That night, Jenn fixed herself a salad in her parents’ kitchen as she talked to her sister on the phone. Her spirits soared; her whole body felt excited doing the most mundane tasks: cleaning the lettuce, shredding cheese. Her lips couldn’t move fast enough to share all the thoughts in her head from her recent experiences.

“Kenzie, you don’t understand: this is so unlike me!” She reached for the ranch dressing in the refrigerator as she spoke.

“No, I think I can understand, Jenn. I’ve known you your whole life, remember?”

“I just mean, I never thought I’d have the guts to go on TV about this. It feels really amazing.”

“That’s really great, Jenn. I’m proud of you, and I’m glad you’ve decided to go forward on this. You deserve better than how all those assholes at the hospital are treating you.” For a moment, Kenzie thought she went too far — after all, Steve was included in that statement, and Steve was just as sensitive a topic as all the rest of it. Jenn didn’t seem to have noticed, or she willfully ignored it.

“Well, I was nervous for the small interview, but everything just ricocheted forward from it, and then The Hour show seemed like the right thing to do.”

“How is Andrew working out for you?”

“Oh, he’s great.” Jenn was reluctant to divulge much else. She maintained a purely professional relationship with him in all other instances except when it was just the two of them in his office. “He’s been really supportive, and he has a really great mind for all the legal stuff.”

I bet that’s not all that’s great about him, Kenzie laughed to herself. “Good for you guys., but that’s not what I meant. What about, you know, between you two?” Her voice sounded oddly subdued to Jenn.

“W-what do you mean?”

“Seemed like you two had a lot of chemistry, that’s all.”

Jenn hesitated. She told her sister everything, all of the dirty details of her life as of late, but she was nervous about saying much about Andrew knowing he was her attorney. She bit her lip and realized quite the silence had passed. She cracked. “Okay, okay, you’re right!”

Score! Kenzie thought on the other end, her face stretching into a smile. “I thought so, Jenn! You guys couldn’t keep your eyes off each other when you first met.”

Jenn told Kenzie everything, sparing no detail. She found herself recounting her entire romantic and sexual history, how she felt about Steve and how Andrew had been there to comfort her; how Andrew had continually wanted to meet up with Jenn; and, finally, how Andrew’s office turned into a place for more than legal discussions.

Kenzie couldn’t help but to laugh. “Jenn, a year ago, I never would have expected to have this conversation with you. Look at you now!” She knew her sister had changed incredibly in the past year, but her sexual growth and new confidence had been a godsend in the face of all the other horrible things she’d undergone. If her little sister wanted to tell her nearly pornographic details of her budding sex life, Kenzie certainly wasn’t going to stop her.

Jenn knew that. Kenzie was her strongest support system, and frankly, she loved to tell her older sister what she was up to, in the bedroom or otherwise. She laughed, too. “I know, I know. So much has changed. It’s pretty amazing.” She glanced down and checked the time on her watch. “Anyway, Kenz, I have to get going. So nice to talk to you, and don’t forget to watch the interview on Sunday at 8 o’clock!”

The rest of the week passed uneventfully for everyone but Richard, who spent every night after normal business hours fortified in the boardroom plotting for anything against Jenn and her family. Today — Sunday afternoon — Richard sat in his den flipping mindlessly through channels on the television.

He was about to doze off for an afternoon nap when he saw it: a teaser trailer for Jenn’s interview with The Hour. There she was, sitting in a brightly lit room with a somber face, issuing a few select sound bites from the interview. The title of the segment scrolled onto the screen: “SCANDAL AT ST. BENEDICT: Rape, Murder, and Mystery.”

Richard blinked heavily. His mind barely registered what he was seeing. Then, in one fell swoop, he leaped from his chair, grabbed his cell phone, and yelled for Steve to come over immediately, as well as his lead attorney. His blood pressure was rising precipitously as he waited; nothing had ever angered him so suddenly before.

The three of them watched the special in complete silence that Sunday night. None dared say a word. Richard and Bill stared straight ahead at the television during the entire hour-long segment; Steve couldn’t watch sections of it and instead watched his father’s reactions.

When the segment ended, the last words spoken by the host echoed into the now silent room as Richard turned the television off. He fingered the remote control in his hand for a few minutes, and then he stood up without saying a word. He looked at both Bill and Steve, and back down at his hands — then, with no warning, he heaved the remote straight at the TV, cracking the screen. He then turned menacingly toward his son.

“You...” he breathed dangerously.

Steve leaned back in his chair, immediately terrified.

“Why did you ever get near this bitch?”

Steve was taken aback immediately; he almost felt like crying. “What? Dad, I—”

“No, shut up. I don’t want to hear a word out of you.” He turned to Bill. “What do we do with this?”

Bill, sitting sheepishly in the corner, wanted nothing to do with the argument between father and son, but he, too, was enraged by the content on the television. “I’ll call our private detective. He can find dirt on anyone: Jenn, that sister of hers, her whole family.”

Richard was wringing his hands together so hard that he was pulling his skin back and forth, leaving red and white marks from the friction. “Good. And you,” he said, turning back to his son with his teeth bared, “you have done quite enough to fuck everything up. You just couldn’t keep your dick to yourself, could you?” His voice had gained an edge, and although he barely spoke over a whispery hiss, Steve could hear the power within his words. “Get out. I don’t want you anywhere near me.”

Steve didn’t wait for another word. Feeling as though his heart had sunk halfway into his stomach, he stood up slowly, embarrassed, ashamed, and headed out the door. He was confused. What was going to happen?

* * *

Weeks passed. Both teams prepared for the trial with utmost urgency, each side hoping to find something to spin to their advantage. Jenn and Andrew worked with abandon to show that the terrible things that happened to her were willful negligence and abuse at the hands of Dr. Blake, and, in turn, Richard and Steve Connelly.

Finally, it was time to go to court. The first day of the trial was to start the next Monday morning.

That Sunday night, Jenn lay in bed at Andrew’s apartment trying to sleep, but no matter how she tried, nothing would calm her nerves — not even Andrew’s presence next to her. She lay there for what felt like hours, tossing and turning, while Andrew read over some last-minute papers beside her.

Finally, she sat up and exhaled heavily. “I can’t sleep at all. I’m too nervous.”

Andrew hummed distractedly. “Hmm, me too.”

That wasn’t the response Jenn was hoping for. She only had one thing on her mind tonight, something to take away the stress of preparing for the trial before the adrenaline actually took hold. “Andrew?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you ever think about trying something new?”

“Sure, yeah.” He licked his finger and flipped through a couple of pages — not paying attention to Jenn at all.

I’ll make him notice, then, she thought, and gently pulled his glasses down from his face.

“No, I mean, in bed. You know, weird stuff.” Now Jenn had Andrew’s attention.

He placed the papers down on the nightstand. “What? Jenn, I don’t want to talk about that. Now’s not the time.”

“Aw, come on, I want to know. You know pretty much everything about me.”

“I don’t want to say. It’s embarrassing.”

Those words alone made Andrew more irresistible to Jenn, and she giggled. She swung her leg over the top of him and straddled him. “Well, now I have to know. What’s so embarrassing? Come on! This is a judgment-free zone!” She gestured with her arms extended out.

“I don’t have much experience. I just want to try new things.” She leaned down and planted a firm kiss on his lips. “What do you want to do?”

Andrew sighed. “Okay, fine. Just don’t freak out, okay?”

“I promise.”

“Okay. Well, I like it kind of rough.”

“What do you mean?”

For a split second, Andrew pursed his lips, debating whether to reply. Then he realized his vulnerability was nothing compared to Jenn’s. “I – I like to be tied up, blindfolded, being spanked — bondage and submission in general, really.”

Jenn didn’t know what to say. “I didn’t see that coming.”

Below her, Andrew’s face turned bright red. “Forget it. It’s not something we have to do.”

“No, no, I want to! It sounds kind of fun. Tell me more.”

Now suddenly invigorated, Andrew sat up more and grabbed Jenn around the hips. “I don’t know, I just really like that moment where you can’t tell pain from pleasure. Not too much pain, just a little sting. I like the feeling of—” he hesitated, looking for the right words “— of being totally at the mercy of someone in bed. It takes a lot of trust to be under someone’s total control.” He shrugged. “It’s really freeing.”

Jenn thought for a minute. “You know, I’ve never really been in control like that.”

Andrew emitted a small, suggestive moan. “Do you want to be?”

“I could try it.” Jenn bit her lip coyly; Andrew felt even more desire, seeing her eager to try something new. “What do you want me to do first?”

“Whatever you want. I’m all yours.”

Jenn liked the sound of that. She could feel Andrew’s erection pushing up against her as she sat on top of him, but she hopped off him and pulled him up; she reached down to his waist and pulled his shirt off over his head. Then she left the room, leaving Andrew confused.

When she returned, she was holding the cord that normally held the living room curtains in place, and she grabbed Andrew’s hands tightly, wrapping the cord around them and securing a knot. Then she found his tie from work that day hanging on his doorknob and pulled it over his head to use as a gag. Andrew whimpered weakly in response. She ran a finger down his cheek, then his chest and further down his body, where she tickled his balls under his shorts. He giggled.

“Hey.” Jenn said, reprimanding him. “Did I tell you to make noise?”

Andrew’s eyes lit up.

She looked around the room, spotting one of his law books; Jenn picked it up, pushed Andrew to his knees and struck his rear end with the book. There was a satisfying thwack sound, and his ass immediately turned red.

All the while, Jenn could feel herself getting wetter and wetter. She’d never felt like this before, powerful over herself and someone else. She pulled the tie out from Andrew’s mouth and tightened it around his neck to pull him onto his knees. Then, after removing her panties, she positioned herself above his mouth, resting her lower lips on top of his tongue. He moaned inside of her as he licked her inner thigh and ran his tongue all over her wet juices. She writhed with pleasure standing over him, grasping his hair tightly, forcing his face more inside of her.

Andrew struggled to free his hands from their ties, desperate to touch Jenn’s skin. Every time he made even the slightest noise, Jenn stepped away as a punishment, and he felt his passion for her grow even stronger. Finally, after Jenn felt ready, she pulled Andrew up to her face and kissed him forcefully. Her hands ran gently down his chest to his shorts, which were barely clinging on above his erect cock; Jenn pulled them off all the way, and then, suddenly, pushed Andrew backward onto the bed.

“You want me now? You want this pussy?” Jenn began removing her top and reached around her back for her bra clasp.

Andrew nodded, pulling at his restraints. Jenn made as if she was going to straddle his cock, but instead she reached down to his chest with her lips and gently pressed her mouth against his torso. There she sucked on his skin, putting pressure on each spot she touched; she worked her way down his body until she got to his cock, and kissed the head seductively, looking up at Andrew. She extended her tongue out and licked all the way up and down his shaft before taking him in her mouth once, twice, three times — and then she stopped. Silently, breathlessly, Andrew leaned his head back in intense pleasure. She was teasing him, and he loved it.

Now she couldn’t resist. She grabbed at his neck with her hands while pressing down on his chest at the same time. Jenn brought herself down on top of Andrew. The pleasure shot through both of them as their bodies came together, and Jenn rode him until he was on the verge of coming.

When she felt him tense up and sensed he was close, she stopped her movements. “You want to finish?”

He nodded.

“Should I let you come? Or should I make you wait?”

Andrew’s head was tilted back; the intensity of the tingles he felt below his waist was growing far too much. Jenn only tormented him slightly longer, laying a messy kiss on his lips before turning over to allow Andrew to take her from behind. “Come now. Do it. Hard.”

Hearing Jenn speak like that, so unlike her, pushed Andrew over the edge, and he thrust into her faster and faster until he had nothing left. The two lovers fell over on the bed together, breathing hard. When he recovered, Andrew laid a gentle kiss on Jenn’s forehead.

She smiled. “Was that good?”

“That was great. Thank you.”

After both had cleaned up, Andrew fell asleep almost immediately, having been fully satisfied — and impressed — by Jenn’s newfound domination skills.

Jenn herself was surprised by what she was made of tonight. She never knew all of these new traits were within her all this time.

As she drifted off to sleep, her unconscious mind took control of her body, and she saw herself through the lens of her old recurring dreams.

Her adult self is watching herself as a child chased by a giant snake with bright green eyes. The child can barely move her little feet to outrun the monstrous creature, running through the jungle and avoiding hazards in the path — but suddenly, she sees herself as an adult coming down from the trees, chasing the snake. The child cowers in the shelter of nearby trees while adult Jenn wrestles with the snake, trying to strangle it. They thrash around together and the snake tilts its head to attack adult Jenn, and its one sharp fang pierces her skin briefly, sending a searing pain through her whole body. She feels the venom slow her movements and create lethargy in her body, but she holds fast, and within minutes the snake limp, motionless.

The dream snapped Jenn out of her sleep, and when she sat up she realized she was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Next to her, Andrew was sound asleep and had not noticed the commotion. She leaned over and checked the time on her charging cell phone on the nightstand: 6:20. Any other morning, she would have cherished another twenty minutes of sleep, but now she felt wide-awake; her mind was completely clear and her stress was shortly gone.

She hopped in the shower, humming quietly to herself. The steam from the hot water woke her up completely and left her feeling clean, fresh, and ready to start the day. Once she dried off, she headed to the kitchen and made a surprise breakfast for Andrew: pancakes, eggs, and fresh strawberries. The two shared a quiet morning together before getting dressed and heading to the courthouse.

They walked into the building together, but before they entered the courtroom, Andrew pulled her abruptly aside into a private hallway leading downstairs. He put his free hand around her waist and pulled her close, leaning down and grazing her lips with his own. She pressed firmer into him, her heart pumping faster now. “Good luck,” she whispered to him. “You’ll be great.”

He smiled. “So will you.”