Page 19 of Need

Diane’s head whipped around to see the woman who had come into the room unnoticed. Brianna’s eyes were guarded as she looked from my aunt to me. I reached out my hand and she came to me.

My aunt watched with curious eyes as Brianna sat down in my lap. “I don’t know what happened, but I’m sure that isn’t it.”

Leaning in, I whispered to Brianna that it was okay to talk. I felt a shiver run through her before she took a deep breath. She held on tight to my hand as she answered Diane. “He said he doesn’t think being with Stephan is what’s best for me.”

My aunt was rarely at a loss for words, but this was one of those times. I could tell she was trying to think of something to say. Before she could manage to get anything out, I decided to speak up.

“I appreciate you coming today and trying to smooth things over between Richard and myself. However, I will not put Brianna in that position again. So, as long as Richard disapproves of our relationship, I’m afraid we will not be joining you for Sunday dinners.”

Diane sat for a few minutes more before standing to leave. I patted Brianna’s leg, indicating that I wanted her to stand. We both followed my aunt to the door.

“I don’t know what’s going on, Stephan,” she said, turning to me with her hand on the doorknob. “I will speak to your uncle. You are like a son to me. I don’t like this separation.”

“You’re more than welcome to come visit us anytime, Diane. We would be glad to have you.” My aunt didn’t miss that I had included Brianna as a resident of my home.

“Thank you,” she said before turning to Brianna. I saw her hesitate for a split second before reaching out and giving her a hug. “I am sorry,” she said in a soft voice just barely loud enough for me to hear. “Please don’t let whatever this is bring you down.”

Then Diane turned to me. She reached out and gripped both my hands in hers. “I’ll talk to Richard, but you should, too. I know he doesn’t want this any more than you do.” She rose on her toes and placed a kiss on my cheek before walking out the door.

Brianna was very still beside me. I turned and took her in my arms. “Talk to me.”

She circled her arms around my waist and she huddled close to me. “I’m sorry I’m causing problems with you and your family.” She paused, and I felt her stiffen. I knew I wasn’t going to like what she said next. “Maybe I should leave.”

“No,” I snapped. Taking a deep breath, I got a hold of myself. “No,” I said in a much calmer voice. “You leaving would not solve anything between my uncle and me.”

As much as I didn’t want to talk about Tami, I knew that it was time Brianna knew the whole story. I led her over to the couch and sat down beside her. Taking her hands, I began to explain.

Where to start? I wanted to get through this as quickly as possible. “Tami and I met through Lily. They’d met and talked at a few events, and Lily thought we’d make a good match. At first, I said no, but Lily can be persistent when she wants something. Eventually, I relented and allowed her to set up a meeting. I wasn’t seeing anyone at the time, so I figured why not?”

Brianna had been staring at our linked hands while I talked. Now that I’d paused, she looked up, her gaze meeting mine. I squeezed her hands in reassurance and continued.

“It was good at first. We both seemed to like many of the same things, and she was already a trained submissive. She’d left her last Dom a year before, and was looking for another.”

Now came the difficult part.

“We’d been dating and playing for almost five months when she started hinting that she wanted more. I made it clear that I was happy with how things were and didn’t want to change.” I shook my head, remembering. “She wanted to move in with me, have a full-time relationship. I didn’t.”

“But I live with you,” Brianna commented.

“Yes. You do.” I smiled, wondering if she would ask me to elaborate. She didn’t, so I continued. “Things began to get worse between us. Every time the opportunity presented itself, she would make a comment about how much easier it would be if we were just living together already. Eventually it became too much, and I ended things.”

It was a very polite way of stating the end of our relationship, but Brianna didn’t need to know the details. To say things got ugly was putting it mildly. She had gotten so angry that she’d thrown a vase at my head.

“The next day, I received a call from Richard saying he needed to speak with me. When I arrived at their home, my aunt was nowhere to be seen, which turned out to be a very good thing. The door was barely closed behind me when the yelling began.”

Brianna’s hands gripped mine tighter, and I looked her over to make sure she was still all right. What I found made my heart almost sing. Her face was full of concern for me. I gave her hands a comforting pat and went back to my story.

“I was there for about two hours. It took almost an hour for him to let me speak one full sentence, and even then, I rarely got out much more before he would interrupt me. She’d told him about being my submissive, however, she made it seem like she had not participated willingly. As if it was something I was forcing her to do... essentially, abusing her.”

Brianna stiffened. I shifted our hands so that one of mine was holding both of hers and used my now-free fingers to raise her chin. She kept her eyes lowered, so I put some pressure behind my grip. Her gaze came up to meet mine as if a switch had been flipped.

“I didn’t abuse her, Brianna.”

She didn’t answer or respond in any way.

I sighed and dropped my hand. “What did I tell you Wednesday night about using your safewords?”

“That if... whatever we were doing got to be... too much or started to overwhelm me, I was to use them without hesitation,” she said unsure, but accurately.

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