"Yes sir,” she mock saluted and he just grinned, as she slid back into the bed beside him. “And the rose, I've never seen one that shade before and where on earth did you it at this time of the year?"
"I guess I never showed you one of my other main indulgences out on the terrace have I? No, we've been too busy over the last few days..."
"Are you telling me you've got a greenhouse out there?” Lisa asked, surprised.
"A mini one actually, big enough to house a few rare orchids and roses and a couple palms, but small enough not to cost me fortune in heating bills to keep it operating all winter. This baby here is called a “blue girl". Quite a bit of experimentation has been done on trying to develop a true blue rose for years, but no one has managed to deliver ... as yet. However, I recently read that after 13 years of joint research by an Australian company and Japanese company, that a blue rose was created in 2004 using genetic engineering. The Delphaninin gene, (that's the primary plant pigment that produces true blue flowers which is absent in roses) was cloned from the petunia and inserted into a mauve-blend rose. However, since the pigment cyanidin was still present, the rose was more of a dark burgundy than true blue. So it's still a work in progress my dear, and the closest anyone's come to it so far, is this shade. The imported ones you've probably seen in the flower shops that are in those royal blue and Prussian blue shades are dyed."
"And what's cyanidin? Forgive me, but I totally flunked out in Science classes."
"Well, we can't be perfect at everything now ... but judging by your performance in the past few days, you seem to have done quite all right in the human biology department.” James teased, and Lisa playfully punched him on the shoulder.
"Very funny McGuinn, now are you going to answer my question or not?"
"You really are interested, aren't you?” His voice softened and there was a limpid expression in his eyes as though she had just told him something he had been longing to hear but still couldn't believe his fortune.
"Yes, I am, you silly guy.” Lisa answered mock impatiently but with genuine affection, immediately picking up on his surprised delight that she would be interested in what he did in his down time. She immediately sensed that most of the other women he might have seen in the past didn't share any sort of serious interest in him as a person. But then again, that went both ways. However, the important thing was that he was sharing something apart from police work and BDSM, that meant a lot to him.
"Cyanidin is a natural organic compound which is classified as a flavonoid and an anthocynin. It is a pigment found in many redberries including like bilberry, blackberry, blueberry, cherry, cranberry, elderberry, hawthorn, loganberry, acai berry and raspberry. It can also be found in other fruits such as apples and plums. The highest concentrations of cyanidin are found in the skin of the fruit. Like other anthocyanidins, it has antioxidant and radical-scavenging effects which protect cells from oxidative damage and reduces the risk of heart diseases and cancer. Studies carried out in Japan led to the theory that cyanidin may aid in preventing obesity and diabetes as well as containing anti-inflammatory effects. Other studies have generally shown that cyanidin may have an important future role in cancer therapy."
"Wow! Utterly fascinating,” Lisa breathed, totally awed, as she took the extra plate under the one containing the omelettes, and using the fork he handed her, helped herself to one. “So whoever coined the phrase ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away, must certainly known something if only on a subconscious level."
"I agree one hundred percent, but a lady cannot on apples alone now, can she?” He reverted to a teasing voice. “She needs her strength and endurance for when I choose to bind her in the most intriguing and uncomfortable positions..."
"Oh boy, I give up, like all men it always comes back to sex.” Lisa drawled, throwing up her hands in mock resignation.
"Ahh, but let's be practical here sweetheart, if no one had sex, we'd all be running around like maniacs, totally frustrated and angry, not to mention the decrease in population..."
"As if that isn't already happening.... amongst the Bay Street types at least. Anyway, back to more pleasant subjects ... I don't like to think about never getting laid again...."
"That's not something you'll have to worry about sweetheart, trust me."
"Well thanks for the reassurance Detective McGuinn."
"You're welcome Detective Mayne.” He smiled, and Lisa just turned to mush inside.
"Anyway, can I see your greenhouse after breakfast? I simply love having plants, but I'm not that good with them. So my neighbour's sixteen year old autistic savant son who seems to be a natural gardener, was happier than a pig in mud when I said that he could tend the little patch of green in front of my house two years ago. Now I have delphiniums, peonies, petunias, and a few other varieties that I hardly know the names of growing on what used to be the saddest looking lawn on the block in summer.” She revealed, taking a bite of the delicious omelette. “Mmmm, simply heavenly! What other hidden talents have you got up your sleeve McGuinn?"
"That's why you'll be spending the next month with me darlin’ so I can reveal them all to you at my leisure.” James responded with an enigmatic expression, as he reached for the carafe of coffee and a mug.
"Sounds delightfully ominous and.... intriguing.... and ... and exciting.... Mmmm.. I hardly wait."
"And I shall do my best to ensure that I meet your expectations m'lady.” He grinned, mockingly bowing his head in her direction.
CHAPTER TWENTY
AFTER BREAKFAST JAMES showed Lisa his mini green house on the terrace as promised, he led her back to the playroom.
"Umm, are you forgetting that we have to be at Shira's funeral at eleven? It's almost nine thirty and I still have to go back to my house to change my clothes?” Lisa looked at him with genuine consternation as he took a neatly looped length of quarter inch thick hemp rope off the wall.
"This will not take too long. While you are in training you will always be going out in secret bondage when we go out together. As your master it is my wish. Should I forget at anytime which is not very likely, I will expect you to take the initiative and wear some sort token of your submission to me. Failing to do so will land you in the punishment room again. Is that clear?” In his present tone of voice and manner, he didn't need to put the collar on her for Lisa to get the message.
"Yes Master James.” She addressed him properly as her master now and he didn't bid her to do otherwise.
"Now, strip, and put your hands behind your head.” He commanded and she wasted no time obeying him.
James loosened the length of rope, doubled it up in equal lengths. From the back, he wrapped both ends around her torso very snugly. He crossed the ropes over each other, creating a loop at the center between her breasts, and wound the ropes around her again just under the breasts, in the opposite direction bringing them together at Lisa's mid back. He repeated the same procedure at the back, bringing the rope back around the front, before crossing over each breast and over the shoulder to form a rope bra. James then brought the ropes back around the front and proceeded to circle each of her breasts before tying the pieces off at the back. Involuntarily, Lisa's whole body tingled, she was surprised to find out how much she really enjoyed rope bondage after all.
"There, now that's more like it.” He declared, gently slapping each breast and teasing her hardened nipples between his fingers. Lisa groaned her pleasure, automatically arching her body towards him for more. “Not yet, I'm not done with you yet my sweet.” He opened the punishment room while she stayed where she stood without having to be told. Entering it he came back out with a leather chastity belt with small silver padlocks on each side. While Lisa was secretly thrilled at his attitude of possession as her master, she did feel a little perturbed when she thought about the difficulty this particular device would create while having to use the ladies room.
"It's only symbolic.” James assured her, when he saw the look of perturbation on her f
ace. “If you check it you'll see that the leather is very pliable, so you should have no difficulty using the facilities. However, the real thing will come later if you're ever a bad girl and disobey me in any way during the time you're wearing my training collar."
"Oh dear, I guess I better be on my best behaviour.” Lisa said with an exaggerated mock shudder.
"What, and rub me of the pleasure of being a medieval lord and master?” James joked. “Not nice at all, my lady."
"Maybe, but I'll be the one who has to wear the damned thing, and who knows for how long."
"That's depends on the severity of your infraction, now doesn't it? Now there, we're all nicely locked in.” He slapped her bare bum after snapped the last of the four locks of the chastity belt into place and Lisa proceeded to get dressed.
"I'll meet you at the synagogue in about an hour.” Lisa said to James as she finished dressing. “Oh, my car keys, you still have them."
"Hold on.” James went to the coat closet and checked the pocket of the coat he had worn last night, took the keys out and gave them to her. He walked her to the front door and kissed her before she left.
As the door closed behind her and James went back upstairs to get dressed, and he couldn't believe it when it hit him: His loft that he thoroughly loved and was immensely proud of; the place he could always retreat to and just be happy alone, now felt utterly desolate without Lisa! Even Arthur's company couldn't make up for her not being there.
Oh shit McGuinn, you're a goner! It's bitten you, and bitten damned hard at that. The love bug's finally gotten you my man!
"And you know what? I don't mind ... not one single bit. Now my darling Lisa, I wonder if you're ready to be collared by me sooner, rather than waiting a month?"
FOR HER PART on the way home, feeling the ropes that bound her, remembering his touch on her heated body, Lisa involuntarily glanced at the passenger seat expecting James to be there. She couldn't understand why she suddenly felt like she was missing the other half of herself. Oh dear, I don't think I can wait a month. I don't want to ... She thought, feeling rather anxious. As she usually did when unsettling feelings overwhelmed her, Lisa reached into the visor over the driver's seat and extracted an ATB CD and slipped it into the player.
As the synthesized sounds with their throbbing beat of Ocean Trance filled the confined space of her car, Lisa was forced to suddenly pullover to the curb as the visions came unbidden. The driver behind her, irritated, honked his horn and yelled an obscenity at her which she ignored.
Another happy customer on the streets of beautiful Toronto.
James’ aura and scent of him was still all around her and she could feel him as though he was right there in the car with her. Then a sudden flash of Shane Dowd's cold, reptilian face, contorted with inhuman hatred, flitted by her consciousness, then as though it were happening in front of her Lisa heard the gunshot and watched the man she realized that she loved, crumple to the ground in a pool of blood on the cold concrete of an underground garage.
"No!” She screamed, hardly realizing she had done so aloud, until a passerby stopped and asked;
"You okay lady?"
"What, what?.... y..yeah.” She startled, rudely jolting back to the present. Suddenly remembering that she had forgotten to tell Chief Willard everything she had seen when she James and she interrogated Shane Dowd, although she had warned James last night as they were lying in bed after their late dinner, about Dowd having him in his crosshairs. James hadn't worried, figuring that since Dowd was in jail what could he do.
"Sweetheart, if I had a buck for every death threat I've received from characters like him, I'd be one very rich cop.... “
"Damn it McGuinn! Lisa snapped, frustrated that he didn't seem to be taking her warning too seriously. “You're forgetting that he hasn't made the threat verbally, it's what I picked up when I had to mentally probe that dung heap he calls a brain."
"Don't worry about me. Okay, okay. Will it make you feel better if I wore my bulletproof vest every time I went out? Will that allay your fears any?” James, seeing the genuine fear and consternation her face, softened, trying to reassure her.
"A little,” she admitted, not completely mollified.
He put a comforting arm around her. “I'll be careful, I promise. Besides I've got you as my partner to watch out for me...” he grinned, continuing to placate her.
"You're forgetting that I'm on vacation for a month. That's it I'm forgoing the damn vacation and coming back to work ... As a matter of fact I'll ring Chief right now.” She reached over to the night table on her side of the bed for her cell phone.
"No you're not.” James declared in a tone that brooked no opposition, as he took the phone from her. “You've made a commitment to me for the next month Callisto and I intend to hold you to it. Besides, Chief will be assigning Maury Rickman as my temporary partner for the duration of your absence. We go back a long way and have worked well together in the past before he transferred to Fifty-Two Division.
"Well why didn't you tell me that before you had me worrying my head off...?” Lisa scowled.
"Ohh but it was touching, not to mention thoroughly reassuring to see you worrying about me this way.” He teased, engulfing her in his arms and silencing her with his lips upon hers....
"It's not enough McGuinn, I'm not mollified, especially after what just I saw.” Lisa muttered. In something akin to panic, she whipped out her cell phone which beeped a low battery signal at her as started to dial. “Damn, I forgot to charge it!” Nevertheless she dialed Superintendent Willard's number, and got connected long enough to learn from Sara that he was temporarily away from his desk and she would have him call Lisa back shortly.
"It's okay Sara I'll try back from a pay phone in a few minutes. I forgot to charge my cell and the battery is really low."
"All right then. If he comes back in the next couple of minutes I'll tell him you're trying to reach him."
"Thanks Sara, oh, and tell him it's urgent that I speak to him, so don't let him leave again."
Lisa turned right at Sherbourne Street and proceeded southbound to go to the Tim Horton's at Richmond where she knew she could park free for a few minutes across the street at the service station. Driving into the service station, she had the attendant who knew her fill up her tank while she went across the street to the payphone to call Willard again.
"I'm sorry Detective Mayne, Chief called in right after you hung up. Apparently he's left the office after all. He mentioned that he was going to the Levenson child's funeral.” Sara informed her.
"Thank you Sara, I'll catch up with him there. Detective McGuinn and I have also been invited."
The tight knot of tension and panic in Lisa's stomach didn't subside, but somehow she managed to drive to her house in the Beaches, have a quick shower and get dressed, comforting herself with the thought that James promised to be careful and was expected to meet up with her at the synagogue at eleven o'clock. Looking at the time on the clock at her bedside table after dressing, Lisa found that she had only twenty minutes. With the morning rush hour over she should be able to make it there in about fifteen if she was lucky.
However, before leaving the house, Lisa took a couple minutes to just breathe deeply and exhale again going inward to calm her nerves if that was possible at this point. It wasn't a proper meditation, but it would have to do. She concentrated on drawing down the ray of white light and intently concentrating it around James as a form of psychic protection as she pictured him in a protective white impenetrable bubble. It was the best she could do given the present circumstances. The mini session calmed her down somewhat, and Lisa left her house, telling herself that she would see him there at the funeral.
DETECIVE JAMES MCGUINN approached his car and was about to open the driver's door when he suddenly felt someone behind him and spin around to face two masked assailant with baseball bats. The assailant closest to him rounded on him with his bat missing James as he quickly moved out of the way and th
e blow landed on his car, smashing the left back window. But the other assailant swung from behind him and got James near his lower back. However, after what Lisa had told him last night, he had taken the extra precaution and worn his bulletproof vest after all. Even through it he felt the force of the blow and it winded and unsteadied him for a few terrifying seconds. But that was all the time the first assailant needed as he started to lash out again with his bat catching James on his kneecap while the second aimed another that handed on James’ head causing him to fall to the ground. Like vultures swooping down on fallen prey, the both men continued to relentlessly rain blows while simultaneously kicking him.
James didn't have a chance to fight back and through the haze of blows he thought he saw his life flash before him. Then he saw Lisa engulfed by a strange iridescent golden white light and energy that was emanating from her, growing ever brighter as she concentrated it towards him.
"Hold the fucker down. Let me give ‘im a taste of what he threatened to give me before I blow his sorry ass away. Oh, and gimme the gun too.” James heard the first assailant growl to the second one, and James was sure he didn't mistake the voice. But how could that be? He was supposed to be locked up at the Don Jail.
Momentarily infused by the strength of his rage that he wasn't going to go down this way, along the energy of the psychic light concentrated in his direction by his lover, James managed to draw his gun from his underarm holster. He fired three times at the first assailant whose filthy boot was about to make contact with his groin while his partner tried to pry James’ legs apart. The man dropped to the cold concrete with a heavy thud, while his companion released his hold and took off like a coward.
Bloodied, bruised and in excruciating pain James lay there on the ground by his car. He reached with extreme difficulty into his coat pocket for his cell phone and managed to dial 911 before passing out.
Handcuffs and Roses Page 13