“Words, Coral.” He couldn’t keep the fury out of his voice, and he saw her try to hold her shaking hands together.
“It’s true. I come down here. I like finding myself a dom to spank me. That’s all that ever happened. I never, er… I mean, you were the first,” she said. Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears, and he cursed himself for talking to her so harshly.
He let out a resigned sigh and rose from the couch. She flinched when he reached his arms out to hug her, but then she settled into him.
“We’ll be having a talk about lying and how not telling something is the same as telling a lie.” He stepped back and cupped her chin. The unmasked adoration in her face took him off balance. What was he doing? She was completely at his mercy, and he was afraid he was going to screw this up and break her worse than she had been broken before.
“I have something else to tell you,” she said softly.
He grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the stone stairway. “Let’s go. We’ll clean up, then we’ll talk.”
CHAPTER 11
JILLIAN
Jillian looked at the clock on the wall as Stepmother entered from behind the curtained off dressing area. The clock struck 1:00 a.m. As usual, she wore all black, a tight-waisted bustier, and her long black boots. But something was off.
“Um, Stepmother.” Jillian wasn’t sure if she should say something, especially after Cindy’s earlier reaction.
“Da. Yes, Jillian?”
“Your, um, your hair.” She awkwardly pointed at the chignon the dominatrix still wore—the style Cindy had worn earlier.
“Oh.” She ripped out the pins and shook her head, fluffing her long white-blonde hair around her shoulders. “I got distracted.” Her thick accent deepened. “Excuse.”
“Stepmother, do you know about Cindy? I mean do you know?—”
“That she and I are of the same body but that is all we share for the time being?” The woman smiled benevolently at her. “Yes, I know.”
Jillian pulled at the tight corset around her waist. She felt so uncomfortable, even though the kind dominatrix had told her she looked beautiful. “How did you come to be this way?”
Stepmother pulled a chair out and sat on it, resting her boot on the edge of the chair.
“Two years ago, the sweet girl was in an accident. Terrible injuries to her head.” She shook her head unhappily. “She would have died if not for the great wolf that saved her.”
“Wolf?”
Stepmother flicked her wrist at her, “That’s another story for another time, dear one." She sat back and appeared thoughtful. “I do not remember much. Only that the great one took us back to his place. She was dying, I knew it in my heart.” A tear slid down her cheek. “Sweet child asked for my help, saying she was not strong enough. So I rose and took her place for a short while.”
Jillian leaned forward, holding her breath in anticipation.
Stepmother ran her fingers through her hair. “After a while, I decided it was time to go away, but she would not let me. She begged me to stay, so I agreed, from midnight until morning, to keep the shadows away. She was scared of the monsters in the dark, so I agreed to stay and protect her at night. After a few months, she chose to forget about our arrangement and shoved it down deep into her locked memories, along with all the other terrors.”
“So she doesn’t know about you,” Jillian said.
Stepmother shook her head sadly. “Somewhere, deep down inside, she knows. But she doesn’t trust in her strength to acknowledge it. She fears it will bring her terrors to life.”
She stood and busied herself by setting out a few spanking implements onto the table in front of them. “When she is ready, she will acknowledge it. For now, she is the sweet one, the virgin, with hopes as high as mountains as she dreams of true love. And I am her protector. The one wholets no evils in. I bow to no man, and that is how she feels most safe.”
Jillian rose and paced the small room, her head reeling in all she had heard. “But if we could just get her to see…”
“No! When she is ready, she will let us know.”
“Seems pretty weak to hide behind a shell of submission, if you ask me,” Jillian mumbled, angry for her friend and confused.
“Darling child,” Stepmother took her chin into her hand, “she is not hiding because she is weak. She is building her strength and biding her time. When the right one comes for her, he will unlock the key to her memories and her heart. And she will rise from the ashes like a phoenix. That is strength, my dear. You may not see it, but she is stronger than you or I, and even stronger than the great wolf himself. Do you understand?”
Jillian felt her eyes widen at the firm chastisement and nodded her head. “Yes, Stepmother.”
