Coming Home

Slowing down off the exit ramp, Seth asks me for directions to my apartment building. I stiffen and my eyes drop to my lap. "You're dropping me off at home?"

"No, kitten." Sean's fingers tilt my chin up to look at him. His eyes only leave the road to meet mine for a moment, but the intensity of that brief gaze communicates volumes. "Your home is with me now. I'm taking you to your apartment to pack your things. You won't need much. Some clothes for work, personal items, no more than you can fit in one suitcase."

"Turn left here." My voice sounds too high as my emotions wage war inside me: on one side, effervescent joy at the prospect of being Seth's pet full time; on the other, suffocating terror at the prospect of breaking the news to my husband.

One thing I know is that I can't let Ryan see the collar of bruises around my throat. He wouldn't understand. I shrug off the thin bolero I'm wearing over my sleeveless blouse and tie it around my neck to conceal the marks. The look is awkward, but Ryan will likely assume it's just one of the many baffling quirks of women's fashion, if he notices at all.

Seth enters the building with me, ignoring my suggestion that he wait outside. Before I've turned the key all the way in the lock, the door flies open and Ryan greets me with an accusing glare. "Where have you been, Katie? You haven't been answering your phone. I was worried." His dark eyes flicker to Seth. "And who is this guy?"

Seth steps forward between me and Ryan, extending his hand. "Hi, I'm Seth."

"Ryan." He accepts Seth's hand automatically, then frowns at their entangled fists and jerks his away. As Ryan looks back and forth from Seth to me, the anger in his face fades into confusion and concern. "Katie, are you okay? Did something happen?"

"I'm...sorry, Ryan," I whisper. "I just came back to get some things. Then I'll be going."

"Going where?"

"With Seth. You remember I told you about my boyfriend Seth from high school? Well, this is him. I'm going with him."

Realization and shock drain the color from Ryan's face and strike him silent. I turn sideways to slink past him through the doorway. He doesn't impede my wobbly-legged passage to the bedroom, nor does he follow. I can hear the low tones of their voices as I drag my suitcase from the closet. Through a blur of tears, I shove clothes and toiletries inside nearly at random.

When I emerge, both men are sitting on the couch and Ryan looks over at me with weary, red-rimmed eyes. "I hope you'll be happy," he says bitterly. "I know I was never enough for you, though Lord knows I tried."

"Ryan..." I crouch in front of him and look into those familiar brown eyes. My heart surges with affection. He's been a true companion all these years, keeping me grounded and stable and safe. But there was never any passion. I didn't think I needed it. I didn't think I could feel it for anyone but Seth. It seems I was right about one of those things. "It isn't that you're not enough..."

"I'm just not him," he finishes grimly. "You told me when we first met that he was the love of your life. But you said he didn't want you, he rejected you—"

"I didn't reject her," Seth objects. "I let her go." He shifts his eyes from Ryan to me and his expression softens, smoothing the lines the years have etched into his skin. "I thought that would be the best thing for you, Katie. I thought I was too fucked up to give you what you needed."

I shake my head firmly. "It's not within your power to let me go, Seth. You can choose to abandon me, but you can't choose to set me free. I'm yours."

Seth's eyes flare with emotion - some combination of affection, wonder, and fear - and he reaches down to clasp my hands. Our fingers entwine, palms pressing together tightly. An anchor, a promise.

"What makes you think you can give her what she needs now?" Ryan snaps, springing up from the couch. "Are you any less fucked up than you used to be?"

Seth's eyes remain steady on mine as he answers. "I'm still fucked up and I always will be. So is she. So is everyone. I just understand things better now. I know that we can't always choose what we need, only whether to fight it or accept it." He turns his gaze to Ryan and it hardens to blue steel. "What she needs is me. I can either choose to abandon her and leave her unfulfilled, or I can choose to embrace that responsibility and do my best to make what she needs be the same as what she deserves."

Ryan's nostrils flare and his fists clench at his sides. He looks Seth up and down before turning his back on both of us in a gesture of dismissive contempt.

Standing, I slide my hands from Seth's to pull off my engagement and wedding rings and lay them on the coffee table. Though I am gentle, they land with an audible clink.

"I'm sorry, Ryan." My voice cracks on his name.

Ryan whirls to face me. The animosity in his eyes makes me flinch and I reach instinctively for Seth's hand as he rises beside me.

"You had better be fucking sure about this, Katie," Ryan spits, "because once you walk out of here, I'm done with you. If he fucks up again, don't even think about crawling back here with your tail between your legs."

Seth stiffens at my side. I squeeze his hand and say softly into his ear, "It's okay. Let's go."

Seth and I leave, still holding hands, the suitcase in my other hand rolling along behind me with a rumble that I find soothing one moment and ominous the next. My mind refuses to settle on either interpretation. My pulse throbs in my aching throat.

During the ride home, I let myself feel the sadness, guilt, and remorse. I let them wash through me, imagining them flowing into my clenched fists and pooling there. I release and let them drain out of me, shaking my fingertips loose of them. Tonight is for new beginnings, not for dwelling on past mistakes.

Seth's apartment is a ground-level unit in a garden-style complex. The décor is nondescript, standard neutral beige carpeting and off-white walls. The entryway widens into a living area with a sagging couch, scuffed coffee table, and an eclectic array of overflowing bookshelves covering all the available wall space. The high ceilings and broad windows, relics of a time before corner-cutting and efficiency ruled home construction, prevent the cluttered space from feeling cave-like. Seth leads me down a hallway to the left, past the cramped kitchen and bathroom, and into the bedroom at the end.

Seth rearranges his clothes to clear a dresser drawer and some closet space for my meager belongings. He stows my empty suitcase under the bed while I bring my armful of toiletries into the bathroom. I return to find him standing at the foot of the bed, arms crossed. He crooks a finger and wiggles it coaxingly. I go to him, wrapping my arms around him and pressing my head to his chest, soothed by the steady thump of his heartbeat. His arms open and surround me, hands rubbing slow circles over my back.

I will be his pet. I will fold myself into the spaces of his life and be his constant companion - an ever-present, ever-ready source of affection and support, whatever form that takes as he trains me to fulfill his needs.

I pull back just enough to look up and smile at him playfully. "If I'm your pet, you're going to need to train me."

He raises an eyebrow. "You already performed a damn good trick in the coffee shop bathroom."

"Plenty more where that came from..." I nibble at his ear and my hand slips between our bodies to rub his cock through his jeans. His bulge grows and hardens under my touch, but then he grasps my hands in his and takes a step back. He looks me up and down and shakes his head.

"You're wearing clothes, Katie," he says. "Pets don't do that."

I blush. "Some do."

Seth shakes his head firmly. "My pet doesn't."

"Seth...I don't have the body I did at 18..."

He frowns. "Disobedience already, kitten? There will be times during your training when you are free to discuss and debate, and I may even be persuaded to make adjustments if you offer well-reasoned arguments. This is not one of those times. You will wear nothing in my home that I don't place on you myself."

Anxiety wells in my chest, but I bite my lip and lift my shirt over my head, dropping it to the floor. I reach behind me to unclasp my bra and let it fall too. I shimmy out of my skirt, then my underwear. I'm fully nude, all my flaws bared to him. The knot in my throat loosens when I see that his eyes roaming over my body reflect only appreciation. I straighten my spine and kick aside the pile of cast off garments, the trappings of an inauthentic life.

"Turn around," he commands, his voice thick.

I do. I stand at the foot of the bed facing the headboard and the window just above. The curtains are open to a view of a small courtyard area with a few picnic tables, deserted so late at night. I hear rustling, unzipping. Seth's hand pushes at the small of my back, bending me over the bed. My pulse quickens with anticipation as I wait for him to fuck me.

But he doesn't, at least not yet. He only touches me, stroking with both hands up and down the length of my back, my ass, my thighs. He claims every inch of me with his calloused fingertips. I tremble when he leans over me to plant soft kisses along my shoulders, knowing I'd fall if I weren't supported against the bed. He kisses down my spine, lips brushing over each vertebra in turn, and his hand parts my thighs.

My breath catches as his finger traces my slit, then slips inside me. I squirm against his hand, wanting more. But he withdraws his finger and reaches underneath my hips to roll me onto my back. I look up at him, my legs spread wide for him, knees bent. He's naked and the sight of him like that - his eyes darkened with lust, his cock erect and ready - makes me reach for him, wanting him inside me

right now

. He lets me pull him down on top of me. I savor the warm, smooth press of his bare skin on mine, all of him covering all of me. My hands roam over his back as we kiss deeply, until he drags his lips away and probes my mouth with his finger. Instinctively I suck, registering the sweet and earthy taste and realizing this is the finger he had inside me moments ago.

"How do you taste?" he asks me.

"Mmm, good," I mumble around his finger.

He explores the front of my body next, claiming every inch of skin with hands and lips. His mouth lingers on my nipples and he suckles them, first one and then the other, shooting sensation straight to my clit. Moaning, I buck my hips against him, rubbing myself on his cock, needing to ease the emptiness.

"Seth, please," I gasp. "Please, please fuck me! I need you inside me now."

"My pet gets what she needs." He rises over me, groaning as he sinks himself deep.

"Yes!" I cry. We rock together, hips rolling in unison as his thick cock plunges in and out of my enveloping pussy. He fills me like no one else ever has and still I wrap my legs around his back and clutch his ass with my hands to pull him deeper, knowing nothing less than all of him will satisfy the depth of need he's opened in my core. The need to take him inside me, take his pleasure and his pain, be his home and his comfort, physically and emotionally.

In time his thrusts pick up speed and his breathing grows ragged against my neck, warmth prickling along the sensitized area where he marked me earlier. I cling to him, scraping my nails down his back and murmuring encouragement into his ear. "Yes, Seth...oh, yes...fuck me!"

He shudders and groans, but then he pulls out and straddles me. He rubs his cock vigorously for a moment before it erupts and his creamy load spurts across my breasts. I massage his cum into my skin, wanting to be covered and coated in his fluids - marked and claimed as his in yet another way. I look directly into his eyes as I lick long, deliberate strokes up and down my sticky hands, first one and then the other, cleaning them thoroughly as a cat cleans its paws after a meal. He swallows and exhales shakily.

"You can come inside me if you want," I tell him. "I have an IUD."

"I plan to next time. This time I had other plans."

"Other plans?"

He nods and lowers himself back onto me, fitting his mouth to mine. The kiss is unhurried, soft and sensual, as we languidly explore the deepest recesses of each other's mouths with our tongues. I whimper a protest when he pulls away, but then he whispers, "I haven't tasted all of you yet."

He kisses my throat, uses lips and tongue to soothe the bruised skin where he marked me. His mouth traces a leisurely route along my breasts and belly, landing on the tender flesh of my inner thighs. I spread my legs wider for him as he kisses and strokes one side and then the other before finally settling his face between them. He lavishes attention on my pussy, licking up and down my slit and along my swollen labia, driving me wild with pleasure, but it's not quite enough until his lips close gently around my clit and his tongue sweeps slowly back and forth. My hips jerk upward. I cry out his name. He pushes two fingers inside me and strokes my inner walls. Hips bucking, eyes rolled back in my head, distantly aware of the mewling noises coming from my throat, I follow helplessly as he draws me to the pinnacle of pleasure. When I reach that peak I soar in a state of pure ecstasy that feels endless in its transcendence.

When I come back into my body, still pulsing and abuzz in the afterglow, Seth holds me close and strokes my hair. I burrow into him, steadying my breath against the rise and fall of his chest. I never want this moment to end.

"Look at you, kitten," he says, pulling back slightly to appraise me. "You're a mess."

I smile and wiggle against him, creating squelchy friction with our cum-and-sweat-soaked skin. "I'm your mess."

"You are. Mine to soil and now mine to clean."

"Can't I keep you on my skin a little longer?"

He sighs and pulls me tighter against him. "For tonight, I suppose. But my girlfriend is coming over in the morning and you need to be presentable."

"Your girlfriend?" My chest contracts painfully.

"Yes, you know I have a girlfriend. Nicki, remember?" His tone is casual as he combs his fingers slowly through my tangled hair.

I sit up. "Yeah, but...I thought..."

Seth takes my face in his hands and looks into my eyes. "Katie, you said you were mine. You said it was unconditional. Did you mean it?"

"Yes," I whisper. Even if I wanted to argue, I'm helpless against the full power of his gaze. So he has a girlfriend. So what? He still wants me.

He kisses my forehead, then releases my face. "I'm sure she'll be able to accept your place in my life. She and I agreed from the beginning we didn't believe in monogamy. Get some sleep, kitten. We'll clean up first thing in the morning."

Seth wakes me the next day after the soundest night's sleep I've had in recent memory and immediately leads me into the bathroom. He washes me with tender care, kneeling beside the tub and using both sudsy hands to caress my body in soothing, circular motions. His touch and the warm water on my skin are pure bliss. My head falls back so that I'm entirely submerged except for my nose and mouth. My hair floats around my face and all I can hear is the steady rush of the water muting the rest of the world. I feel like some mythical creature of the deep - a wish-granting mermaid, perhaps - just now brought to life by a seafaring prince and called to his service. His hands are thorough in their task, lifting every fold and probing every orifice to scrub me spotless. I would purr under his ministrations if I could, but instead I moan and sigh in contentment.

When I'm clean he pulls out the plug to drain the tub and I rise with water streaming from my body, feeling renewed. The bath has been an impromptu baptism of sorts; I am stripped naked, wiped clean, reborn from this metaphorical womb as Seth's pet, ready to receive his training.

Once the tub is empty Seth turns on the shower for himself, directing me to wash him as he stands under the spray. I give him the same thorough treatment he gave me, massaging his scalp for several minutes as I lather and rinse his hair with shampoo and then conditioner, then running soapy hands over his body in wide arcs. I kneel to wash his feet, lifting them in turn to rub the suds into the soles. I reach up next to give special attention to his cock. When he hardens in my hand, I can't resist drawing him into my mouth. I smile up at him as best I can while I roll my tongue around his cockhead and he beams approval down at me.

But soon he lifts me to my feet and turns me to face the wall, raising my hands above my head and flattening my palms on the tile. He grabs my hips to pull my ass toward him and I brace myself against the wall as he uses his knee to force my legs wider apart. No longer gentle or tender, he drives his cock into my pussy, gripping my hips for control. He takes his pleasure in my body, setting a rough, demanding rhythm. I take him eagerly, pushing my ass back to meet him stroke for stroke.

He nips the back of my neck. "Finger your clit for me. I want to feel you cum on my cock."

I obey and drop my right hand to rub myself furiously while he pounds me. He releases his left hand from my hip and uses it to pinch and pull my nipples in turn, drawing a low moan from my throat.

Seth growls into my ear, "Who do you belong to?"

"You, I belong to you!"

"Tell me. I want your words."

My voice is breathy, rising in pitch as I continue. "I'm yours, Seth, all yours. Your slut, your pet, your fucktoy...oh, FUCK! Anything...any fucking thing for you..."

My breath comes harsh and heavy and I can no longer manage words. All I can do is wail as pleasure sparks under my frantic fingers and around his cock and radiates through my body. My pussy clenches and the exquisite fullness of his cock inside me strengthens the contractions. I squeeze him in powerful, repeating spasms. He moans and collapses against my back, shuddering as his cock erupts with his seed and my greedy, grasping pussy draws it in and milks him for all he can give me.

Supporting each other while we catch our breath, we re-lather the parts we've just soiled, letting the warm spray of the water spin our mingled fluids down the drain.