of
my Aunts must have suggested it.Maybe one of them planned to off my parents so
she and the other biddies would inherit.” Denise looked thoughtful.
“If that’s what
happened, if my aunts tried to plant the idea, my parents would have loved to
arrange it another way, one more F-you to the sisters.”
Samantha nodded. “OK.
End of that subject.” She gave a slight shrug. “So… How’s it going? It has to
be worse, the adjustment, not even wanting to be married to the man. Did you like him? Love him? Before you
found out Andrew wanted a Head of Household deal?”
“Is that what they call it?” Denise
twisted the cap off a bottle of water she’d brought in for herself.
Samantha kept her eyes
on Denise. “Domestic
Discipline. Taken In Hand. Head of Household. All the same, basically.”
“Taken in Hand?”
“You know; as in ‘She needs to be taken
in hand.’”
Denise snorted. She took a long drink.
“I can’t even remember
how I felt back then. After we
broke up my whole life fell apart, on top of the break up, you know? So I don’t know anything. But I know
this. Now? I despise him. I’d happily stick a knife in his
ribs, and wriggle it around to
sever his heart and lungs.”
Samantha whistled. She
shook her head and stared at Denise for a moment.
“You asked how a smart,
successful lawyer could ‘let’ someone treat me like that. I’m going to answer your question.
Good, thought Denise. It went beyond annoying to pretend
her question wasn’t an extremely reasonable one.
“I fell hard for
Neil. I had a great job. Lots of friends, a lover. But nobody lit me up inside the way Neil did, still does. I’ve always been attracted to that type and I was wildly in
love with the man. Of course we
clashed. We’re both very dominant people. I’d known for years I could never love a man who wasn’t as strong as I
am. It was a bit of a shock, I’ll
admit, when I realized he was stronger--that’s not the right word actually--for
now let’s say he was even more dominant than I was.”
Denise focused on Sam’s face, mouth
opened. Sam nodded.
“Oh yeah. We clashed all the time. At some point, I realized he listened
to me, discussed things, and occasionally even saw things my way, but there
were lots of times he didn’t agree and simply went ahead and did things his
way. No big fuss, no more talking
about the issue. He simply did things
his way.
Neil was also very
dominant sexually, and that was fine with me because, come on! The sex was
beyond amazing. The longer we were together the more overtly dominant he
became. I won’t lie. We had some
fierce battles. No big physical confrontations or screaming matches. He’d
calmly stick to his guns and we’d agree to disagree.
“Then one day he swatted me. At the time it felt spontaneous. Later
on I realized he’d been waiting for the opportunity. But anyhow, that night I’d scared him. I was late, really late and I didn’t
call to let him know. He’d been worried sick, he said, and he asked if I’d had
anybody walk me out to my car. When I said ‘no’ he got really pissed and said
I’d acted dangerously. Then he reached behind me and swatted me. It stung, a little. I laughed.
“He didn’t laugh. Instead he did it again, harder. And said,
‘Don’t ever do that again.’”
Samantha was quiet for a
brief second.
“He sort of shoved me
against the wall when he did it, that second smack - not hard - and started
nuzzling my neck, nipping, touching my breasts. I was really turned on and that’s what I focused on, not the
fact he’d whacked my butt.”
Her eyes looked directly
into Denise’s.
“It was hot. Sex had always been awesome but wow …
that time –unbelievably hot.
Much, much later I
realized how deliberate the whole scene had been. He took me right there,
against the wall. I was absolutely begging.