Sweet Submission: Jenny and Max Complete Series Plus Bonus Short Story

Sweet Submission

A Domestic Discipline Romance

Eden Greenwood

‘Sweet Submission’ Copyright Eden Greenwood 2016

All Rights Reserved

Cover Photo Copyright Sean McGrath

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Surrender to Him

It was raining. Of course, it was raining. Wasn’t it always in scenes like this? Everything about this situation seemed like a tired cliche. It was nighttime. My confused three year old daughter sat pensively in her carseat, twirling her blonde curls. I wiped the tears from my mascara stained face as I drove away from the house my daughter grew up in, the one I’d lived in with my husband, Todd, for the past five years. I’d wanted to leave for the last two. Todd was a loving father, but a terrible husband. I didn’t have scars to show on my body, but I had them inside, on my soul. He’d been emotionally abusive, a manipulator, and a liar. He’d made me feel so bad about myself that I thought that if I left, no one else would have me.

But the panties I’d found in his pocket was the last straw. I knew immediately who they belonged to, Ciara, Todd’s business partner. Instead of feeling angry, I felt relieved. This was my chance to leave. There was no way I could stay with someone who cheated on me.

I didn’t even confront him. While he was away at work, I packed the truck full of mine and Lily’s things. Todd returned home in a particularly cheery mood. He played with Lily, twirling her around the room and making her squeal. He even complimented the blouse I was wearing, though just last week he’d said it made my arms look fat.

By now I knew this sunny mood wouldn’t last. He wasn’t changed. It wasn't the end of our problems. It was simply a temperament shift, the bell swinging to the other side of the curve.

Just as I got dinner on the table, Todd got a text. He went from attentive and playful to distracted and aloof. I’d anticipated this. He’d been getting a text like this everyday, and now I knew who it was from.

Todd made an excuse about going to the office. He patted Lily on the head, and barely glanced my way before walking out of the door. I watched from the window as he car pulled away. Once he turned off of our block, I pounced into action.

“Mommy, where are we going?” Lily asked from the backseat.

“We’re going to see Aunt Susan,” I said, looking at her from the rearview mirror. “You remember her, don’t you?”

Lily shook her head. Her eyes were wide with fear and confusion. I hoped one day she would understand.

“You haven’t seen for her a long time,” I said. “But she was there the day you were born.”

Lily didn’t answer, and turned her head to the window, watching the rain streak down the glass pane. I picked up my cell phone and tried to call Susan again. There was no answer. Maybe she’d changed her number? I hadn’t seen Susan for over a year, ever since Todd had forbidden me to talk to her. I never gave Susan an explanation, just stopped answering her calls, texts, and emails. But I needed her now. I had nowhere else to go.

Susan lived in a town called Pilot, thirty minutes away from my house in suburbia. Her husband, Phil, was a wealthy hog farmer. They lived in a sprawling farmhouse with a guesthouse out back. I’d stayed in their guest house many times when I’d come to visit. I still had the key, and I prayed it still worked.

There were no lights on at the farmhouse, and Susan’s car wasn’t in the driveway. I pulled up next to the guest house, then left the car running while I tested the key in the front door. To my relief, it worked. I flung the door open and switched on the light. The guesthouse looked exactly the same. I remembered how Susan would bring me coffee every morning, and we’d sit at the small table by the window, chatting until early afternoon. How would she react to me fleeing in the night to her guesthouse after all of this time?

I ran back to the car to get Lily, and whatever else I could carry. It was almost her bedtime, so I started setting up the portable crib in the bedroom. While I worked, Lily walked around, studying everything.

“Where is Aunt Susan, Mommy?” Lily asked.

I dropped a screw and it rolled under the bed. “She’s in bed right now, just like everyone else.” I reached under the bed to retrieve the screw. “We’ll see her in the morning.”

“Is this her house?” Lily asked.

“This is a house for her friends,” I explained, trying to keep my voice light, though I was breaking a sweat from putting this crib together.

I fiddled with the rest of the screws while Lily explored the room.

“Where are the toys?” she asked, mostly to herself. She opened a drawer in the dresser. “What is this?”

I looked up and saw Lily holding a pair of men’s briefs between her hands. Instinctively, I jumped up and grabbed them from her.

“Don’t touch those,” I said, closing the drawer.

“What are they?” Lily asked.

“Someone must have left them behind. One of Susan’s friends,” I said. “Let’s get you in your pajamas and into bed.”

“But, Mommy, my tummy is grumbly,” Lily said, placing her hands on her stomach.

In my rush to get away, we’d neglected to eat dinner. What kind of horrible mother forgets to feed their child? What was I going to do? I didn’t have any money, and I doubted Susan kept groceries in the guesthouse.

I went into the kitchen to see what I could scrounge up. The refrigerator was bare except for a few protein shakes. I searched through the cabinets and thankfully found a box of macaroni and cheese.

“No vegetables?” Lily asked when I placed the bowl in front of her.

“Not tonight, sweetie,” I said.

“All right,” Lily exclaimed, then picked up her fork and dug in.

After we ate, I brushed Lily’s teeth, put on her pajamas, and tucked her into her crib.

“I remember Aunt Susan,” Lily said, as I pulled her blanket up to her chin. “She has golden hair.”

“That’s right. You do remember,” I said.

Lily bit her lip and looked up at me through her lashes. “Is Daddy coming tomorrow?”

I smiled, even though my heart was fracturing in my chest. “No, he isn’t. Daddy’s working. This is a just a little trip for you and me.”

“Okay, Mommy,” Lily said. She turned on her side and closed her eyes. “I want to write him a letter tomorrow. I want to tell him we’re having a fun trip and that I miss him and will see him soon.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” I took a steady breath, trying to keep the tears at bay. I bent to kiss her cheek. “Sweet dreams.”

I shut off her light and closed the door, then walked numbly into the living room. The wind howled outside, and heavy rain banged against the roof. Here I was, a mistreated wife, on the run from her husband. I stood very still, waiting for the emotion to come. Should I be sad, scared, happy? But I felt nothing. There was a hole inside of me, hollow and vast. I lay on the couch with a blanket on top of me, hoping to sleep, and hoping I wouldn’t dream. But all I could do was lay with my eyes wide open, listening to the rain.

Just as I was starting to drift off, I heard the front door fling open.

Susan,
I thought, my heart leaping.

I jumped up from the couch to greet my friend, but what I saw made me scream so loud I was sure I’d woken Lily. There in the doorway, soaked from the rain, was a huge man. He wore no shirt, and made no effort to protect himself from the strong wind and rain. Droplets of water ran down his muscular chest, and dripped off of his washboard abs. His face was completely covered with blood.

I was sure this man was here to kill me. All I could think about was protecting Lily. I scanned the room, looking for something I could use as a weapon. The only thing I could find was a fire poker. I picked it up and yielded it in front of me.

“Go away,” I said, striking the air. “My husband will be back any minute.”

The man walked further into the guesthouse. He regarded me, calmly.

“Stay away from me,” I yelled again. I looked at his impossibly large biceps. There was no way I could defend myself against him.

“Who are you?” he asked. His voice was low and gruff.

“Who are you?” I yelled back. “This is private property. I’m going to call the police.”

“Maybe I’m the one who should call the police,” he said.

I panted as I gripped the fire poker, expecting him to lunge at me at any moment. Instead, he walked to the kitchen and retrieved a protein shake from the fridge. I relaxed my arms, letting the poker fall to my side. He cracked open the shake, then drank half of the bottle in one swig.

“You don’t look like a burglar,” he said. “You seem more scared than anything. I’ll ask you again. Who are you?” He wet a paper towel in the sink, and started wiping the blood from his face.

“My name is Jenny,” I said. “This is my friend’s guesthouse. Please, I have a daughter.”

“I don’t give two shits about you or your daughter,” he said.

“Then who are you?” I asked, confused. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m Max. And I live here.” He drank the rest of the protein shake, then tossed the bottle into the trash. “I don’t know why Susan said you could stay here, but you can’t. It’s occupied.”

I started to make the connections in my head. I remembered Phil had a cousin named Max that I’d never met until now.

“Oh, I-“ I started. This was so embarrassing. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize-“

“It’s okay,” Max said. “You want to put that thing down?”

I looked to the fire poker I was holding. “Yeah, I just-“ I started. I couldn’t stop the tears that welled in my eyes. All the stress of the day finally caught up with me, and I broke down. “Susan doesn’t know I’m here. I’m sorry for crashing in on you, but I have nowhere else to go.”

“Save it,” Max said. “I don’t want to hear your sob story. You can stay the night, but tomorrow, you have to find somewhere else.”

I knew there was no way I could find a new place as soon as tomorrow, but I took this small victory.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You can sleep on the couch there,” Max said. He made his way to the bedroom door and placed his hand on the knob.

“Wait,” I said. “My daughter’s asleep in there. You’ll wake her up.”

Max turned to me and glared. I almost expected him to open the door anyway. Without a word, he walked away from the door and sat in the recliner. He extended the footrest, folded his arms across his chest, and closed his eyes.

“Wouldn’t you like the couch?” I asked.

“No, I wouldn’t,” he said.

I watched him sit very still with his eyes closed. With the blood cleared away, I could see his injuries. His face was badly bruised, and he had a deep cut just above his eyebrow.

“I could clean that for you,” I said.

Max opened one eye. “You’re not going to talk all night are you?”

“No,” I said, pulling the blanket over me. “What happened to you?”

“I lost,” he said, gruffly.

I spent the night dozing in and out of sleep. Sometimes I would see Max out of the corner of my eye, and would jump up with a start, thinking a strange man was in my bedroom. Max slept like a log, barely moving in the recliner. I wondered how he didn’t get cold with no shirt and no blanket.

Night gave way to the broken light of dawn, and like clockwork, Lily started calling to me at six sharp. As her high pitched voice pierced through the room, Max stirred, then opened his sleepy eyes. He looked at me, confusion on his face, then I saw him relax as he remembered me.

“What time is it?” he asked.

“Six,” I said.

Max said something under his breath, then sat up, looking annoyed.

“I’ll get her out of the room and you can go back to sleep in there,” I said.

Max stretched his neck from side to side. “I’m already up.”

The bruises on his face had turned a purplish color. The cut above his eye was swollen.

“You don’t want that to get infected,” I said. “Let me look at it. I used to be a nurse.”

Max narrowed his eyes, regarding me with skepticism.

“Mommy,” Lily wailed from the bedroom.

“Better go get your daughter,” Max said.

I curled my lips, offended. I was only trying to help. I needed to get out of here, to find somewhere else for Lily and me to stay. I didn’t want this brute around my daughter for very long.

“What’s her name?” Max said as I walked to the bedroom.

I considered not telling him at all, but I didn’t have it in me to be rude. “Lily.”

Lily was sitting up in her crib, rubbing her eyes. “This isn’t my room.”

“No, it’s not. Remember we’re at Aunt Susan’s house?” I scooped her up in my arms.

“I remember,” Lily said. “Where is she?”

“She’s not here yet,” I said. I thought about Max, just outside the door. Hopefully, he wouldn’t scare Lily. “But there’s a man out there. A nice man.”

“Who is he?” Lily asked.

“His name is Max. He’s Susan’s friend too. Let’s try to be very polite to him.”

Lily nodded. I placed her on the floor. She ran out of the room on her quick little feet. When I walked out behind her, she was standing in front of the recliner staring at Max. He was staring right back at her.

“Mommy,” Lily said in a whisper that was loud enough for everyone to hear. “He looks like a monster.”

“No, sweetie,” I said, laughing awkwardly. “That’s not a very nice thing to say.”