Five months had passed since Laura's complete and utter submission to her colleague Steve, five months where what had started as a pragmatic deal to make the best of a terrible situation had snowballed completely out of control, creating a monster from which Laura had no way of escaping.
It was no exaggeration to say that Steve held the power over Laura to ruin her life, to destroy her career, to end her relationship with her fiancé, to leave her homeless and destitute on the streets.
She was helpless, trapped, no choice but to submit. But... it was slightly more nuanced than that, because, deep deep down in her psyche, there was a primal part of Laura that thrilled at being taken, at being dominated, at being owned. It was so in contrast to her usual controlled, sensible, people pleasing demeanour, but maybe that was what drove it... a desire to make people happy, and she was in no doubt that her submission made Steve and the friends he shared her with very happy indeed.
Miss Perfect he called her teasingly... she was the colleague who did what she was told, worked to please their managers, wanted to do everything right and be praised for that. And Steve, the son of a billionaire, the antithesis of Laura's character had seen it and taken advantage.
In hindsight after that first night, when she'd slept with Steve and three of his friends in return for him making a massive career ending screw up of hers go away, that would have been the time to escape from this.
She should have confessed to her fiancé, explained the deal with the devil that she'd made, and begged for his forgiveness. It would have been hard, very hard, it might have taken months for them to get past it, might have delayed their wedding, but in hindsight she should have done.
Instead, she'd kept it secret, putting faith in her hope that it was a one off, so that when the following week Steve had forcefully taken her against her will at work, taken her anally, just feet away from where her oblivious colleagues had gone about their days, and had then spent the rest of the day and night breaking her to his will in return for him keeping their secret safe, by then it was far too late already.
That one night her fiancé could have understood. But a second day and night where she'd gone along and said nothing, it was too late by then.
Since that night it had snowballed, her descent into submission so great that after five months she submitted to Steve without even thinking, the only boundaries being a safe word in case it got too extreme (used only twice so far), that it couldn't affect her work, and that it stayed clear of her home life.
Beyond those boundaries Laura had done anything and everything she was told, broken into her secret, submissive life. Steve could take her whenever and however he wanted within the boundaries, in fact had used his wealth to rent an apartment near their office purely for that purpose, but then there were the parties...
The parties were insane, involving Steve and his friends at his Belgravia house, using his bondage room on the top floor. Laura reckoned she'd slept with at least twenty different men by then at Steve's command, restrained and dominated in various different ways, and her feelings about them were complex... she enjoyed the submission, enjoyed the sex, enjoyed servicing the other men, pleasing them and drawing their praise, but her brain compartmentalised it so that she almost couldn't think about what she'd done when she was with her fiancé.
Really, she was living a double life. On the one hand a successful young professional in her early thirties getting ready for her wedding in Tuscany in a month's time. On the other hand she was the submissive toy of a wealthy colleague, his to do with as he wished.
Deep down, intellectually, she knew that she had to find a way out. She couldn't enter married life with her ongoing submission, she mustn't. The clock was ticking, but she hadn't a clue how to escape and so she played for time, hoping that something would come up, trapped in her submissive double life in the meantime.
Until then she had little choice, and at least had the consolation that her submission was satisfying a deep down need that she'd never realised she had. That was, of course, until her submission moved a little closer to home than she'd anticipated...
That week Laura worked from home on the Monday for the most mundane of reasons, a new sofa being delivered.
Her fiancé had gone into the office, their flat too small to really work with both of them working from home at once, which meant peace and quiet to hopefully work through a backlog of work.
The boundaries agreed with Steve had ruled out any continuation of her submission that would intrude on life with her fiancé, so an added bonus was that for once she could enjoy a working day without being taken forcefully in some way or another... the week before had been particularly intense with daily sessions in Steve's rented apartment and two evening spent 'working late' in his house with him and his friends, one of which ended very late indeed and with six of them rotating around her, so some respite was welcome.
Sofa delivered and after a good morning's work at the dining table in her living room, around lunchtime, she was surprised to see Steve video calling her on her laptop.
His tone was strict and business like. "I've been thinking..." he said, with no pre-amble. "I might need to tell our boss today about Miss Perfect's mistake, her imperfection."
This was a core part of her submission, the hold that Steve had over her. Playing what she hoped was the game, Laura replied in pretend shock, "You wouldn't..."
"I might. One thing could make me wait a few days though."
"What's that?"
"Strip for me. Now."
Laura glanced around her living room, the dining table at one end and the new sofa near the windows at the other. The windows... anyone at home in the flat opposite, just a few metres away across the road, could see her. She took a deep breath. "Ok, just give me a minute to close the curtains."
"No." Steve's tone was impatient and commanding.
"Sorry?" Even in this context Laura wasn't used to being spoken to like that.
"I said no. Strip now. Turn the laptop so its looking into the room, stand in the middle, and strip."
Laura paused, then remembered. "I need to get my collar."
"Quickly."
She hurried out of the room to her handbag, finding the collar where she'd tucked it away at the end of the week before down near the bottom of the bag. Reaching up she put it around her neck, comforted by the feel of it against her skin... it was almost as if it flicked a switch inside her head, feeling a sense of highly aroused calm flood through her. With the collar on she was ready, she was Steve's.
Walking back into the living room, thankful that her fiancé was in the office and not at home, she turned the laptop around and stood in front of the camera.
The self view she could see was as she expected, Laura wearing her gym kit, tight grey leggings and a pink, large hoodie, sports bra and underwear underneath, her long brown hair tied back in a high, tight ponytail. If Steve had expected her in lingerie he was going to get a shock.
His voice came from the speaker. "Strip."
