing safety issues at the airport.

He promised his boss he would stick around until four and complete all of his end of rotation paperwork, but he was sending Agent Lathen to Chicago.

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