Chapter Fifteen

In Which Lessons in Patience

A wide smile spread across his face at my words. "You seem... different this morning."

"I feel different," I said.

"A good orgasm will do that to you," he said, sitting next to me on the bed. He removed the cloche to reveal much more food than I would have previously been capable of eating, though today, it almost felt reasonable.

"Am I allowed to feed myself today, then?"

"No," he said, spearing a slice of grapefruit drizzled with what looked to be honey. "I quite liked feeding you the other day. Plus, I think it is a good reminder."

"A reminder? Of what?"

He popped the bite into my mouth, his eyes focused on my lips. "That you're mine. That you are entirely in my control. That I am entirely responsible for you... and that I think you quite like it."

I blushed, refusing to meet his eyes. Admitting it to myself was one thing, but aloud? It wasn't likely to happen anytime soon.

He hummed as he fed me, and over the course of twenty minutes, cycling through every hymn in one of my religions that discussed my beauty or framed me as innocent. There were several religions that included me, and they often each focused on varied aspects of who I was. There was perhaps not even one of my people who saw me for all of what I was... there was perhaps no one, save Orcus, who was anywhere close to doing so. It still baffled me how he, of all people, saw me in the way that he claimed.

No one had ever looked at me like he did, or sought to know the real me the way he did. It was easy to fall into the role he'd cast me in, because it was the only role that had ever been created with me in mind, rather than what someone wanted of me. Or maybe he was just the first person whose wants of me coincided with who I truly was. Perhaps it wasn't truly a role at all. He only expected me to be myself, which was infinitely better.

Either way, it was easy for me to sit quietly with him feeding me food, to watch his face as he indulged himself. It was an easy sort of silence that I'd rarely experienced with anyone else.

"So, my lord," I said. "What is on the docket for today?"

Orcus raised an eyebrow at the title, but didn't protest. To me, it was only logical. If I was the Lady, he was my Lord.

He tilted his head and smiled at me, though he didn't comment on my new moniker. "I thought we might further explore the extent of your submission. After all, we've only just begun. And I wanted to debrief after last time, but you were quite fatigued."

"That... might be accurate," I said, smiling and turning my head to hide my blush.

"So, princess," he said, setting the food on the bedside table and taking one of my ankles in hand. "How did you feel during our last session?"

With strong hands and firm pressure, he massaged me again, and I wondered if this would be the sort of treatment I could expect every day.

"As I said, I was surprised, of course. But I also found it quite... enjoyable."

He raised his eyebrow and smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. Do you feel that I've betrayed your trust in any way?"

"No, I was scared about how this would manifest, but all in all, it's been an enlightening and enjoyable experience."

"As it should be. And what were your thoughts on your lack of control? Was it concerning to you? Irksome?" He raised a brow and smirked, the insufferable man.

"It has been... in many ways, freeing. I might have needed it. It's frightening—that you know me so well. I feel like, in comparison, I know you not at all, and you see into my very soul."

"I'm not so hard," he said. "Really, all you need to know is that I was made to please you, to be what you needed, and to... stretch you in the ways you needed."

His lips bloomed into a smile on the word stretch, and a wave of heat flashed through me. I'd some inkling of what he might mean by stretch, but I couldn't wait to see if I was right.

His strong hands continued up my legs, stoking the fire within until I was panting. My pussy felt swollen and hot, begging for his focus and attention, greedy to repeat his previous "lesson."

After my legs were thoroughly relaxed, he crawled up my body, pausing when his lips hovered over mine. Shadows bloomed around his head, reaching toward me. He ghosted over the planes of my face, tilting my chin up until I met his eyes.

"You are being so perfect, pet," he spoke against my lips, so that I was sure he felt a puff of air when I moaned at his words. I reached for him, desperate to touch him. I'd felt the skin of his fingertips, the smoothness of his shadows, but the rest of his body was foreign to me. I craned my neck, desperate for our mouths to touch, but he pulled back and smiled.

"So perfect, but you are not in charge here. You do not get what you want. You get what you need." He wrapped my arms again, denying me the ability to touch him when I was only a breath away.

"I need to touch you!" I whined.

"What you need ," he whispered. "Is a lesson in what it is like to lack control. To be unable to get what you want because someone else determines that."

I squeezed my eyes shut, because this wasn't just about the two of us. As much as I hated it, this was also about my growth, and in that, I needed to trust him.

"Yes." The word was barely audible, but it brought a smile to his face that was worth what it cost me to say.

"See? Perfect, pet." A shadow tendril caressed my lip. "Now open."