Please review chapter 1 for disclaimers and warnings about story content.
Sam
Sam walked back around the table, pointedly not looking at Dakota. She had to get herself under control for the next part.
What just happened had been easy. Too easy. She'd slipped back into the role like putting on a warm robe. She'd orchestrated the whole scene spontaneously, just by playing on their emotions and mental state.
She thought the whole scene with Eli would have scared the girl, but she slid into her role almost as easily as Sam had. Now she was all worked up. She'd known it might happen, which was why she'd worn the most utilitarian pair of granny-panties she owned and added a liner to them. But when she'd felt Dakota teasing her finger with her tongue it had taken all of Sam's willpower not to hike her skirt up, plant a foot in the table, and pull the girl's head into her cunt.
She was kicking herself, though; she'd skipped some basics and that was dangerous. She'd been out of the lifestyle too long. Now she had to have the real talk. Dakota would either buy in or she would walk out in disgust and fear. Sam honestly wasn't sure which one she was hoping for.
She sat down for the first time and waited for Dakota to face her.
"I have to apologize," she began, "We started that scene without you establishing a safe word, and that's bad for everyone. That won't happen again."
Dakota looked at her expectantly, but Sam didn't add anything. She waited for the reaction she knew was coming. Dakota didn't disappoint.
"So that was a test, right? I won't have to suck his cock again?" she asked.
"That was a test. The fact that it was a test has nothing to do with whether you'll have to suck his cock again."
Dakota's face fell and she looked betrayed. "But..."
"Dakota, look at me," Sam said, trying to soften her voice. She could be gentle but she wasn't known for it. That was because very few people got to see it.
"Your director's little film project specified the woman was a BDSM slave. That's a very specific type of arrangement. Not even most of the people in the lifestyle who are subs go for it, but it's literal. It means the dom is your master. Or mistress. What they say goes. What would you have done if I'd told you to stand up and bend over the table so Eli could fuck you after you sucked him off?"
Sam saw the reaction in Dakota's eyes. She looked at Sam and sighed at the realization.
"That's what I mean," Sam continued, "A slave wouldn't object. They'd have their face on the table with their legs spread in the next heartbeat. That's the kind of thing Pascal's trying to recreate. It's the white good ol' boy's ultimate fantasy, and the thing the feminist movement has been working against for more than a century; a woman whose entire identity is based on the whims, urges, and opinions of someone else. You are chosen because you're visually arousing, and act like you're not only willing but eager to fulfill any of your master's desires, sexual or otherwise, without complaint."
"The key," Sam continued, "and the part where people not in the lifestyle lose touch, is that for the slave? It's the best thing ever. They feel so happy to let go, not make any decisions, and have absolutely no responsibility except what their master tells them. And that's why this isn't a betrayal of women's lib or anything like that. The women or men or whatever aren't giving up responsibility because they can't handle it or aren't smart enough to deal with it and certainly not because they're being forced; they simply don't want to. They're happier without the burden. You take a BDSM slave and make them live in their own house and take care of themselves and they can do it no problem. But they'll never be happy, not the way they were when they had a master to take care of that for them."
There was a pause as Dakota seemed to digest what Sam just told her. As she expected, Dakota got angry.
"So all that bullshit is how you justify making me suck Eli's cock?" she said.
"No, all that 'bullshit' is how you can justify why you did it," Sam replied.
"You made me do it," Dakota said.
"How?" Sam asked.
Dakota did a fish imitation for a moment, then sputtered out, "We both know you were forcing me!"
"I don't have any power over you except what you give me," Sam said, "Now, you didn't have a clear way to tell me 'no', and I apologize for that, but we weren't doing noncon play, so if you'd said 'no,' I would have taken you seriously."
"If I didn't do what you said you wouldn't train me!" Dakota insisted.
"You're right," Sam agreed, "But do you really need this? Pascal's not going to check in with me; I don't know him from Adam. You could do anything I suggested; watch a movie, interview some people in the lifestyle, actually train with a dom for a bit if you want and you'd convince him."
"Then why did put me through that?" Dakota demanded.
"Because I wanted you to know what your options were, and what the reality was if you chose certain options," Sam said.
Dakota paused again, and said, "You think I could do better in the film if I let you train me to be a slave."
"I don't give a fuck about the film, Dakota. I'm telling you all this because I think you'd be happier," Sam said.
"Wait, you think I'm a submissive?" Dakota said.
"I don't think you're a submissive, I know you are," Sam said almost dismissively.
"Bullshit. You just met me, you don't know me!" Dakota insisted.
"I know what I need to. You never questioned your mother's control of your life until you had a boyfriend to support you against her. You let your castmate talk you into a one-sided relationship to cover for him while you got no benefits."
"He kept the creeps away!" Dakota said.
"Dakota, be honest with yourself at least. Did going out with Jamie really cut down on the number of people who hit on you? At all?" Sam pressed.
Dakota was quiet for a while, and refused to meet Sam's eyes.
"What else?" she finally asked. She still sounded combative, but not as much as before.
"How about ten minutes ago, when you sucked your agent's cock?"
"I told you; that doesn't count!" Dakota insisted.
"Fine. How about your acting career? You're constantly playing the damsel in distress, in crisis until a big strong
dominant
figure rescues you," Sam said.
"The whole point of Princess Jewel is that we were subverting the damsel in distress trope," Dakota said.
"That's a wonderful marketing line that is also complete BS. Half the time you ran off on an adventure that your friends or someone else had to save you from. The rest of the time you were trying to keep your knight from finding out what the hell you were doing. You might as well have been holding up a 'notice me senpai' sign for the whole show, and the whole schtick was done with the approval of the king, so there wasn't actually any risk."
"Until season 5," Dakota muttered.
"Season 5 only helps my case. When the king forbids you from squiring anymore, instead of running out from under his robe of support, you work within the system to get him to reinstate you. And then there's the movie."
"Which movie? Queen's Gem?"
Sam rolled her eyes. "No, the movie that's the reason you blackmailed Eli. Seriously think about that. You blew up your relationship with your agent because you wanted this role. He had a nice adult transition movie lined up for you that would have pushed you into the next phase of your career. If you really wanted to stick it to your fans and find out who your real supporters were it would be much easier to go to Cosmo or Howard Stern and let them ask you what your favorite position is and how many sex toys you own. Or go to Playboy and let them take some pictures of you in see-through lingerie. Instead you saw 'BDSM slave' and decided that was what you had to do."
"You're reading way too much into that. Pascal was a friend of my mother's, but he took my side in the fight. I've known him for a long time," Dakota insisted.
"He's not Steven Spielberg. Eli told me all the arguments he gave you, and he's right. There's no guarantee this does anything but blow up your career. You claim you don't need the money and you just enjoy acting. If that's true, go to college. Get a theater degree, or any other four-year degree, then join a local community theatre group and blow their mind. I guarantee you it's a lot easier than this."
There was another long pause. Finally Dakota looked up at Sam. Her face was grim, and she tried to look tough. But Sam saw a glimmer of uncertainty in her eye. Inwardly, Sam sighed. Dakota was a young girl on her own for the first time, and clearly "no one knew what her situation was like." She would crash into the wall, it was just a matter of who was there to pick up the pieces. And because of how she'd behaved, it seemed Sam was the only person left who would do that.
"$400,000," she said.
Dakota's eyes widened. "What?"
"When does the movie start filming?" Sam asked.
"Six months from now," Dakota said.
"Fine, so, you take $400,000 and put it in an escrow account. Eli is the trustee for it. After six months, if you think I've trained you sufficiently and you no longer require my services, Eli pays me the money and we go our separate ways."
Dakota wasn't ready to accept her submissiveness. She wasn't in the right state of mind, especially so soon after striking out on her own with legions of fans supporting her independence. Sam could get a notarized letter from Allah that said "Dakota has a submissive personality" and she'd still fight it.
But in six months? Things would be different.