“Julie’s going to hate me,” she finally said.
“No,” he said. “I’m quite positive I’ll be the one she hates.”
“I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
“Don’t you think you should hear the rest of what I want?”
She nodded.
“We’ll have more discussions before we start anything, but in general, at dinner each night, we’ll go over how your day was, talk about any issues or items to work on, and I’ll give you my expectations for the following day.”
“Will I have any free time? Be able to call and text my friends?”
He nodded. “This is all new to you, and though others might disagree, I think it’d be beneficial for you to have some down time each day. I’ll build two to three hours a day into your schedule. During that time, you’re free to make calls. Though I do suggest you put my number on your outgoing message. That way, if there’s an emergency, I can get that information to you.”
“That makes sense.” She nodded and her head tilted in that endearing way she had. “How do I address you?”
He’d have to give that issue some thought. Kate had typically used “Sir” or “Master,” except when he’d institute lower protocol, which gave her permission to use his first name. While he liked hearing his name spoken by Sasha, he found he liked hearing her use “Sir” a lot more. He didn’t think she was ready for “Master.” Or maybe he was the one who wasn’t ready.
“I think ‘Sir’ is fine for now,” he said.
“I should bring my journal, right? I’m sure you’ll have lots of writing for me to do.”
“Yes, bring your journal and your purse. Like I said, I’ll provide everything else you need.”
“Do you need my clothes size?”
Making his voice as dry and deadpan as possible, he asked, “What makes you think you’ll be wearing clothes?”
Her eyes grew wide. “I won’t be?”
“Sasha, if you have to ask that, I question whether this is really the right thing to do.”
She looked down at her hands. “No, I knew I’d be naked some, but I didn’t know it’d be all the time.” She peeked up at him. “Will it be all the time?”
He swallowed his laugh. “It won’t be all the time, but it’ll be damn well as often as I want it to be. And I have to say, now that I’ve seen you naked—”
Her cheeks flushed the loveliest hue of pink. “When should we start?”
“Two weeks?” he suggested. “I’m moving into the new house this week, so that’ll give me some time to get settled.”
“That works with me.”
She looked so beautiful kneeling at his feet, calmly discussing being at his disposal all day, every day for two weeks. Fuck, he was a bastard and a half.
But she wants it.
He couldn’t argue with that. The truth was, he wanted it, too. He wanted her in his house, in his bed, and in his chains. He wanted to push her to her knees before him, bend her over his couch, and hold her tight in his arms. He wanted to care for her like no one ever had before and to be the one person she could always count on to keep her safe and protected.
He fucking wanted too much, and wanting always came with a price.
The difference, though, was he just might pay it for her.
• • •
Later that evening, he welcomed Daniel and Nathaniel to the guesthouse. He was going about this all backward, but things had happened too quickly at Petal Pushers. He’d called and invited Jeff, but apparently he and Dena were attending a class of some sort at the hospital.
“Come in,” he said. “Excuse the boxes.”
Daniel looked around the room. “I’m glad you found a place, but I have to admit, I’ve grown used to having you here. It’ll seem so empty without you.”
“I don’t envy you the boxes,” Nathaniel said. “Took us forever to unpack.”
“I won’t have that much. I let Kate keep most of the furniture and stuff. I’ll be buying everything new.”
He realized with a start that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d thought of Kate—and this time, his chest didn’t have that empty feeling like it used to. He was finally moving on.
He waved to the couch, feeling freer than he had in a long time. “Have a seat.”
“Are you going to tell us why we’re here tonight, or do you want us to guess?” Daniel asked.
“I’m guessing it has something to do with a submissive being retrained.” Nathaniel sat down and studied him. “Am I right?”
“You are,” Cole said. He felt the need to pace, but he sat down on the ottoman in front of the couch, facing his friends.
“Something wrong?” Daniel asked.
“No, in fact, everything’s going well. Better than I expected, actually.”
He hated that it felt like he was asking permission. Of course, he really wasn’t. He’d already made the plans with Sasha. Was this one of those situations where you ended up asking forgiveness instead of permission?
“Sasha is doing very well,” he said.
“I thought so. Especially after she stayed overnight.” Daniel had that know-it-all look on his face.
“She what?” Nathaniel obviously hadn’t heard the group gossip.
“Sasha spent the night.”
“I thought you weren’t going to have sex with her.” Nathaniel didn’t look happy. “That’s why you were recommended.”
“How many BDSM relationships have you had that didn’t involve sex?” Cole asked.
“We aren’t discussing my sex life. We’re talking about how you explicitly said you weren’t going to sleep with Sasha during her retraining.”
“I assure you, Sasha suffered nothing. She wanted it. Badly.”
“Abby wants a lot, too. That doesn’t mean she always gets what she wants in a scene.”
“Of course not.” Cole felt his blood start to boil. It was only his inner voice reminding him that Nathaniel was simply looking after Sasha’s best interests that kept him from saying what he really felt. “I would be a horrible Dominant if I gave my submissive anything she wanted. But I don’t do that. And I would hope you know enough about me to recognize that.”