by Leah Wilde
“The Sub will also agree to use the ‘red, yellow, and green’ light system to check in with the Dom during heavier sessions. ‘Red’ has the same effect as the safe word, stopping the session entirely. ‘Yellow’ would pause the session, either for a short break or to discuss what will happen with the Dom. ‘Green’ means that everything is fine and should continue with the Dom in control.” Fiona’s heart, which had calmed down a little since she sat down, began to pick up its pace again, thudding lightly against her ribcage as she continued reading. “Otherwise, the Sub must always do what the Dom says. If the Sub disobeys without using her safe word or the traffic light system, she will be punished.” A chill went down Fiona’s spine, spiraling out into her arms and legs, but she realized with a cold certainty that she wasn’t frightened, not really. She ran her fingers down the print on the page, imagining how long it must have taken Vince to write the contract up. She never imagined he’d have the capacity for something like this, something this complicated and nuanced. He was clearly much, much smarter than he looked and far more capable than anyone in his family realized.
“The punishment for disobedience may include, but is not limited to, actions like light slapping, whipping, and spanking, as well as spending long periods of time tied up without being touched at all. The Sub can use the safe word or light system at any time to stop the punishment if necessary. Otherwise, the Sub must submit to whatever punishment the Dom decides.”
Fiona swallowed heavily, pausing in her reading to look around the room at the various ropes hanging down around her. She couldn’t help but picture herself bound up in those ropes, suspended from the wall while Vince watched her tremble in place. “Shit,” Fiona murmured under her breath, feeling herself blush as if somebody could read her thoughts. But it wasn’t just embarrassment. She slowly became conscious of a flush of heat spreading down from her face and neck, over her chest and stomach, and towards her most private area. Her blood had begun pumping harder in her veins, every cell rushing faster to its destination, like her body just couldn’t wait for her life to finally start. Maybe this is what I’ve been missing, Fiona thought as her eyes landed on the locked chest across the room. For so long, she’d been tightly-wound, taking care of everything to make sure that her father was okay, to keep the Romano family’s business together. She’d been working so hard for so long. Honestly, she felt like she hadn’t slept in months, like her body was screaming for release, every muscle ready to pop at the next conflict thrown her way. She was aching for something to lift the burdens from her shoulders, to let her lay down and relax. To let someone else take control for a change. Somehow, even by just picturing Vince “punishing” her, her body landed on a solution. He could be the one, the one person she could trust enough to take her pain away, at least temporarily. He could save her.
“Stupid,” she muttered to herself as she ducked her head again, refocusing her gaze on the words on the page. This was about sex and only sex. She had to be honest with herself about that or she would risk getting hurt. If Vince really wanted more than fucking, he wouldn’t have set things up so that they only talked about their relationship in the playroom. But it wasn’t like she wanted a relationship anyway, right? She didn’t have time for one. That’s why this was perfect. It would allow her get her rocks off without taking up too much of her time. She could still pretend to be a strong, independent woman during the daytime, while the beast within could come out at night.
“Whenever the Sub enters the playroom, she must discard her clothes and leave them outside the door. She is to be naked at all times while in the playroom. No exceptions. This is non-negotiable.” Fiona grinned a little at that. It was a little overwhelming, realizing how badly Vince wanted this and had chosen her. Fiona couldn’t help but think that no other man she’d ever met had so much desire in his body. After all, she’d just met the man earlier in the day, and already he was making rules, telling her what to do. I feel like such a dirty little slut, Fiona thought to herself, but she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She’d never thought that she would be that type of girl, the slutty little whore who gets fucked. She was supposed to be a good girl, nice and quiet and clean. But with the arrangement Vince was offering her, she didn’t have to be one way or the other. During the day, she could remain the same person she always was, but when she entered the playroom, she’d truly be Vince’s plaything. She’d be all flesh and no mind. The thought turned her on a lot more than it should have.
Fiona skimmed over the next few paragraphs before her eyes landed on a bulleted list describing various activities that she would consent to if she signed the contract, including:
Restraint with handcuffs, steel bars, and ropes. The Sub should expect visible marks on the skin as a result of the restraint, which must be covered during office hours.
Receiving oral sex while restrained.
Receiving attention from the Dom’s fingers and many sex toys of various intensity levels while restrained.
Giving oral sex while restrained.
Intercourse while restrained, including with a ball gag that would impede the Sub’s ability to speak.
Being teased to the point of sobbing.
That last bullet point made Fiona pause again, exhaling heavily as she pictured herself falling apart under Vince’s touch. Could she do that, let her every guard crumble while he chipped away at every last mask of strength that she’d so carefully constructed over the years? Her immediate, instinctive answer was “no,” she wasn’t brave enough for that. But all the same, the hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention, like her skin was already prepared to be touched and teased and slapped and stung. She kept reading, feeling her blood sing in her veins as if she’d just run a mile.
Under the bulleted list, Vince had written, “Anal sex with physical restraints is a possibility that should be negotiated between the Dom and the Sub at a later time.” Fuck, Fiona thought, feeling beads of sweat pop up along the base of her neck and under her arms. She’d never done that before, even with her most serious boyfriends. She was somewhat relieved that the contract didn’t stipulate that she had to do it in order to be Vince’s Sub, but for some reason, she didn’t feel like rejecting the possibility out of hand. Maybe, with time, she could get there, letting someone into her body in an entirely new way.
“The Sub must also agree to aftercare. This involves the Dom looking after any marks or sore areas after the session, including massaging the sore areas or perhaps drawing a bath for the Sub to help the Sub relax. The Dom will make sure that the Sub is comfortable, well-fed, and stress-free after every single session in the playroom. This is non-negotiable. The Sub must agree to aftercare or no session in the playroom can take place.”
Fiona stopped reading there, which was the last stipulation before the signature section of the contract. For whatever reason, this gave her more pause than anything else she’d read or heard that night. Aftercare? That sounded like weird, mushy bullshit, if she was being honest with herself. Whenever she’d had sex in the past, she always liked to get up right away and hop into a shower to wash away all the sweat and grime and cum from her body so that she could pretend that everything was normal. None of her boyfriends ever had a problem with it, exactly, but she knew it was weird that she didn’t like to cuddle or spoon or do anything else that “normal” couples liked to do. Maybe there was something wrong with her, something irreparably broken that could never be fixed. Maybe this was the way that she would inevitably disappoint Vince, and maybe then she’d feel too awkward to keep her job at the Romano compound, after revealing her true weakness. Fiona couldn’t be soft. She just couldn’t. Everything in her life had to be a task, a conflict, an assignment, a battle to conquer. She honestly didn’t know if she was able to let Vince “take care” of her. The thought made the contents of her stomach swim around like her dinner was considering making a comeback.
Fiona straightened up in her seat and placed her hands down on the smooth surface of the
table, allowing the sensation of the painted wood against her skin to ground her and allow her gather her thoughts. She wanted this. She really, really wanted this. She wanted to feel the sweet release of handing control over to someone else, even if it was just for an hour or two. She wanted to switch her mind off, to turn off every last infuriating thought inside her brain and let her body take over, let it do what it really wanted to do for once in her godforsaken life. But the aftercare… It was such a frightening concept, she was tempted to walk out of the building without signing the contract and just never return to work so she wouldn’t have to explain herself.
I could do it, she thought to herself as she slowly got to her feet. I could walk out of here right now with my dignity intact. I could leave here without ever testing myself, without ever confirming that I’m incapable of becoming close to somebody.
But her legs felt rooted to the spot like a centuries-old tree, like she was meant to be in this dark room she’d never seen before. She considered how it would feel if she never saw it again, and she felt like something was breaking apart in her chest, like a part of her heart was ripping itself away from her body. She tried to argue with herself, letting her reason overcome the base instincts of her silly, stupid body. I can’t do it, she said to herself as calmly as she could, willing her blood to slow down within her veins. I can’t be soft. I can’t be weak. I can’t let go of the reins. I’ll just embarrass myself.
But from the depths of her soul, an answer came, stronger than any thought she could ever remember feeling before. So what? So what if you fail? Don’t you want to be brave, for once? Don’t you want to be something other than safe?
Before she could stop herself, her hand reached out and grabbed the pen at the edge of the desk, and she bent over to scrawl her name in the designated spot on the last page of the contract. “There,” she whispered out loud to herself. “Happy now?”
She’d meant it to be sarcastic, yelling at herself for being so foolish, but the truth was she did feel happy. For the first time in years, at the very least, she felt content. Her muscles felt loose and relaxed, like she’d just spent a week in a spa where strong men kneaded out every bit of tension from her body. No, it was better than that. It was as if her body had never known tension at all, like she was reborn just from the simple act of signing her name on a piece of paper.
Fiona exhaled heavily and placed the pen back down on the desk, keeping the contract’s pages in place so that Vince would see her name written on the final page whenever he reentered his playroom.
She slowly crossed the room back to the door, opening it carefully so as not to make a lot of noise. She felt like she’d just done something secret, something unspoken. It would have felt almost vulgar to draw attention to herself right now, even though she felt like any bystanders could probably hear her heartbeat drumming from inside her body like the crackle of fireworks.
But before she could even make it halfway down the hallway back to the dining room area, a servant appeared out of nowhere, wearing a fancy dark suit. “Mistress Fiona,” the servant said, offering his arm forward for her to take. Fiona just stared down at it for a minute, feeling utterly confused, not least because she’d never been addressed as “mistress” before in her entire life.
The servant must have detected her confusion, as he added, “Master Vince instructed me to lead you to the town car outside. Do you wish to come with me?”
Fiona smiled politely, and for a second, she considered refusing, feeling too awkward to be literally ushered downstairs like she was some kind of princess. But at the last moment, she made the opposite decision, slipping her arm around the servant’s as comfortably as she could. “Lead the way,” she said, her voice coming out much more confidently than she felt inside. But she figured she had to try to do things Vince’s way, at least tonight. She needed to start getting used to being uncomfortable or unsure of what to do. She was in Vince’s world now, and she had to learn to be spontaneous, to expect the unexpected. And hell, maybe for once, it’d be nice to feel like a princess. That would definitely be quite a change of pace.
Still, she felt a little disappointment as she headed with the servant outside to the town car waiting to take her home. She realized she wanted to see Vince again, to say goodnight. I’ll see him tomorrow, she said to herself silently, berating herself for being such a girl about her new non-relationship. But that wasn’t exactly true, was it? She wasn’t going to see him tomorrow. In the morning, he’d be an entirely different person, and so would she.
It was better this way, keeping the worlds separate, she thought as she entered the town car, letting her head fall back on the headrest of her seat as the driver pulled away into the night. She’d be safer this way, never really letting him touch her. But some part of her, a deep, secret, dark part, hungered to be touched.
Chapter Eight
The next morning, Vince couldn’t rush to the office fast enough. Usually, whenever he was called home in the past, he’d procrastinate as long as possible to make sure that he was minimizing time spent around his brother and mother. But today, he was going to see Fiona again, and as a result, his heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to jump cleanly out of his body. He couldn’t wait to see her, to see if she looked any different from the day before, if their experience together had changed her. He knew they hadn’t fucked yet, hadn’t even kissed or done anything remotely sexual, but he still needed to know if she’d been changed at all. If she felt freer or happier or just better since she’d signed the contract, the way he felt ever since he saw her name written across that final page the night before.
Vince smiled and nodded at the various employees already present in the compound before stepping into his father’s old office, feeling his chest get lighter as he noticed the back of Fiona’s head. She was already sitting at her desk. So at least her punctuality hadn’t been changed by their new arrangement, Vince thought with a smile. “Good morning—” he started to say as he shut the office door behind him, but he cut himself off when he noticed the other person in the room. Guido. Sitting at the edge of Fiona’s desk, a mischievous grin spread across his face. Fucker, Vince thought, feeling all the joy leave his body at once as he marched around to the front of Fiona’s desk to face them both.
“What exactly is going on here?” Vince said, his voice coming out stern and hard before his gaze finally landed on Fiona’s face. She looked distressed, her eyebrows furrowed together as she bit down on her bottom lip, staring up at him with wide, worried eyes.
Guido’s face remained unchanged, though. He looked as happy as a clam, balanced on the edge of Fiona’s desk, but his eyes shone with something else, some smug satisfied sense of victory, like he’d just beaten his opponent. Vince’s hands balled into fists as he stared down at his idiotic younger brother, who was clearly harassing the woman he’d wanted to fuck for over a year. “We’re just talking, you know, hanging out,” Guido said with a shrug, his smirk firmly planted on his face.
“Yeah, I can see that,” Vince said sharply. On any other day, he might have held back or played nice with his little brother, but after his father’s death, he had little to no patience for this kind of bullshit. “We have work to do here. It’s not playtime, Guido.”
Guido shrugged again, looking unbothered by his brother’s harsh tone of voice. “All right, fair enough. I guess I’ll talk to you later, sweet thing,” he said to Fiona as he leapt off the edge of the desk, heading straight for the door.
Vince felt a fire start to burn at the base of his throat, his rage building higher as he saw Fiona squirm uncomfortably in her seat. Guido needed to be taught a lesson, but how? Vince didn’t want to come right out and say that Fiona was his property. He really couldn’t afford anyone knowing that they were together. It would complicate things too much, especially since he still wasn’t sure how comfortable Fiona felt about their little arrangement. But it was clear he had to teach Guido about boundaries. This type of behavior couldn�
�t be permitted to continue.
“Guido,” Vince said without turning his head, stopping his brother right before he exited the room. “Come with me to my other office, all right? We need to discuss a few things.”
“Okay…” Guido said a little uncertainly, remaining in place while Vince slowly backed away from Fiona’s desk. Fiona stared up at Vince worriedly, probably concerned that Vince was about to make a possessive claim on her or something like that, but Vince finally turned and led his brother out of the room, going across the hall to his old office.
Vince closed the door behind them, just to make sure that none of the servants or other employees bustling around could overhear. He had to be careful about this. “What’s up, brother?” Guido said, taking a seat on one side of Vince’s dust-covered desk, which had gone unused for over a year.
Staring down at his brother’s squirrely, almost anxious little face, Vince made a split-second decision. He wouldn’t discuss Fiona directly. For one thing, he simply couldn’t afford to let Guido know that he was planning on fucking her. First of all, he’d never hear the end of it, seeing as how Guido had “called dibs” on her months before, as if he was just waiting for their father to keel over so he could get a chance to fuck her. But secondly, he didn’t need Guido spreading rumors to their mother. Mama Romano was many things, but forgiving was not one of them. She was totally convinced that Fiona had been screwing her husband before he died, and she’d be absolutely infuriated if she heard that Vince was doing the same thing.
