I let her go back to bed after breakfast. She'd kept yawning during it. I wasn’t surprised, she’d been through a hell of a lot in the last couple of days. We both had. But she was with me now and that was all that mattered. I had lost my membership of the club which was galling but that didn’t matter as much as the fact that she was here with me.

I stood in the doorway of the bedroom, watching her sleep. She looked radiant, incredibly sexy with her leg stuck out of the blankets, her thigh calling to me to slide up it, to wake her again, to find her heat and enter it.

I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. Yes, Jason Fry had attempted to take her from me but he had failed. She was by my side where she belonged and that was where she was staying. If he knew what was best for him, he’d stay away.

The man who had stolen my business idea, taken the concept of outsourcing the IT department whilst keeping the expertise in house with a bespoke video conferencing system and sold it behind my back. The man who’d taken two years of my work and snatched it from me. The man who'd built up a rival company off the back of my hard work. The man who’d snatched my wife from me. Elora.

I thought of her for a moment. Could it have worked? Really? We had been so young when we’d married, me caught up in the whirlwind of first love, or what I thought was first love. Because now I realised that what I had back then wasn’t real love, it was a facsimile of it, a faded photocopy. What was real was the emotion I felt when I looked at Alice.

Elora hadn’t loved me, she’d loved my money. I should have seen that. It was like the fog had lifted from my eyes and I could see everything clearly for the first time. The reason she had left me for a one night stand with him wasn’t to hurt me, it was because she didn’t care enough about us.

She cared about money and once he’d stolen my idea, for a brief while, he had more than me, my shares taking a hit, the company taking a hit. I plugged the gap with my personal fortune and that meant cutting back at home. She didn’t take kindly to it. All those passive aggressive comments I chose to ignore at the time. I could see them for what they were now, warnings that I needed to spend more on her if I wanted to keep her.

With hindsight, I realised Jason had done me a favour. If she hadn’t left me when she did, she would have been around as the empire was rebuilt. She’d have waited until my fortune was the highest it had ever been and then she’d have left, taking as much from me as she could get. There was worse too.

Stop thinking about Elora, I told myself as I walked away from the bedroom. Think about Alice.

That was much more pleasant. The knot didn’t build inside me when I thought about the woman asleep in my bed, the woman so eager to submit to me, so willing to embrace my lifestyle, the world I lived in, the world I wanted her to join.

Her sleeping was perfect for me. It gave me chance to prepare the room for her. I had the staff move all the furniture out of it. On the ground floor, in the far corner, down a dead end corridor. I’d used it for storage while living alone but last night I had an idea and by this morning I was ready to put the idea into action.

Unlocking the door, I smiled. They had done what I asked. All the furniture out apart from a table in the middle of the room, a wooden chair beside it. The only other thing in there was a cupboard. I pulled the two doors of the cupboard open and looked inside. There were the things I had ordered.

Twenty-four delivery might do for most people but with my money, I was able to get couriers out within the hour. Did they know what they were delivering? I didn’t care. The parcels had been piled up and I spent ten minutes unwrapping them all, setting aside the paper, the bubble wrap, the invoices. I organised everything neatly in the cupboard, wondering how she would react when she saw it all.

By the time I was done, I was eager to get started. I closed the cupboard, then scooped up all the packaging, taking it with me and dumping it in the recycling bin by the door to the courtyard. The mundane parts of life, I thought. I had a collection of sex toys just waiting to be played with but here I was diligently sorting cardboard from plastic.

She was awake when I went back upstairs, sitting by the window and looking outside at the crisp frost coating the grass. It was getting closer to Christmas. “Think it might snow?” I asked.

She turned around at the sound of my voice. “I hope so. I love snow.”

“Come with me. I want to show you something.”

She stood up. She looked sexy in a dressing gown, how was that even possible? “Wear these,” I said, pointing to the clothes I’d had arranged for her.

I looked away while she dressed. I wouldn’t be able to resist her if I watched and I needed to resist if we were going to play together.

“I’m done,” she said at last and I turned to see her in a long silver gown that fitted her perfectly. “I love this dress.”

Not for long, I thought as I pictured slicing it off her, smiling to myself at the mental image. “You look good,” I said as I took her hand to lead her downstairs. “I want to show you how good submission can be,” I said as we walked. “This is where we begin your lessons.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, really.”

Unlocking the door to the room, I opened it for her to step inside. “Stand there,” I said, pointing to the spot I’d marked on the carpet. “When we come in here, that is where you are to stand.”

She was facing the cupboard. I opened it whilst looking at her, watching her reaction. She looked shocked, her eyes widening as she saw all the things neatly rearranged inside on the shelves. “What are they for?” she asked.

“For you,” I replied, pulling out the bar. “Have you seen Secretary?”

She shook her head. “No, why?”

“Because this is how their relationship began, with a bar like this. You see the straps at either end. They’re for your wrists. Hold up your hands.”

She did as I asked and I attached the first strap, running the metal bar behind her head. It was three feet long and with both wrists attached, she couldn’t move her hands at all. They were forced to remain behind her head, her chest thrust forwards, her nipples just visible through the gown. “This isn’t permanent, right?” she asked, sounding nervous.

“Depends on how well behaved you are.”

“Look, I’m not sure about this.”

“Before we begin, there is something you should know.”

“What?”

“You need a safe word.”

“A what?”

“Something you can say that will end things at once. Submission should only ever be done by consent. In the moment things can happen, you can scream no at the top of your voice and have it ignored. Some people at the club get off on having their requests ignored. But no one ever ignores a safe word. It is a law of nature, like gravity or the turning of the tides.

You need a safe word. Once you have one, it is your power. Say it and all this ends. Whatever we are doing, whatever you are doing, stops at once, in an instant. What would you like your safe word to be?”

“I don’t know. I can’t think.”

“How about Wonderland? Suits you, I think.”

“Is that because one side of me makes you bigger?”

“You’re not a mushroom.”

“No, but you’re a fun guy.”

I winced and she giggled. “Sorry, ruining the mood, aren’t I?”

“You are,” I said, swatting her behind. “So knock it off.”

She seemed calmer now the talk about the safe word was out of the way. “What do you like about submitting?” I asked, reaching into the cupboard and bringing out a pair of scissors.

She stared at them and then at me. “I like having my limits tested,” she said. “And I like pleasing you. It’s both I think.” As she talked, I walked slowly towards her. “I get scared but good scared. Like being spanked, it’s pain but a good kind of pain. And I know how much it turns you on to do it.”

“Would you want me to stop if you cried?”

“I don’t know. Are you likely to make me cry?”

“I don’t know your limits yet.”

“Can I answer that later?”

“Of course.” I stopped in front of her, kneeling down and placing the scissors at the bottom of her dress. “Have you used sex toys before?”

“I had a vibrator once, as a joke gift.”

“Did you use it?” I asked, starting to snip slowly upwards.

“A couple of times.”

"Enjoy it?"

"Yes." She sounded ashamed.

“Anything else?”

“Like what?”

“Dildo? Nipple clamps? Butt plug?”

“No, nothing like that.”

I had reached her hips. I paused to glance at her panties before standing up, leaving a huge panel cut out of the front of the dress. I tugged at the fabric over her chest, snipping two circles to expose her lacy thin bra. “Ever been caned or whipped? Tied down?”

“Never.”

“Do you think you would like it?”

“I don’t know. I’m not even sure I like this.”

“I think you do,” I said, plunging my hand into her panties. “I can tell by how wet you are.”

“Am I?”

I nodded, snipping at her shoulder straps until the dress fell to the floor.

“Together we are going to do many things,” I said, cutting sections from her bra, doing it slowly, showing her I was in control. “But they all stop the moment you say the safe word. If I do not hear it, I will assume you are happy. Even if you say no, if you tell me to stop, beg me not to hurt you. I will keep going unless I hear the safe word. That way, you are free to explore who you are, what you are. Do you understand?”

She nodded slowly. “I think so. I just hope I don’t forget the safe word.”

“I don’t think you will.” Cutting the middle of her bra, the two halves fell away, revealing her breasts, the nipples rock hard.

I leaned down, starting to cut away at her panties, taking my hand, letting my hand brush over her soft skin as I worked. “I have several things planned. They might come from nowhere. I might snatch you off the street, make you go out in public with no underwear, ask you to flash a stranger, anything that I think will bring me pleasure to see.”

“I’m not sure about flashing a stranger.”

“Then you will say the safe word.” It wasn’t something I was seriously considering, I just didn’t want her to think our life was going to consist of the predicable. I wanted to dominate her, I wanted to own her. I wanted her to find her sexual destiny, be the Goddess I knew she was. The only way to do that was to keep her guessing, keep myself guessing too. See what the future held for both of us.

Her panties fell away. She was naked. Her hands were held in place. “Pick up the pieces and put them in the corner,” I said as I sat down in the chair.

I watched her have to shift her body around so she could lean to get her hand on the cut portions of fabric littering the floor. Watching her make a neat pile of them just because I’d told her to made me harder than ever. My cock throbbed with desire as she moved back into place.

I took the wand from the cupboard. It was fully charged and ready to go. I stood in front of her, holding it to her face. “Do you know what this is?”

“No. Is it a vibrator?”

“Good girl. It’s an extremely powerful one. I doubt you will last long.”

I switched it on, running it down her chest, over her nipples. “Oh my,” she said, her voice fading into quiet moans as I ran the bulbous end of the wand down, down, brushing over her clit, making her shriek. “That’s so strong,” she said. “I’m not sure I can take it.”

“You can,” I replied, playing it over her pussy. “And this is only the lowest setting.”

I turned it up a notch, moving it back to her clit. She shuddered in place. “Oh my God,” she said. “I can’t take it.”

“Yes you can,” I replied, pressing it against her. I plunged my tongue into her mouth as her orgasm hit her a second later. I swallowed her breath, exploring her mouth, staring into her wild eyes as her climax shook her body. When it faded away, I pulled back, switching off the wand.

“That was so good,” she said, her voice weak. “I never thought I could come so fast.”

“And we’ve only just begun,” I said, moving across to the cupboard. “What shall we play with next?”