“Yes, Sir,” she said, her words coming out muffled against his shirt.
“I won't punish you today, partly because I don't care about the seams, and partly because you don't trust me yet. But at some point, I will punish you, you understand that, right?”
She nodded again. Then she pulled back from him, looking into his eyes. Her crying had stopped at least.
“I'm sorry I freaked out on you,” she said. “You must think I'm such a...”
He pressed a finger against her lips to hush her. “Shhhh,” he said. “I don't think anything except that you don't know me, and I moved too fast. This situation is very different from... what I'm used to.”
Even as he bumbled on like an idiot he wondered how he could have misread her so badly. It was the doctor's presence that made her feel safe enough to let go. And from what Damian had heard of her phone call, she was feeling abandoned right now.
With the other girls he'd had in his life, they'd been... well, subs. There had been negotiations... checklists of what she would and would not do. Layers of consent and safewords. Lindsay had offered Shannon to him on the condition that he wouldn't bring any of that into the relationship because Shannon had entrusted the house with something very different.
If Damian came in and started talking about negotiations and safewords and contracts and checklists and all the rest, it would undermine the reality that had been built around her. And then her suffering at Brian's hands would be for nothing because suddenly nothing would be real and secure anymore.
Damian knew about the previous master, the one before the house. The last thing Shannon needed was to feel like the chains around her weren't real, binding, and forever. Even though Damian had never seen himself as the type of man who would take someone like this—truly own someone, what Shannon needed wasn't a game. A game would only make her fear the day it might end.
If it wasn't a game, he couldn't let her go. Because if it wasn't a game, it was a crime. And in some twisted way, there must be a safety in that for her, an assurance that she wouldn't be tossed out on a whim when a new and novel girl showed up offering submission.
Damian wished he could tell her she didn't have to worry about that from him anyway. He'd had his fill of girls who didn't take any of this seriously. Maybe he didn't want to be the type of man who bought a slave, but he didn't want a game anymore, either.
“He's not tired of you,” Damian said, stroking her cheek. “I wanted you. Don't ever think he's shared you with me out of anything other than our friendship.”
She nodded, looking away, going shy. Damian stood and grabbed her hands, pulling her to stand. “Let's go outside for some fresh air.”
She didn't reply but allowed him to guide her back up the stairs.
“Wait,” she said when they reached the front door. “Don't I need shoes?”
“We're going down to the beach. So, no.” He didn't bother to take his own shoes off.
They were both quiet as he led her down a small path by the house that ended in a rolling green hill that spilled out onto a wide ribbon of white sandy beach.
The coastline stretched for miles. A good portion of it was part of Damian's private property. If you squinted, you could just make out a dock far down the coast and then across from that dock back on land at the top of another small hill, was a large Cape Cod house. His closest neighbor.
Damian knelt beside her and rolled her jeans up. “Go. Walk in the surf. I need to make a call.”
She seemed uncertain, like she might say something... a protest? A question? But in the end she decided against it and went down the sloping beach to the waves lapping at the shore.
Damian took the phone out of his back pocket and dialed.
“Damian,” Lindsay said on the second ring. “Is everything okay?”
“No, you fucking asshole, everything is not okay,” Damian said, not expecting the anger that came out of his mouth until it was out.
Shannon's head whipped around, a look of fear on her face.
Damian lowered his voice. “She can't stay in that house.”
“What are you talking about?”
Damian recounted what had just happened in the basement and concluded with, “I don't want her in that house with Brian. She can't possibly feel safe there.”
“She's not yours yet,” Lindsay said.
“She's partly mine. We agreed. You offered her to me; don't act like this wasn't your idea. I'm not going to share her with you if you keep pretending she's not also mine when it gets inconvenient.”
There was a long sigh on the other end of the phone. “You can have her on the weekends for now and the foreseeable future.”
Damian wasn't sure why he felt so attached to her already. No, that wasn't true. He knew exactly why. As much as he hated her fear of him, he'd loved that she couldn't just walk out the door. She would never be a brat or run out on him. She would just sweetly obey. It disturbed him just how appealing he found that idea.
In fact, the thought sent all the blood in his brain rushing to his pants.
“I'll pay you. Name your price. I can wire the money this afternoon.”
“No,” Lindsay said. “She is ours. I never thought you'd be the one who had trouble sharing.”
“It's not about that. I just don't want her near that monster.”
“Why don't you ask Shannon what she wants? Then get back with me.”
Before Damian could reply, Lindsay had disconnected the call. That smug son of a bitch. He put the phone back in his pocket.
The good doctor hadn't even told Shannon his plan yet. Maybe she'd be feeling less abandoned and uncertain if he had. She had no idea she was to belong to both of them and then... someday... in some nebulous future Lindsay had planned out in his head, she would belong only to Damian.
Damian had his doubts Lindsay would ever let her go fully. He'd have to leave this world before he'd let go of her. Damian knew this because it's what he would do. He didn't mind sharing with the doctor. He had a busy life that included a lot of traveling during the week. He liked to make appearances at functions and visit the organizations he donated to. It was polite and felt more personable.
While he could fit Shannon into that life without neglecting her, he didn't need her to fill up lonely empty spaces for him.
When she looked up again, Damian motioned her back. There was the slightest hesitation—the lingering fear and uncertainty—but then she made a decision and walked up the sandy slope to him.
He was at such a loss of what to do with her. The Shannon he'd thought he'd known from their previous sexually charged interactions seemed absent now. In that sexually free woman's place was a shy, scared girl. He'd fucked her over Lindsay's desk while the doctor had held her in place for him while she'd whimpered and moaned and come like a rocket. And yet right now she seemed like a tentative virgin who hadn't even seen her first dick.
He held out a hand to her. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
70
Shannon took his hand and let him lead her back up to the house. Who had he been yelling at on the phone? It occurred to her that she didn't know anything about Damian. She didn't know what he did for work or if he even worked. He was at the art show so maybe he was involved somehow in the art world? He seemed to know Hunter well enough to host him for a party at his house.