Page 39 of Need

No matter how old I was, sitting there took me back to being a teenager. Whenever I’d done something serious, I’d always end up in his office. He’d say he’d brought me there so as not to upset my aunt. I’d believed him at the time. Now I thought it had more to do with the air of authority sitting behind that desk gave him.

I wasn’t going to be intimidated today. “We need to talk.”

“Yes.” I waited to see if he was going to say anything else, but he remained silent.

As much as I wanted to keep him in the dark about what was happening—what had happened to Brianna—I’d come to the conclusion that he would have to know at least some of it, or else our relationship might possibly never repair itself.

“You don’t think that I’m good for Brianna because of what I am.” I let that hang in the air for a minute before continuing. “I know what Tami told you, but I’m going to tell you what I tried to tell you months ago. Everything she and I did was consensual. We had an agreement. It’s in writing if you’d like to see it. I didn’t do anything to her that she was not on board with, and it was consensual in every aspect. Including the bruising she showed you.”

“Stephan, I don’t understand how a man of your upbringing...”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Uncle, it has nothing to do with my upbringing and everything to do with what I find sexually stimulating.” Some of the color drained from his face. “You don’t understand it. That’s perfectly fine. I’m not asking you to. What I am asking you to do is trust me. Trust in the man you helped raise enough to know that I would never do anything to a woman that she would not allow me to do to her.”

My words were met with silence. You could have heard a pin drop.

Eventually, he sat forward in his chair. “Okay, Stephan. If I believe that—and that’s a big if—what about Brianna? She is my concern.”

I sighed. “As much as I don’t want you to know any of this, I see that keeping it from you is no longer an option.”

“You should know that you can tell me anything,” he said, a little offended.

Nodding, I continued. “I told you that Brianna was in a bad situation before, and that I got her out of it.” It was his turn to nod. “It’s a little more involved than that. She was actually being held against her will by a man, and I got her out of there by... well... by rather nonlegal means.”

He shifted nervously. “What do you mean ‘nonlegal means’?”

Again, I sighed. “I bought her.”

He shot up from his chair as if the office was on fire, but then caught himself, and sat back down. “Stephan...”

“This is why I didn’t want to tell you. And why it can’t go any farther than this room.”

“But the man who—”

“That’s not your concern.”

“But—”

“Richard,” I said, making sure I had his attention. “It’s not your concern.”

The stare I leveled at him hopefully conveyed my meaning, but I couldn’t be sure. I waited to see what his next reaction would be.

“So, all her injuries? Her fear?”

I knew what he was asking. “Yes.”

“Then Stephan... I mean, I know how you feel, but she needs to talk to someone. Someone who knows...”

“No.” I saw that he was about to jump in again, and cut him off. “I know you mean well. You meant well with me. But no, she’s fine with me and is getting better every day.”

He seemed to consider his next words carefully. “But you...” Then he reconsidered. “Will you do to her what you did to Tami?”

“That will depend on Brianna, and what she wants.”

“Stephan, how could she?” He gasped. “I mean the girl has been through so much. How could she want something like that?”

“It’s simple. You don’t understand Dominance and submission. There is a level of trust and devotion between a submissive and their Dominant. Brianna has many fears thanks to her past, but I can help her face them.”

“By beating her?” he asked, clearly outraged.

---