Obsessive Compulsion by CE Kilgore Page A

to
play solitaire anymore.” Charlie turns away from the window and
clears the remaining space between us. “I want to start over. With this .” She motions between our bodies, then touches one
gloved finger to my chin to pull my gaze up. “I don’t want to
forget last Friday or what happened this week, but I want to try
again. If we end up playing cards or watching stars all night,
that’s fine, but I want another chance to do this right.”
    “ You want another chance?” The
statement makes no sense to me. “I’m the one that,” her finger
against my lips silences me.
    “We both messed up, Ian, but I’d like
to try again.” She drops her hand and clenches it at her side. “If
you want to, that is.”
    “Of course I do,” I can’t get the words out
fast enough as I reach for her hand. Even with layers of leather
between us, I can feel the energizing effects from her touch. I
want more, so much more, but I don’t know how to make my mind and
my body cooperate. “Charlie, I…”
    My voice fades, her beautiful eyes sucking
the breath from me. I think back to the watercolor in my apartment,
knowing that’s what I want more than anything. The two of us,
together and inseparable. Before I can say what’s in my heart,
possibly ruining this new chance, a knock on the door saves me.
“Come in.”
    Victoria enters, fully dressed for
Domination in royal purple and black. Her eyes glance to our hands
and she smiles, then the smile disappears. When she speaks, it’s
all business.
    “We have some corrections to make,” she
begins as she closes the door behind her, flips on the light switch
for the two wall sconces and marches into the room. “What happened
last Friday will not happen again. Is that clear?”
    “Yes, Mistress,” both Charlie and I speak at
the same time, our hands still holding tight. Charlie’s right. We
both made mistakes, and so we’re going to face Victoria’s whip
together.
    “Good,” Victoria gives a single nod then
hands Charlie three bundles of rope, the same black nylon from the
storeroom. “Miss Scarlet, you will begin by demonstrating what you
attempted to do, foolishly on your own and unsupervised, and I will
tell you why it went wrong.”
    “Yes, Mistress,” Charlie lets go of my hand
and bows her head while taking the rope. I hate seeing her being
submissive like this, but I know it’s necessary.
    “And you ,” Victoria switches her
viperous gaze on me and I swallow hard. Yeah, she’s still angry
with me for not stopping what happened. “Twitch, I expect you to
act like a proper senior club member from this point forward. You
can’t allow your emotions to overpower your common sense or the
rules of The Stables. Understood?”
    My head and shoulders bow respectfully low.
“Yes, Mistress Cat. It will never happen again. I promise.”
    “Very well,” Victoria takes a step back and
motions towards the restraining bench in my room that has been
there, unused, since day one. “Begin.”

Charlie
     
    I’m both thankful of and aggravated by
Victoria’s timing. I think Ian had been on the verge of saying
something very important, probably too important and way too soon
for either of us. We can’t even get through one date together, much
less start discussing anything more serious like emotional
attachment. Glancing to him as he sits down on the bench, I know
that avoiding emotional attachment to him is a foolish battle.
    I’m pretty sure that, despite my heart’s
earlier attempts to abandon ship, this ship is going down with all
hands on deck. The beautiful man that is Ian Rider is a giant sea
of concise complexities that is drawing me in like a whirlpool.
Damn his eyes.
    I restrain his ankles to the bench like I
had last week, waiting for Victoria to correct me. She remains a
silent statue, standing with feet apart, arms behind her back and
her spine straight. She reminds me of a drill sergeant, except her
uniform is made from leather, latex and surgical steel.