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“Autumn, I told you I was probably going to have to turn her. You had known for months it was a possibility.” His voice was stern as he slipped off his ballet shoes and padded past me down the hall. I followed him. “You knew, you can’t claim
ignorance or surprise.” He snapped as he turned into the bathroom.

The room was enormous, easily as big as my bedroom if not my living room. The walls were white granite with flecks of gray and silver in it, the counter tops were black marble with veins of white running through them and the floor was polished hematite. All of the fixtures were black as well. The tub was big enough for six and had stairs leading up to it. The shower had what could only be described as a chaise made out of black marble in it, and it too was big enough for six or more. Aleksi turned on the shower and looped his fingers into the waistband of his tights and pulled them and his dance belt down.

I leaned against the doorframe, too scared to enter as Aleksi in the nude stared at me. He looked far from pleased.

“Out or in.” He snapped as he turned from me.
Aleksi is naked.
Miss Manners, was rendered completely useless by her kryptonite—the sight of Aleksi’s naked body. I slipped in and closed the door behind me. “By in I mean all in, Autumn. Strip.” The order made me shiver.

Wetting my lips, I swallowed and stared at him. My lips parted slightly and I glanced down at my dress. Should I?
His body is perfect.
Some help you are, Miss Manners. With a deep breath, I pulled my dress off over my head. I then reached back unsnapped my bra and hung it up with my dress on the corner of the towel rack before I slipped out of my shoes and slid my panties off. He held the glass door open for me, and with measured steps I walked in and sat on that marble chaise with my knees pressed together and ankles crossed.

Aleksi walked under the water without a word to me. I watched shamelessly for a moment as he rinsed off his body, and then I realized that we weren’t quite together anymore. The thought sobered me, and I covered myself almost instinctually.

“You said you wanted to talk, so talk.” He clipped out as he stretched his neck, and raised his eyes to me. “I think I deserve some sort of explanation. I confessed my love for you, granted I’m sure that doesn’t mean what it once did but… foolish me I thought it would at least get me a warning or explanation before you shut me out.” He was right, I should have said something and not ignored
him. “Do you know what I endured for you? Just so I could talk to you. Every call, every letter, every email, text and video chat came with a price, Autumn. I gave Elizabeta carte blanche so I could talk to you—that is a very dangerous thing to do.”

“I’m sorry, I was just so hurt…I… I couldn’t imagine why y-you would w-want m-m-m…
me when you had her.” My words left my lips in a broken high pitched whine. He paused and turned to me with ethereal and unkind eyes. He squeezed some body wash on a black bath poof and ignored me as he washed. The anger seemed to roll off him in waves, his control from Kendra’s buckling like stressed steel. Was this there all long?

“I told you, that I loved you. I let Elizabeta turn me into her pin cushion and a whipping boy for you. Why the fuck would I do that if I
was content with Kendra. I never wanted her. Even in the beginning you knew that.” He swallowed and stared at me for a few moments in silence. “Come, rinse off.” With the order I stiffened and went back to chewing on my bottom lip. “Autumn!” He hissed my name. I stood and walked over to the water jet. Standing next to him in the shower I couldn’t help to be aroused, and extraordinarily disappointed with myself.

Releasing my bottom lip from my teeth I sunk to my knees in front of him. I thought back to all of the books I had read, to all of the hints he had dropped about what he wanted to do to me and I pressed my forehead to the floor at his feet. A soft gasp escaped his lips as my hands found his feet and covered them. I prostrated myself before him utterly, and against my better judgment—were Miss Manners not preoccupied with suggestions on how to better end up in his bed.

“I’m so sorry, Aleksi. I wasn’t thinking, I was just so hurt.”

“Oh, Autumn.” He sighed. “Bare your throat.” He demanded, the anger fading from his voice. I turned my head to the side and swept my wet hair off of my neck. The moment my pulse was in his sight he groaned softly. “Good girl, now tell me who you belong to.”

“You.” I trembled visibly as I said that soft little word.

“No.” That one tiny
two-letter word made me want to sob. “You’re not mine, you lost the right to be mine when you didn’t talk to me for two months. When you didn’t give me a chance to explain, or to try and sooth you. You weren’t the only one hurting, Autumn. You weren’t the only one crying. So no, Autumn, you’re not mine.” He stepped away from me, leaving me pressing my forehead to the floor.

“Please, Aleksi. I want to be yours. I’ll do anything, just…pl-please.” I pleaded pathetically as I stayed where I was, the hot water hitting my back and washing over my body, hiding my tears.

“Stop.” He barked at me with a growl. “Never say that. Ever.”

“I’m sorry, I just…” I sighed.
You just really fucked up is what you did. And now you can have him, and he doesn’t want you.
“I want to be yours.”

“You want to be mine when it’s convenient for you. I told you not to talk to Garrett, and I know you
talked to him the day before you left. And then, well you never opened my e-mails or letters, never looked at my texts. And now… here you are begging to be mine. I loved you, Autumn. I can ask Elizabeta if you want proof of how much I love you, I’m sure she’s more than willing to share the video of everything she did to me.”

The past tense made my heart ache. I crawled out from under the jet of water to him and this time pressed my forehead to the top of his feet. I looked up the line of his body, his face was completely unreadable, blank of emotion.

“Aleksi, I’m sorry. I was so stupid, please, please don’t give up on me.” I continued to beg. “I won’t do it again. I promise.”

“Stand up, Autumn.”

“
No.” I wrapped my arms around his ankles.

“Autumn,” He growled. “Get up.”

Standing I ran my fingers back through the wet mess of my hair and leveled my eyes to his. Those surreal blue orbs were hard and cold, and that alone made me look away as my stomach sunk.
He’s over you.

“You have someone else?” I asked softly.

“Yes, after two months of silence what did you expect me to do? Pine for you? Did you yearn for me while you ignored me? I have my limit, Autumn and I surpassed it several times over for you.”

“Why take me in here if…” My voice caught.

“Because I want to destroy you, Autumn, like you destroyed me. But I love you too much to follow through with it.”
Present tense!

“Oh…” I covered myself with my hands. “Wh-who… who is she? Or is it
a she?”

“It’s
a she.”

“Is it one of the dancers?”

“No. She’s a waitress, I met her at a club that Tristan took me to.”

“Which club?”

“One you’ve never been to, it only caters to… certain tastes that you have yet to really explore.”

“So it’s
an… a…an S and M club,” I struggled to get the words out but when I finally did Miss Manners practically did a backflip.

“Yes.”

“I wanted to…” Tears welled up in my eyes.

“I know.”

“I… think I need it.”

“I know. You’ll find a good
dom someday, but that dom isn’t me.” After he spoke I laughed abruptly. Tristan and Kendra knew.

“They all knew didn’t they?”

“Kendra and Tristan knew. I asked Tristan not to tell Leslie because I wanted to tell you.”

“Oh, when I offered to go
after you… they all offered to make sure I got home.”

“How very noble of them.” His voice was tight as he spoke. Cracking his neck he turned off the water and left the shower. He let the glass close behind him; he didn’t wait for me. I didn’t mov
e, I couldn’t move. I lost him. I knew I lost him before, but now that I had confirmation I felt like my heart was going to explode. The tears were free flowing, I did this. All of the obstacles were gone, and now I still couldn’t have him because I fucked up. “You can stay the night if you want, I have an extra room. Maddie will be here in thirty minutes, though.”

“Won’t she—” I stopped myself. It was a stupid question, she wouldn’t ask. She would trust him like I should have. I sobbed and pressed my forehead
against the glass as he wrapped a towel around his waist.

“
No, she won’t ask.”

“What about the mark?”

“It will always be there, it can’t be undone.
I’ll always crave you. But knowing I have the will to resist; knowing that I have such utter control over myself is very pleasing.
Especially in light of what you did to me.” There was a knock on the door. “And she’s early. You should be able to find the room well enough.”

“So I can be punished like before? Is this
tal-talking like a f-fucking ad-adult?”

My words made him pause at the door, even as the knocking grew more frequent. But in the end he did what I did to him for two months, he ignored me. The bathroom door closed and I was free to sob in private.

I have no clue how long I stayed in the bathroom, I sat and cried for a while. I took off my makeup and dressed again. Only as I left the bathroom did the realization hit me that he had intended on fucking me in the shower and leaving me after. Remembering his words made me feel cold, he wanted to destroy me.

Without the buffer of naked Aleksi, Miss Manners was back in full swing.
See! I was right! You should have left.
I made my way down the hall, there were muffled yelps and mumbles coming from a room as I tried to find the empty one. I found it, almost next to the bathroom. There was a huge king sized bed in the middle of the room and a desk against one wall. I tilted my head to the side.
This isn’t the spare room, this is his room.
On top of the desk was a letter to me.

      
“Dear Autumn,
      
      
      
      
June 9
^th

I miss you, I miss you more than anyone should ever miss another creature. I spent almost eight hours just sitting in the shower on the floor thinking of you, and what I did wrong. If only you would tell me, I will do whatever it takes to right this. I need yo”

He had stopped the letter mid-word. Maybe it was the innocuous word need that made him decide to cut ties. The letter was dated last Saturday. With a heavy sigh, I left the room and walked down the hall. I was greeted by the muted sounds of heavy hard slapping, and yelps coming from a room at the end of the corridor.

The last door in the hallway was cracked open, a thin sliver of light knifed through the darkness on the floor. As that slapping and yelping grew clearer, I grew more and more nervous.
You should just go to bed
.
I ignored Miss Manners—like I was adept at doing—and stopped at the door.

Peeking through the crack I could make out the room, the walls were covered in the black version of the white art deco paper in the hall. Shelves covered the walls, shelves that hung with various crops, canes, and floggers. Rope hung from the ceiling, against one corner was a big wooden X with ropes at each corner. In another was a wooden stockade with a bench under it, the track lighting on the ceiling made the apparatuses cast long, ominous shadows. Towering over everything else in the room was a four poster bed, also wood with black satin sheets.

      
On that raised bed, with its smooth sheets sat Aleksi, and over his knee was what I could only assume was Maddie. Her lithe, bronze body lurched with every smack of the paddle which was leaving bruised welts on her bottom. He purred to her inaudible soothing words just for her between swats, and she thanked him for every hit. I wanted to be her. Chewing on my bottom lip I continued my voyeurous activities; I couldn’t look away. I tried not to get too turned on by it, I didn’t know if he could still feel me.

Setting the paddle down he roughly pushed her to her knees and stalked over to near the door. I gasped softly and quickly covered my mouth. His face held nothing but disapproval, there wasn’t an ounce of heat there as he grabbed a cane off of the wall. For a moment I thought those eyes fell on me and my stomach twisted. But he didn’t let on that he knew I was there if he did see me.

“I’m so sorry, Master. I thought you would be happy to see me early.” She sobbed as she knelt back on her knees.

“I had company.” His voice was tight as he spoke trailing those lovely fingers over the cane.

“Was it your ex-sub, Master?”

“No, I never really
topped her.” He sighed softly and rolled his neck, popping the bones audibly.

“If you would rather be with her, I can leave, Master.”

He snorted and shook his head. “Shhh.” He purred as he gracefully crossed the room, quickly closing the distance between them. “One more word about her and you’re going to get a real caning.” He roughly grabbed her jaw forcing her to look up at him. After a moment,
he released her, “Climb on the bed and get on all fours.” Turning from her he crossed the room and opened a small drawer and took out a golden foil wrapped packet. It was a condom wrapper, my mouth was suddenly parched. He walked back over to the bed and dropped the cane. Maddie was waiting for him, on all four with her back arched. Her bruised, reddened and welted bottom presented to him.