Carter’s hand appears in the middle of my back, keeping me in place, as if he read my mind and realized I was about to sit up.
“Stay, boy,” he firmly orders. “I’ll give you that one, because I think you just remembered you haven’t texted your mom this weekend.”
Shit!
Carter’s talking to Susa. “He’s still going to be texting her, but I’m going to step back the frequency. I promised him he’s staying with me during semester breaks.”
“Well, that’s easy to deal with,” she says. “You’ll both stay here, with me.”
“What will your parents say?” he asks.
She snorts. “Not a damn thing, because it’s none of their business. This ismyhouse. It’s inmyname. I’m an adult. They know you’re friends of mine. If they didn’t trust me to make sound decisions, then they shouldn’t have given me my own house, a trust fund, and taught me how to manage my money, now, should they?”
He snickers. “You are a unique woman, Susa.”
“I try.” Her hand is still on my head, her fingers playing with my hair.
“Except you don’t have guest beds,” Carter notes.
“Well, not like I can’t go shopping.” The feel of her fingers in my hair has driven me even deeper into that sweet mental vacation. “When can he sit up?”
“With permission.”
“Can I give him permission?”
He must have nodded, because Susa pats my head. “Sit up, sweetie.At Ease.”
Carter’s hand disappears, as does Susa’s. I sit up and move into the position.
She’s smiling. “Neither of you will go homeless as long as I’m around,” she says. “So if the bitch cuts you off, you letmehandle her, huh?”
Carter clears his throat, but he’s wearing that smirk.
Susa sighs and playfully rolls her eyes. “Oh,fine. Let the sadist haveallthe fun.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I spend the next several days in a daze. Carter takes things easy on me with Susa now in the know and participating somewhat during our evenings together. I don’t have to be naked at Susa’s, but I do have to go shirtless. Carter tells me being naked in front of her is an eventual goal, so I’ll need to mentally work myself up to it.
I get the feeling Susa and Carter have conversations about this without me around, because he doesn’t seem to want to push the issue too hard. Maybe she isn’t comfortable with me being naked, I don’t know.
It doesn’t really matter, I suppose. I do what I’m told.
I trust Sir, and Susa, by default.
We haven’t done any domestic discipline in front of Susa, either. Or sexual…stuff. That happens in our room at the dorm, for now, but is also something Carter’s told me will eventually happen in front of her.
Maybe even with her taking part, if she chooses to.
He doesn’t tell her everything, though, only things she needs to know about me, about what he’s doing with me. I’ve been warned this is a marathon and not a sprint.
I quickly grow used to being on my tether in our room. He develops a ritual about this, too. Carter takes it off me in the morning. I go to his bed—if I haven’t fallen asleep next to him in it—and kneel in Devotion to wake and greet him. Then he has me lay my head on the bed and scratches my scalp for a moment while I breathe and center myself. All the while, Carter softly talks to me, tells me what a good boy I am for him.
I feel calmer than I have in years, and that’s not an exaggeration.
Carter has me text Mom every other day now. She hasn’t replied to any of them, but he’s had a couple of text conversations with her, the contents of which he hasn’t volunteered to me.
I haven’t asked.
