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I need to find Stephanie. I need to set this straight and… pay her, if I have to. Not like I don’t have the money.

I also need to find a backbone. Because Ira has me in her bed, lips on mine and my hands pulling her out of her clothes. “I love you,” she says once more, before pinning me to her bed and kissing me. She waits for me to reply, but I can’t.

I’m frozen to reality. The reality she tried to help me escape from.

A reality where I’m broken with no way to be fixed. Only cracked further until the Kathleen Allen I knew is no more. What was once a liberating thought is simply terrifying, and I don’t know what to do.

I can’t fight this anymore.

Part 3

Save Us

Chapter 53

Ira

I’m someone who enjoys the finer things in life. Extraordinary thread-count sheets, aged wine and cheese that delights not only my senses but my memory as well, tailored suits that make my body look the best in the room…

…Beautiful women in my bed….

It’s early on a Thursday morning. Sunshine cascades through my bedroom window as I get ready for work. The cat is sunbathing in the middle of my floor, threatening to trip me every time I round my bed. I’m not running late, but I can’t afford to rip my pants or jacket.

A flirty yawn erupts. Kathleen catches me as I’m putting on cologne, her golden hair spilling over the side of my bed as she turns over, one of my T-shirts clinging to her frame.

“Do you have to leave so soon?”

I bend down and kiss her forehead, my fingers fumbling to finish straightening out my tie. Yes, folks, I’m wearing a tie today. Got a few investors to work over and Daddy Dearest likes it when I “look my best.” Apparently, my best includes this piece of unfortunate clothing that feels like it’s constantly me. Out of all the male attire in the world, the necktie is the thing I do the most without.

“I’ve got a meeting at ten. Really, I should be railing at you for having the day off.” Although Kathleen is my cohort of sorts in the remodel, there are lots of things that don’t need her assistance, such as dealing with money. I’ve got an assistant to help me with that notetaking.

Kathleen reaches up and grabs the hem of my jacket. “Look at you wearing this sexy suit. Promise me you’ll come back later and take it off for me.”

Her sleepy smile is something I’ll never get over. For nearly two months, we’ve been fooling around, casually, although that dreaded L word has dropped from our lips more than once. Since my first confession, I’ve said it a total of five times. Letting it slip here and there as if it doesn’t mean a thing. To be fair, she’s been the same way.

We dance a dangerous dance, Katie and me. Although she’s come a long way in feeling comfortable with me, we still have a largely vanilla relationship. The other shoe is about to drop at any moment. Because yours truly is dating a Domme. A Domme with a very sweet side that she likes to express to me, like now, when she rolls on her stomach and kicks her feet up in the air, letting me see her bare ass and enticing me in ways she has no business doing.

“What, are you going to stay here all day?” I tap her ass. “Not that I mind.”

“Maybe!”

“Feed the cat, would you?”

She rolls over and slams her head against the nearest pillow. I try not to smile too hard at my good fortune. Yup. Someone like me truly deserves a woman like her in my bed.

Life’s good, ain’t it?

Well, it’s almost perfect. I grab my briefcase and head downstairs, where the doorman tips his hat and wishes me a good day. Since the weather is gorgeous, I walk to work a few blocks away, enjoying the crisp air and the sounds of the busy city around me.

Yup. Life is almost perfect.

My love life could be better. Don’t get me wrong. Kathleen is the best lover I’ve ever had, and thinking about her makes me want to act like the most foolish creature to ever be silly. Yet we sit on this precarious edge of losing everything. For the past two months, I’ve fought the urge to make her my girlfriend girlfriend. Not just my lover I see twice or thrice a week. Not just a friend I fool around with and sometimes get to spank. No. I want to make her my everything.

She’ll say no. When I think of that, I seize up.

Katie will tell me to fuck off because she’s a Domme and I’ll never submit to her. We can’t equally switch like our business partners the Anderssens can. Kennedy will spank her wife one night and then be Topped by her the next. Sure, Kathleen submits to me…

But I would never submit to her.