Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
I go to my office, and a few minutes later, she follows me in. She has a nervous energy that makes me think she is brimming with excitement. I enjoyed the phase in which we dominated her ruthlessly, but I am enjoying this too. It is more psychological, but also a great deal more delicious.
“They’re confirming BP’s death online,” she says. “I think you really got him.”
“Yes,” I say. “We did get him. Quite a while ago, actually. It takes time to identify bodies though, when they are in particular… states.”
She nods slowly. “Good,” she says. “I think that’s good. I’m glad it’s over. It should have been over a long time ago. He was a very bad man.”
He was rude, too. All the way to the end, when he wanted us to spare him in return for money. He offered us his entire world, but we are going to take that anyway. We will spend months rooting out all the corrupt little corners of his empire, taking it apart piece by piece and liberating anyone who still suffers in it.
But for this particular moment, I have only Ella to deal with, my sweet little dark pet princess who would be so much happier if my collar was around her throat and she was melting on her knees before me.
Ah, well, some lessons take longer to learn than others.
She is still hovering as I work. I do not acknowledge her immediately. I let her stand there, nervously. I let her find her own way to the request I have always known she would make.
“I want you to do things to me,” she finally says.
I know what she means. If I was kind, I might start asking her about the specifics of the activities she wants. But I am not. And she will not get what she thinks she wants.
I look up at her.
“What if what we did was to forgive you?”
She stares at me and I do not see relief. I see dismay.
“What? Forgive me? After… How?”
“The man who caused this is dead. As are most of the people he knows, and all of the ones he loves.”
She blanches at that simple sentence. It is not as dark as it sounds, because he really never loved anybody other than himself.
“Um. Okay. Well there was something else I wanted to ask,” she says, changing the subject because she is too ashamed to state outright that, as I predicted, she wants to be painfully dominated again.
“What is that?”
“He had a dog,” she says.
“Ah, yes, the vicious elderly Chihuahua. It was encountered.”
“What did you do to it?”
“She’s unharmed.”
Ella looks relieved. “I need to see her. I mean, I need her. She was sort of mine, in a way. She wasn’t mine, mine. I didn’t own her, but she was…”
I nod. “I’ll see she’s brought to you.”
“Really?” Ella’s face lights up. “That’s so nice. I thought for sure you’d say no, or I don’t know… I thought you’d definitely refuse.”
It’s not often that I have a good feeling about making someone happy, but this is quite adorable. Much has been taken from Ella. Much of it was taken by me. Much will still be taken, in fact. But perhaps it is time to show her a little kindness.
CHAPTER 14
Ella
I asked for BP’s dog a few days ago, and I’m starting to lose hope of ever seeing her again. It was a big ask, and it took me a long time to work my way up to it, but if I hadn’t, then the answer would have been a definitive no.
I never got to have a pet of my own, but I remember the day I met Ethel. She was still a relatively young dog, but not a puppy. BP didn’t really like her that much, but I did. He didn’t get her trained, and he never took her for walks, because he said having the run of his many mansions was enough.
So, whenever I was around, I looked after her, and she looked after me. Both of us were too small and too weak to really assert ourselves, but we had each other.
I don’t know if Aiden is really going to bring me the dog. Most men don’t like little dogs like her. They don’t get them. And she was so small and fragile, there’s a very real possibility she got hurt…
My eyes well with tears as I think about that.
So many things have gotten fucked up lately, including me. I think about the things that have been done to me, and the things I’ve done. I worked for BP. I did what he asked. I was in the habit of doing so, but I could have tried to run away, and I didn’t. I could have…
“Ella?”
I hear my name called from downstairs. I wipe my eyes and go down fast. I am accustomed to doing as I’m told, even when the people telling me what to do are kind of sort of totally holding me prisoner.