Page 15 of James

Abby was already pulling Laura toward the house, pleading, “Can we bake cookies after dinner?”

“You’ll have to ask your mother about that one, kiddo, and I brought laundry to do so we might not have time. Don’t you have any homework?”

“We finished ours at Aftercare, before Mom picked us up,” Tim answered.

After they got inside and the kids went into the family room with their grandfather, Suzie said, “I thought I was taking you to get your clothes?”

“I was getting antsy, and I thought I’d get Dad to take me. The woman who runs the laundromat was really helpful.She’s hoping the place will get repaired. And before Dad brings it up, I wasn’t alone in the laundromat the other night. There was a man there. His name is James and we had quite an evening together, but I don’t want to talk about it when the kids or Dad might come in any minute,” Laura said in hopes of forestalling more questions for the moment. She hadn’t decided how much she wanted to share with her sister.

“Okay, let’s get your laundry going and then dinner,” Suzie acquiesced. “We’ll have time to talk after dinner when the kids are busy with Dad.”

Dinner was filled with the children’s accountings of their day and discussion of the extent of damage from the tornado. It turned out the church Laura and Suzie attended had been badly damaged, as well as several houses nearby and then the laundromat and the adjoining block of shops, which was almost a mile away. Everyone was upset about the church.

“Was anyone there when it happened?” Abby asked. “I wouldn’t want Pastor Jonathan to get hurt.”

“He doesn’t live there, silly,” Tim responded. “Why would he have been there late at night?”

Suzie quickly took control of the discussion. “There was no one at the church when the storm hit. Everyone from church is safe. But the damage is significant, and I haven’t heard what we’re doing about Sunday services. And we’ve talked before about you calling your sister ‘silly,’ Timothy.”

“Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Abby.” Tim hung his head but quickly looked up and asked, “Hey, how come the churchwas hit and those houses, but this laundromat was over a mile away and it got hit, too?”

Dan explained, “Tornadoes are unpredictable and they can bounce around. They’ll touch down in one place and then bounce back up and come back down again a way away. Some don’t cause much trouble at all, because they don’t touch down. Of course, any heavy storm is probably going to cause some damage. We’re really lucky no one was seriously hurt in the storm. Property can be repaired, but injury is much more serious.”

After dinner, the kids and their grandfather headed to the basement and the increasingly complicated train system. Abby liked the trains almost as much as her brother did and time with Granddad was something to be treasured, especially when he was in a good mood.

Over the dishes, Suzie brought up Tuesday night again, “So, Laura, what else happened at the laundromat?”

“Well, you know how I’ve been trying to get you to read my books, theMasters of the Shadowlandsseries?” Laura led in.

“Sure, it’s that kinky romance stuff you like.” Suzie placed a plate in the dish rack.

“James…” Laura swallowed before she rushed out the words. “His name is James Black, and he’s into that… um, lifestyle. I never really believed people did what was in the books, but it turns out they do. BDSM is real. I mean, I knew it was a real thing, but I thought the books were just exaggerations and fantasy, and it’sreal!”

“How exactly did you find out he was interested in this BDSM?” Suzie rested her hands on the kitchen counter and slowly turned to face Laura. “BDSM? Isn’tthat like sadomasochism or something? Hurting people for fun?”

Laura sighed and dropped the dish towel, leaning on the counter as well. “If you’d read the book, you’d know it’s not like that at all. BDSM stands for several things. Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadism and Masochism. In the case of Tuesday night, it stood for Bondage and Discipline. He spanked me, and then the next morning he gave me the best orgasm I’ve ever had.”

“What do you mean, he spanked you?” Suzie's voice rose, her words spilling out in a rapid cadence that mirrored her mounting agitation. “Did he tie you up or something? Why didn’t you fight back? He assaulted you! We should call the police. My god, he could be a sex maniac or a serial killer!”

Laura shushed her sister. “Keep it down, please! I don’t want to upset Dad or the kids. And he didn’t assault me, for heaven’s sake. I consented to everything. It hurt, but you wouldn’t know now that I’d been spanked. The red marks were gone by the time I got home from the hospital. To tell you the truth, it was kind of hot. Anyway, I deserved it. He told me not to go to the windows and I did anyway,afterhe told me he would spank me if I went. When I showed him I was sorry, he stopped spanking me and then we cuddled.”

Suzie visibly relaxed. “So it was a sex thing?”

“We… He… He went down on me,” Laura stuttered, her body warming at the memory. “I haven’t had a man do that before.”

“So, are you going to see him again?” Suzie tilted her head and wrinkled her nose.

Unable to meet her sister’s curious eyes, Lauradropped her gaze to the dish towel. “I don’t know. In retrospect, it’s all kind of embarrassing. I’d like to see him again, but I don’t know if he wants to see me. He didn’t come to the hospital or anything. If he’s interested, he can contact me. Even if he doesn’t want to see me, I think I still want to find out more about real life BDSM.”

“Are you sure about this, sis? It sounds like it might be dangerous. What if you meet someone who wants to hurt you for real once he’s got you tied up?” Suzie worried.

“There must be good ways to find out about it.” Laura lifted her gaze and chewed her bottom lip. “James said the same thing my books do – BDSM is about being ‘Safe, Sane and Consensual.’ I’ll have to do some research. The internet has everything on it. There must be something sensible there.”

“Okay, but promise me you’ll be careful.”

Suzie clearly had more to say, but just then, Abby came in, begging them to come downstairs and see the new train installation, so she had to settle for her sternest ‘I mean business’ as her daughter dragged her away. When bedtime for the children arrived, Dan took Laura home and the next day, she went back to work like nothing had changed. But she had.

CHAPTER TEN

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