Chapter Nine

     Breath Gabriella I tell myself. It doesn’t matter that his voice sounded distant or that he didn’t sound at all like he was interested and was going to break things off. “Men are a dime a dozen and you can get any guy you want.”  I say out loud. I look at the clock on the microwave. 4:55 pm. Hes done at the office. I could call him now. Hell no! Gabriella doesn’t do this shit. I walk back to my room and pick out an outfit. I settle on a white button up shirt, a pair of sea green short shorts, sandals and a matching purse. After I shower off the feeling of a chlorine pool on my body, I get dressed and crunch my hair with gel, dry it and pull my sides up and pin them back. I put on a dangle long sea foam and antique gold necklace and antique gold bangle bracelets and head back out to my living room. After taking the phone off the charger, I plop down on my overstuffed couch and dial Zane’s cell number. “Hello, this is Zane.” He sounds so matter of fact. I shake negative feelings from my body and give back a matter of fact manner to him.
    “Good evening Zane, its Gabriella. I received your message.” I sit up straighter in the couch.
    “Well, yes, about that.”
    I interrupt him. “Have you made a decision?”
    He clears his throat. “Uh, well I actually have. About that, could we meet up? Um, maybe I could come there so we could discuss it? I uh, well I just thought we should talk about my decision face to face.” I cant quite decipher what his decision is. He sounds confused, or maybe shy, could be a little awkward.
    “Yeah, sure. Im obviously home now. Are you able to come over now or do you have plans?”
    “Actually im in your parking lot.” Ok. This could go either way.
    “I guess I will see you in a few seconds then.” I hang up the phone and try to calm my nerves with a couple deep breaths. A knock on my door about makes me piss myself. I walk over to it with shaky legs. What the hell is the big deal Gab? I mean seriously! He is just a guy. Replaceable, disposable.
    I open the door to find Zane standing with his hand down, wearing a pair of deep navy blue dress pants, a white button up dress shirt, sleeves rolled up, with a black and white stripped skinny tie and black button up vest. He looks up at me slowly with concern in his eyes and I see worry lines on his forehead and I see that he appears to not have shaven in a few days. His hair looks a little unruly and messy like he had been running his hands through it frequently.  After taking all of this in, I become extremely turned on and worried at the same time. How the hell can a guy this gorgeous be get away from me? I wont allow it. He must be mine. I take a deep breath to calm my sexed up nerves. “Come on in.” Leave your clothes by the door, my bedroom is down the hall.
    “Thank you. Uh, I wasn’t sure where else to go. I really wanted to talk to you and I couldn’t go home. So I just, uh. I just decided to sit in your parking lot until you called.” He runs his hands through his hair and looks up at the ceiling then puts his hands in his pockets. I bite my lip in anticipation of ripping his clothes off. “You have a really fancy place.” He looks around at the inside of my condo. Yeah I guess it is. I look around too and shrug my shoulders as an answer.
    “Would you like a drink? I have juice, water, beer, wine. Pretty much anything.” I walk over towards the fridge.
    “Uh, a beer would be fine. Sounds good actually.” I grab two bottles of beer from the fridge and use my magnetic bottle opener to pull the caps off. Zane sits down at the bar that separates the kitchen from the living room. I sit his beer down in front of him and stand across the bar from him. He takes a huge swig from his beer, sits it down cautiously and looks directly into my eyes. “Im sorry I took so long to call you.” He starts playing with his fingers nervously.
    “That’s fine. I told you to think it over, I didn’t expect an answer right away based on the look on your face when I told you about me.” Id love for you to have an answer now so I can tie you to that stool and have my way with you. “Do you have any questions?” I take a drink of my beer and sit the bottle down in front of me then place my hands together in front of me. Zane looks at his beer as if contemplating the counties debt. After what feels like an hour, im sure it was only a few seconds, he looks back into my eyes.    
    “Actually,” he says. “I did some searching on the whole dominant submissive thing. Apparently its been around quite a while. I didn’t realize it entailed so much. I, uh, understand the basics of it, just not where I fit into it.” He takes another swig of his beer and hold onto his bottle this time. He looks back down at the counter top.
    “Yes it has been around for many years. Im not into the whole controlling every aspect of your life though. Im only interested in fucking you my way and you wanting to take care of me. I understand in most cases its all about the intimacy of sex and the man being the dominant and taking care of the woman. I will of course take care of you in a fucked up domesticated sort of way, but I do not expect a relationship. No feelings of love. Just lust and sex.“ I pause for a moment to make sure he is keeping up. I unfold my hands and grab my beer bottle to take a drink. I look around and then say, “I do require you to wear a ring on your left hand middle finger. Its not girly. It’s a black onyx ring. Its known to the dom world as a ‘collar’. Shows that your mine and only mine. Its more of a symbolic thing with our agreement.”
    “So, what if I say no. What happens then? Are we still able to continue what we have been doing?” The look on his face is full of worry. I draw in a breath.
    “Zane, im sorry. I do not date or do relationships outside of contracts. I don’t do love. Do I enjoy what we have been doing? Absolutely. Do I want to continue to see you? Hell yes! You are a gentleman and absolutely gorgeous and a lot of fun to be around. I just don’t do what your asking of me.” His face looks as if he is thinking of a million things at once. “ Basically what im trying to say is, if you say no, I say no. You go your way, and I go mine. Its like an ultimatum if you will.” Zane tips his head back and finishes his beer. He puts it down on the counter. I pick it up and take it to the recycling bin under the sink. I lean myself against the counter across from the bar. I watch his face processing what ive said.
    “Ok, so basically we can keep what we were doing but you expect sex. Like a lot of sex?” He swallows. “Does this sex involve bondage and paddles?  I saw on the internet that dominants like to inflict pain. Im ok with pain but I think sex is supposed to be all about pleasure.” The way he says this reminds me of a teenage boy being approached for sex by a significantly older woman, all nervous and squeaky voice. I smile.
    “Yes I do enjoy causing pain. I would never do anything you wouldn’t want me to do. All you have to is say the safe word and I back off immediately. Its not something I ever intend to use, but I do have one. Now as for the pleasure part, all pain I cause causes intense pleasure to the both of us. I would also tell you what im about to do before I do it. Spankings are only required when you do something your not allowed to. Its ment to cause pleasure but to also embarrass and keep you from doing it again. I do expect you to act a certain way and when you don’t I will let you know how out of line you were.” I reach for my beer from the bar and down the rest of it. I then put my bottle in the recycling and turn back to Zane. “This whole agreement is about taking care of each other and trusting each other. You have to trust that I wouldn’t do anything that would hurt you. And I trust the same to you.” Zane stands up, walks across the kitchen until he is directly in front of me. The look on his face is full of wonder and lust. He reaches for my face with one of his hands and caresses my cheek as he looks directly at me. “I understand if this is all too much, but this is the only way I know how to do relationships. On my terms.” he then grabs ahold of my hips and pulls me close to him so we are completely pressed against each other. I can feel his erection starting to grow a bit. He grabs ahold of my face with one hand and pulls my chin up so my lips meet his. He kisses me so deeply I can barely keep my balance. He grabs my hair and holds on to the back of my head as our kiss intensifies. His other hand moves from my hip to the small of my back and he dips me backwards while we continue to kiss. When he stands me back up, I regain my balance and when I open my eyes he is staring at me with a half smile and the lust is back on his face.
    “Where do I sign?”