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PROLOGUE
Twenty years ago
Piper sat on a sofa with her head down and her hands clasped between her knees as a very angry Dominant stood in front of her. The area surrounding them was covered in tissue paper confetti. When she’d set off the confetti cannon, she had no idea how much was going to come out of that skinny little tube. Turns out the answer was a lot. And her Dom was pissed.
“Piper, this behavior is unacceptable and has gone way too far. You are too much of a bad girl, and if you don’t learn to control yourself, then no one will ever want to keep you. Nobody likes an obstinate brat.”
His words hurt. They hurt a lot. She was relatively new to the world of BDSM, but she’d thought she’d finally found a place where she could let loose a little and trust that the people around her would take her to task without casting her aside like everyone else in her life had done. She’d apparently been wrong.
“We’re done.”
The last two words were the final nails in the proverbial coffin. Not only were they done, but she was done. She’d tried but apparently she’d failed and she didn’t want to be anywhere she wasn’t wanted if she didn’t have to be.
As he turned around and walked away, she got down on the floor and began to pick up all of the pieces of confetti. She’d only wanted to celebrate her nineteenth birthday a little, maybe earn a nice hard spanking that would quiet her mind and ease her feelings of loneliness, but it hadn’t turned out that way. She’d made it all worse and, on that day, she decided she would never again even acknowledge her own birthday, let alone celebrate it. March thirteenth would forever just be another day on the calendar.
She dropped the last handful of confetti in the trash and dusted her hands off. The club around her was in full swing yet no one paid any attention to her. With one last look around, she collected her things and left that life behind for good.
CHAPTER ONE
Piper Webb sat across from her husband, the man she’d met at the office and married nineteen years prior. He’d given her two beautiful twin girls and a life that most women would dream of. Every one of her needs had been met; she’d basically wanted for nothing as far as the outside world could see. Unfortunately, their marriage had been little more than a piece of paper that made them legally bound to one another. Sure, they had good times, great times even. Hell they even loved one another on a deep level, but one thing had always been missing. Sexual intimacy.
They engaged in sex, that was what married people did, but it had never been like anything she heard her friends talk about. They had all talked about their lovers in a way that made her feel a little jealous. She and Hank had tried, but neither of them had ever found much enjoyment in the acts and eventually they stopped trying all together.
Their girls had graduated high school last summer and were now moved into their college dorms when he finally admitted to her that he was gay. He’d wanted to stay together for the kids and to keep up his image with his crazy religious family. But he’d met someone and he couldn’t live the lie any longer. The amount of relief Piper had felt knowing it hadn’t been her non-existent sex drive or anything she had done or not done that had caused their divorce had been enormous. However, facing a solitary life had been a difficult pill to swallow. She was happy for him, elated even. He would get to live the life he should have been free to live all of this time, but where did that leave her?
The divorce was fast and easy with each of them agreeing to split everything fifty/fifty and not having to discuss custody or anything like that. They would each put an agreed upon amount of money into accounts for the girls every month to support them through college and that was that. Nineteen years of marriage was over with a simple swipe of her pen.
After a tearful hug and a kiss goodbye for Hank and his fiancé, Piper was on her way home. She’d bought him out of the house so the girls could keep their space and she could maintain just a little semblance of security for herself. She made more than enough money to support herself and then some, she just needed to figure out what she wanted to do with all her new alone time.
Her phone buzzed next to her and she smiled seeing her best friend’s picture show up on the screen.
“Hey, Kay.”
True to form, Kay skipped the niceties and began to belt out the lyrics to Free Bird.
Piper laughed as she was gifted the worst serenade of her life. It was so bad, but it was exactly what she needed. By the time Kay decided to stop singing, Piper’s face hurt from laughing and she had tears running down her cheeks.
“You’re a free woman, Pips. Let’s celebrate!”
“I don’t know. It’s been a long day and I’m pretty drained.”
“Too bad. Go home and take a nap. Be ready to go by six. I’m taking you to dinner and if you say no, I will not hesitate to kidnap you against your will. Don’t think I won’t.”
Piper shook her head at her friend’s antics knowing full well that it was not an empty threat. “Fine, I’ll be ready, but you’re buying and I’m getting wine and dessert!”
“Good girl.” Kay laughed.
Those words. How could one person simultaneously love and hate two words as much as she hated “good girl”? Kay said them to her all the time and each time she’d cringe while a little flutter of happiness warmed her insides. It was maddening. She’d never told her friend how it made her feel out of fear that she would reveal too much about her past. A past that no one knew about. A past that would go to her grave with her if she had anything to say about it. Unfortunately, it was a past that also haunted her. It had been over twenty years ago, but she still heard that man’s disapproving voice in her head. She still found herself longing to be accepted by him. Maybe not him, specifically, but accepted in a more general sense. Not that she ever let that side of her out anymore; she would never be that vulnerable again.
She got inside and stood there for a moment. Hank had moved out a few days prior but now that everything was signed and permanent, it all felt a whole lot more real. Kicking her shoes off, she left them by the front door and headed to her bedroom. Hers. She looked around. Maybe it was time to make a few changes. Brighten things up a bit. Find a style all her own. She liked the sound of that. Stripping to her bra and panties, she crawled into bed and got on her phone.
She added a few things to the cart of her favorite online store and began to get excited. She needed to stop focusing on how scary all the changes were and embrace them. This was a new adventure for her, the future was completely unknown and she could mold it however she wanted. Setting the phone on her dresser, she curled up on her side and sighed. She could do whatever she wanted. Go wherever the wind blew her. The only thing she knew for certain was that she would stay single. She couldn’t handle the physical expectations of being with someone. She hated it. If she never had to have sex again for the rest of her life, that would be one hundred percent fine with her.
* * *
“Good girl,” Kay praised as she helped Piper change into some comfortable things to sleep in. There were those two words again. Why did her bestie keep doing that to her? Didn’t she know what kinds of feelings they brought up? Her drunk state made the feelings even stronger and she couldn’t hide it anymore. Maybe she just didn’t want to.
“I’m a submissive.” Piper yawned as Kay was helping her into bed. She might have celebrated too hard and had a little too much to drink, but it had certainly been a lot of fun.
