Chapter Five
Janie sighedat the Monday morning paperwork littering her desk. She stowed her purse in the bottom drawer, sat down, and then powered up her computer. While she waited, she took a sip of coffee and began organizing the folders on her desk.
Her mind drifted back to the weekend as she sorted the folders. After breakfast and their play time, Cole had retreated a bit. And probably for the first time, Janie didn’t mind so much. She had a lot to process.
Cole teasing her over breakfast and then bringing her to climax more than once was pleasurable, but she was finding she wanted more. But more of what? She shifted on her chair. While she loved playing with Cole, she wanted it to be more of a two-way street. So far, he was only pleasuring her.
She wanted to touch him, to bring him pleasure, to take his cock into her mouth and suck him off. To feel his hard member dive into her channel, to stretch her muscles and make her burn for him. As if she wasn’t burning already.
How could she make Cole see she wanted more than his just teaching her? She was beginning to think about more than just this D/s relationship with him. But bringing Cole around to her way of thinking might be a battle she couldn’t win.
On Sunday he’d proposed a quiet day of talking and watching movies in the family room. She hadn’t done that with him in a very long time. It had been nice to spend time with him, even when they argued over which movie to watch. It was a start, in her mind, for him to see her as more than just a trainee.
But when he started to ask her about college and what her after-college study was about, she had to choose her words carefully. She hadn’t told Cole about her degree in sexual health. While he was open-minded about some things, he might not understand her need to help women in sexual situations not of their making.
Oh, heck, that wasn’t right. Cole would understand, he just wouldn’t want her in the middle of it. He was forever trying to protect her. Case in point, his marching into Whips and carrying her out. She’d practically blackmailed him into training her as a submissive.
This morning at breakfast she’d wondered if she’d told him she wanted him to ravish her on the table if he would have done it. A sigh left her lips. Probably not. Cole moved at his own pace, much to her frustration.
A knock on her door brought her out of her musings. “Yes, come in.” Jackie, one of the other workers, popped her head in.
“Morning, Janie. Do you have some time? Mrs. Reynolds just walked in, and she doesn’t look good.”
Janie pushed away from her desk. Liz Reynolds was a doll, but her husband was an abusive ass. Janie had met her two weeks ago, right after she’d started. So far Liz would only talk to Janie.
“Sure.” She stood and made her way to the door. “How bad?”
“Black eye and I can tell she’s moving slowly.”
“Thanks.” Janie blew out a breath as she walked into the waiting room. Liz sat huddled in a chair. “Liz,” she said softly.
She looked up, and Janie pushed down the instant anger flowing through her system. The woman’s blue eyes were dull with pain, one eye was swollen, and the area was a bluish-purple. “I ... ” Tears filled Liz’s eyes.
“It’s okay.” Janie placed her arm around the girl’s shoulder, because she was just a girl in Janie’s eyes. Barely twenty-three. “We’ll go in back and put some ice on that eye. If needed, I’ll ask the doc to look at it.”
Janie led Liz to the back, got her an ice pack, and then just sat with her until she was ready to talk. This was part of her job—to let women tell her what they needed to when they were ready.
Liz was a hard case. Her husband liked to play rough in bed, but the hitting and bruising told Janie there was more to it. This was abuse, not someone who liked a kinky lifestyle. Janie was doing her best to help Liz, but it wasn’t easy. She’d been married to this ass since she was nineteen. The abuse was something new, but Liz confided in Janie that her husband liked it rough. He liked to slap her around during sex, forcing her to do things she didn’t like.
Janie had held Liz while she talked during their first few sessions, quietly lending her support and an ear. But today, Janie would start giving Liz more options, ones that included leaving her abuser. She glanced at the clock. It was going to be a long day.
* * *
Cole shuthis office door and crossed over to the window, looking out at the capitol building. It was barely eleven, and his concentration was shot. All he could think about was Janie.
Sweet, sexy, young Janie. Her lush ruby lips, the way her breathing increased when he caressed her, the rosy glow her body took on when he spanked her or when he began to tease her. His cock stiffened. He’d kept things light after their play session on Saturday, and he’d seen the frustration on her face, but he’d wanted to give her time to process what they’d done. He rubbed the back of his neck when he thought back to yesterday.
She’d been evasive when asked about college and her work. He wondered why. But then he shrugged it off as Janie wanting to do her own thing without him sticking his nose into it. Because he would. He wanted to make sure she was safe.
He couldn’t help it. He hadn’t protected his baby sister. Sally hadn’t come to him or their dad with her problems, and everything had ended in tragedy. Cole never wanted to go through that again. He should have protected Sally with everything he had, even when she’d protested. Instead, he’d backed off when she’d asked, and now his baby sister was gone.
Cole shook his head. Janie was like Sally in some ways, very open to new experiences, wanting to explore the BDSM lifestyle. It wasn’t like Cole and his father had kept things hidden from Sally; they hadn’t. Their father had been very open about sex and the lifestyle. Except when Janie was in the house, both when her father was alive and during the six months she lived with them after her father's death. At those times they'd kept everything buttoned down.
Sometimes he wondered if his dad had hidden their lifestyle enough when Janie was around. Or was it something else? Janie had only come home from college a few times, choosing to spend most of her school breaks with her best friend Alicia’s foster family. They’d even kept the full explanation about his sister’s death from Janie when she was sixteen. Thankfully, Janie's father was still alive and if Janie had questions she had asked him. She'd only met Sally twice.
His phone rang, pulling him out of his thoughts. Time to get back to work and stop thinking about Janie.
* * *
