Chapter 1
Five weeks after running into “Uncle” Shane Trant for the first time in ten years, my life has taken a completely unexpected turn. Not only was I now free of the burden of making two house payments every month--Shane bought the house I’d inherited from my mother--but I was also in a new “relationship.” This relationship was nothing like any I’d ever shared with a man before.
I was Shane Trant’s submissive.
I still didn’t know all the rules and expectations that went into our arrangement. But after last weekend, I’ve learned a little. I’ve made a few mistakes, and I’ve been punished. I can handle the punishments okay. The rewards…? Let’s just say they definitely make it all worthwhile.
Turns out there are real advantages to having a master with nearly unlimited resources.
“You are the luckiest girl on earth!” my best friend Jill said as she flounced onto my bed. Wearing a pair of jean shorts and a tank top, she was watching me pack for my first full weekend with Shane. Once upon a time I’d said the same about her--that she was the luckiest girl. She was an attorney with a great job and, until last week, a great boyfriend. “I wish he had a brother.”
“I think he does.”
“Find out for me, will you?”
“Will do.” I smoothed a frothy white concoction of lace on top of the small stack of clothes I’d packed. I hadn’t expected packing for this weekend to be so complicated. Shane preferred me naked. That should have meant I didn’t need a lot of clothes, just a few things for going out. But on Wednesday he’d sent me a letter and a package. The letter contained a lengthy list of items to bring for our weekend together, including my passport. The package, hand delivered by courier, contained a handful of gorgeous, expensive day and evening dresses--purchased by Shane, of course.
“Where do you think he’s taking you?” Jill asked, lying on her stomach, chin resting on her fists.
“Since he told me to bring my passport, I’m assuming it’s somewhere out of the country. But I have no clue.”
She gave a melodramatic sigh that was very much out of character for her. “He’s taking you on a trip. That is so freaking romantic.”
“He used to live in Spain,” I said, thinking aloud as I wedged a few pretty bras into my suitcase.
“Spain,” Jill repeated on a second sigh. “Spain! I’ve been wanting to visit Spain forever. The beaches. The Guggenheim. The Tomato Festival.”
“Tomato festival?” I echoed. I hadn’t realized Jill was so into tomatoes.
“Yes, you heard that right. It’s not what you might expect.” Jill’s expression was both wistful and lustful. “Close your eyes.” I closed them. “Now, instead of imagining dozens of white tents, vendors selling baskets of tomatoes, imagine hundreds of shirtless suntanned, young, scrumptious Spanish men throwing tomatoes at each other.”
“Hmmm. That sounds…interesting.” The image in my head wasn’t so pretty. So instead, I imagined Shane lounging poolside, skin glistening, hair a mass of wet curls as I knelt next to him, rubbing suntan lotion on his scrumptious chest.
Now that was something worth imagining.
“I wish you could take me with you,” Jill said.
With great reluctance, I opened my eyes. “I could talk to Shane—“
“Don’t you dare. I wouldn’t dream of being the third wheel on your romantic trip. No way. Especially knowing what you two…might do. It’s all a little too much for me.”
To be honest, it was all a little too much for me too. In fact, after my introduction to Shane’s in-home dungeon, which I’d initially dubbed the torture chamber, and the wickedly erotic things he did in it, I’d spent four weeks avoiding him. Rather, I’d spent four weeks running away from my feelings for him. But now, after spending a little quality time in that room last weekend, I wasn’t as terrified of it anymore. No, in a strange way, I was beginning to see the room in a new light.
But I still was anxious about this weekend. I wasn’t sure if that jittery feeling would ever go away.
As much as I would have loved to bring Jill along this weekend, I hadn’t expected her to say yes. I would have loved having her there for comfort, something--or rather, someone--from my world, the real world, to help me keep from losing myself. But I’d been the third wheel many times. It wasn’t fun. I couldn’t imagine how awkward it would be to be the oddball in a dungeon.
A random thought popped into my head, and I couldn’t let it go. “You said you wanted me to find out if he has a brother. What if his brother is into domination and submission too?”
“I’d have to think about that.” Jill’s nose scrunched up and her lips curled with disgust. Really, she shouldn’t be so quick to judge. She had no idea what she was missing. “Maybe he could be untrained?”
“If he’s anything like Shane he wouldn’t be untrainable. And, given the chance, you might find out you wouldn’t want to untrain him.”
“Don’t go there, bestie. Nonono.” Waving her hands in front of her face, Jill hopped off the bed and scurried to the door. “I don’t want to hear anymore. Time for me to go, anyway. I’ve got to finish up that deposition for Monday.”
“Good luck.” I grabbed her on her way past, gave her a big hug.
Jill gave me her serious lawyer look. “You’re happy, right? Really okay with all that yes, sir, no, sir stuff?”
“I’m really happy, yes.” Not a lie, though I couldn’t say for sure that I was happy about the yes, sir, no sir stuff. There was a lot yet I didn’t know or understand about being a submissive. I was, frankly, more than a little nervous about this weekend.
“Okay. If it starts to be too much, do something about it. Don’t let him abuse you.”
“There’s no abuse. It’s nothing like that.” I pulled out of her hold, going back to my very full suitcase.
“I don’t know.” At my bedroom door, she gave me another serious lawyer look. “I want to believe that, but I’m skeptical.”
“You can’t know if you haven’t tried it.”
“That’s something I won’t do. No way. Not with my history.”
“Yeah, I understand.” Jill had been abused by one of her mom’s boyfriends when she was a kid. Not only was she beat but also sexually molested. We talked about it once, when we were both very drunk. I’d concluded, even buzzed, that Jill could use some therapy. And I had a feeling it was the unresolved issues related to that abuse that caused the failure of her relationships. She was absolutely beautiful, smart, independent, and loving. But she’d suffered one failed relationship with a man after another. It killed me, watching her suffer through broken heart after broken heart. This last one she’d taken really badly. No doubt because it had been the longest and there’d been talk of marriage.