Buying The Virgin Part 1-3 novel Chapter 98

Shaking his head, My Master laughs. “No, I’m perfectly serious. We had one piece of work, a test-piece, writing the program for solving an equation by iteration. It meant breaking down the steps and individually punching the cards. It took me hours. Then my ‘friend’ decided to nudge my elbow and I dropped the lot. They scattered everywhere…. I had to do the whole thing again.”

“Couldn’t you just sort them back into order?”

He rolls his eyes to the heavens. “Imagine trying to sort out a pack of playing cards, but there’s no pictures, just holes in the cards giving you a code for what the picture is…”

I burst out laughing. “It puts my problems into perspective, doesn’t it?”

“Indeed, it does,” he says, smiling, then his face turns serious. “Listen, Charlotte. I came down here because there’s something I need to talk to you about…”

He sounds worried.

“Master?”

“I’ve been talking with Will Stanton. He’s concerned that with you giving evidence against the traffickers, but some of them still being at large, you may be…. at risk....”

“I know that. But I took it on board when I agreed to help…”

“Yes, but….” He is clearly uncomfortable about what he has to say. “……. they would like you to stay close by for the moment, so you can have protection.”

His meaning begins to penetrate. “Close by? You mean, here? They don’t want me to go back to the University?”

“That’s right.”

“But I can’t not go back. I’d miss lectures. I’d get behind on my work…. After everything I did to get there….”

“We’ll sort out some other arrangements,” he says. “I don’t want you away from here until this whole thing is sorted out, one way or another.”

“But Master, I got to go back.”

“No, Charlotte. You don’t. I don’t want you to go. And you’re not going, for now at least. And that’s the end of it. I expect you to obey me in this….”

I look away, swallowing hard.

“Was that a yes?”

He holds my chin, making me look him in the eye.

“Is that a yes?” he repeats. “You will not try to return to the University until we have made arrangements for you to be safe?”

I don’t speak. I try changing the subject.

I eye him.

He hesitates. “What’s that look for?”

“I thought I was going to be sexually harassed? I’m not feeling very harassed so far….”

“Is that right? I might just push this door closed and spread you on the desk….”

I can’t suppress my grin, nor he. I see the slant to his eye. He knows that I’m trying to distract him, but he goes for it.

We stare at each other, neither looking away. Clicking the door locked behind him, he stands over me, then grabbing me by the wrists, pulls me upright and into his embrace.

Kicking the chair away from behind me, he pushes me up against the wall, pulling my arms above my head. I slam backwards, he, grabbing a fistful of my hair. My hands flat against the plaster, I accidentally bang the light switch, which blinks on, then off once more as my fingers knock it off again…

Leaning in close to me, he presses my wrists tight against the wall. “Don’t move,” he mutters. “You want harassment? Let’s see what we can do…”

Carefully, so as not to disturb the order of anything, he lifts my books and notes from the desk, placing them on a bookshelf, then places my laptop next to them.