“Yes, sir.” She clenched her hands into nervous fists as she stood in the center of the candlelit dining room and let Søren undress her. She felt ridiculous standing completely naked with her hair piled on her head in a fancy updo and high heels on her feet. Søren didn’t touch her other than to slide her panties down her legs. He laid her dress and underwear over the back of the fainting couch that sat near the fireplace.
He pulled her chair out for her and she sat down, wincing as her bare skin connected with the cool wood.
Søren picked up the white box and put it in her hands.
“What is it?” she asked, eyeing the elegant black-and-white wrapping.
“Open it.”
She carefully removed the black ribbon and tore off the white paper. She lifted the lid and stared at the object in the box. So Kingsley hadn’t been kidding, hadn’t been exaggerating, hadn’t been trying to piss her off last year during their first Rolls-Royce ride together.
“Like it?” Søren asked.
Eleanor answered with only one word.
“Woof.”
Søren laughed and picked up the white leather collar and unbuckled it.
“A dog collar?”
“A slave collar. You belong to me always, no matter where we are or what we are doing. But when I put the collar on you, you’ll know that you must give me your complete obedience and your undivided attention. You will call me ‘sir’ while in your collar and nothing else.”
“It’s white.” She looked up at him.
“I wonder why.”
“You know, wearing a dog collar … slave collar,” she corrected, “is a little humiliating.”
“And that is why I want you to wear it.”
She gazed at the collar in his hands.
“Is your collar humiliating, sir?”
“Yes,” he said simply. That hadn’t been the answer she expected, but she understood it. He wrapped the collar around her neck and fastened it into place with a small silver lock.
“Don’t worry, I have the key,” he said. “The only key.”
“Good.”
“Too tight?”
She swallowed easily, breathed easily.
“No.”
Søren took a seat in the chair at her side. “You’re smiling, Little One.”
“I’m totally naked and wearing a dog collar, sir. It was either laugh or cry.”
“Both would have been acceptable. How does it make you feel?”
“I don’t know.” She looked up at him. She smiled, yes, but it was through tears. “I can’t tell if I’m happy or miserable.”
“An appropriate reaction,” he said, lightly tapping her under the chin.
Turning to her meal, she reached for her fork, but Søren snapped his fingers. She stopped and slowly placed her hand back in her lap.
“You do nothing without my permission.”
“Yes, sir.”
He picked up a strawberry, red and wet, and brought it to her lips.
“Eat,” he ordered.
She parted her lips and let him lay the strawberry on her tongue. Her cheeks ached from its sweetness. She swallowed it because she knew he wanted her to.
“Are you comfortable?” he asked, now serving her a spoonful of the soup, some sort of miracle in a bowl. And yet it might have been ashes on her tongue for as much as she enjoyed it.
“Not uncomfortable. Weird. I feel weird.”
“You’ll have to elaborate.”
“I feel …” She paused and looked at her own naked body. She had her legs firmly pressed together, her stomach pulled in tight. She’d positioned her arms to cover her breasts as much as she could. “Very aware of my own body.”
“Exposed?”
“That.”
“I have seen you naked before,” he reminded her.
“That was different. We were on a bed in the dark and doing stuff.”
“Doing stuff? You can do better than that. What were we doing?”
“We were.” She exhaled, feeling strangely tongue-tied. “We were kissing and touching and you used your fingers to make me come twice and you came on me and it was amazing.”
“Where did I touch you?” Søren gave her another spoonful of soup. She couldn’t believe he was feeding her.
Eleanor’s feet went numb and her hands trembled.
“You’re seriously trying to embarrass the hell out of me, aren’t you, sir?” She added the sir quickly at the end.
“I am. But also you need to be comfortable talking to me about anything. If you believe you’re mature enough to do the acts, you need to be mature enough to talk about them. So tell me, where did I touch you?”
She closed her eyes to remember that night with him in his childhood bedroom. But also so she wouldn’t have to look at him while she answered his humiliating questions.