Page 15 of Leland

“The French Toast.”

“Customers’ choice for April.”

Shaking her head, she picked up her chocolate milk and took a sip. I watched her, feeling oddly content. She seemed so relaxed.

“I think yes,” she added after a minute.

“Yes what, baby?” Her comment caught me off guard. I was enjoying the high the morning had brought so far.

“Yes, I will submit to you for six weeks. I do think you can help me learn to control my anger.”

Laughing, I rubbed her back. “Do you think maybe you should hear theentireplan first?”

“Oh,” she said after biting into another strawberry-sprinkle donut. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

“But for the record, Ireallyhope your answer will still be yes.”

“No taksiebacksies.”

“No taksiebackies, sugar.”

Chapter Five

Rouge

I swung my legs back and forth as Leland and I sat at his kitchen counter, flipping through the binder he’d made. It had a zombie unicorn on the front and blood splattered dividers separating the contents. It was obvious he’d put a lot of thought into picking out something that would match my aesthetic and I was really touched.

“Do you understand everything?” he asked, handing me a pen.

“Yes, sir.”

He had been abundantly clear in his expectations of me and he’d obviously given his crazy plan a lot of thought. We’d been negotiating for a little over two hours and he had been wonderful. There had been several things I hadn’t been sure about, and two that were a hard limit. He’d listened to all my concerns and made adjustments accordingly. I was happy with the end results.

My biggest concern was that I didn’t want our dynamic to be super obnoxious at work. People already knew, but I didn’t want it to be in their faces. Leland assured me we could keepit discreet. He’d been very supportive of my hard no on public spankings and punishments that required me to be completely naked. Nerves had made my breathing shaky when he’d asked me to explain my worries over being nude while punished. Telling anyone about my marriage, well, fake marriage, in the cult was hard. We were put through so many terrible things and I hated to relive it, much less tell people about them. It was embarrassing to admit the abuse sometimes. He’d held my hand as I explained that the predator the cult married me off to took my clothes away as punishment when I tried to run away the second time. After he and some of the elders had beaten and tortured me for over twelve hours, I was forced to remain naked so his other wives could see the marks of my punishment. After I finished, Leland hugged me tight and told me how sorry he was that life had been so unfair to me.

Hugging, well physical touch in general, still made me a bit itchy, but I was starting to like hugs. The Little girls in my life hugged me all the time, but Little hugs were a whole lot different than adult hugs.

“And what happens if you say ‘red’ in anger?” he questioned.

“We take a break for an hour.”

“Do we separate during that hour?”

“No, sir. We stay together so other emotions won’t affect our judgment.”

“That’s right. What happens after an hour?”

“If I still say ‘red,’ you will honor it and our arrangement is all over. I will move to a different position at Daddies Ink until I get the help that works for me.”

“Will I be mad at you?”

“No, sir. You might be worried about me, but you’re never mad at me.”

“If you change your mind, or calm down, in the hour and want to continue, what happens?”

“We will talk about what caused me to use my safeword and discuss my feelings before we decide what to do next.”

“Such a smart girl,” he praised. “What does it mean if I use a safeword?”

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