Page 121 of Governor

Inside the front door, I stop, toe off my shoes, and start stripping. Ironically, I’m so nervous that I don’t need to feel self-conscious about an eager erection—I’m soft.

I retrieve my cuffs and collar from my bag and find her in the kitchen so she can put them on me.

This feels…different. Not necessarilybaddifferent—Ihope—but I’m not used to this.

“Tell me what you’re thinking, boy,” she says after I’m suitably attired.

I shrug. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

“Kind of the bastard extraordinaire’s point.” She smiles, and it eases every concern I had back to a dull, manageable anxiety instead of the manic, gnawing, borderline ache of fear growing inside me.

“I’m still worried about his nightmares,” I add.

She nods. “He texted me screenshots. If he didn’t feel he could handle it, he would have said so. I also might have put my own condition on tonight.”

“Condition?”

“Yeah. That if he wakes up with a really bad nightmare, he’s to call us, and I’ll send you to the dorm.”

I’m not sure if he’d do that, because Carter is a master of looking after others before himself, but it does ease a few more worries inside me. “Thank you, Ma’am.”

“Of course. I don’t want him having nightmares.”

We settle in to study, but I have to ask one more thing. “Are we going to do…thisa lot?”

“This?”

“Me and you alone?”

She shrugs. “I think he wants to see how we’ll do.”

“He’s not going to leave us, is he?”

“Owen, look at me.”

I do.

“Carter isn’t going anywhere. I am not going anywhere. Are you going somewhere?”

I shake my head.

“Good. Then we’re all on the same page. This is Carter wanting to safely test things out. A sort of load test.”

“Load test?”

“To make sure everyone’s on the same page and really happy with how things are. Please, just relax and go with the flow, all right?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

I mean, I’ll try, but that’s a hell of a lot harder than it sounds.

Believe me, I know.

* * * *

We study, we eat dinner, and then…

Play.