AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve been told I’m an unlikely man for a master.” He pauses. “I’m not really sure why—since I’ve mastered the art of dominating women so well. I do know I’m strict, demanding, and thorough with my slaves. And I undoubtedly have what it takes to master you, Anna Keller. I am sometimes affectionate, but I’m always exacting. I expect the women that serve me to be wholly dedicated to me, while at the same time independent within themselves. I’m not looking for a permanent relationship, marriage, or the hassles involved with personal attachments.” He looks at me almost sorrowfully—as though there’s a great passionate story behind his words. “Yet, in truth, I do become attached to all my submissives, and it pains me when they move on. They do, however, all move on. And so will you.” He plays with the cane, running it along his palm as I stare in wonder. “The fact that any arrangement we create will not be lasting only heightens the drama. It demands we be passionate and all consuming on the sexual and psychic plane. Does that make sense to you?”
“Yes, it does.”
“Good.” He moves again, taking up a new pose, staring at me. “You would not live here—at least not all the time. I cannot take that much intrusion in my passive life. When I want you here, you’ll be here. When I tell you to go, you will. The roles we play will be clearly determined and you will not overstep the boundaries I establish. I will indulge myself with you in whatever way I choose, inside or outside this house. I make the rules, you live by them. I dictate, you conform. I won’t tolerate disobedience, and will punish you only once for any error. There are no second chances. You’re out if your resistance goes that far. You give yourself over to me completely and I will define your life. Other matters—like how you make your living—do not concern me and are yours to control. Though, I would suggest some flexibility in that area for obvious reasons. There will be days when I’m very demanding of your time, while other days you’ll fend for yourself. I assume you’ll want some activity of your own beyond this relationship that will please you?”
I nod. His unassuming appearance has not changed, but as he speaks, I can see the dominant emerge in the frank way he outlines our arrangement.
“You are a pleasing woman, Anna, and I’ll enjoy training you. But I’d suggest that you take a tour of Welliston and be sure it’s where you’d like to live for the next two years.”
“Two years?” This stuns me.
“At least. The way Bernard describes you, it will be as necessary to unlearn your bad habits as it will be to create new ones.”
I’m so flustered I don’t know what to say.
“Brain addled?” he asks looking quite amused.
“A little. You speak of our relationship as something short-lived, but then you suggest two years.”
“Two years is an honest assessment of the time I’d like to spend with you. Of course, that could change. I could wake up one morning and decide I hate you around, or some other woman might catch my eye, and I’d send you packing in favor of another sub.”
“But this is a commitment, isn’t it?”
“More than you planned on? You need to be trained. If you accept that fact, then you figure what time you spend with me is a commitment to yourself. I suspect you’ve been running from one thing to the next too rapidly. That in fact, you still have some uncertainty about your primary needs. Though you were married four years to a dominant man, sometimes learning to be submissive is not the place to also be in love.”
I’d never thought of it that way.
“You have made your choice, why waste our time worrying over it?” He comes to me and kneels on one leg beside me, his hand reaching to my face affectionately. He runs his fingers through my short hair. “This will have to grow.”
I nod agreeing, so swept up by his respectful attitude and kindness, I can’t imagine not agreeing to anything he says. He is like Bernard, and yet kinder still. Two years, a hundred, it seems at this moment there is no amount of time too great to give to him. I’m wary of the way both these doms think I need training, since I’m not sure what that really means. But he knows I’ll surrender, and my choice is made.
***
It takes three weeks for me to move my things north to Welliston. The shop was not a perfect match for me. I wanted another bookstore, and this is more a curiosity shop with lots of novelties that I wouldn’t personally want to lay my hands on. It will take more time than I figured to get the place in shape—order stock, rearrange shelves, and do a major redecoration of the main room. What I do like are the multi-pane windows on three sides; the light that comes into the shop from all angles; and the warmth of a small woodstove in the corner, which removes the wintry chill from the air. Considering the way Lockhart describes my training, I’ll have many hours to fill on my own—at least at the
start. This work will be a blessing. Better to be busy than worry over my next meeting with my master. The store should give me a break and a little liberty in my thinking.
I hire a young woman to work with me. It’s my plan to have Ellie trained to do everything, should Lockhart’s demands keep me away for several days. I minimize my life, turning the rooms above the shop into an apartment. It’s been done before so there is already a bath and kitchen. It will require some renovation, but at this point, I’m not averse to living out of boxes or in cramped quarters. Right now, the simplicity suits me.
As soon as I arrived with all my worldly goods, I called Lockhart to tell him I was getting settled. He said he’d call me soon. It’s been two weeks now and I anxiously wait, hearing nothing from him so far.
I spend most of my days in the shop getting things arranged for the opening I have scheduled in three weeks. I have this miserable thought that in the middle of the process, I’ll suddenly be rent way from it and forced to dive into Lockhart’s passion. Yet, as difficult as that will be for the businesswoman in me, the submissive is crying for our first session. I can’t even imagine what he might have planned.
Just as I anticipated, a week before the opening, I emerge from a stack of massive boxes into the shop’s main room to find Lockhart strolling casually about, hands in pockets, staring at the mess. He has his back to me but hears me enter.
“Getting anywhere?” he asks.
“I suppose.” I’m practically panting. Breathless already from the physical exertion of unloading a half dozen crates that arrived today, Lockhart seems to take the rest of my sparse breath away. I’d forgotten how he towers over me with his kindness of heart and his large size.
“Here, let me.” He takes the boxes I’m carrying from my arms and sets them on a table. “Do you have a man around here to help you?”
“No. I suppose I should have. But I think Ellie and I can manage. Most of the heavy stuff is done.”
He nods, staring out the bank of windows that look out on Lake Welliston. Autumn is long past, the landscape now stark, the barren branches of a thousand trees lift up toward the sky, like Pentecostals praying. There seems to be something penitent about this winter world so sapped of life. Even the blue, cloudless sky seems grim and unrelenting.
“Do you have some time now?”
“Now? Time?” I stare around me. “Yes, of course. I could use the break.”
