Chapter 3 #3
“I know. That’s the hardest to understand for me too.
Molly is so kind and gentle and Patrick is so loving.
It’s hard to imagine Patrick doing … that to Molly.
Plus, she’s the only one who would see it coming and have time to get away, at least till he calmed down.
I tell you Tess, I just don’t get it and when I get ready to start seriously looking for a husband I plan to look far away from here,” she finished with a delicate shudder.
“I see,” Tess said quietly, her hands folded in her lap.
“What I’m trying to warn you about is … if you think you could live that kind of lifestyle, domestic discipline, it’s called, then you should stick around and see if your feelings for Rory grow stronger.
If not, girl you better run like hell, because I think my brother has feelings for you as well and I’ll tell you now I’ll bet he would be the strictest of them all. ”
Tess swallowed with difficulty. She had been asking herself these same questions.
The spanking in the park could have been an isolated incident, based on Rory’s fear that she had put herself in danger.
Now, that she had two spankings under her belt, she didn’t think so.
The way he spoke to her about defying him, the words that were a natural part of his speech, such as misbehaving and minding him, obeying him.
These led her to believe he really saw the world that way and he had a very clear vision of her place in it as submissive to him.
If it could include something as simple as a haircut, then it meant he wanted her submission in all things.
Could she do that? Could she be the woman he wanted, obedient?
Tess did not think so, although she certainly had been submissive this morning, she thought, as heat flooded her face.
That was different. It had not been by choice.
He demanded it and she had been helpless in her desire to stop him.
The fire he ignited in her body was a mystery to her.
A couple of boyfriends, clumsy lovers all, had not prepared her for Rory.
It seemed as though he knew the secrets of her body better than she did.
How could this be? She read stories of this kind of lover, but she had not believed a man like that really existed.
They had not truly even made love yet, although she knew they were headed there if she did not do something quickly.
Tess was not prepared for full possession from a man like Rory.
Instinctively she knew she would never be the same again.
He was too powerful and skilled for her to resist, she knew that also.
He would not need force. If he put his hands on her body, she would melt like an ice cube over a flame, giving him everything he demanded.
She never considered herself a hot-blooded Latina, a stereotype in her opinion that did not describe her at all.
Most of her life she had been afraid, afraid of being abandoned, afraid of being poor, homeless, helpless.
She learned to depend on herself alone, but she was not brave.
Living with the O’Malleys had shown her a different kind of life.
You could be outspoken, you could argue, even fight for what you believed in and still be loved.
Still be part of something bigger than yourself.
Still have people ready to take your side, even if you were wrong, and they would tell you too.
Not during the crisis, no then they had your back, but after, when things calmed down.
This was a life Tess wanted, probably could have if she played her cards right, but ironically Rory brought out the fire in her blood.
He frequently made her so mad she could literally brain him with whatever was within reach.
How sad that the one man who could send her body and her spirit soaring was also the man who would put her in a box and never let her fly.
* * *
At dinner, Tess tried to keep her eyes on her plate and not stare.
Seated next to Rory, she had a perfect opportunity to observe both couples, Patrick and Molly and Colleen and Noah.
Maggie and Nick were off on a short honeymoon, as they wanted to be around when Rebecca and Mason had their baby, so she could not watch those two couples.
Try as she might, Tess could not see any cruelty in either of the men.
Yes, they were both much bigger than their wives, but not in an intimidating way.
They appeared loving and kind to Tess and she could not imagine the twinkle-eyed Patrick ever doing anything to cause Molly pain.
Noah was a little harder to read. Quiet and soft-spoken, it just did not fit with her idea of what a professor would do.
She had to admit Colleen was a little pushy at times, but surely nothing so bad it would earn her a punishment.
Molly caught her eye several times during the meal, but Tess looked away quickly in embarrassment.
The usual conversation and teasing flew back and forth at the table and no one seemed to notice her silence except Rory; Rory, who never missed anything.
“Babe, I think we need to talk,” he told her quietly in the midst of a heated discussion about whether the NY Giants were headed to the Super Bowl this year.
Tess nodded as she pushed the food around on her plate. She needed to make a plan.