Page 116 of Until I Own You

Once I’m dried off, I head into my room to start beautifying for the evening.

Just because we’re staying in doesn’t mean I don’t want to look my best. For Seth. Always. As is my duty as his sub. To please him, always. Although the lines are getting muddier and muddier since our encounter in the kitchen, and then last night at the tiki bar.

Revelations. I’m not used to them. Things have been the same for so long.

Sure, I’ve pushed myself to be successful in my career, but I have been sweet Bridget Vance for many years.

To hear that Seth, the man I’ve wanted in secret for a decade, wants to make amends beyond our sexual dynamic is…hard to believe.

I toss my towel on the bed and grab my bottle of moisturizer but before I start to slather it on, something catches my eye.

A flat jewelry box on my pillow on top of a box that is bit bigger.

I go for the jewelry box first with trepidation, as if it might disappear if it sees I’m too eager. Once it’s in my hands, my heart begins to pulse in my throat.

I think I know what this is. What this means.

I pop the box open.

My jaw falls at the sight of a necklace. Two hands pulling on two linked rings, a chain binding the rings. The metal cord the necklace is made of is short. The hands would probably rest against my throat.

My collar.

It’s not time. Not our agreed upon closing date.

Seth explained there would be a ceremony where I would graduate from the training collar to my permanent one that I could wear out in public if we wanted to continue after my training was over. If we became a committed pairing as Dom and sub.

In the community, these ceremonies are often public. But we don’t have a community where anyone knows about us, so we were planning to do it in private.

Could this be it? My forever collar? Or is this just another placeholder?

Has he decided the time is now?

My cheeks fill with warmth. My core pulses.

I wish he was here now, putting it on me.

There is a note nestled in the lid.

I take it, unfold it carefully.

It’s Seth’s writing.

I smile.

You’re my good girl. The best girl. You deserve this. Please wear both items to dinner tonight.

Both items? There’s only one in the jewelry box.

That’s when I remember the other box.

Is it lingerie? A dress? What could it be?

I set the jewelry box aside and grab the other one.

I lift the lid and have to blink my eyes clear to make sense of what’s inside.

It’s a purple wand item. Phallic looking. Except not like a dildo that is all one shape.

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