Learning the Rules Ch. 03

Sorry for the slight delay in posting chapter 3. One slip of a few fingers on the wrong keys and all was lost. I'm sure you all know what that is like. Luckily, I was simultaneously working on chapter 4 and things were relatively fresh in my head (and in my notes!). So, without further delay, I hope you enjoy chapters 3 and 4. Thank you for following Alex and Jamison's story. Please continue to comment. I appreciate your feedback. I hope you enjoy the story. Thanks again, "Apple"

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The Novice Ignores All of the Warnings

Jamie walks Alex out of the trinity and around the corner to his car. He was lucky to find a parking place in this part of the city, but they have to walk about a block to get to his car.

Jamie walks next to Alex and takes her arm. As he places her arm in the nook of his, he feels her tremble slightly. "Are you cold?" he asks.

"No. I'm fine."

Turning toward her, he asks, "If you are "fine," then why did I just feel you tremble against my arm? Do you need my jacket?" He doesn't know why he sounds so annoyed, so irritated. Yes he does, he is doing it again; trying to frighten her off before he makes any kind of investment in her. He does this every time he meets a woman. Well, at least for the last year or so he does this.

Jamie calms himself and gets control of his thoughts. Stop it. It's been over eighteen months, let it go or you're never going to get a new start. Not every woman will lie. Not every woman will cheat. Not every woman will be like Jenn was. You don't have to push Alex away. It was your idea to meet her. Now follow through.

"No thank you, I'm FINE." Alex makes sure she emphasizes "FINE" since he is so adamant about pointing it out to her in his earlier response. She knows it is a childish thing to do, but she does it anyway.

Now, he is more than a little annoyed by her behavior and her response. Jamie abruptly stops walking. Not being prepared for the immediate stop, Alex is still holding onto his arm and stumbles forward, off balance. Jamie's quick response saves her from falling face forward to the sidewalk. Luckily, Jamie's able to wrap his arm around the front of her waist as she is propelled forward and takes her weight before she hits the ground.

His abrupt stop and her near fall because of it really pisses Alex off. Before she even thinks about what she is saying, she yells at him. "What the fuck? You almost made me fall. What the hell is wrong with you?"

Now Jamie is really annoyed with her. He does his best to rein in his anger, he controls his voice, but she has pushed his buttons once too often tonight. "Ms. Newman, before we take one step further, let's get a few things straight. First, if you are cold, tell me and I will give you my jacket. Second, "FINE" is not an acceptable answer to any question I present. I prefer to have my direct questions answered specifically, not in generic quips or single words. Third, I DO NOT appreciate your attitude or your childish behavior. And fourth, I DO NOT like, nor do I ACCEPT any response to me to be yelled or to include foul language. It is most unbecoming in a woman and less so in a lady. Do we have an understanding on these conditions? Because I was not lying earlier when I said I do not repeat myself." His look is a little menacing and his dark brown eyes appear almost black.

He simply stands there staring at her like a parent out stares a petulant child. "In case you are not aware, that was a direct question and I am awaiting your appropriately worded response."

Alex hesitates a moment longer. She can feel her jaw muscles tighten and her lips pursing shut. She is trying to come to grips with her anger and frustration with this man. God, he is so arrogant. He really thinks that he can get away with this shit. Who does he think he's talking to? But she knows, at least on some level, that he is right. She is acting out. She just doesn't know why exactly. She also knows she doesn't want "this," whatever "this" is to end here. There is too much of a spark, an attraction to just let it go nowhere so fast. How to answer him without being sarcastic or pissed...Go to your Grey Zone...That's it, go to your Grey Zone. So, she takes a deep cleansing breath and slowly lets it out. Then she mentally forms her answer before responding to him.

Jamie is just standing there; his arms still around her waist, holding her. He knows she is thinking about what to say, forming her answer. He just hopes it is the answer he wants to hear.

Alex feels like they are standing there staring at each other forever. In reality, it is less than a minute. She inhales deeply again and finally responds. She tries very hard to control her voice as she answers. "No, Jamie, I am not cold. Thank you for the offer of your jacket, but I do not need it. There are many reasons a person may tremble, only one of which is being cold. And, yes, I do understand your requests as you have stated and labeled one through four. I will do my best to try to remember and follow them as best I can. Is that an "acceptable" answer for you?"

As soon as the last words exit her mouth, she regrets them. Damn it! I was doing so well up until that last sentence. I just can't resist, I just have to push him even knowing it will anger him. Why do I feel the need to keep pushing this man? I don't understand it. Is it because he challenges me? Worse, is it because I'm attracted to him?

She can see his facial expression change right in front of her. His stare becomes more intense, if that is even possible. His jaw becomes ridged and thrust forward. His entire body tenses and he seems to loom over her. And then, he responds with as cold and commanding a voice as she has ever experienced. He's not loud or angry sounding, just matter of fact as if his words should end with "my will be done." He is so arrogant it wouldn't surprise her if he did end his rant that way.

"No. That is not an acceptable answer for me. These are not suggestions that you do your best to remember or to follow. These are things that you simply must remember and follow. They are not suggestions or things to be negotiated, they are mandates. Do you understand that? If you can't understand some basic facts, there is no sense in taking this any further."

Alex could almost hear his warning to her. His words say one thing but his meaning says "Get out now. Run while you still have the chance." It's not the first time tonight she has had this type of warning. Maybe now is the time to take it.

Before he gives her time to answer, he continues to lecture her. "Ms. Newman, you may take this "fledgling relationship," for lack of a better term right now, as a game or possibly even a joke. I assure you that I do not. I am being nothing if not absolutely honest and straight forward with you when I tell you this. I haven't been attracted, mentally, physically, or sexually to a woman the way I am to you, in a very long time. But, no matter how strongly I feel those attractions, they will not out way my basic rules of what I will and will not accept from someone I am with in any arrangement, business or personal. On this we must be clear."

He stops and looks carefully at her, studying her eyes, her facial and bodily response. He is satisfied that her full attention is on him and that she is processing what he is saying to her. He wants no doubts in her mind when she makes a decision. He knows that she and Ashley had conversations about him, but he remains unaware of the content. Alex is an intelligent woman; she has to be somewhat aware of his differences. He has been laying groundwork for her all night.

Alex appears a little shocked, but she is following along. She is simply transfixed on his face and his words. Does everything this man does or says have two meanings? Lord he is a frustrating man and a challenging one! Why is every warning bell in my body saying turn around and walk away?

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Alex has a few minutes reprieve as she is literally saved by the bell. As a chime sounds comes from Jamie's jacket pocket. It's his cell phone. He looks at the I.D... "Stephan" shows up in bright letters. He answers it and without a seconds delay he quickly says, "NOT a good time. I'll call you back later."

Before he disconnects, he hears Ashley's voice, "Jamie, Jamie!"

"Ashley, what's wrong? Why are you calling me on Stephan's phone? Is everything ok, is Stephan alright?" Alex can tell by the worry in his voice that he truly cares for Stephan, more like brothers than friends. She thinks that at least that is a point in his favor.

"Jamie, everything is fine here. Stephan and I are both fine."

"Then why the midnight phone call? More specifically, why are YOU calling me at midnight? Do you miss me already little one?" Alex notices how quickly he went from annoyed, to worried, and then to playful in seconds.

"Jamie, I'm calling because, well mostly because Stephan is making me but, I also have to tell you something. More like "confess" something to you." She hesitates and takes a breath so deep Jamie can hear her inhale and exhale on his end of the phone.

"Ok. Since Stephan is making you call and you're using the word "confess," I'm guessing this can't be good." He looks directly into Alex's eyes as talks to Ashley. "I'm also going to make a stretch and guess that I am most likely not going to like what I'm about to hear. Is that the case Ashley?"

Wow, Alex is impressed. He has gone from annoyed, to worried, to playful, and back to annoyed in less than a minute. This man is a chameleon of emotion.

"Yes, Jamie. You are not going to like what you hear. But if it's not a good time, I can call you tomorrow." She says hopefully but takes one look at Stephan and he is shaking his head no. Ashley looks at her husband and shrugs her shoulders as if to say "I had to give it a try."

"Stop stalling. If Stephan made you call me now, it must be important." Jamie is not happy and he is not going to beat around the bush. That's not his style. Direct is his style.

"Well, I guess I should just say it. No point in sugar coating anything." Her voice is shaky and you can tell she is crying between words. "Jamie, I hope you don't get too mad at me but, when Alex and I were talking...I mentioned that you...well, that you were into BDSM. I told her that you were...not simply a control freak. I told her you were...a Dom. Actually, more accurately, I told her you were a Dom's Dom kind of guy."

Alex is watching Jamie's face as his eyes blacken again and his jaw is set into that rigid jutted position. He looks like someone just punched him in the gut and he can't breathe. In fact, she realizes he is not breathing right now. He closes his eyes for a few seconds and she can see the veins in his neck start to bulge. She watches him and there is dead silence for a few moments. She can't hear Ashley's voice on the other end, so she knows he is just not responding to whatever Ash has just said to him. She can see him taking in the information and slowly dissecting it. Deciding where to store it and how to respond to it.

She reaches out and touches his arm. "Jamie are you ok?"

Before she can say or do anything else, Jamie looks at her and puts his hand up in the "stop" position. She instinctively knows to take a step back. It's a protective mechanism that years of evolution have ingrained as part of our survival instinct. She can't read his facial expression. He is kind of flat, blank looking. There is no readable emotion. Now she is really worried. She starts to hear sound on the other end of the call.

"Jamie? Jamie are you still there?" Ashley asks through her crying.

Jamie blinks a few times, takes a breath and wipes a hand through his hair. His facial expression remains blank.

In a very stern and no nonsense tone he answers back. "This is NOT ACCEPTABLE Ashley. I thought BETTER of you. I TRUSTED you. I am VERY UNHAPPY with you right now. So, do us all a favor and DO NOT say another word. Put Stephan on the phone. NOW."

Ashley starts crying again and hands the phone to Stephan. "Jamie. Sorry man."

"Stephan this is way over the line, way over the line." Jamie's voice is full of anger and frustration.

"I know. I'm sorry. So is Ash. I don't know what else to say to you brother. It's done. I just thought you should be aware. I wanted you to know as soon as possible. Does this change any plans?"

"No not really. Maybe it makes things easier. Maybe I won't need any prelude, but that is between you and me. The little one needs to dwell in her misery. I'm really not happy with her Stephan. She broke a big rule here. Anyone else would be out of my life for this."

"I know. I pushed that point home with her earlier. I know it doesn't change what she did, but she is sorry. She's been crying for over an hour now. She hates that she hurt you; that she could have really caused some problems for you."

"Good. Let her cry. Let her think about how bad this could have turned out. Shit, how bad this can still turn out. She's lucky I'm not still there. Tell her that. Tell her she should be very glad that I'm not still there." His words are angry but his emotion isn't as strong as earlier.

"You don't mean that. Once you calm down you will forgive her and the two of you will be back to normal. You will be back to your verbal sparring and your love/hate relationship." Stephan says hopefully, but he knows Jamie can really push this if he wants to. Ashley broke a big rule by "outing" him. The only save she has is how well Alex deals with things.

"Is she still crying?" He asks, still annoyed with Ashley, but at the same time, a little concerned.

"Sobbing in my arms, she has been for the past hour."

Jamie sounds exasperated. "Put her back on the phone. I want to talk to her."

Stephan goes to hand Ashley the phone but she is sobbing so hard she is shaking. Unable to hold the phone herself, Stephan puts it on speaker phone and holds it between them. "She can't hold the phone Jamie. You're on speaker."

"Ashley, I'm not going to lie to you to make you feel better. I'm angry with you. You really screwed up here little one. If it were anyone else, I'd make them pay big time for something like this and I think you know that about me. I can't say everything I want to right now or over the phone, but I will discuss this with you soon. I want you to think about what this could have done to me, to my public reputation, to my business. The only thing that saves you and me from a major disaster is the fact that Alex is your best friend."

He looks at Alex. Alex is confused about what is going on, she can only hear Jamie's side of the conversation. Jamie gives her a hopeful look. "I'm counting on that. I'm counting on your friendship. I'm counting on Alex valuing that friendship enough to keep this information to herself. And, I'm counting on you never to pull another stunt like this again; because if you do Ashley, that will end our friendship. Forever. Understand? Forever and I mean it. I won't forgive this kind of behavior again."

Ashley takes the phone from Stephan and in a combination of a whisper and a whimper she talks to Jamie. "I understand Jamie. I am so sorry. I can't tell you how sorry I am."

"Good. We'll talk about this soon, just the two of us. Alone." He emphases Alone.

"Ok Jamie. I understand. We'll talk alone. And Jamie..." Ashley hesitates, not knowing if she should say what she was going to say.

"Yes?" He's waiting for her to give him some kind of smart remark or excuse for what she did, for what she said.

"I'm truly sorry. Jamie, I love you." And then all he hears is her crying sobs. He is shocked. That wasn't at all what he was expecting her to say.

Stephan takes the phone from her hand. "I'll talk to you tomorrow. Ok?"

"Yeah. I'll call you and let you know how it goes on my end. Stephan, don't comfort her too much."

"Yeah right! I'll take care of my end of things, you take care of yours."

"If your end of things didn't fuck up my end of things, I won't have any additional things to take care of. Would I?"

"Fuck you." Stephan says in a friendly loving way, if "Fuck you," can be said in a friendly loving way.

"Yeah, I love you too brother. And tell the little one I still love her. Just wait an hour or two before you tell her. I don't want to let her off the hook too soon. It's good for her to suffer a little. You're too soft on her. You need to go back and read some of the instructional books I gave you. Specifically the ones on how to be a good and consistent Dom when it comes to punishment and reward. Because you seem to reward her and she seems to punish me. Something is not right with this picture. You might want to review the ones on what a good sub needs to keep her Dom happy while you're at it. I told you if you didn't keep her on the straight and narrow it would come back to bite your ass."

Stephan laughs. "Yet but you're missing a few things my friend. You're missing a few very important, very salient things in your little theory."

"What's that?"

"Well, for one thing I'm happy. I'm very happy. And for another, it didn't come back to bite me in the ass. It bit you in the ass. Any time Ashley has bitten my ass, I've enjoyed it." He laughs, knowing the look that Jamie most likely has on his face.

"You have me there my friend. Point made. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Thanks Jamie. Good luck and good night." Stephan shuts down the call, picks Ashley up off his lap and carries her downstairs to their bedroom.

Ashley is still crying, but it is much less now. Her face still tucked up against Stephan's chest, she whisper to him. "I'm sorry Stephan. I really am sorry."

"I know you are Ash. It just doesn't help much. It doesn't change the way things are right now. It doesn't help Jamie."

"I know. I'm sorry there isn't anything else I can say or do."

"You can promise to not do this again. You can give me your word that this type of thing won't happen again. I could have lost a friend that I've known for over twenty years; a man who is more my brother than my friend. You could have cost Jamie a lot too. His reputation, his contacts, his business, they could all be affected by your little slip. Did that even cross your mind when you were talking to Alex?"

"No." She starts to cry again.

"Well think about all of that Ashley. Think really hard about it. And pray none of it happens." He leans down and kisses her lips and wipes the tears from her cheeks. "Now stop the crying." Stephan unbuttons and unzips his jeans. Pushing them off, he lets them drop to the floor. Naked, he climbs into bed with Ashley. He pulls her close and she tucks into his side. He drapes his arm around her. "Sleep now. We'll talk more about this tomorrow."

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Jamie looks at Alex with a million questions running through his mind. The most crucial one is how to start this conversation.

"Alex, I guess you heard that was Ashley. I know you only heard my end of the call, but I'm guessing you are able to fill in some of the blanks. Am I right?"

"Not really. I could venture a guess as to what was discussed but, I would rather not. I think it's best (not to mention safer) if you just fill me in on what you want me to know. This way there will not be any room for confusion or miscommunication." Alex never takes her gaze from Jamie's face. She's looking for signs, watching his facial expression, watching his eyes. Looking for hints of what he is thinking and feeling. She watches him like a hawk watches her prey.

"Ok. You may be right on this. I take it you and Ashley discussed more than me being a megalomaniac during your bathroom chat." He waits for her to respond or at least react.