"Come back to my place."
She saw Amy go still, thinking.
"We shouldn't…" Amy started to say, but Sarah interrupted her without even realising she was going to.
"Please."
One word, and it stopped Amy in her tracks.
"Please?"
"Please." Then, uncharacteristically for Sarah, the words came out in a rush. "I… tonight I need you… I need to be your… I guess I need you to… a month." She shook her head, realising she was making no sense. "There's something only you can give me. Only you. I… I need that tonight."
God, I'm practically begging, where has this come from?
She watched Amy turn it over in her mind for a long, long time, her gaze locked on Sarah.
Then, she nodded slowly.
“Get the bill. I’ll be waiting outside.”
Sarah
London
Sarah’s hands were slightly unsteady as she unlocked the front door. Amy was right behind her, crowding her in a way that she’d have bridled at with anyone else but with Amy, with the woman who had a hold over her that nobody had ever had before. The charge between them was now almost unbearable.
They stepped inside and Sarah closed the door behind them. Amy stood in the short hallway, looking around as if reacquainting herself with the space.
“Before we… there’s something I want to show you,” Sarah said. “In the bedroom.” She caught herself just in time. “Amy. If you’ll let me.”God, I’m asking her permission to show her something in my own home, and I’m loving it.
Amy raised an eyebrow but nodded and followed her through the living room to the bedroom. Sarah switched on the bedsidelamps and watched Amy take in what she’d prepared in anticipation: the leather cuffs, the spreader bars, the blindfold, the riding crop, all laid out on the chest of drawers facing the bed. She saw a smile twitch across Amy’s mouth, but what Sarah wanted to show her wasn’t those, it was above.
“Look up.”
Amy looked. “What am I looking for?”
“You see the bolt?” Sarah reached up and pointed at a strong metal bolt running through a wooden ceiling beam that ran the width of the room, one of several that were left from the building’s previous life as a warehouse. To anyone who didn’t know, it was just part of the architecture. But Sarah fetched one of the spreader bars and, using a chair as a footstool, attached it to the eye hook at one end.
“I installed it a few weeks ago,” Sarah said. “Nobody could guess its purpose unless they’ve used it.” She paused. “I’ve never been attached to it myself.”
Amy looked at the bar, then at the cuffs on the chest of drawers, then at Sarah. Her expression made Sarah’s knees feel unreliable.
“I’ve been hoping,” Sarah continued, her voice barely above a whisper, “that you might want to change that.”
Amy held her gaze for a long moment, then simply said, “Go back to the living room. Wait for me there on your knees. And…” Amy shook her head and grinned. “You forgot to say Amy.”
Sarah obeyed, her heart hammering, and knelt in the middle of her living room, listening to the sounds of Amy moving around the bedroom. After a couple of minutes Amy appeared in the bedroom doorway, leaning against the frame, looking utterly relaxed and in charge, with an expression that made Sarah feel like she was already naked.
“Rules,” Amy said quietly. “You call me Amy. You know that. You do what I tell you. If I ask you a question, you answer honestly. If you want me to stop, you say stop and I will. Clear?”
“Yes, Amy.”
Amy walked across and reached out to trace a finger along Sarah’s collarbone, just above the neckline of her dress. Sarah shivered. “That dress looks amazing on you. But you can’t wear it. Stand and take off the dress.”
Sarah stood and reached behind herself for the zip, pulled it down, and let the dress fall to the floor. She stood there in her lingerie and watched Amy’s eyes travel over her.
“Very nice,” Amy said, and Sarah felt herself blush at the compliment. “You chose the lingerie for me?”
