Gabe put the box with the collar in it down on the dresser and went to her. He unbuckled the cuffs around her wrists and took the blindfold off. Then he rubbed her hands and arms.
“How is your circulation?”
“I-it’s fine. It just hurt.”
He crossed to the bathroom and started to run a hot bath. He poured soothing bath salts and lavender oil in and then went back to help her up off the ground. Julie didn’t say anything as he guided her back to the bathroom. He shut off the water, tested the temperature, and then helped her into the tub.
“Relax, I’ll be right back.”
Gabe went to the other room and brought a chair in and placed it at the end of the tub where Julie’s head rested. All the tension and anxiety drained out of her as he massaged her arms and shoulders.
“I didn’t expect you to still be there when I got back,” he said.
“Why not?”
“I assumed it would be too much for you and you’d push the button. Why didn’t you? Were you too embarrassed?”
“I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
Would he have been disappointed? He’d known when he chained her up that this was a lot to ask of a brand new, totally untrained slave. But, yes. Even knowing how unreasonable his demand was, he would have been disappointed. He would have gotten over it, and he certainly wouldn’t have punished her for it, but he would have wished for a different outcome. Though he’d tried to convince himself it wasn’t, it had been a test—one she had exceeded all expectations on.
“I’m sorry you were in pain, but I’m very pleased with you.”
She seemed to relax another fraction. Whether it was from his words, the warmth of the bath loosening tight muscles, or his hands kneading out the knots he couldn’t be sure.
“I-is it going to be like this all the time?” she asked.
“Like what?”
“Painful.”
He chuckled. “No. Most of the time it won’t be. Even when I play with you with things that you think should be painful, it won’t be like you think. I promise.”
They sat in silence for several minutes. The only sound disturbing the silence was Julie’s fingertips trailing back and forth through the water.
When the water had cooled, Gabe pulled the plug on the drain and helped her out of the tub. He dried her and led her back into the bedroom and guided her to sit on the edge of the bed.
He crossed to the dresser and retrieved the black velvet box that contained the gold collar and returned to sit beside her. She seemed to barely breathe as she stared at the box. Her hand crept out to stroke the velvet on top, then she looked up at him, unsure.
“My collar?”
“Yes. And it never comes off.”
Gabe opened the box.
Julie stared at it for a long time, finally running her finger along the smooth parts of the gold. “It looks like a wedding ring for a giant,” she said.
At least the intent had been clear.
“In a lot of ways it is. I know this is still scary for you, and you don’t know what’s going to happen next or how you’ll feel about it, but this is a commitment to you. This doesn’t just mark you as being my property. It says I’m taking responsibility for you. Forever. It means more to me than a wedding ring means to most people. I hope you can find a way to understand that. So I don’t want to hear any talk about me getting rid of you. That won’t happen. Once this collar is around your throat, that’s it. Everyone in this house takes a collar like this deadly serious, including me. If you displease me, the answer to that is training, not abandoning or throwing you away, do you understand?”
“Yes, Master.”
Gabe took a small black velvet pouch out of his pocket and pulled out a golden key that matched the collar. He removed the collar from it’s cushioning, unlocked it with the key, and put it around Julie’s throat. Then he put the key back in the velvet pouch and went to the far end of the room. There he took a modern art painting of bright geometric shapes off the wall to reveal a small wall safe. He punched in a code and put the pouch with the key inside, then he shut the safe and replaced the picture.
In this time, Julie had gone to stand in front of the mirror over the dresser. She stared at the collar and touched the edge of it.
Gabe moved behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders as their eyes met in the mirror. “Is it too heavy or uncomfortable?”
“N-no, Master.”
She continued to stare at it.
“Do you like it?”
She took a long time to answer as if weighing all the ways he could mean that question. Finally she said, “It’s beautiful.”
41
A couple of days passed and Julie began to relax into a routine with Gabe. Every morning, they took a shower together. He loved bathing her and making her bathe him. In only a few days it had become a ritual in which she found an odd sort of comfort.
So far, nothing more dramatic or intense than the first day had happened, and definitely nothing as bad as the chains. She’d believed it was okay to push the button if she needed to, but she didn’t want to need to. She was grateful he returned when he did because she’d been about to lose the will to keep going.
Even as things had remained tame, Gabe had been clear about why. It wasn’t just that he was going slow with her. He was waiting for her skin to fully heal from the waxing. This morning he’d decided she was fully healed. There was no tenderness or redness left, so today he said things would intensify.
What that meant, Julie couldn’t be sure, but she was afraid. Despite her fears, everything so far with Gabe had felt so dramatically different from what had happened at Dmitri’s house that she hadn’t had any flashbacks. In fact, sleeping in Gabe’s arms each night had kept the nightmares at bay. But he hadn’t fucked her yet. That was coming, and she still feared that when it did, the world around her would come crashing down, maybe for good this time.
For the moment, she was in the gym training with Brian. This was her second day in the gym with him, and remarkably they’d actually developed a rapport. Gabe was right that Brian was a great trainer in the gym. Though she might only think that because Brian wasn’t allowed to actually hurt her.
She was grateful Gabe had set the bracelet that first night so only he could control it. She’d come to discover the bracelets could be controlled via a remote which could send a shock of electricity to the wearer.
But even without such unconventional strategies, Brian was already pushing her in the gym. He’d commented that she was a little flabby the first day. Before she could get too hurt or offended, he clarified that he meant she could be a lot more lean and strong and that Gabe would like her that way.
She couldn’t be completely sure, but it seemed to her Gabe might have met with Brian to specify how he wanted her to look. She wondered if they’d discussed specific workout plans, if he’d been picky about how toned he wanted her and in what areas. This thought unexpectedly sent a jolt of excitement between her legs as she ran on the treadmill.
“Something wrong?” Brian asked.
“Nothing, sir.” Julie felt her face and neck flush bright red and was glad no one could read her thoughts.