10. Katja

"Oh, God, I'm so sorry,"Amara says and she pushes her chair back as she comes to stand.

I should say that it's okay. I should reassure her that I'll make some more, that she doesn't have to worry about the mess either, but I don't. I can't. I'm frozen looking down at the almighty disaster in front of my feet.

"What a mess," someone is saying. Amara again, I think.

"Did it get you?" Wren asks. I know it's them and I know that they're checking that Amara is okay, but still I don't move.

"No, no. I'm fine. But Katja…" Amara replies.

It's unsalvageable. It's ruined. It's going to get me a terrible review and maybe Elite will never hire me again.

And it's so perfect for what I'm feeling right now. I'm feeling like the world is really trying to fuck with me right now. I feel like whoever is in charge is being cruel and vicious, presenting me with this couple and their problem, and making me wonder things, think things, imagine things, only to rip them away from me a moment later. A moment that was defined by the searing kiss I just witnessed.

How dare I even think that there was a place for me in their relationship, even if just for one night, a few hours? How dare I feel things for both of them? How dare I fantasise about what Amara looks like naked with her dark eyes and long limbs? About Wren with their reserved but endearing expressions, their sculpted arms and the shaved sides of their head which beg for tender strokes and the not so tender scraping of nails.

"Katja?" Wren says my name like a question. "Are you okay?"

I snap back into the moment. "Yes, yes. I'm fine. But I'm very sorry for ruining your sushi course."

"It doesn't matter." Amara steps closer and puts her hand on mine. It's both as light as a feather and as heavy as a precious metal. "As long as you are okay. And anyway, it was my fault. I moved too quickly and hit you."

I shake my head. "No, I was being sneaky. I wanted to put the plate on the table so you could continue your conversation, and then I was going to leave your dessert in the fridge and go so you could?—"

"You were going to go?" Wren stands now.

"Without saying goodbye?" Amara says, sounding as pained as she looks.

I smile shyly. "Naja, you both seemed a bit preoccupied. And rightly so. I didn't want to intrude more than I already have."

"You haven't intruded," Amara says. "If anything, we've pushed our business onto you. Made you almost act as a counsellor or therapist for us."

Wren scoffs and that pulls my eyes to them, although I stay very aware of Amara's continued touch on my arm. "You're better than my therapist. She's been trying to get me to open up to Amara about all that… stuff for months."

"You… you told Katja about it?" Amara asks and I wait for her hand to leave my arm, but much to my surprise, it doesn't.

Wren nods. "She got me to practise on her. And it worked. It helped me do what I should have done a long time ago."

"What did you… What did you say about it all?" Amara asks, her voice very careful. And so are her fingertips which are now stroking my bare arm. I stare at their slow, gentle movements as if to prove to myself that what I'm feeling is really happening.

"I… I didn't say much. It's none of my business, after all." It's only after the words have left my mouth that I question their veracity. I don't like lying, even if it feels necessary.

"She told me to have faith in you, and in myself. She told me," Wren huffs out the lightest of laughs, "where there's love, there's a way."

There is a moment when nobody speaks, but Amara continues to stroke my arm and Wren's gaze drops to where her fingers move.

"And you're right," Amara tells me. "Thank you, Katja."

I want to stay there for the longest time, with Amara's fingertips caressing the sensitive skin of my inner arm and Wren's eyes dutifully watching each stroke. But I can't. There's no place for me here.

I pull my arm away from Amara. "I should clean this up."

"Leave it," Amara says immediately.

"No, it's my job," I interject. "I need to make sure?—"

It's Amara's turn to scoff. "I think we can all agree that we have blurred the lines of what our roles are tonight."

"Trotzdem, it's not going to clean itself," I point out, I take a step back, ready to turn and walk to the kitchen and get what I need.

"Please don't go," Amara says hurriedly, and that stops me.

"Ama?" Wren whispers but their wife ignores them.

"Will you sit with us?" Amara walks up to face me.

A corner of my mouth pulls up. "Why would I do that?"

"Fine," Amara says with a light sigh. "I have another question for you."

"What?" I ask and anticipation suspends my next breath.

"Would you like to kiss Wren?"

I blink and my mouth falls open but the next words I hear, aren't mine.

"Amara, what are you doing?" Wren demands and they move closer to us, close enough that our bodies now create a little triangle.

Amara drops my eye contact and turns to look at Wren. "Wouldn't you like to kiss Katja?" she asks. "I've seen the way you've been looking at her this evening."

"Amara, this is not appropriate." Wren's voice is rushed, a little desperate. "Not after everything we've discussed."

"I think that's exactly why it's very appropriate. I am giving you orders, am I not?"

Wren's laugh is short and wry. "Actually, no, you're not. You've only asked us. There have been no orders. And nor will there be because Katja has not consented and she likely wants to be a million miles away from all this… chaos."

No. That's not what I want.I think immediately, instinctively.

"Katja," Amara's dark brown eyes are pinned on me again, "you're very quiet and something tells me that's not usual for you."

"I… I don't know what you want," I say honestly. Unwilling to reveal my true colours yet, that doesn't mean I am about to embark on something completely blind to what exactly Amara has in mind.

"I want you to kiss Wren," Amara says as breezily as if she were asking me to top up her wine glass.

"And?" I ask.

"And what?"

"What then?" I'm testing Amara. If she thinks making her spouse kiss another woman is all it takes to be dominant, she's wrong. She needs to think many more steps ahead than that.

"What do you mean?" She's taken aback a little and I can't ignore the thrill it gives me. I love catching bold little submissives out.

"Will we just kiss and then this game is over?" I lengthen my spine and square my shoulders. "And why do you want us to kiss? Will it turn you on? Is it to get Wren so worked up that they decide to drop their whole new need to be submissive and so you hope you'll just go back to fucking like you both used to?"

Wren's exhale is ragged next to me, but I don't break my steady eye contact with Amara. She needs to know who's in charge. If she lets me be.

Amara rolls her lips into her mouth and her brow sinks a little. For a moment, I fear she's about to cry, but then her features straighten out and she pulls her shoulders back. "I want to show Wren I can give them orders."

I can't stop the snort that comes out. "There's so much more to being a good Dominant than that," I tell her and when I hear the barely hidden scorn in my voice, I brace myself for that folding frown and misty eyes.

But they don't come. Instead, Amara slowly arches one of her perfect eyebrows. "And what exactly do you know about being a good Dominant, Katja?" she asks.

"I know enough to recognise when someone is being bratty." I lean towards Amara, tipping my chin up at her so she knows her height and her sass don't affect me. At least, not in the way she thinks.

"Bratty? You think I'm being bratty?"

"I think you know you are. And I think you're enjoying every moment."

Her sly little grin is one-sided. "Is that a crime?"

"No," I say with a smile of my own. "But it could get you in a lot of trouble."

"Trouble?" Amara muses and in that moment, with my eyes fixed on her, she has the nerve to lick her lips. "What kind of trouble?"

I look away then, turning to Wren. "Is she always like this?"

Wren's look is a perfect blend of excitement and confusion. "She can be."

"And yet you couldn't keep her under control?" I ask coolly.

Wren blinks and a flash of fear freezes their expression. "No, not always."

"Because you were never supposed to," I say, and while my attention is on Wren, because it's their turn to be put in their place, I continue to be aware of Amara standing on my other side, her breathing so heavy I can hear it.

"Pardon?" Wren asks and their face is nothing but puzzlement.

"Because you too are supposed to submit, to be put in your place."

Wren makes a humming noise that I take as agreement, and as a prompt to continue.

"You need that, don't you Wren?" I tilt my head to the side. "You need to be told when to speak, when to move, and when to kiss. You need to be told what to touch, and how. You need to be told when to put your mouth on a pretty wet cunt, don't you, Wren? You need to be told when you can come, don't you?"

"Oh my God," Amara mumbles under her breath.

"Answer me, Wren," I say and it's a test, a big one. A test unlike any other because no matter how much their soul is telling them it wants to submit, old habits die hard and surrendering control is never as easy as you think it will be, especially when you have trained yourself to do the very opposite. But that's what will make finally submitting all the sweeter for Wren.

"Yes, I need that," Wren whispers and I see the tension in their neck and jaw. That was hard.

They deserve a reward.

"Kiss your wife," I tell them and I step back.

"Now?" Wren asks, looking at me.

"Yes," I say. "Do as you're told."

They hesitate for another few seconds, their eyes searching my face, and then Amara's. But then they move. They grab Amara around the waist and yank her tall, slim body against their stocky build. Amara's hands come to grip Wren's head and their mouths melt together.

I watch for a few seconds, marvelling at how perfectly they fit together despite their physical differences, or maybe it's because of them.

They get so lost in the kiss, I realise what I've done. I've led them back to each other again. It wasn't intentional, but it feels right, in the most bittersweet of ways.

It's time for me to go.

I turn and walk to the kitchen. I'd already washed up everything and loaded up my other crate with leftover ingredients. All I have to do is load them on top of one another and carry them out…

"Wait!" Amara's voice is shrill and I turn towards it. She's disentangling herself from Wren and she rushes to me in the kitchen. "Don't go."

"I have to," I say on a sigh.

"No," Wren says and they stride towards us. "Please don't go."

"Yes, stay," Amara says.

"And what?" I ask. I need them to say it. I need them to show me what they want.

I'm floored when that's exactly what they do.

Without saying another word, Amara drops to her knees, her head bowed down. Wren studies their wife for a moment before doing the same, their descent considerably less graceful but just as eager.

"Please," Amara says to the floor.

"Yes," Wren agrees. "Please."