“Maybe we will go visit Nora or rent a cabin in the woods off-grid.”
“Now you’re being mean.”But she laughed, her cheeks flushed and he held her tighter.
“I’m sorry, I am leaving you for the week.But Helena is going to come over, and Josie wants to show you how to make her cinnamon bread.”
“Zee, I can entertain myself for a week.”She broke out of his embrace and went back to her garden, pulling off the rest of the covers.
She looked gorgeous, if a little awkward only using one arm as the setting sun hit her red hair.
“I know.I should have told you about the job.”
“You said that, Master.I forgive you.”Ella threw the cover off and wiped her hands on a rag.
“Good.How’s your ass?”He came up behind her and slid his hands down her waist to her bottom.He cupped her cheeks in his hands and squeezed her soft flesh.
“Sore,” she hissed.
“Enough to remember that I own you and you will obey me?”
“Yes, Master.Always.”Her mouth twitched and he kissed her forehead before slanting his lips against hers and kissing her long and slow.
“Good.”He felt the comfortable weight of what they were to each other settle over them and all was right in his world.
17 ELLA
Leavesandstickscrunchedunder her feet, and she startled a pair of robins from the tree above her, a sure sign of spring that lifted her spirits.
The first two days after Zee left she spent inside, but with the temperatures unseasonably warm, she had to get out to her garden.
A dull pain thumped in her shoulder, and she knew it wasn’t healed yet, but she slept better last night.
She blushed, knowing it was because Zee had called her to tell her about the first day’s results at the championship.
The pride in his voice, the zest for life he oozed made her excited for him.
Ella brushed a patch of dirt off her work pants and started cutting down the overgrown vine from the secluded patch of this overgrown garden.
She knew she looked a wreck with her hair all tangled and a new hole in an old dress shirt of Zee’s and smiled at the memory of her intro to kink workshop, when a woman asked if she dressed in corsets all the time.
Obviously not, she’d laughed.
She wasn’t going to dig in her garden wearing a handmade corset that took her hours or wear fetish wear while picking her daughter up from soccer practice.
“Maybe in some kind of fantasy land I can serve him in my corset every moment of the day, but I live in the world and I have responsibilities and kids,” Ella had said.
She hummed a bit ofConcerto No.2to herself, grateful to be centred and at peace again, grateful Zee had pulled on the strings of their dynamic and given her that punishment with the strap.
That always brought her back to centre, and Zee knew exactly when to do it.
She stopped short, the ache in her shoulder reminding her she wasn’t out of the woods yet and she should slow down.
Zee had reminded her to stay inside.
“I won’t go too far,” Ella said during their goodbyes.“But I can’t wait to get into the garden.”
“You take care of my property, dear heart.”
The way he said it sent shivers up her spine because he wasn’t talking about the garden, and even when he was distracted, checking his phone before he left her, he still took the time to say that to her.
