Battle of Wills 1 - Retraining the sub

by Denys Jennifer

  Chapter Eleven

  Luke lay back on the bed, his climax leaving him feeling exhausted. Actually, it was his emotions that felt battered more than his body. Grant and Esther pulled their clothes on and quietly left the room. Luke could barely summon a nod of thanks.

  Dammit, why did Ann have to submit so well? He had really pushed her with this one, hoping to make her shove him away. And that confused him. Why he would want her to hurt him all over again? It didn’t make sense. And yet it did. By forcing her to lose their battle he was the one to decide when their relationship ended.

  Shaking his head to rid himself of his disturbing thoughts, he sat up abruptly. Turning to Ann, he untied her and removed her blindfold. She was looking at him with undisguised love.

  No, no, no, no. I don’t want this.

  Jumping off the bed, and striding into the middle of the room, he ran a shaky hand through his hair. “That’s it. That’s the end.”

  Ann sat up on the bed slowly, frowning at Luke as he paced the floor. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”

  Turning away from the sight of her face perplexed by his words, he started picking her clothes up from the floor. His voice was gruff with unspoken emotions when he answered her. “It’s quite simple. That was the final test. You are now retrained, and I am handing you over.”

  “Whaaat!” He could hear her shock at what he had just declared. “But I thought…”

  He turned to face her then, flinging her clothes at her, somewhat roughly. “You thought what? That I would be dumb enough to fall for you all over again?” He mockingly laughed. “That you could control me so much that you would be the one to finish this … this relationship, if you could call it that. It’s not as if you are my sub, after all. I was just training you for Sean, since no-one else was prepared to take you on. And I declare that you are now ready for a new Dom.”

  When she started crying, he nearly rushed over to the bed to gather her in his arms, but his demons held him back. In fact, they battered at him telling him to leave before she did. Pulling his jeans on swiftly, but leaving all his other clothes behind, he raced out of the room taking the stairs two at a time to the upper floor where Sean’s office was, the sound of Ann’s voice sobbing his name echoing in his head.

  “Hey, what?” Sean was clearly taken aback by someone crashing into his office and slamming the door behind him as Luke stormed over to the cabinet and poured himself a glass of brandy.

  It was the only place in the venue where Luke knew he could get some much-needed liquor. He then slumped into a chair and held his head in his hands, his body shaking with emotion.

  “Luke? What’s happened?” Sean quickly came around his desk to lay a soothing hand on his shoulder. “Where’s Annabel?”

  Luke laughed harshly. “God knows. I left her in one of the rooms.”

  Sean shook him. “That’s not what I was asking. Why is she there and not here with you? What went wrong?”

  Looking up at the club owner, who was the closest male friend he had, Luke felt wretched. He didn’t want to admit that he had just left Ann in tears. “I told her that her training was finished, and she could have whichever Dom she wanted.” His voice was bland, and he felt numb. If only it was that simple.

  Frowning at him, Sean stood up and leaned back against his desk, crossing his arms over his chest. “Okay. That didn’t go the way I hoped it would. I thought you two were working out well. Shit, Luke. What the hell happened?” he asked again. “I guess you pushed her away before she could leave you—just like you’ve done with every other sub you’ve had. Eh?”

  As he raised his eyebrows, Luke was somewhat astonished at the accuracy with which Sean had just sussed him out.

  “Stop looking like I’m demented. You know perfectly well I’m right.”

  Luke shrugged. “So what if I do? You, out of everyone, should know this is the one woman I had to do that to.” He felt bile in his mouth.

  “She didn’t prove that you can trust her then?”

  “No, she damn well didn’t.” He winced and ignored the demon on his shoulder that kept trying to tell him he was making a big, big mistake.

  “Not even when she got through all your training without saying her safe word? The public exhibition, the caning, the bondage, the clamps, the butt plug, even the foursome you set up. That’s quite an achievement for Annabel. I’ve seen her change from quite an independent woman who pretended to be submissive to someone who genuinely wanted it, whose face lit up whenever you arrived, who did everything you asked. Yes, I know. She frequently queried what you asked her to do, but she still did it—and did it for you when she would never have considered doing it with anyone else.”

  Swallowing nervously, Luke tried to take in everything Sean was saying. It was almost too painful to consider.

  “You went into this to deal with Annabel’s trust and control issues, but I think you could not trust, either.”

  Luke stared at Sean as the implications set in. He knew from the bottom of his soul that Sean was right. He had problems, too.

  A knock came on the door. He cursed. Sean stalked over and peered out, not opening the door fully. Luke could hear a voice. It was one of the hall monitors. “Sorry to disturb you, boss, but Annabel urgently needs to have a word with you.”

  Wrenching around in his seat, Luke looked at Sean with astonishment and shook his head when Sean glanced back at him with a question in his eyes. No, he didn’t want to speak to Ann, so Luke quietly rose and moved into the adjoining room, keeping the door slightly ajar so he could listen to the conversation.

  “Come on in, Annabel. What can I do for you? Is something wrong?”

  “I—I came to say goodbye and ask for the refund you offered me.”

  She is going? After all the work I did with her?

  “Why would you be leaving?”

  “Y—you haven’t seen Lu—Master Lucas then?”

  “Tell me.” Luke smiled as he noted that Sean hadn’t answered her question.

  “He doesn’t want me.”

  Luke leaned back against the wall and clenched his fists as the sound of Ann’s sudden sobs came loudly across the room. Oh, I want you all right. Too much.

  “Shh. So tell me what happened.”

  “I thought this was a new beginning for us. It seemed to go so well. I know I was difficult at first. All right, I was downright bratty!” Luke heard Sean chuckle at her comment and wished he could join in. “But Master Lucas showed me things that other Doms have never bothered to. He showed me how wonderful it can be.”

  Luke smiled, pleased he had been able to do that if nothing else.

  “He was supposed to. As your trainer that is exactly what he needed to do. Now he’s done the task in hand you can do scenes with someone else now with no problem. Job done I’d say.”

  Dammit, Sean, don’t push her into the arms of anyone else. She’s mine. She always has been. Luke’s body shook with the force of this admission.

  “I don’t want anyone else, any other Dom than him. I can’t imagine anyone else touching me like he does.”

  Yes!

  “But he hates me for what I did in the past. You’ll never know how awful I feel for what I did back at the church that day. How I’ve wanted to apologize ever since.”

  Luke couldn’t stay where he was any more. He moved quietly, but swiftly, into the room. Ann was sitting in the chair which he had just vacated. “Are you sorry? Do you know what you did to me that day? How it felt to watch you leave me, not knowing what I had done wrong?”

  Ann looked at him with shock. Luke was too busy looking at Ann and only half saw Sean quietly leave. Swiping at her face with her clothes, Ann hurriedly stood up. He could see she was struggling to get her composure back, and when she looked up her expression was a mixture of sadness and disappointment. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It was all me. So you’ve got your revenge on me finally. I guessed that was what this was all about. I never stopped loving you, you know. I j
ust had to get away and discover myself, to be me and not just ‘Luke’s wife’. We were so young. Part of it was needing time to grow up, as well. I wish you all the best for the future, my love.” She could hardly choke the last bit out as a tear rolled down her face.

  She practically ran toward the door in her eagerness to be out of his sight. His heart lurched in his chest, and a feeling of déjà vu came over him. He held back an instinct to laugh hysterically at the latest circumstances of his abandonment, and wondered if he was really prepared to see her leave again. Was he really prepared to see her in the arms of anyone else? Was he ready to say goodbye, maybe forever this time? He made a decision.

  His gruff voice stopped her in her tracks just as she was reaching out a hand to the door. “Ann! Don’t you dare leave me again.”

  He saw her tremble, but she didn’t continue her flight, although her hand didn’t leave the doorknob either. He briefly considered if he had said that to her originally in the church whether she would have stayed, but then he swiftly discounted it. They were both different people now. The Ann he loved was this one. He probably would have gotten bored with the old Ann, as she seemed to have done with him. She just saw it earlier than he had, he admitted ruefully.

  Her head turned slowly back to look at him, trying to ascertain what he was actually saying. He could see hesitancy in her face, and a slight glimmer of hope. Her eyes were looking bright. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you that way. I panicked. But I’ve had nightmares ever since, only in them you are the one leaving.” She stopped, and he could see indecision in her face. She moved away from the door, taking a step toward him. “Please take me back. I promise you I’ll never leave you again—nor say my safe word.” She chuckled at that. “I’ll do whatever you want, Master.”

  Luke looked at her and saw nothing but sincerity in her face. But he wasn’t about to tell her he loved her, not yet, but soon. Instead he drew on the strength he had gained turning to the world of BDSM all those years ago and hardened his shaky emotions.

  “Present yourself! Come on. If you are serious about this, then do as I say—immediately.”

  Ann complied with his orders, looking at him with uncertainty. Her presentation was the sloppiest he had ever seen, but at least she had done as he asked—without questioning him for once.

  Luke stepped forward and grasped her chin firmly, tilting her head up. “That was a sorrowful presentation. It seems I still have some training to finish. Hm, let me see, maybe a test is in order. What is my name?”

  “M—Master Lucas,” she stuttered.

  “Who is the Dom here—who is the one in control?”

  “You are.”

  “If I am to become your Dom full-time, I expect obedience, respect, acquiescence, and one other thing. What would that be?”

  Her eyes stared back at him firstly in shock, and then in panic seemingly unsure what he wanted her to say.

  He sighed melodramatically. “I had thought I could tell Master Sean that your training was complete, but clearly not. We still have to work on ‘trust’ issues, don’t we … Annie?”

  She smiled at him then with such delight that he knew he was a goner, and he had to restrain himself from groaning loudly. He could never let her walk out of that door. He was going to stick himself to her with Super Glue this time. As her body relaxed he watched her lick her lips seductively, looking at him with undisguised happiness. Christ. He was so going to have to get some advanced Dom tips if he was going to cope with her for the rest of their lives.

  “Oh decidedly, Master. I have huge problems with trust. Enormous, in fact.”

  “I can see that I’m going to have to demand a key to your house or have you move in with me. That’s the only way around your—our—trust issues.”

  She stood up, tears falling unheeded down her face, and rummaged in her bag producing the requested key.

  Luke chuckled. He hadn’t been expecting it quite that quickly, but he held out a hand, palm up, to accept her gift.

  After giving it to him, Ann then wrapped her arms around Luke’s neck almost in a stranglehold as if she couldn’t believe her luck and wasn’t about to let him go. Luke held her tightly to him.

  Who exactly was doing the attaching here, Luke wondered? Or maybe it was finally what both of them needed. “Hm. I suspect a ring is also needed, one around your stubborn, beautiful, annoying neck.”

  She kissed him quickly, her eyes glowing with happiness. “Actually I think I may have to love, comfort, and honor you for the rest of our lives before I can possibly prove how much I do trust you and help you to trust me.”

  Luke grinned down at her. “Forsaking all others?”

  Ann looked at him soberly. “Unless you order me otherwise, Master—I will.”

  The End

  www.jennifer-denys.blogspot.com

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