Twisted Oak: A Sexual Odyssey (33 page)

“I wish I had a good master like you do,” she said, and we sipped in silence.

“Ma’am, I have a message for you.” Thomas handed me a small piece of paper with neat, unfamiliar handwriting that read
11:15
. Thomas walked away before I could thank him.

“We better go. I don’t want to be late. You heard Mr. Delacroix,” I said.

“Miss, where should I go?” Marie asked in confusion.

“To your rooms. Nothing has changed yet, so just carry on as if everything is the same. Go to your rooms and wait for Jackson.”

“Thank you,” she said. We rose from the table and she picked up my sandals. “Miss, sometimes I think it’d be nice to belong to you.”

I quickened the pace up the stairs, praying I was not late. I was unsure how long Thomas had held that note and there were no clocks for me to tell exactly how much time had passed. Twisted Oak was a cunning place. One moment you were as free as a bird, and in the blink of an eye, the cage slams shut. I pictured the alligator waiting silently in the marsh and hoped Mr. Delacroix was not waiting for me.

I ran into our rooms relieved to find them empty. The microwave in the kitchenette read 11:23. I undressed and hung my clothes on the brass valet that stood next to the door before going to the toilet. When I came back to the sitting room, Mr. Delacroix sat on the sofa shirtless and relaxed in red silk pants, my pillow at his feet.

“My lord, you startled me. I didn’t know you were there,” I said and quickly sat on my pillow. It was new, firm. Plush silks and satin brocade in the colors of spring, the wide lace on the edges crocheted in a floral pattern.

“Are you comfortable, my love?” he asked.

“Very,” I said, and leaned against his leg.

“It’s a nice place to be. Ya know, sometimes I miss being on the bottom. I hope you know how good you have it,” he said, his voice thin and terse. “After speaking with Marie-Louise, sir, you can bet I do. I’ve learned a lot today, namely that you are, as she says, ‘a good master.’”

He did not offer any information about how things went with Jackson, so I assumed he preferred not to speak about it. Still, his silence was unnerving.

“Sir, do you want to know about my conversation with Marie-Louise?” I asked.

“Yes, what else did you learn?”

“It’s hard to know where to start, sir, but she told me that she’s glad I’m here and that she doesn’t blame you or me for anything. She’s grateful to you for being so good to her and she feels as though she’s let you down.”

“She made no mention of our first encounter?” he asked, surprised.

“None at all, my lord. Quite the opposite, in fact. She said that you’ve been very kind to her and how grateful she is. She’s terribly afraid she’s let you down.”

“Interesting,” he said.

I was anxious to share what I had learned. “My lord, she knows Jackson wants to break the collar and she wants to as well. I think that’s obvious to everyone, but she’s absolutely terrified that you’ll send her back to the village. She said she’d kill herself before she went back there, and I have to say, I understand. The thought of going back to Kansas City makes me want to puke. Sir, we can’t send her back. Whatever happened to her out there traumatized her so badly that she’d rather die than go back, to relive it. It must have been horrible. And if I may speak candidly?”

“Yes, Nez.”

“Jackson really played on that trauma. My lord, he’s got her so scared that she refuses to leave the grounds.”

“Oh, I know. It would be cruel to send her back. I’m much better at inequity than I am cruelty. I think you know that already.”

“Yes, sir,” I agreed.

“So, did ya’ll come up with any kind of solution?” That Southern drawl made my insides melt.

“Yes, sir, we discussed a few options. Like maybe she could branch out with her music, make a recording and hopefully, eventually, when she feels she’s ready, give a few concerts outside of here, maybe in the city, though that terrified her to no end. She was thrilled, though, with the prospect of making a record.”

“That’s all very nice and dreamy, but where would she live?”

“Well, sir, I was thinking that maybe she could stay in the children’s wing until she gets her feet on the ground.”

He stopped petting me and laid his hand on my head, motionless. The silence was deafening.

“Just for a little while, sir. You mentioned cleaning it up and making it livable again.”

“You told her she could do this?” Agitation rose in his voice.

“Oh no, sir, I only told her I would talk to you about it. In fact, I told her I wasn’t in a position to make promises at all. The only promise I made is that I would talk to you. We talked about broken promises and I told her I wouldn’t make any that I couldn’t keep.”

“Good girl, Nezzie, it’s good that you’ve learned to be truthful and honest. It’s the best way, don’t you think?”

“Absolutely, my lord. The poor girl has had nothing but lies and manipulation her whole life. No wonder she’s such a mess.”

“Indeed, my girl,” he said, petting me again. “So, considering her predicament, how long do you think it would take for her to, as you say, ‘get her feet on the ground’? You act as if she has ever been on her own feet. Nez, the girl’s only been on her back with her legs wide open since she fell out of the cradle. How long do you think it would take for her to be self-sufficient? Two months? A year? Three years? Forever?”

I was stumped. “Sir, you said that Twisted Oak would never turn its back on her.”

“Yep, I sure did, sugah.” Molasses and green grass. “But if she stays on forever, where will she live when the children come?”

“Sir, I think it’ll be awhile before there are children, don’t you think, and we can cross that bridge when we come to it?”

“It’s my feeling that once she’s in the children’s wing, she won’t leave. She tends to get comfortable. Hell, Nez, she’d be in that children’s wing till Jesus comes back.”

“Let’s draw up an agreement, sir, a contract to be renewed twice a year, so that she has to work on being independent.”

“It’s not a bad idea, but it’d be a lot of work. I’d have to make it your project and god knows it wouldn’t be an easy one. I dunno, Nez, but we’ve got time to think about it.”

“Thank you, my lord,” I said, and snuggled into him.

“In the meantime, I may have come up with another solution that I’ll discuss this afternoon when the four of us meet for tea. A plan that can easily remedy a lot of what ails me,” he said with a sigh.

“My lord, you mentioned that you’ve been feeling tense lately. Is there something I can do?”

“Aside from what you’re doing, no.” His voice was resolute as if he was answering to fate outside of his control. “I’m just glad you’re here.”

“Sir, another thing about Marie,” I began.

“Yes?”

“She’s confused about not being under anyone, my lord. I think she’s afraid of not having a dom. She’s insecure and I think it may be an issue going forward. I had to tell her what to do after our talk. She had no idea what she was supposed to do without you or Jackson there to tell her.”

“What did you tell her to do?”

“I told her to go to her rooms and behave normally because nothing has changed. She still belongs to Jackson.”

“Did she listen to you?” Curiosity perked his voice.

“Yes, my lord, and then she said something I wasn’t expecting at all. She said she wished she had ‘a good master’ like I do and then she said that sometimes she thinks it would be nice to belong to me.”

“Did she now?” He smiled. “And your thoughts on the matter?”

“Well, sir, I may have given her the wrong impression. As you say, she’s very literal.”

“The wrong impression?” He seemed very entertained.

“I required proper salutations, sir,” I said.

“That’s my girl, Nez. She knows damned well you’re to be addressed properly.”

“She didn’t on a couple of occasions so I corrected her.”

“I can’t see how you gave her any kind of wrong impression. Personally, I think she did it on purpose to test you. She’s smart that way, ya know. She wants to see where you stand, test boundaries and push buttons.”

“I allowed her to carry my shoes back, sir.”

He laughed aloud. “She should carry your shoes, but why weren’t you wearing them?”

“My lord, she ran away when she thought we would send her back to the village and I had to chase her. It was easier to run without my sandals on.”

He laughed again. “She may be tiny, but she can run. I can see why she did. Sending her back to the village would be akin to sending her to hell. I’ll assure her this afternoon that it won’t happen. And don’t worry about what she said. She’s good at saying and doing anything to secure her comfort. She’ll do whatever it takes because that’s all she knows.”

“But something happened, my lord.”

He interrupted. “Nezzie, you and I have an agreement!”

“No, no, nothing like that, sir. Please, let me finish.”

He sighed an apology. “I shouldn’t interrupt either.”

“Thank you, sir. I was saying only that something happened inside me when I corrected her, when I told her to address me properly, and then when I let her carry my shoes.”

“You got off on that little bit of power, didn’t you?” he said knowingly.

“Yeah, my lord, I really did, and it surprised me.”

“Do you want her? Do you think you’re ready to be, how did she say it, ‘a good master’?”

“No, sir,” I said.

“That’s the right answer,” he said and pet my head again.

“Sir, I really don’t think she was manipulating me. I think she is genuinely afraid of not having a dom,” I said.

“Oh, I am sure of it. Hell, look at her life. She doesn’t even remember not being under someone. If not her mother then her stepdad, and god knows who else. And then fucking Jackson.” His voice broke and the anger flowed. “Fucking Jackson.” He stood up and began to pace.

“Sir, I’m sure he tried to help her,” I said.

“Fucking bullshit, Nez. He scared the shit out of her. Look at her. She’s twenty-six and she’s never been off these grounds. He’s got her thinking the world is evil and that the only place she’s safe is here. All those men before him, they may have abused her body, but our Jack? Good god in heaven, he fucked her mind. I have such issues with that, especially considering her nature. This whole way of life is about bringing people up, not grinding them down. And you know what else he said to me this morning, the fucker?” He was waving his hands now and pacing fast.

“No, sir,” I said.

“He hasn’t fucked her pussy in two and a half years. He told me it makes him sick, so the only way she ever gets it is in the ass, and apparently, that isn’t very often either. Sometimes I think he’s doing this to make me suffer for not falling for his bullshit all those years ago and for making him take responsibility for her. I don’t know, but I’m sick of him, sick of his self-centered fucking bullshit.”

“My lord, she never said a word to me about that. She never went into any detail about her sex life or her childhood. In fact, she changed the subject when it came up.”

“I’ll bet she did. It’s downright shameful, the way she’s been treated her whole life. It’s just so fucking sad. And to think how Jack made it so much worse for her and took advantage of her simplemindedness. I’m just sick about it. It keeps me awake at night. Every time I look at Jack lately, it’s harder to remember the good times. He’s changed so much. I miss the old Jack and I doubt he’ll ever come back. I’ve lost him. Even at work, he’s not what he used to be. He’s lost his edge. Nobody’s happy when he comes in and it’s affecting morale. The international guys all think I keep him on out of loyalty to my father’s memory and maybe they’re right. It used to be that he was the engine that kept the firm going, but these days he’s useless.” He plopped down on the sofa and twisted a lock of my hair.

“I’m sorry, my lord,” was all I could say, but I was glad his loyalties were with Marie-Louise. It was a comfort to know that he meant what he said and said what he meant. His honesty was refreshing.

“God, Nez, I am too. The whole thing is a sorry mess. I’ve decided to offer him the opportunity to leave,” he said flatly.

“What, sir? What do you mean?”

“After this morning, when he and I were upstairs, some of the things he said and tried to do got me thinking that he really needs to get out of here for a while; not forever, but just for a while. Put some space between himself and my father’s memory, this place, between himself and me so that you and I can get on with our life together. It’s not that he’s against us being together, but he’s not able to understand that he,” Mr. Delacroix paused, “that he and I aren’t what we used to be.”

“I think I see, my lord.”

“He needs a change of venue and he needs a strong dom to get his mind back on track, and then he can come back if he wants to; maybe by then Marie-Louise will sort herself out.”

“I suppose fucking up someone’s mind has a tendency to fuck with your own after a while, sir,” I said.

“Exactly, Nez, that’s exactly what’s happened. He’s just gotten all fucked up on account of what he’s done.”

“So what’ll you do, sir?”

“At tea, I’ll tell him that tonight I’ll offer him on temporary loan to the dom of my choice, beginning as soon as possible once an agreement is drawn up. It’s as simple as that, provided they’ll have him. End of story. And Marie can stay in the east wing as planned and we’ll help her with the divorce papers.”

“Can you do that, sir?”

“Hide and watch me, girl. Just hide and watch me,” he said. “I’m in charge now.”

“I mean your agreement. Does it say you can do that?”

“I made sure of it the day he came to the apartment. Even then, he was so full of himself. I think on some level, I saw this coming.” He leaned back on the sofa. “I remember once when Jack disappeared for a while when I was a little kid. It seemed like a long time, but it was probably only about six months or so. Dad told me that he had a long business trip, but in retrospect, I think Dad lent him out for a while. Even back then, Jack had issues. I wish Dad was here to advise me.”

He got up and walked from window to window. “Aw hell, if he was here, this wouldn’t be happening, but I wonder who he used back then and if they’re still around. Whatever that person did worked wonders. When Jack came back, the whole house seemed tranquil, like it hadn’t been in a long time, and Dad and Jack were so happy to see each other. I think Charlotte will know who it was. She’ll be here tonight. That’s Madame Charlotte to you, my dear.”

It had never dawned on me that some of the doms would be female.

“Speaking of which, you need a little briefing this afternoon to prepare for the meeting. Are you hungry? I am,” he said, and went to the kitchenette.

“Yes, sir.”

“Let’s have lunch up here and we can go over a few things without interruption.”