Page 144 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

She looked at me like I was crazy. “You want me to... write about myfeelings.”

“Yes.”

“We’re gonna be here all day, buddy.”

“Buddy?”

“Yeah. We’re buddies now.”

“Why don’t we go back over rule one, and what it means.”I was met with an eye roll and a scoff.

After she finished copying rule one fifty times in her new notebook, glaring the entire time, she proceeded with her next task: to call Becca and reschedule her recurring therapy appointments at AnchorX, and get refills of her prescriptions.

“I need to go to work,” I told her right around lunchtime.

“But it’s Saturday!”

“Yeah. And I have work. I have a few interviews for the restaurant, and a meeting with a few new Doms at The Lounge. I’ll be back around three o’clock... try not to get into trouble until then? And make sure you eat lunch.”

When I got back, I found her sitting on the floor in Robin’s old bedroom. She had black mud on her face, her hair wrapped in a towel, and she was scrolling on her phone. Other than the towel on her head, she was completely naked. Beside her was a cup of coffee with what looked like chocolate and whipped cream on it, and a half-eaten bag of Doritos.

“What on earth are you eating?”

“Lunch.” She held up a Dorito.

“That’s not a meal, you Hellion.”

“It is if you eat the whole bag.”

I removed the bag from her vice-like grip and sent her off to the bathroom for a second shower. She still had writing all over her body from my claiming her last night, and she’d managed to get her face mud in her hair.

That afternoon I gave her a tour of the house, though I skipped the dungeon for now. After she told me what Woodrow had put her through, I’d decided to avoid going down there for a while, and maybe do some smaller less intense scenes with her to build some trust.

We finished the tour outside my office door. “I have some rules about this room.”

“Oh, boy. More rules. Hold on.” She scampered off and returned a minute later with her notebook, pen in hand. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“If this door is open, you’re welcome to come in and talk to me as you need to. If it’s closed you need to knock. If I open the door and let you in, you may come in. If I leave the door shut, it probably means I’m in the middle of something important.Now, you may open that door and enter, even if I don’t open it for you... but in that case, you had better have a good reason.”

She thought for a minute, chewing on her pen, staring at me. “What is an example of a bad reason?”

“You want attention and feel like being annoying.”

“And what is an example of a good reason?”

“There are people at the door... something is burning in the kitchen... you are sick or injured...”

“Got it.” She slammed her notebook shut and stuck the pen in her hair.

“Were you going to.... write that down?”

“Nope. I just had to hold my pen. Because I’ll remember if I hold my pen.”

“...Okay. I have a conference call at six. I’ll make dinner after that. Why don’t you pick a book to read?”

Alice spent the next forty-five minutes rearranging my library in a way that made absolutely no sense to me, but it kept her happy, quiet, and occupied. The conference call was a shit show, but we got through it with minimal swearing and walked away with a plan regarding the television marketing for the new restaurant.

“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered, shutting my laptop and rubbing my eyes.

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