The Dom With a Safeword (37 page)

“You just trespassed on private property. And as far as I’m concerned, you’re stealing something of mine.” He took a step forward, tapping the whip handle on his leg.

Ivy moved to Sabrina’s side, looking between them nervously. “Don’t antagonize him, Sabrina,” she whispered. “He looks like he might have a few screws loose.”

She was beyond caring. Anger outweighed any sense. “Start taking out the needles,” she told Ivy before addressing the fuck that hurt her Q. “You have a girl strung up in your torture chamber, barely conscious. And she’s bleeding. Do you really want to invite law enforcement in here?”

He looked at Q, still dangling from the ceiling then shrugged. “Fine. Take the bitch. I’m finished with her anyway.”

Fucking asshole. She released a breath. Good that she wouldn’t have any trouble, but how she wished she could pound the living daylights out of him. She turned to Q, who barely registered that Ivy was carefully pulling needles out of her skin.

She searched the room for her clothes. At least she had underwear on. A t-shirt would be fine for the car ride home. She grabbed the black shirt off the floor. Ivy placed each needle on the coffee table. Sabrina did a double-take. Not a coffee table – a restraint system.

She shuddered. When the needles were out, she handed Ivy the t-shirt and unbuckled the cuffs. She barely caught Q when her knees buckled.

“Stand up, Q,” she gritted out, crushed under the weight of her taller friend. “You have to stand so we can help you.” Sabrina gave her a shake and Ivy patted her face.

Q seemed to come to a bit. She nodded and straightened, on wobbly legs but at least standing. Sabrina helped support her with an arm under hers as Ivy tugged on her shirt.

“Grab her jeans,” she told Ivy, guessing Q had stashed her wallet and keys in her pockets. Headed for the door, she spared a glance at the bastard who dared call himself a Dom. He’d just sat down on the couch with a beer and was about to turn on the TV – as if it were an ordinary Saturday night and nothing had happened.

“Asshole,” she muttered. “Let’s get you home, Q.”

Ivy and Sabrina shuffled Q out to the car barefoot, not wanting to stop long enough to buckle her knee-high boots. Sabrina motioned for Ivy to drive but she was already one step ahead and opened the back door for them. The shout of pain when Q sat down in the car was like a knife to Sabrina’s heart.

“Fuck. What were you thinking, Q?” Sabrina grumbled to herself. She pulled Q sideways so her upper body lay in her lap. Her shoulders trembled and at first she thought Q was crying, but when she rolled her face up, her teeth chattered. “Shit. She’s
gonna
go into shock. Ivy, there’s a blanket in the trunk, can you get it?”

A moment later, Ivy draped the blanket she used for beach trips on Q’s body, then she slid in the driver’s side and blasted the heat. “To the hospital?” Ivy asked.

“No!” Q tried to sit up but Sabrina held her down – or tried to. The girl was fucking strong, even when barely conscious. “No hospitals. I just need to sleep.”

“Q, you’re –”

“Sabrina, please?” The sorrow in her voice tugged at her. “Please don’t make me answer questions about what happened.”

Nosy doctors would be all over her ass, demanding answers, calling in social workers. Q would be mortified. Now that they’d covered her body, she’d stopped shivering. Her eyes looked clearer. The wounds were superficial – th
ey could bandage them at home.

She sighed. “Alright. To the apartment.” Gently, she tugged Q back into her lap. Stroking her hair, she scolded, “Why on earth would you do this to yourself, Q? You scared the shit out of me. I get that you’re upset about Jude. Piercings are one thing, but my god, you could’ve been murdered! Do you have any sense at all?” Then her brain processed what her fingers already had. “Your hair!” It looked like someone had taken a blunt machete to it. “What did you do to your beautiful hair?”

Q remained quiet, but her breathing had steadied and her muscles relaxed.

“I should have never broken things off,” she whispered, more to herself. It was her fault Q had almost just died – hers and Jude’s. She wished she could kick his sorry ass for leaving her. And if Sabrina had been brave enough to stand up for what she believed in instead of hiding – like a coward – this never would’ve happened. Thank god she’d made it in time. If something worse than this had happened to Q…tears welled up in her eyes.

“I’m so sorry.” Sabrina leaned down and kissed her hair.

“I don’t want your pity,” she slurred.

“It’s not pity. I mean it. I love you. It just took me a while to…realize it.” Denial was a powerful trap.

“No.” She shifted as if trying to get away then seemed to think better of it and gave up with a sigh. “I definitely don’t want your pity love. I’m pathetic enough without it.”

Sabrina’s patience snapped. “It’s not pity, dumbass! I busted down the door of a stranger’s house for you. If he had tried to keep me from taking you, I probably would’ve gotten myself killed protecting you. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is. Now lie still and shut up!”

There was a pause long enough to make Sabrina think she’d fallen asleep, then, “When did you get so bossy?”

She chuckled and kissed her temple. “When I thought I’d lost you.”

Ivy dropped them at the apartment, promising to get her car back to her in the morning. Q seemed stronger and pushed Sabrina away when she tried to help her into the house. But Sabrina managed to bully her into her bedroom and lie down on the bed while she bandaged her wounds.

The dim lamp on the side table didn’t provide much light but Sabrina didn’t want to disturb Q, who seemed to be resting soundly. She only winced a few times when Sabrina dabbed on the antiseptic cream. The wounds would probably heal without scarring. Luckily, it did seem like
Fuckface
knew what he was doing – for that part of things anyway. There wasn’t much Sabrina could do for the bruising though. Q would feel that tomorrow. But she bandaged up the gashes on her thighs then tucked her under the covers.

She considered her options from here. This was Q’s room and they hadn’t been the closest of roommates lately. Should she sit beside her or leave right away or –

“Fuck it,” she mumbled, unzipping her jeans then letting them fall to the floor. She kicked off her flip flops then freed herself from her bra before approaching the bed.

“What are you doing, little girl?” Q’s voice sounded too small to be in big, bad
Domme
mode.

“Oh, I’m ‘little girl’ again, huh?” She made a scooting motion with her hands. “I’m getting in bed with you, and you know I only wear underwear and a tee to bed. Move over.”

Q chuckled softly as she made room for Sabrina. It was good to hear her laugh, even if it was weak. Sabrina slid in under the covers and lay down on her side, facing away from Q.

She could feel Q’s breath warming the back of her neck but Q didn’t touch her. After a few moments of scrambling for something to say and coming up empty, she reached back and grabbed Q’s wrist then tugged it around her waist. Q chuckled again and tightened her hold while Sabrina ran her fingers up and down her arm.

“You don’t act like a straight girl,” Q whispered, nuzzling into her hair.

She smiled into the pillow. “You don’t make me feel like one.”

Another moment of silence then, “So this is it, Sabrina? One night I was in danger and suddenly you’re bi?”

She inhaled slowly then exhaled, thinking through the right words. It was more complicated than what Q boiled it down to. And it would be hard for Q to believe her no matter what she said. So she did her best to explain.

“You know that song,
Big Yellow Taxi
by Joni Mitchell?
Counting Crows
did a cover o
f it in the early two thousands,
I think. It was a good cover. I almost like it better than the…”

Q’s soft laughter made her trail off. “A serious conversation and you talk about pop songs. Figures.”

Sabrina squeezed her ar
m. “I have a point. Anyway, the idea of the song is that you don’t always know what you have until it’s gone. And I…
”

Her voice cracked and she had to stop.

“I…I didn’t know.” Tears flowed down her cheeks, forming a wet pool on the pillow. “I don’t know if I’m bi or straight or lesbian or asexual…” She snorted a silly, tearful laugh. “And I don’t really care. I just…I want to go back to the way things were. Before Jude left.” She couldn’t stand facing away anymore – she needed to see Q, to see her face. Carefully, so she didn’t shake the bed too much, she rolled to her other side.

Q was there, with big watery blue eyes. Sabrina smiled and placed her forehead against hers. “I want to be your girlfriend again. And I want to be your sub. Your little girl.”

Q’s hand came up and wiped the falling tears from her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Q.” Her tears came faster. “I’m sorry I didn’t say something sooner. I didn’t know. I thought I knew what I wanted but…” She had to pause because she was sobbing so hard. “Please say you forgive me.”

“
Shh
.” Q petted her head. “Of course I forgive you.”

“And…and…” Dear god she was blubbering like a baby. “And you’ll be my girlfriend again?”

She frowned and dropped her gaze. “Sabrina, I…” Her expression told of a war going on inside her head. “I know you say you love me, but…”

“You don’t love me back?”

Q shook her head. “No. Never that. I always loved you, Sabrina. It was just hard living with you when I couldn’t show it.”

She slowed down her sobs and took a few deep breaths. “It was awful!”

“Yes. So you know it’s hard for me to believe you love me. To take that risk again.”

Sabrina nodded and bit down on her lip. “I know. But I’ll do anything to prove it to you. You’ll see.”

“You’ve done a lot tonight. I’m sorry I dragged you into that. I didn’t mean for my –”

“Stupid act of recklessness,” she filled in for her.

Q gave her a small smile. “Yes. That. I didn’t mean for it to affect you. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Well, you did.” She looked over her best friend’s face – which used to be familiar but now seemed so strange. “And so does all this…punk,
goth
, whatever you call it stuff.” She pointed to her hair then the piercings.

“You don’t like my new look? And here I thought you were tired of black.”

“It’s fine if you’re going to wear blue shirts from now on. But if you keep wearing black, you’ll always clash.”

Q laughed. “Funny girl. I’ll dye it back if you want me to. But there’s still one thing I have to know before we go any further.”

“What?” Sabrina froze. She really couldn’t take much more tonight.

Q smirked. “You really think you might be asexual?”

A big snort escaped her and they both giggled. Then they held each other, runny noses, tears and all, until the sun came up the next morning.

Chapter 20

Sabrina

The smell of sautéed onions filled the small kitchen, bringing a smile to Sabrina’s face. Q stood in front of the sizzling pan, stirring the onions with a wooden spoon. Sabrina was giving her a cooking lesson. And so far, it wasn’t going too badly.

“That’s good for now, Q. Slice the peppers and we’ll add those next.”

Sabrina moved to the other counter and unwrapped the sausage then started to cut it into round pieces. “So I made a lunch date with my mom. I’m going to start dropping hints about us.” She glanced at Q, trying to gauge her reaction. “No, no, no!” She took the knife out of Q’s hand with a sigh. “Lengthwise. Like this.” She flipped the pepper around and cut a few pieces to show her.

Q rolled her eyes but copied her instructions.

Sabrina smirked. “You need lessons on being a girl.”

“I thought you liked me the way I am.”

She walked behind her and pressed a kiss to the back of Q’s neck. “I
love
you the way you are.”

Q’s shoulders tensed and the knife froze in place, hovering over the vegetable. It’d been a week since Q’s bad night with that jerk Dom. Sabrina had used the L-word dozens of times since then yet she still acted as if she didn’t believe it. She’d known it would be hard to prove to her friend after what she’d put her through. All she could do now was keep at it, until she finally gave in and accepted her love.

A long sigh then Q said, “I know, beautiful.”

Sabrina paused halfway to the fridge. She knew? A big grin stretched across her face. It was about time! Though they’d been acting like girlfriends, something was still missing. The last week had been the best they’d had since Jude left, but it wasn’t perfect. Things were tense between them. They hadn’t done anything kinky and she was beginning to crave it. She’d even
bratted
a bit last night, hoping Q’s inner
Domme
would rise to the surface and deliver a smack-down. But it hadn’t. Though moping less than before, Q was still unhappy. What would it take to get the old Q back?

Sabrina felt it too. An emptiness. Like a piece of them was missing. She had Q on her right but her left was gone. Jude. She still got choked up when she thought of him. His song had been on the radio a couple days ago and she’d h
ad to pull over the car to cry.