Page 15 of Snow Bound (Odyssey #1)

She started to say yes, then hesitated. “ In the moment, no. But let’s just say I didn’t want to rub one out in the shower this morning.”

His eyes were laughing again. “ Any other complaints?”

“Well.” She set her knife aside, added some butter to the skillet and turned on the burner. “ I was expecting bondage.”

“Were you?”

She scraped the onions into the sizzling butter and picked up a spatula to stir. “ It was one of my five things,” she reminded him.

“That it was.”

She kept stirring, watching him. “ So why didn’t you?”

“Two reasons. I wanted to see how you’d respond to a verbal restraint rather than a physical one.”

She rolled her eyes. Freakin ’ Doms . “ What’s the second reason?”

“All my rope is in Chicago .”

Well, that was just pitiful. “ I thought Doms were supposed to be good at improvising.”

One dark eyebrow quirked up. “ Careful , sugar. That sounds suspiciously like a challenge.”

Butterflies began their frantic dance in her belly, and she thought, what the hell. Poke the Dom , see what happens. “ Well , if you’re not up for it…” she said, injecting a note of pity into her voice, and shrugged.

He sipped his water slowly, watching her over the bottle. “ That’s not the question, is it?”

Amused, aroused, she stirred her onions, then added the mushrooms to the pan. “ It’s not?”

He shook his head.

“Okay, I’ll bite.” She turned down the heat under the pan, set down the spatula and turned to face him. “ What is the question?”

“How far you’re willing to go.”

The butterflies danced harder. “ What do you mean?”

“I mean, do you just want another scene—which is fine, by the way—or do you want more?”

Oh, more , a little voice whispered. More . She ignored it. “ More ?”

“We’re here for two weeks,” he pointed out. “ Just us. No work, no family, no outside distractions.”

She nodded, trying to project calm coolness. It was hard, since inside she was squealing like a Swiftie who’d just won front row seats. “ True .”

“Seems like the perfect setup.”

“For?” she prompted.

His smile was slow and wicked. “ Everything .”

The Swiftie just scored backstage passes. “ I’m going to need you to be more specific.”

“For the next two weeks, until we go back to Chicago , you’ll be my submissive, I’ll be your Dom .”

Oh. My . God . “ Full time? 24/7?”

He nodded. “ Both of us, all in.”

She wanted to say yes. Oh , how she wanted to say yes. But … “ I haven’t done much D /s. And I’ve never done 24/7.”

“D/s is a spectrum, and everything is negotiable. We’ll talk about it, find a level you can be comfortable with.”

Oh, boy. Oh , boy! She started to grin, giddy, then frowned when a sudden thought occurred. “ I don’t have to do a full Yes / No / Maybe list, do I ?”

He chuckled. “ Yes , but you can update the one you did for Odyssey . Is that a yes?”

She hesitated. “ Everything’s negotiable?”

He nodded. “ Absolutely .”

“And you’re not looking for a slave or anything, right?”

His mouth curved in an amused smile. “ No .”

She picked up the spatula and stirred. “ I don’t have a copy of my list with me.”

“Michael will have it on file at the club.” He pulled out his phone. “ I’ll have him send it to you. I’ll get mine, too.”

“Doms make lists?” she asked, surprised.

“They do at Odyssey .” He glanced up from his phone. “ Club rules.”

“Oh.” She frowned into the pan. None of the Doms she’d played with had given her a list to read.

“Has your number changed since you filled out the membership form?”

“No.”

She cracked eggs into a bowl while he typed on his phone. When she poured the eggs over the veggies in the pan, he slipped his phone back into his pocket and stood.

“Assuming Michael sends those to us before tonight, let’s meet for dinner to go over them. How does pizza sound?”

“Great. Sausage and mushroom for me, please.”

“I’ll take care of it. In the meantime, will it bother you if I do some work around the house today?”

It took her a second to catch up with the quick change in topic. “ What kind of work?”

“I told my mom I’d tackle her chore list next time I was here. Changing batteries in the smoke detectors, oiling hinges, that kind of thing.”

“Oh. No , that’s fine.”

“I’ll see you later, then.”

“Sure. Later ,” she echoed and turned back to her eggs.

“Oh, and Anna ?”

She looked up. “ Hmm ?”

“I haven’t forgotten about that challenge,” he drawled, and with a wink, disappeared down the hall, Henry on his heels.

She watched him go, heart pounding. “ Don’t burn the eggs again, Anna ,” she muttered and went to find a plate for her omelet.

After eating breakfast and tidying the kitchen, Anna decided to pamper herself.

She took a long soak in the tub, refilling it with hot water twice and running the jets on full, and by the time she emerged she was considerably less sore.

Even the tenderness in her butt had eased, and a look in the mirror as she was drying off revealed only faint bruising.

Wondering why that was vaguely disappointing, she wrapped herself once again in her robe and crawled into bed with the mystery she’d borrowed from the shelf downstairs.

When her phone rang, she was unsurprised to see Lola’s name on the screen. “ Hey , Lo .”

“So?”

“So, what?”

“Did you fuck him again?”

Anna snuggled into the pillows. “ I’m not telling you. You’ll just say ‘ I told you so’.”

“That’s a yes,” Lola said smugly. “ And I did tell you so.”

“You’re so tedious.”

“But right. Was it as good as the first time?”

“I think it was actually better, but that might’ve just been the spanking.”

“You played with him,” Lola gasped.

It was Anna’s turn to be smug. “ I sure did.”

Lola’s delighted laughter rang over the line. “ And ? Was it everything you wanted it to be?”

“Well, I came four times, so…”

“ Four ? What , does he have a magic peen?”

“That could be it,” Anna mused. “ I was too busy coming to really pay close attention.”

“I hate you.”

“Well, that’ll happen,” Anna said smugly.

“So is this a one off, or are you going to do it again?”

“We’re going to do it again.” Anna kicked her feet in the air and wiggled her toes. “ And again, and again, and again. You know, if I don’t chicken out.”

“I really hate you,” Lola said, then her voice went suspicious. “ He’s not pressuring you, is he?”

“He’s been a perfect gentleman. You know, for someone who bruised my ass and nearly fucked me into a coma.”

“So what’s with the chickening?”

“We’re doing D /s. 24/7.”

“Ohhhh.” Lola’s voice went up and down like a roller coaster. “ Well , that should be interesting.”

Anna dropped her feet to the mattress. “ He says it’s all negotiable, and he’ll make sure I’m comfortable, but I’m still nervous.”

“Well, sure. Have you ever done D /s?”

“Not really. In the context of a scene, yeah, or the leadup. You know, kneel here, fetch this toy, call me Sir , that kind of thing.”

“Uh, that’s not D /s.”

“But the day to day stuff?” Anna grimaced. “ I have no idea what that looks like.”

“It really is different for everybody,” Lola said. “ Did he tell you what he wants?”

“We’re going to talk about it over dinner. But first I have to update that absurd list.” Anna rolled over, belly down on the bed. “ What if he wants me to do something ridiculous?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Make me ask for permission to pee, or something.”

Lola snorted. “ That’s nothing. What if he wants you to pee in front of him?”

Anna scrambled up to kneel on the bed. “ That’s a thing?”

“Baby, everything is a thing,” Lola drawled. “ But you can always say no.”

“Anything pee related is a hard limit,” Anna declared. “ I am firm on that.”

“Well, there you go, you’ve got a starting point.”

“How is this my life?” Anna wondered. “ Saturday I was crying into my scrambled eggs, and now I’m worrying about some guy watching me pee.”

“Maybe you should send Kimberly a thank you card.”

Anna snorted. “ That’s going too far, don’t you think?”

“Probably. All right, I have to get back to my boring life, which is full of depositions and incompetent lawyers and sadly lacking in orgasms delivered by a magic peen. Which is not a real thing, by the way.”

Anna grinned. “ Evidence to the contrary, counselor.”

“Shut up. Go fill out your list, and let me know if you do anything really fun, like priest/nun roleplay.”

Anna grimaced. “ As a survivor of Catholic school, I don’t think I could handle that.”

“Too bad. It can get pretty hot with all the ‘thy rod and thy staff’ talk.”

“Ew.”

“Don’t judge me.” Lola admonished. “ Have fun. Oh , and pass on a message for me, would you?”

“To Grant ?” Anna blinked in surprise. “ What ?”

“If he fucks you up, I’ll kick his balls—and his non-magical peen—into his throat.”

Anna rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “ I’ll be sure to let him know.”

“Good. I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Chuckling, Anna set her phone aside and picked up her book, settling back in to read.

She’d only gotten half a page in when the musical chime of her email alert had her reaching for her phone again and clicking the app.

An email from an Odyssey address sat at the top of the page, the subject line “ Anna’s List ”.

“No pee,” she muttered to herself, and clicked to open it.

By the time she made her way downstairs for dinner, she’d gone over the list twice and was confident that it was as accurate as she could make it.

She’d been surprised to find a couple of things had changed since she’d first filled it out—for example, she was no longer interested in finding out more about fire play.

She grimaced, remembering the first such scene she’d seen at the club.

The Dom had taken all proper precautions and the submissive had been perfectly fine, but seeing someone literally set on fire freaked her the fuck out, and she no longer had any interest in being a human torch.