Temporary Master (5 page)

“I
told them I had to think about it, Mrs. D.” Twisting her hair around her
finger, Sabella leaned back against the chair, her own cup of coffee steaming
in front of her. “I just don’t know if I’m ready to venture out again. My last
relationship was a doozy. He left me without a dime.
My own
fault, of course.
I took the chance. I left everything I knew to go to
New York with him, didn’t even think about working or anything. All I wanted to
do was please him.”

Mrs.
D. studied her for a moment before setting the cup down. “Forgive me if I’m
mistaken, Bella, but didn’t you tell me this was merely a demonstration? I
don’t recall your friend saying the man was looking for a relationship with you
— merely the use of your body as a prop so to speak.”

Sabella
nodded. “Yes, but I know myself. I’m afraid I’ll want more.” She toyed with the
cup in front of her. “It’s been nearly four months since I’ve been touched, and
I’m afraid I’ll forget that the time this Dom will spend with me will be
nothing more than training…”

Mrs.
D. covered Sabella’s hand with hers. “I think I understand what’s bothering
you, Bella-mía. You’re scared you’re going to develop feelings for this man
because he might be able to actually give you what you’ve been looking for.”

Sabella’s
face flushed. “I…it’d be nothing more than…” she began.

“Hush.
Who do you think you’re foolin’, child? This is Mrs. D. you’re talking to. I
was the person you asked about sex.” She raised a brow. “I was even the one who
caught you surfing the bondage sites when you were sixteen. At seventeen, I
brought in Marissa to explain how what you were feeling was normal. I know
you.”

Sabella’s
breath hitched as remembered embarrassment flooded her at the memory of the
average looking housewife who’d showed up one night to discuss submission with
her, while her father had been working a late shift. Despite the embarrassment
though, Sabella had learned a great deal from the frank submissive.
Enough to keep me safe until Louis.
“Ugh,
please don’t remind me…” she joked lamely.

Mrs.
D. pursed her lips. “All I’m saying
is
I know you. I
helped raise you after your mother died. And I know you’re concerned about
being hurt again after what happened with that last idiot, but it’s been
months. And if you’re asking for my advice — I think you need to get your feet wet
again. This seems like the perfect opportunity. You can get the release or
grounding…or whatever you kids are calling it these days, which you find in the
ropes,
and the man gets a willing participant. What do
you have to lose?”

Sabella
tipped her head. “Nothing, I suppose — other than time. It just seems odd to
let a man who’s a complete stranger tie me up. I mean, other than the one time
in Las Vegas when I let a Dom at a convention demonstrate a shibari harness….”

An
exasperated sigh escaped her neighbor. “Child, you’re giving me nothing more
than lame excuses.” Mrs. D. gave her a pointed look. “It’s simple. Either you
want to do it, or you don’t. Which is it?”

“I
want to do it. I’m just scared I’m going to get hurt again.”

She
gave Sabella a grin. “So put stipulations on it. From the sound of it, the man
is in quite a bad situation, and more than likely he’ll agree to them.”

Sabella
wanted to groan. The idea of giving any Dom stipulations on what she would and
wouldn’t do was hard. She knew logically she needed to stand up for herself,
and it was no different than discussing limits, but at times her need to submit
was stronger than common sense. “I…”

“Don’t
make me take you over my knee, girl. You have a head — use it. So you don’t
want to get in too deep. Tell him it has to be a temporary thing. If you don’t
want to be intimate at all or need to work up to it — tell him. Communication
is the trick. Be honest but be yourself.”

The
burning at the back of her eyes told Sabella she’d done the right thing. “You
know you’re just what I needed, Mrs. D.”

The
other woman laughed. “Why? Cause I’m not an old prude like your dad? Heaven
forbid his daughter even think about having sex before marriage.”

A
bubble of laughter escaped Sabella.
“Of course not.
But
you know just how to give me a kick in my rear end. Sometimes I need it.”

“We
all do, Bella-mía.
Even at my age.”
She leaned
forward. “But don’t tell your dad I said that.”

Laughter
erupted in the kitchen once more.

* * * *

Ethan
had just entered the office he shared with Davis at New Beginnings, when the
phone rang on Davis’s desk. Never one to ignore a ringing telephone, he
answered it.
“New Beginnings, Dr. Tremaine speaking.”
He waited for the customary pause at his greeting but was pleasantly surprised
when the woman on the other end spoke softly. Davis had warned him time and
time again that his formal phone etiquette was off putting, but this young lady
didn’t seem the least bit bothered by it.

“Well,
hello. I wasn’t expecting a doctor to answer the phone.” There was a slight
pause. “Am I to assume, since you answered that Davis isn’t in? Of course he’s
not there…or he’d have answered his own phone….duh Sabella.”

The
last part seemed to be as if she were answering her own question. A smile
tugged at his lips. She was delightful. “Indeed, he’s not but he should be here
in within the hour. Would you like me to take a message for him?”

There
was a sigh, before she answered. “I suppose you could. Can you please let him
know Sabella Johnston called?”

Searching
for a pad on Davis’s cluttered desk, he finally unearthed one from under a
stack of vendor receipts. He was going to have to talk to his partner about the
mess again. Disorganization could kill their business — even if the man’s plan
to find him a sub did come through.
Now to find a pen.
He scowled as he realized there were none on his partner’s desk. “Well, it
seems as if Davis has taken home all of his pens and pencils. Can I ask what
this is about? I may be able to help.”

A
soft laugh filled his ear. “Let me guess, his desk is
very
cluttered.”

“How
did you know?” He was curious to understand her reasoning.

“From
my personal experience, a Dom is either very tidy or
very
cluttered. There’s usually no in-between, so when you said you couldn’t find a
pen, I just assumed he fell into the latter category. And after meeting him
this weekend, I have to say it doesn’t surprise me.”

Intrigued,
he leaned his hip against Davis’s desk.
“Really?”

“Yes.
I was quite surprised to the say the least. He was meeting my friend Lauren for
lunch, but she invited me along without warning either me or Davis about one
another.”

A
light bulb went off in his head. “Lauren?
As in Lauren
Haskell?
The little matchmaker of Napa Valley?”

“I
see you do know her.” Sabella sounded rueful. “But, yep that’s her, my best
friend in all her glory.”

“And
she set you up with Davis?” A frown furrowed his brow as his amusement died.
Not only did Davis have a thing for the leggy blonde submissive, the idea of
Sabella being set up with his friend bothered him.

“Surprisingly
no.
Besides even
if she’d have tried, Davis’s reaction when I joined them would’ve had me saying
no.”

Relief
washed through him. “I take it my friend said something rather uncouth for
mixed company?”

She
chuckled. “You could say that. Something along the lines of how seeing Lauren
wearing nothing more than his whip marks would affect him. I believe the term
“rock hard” was used.”

A
genuine laugh ripped free of him at the idea of Davis sitting in a restaurant
with Lauren and this unknown woman calmly discussing the fact it made his dick
hard when he thought of whipping Lauren.

“Sure
go ahead and laugh, Dr. Tremaine. I thought it was quite funny too, although
Lauren turned several shades of red. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman turn
that particular shade in my life.”

He
was still chuckling when he heard the door open behind him. He knew without a
doubt it was Davis, but he was reluctant to give the phone up. “So if it wasn’t
a set up then why did she have you meet him?”

“Something
about helping his partner out with a demonstration…”

Elation
flooded him. The sharp intake of breath behind him should’ve have warned him,
but he wasn’t paying much attention to Davis. His focus was on Sabella
and
her
answer.

“Gimme
that!” Davis pulled the phone away from him. “Bella, sorry it’s Davis.”

Shock
rolled through Ethan as he stared dumbfounded at Davis. The last thing he’d
expected him to do was yank the phone out of his grasp. Covering the mouthpiece
with his hand, Davis shot him a warning look. “Please tell me you weren’t being
an uptight ass to her. She may be the one to pull our fat out of the fire for
the Kinkfest.”

Ethan
pushed off the desk. “So she was about to tell me.” Reaching past Davis, Ethan
hit the speakerphone button on the base. “I’m sorry about my partner, Ms.
Johnston. He can be rude at times, but he does grow on one. Now you were
telling me Lauren asked you to lunch to discuss the possibility of you working
with me for my demonstration at the Kinkfest in the spring?”

“Oh,
my…” Sabella stammered. “…now I’ve done it. I’ve blathered on…I’m truly sorry,
Dr. Tremaine. I had no idea…”

“Nonsense.”
He gave Davis a warning look as the
other man opened his mouth.
“Nothing from you, Davis.
I have you on speaker, Sabella. May I call you that?” When she mumbled her
consent, he continued. “Because my partner seems to think I can’t carry a civil
conversation without alienating you, I’ll give you the choice, would you prefer
to speak to me about the matter or him? Or we could, all three, talk about it.”

He
tried to act nonchalant, but Ethan really hoped she choose him. But he had to
be fair.

“I…well,
considering it’ll be you I’ll be working with, why not cut the middle man out?”

“Sounds
fair to me.
Davis?” He gave his partner a feral grin. “Would you mind giving me some
privacy to discuss the matter with Sabella?”

Davis’s
jaw dropped.
“Fine.
But you fuck this up, Ethan, and
I’ll kick your Asian ass from here ‘til next Sunday.”

“I’m
not going to “fuck” this up, I assure you.”

“You
better not.” Davis stomped out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

“Did
he just throw a tantrum?” Sabella seemed impressed.

“Of
course.
I just kicked
him out of our office.”

A
muffled giggle came through the line. “I’d say you’re awfully brave considering
the size of him. I have a feeling Davis doesn’t go anywhere he doesn’t want to
with his size.”

“Very
true.
But size isn’t
everything.” He slid off the desk into the leather chair behind it. “So tell
me, what exactly did they tell you about me?”

“Not
much, other than the fact you need a person who’s experienced in bondage to
help out.”

He
nodded. “Well that’s the bare bones of it. I do need an experienced submissive
to train rather quickly for the demonstration.
Which is why I
need someone who is experienced in bondage.
I don’t have time to teach a
newbie the ropes, so to speak. Kinbaku isn’t exactly like shibari, and it is
something which cannot be rushed, so even with the three months I’d have to
train, a person with no experience may feel that way.”

A
soft sound of disappointment reached his ears.
“How much
experience and of what kind?”

A
sinking feeling had his resolve wavering. Despite his firm belief his style of
bondage couldn’t be rushed, he found himself wanting to make an exception for
her. “You don’t have any experience do you, Sabella?”

Her
tone was rushed.
“In Kinbaku, no.
But I have been tied
up,
and…”

He
squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Letting your boyfriend or Dom tie you up
isn’t the same thing. My style of bondage is much more intense.” He winced as
his statement came out more harshly than he’d intended, and her silence was all
the proof he needed to realize it. “Listen, I don’t mean to belittle you…”

“Well,
you did a pretty good job of it, Dr. Tremaine.” Her voice was clipped. “But if
you would’ve let me continue I’d have explained. I had one Dom who explored
shibari with me. I’ve also gone to several conferences with him where he
allowed me to be used as a demonstration model, so he could learn how to
correctly tie me. In the end, he decided it wasn’t for him, and we parted ways
shortly thereafter. So while I haven’t truly been suspended, as is common in
kinbaku, I’ve always had the desire to experience it. I thought perhaps this
was the opportunity I was waiting for.” She snorted. “I wish you luck in
finding a submissive who meets your high standards, Sir.” The resulting click
filled the room. He stared at the phone as what happened sunk in. Desperation
tugged at him. She’d actually hung up on him before he could apologize.