Chapter 7: The Early Stages of a Power Exchange
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Alexandra and Jamison have more than survived their time together. They actually enjoyed the majority of it and their relationship appears to be flourishing. Their twenty-four hour agreement has come to an end. Over that short period of time Alexandra has experienced and learned things she never even knew about before meeting Jamison. She has no regrets about agreeing to the twenty-four hour bargain. Now she has some prep work to do before making any other decisions. Jamison, on the other hand, knew what he wanted from the beginning and that hasn't changed. He wants Alexandra. The past twenty-four hours only made him want her more.
Their bargained time together may be over however, everything else appears to be moving forward. In order to self-educate, Alexandra has until Friday to review as much information as possible on the issue at hand. Jamison will expect an answer from her and she would like to be well informed by that time. Until then, he plans on doing everything in his power to convince her to make the decision he wants. If she does, Jamison believes Alexandra will be true to her own desires and he will get what he wants and that's Alexandra.
To those of you who are following Alexandra and Jamison, I hope you continue to enjoy the journey. To those of you who may be new to "
Learning the Rules
," you can start from the beginning (always a good option) or join here. Welcome!
WARNING: Yes, I'm aware this is the BDSM category, but thank you for reminding me. The LtR's series is being told in a story format. I apologize to those who make the informed decision to read further still expecting a "thank you Sir, may I have another" or a "wham bam do it again bitch" story. This is NOT what you are looking for proceed at your own risk. (That is not to say, that it rules out the possibility of that scenario in a later chapter. We shall see???)
Thanks and I hope you enjoy, Apple
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It's Sunday morning and Alexandra slowly awakens from a restless night's sleep. All night long, her mind has been racing. Fragments of memories of her time with Jamison have been playing in her head. Things he said to her. Things he did to her. Things she allowed him to do and say to her. She brushes back the hair from her face as she untangles herself from her sheets.
She can tell by the limited amount of light coming through her bedroom window that it is early. The sun is barely up. Reaching for her cell phone, she checks the time. It's early, barely seven o'clock. She continues to stir around in bed as she debates her options. Alexandra doesn't want to get up yet, but she soon realizes it may be the lesser of two evils.
It's Sunday and I should try to sleep in, but even if I fall back to sleep, will it be worth it? At least awake, I can control the thoughts and pictures that enter my head. Well, I can most of the time. I should just get up and get showered. I have enough of my own work to do to prepare for my meetings tomorrow. Now, I have Jamison's assignment also. If anyone ever told me that I would be doing homework and research on BDSM, I would have said they were crazy. Yet here I am, doing just that. Well, so far I'm just planning to do that, but I will soon actually be doing it. Oh God, I think I'm losing my mind. I may have lost it already.
Alexandra is exhausted. She realizes she has had very little restful sleep in the past two days. Its sleep she will never get back and can't make up for now. As a smile comes to her face, she realizes some things are worth giving up a little sleep for. Her time with Jamison was one of them and it was definitely worth it. She blushes just at the memory of it.
Realizing she will never fall back to sleep now, she decides to get up and move on with her day. She forces herself to get out of bed and makes her way to the shower. Once in her bathroom, she drops her panties and pulls off her night shirt. She takes a quick look in the mirror to check out how tired she looks and to see if she has dark circles under her eyes. She traces her finger under her eyes and thinks,
not too bad. A little shadowy but if I take a nap later and get a good night's sleep tonight they should be gone by the morning. Shit! Shit! Damn it! Those will definitely not be gone by the morning. Damn him!
As Alexandra straightens up, she takes in the dark black and blue marks, one of which is actually purple, on her chest and abdomen. There are five in all. Three have bruised teeth marks circling them. She traces each one. The first is on the underside of her breast and is the largest of them. The second just under her breast tissue; the third a few inches lower and has the teeth marks with it. The fourth one is right next to her belly button. The last is just below that one and is huge with deep teeth marks. Actual deep imprints depressed into her skin like a dental mold.
"Fuck! The others were just bruises made my Jamison's teeth. This last one has fucking imprints in my skin." As she looks at her body's reflection in the mirror and traces the bruised bite marks, she gets more and more angry.
By the time she traces the last mark, Alexandra is fuming. No one has ever marked her body like this. She can't believe Jamison did this to her. The longer she looks in the mirror, the angrier she becomes. She marches out to the bedroom and picks up her cell phone. She doesn't give a second thought to the time or that it's Sunday morning and he might be sleeping in today. She doesn't care; he is going to hear about this.
She flops on the side of the bed as she finds his number and hit's the send key. Jamison's phone rings and he curses as he picks it up. As he looks at the cell's face screen, he sees "Alexandra" written across the caller ID. He smiles to himself. Three rings go by and a sleepy sounding Jamison answers.
"I know you miss me Alexandra, but really, did you need to call so early?" His voice is sleepy but he is being very pleasant for having just been awoken at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning. The one day that he enjoys sleeping in a little later than usual.
"You're lucky I'm calling and not driving over there. Do you know what you have done? Do you know what my body looks like? No one has ever done this to me. What were you thinking? What the hell am I supposed to do about this Jamison? What if someone sees this?" She is yelling and hasn't even taking a breath between questions. Let alone given any thought to what she is yelling and who she is yelling at.
There is dead quiet on his end. Then she hears a busy tone and the call dies. Alexandra looks at her phone is disbelief.
"He did not just hang up on me. He better had not just hung up on me." Without a thought she presses "send" again and once again Jamison's phone rings.
This time he looks at the phone clenched in his hand and lets his voice mail pick up the message. His anger is written all over his face. At first he was happy she was calling, even if it was so early. Now he can't even think about talking to her without wanting to drive into the city and turn her ass pink for shouting at him like that.
"You have reached Jamison Montgomery. Leave a message." Alexandra hears as she reaches his voice mail.
"Unfucking believable," she says to no one in particular. But it still gets recorded on Jamison's voice mail. She continues, "Jamison, I can't believe you hung up on me. You have to answer sooner or later."
Alexandra disconnects and hits "send" again. Once again his phone rings. He looks at it debating whether or not he should answer her call or jump in his car and drive to her apartment. Jamison waits for a few rings to pass. He takes a deep breath and sits up at the side of the bed before he answers.
"Yes?" He says in an even quiet tone.
"Jamison, did you just hang up on me?" Alexandra is pissed and he can hear it in her voice.
"Yes." He replies without emotion or inflection in his voice. His face muscles are tight and his jaw is clenched.
"Did you not hear what I said? Why would you hang up on me when you could obviously hear how upset I am?"
"I did hear what you SHOUTED at me. I hung up because I don't accept that from anyone Alexandra, especially NOT from you. Also, I didn't hear a woman who was upset. I heard a woman who was out of control, acting childish, and angrily shouting at me. A woman who called me at seven o'clock on a Sunday morning and woke me up I might add. A woman who should know that I wasn't going to respond well to her call when she shouted at me without so much as a Good Morning Jamison to at least warm up her call. In fact, she started off her first sentence by threatening me. That's the woman I hung up on. Now, what has you so piqued this early in the morning?"
"I am not piqued, I am pissed! Jamison." Although Alexandra is not shouting, she remains loud.
"Alexandra, take it down a few notches or I'm going to hang up on you again. Also, I believe I told you about using swear words when you talk to me. I don't like it and I don't accept it."
"Jamison, if I recall correctly I used several swear words multiple times while we were in bed yesterday."
"That's different. Being verbal and vocal during sex is acceptable. Swearing at me at seven in the morning because you are 'pissed' about something is not acceptable. Understand the difference?"
"Jamison," he cuts off the completion of her sentence.
"I believe I asked you a question Alexandra. I expect an answer." Still his voice is calm and monotone, but there is no mistaken what mode he is in.
"Yes Jamison, I understand the difference." Alexandra hears her voice calm and her response become more respectful. She doesn't know if she is reacting to Jamison's tone or if she has calmed down some. Either way, she realizes it's most likely a smart response.
"Good. Now quietly and calmly explain to me what the problem here is please." He rubs his hand through his hair.
"The problem is you have left bruises and bite marks all over my body. I can't believe you did that. They look horrible. I look like some kind of whore or prom queen gone wild. That is the problem."
"Alexandra please tell me you are kidding." He shakes his head in disbelief.
"No I'm not kidding. I'm pis.. very upset. What am I supposed to say if anyone sees these?" She is starting to tear up and he can hear it in her voice.
"Alexandra." He takes a deep breath in and sighs loudly. She can hear his exasperation on her end and the tears start slowly down her cheeks. "Listen to me. First of all, yes, I do know what I did to you. Second of all, they're only a couple of bruises and they will disappear in a few days. Third, who do you plan on exposing your breasts and abdomen to that they will be able to see my love bites? And lastly, you do not look like a whore or a wild prom queen and I resent you even saying that."
"Jamison, you don't know. You're not here to see them. They look disgusting and even if I don't look like a whore, they make me feel like one." She is lightly crying.
"Do you want me to come over there?" He asks.
"No. There is nothing you can do to fix this even if you do come over." She hiccups as she takes a breath.
