As quiet as it was kept, respect and honor were a part of the way things were done around there. So, as a thank you for his display of respect, Amenhotep released one of His service slaves interested in acquisition into the gentleman’s service. jamii ended up moving out of Atlanta altogether after that.
I guess she thought she could pick up and find what she wanted somewhere else.
The last thing I remembered hearing about jamii, she had decided to leave the lifestyle and find a vanilla boyfriend because the lifestyle had “bored” her. She can front all she wanted, but the bottom line was she tried to act like the victim and got burned by her own BS. In the process of trying to exact whatever revenge she thought she was going to get, she completely screwed herself out of a good opportunity. As I said before, this was a realm of honor and respect, and what was given, was also received.
nuru was the next to go, and it happened less than a week later.
She started to purposely break the rules in an attempt to get attention as well. That really did nothing more than to upset us. In my pursuit of Angel and Kitana, I guess it was supposedly my fault neither I nor Neferterri paid attention to her. Or should I say enough attention to her. Here we go with those damn romance books again. But instead of trying to release her without backlash, we simply punished her with the silent treatment. The one thing we couldn’t tolerate was a disobedient submissive for the sake of being disobedient. She was also forbidden from keeping in touch with either Kitana or shamise.
After a week, she simply faded to black, literally. We checked at her apartment to make sure she was in one piece, but we were greeted by an eviction notice on her door. Word got around after nuru disappeared; she had been placed behind bars due to a warrant that she had in her hometown.
Damn.
When I checked on the warrant, it turned out she had been busted on narcotics offenses from an old boyfriend who had dropped a dime on her before she’d come to Atlanta. Oh well, I guess you never really know a person, even after a year of service.
But the one that really hurt was shamise asking for her release, after being with us the longest. Her vanilla boyfriend asked her to marry him, and he had taken a more lucrative position with a company on the West Coast. Although she didn’t want to be released, common sense had to take over because we were not big fans of long distance relationships, D/s or otherwise. Even in the Internet age, it’s not practical.
“i don’t want to leave, Daddy.”
“This isn’t pleasant for Me either, baby girl. But you made it clear, you want to be with this man, and he’s moving across the country for his new position.”
“i know. i know You would never want me to choose between him and You and my Goddess, but i can’t leave this House. Is there another way?”
“There is, but it would require you to choose between your D/s family or your vanilla life. I can make that choice for you, but I don’t know how well you would like that choice.”
I heard shamise softly tearing up over the phone. I understood where she was coming from, I truly did. This was something that was dealt with a lot—the balance between keeping a vanilla profile and enjoying being a libertine and a kinkster.
She was the last one I wanted to take a hard line with, but I didn’t have a choice.
“Daddy, i don’t want to be released, but i want to be with him, too.”
“The only way that this will work is if he stays here in Atlanta. If he’s insistent upon leaving for L.A. and you choose to leave with him, then we have to release you.”
I heard the angst in her voice, and it tore me up she felt this way.
“i’m sorry You feel that way, Daddy. i wish to be released.”
“I can hear it in your voice, shamise, you don’t want to be released. Why are you torturing yourself and us like this?”
I didn’t want to let her go, but she knew the protocols of the House. She’s our Alpha submissive, not someone who could be easily replaced, and I didn’t want to replace her. Not even Kitana would be able to completely do that. In time, maybe, but that void would be a hard one to fill for the foreseeable future.
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, it was perfectly obvious: we loved her without question. I wasn’t about to give in without a fight.
“He loves me, Daddy.”
“We love you, shamise. you belong to us; you know this is true.”
“Tell me what to do, Daddy, please.”
This was starting to roll downhill quicker than I wanted, and I felt my grasp slipping by the minute. By the time Neferterri came through the door and saw the expression on my face, she knew something had to be done or else a bond, once so strong, would never be remade.
I quickly explained the situation before giving her the phone. I needed a break to gather my thoughts.
“Baby girl, this is Neferterri. Daddy explained to Me what’s going on.” Neferterri went into negotiation mode, something I was unwilling to do. “Do you really love this man?”
“Yes, Goddess, that’s why this is killing me.”
“I know, baby, I can see it on your Daddy’s face. Is there any way that we can find a happy compromise?” she asked.
“Goddess, if You both would consider letting me travel to You, at Your whim, i will handle the rest of the details with my soon-to-be husband.”
“We can’t ask you to do that, shamise. It would put you in a difficult position, one we would not be comfortable asking you to do.”
“But i don’t want to lose You.” Her emotions were on the brink of meltdown, the same as where she was with me.
“Okay, let’s slow this down a bit.” Neferterri rubbed her temples as she tried to think a minute. “shamise, what we will do is this: we will temporarily release you while you make your transition to L.A. What I mean is for a few months, you will not be obligated to this House in any way, until things start to settle down in your vanilla life out there with your fiancé. After those few months pass, which will put us into the New Year, We will send for you, so we all can assess where things stand and move from there. Do you understand Me, baby girl?”
“Yes, Goddess, that sounds agreeable. Will i be allowed to keep my name?”
“No, baby girl, your name belongs within this House. Protocol obligates us to take your name back, for now. But it will never be given to another submissive within our charge; do you understand Me?”
“Yes, Goddess, i understand. If things progress as we all would hope, will i be given the opportunity to earn my name back, or be given a new one more proper to the House?”
“Yes, baby girl. Right now, you need to follow the path you have chosen. We will always be here. Just because you don’t have your physical collar does not mean that you won’t be able to feel the eyes of Kemet-Ka on you.”
As much as I didn’t want to sound callous, knowing Neferterri and I had Kitana and Angel waiting in the wings took the sting of losing shamise away a little bit. Still, as a Dominant, you really never wanted to lose any of your submissives, mainly because separation anxiety took effect. After all, you shared a lot with that person, and some of it was very intense, very intimate. At the same time, life moved on. I was not willing to go through the anxiety with shamise—not after three years of blissful servitude.
I kissed my Beloved. She could tell I was emotionally exhausted from the whole ordeal, as was she. But hearing our little one breathe a sigh of relief with the contingency plan laid out for her to follow was better than losing her altogether. Perhaps a long distance D/s union could be fashioned? Who knew what the future held?
“You know she’ll be home again soon, Beloved, right?” Neferterri wiped the tears from my eyes as she sat in my lap. I wiped the tears from hers as we shared a kiss to console each other.
“I know, Beloved,” I answered. I wasn’t completely convinced of my response to her question, but I wanted to believe in my heart she would be. “It still hurts to have her away from us.”
“We’ll be fine, darling,�
� she said. “Things have a way of working themselves out; we simply have to be patient.”
22 RAMESSES
Solitude…that was what I needed.
It was my way of protecting myself against the depression of losing shamise. The best way I could accomplish that was to dive into work for a few days until those feelings dissipated. The only problem was there was no way to know how long I would need to do that. It had been years since something like this had happened, and that was before I married Neferterri.
It was still worth a shot.
I was on the phone with a client in my studio a few hours later to try and take my mind off of the situation I found myself in.
I needed to clear my head and focus a little bit, and I knew I could do that at the studio, especially considering I had a few projects I needed to complete before the deadlines snuck up on me. Technically we still had shamise but had to refer to her by the vanilla nickname she had before we claimed her: Scarlett. After three years of loving servitude within the House, it felt strange to refer to her as Scarlett again. I kept convincing myself that it was only temporary, that she would be back within the House by year’s end.
I was negotiating a weekend shoot with my client when Amenhotep and paka stepped through the door. He seemed a bit more content than usual, and paka did, too, now that I thought about it. I simply smiled as I finished the call with my client and let them browse around the studio.
Once I was off the phone, I walked to them both, embracing Amenhotep and giving paka a kiss on the cheek.
“So, what do I owe the honor of this visit?” I asked. “I usually don’t see You out this early in the afternoon, Sir.”
He looked at me with the same seriousness He had when a glass separated the space between us, when He was on the wrong side of prison bars. Soon, His lips spread into a smile, and He said in His best imitation of Don Corleone from The Godfather, “Ramesses, I’m gonna make You an offer You cannot refuse.”
“What the hell are You talking about, Amenhotep?” It was hard to place where the calmness was coming from, but I knew Him well enough to know that something was up and whatever it was, it was big.
“I’m leaving, kid,” He flatly stated, His mind made up. “It’s time.”
After dealing with the losses within my House, I didn’t think I was quite prepared for His announcement. “Do You mind running that by Me again?”
“I’m leaving Atlanta. There’s nothing left to accomplish here, My old friend,” Amenhotep stated, His eyes smiling as He said it. “It’s time for the next phase of My evolution to begin, as well as Yours, youngster.”
This was starting to be a bit more than I bargained for today.
Sure, I was getting over losing my girls, but to lose my mentor and trusted friend might have been the straw to break the camel’s back. After all, He was close to our family, our kids. A lot of people within the local community would be greatly affected by His departure.
I broke down for the first time in a long time, like I was preparing for a death in the family.
But this was not a death.
Amenhotep was simply moving on, after fifteen years in Atlanta.
He could see the distress in my eyes, trying to get a grip on the situation. “Do not get upset, Ramesses. This is a time to celebrate, for Me and for You. There will be a great many changes occurring at the beginning of the year.”
Celebrate? For me? Confusion swept over my body like a tidal wave. The last thing I wanted to do was celebrate anything. I looked at paka, and she noticed my anxiety as well, and she silently looked to her Master for permission to offer comfort. Once permission was granted, she guided me to a chair and began to gently and expertly rub my shoulders.
As she rubbed my worry away, Amenhotep continued. “There are some things that I will need for You to sign off on, Ramesses. Some things You will be taking ownership of. Others, You will be helping Me control from here.”
My mind began to clear, thanks to paka, and I realized I needed all my faculties to grasp exactly what He might be turning over to me. “Taking ownership of what, exactly?”
His smile confirmed what I suspected. “You will be taking over the Palace for starters, Ramesses.”
paka, with permission from her Master, added, “Including a few of the service slaves in the house, m’Lord. They have been informed of my Master’s departure, and the first question they had concerned You and whether You would be taking over ownership of the house and the slaves within.”
My head was killing me, to say the least. But it was about to be sent into more of a tailspin with the next thing Amenhotep was about to say.
He came over and placed his hand on my shoulder, and He asked, “How would You like to retire from being a shutterbug? At least, as a livelihood, I mean?”
“Okay, enough with the riddles and innuendo, Amenhotep. My mind can only take so much,” I scolded him. “First, You’re leaving Me, and You will be informing Me to where You are heading to, by the way. Then you’re telling Me that you’re giving Me the Palace, with the stroke of a pen, like I was flesh and blood, and even turning over control of the remaining service slaves in the house to Me. You have to know this is really overwhelming to hear, especially without proper warning first? What makes You think I am ready to bear all this weight right now?”
Amenhotep maintained His grin, expecting me to have this exact reaction.
I hate it when He did that shit. “I wouldn’t put all this on You if You weren’t ready for it, youngster. You’re like a son to Me, and it’s time that I actually put some effort behind those words. Besides, this is the next level of Your awakening. It is time that You embraced it.”
“Okay, then give Me all of it, everything. I have a wife and kids to tell all this to, and they will have to adjust to this as well. Make sure that You leave nothing out, either,” I advised.
I had a feeling this was going to be a long conversation…one that would change my life as a Dominant forever.
Into everyone’s life, a little rain must fall…
But was this really rain?
Driving home from work, my mind raced with all of the details from Amenhotep’s discussion with me: the Palace, which was completely paid for; the service slaves, five in total number, to tend to the house itself; the male submissives who tended to the house were under Neferterri’s control now, to coordinate with their respective Dominas; and finally, the burden of letting the Internet and real-time BDSM community know, in the words He carefully crafted, that the change of power in the Atlanta BDSM community would transfer from Him to me.
You want to talk about pressure? How do you replace an icon?
But the one thing that literally put the brakes on my whole thought process…and quite literally made my heart skip five beats or so…was the fact that Amenhotep was going to transfer an astronomically huge amount of funding to run the Palace, put my wife and me into early retirement, take care of the kids’ college tuitions, regardless of where they attend school, and invest monies into whatever entrepreneurial ventures that we saw fit.
To put it mildly, Amenhotep, for all of His spendthrift ways I had always known, was a multimillionaire several times over. In fact, He took the funds He would need to purchase and move into a quaint five-bedroom beach home in the U.S. Virgin Islands like he was purchasing a new suit or a new purse for paka. I always knew He was more than comfortable financially speaking, but I had no idea it was to this extent.
But what was so unnerving was, after doing so much to make sure we were comfortable on our own, to now realize we could literally do whatever we wanted to do. I honestly didn’t know whether to be happy, or let my ego stay pissed off that we couldn’t finish the job. In the end, I convinced myself Amenhotep wouldn’t do this if He didn’t care deeply for us.
Even with the information overload, His last announcement floored me.
I saw it coming, but it was still a shock to the system.
I came through the door with this
look on my face that immediately concerned my wife, but she wasn’t sure how to place it. To be honest, I wasn’t all that sure how to explain to her that life was about to get easier now. Checking on investments; partying at night while the kids were with the nanny or with one of the grandmothers. The list was endless.
“Okay, You told Me You and Amenhotep talked, so, what happened?” Neferterri was not in the mood for the long innuendo. The kids were at my parents’ house, so it was easier to let loose the emotions that were pent up inside of me.
“I feel like we hit the lottery, babe,” I started. “He’s basically given us the keys to the kingdom, to say the least. Money, the Palace, You name it, we have access to it.”
I’d never heard my wife scream so loud in my entire life.
“You mean, we get to quit our jobs?!?!?!?!” she asked excitedly. “What in the world has gotten into Amenhotep? Is He going to die or something? Not that I am wishing that on Him or anything, but what brought all this on?”
That’s when I got to tell the other part of what had my mind so scrambled. “He and paka are getting married.”
She slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle yet another scream.
The consummate bachelor, no one would have ever thought Amenhotep would settle down. After all, He was in His late forties, and with no heir to the throne of His own, it would be a little late to start now, unless He’d gone completely batty. “Are You serious?!?!”
“I’m as serious as a heart attack,” I replied. “They want us to make arrangements to meet with them as soon as we’re able to have the kids taken care of so we can be witnesses. They are going to do this privately. No one else will be viewing this union except a select, trusted few. Those are the terms they want. You know how Amenhotep is, baby. One minute He wants the world to see, the next minute, He wants complete privacy restriction.”
“Okay, I need to breathe.” Neferterri found the first chair that she could find.
Not like I blamed her. The club was doing well, no doubt, but the grind of actually rotating weekends on top of the regular 9-to-5 was really starting to wear thin, not to mention the whole babysitting thing, even though that had stabilized, thanks to a teenaged daughter of a lifestyle friend of ours. Now, the prospect of actually not needing to coordinate things anymore hit like a ton of bricks. Reality has a way of doing that to you.
The Awakening Page 13
