Page 6 of Jonah Noble - Anticipation Is Everything (Interview With a Master 2.5)

I set down the phone and sighed, made my face into an expression of admonishment. “Leticia, there is no point sugar-coating our intentions with this woman. We want her to join us, and to surrender to me for sexual submissive training while you watch each encounter. Right?”

Leticia nodded like she no longer trusted her voice.

I shrugged. “Then why try to mislead her, or bother to soften the reality of what we are asking? Do you want the woman to fly here all the way from Chicago without being crystal clear on what it is we expect from her?”

Leticia wrung her hands. I could see the tortured confusion in her eyes. She took a deep despairing breath and re-read the numbers, her voice now echoing the doom of her despondency.

I waited for the line to connect. Leticia was watching my face, trying to read my expression. At last I heard the soft sound of a woman’s voice on the line and I nodded to Leticia.

“Hello, Cameron? This is Jason Luke calling you.”

There was a long moment of stunned silence from the woman at the other end of the phone call. The torture of the call suddenly proved too much for Leticia. She scurried from the room as though the phone was a bomb about to explode.

“Are you serious?” the woman asked, and by the tone of her voice I was sure she suspected a prank.

“Yes,” I answered. “I am serious. I’m Jason Luke, the author. I wanted to phone you and thank you personally for your recent email of support.”

More stunned silence. I heard muffled noises that sounded like gasps of panic before her voice became warm and friendly.

“Hi,” she said brightly.

“Do you prefer me to call you Cameron, or Cam?”

“Cam,” the woman said and then the calm demeanor cracked wide open. “My God. It’s really you, isn’t it! I’m such a big fan of your writing. Your book is the best thing I ever read about relationships.”

I smiled into the phone. “Thanks,” I said. “And thanks for taking the time to message me. I understand you have spoken to Leticia recently.”

“Yes,” Cam’s voice brightened. “She’s adorable!”

I held the smile. “I think so too,” I agreed. “In fact, Leticia is one of the reasons I decided to phone you.”

The woman seemed suddenly curious. The tone of her voice rose to become a kind of question. “Oh?”

“Yes,” I said. “Leticia has been filling me in on the conversation you two girls had. I understand that as well as being a fan, you’re genuinely interested in submission as a lifestyle.”

“Yes,” Cam said without hesitating. “It’s one of the reasons I left my boyfriend. After I read your book I realized I was searching for something different.”

I hesitated for an instant – but only an instant. “You do realize there is a difference between the fictionalized romance of an erotica novel and the reality of the BDSM lifestyle… don’t you?”

The woman smiled. I heard it like a bright sound in her voice. “Of course!” she said. Some of the giddiness of her excitement was melting away now and I got the impression of a down-to-earth woman who had a clear understanding of her emotions. “I know that what I read in books – even books about relationships – can only be a single perspective… and opinion. I just so happen to share the same ideas that you wrote about – the same sense of yearning to submit that you shared in your book.”

I took a breath. Over my shoulder, somewhere beyond sight, I could hear Leticia pacing the floor. I went towards the office door and swung it open. She was standing in the corridor, hugging her hands to her shoulders, walking back and forth with stiff impatient steps. She saw me, and wrenched her face into an expression that looked very much like a plea. I closed the office door again. If Leticia heard what I was about to say she might faint.

I waited until Cam had finished explaining a little more about her feelings that had begun to emerge after reading my book. A lot of what she was saying sounded familiar. I had heard and read similar comments over the months since we had published, but those messages had all been second-hand. This was different – so intimate that it sounded like a heart’s desire confessed.

“Cam, do you want to learn more about submission? Are you interested in being trained by a Master for a week to get a sense of how deep these feelings you have actually are?”

“Yes,” she said adamantly, and then quickly qualified. “Provided I knew the man who was going to train me, and provided I knew he was suitable and experienced.”

I let her comment hang in the air for a moment and waited in the silence until instinct told me the timing was right.

“How about someone like me?” I asked at last.

“What? Are you serious?”

“Very,” I said calmly. “I am interested in training you as a submissive. I’d like you to come and live with Leticia and me for a week. That would give you enough experience to be able to decide if the lifestyle is something you would like to pursue further.”

Cam went very quiet for long seconds – so long that I wondered if she had dropped the phone, or hung up. When she spoke at last her voice was quiet, almost fearful. “This isn’t a joke of some sort, is it?”

“I don’t joke,” I said. “I don’t have a sense of humor. What I am offering is a genuine opportunity.”

“What’s the catch?”

“There isn’t one,” I said honestly. “But there is a condition.”

“Uhuh…” Cam’s voice went dead, edged with wariness. “You mean I have to pay for this experience?”

I almost laughed. I admired her cynicism. “No,” I said, still smiling to myself. “There is no cost, no charge. In fact we will pay for your accommodation at a nearby hotel, or you can stay with us. We will also cover all expenses, and the cost of airfares.”

Cam sounded confused. “Then what’s the condition?”

“I will train you and Leticia will watch each session,” I said simply.

“You want your girlfriend to watch us?” Cam’s tone clearly suggested that she thought the idea was bizarre.

“No,” I said patiently. “Leticia wants to watch, and I know you could understand that because you’re a woman too. We want you to have this opportunity, but naturally Leticia doesn’t want the training to cross the line between physical and emotional. You can understand that, can’t you?”

“Yes,” Cam said, even before she realized she was agreeing because beside everything else, the request actually sounded reasonable.

“What if I say yes?” Cam asked slowly. “What would happen then?”

“We would fly you here for dinner,” I said. “And we would have a long conversation. If we’re compatible – and if we’re all comfortable – we can proceed as planned. If you feel reluctant or unwilling in any way, we will fly you back to Chicago. No questions asked. The decision will always be yours.”

Silence – a long contemplative silence that I wielded like a weapon. To speak now would be to alter the course of the conversation, and blur the point of the proposition. Every good businessman knows that once you ask the question, you must shut up. The prospect needs to be the next person to speak.

I waited.

“When do I have to decide?” Cam asked.

“Whenever you want,” I said lightly. “We have other ladies who have messaged, and they seem to echo the same sentiments as you. If you would rather not submit yourself to the training, we will reach out to them instead.”

“Oh.” She lapsed back into deep thought. I glanced around the empty office and caught a shadow of movement under the crack of the door. Leticia was standing just outside the room, prowling impatiently.

“How soon would you want me to do this?”

“How soon can you be available? Can you take a week’s vacation?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

More silence, but this time I sensed the difference. Cameron was no longer wondering whether to proceed. She was calculating when.

“How about this weekend?

” she asked softly. “I can finish work Friday afternoon. The company has been pushing me to take unused vacation time. I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem,” she was talking out loud, solving her own problems as she met with each obstacle.

“Friday would be fine,” I said smoothly. “I’ll ask Leticia to make contact with you again. You girls can sort out the details.”

“Okay,” Cameron said and I sensed there was a trace of stunned shock in her voice. We were about to hang up when suddenly she blurted a final question.

“Why did you choose me?” she asked, perhaps seeking reassurance, or the need to understand more.

“I didn’t,” I said simply. “Leticia chose you.”

* * *

Leticia burst into the office just moments after I had hung up the phone, and though I suspected she had heard enough of the conversation, she still asked the question, her voice anxious.

“Well? What did she say?”

---