“It wasn’t a request. I should have taken you back that first night, but I was too drunk. I tried to leave you alone, but your sister told me how you’ve been. I’ve seen this before. I’ve known other pets abandoned by their masters who spiraled out like you have. It doesn’t happen every time, but when it does, they almost never truly come back from it. I’m not leaving you like that. We’ll work it out.” He didn’t bring up his own earlier drunken and disheveled state.
“I can’t.”
Anton calmly took a sip of wine, his gaze never leaving her. “It doesn’t matter if you can or can’t.” He opened his suit coat to reveal something shiny and silver in the inner pocket. “I’ll sedate you if I must, but you are coming with me.”
Just give in to him. Just go and don’t worry about Brian.
She started crying.
“Kiska. This can’t go on. We can’t go on without each other. We both know it. You know that I love you. And I think you feel the same things.”
Annette’s fork dropped with a grating clang against her plate.
What? No, she absolutely didn’t know that. She’d been sure those feelings only flowed one way. Sure, she knew he’d been possessive of her, but she’d always thought it was just a sexual thing to him—a control thing. It was just the bargain they’d made.
“Don’t lie to me,” she said.
“I don’t lie. That’s your game, pet. We’re going to finish dinner, and then we’re going to go home. It will be a very long time before I take you out again. You’ll have to earn it.”
She wanted to go with him, so badly. If only a tiny meteor could fall out of the sky and just take Brian out.
“You threatened to give me to Brian for punishment!” she blurted out.
Something in Anton’s face changed. He looked comically horrified. “Oh, kiska. You’re talking about that day. The day with Shannon?”
“Yes!”
“You were so upset. I just wanted to get you in the shower, and I didn’t want to be the bad guy. I wouldn’t have sent you to him.”
“Promise me you won’t ever send me to him, no matter what. And that you won’t threaten it. Please.”
“I swear it. Never. It will only be me.”
“Will you promise to protect me completely from him?”
Anton sighed. “No.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I can’t promise it. Brian has said he’ll honor my claim on you, and he’s off the drugs now. But that may all mean nothing. I can’t watch you every second of every day. If he hurts you, I will kill him, and he knows that. But that doesn’t mean he won’t have some psychotic break and do it anyway. That’s the risk of being with me.”
Without realizing it, she’d begun to grip the edge of the table so hard that when she finally let go, she could feel small indentations from her fingernails underneath.
He stood and collected their plates from the table and put them in the sink. Then he took the wine glasses and rinsed them as well. Finally he turned back to her and leaned against the counter. “Are you coming home without a fuss, pet?”
Annette was quiet for a long time. She was pretty sure he’d sedate her or drag her out kicking and screaming. And did she really want to kick and scream and fight him? Hadn’t she spent the last six weeks of her life miserably unhappy without him?
“Yes,” she said finally.
His eyes narrowed. “Yes, what?”
“Yes, Master.”
A slow smile spread over his face. “Good girl.” He opened his arms to her, and she got up and went to him.
He held her close for a long time and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She’d missed this all-encompassing feeling of him wrapped around her.
He spoke to her in low, soothing Russian, words she would never know and didn’t need to know. She was sure what he said to her in that moment were all the words he couldn’t bring himself to say under other circumstances in a language she could understand. They sounded like words of love. Promises. Vows. These foreign words etched themselves into her soul.
And she knew that no matter what happened, no matter how wrong it was or how dangerous Brian might be or any of a million things that could go wrong in that house, she had to take the risk.
Finally he stopped speaking. He took her hand and led her out of the apartment to his waiting car. She got inside without fuss or drama and put on her seat belt. A few minutes later, Anton started the car and pulled out onto the main road.
“You know I will have to start your training all over again. I must have absolute obedience—the full protocol.”
Annette stared out the passenger side window as the trees went by, hiding her smile as a familiar ache crept between her legs.
Epilogue
Four years later.
Annette was in the kitchen baking when she heard the front door slam shut. Was Anton home? She impatiently waited the one and a half minutes remaining on the timer then took the cookies out of the oven. She didn’t even bother putting the cookies on the cooling rack. Instead, she raced toward the front door.
Anton stood in the entryway, a troubled expression on his face. He’d been gone a long time today. She’d missed him, but with the look on his face, she didn’t think he’d appreciate overzealous pouncing. Instead, she went for the cautious approach, edging slowly toward him.
“Master?”
He held out his arms, and she went to him, letting out a contented sigh when she was finally enclosed in his embrace. He kissed the top of her head.
“I missed you, kiska. I had a very long day.”
“I made cookies?” It came out as a question. She knew what very long day meant. It meant he wasn’t going to play with her tonight because whatever had happened was weighing on him too heavily, and he was too exhausted for it. She tamped down the disappointed twinge.
He allowed her to lead him to the kitchen and sat at the bar stool while she poured him some milk and put cookies on a plate for him. She sat across from him and absently ran her finger over the soft inside of her collar.
“Out with it,” Anton said.
“Out with what?”
“Don’t try my patience. You’re fiddling with your collar. You have something to say. Out with it.”
“Something’s wrong. You aren’t acting normal,” Annette said.
Anton sighed. “There’s a new girl here. Her name is Vivian. She’s not quite like the others. I’m not at liberty to discuss all of the details with you, but I brought her to the house too soon, and now I’m not sure how to handle her. She’s very upset.”
Annette got up and went around to stand beside her master. She ran her fingers through his hair. “I could talk to her... if you wanted. I could calm her down. I could tell her about you and me.”
Anton snorted. “I hope you weren’t planning to lead with how you traded yourself for your sister in hopes I wouldn’t kill you both. How would that calm her?”
Annette hesitated. She’d been a very good girl for a very long time. She was a little afraid to broach the subject. But she broached it anyway.