Ch 2: The Ground Beneath Her Knees

"Then it's a question of what I do surrender, and what I don't," she said. "And I need to have those boundaries defined. I can't go all in without knowing what the 'all' is."

He crossed his legs and leaned forward. It was turning him on to hear her talk about her slavery in her project-manager voice. "That makes a lot of sense. I should have thought of that."

"It's my job to think of things," she said. "It's what I do."

"I'm guessing you have a list?" he said.

"I could have brought home a whiteboard from work," she laughed. "But seriously. I just named two of them: My career and my finances are my own, and that's not going to change. I know you have a lot more money than I do, but I'm self-sufficient, I can afford anything I want, and it's going to stay that way. "

"Yes," he said. He wanted this woman so fucking much.

"I don't want to be hurt, I don't want to be shared, and I don't want to be displayed," she said.

"Define 'hurt'?" he said.

"Really hurt, like Kevin does to Chloe," she said. "I don't mind being spanked. I liked it. But I don't want you to push me or test my pain tolerance. I don't really have any."

"I don't need any of that," he said. "And I think I'll feel very proprietary about you, so I wouldn't share you around."

"OK, but, about that," she said, and paused.

"Chloe," he said.

"Yes," she said. "I've been with her longer than you've known her. She means the world to me. I love her and I won't leave her and I won't hurt her."

He didn't say anything. He'd had a feeling it would come down to this, and his sense of relief was overcome by worry.

"She's not competition, Robert," she continued. "She doesn't want to own me, she's not going to be jealous, but she needs me. And I need her."

"You said last week you didn't see how being with her would fit into your being my property," he said. "What changed?"

"I thought about what it means to be your property," she said. "And how you need to take care of me, and how you said that you want to own me, not a fantasy figure. Chloe is part of me. And if you come between us, you're taking care of yourself, not me."

She really did have a way of going to the heart of things. But he didn't like the comparison.

"I think it is taking care of us," he said. "I don't know how to go into a new relationship with an existing one to work around. Especially not a relationship like this."

She didn't say anything.

"I do want to own you," he said. "I've been direct about that and I think you want it too. I don't see how I can be your owner and your secondary relationship."

"I didn't say you would be," Rachele said.

"But you've been with her for how many years?" he said. "And now I'm the new guy on the block and I have to fit in around what you already have?"

"We can figure that out," she said.

"Maybe you're right, but it would take time. I don't want to start on that basis. I want you to be all mine."

"So you want me to break up with her, and then maybe down the road you'll let me call her up and say, 'Sorry about that, wanna fuck?' How do you think that'll make her feel?"

"I didn't say that," he started, but she interrupted him.

"It's what that works out to," she said. "You want me to do what I did last week, only more clearly. Hurt her, for this, for no reason."

"No reason?" he said, raising his eyebrows.

"Not that I can see," she said. "Do you want me to quit my job too, until you're ready to let me reapply?"

"That's different."

"No, it really isn't. Chloe takes up less of my time than my job does," she said. "Chloe would never make demands on me the way work does. And the jobs I'm looking at will be even more demanding."

"It's not the same," he said.

"Why? She's no threat to you, Robert! And I don't want to hurt her like that. She doesn't deserve that. She's done nothing to deserve anything like it."

Robert didn't say anything. Could he accept this? If things started off on this basis where would they go?

"And honestly, Robert, this makes me wonder about what else you'll want," she said. "Do you understand that the only way I can really give up ownership of myself is if I am absolutely sure I'm safe, and that the things important to me will be safe?"

"I do," he said. "Can we talk about the other things?"

Rachele looked at him. "I don't want to be stampeded," she said. "If I need you to slow down then you need to listen."

He nodded.

"I don't want you -- or anyone else in my life -- involved with my family."

He raised his eyebrows. She hadn't talked much about them.

"I'll tell you the story another time," she said. "I just need to you to know that it is the story. No pushing, no prodding, no prying, no advice."

"I understand," he said.

"My job and my career," she said. "I want to make sure you understand what that means. I might ask for advice -- I probably will -- but you don't give me orders there. No matter what. Chloe won't ask me to move across the country, but my career might. And I will not give up a job because you tell me to."

"I know the jobs you've been looking at," he said. "If you found something good I won't stand in your way. I'll support you."

"And again, finances," she said. "We might combine things at some point, but that's a mutual decision. No orders."

"I'll respect that," he said.

"Those are big things, Robert," she said. "Those things can determine a lot of how things go with us. Much more than Chloe would ever want to. More than she could. I wouldn't have moved across the country for her even when I was completely single."

She was right, he thought, but it still felt different.

"I wonder if you are underestimating what Chloe will want from you," he said. "Even if we could find a way for it to work, do you think she'd abide by it?"

"She'd have to," Rachele said.

"What were you imagining with her?" he asked. "If I said yes, how would it work?"

"I don't see you every night," she said. "So I'd want to be able to make plans on the nights we aren't together. And I'd want to be able to respond to her the same way I would to work."

"Meaning what?"

"Remember a couple of weeks ago when you had me bent over and plugged and gagged, and you heard my phone buzzing?" she asked. "You saw it was work and you gave it to me, so I could check. And it was an actual problem so I was Slacking people while I was still gagged and had a plug in my ass."

"Yes," he said. "I liked that."

"I loved it," she said. "I really loved it. And when I had to get onto a call you took the gag out and I got to work and you didn't order me not to or anything. In fact you made me dinner.

"I was on calls and I was still naked below the waist and my ass was still burning from you spanking me and there was lube leaking out of my ass from the plug and I fucking loved it."

"I really loved that," he said. "Both sides of you at once. That tone of voice you have when you run a call, and you were sitting on a towel so you didn't make a mess on your office chair."

"Well, what if that were Chloe?" she asked. "If she had a crisis, if she called and said she needed me right away? That's happened. She's had bad nights where she needed to come over, or she's been jammed up and needed help."

He thought about it, shaking his head.

"I don't have kids," she said. "I don't talk to my parents. The'll never make that kind of demand, so why can't I have one person in my life who does?"

"I understand what you're saying," he said. She was not an easy one to argue with. He didn't think he'd like knowing she was with someone else, but it might be worse if he knew she had given up on something she'd defined as so important. That would make him worry about her.

"I would need it to be clear," he said. "I don't want any doubt about what you are, whose you are."

"You would be all right with her knowing that?" she asked.

"I wouldn't be all right without it," he said. "I know they're both trustworthy."

"And I want priority," he said. "If there's a scheduling conflict, I decide."

"That's fair," she said. "As long as you're fair. Don't make plans for her birthday or something. But I'll try to let you know about things like that well in advance."

"What about rules?" he asked.

"What rules?" she said, thinking. "I don't want you 'there' with us, and I don't want her to feel that you're controlling her. I don't want to tell her 'I can't' again like that. I don't mind telling you how many times I came, but I also want to respect her privacy."

"That's fine. I want to know how many, but you don't have to tell me the details," he said. "And I'll still want to control how you dress."

"I think I would like that," she said. "But I would tell Chloe that it was happening."

"I trust you to trust her," he said. "Respect my privacy, but be clear with her about what you are and what that means."

"I will," she said. "She's probably the only person I'll ever be able to tell and that's important."

He looked at her, seeing the hope in her eyes. He couldn't say yes unless he was sure.

"I can see how this might work," he said. "But I'll need to sleep on it."

"Thank you," she said.

He got up and kissed her, gently, then went to use the bathroom. On his way out, he noticed the unmade bed, a rare sight in Rachele's apartment.

"Was Chloe here today?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, with an edge to her voice.

He nodded. It wasn't like her not to put her house in order, so she'd done that to make a point.

He kissed her again at the door, and left.

She closed the door. She'd hoped he would just say yes. She took off her seats and went back to bed, sliding between the sheets that still smelled like Chloe. She wanted to call her, but she didn't want to have that conversation again, not until she was sure.

She fell asleep thinking about telling Chloe they could be together, that her owner had granted her permission, about Chloe undressing her, removing the clothes she'd been ordered to put on.

He didn't leave her hanging. The next morning, he asked if he could come over. She agreed immediately, and he hearted her response, then followed up with another message: "Dress for me."

In her closet, she found a dark red dress she'd never worn for him. It was perhaps a little much for Sunday morning, but it was more demure than many of hers, with a high collar and a mock shirtwaist.

--

She let him in and kissed him, wanting so badly to kneel but restraining herself. He complimented her dress as she walked into the kitchen where she had a kettle already boiling. She made tea, and again they sat on the couch, and again she thought about being encaged tightly in the corset and choking on his cock. She waited for him to speak, and he gathered his thoughts.

"I am not comfortable with this," he said. "But I don't believe you would agree to be mine without it."

She nodded.

"And if you did, I wouldn't believe you," he said. "I would rather be uncomfortable in this way, than with the knowledge you'd given up something that you shouldn't have. I don't like starting this relationship with you already involved, but I'd like it a lot less starting it from a basis I knew was false."

Tears of relief filled her eyes and she kissed him.

"I will need you to be absolutely clear, with me, with yourself and with Chloe, that you are my property," he said. "I will not interfere in what you have with her, but I want there to be no doubt that she is with my property, with my permission."

Rachele nodded.

"She may not like that," he said. "But you need to be as real with her as you've been with me. I won't trust it otherwise and you shouldn't either."

"I understand," she said. "I want Chloe to know. I told you, she's the only person I'll be able to talk to."

"Good," he said.

"You are certain?" she said. "You'll treat this like any other of my ground rules?"

"Yes," he said, looking her in the eyes. "I will respect all of your ground rules including this one."

She held his gaze for a moment, then slipped off the couch to kneel in front of him. She put her hands behind her back, and lowered her eyes. "Robert, I would like to offer myself as your slave-in-training," she said.

He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. "I accept, Rachele. I accept with honor and with love."

She lowered her head between his legs, and with her lips around the bulge in his pants, said, "May I, sir?"

He unzipped and freed his cock, and she plunged her lips down over it. She hoped he could feel that she'd made progress; every night as she practiced with the dildo she'd hoped to have the real thing down her throat after this conversation. The tears in her eyes were both from happiness and the pressure of his cock against the back of her throat. She rejoiced as she worked to take him deep again and again.

With her head bowed over his cock, he could see the zipper of her dress that ran from the collar all the way down to below her waist. He leaned forward and unzipped it all the way, exposing her naked back and the cleft of her ass. She had been wearing nothing underneath.

The dress fell forward, and she lifted herself and shrugged her arms out of it, leaving herself kneeling, naked, with the dress pooled around her. His cock didn't leave her mouth until he lifted her head, stood her up, and with his hand between her legs, walked her into her own bedroom and laid her down.

--

He made love to her, slowly, deeply, first her mouth, then between her legs, looking into her eyes, moving her hand to her clit when he could see she was building up to an orgasm.

Afterwards, she lay back, so happy to have his come on her face, in her mouth, between her legs. He stroked her hair.

"Do you have plans for the rest of the day?" he asked.

"Nope," she said. "It's a lazy Sunday."

"That sounds perfect," he said.

"I am going to see Chloe one night this week, I hope," she said. "I am going to have to tell her a bit more about you than she probably knows," she said.

"I realize that," Robert said. "I have always known her to be trustworthy, and I don't want you with her if she doesn't know."

"I don't either," she said. They lay quietly for a little while, until she broke the silence.

"How would you feel about lunch?" she asked.

"I could do with a diner burger," he said.

"Wha should I wear?" she asked.

He smiled. "I liked what you had on this morning."

--

She walked with him holding her hand, feeling him leak out of her and down her legs under her dress. She didn't care if there was a wet spot. The dress stimulated her nipples continuously and part of her wanted to turn around then and there.

When the food came, she waited with her hands in her lap until he nodded, smiling, and said, "Please."

She asked about the trip and he asked about how work was going, triggering a five-minute nonstop rant about irritating executives and wasted time and nightmare clients and the exhaustion of defending her staff from lunacy.

"Any options turning up with the recruiters?" he asked.

"A few," she said. "But you know how those things go. Nothing serious yet." She thought perhaps it wasn't necessary to have all the complicated conversations just then.

"I will be waiting for instructions to get dressed this week, right?" she asked.

"Are you ready for that?" he asked.

"I thought about it every morning while you were away," she said.

"I'll pick out things for tomorrow later," he said. "I have an early start tomorrow so I will head home later."

"When we're not together..." she said. "Do you expect me to tell you what I'm doing or ask you before I schedule things?"

"I'd like to know where you are," he said. "But no, I wasn't expecting to approve everything you do. I'll let you know about days or nights you should keep open."

"OK," she said. "Will I see you this week?"

"What would you like to do?" he asked.

"I'd like to talk during the week and take it easy," she said. "I'll be working a lot because we have a deliverable due Thursday. Maybe we can spend the weekend together?"

"Perfect," he said.

Back at her apartment, she slid a thin cushion out from under the bench. She'd bought it during the week, to cushion her as she dropped to her knees for him when the door closed. He held her head against him, not even opening his fly, while she nuzzled his cock through his jeans. He was only half hard, but the feel and the scent of him, and of her on him, was like a drug, a sedative.

He unzipped his fly and let her work for a little while, as always enjoying the transition from her walking fast to her kneeling and serving, dressed as she was in the diner. He reached down and fondled her breasts through her dress, feeling that her nipples were already hard.

--

Later, as she lay on the bed with her legs spread and the mixture of her juices and his come drying on her face where he'd smeared it, he stood looking into her closet. He needed to get her more and better clothes that fit his requirements for accessibility. But he selected a pleated grey skirt and a high-collared dark blue blouse, and hung them from the hook on the door. He opened her lingerie drawer and selected a dark blue camisole, with a lining that would keep her sufficiently concealed under the blouse, and a thong in a matching color. It was simple, no lace, no seams, just soft fabric that would frame her and press into the crack of her ass, rubbing softly against her asshole and her reminding her of what she was and why she was wearing it.

"This is for tomorrow," he said. "Are you going anywhere later today?"

"No, Sir," she said. "It's a lazy Sunday."

"Then I want you naked the rest of the day," he said. But knowing she did not control her own heat, he added, "You can wear your fleece robe if you are cold. But nothing else."

"Yes, Sir," she said.

"And your rules for orgasms are back in place," he said. "I want you to keep count and give me the details of each one. Including with Chloe, as much as is fair."

"Do I need to tell you if I'm going to see her?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "And where you will be. I want to know that at all times."

She nodded. "May I get up and use the bathroom, Sir?" she asked. She didn't ask about getting dressed because she wouldn't be doing that today.

"Yes," he said, gathering his own things. "I'm going to head home soon."

When she emerged from the bathroom he was at the door, putting his coat on. She kissed him, and he held her tight, then she knelt again on the cushion. He held her face against his crotch without opening his pants, stroking her hair, and she sighed with pleasure, relief and anticipation.

He stepped back, and she got back to her feet, moving behind the door as he opened it. He reached his head around to give her a lingering kiss goodbye, saying, "I am so happy to have you."

--

She went back to bed, still naked, lying in much the same position she had been a week earlier after Chloe had left. Part of her wanted to call Chloe right away and say, "Robert said yes. Please come over!" But that eagerness caused the problem in the first place, and her rational mind was telling her to make a plan, think about the costs and the consequences. Maybe her hand needed to be writing in a notebook instead of idly stroking her pussy.

She got up, washed her hands and face -- the smell and feel of his come was distracting her. She didn't want to bother with a shower but she wet a cloth with warm water and wiped her pussy, her thighs, and her ass, where he'd leaked out of her and run down her crotch.

Back in bed, she lay back with her legs up and propped her notebook on her lap. She looked at her two lists, feeling good that she hadn't compromised on anything. She owed Chloe a full explanation, so that she wouldn't be under any false impressions when they were together. She wasn't sure what Chloe told Kevin about their relationship, but Robert knew her, and was going to know more about her sex life than he had before. She needed to know that was now part of being with her, if she still wanted to be.