BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
It wouldn't stop. Each beep woke her up more.
"Keith, your alarm," she mumbled. But the obnoxious beeping kept going. She put the blanket over her ear, but it didn't block out the sound. "Keith!" She rolled over to nudge him awake, but he wasn't in bed. She peered over at his nightstand and groped for his phone, but she didn't find it. As the beeping continued and her brain started to wake up, she realized that it was coming from across the room. "Keith! Turn it off!"
"No, you turn it off." Her eyes adjusted to the dawn's light that barely lit the room and saw him leaning on the dresser, arms crossed.
"Why..."
"Your whining is really getting to me." She put her pillow over her head. "C'mon, Lena. Get out of bed, and turn it off."
She whispered, "I fucking hate you," under her pillow. Slowly, she got out of bed. The dizziness affected her balance as she stumbled to the phone on the dresser. She snatched it up, turned it off, and weakly slammed it back down. But the phone didn't suffer any damage.
"See, that wasn't so hard."
"Go to hell."
"I'll pretend to ignore that." She started to head back to bed, but he caught her arm. "Nope, get back here."
She struggled against his embrace. "Let go. I wanna go back to sleep..."
"I told you that your whining is pissing me off."
"I don't fucking care."
"You will later when your collar is on." He broke away to turn the lights on. "Get dressed. We're going for a walk."
"Fuck...really?"
He shook his head, appalled that she forgot everything about the day before. "I know what will wake you up." He grabbed her again and dragged her to the bathroom. "I've had enough of your cussing and whining." Too tired to fight, she let him haul her to the bathroom and force her to sit on the toilet. She jolted when her sore ass made contact with the hard lid. He rummaged through the cabinets under the sink and brought out a small box containing a bar of soap. Through half closed eyes, she watched him free the soap from the box and hold it in front of her face. "Open."
"You're kidding me." Her lips tightened before he had a chance to shove it into her mouth.
"Open!"
Her arms crossed. "But you didn't put the collar on me." The smirk on her face pissed him off more.
He growled. "Fine. Stay here." He let the soap fall to the counter, then returned with her collar. "In position." She groaned as she slid to the floor and looked the other way as he tightened the leather around her neck. "Sit." With another groan, she sat back on the toilet. "Open." She grimaced at the soap. Although its soapy scent smelled good, she doubted that it was going to taste pleasant. He pushed the soap to her lips. "Open your mouth right now, or you're getting a whipping too!" Her lips parted quickly at the thought of him spanking her already bruised bottom.
The soap almost fell out; she bit down harder to keep it in place. "Eweck." She scrunched her face and brought her hand up to keep it steady.
"Hands down." Her hand fell to her lap. She whined and winced and refused to look at his glaring face. She felt stupid, humiliated, and like a child with him towering over her. "You're gonna learn to stop cussing. It's sickening coming from your mouth. You're too pretty to be using that kind of language. No more. Understand, girl?"
She made a small, muffled noise in agreement and let the soap fall into his hand. She rushed to the sink and spat over and over while running her finger around her teeth to get the soap she bit in to.
"Alright, you're done," he said and started to drag her from the sink.
"No...no..." she whimpered and held onto the sides but lost the fight. "Uck," she said, still wincing.
"Get dressed. Be ready in five."
"Yes, Sir..." She groaned and gave his back a dirty look as he left the room. Five minutes later, she was still suffering from the aftertaste, but by then she was concerned more with the collar still around her neck. When she met him in the living room, she made a tugging motion on the collar in case he forgot it was still on her.
"It stays on." Instead of arguing, she zipped the light jacket all the way up to hide what she could. "I wasn't planning on collaring you until later, but your disrespect put you in this position." Stifling a whine, she followed him out the door.
The first ten minutes were torture, and all she heard was "Faster, girl." His strides were longer; he was almost at a jog. She couldn't keep up and was too out of breath to protest. Then, she put her hands to her knees and stopped in the street.
"Keith!" she called to him.
He walked back to her. "Excuse me, but how do you address me?"
"Don't be ridiculous..." she said between breaths. "We're in public."
"No one can hear us in the middle of the street. You still have your collar on."
She shook her head. "I can't do this." "You will not stop until I say you can." She didn't say anything and stayed bent over, breathing hard. "Don't think I won't spank you in the middle of the street. Are you willing to test me?" he growled in her ear.
She didn't have to think about it. "No, Master," she weakly replied.
"You're still being punished for this. If you have such a problem with walking, you won't have to. As soon as we get home, you will lose your privilege to walk." He shook his head as he led the way. "Seriously? Not even an hour into the day, and you've already been punished twice."
For the rest of the hour, she grunted and moaned trying to keep up. He looked back at her every once in a while and thought about buying a leash to tow her along during their morning walk. "Walking my bitch," he muttered under his breath and smiled. She stumbled through the front door, panting. "On the ground, girl." She sank to the floor and caught her breath while on all fours. She cringed when she looked at the dirt on the palms of her hands.
"Guess you gotta clean the floors soon." She nodded as she tried to wipe the dirt off her hands. "I'm gonna make breakfast today. While I do that, you're gonna work on your writing. And you may sit at your computer while you do so."
"Yes, Master," she quietly said. He read her thoughts, the fears and frustrations of pursuing her passion.
"Hey." She looked up at him. "Just thirty minutes of concentration. I know you can do it. I believe in you." He gave her a small smile of encouragement.
But those thirty minutes were hell. She stared at the screen the whole time. She reread the first two scenes of a screenplay she started months ago. The excitement wasn't there anymore. A brilliant idea she had a couple years ago faded to a hundred pages of bland dialogue. She couldn't find the originality of the plot, the characters were dull and too common, and it has been done a million times before. She held her head in her hands.
"Think...what comes next?" She closed her eyes tight. "I need to start over." Before she could delete the entire project, she heard her Master call for her. She closed the document and crawled to the dining room. She hesitated next to her chair, not knowing if she was allowed to sit. He answered her question when he set the plate on the ground next to her. Although she felt like a damn dog, she was grateful that he gave her a fork.
"What did you work on?"
She played with her food, trying to think of a lie. But her depression was coming back, and she needed him to save her. "Nothing, Sir."
"Nothing?"
"I don't like my idea. I want to give up. I don't want to be wasting my time if I'm not good at this, Sir."
"Remember how you used to smile when you talked about it? How you would spend hours at the computer, late into the night, typing away?" She shrugged. "You'll get back into it. You just gotta try every day." She sniffled as she nodded and tried to keep the tears away. "Finish eating. You have chores to do...which you will do this time...while I get some work done. Then, we'll work on your training. But first, what's rule number ten?"
She stared at her plate. "Umm..."
"Remove your clothes, please." Her mind was desperately searching for the answer as she shed her clothes. "Face away from me and put your forehead to the floor. I want to see how much that bruised ass can take today." She squinted in concentration. He ran his fingers over her bruises.
As he moved his hand away, she nearly screamed, "Work on my screenplays every day!" He took his hands off of his belt that he planned to use on her behind.