Page 26 of Bound and Branded

“So what? I clean your house by day and I’m your sex slave by night?”

“I don’t mind fucking during the day,” he says.

“Obviously,” I say, laughing somehow in spite of myself.

“Or, I’m happy to pretend it never happened.”

He’s happy to pretend it never happened? I don’t like the way he says that. It scrapes against something raw and vulnerable inside of me. But of course for him this isn’t a landmark occurrence. It’s not like a whole rockslide happened inside of him. He’s an expert at this. I’m just one of many women he’s tied up and done this to. He’s got it down like a science. It’s obvious.

And that’s good. I benefited from that.

But it’s a good reminder that I’m grappling with something he simply isn’t.

“Okay,” he says. “You don’t like that.”

“Stop it,” I say.

“What?”

“Don’t read my mind.”

“Trust me,” he says. “You don’t want a Dom that can’t read your mind. To an extent, that’s what you need from me.”

“But I don’t like it. I don’t even know what I feel.”

“Okay,” he says. “How about this. As long as you’re working for me, as long as you’re paying off your dad’s debt, you’ll be my sub. You being my sub is not part of you paying the debt off. Those are separate things. You can quit being my sub at any time, and it doesn’t affect that agreement. Do you understand?”

I nod slowly.

“But it doesn’t have to be completely separate,” he continues. “You can ask me questions. This is new for you.”

I can’t decide whether I’m being patronized or not.

“Remember what I said about trust?”

I scrunched up my face. “Remember what I said about mind-reading?”

He smiles. Just slightly. I try to remember if I’ve seen Caleb smile before.

“You can stay up here until you’re ready to go home,” he says. “You can come back tomorrow to clean.”

“Are we going to do another scene?”

I’m not sure if I can handle one. I’m also sure that I want to do it again. And I’m afraid that if we don’t do it right away, I won’t be able to have him again. That he might think better of it.

“Message me in the app,” he says.

I nod.

And without any further conversation he leaves me, naked on the bed and still contemplating everything.

I have a terrible feeling that I’ve gotten a whole lot more change than I bargained for.

Chapter Six

Caleb

The gratitude I feel when she finally leaves is untold.

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