Beneath her Notice – Chapter 13 2 min read

Chapter Thirteen: Domestic Arrangements

Adrian did not move into Mara’s apartment all at once.

First came a toothbrush, then shirts in the guest-room wardrobe, books upon the table and a coffee cup Mara would never have chosen.

Three weeks later, she handed him a key.

“You’re here more often than you aren’t. This is administratively simpler.”

“Administratively?”

Mara looked down at the Casadei Blades upon her feet.

“Get under the table.”

“Much clearer.”

Living together changed them.

At the office, Mara’s dominance remained competitive. She wanted Adrian to break because Elena was watching.

At home there was no audience. Mara expected to push harder. Instead, she discovered the pleasure of deciding when he earned softness and when he would be tested.

Some evenings, the Casadei box waited upon the dining table. Other nights, Mara offered only her nylon-covered foot and made him ask for her attention. She learned that withholding pressure could affect him more deeply than increasing it.

Pain and tenderness ceased to be opposites. Both became expressions of the power he had placed in her hands.

Elena’s continued authority entered their home as a quiet rivalry.

“Black Louboutins today?” Mara would ask when Adrian returned.

“Yes.”

“Palm or fingers?”

“Both.”

Mara would listen with apparent indifference while deciding which box to open that evening.

On Monday mornings, she sometimes chose his tie while wearing the red Casadeis.

“Elena has the board at eleven.”

“I know.”

“When she tells you where to go?”

“I’ll obey.”

Mara would place one chrome heel against his open palm.

“Remember where you’re coming home afterward.”

That was the heart of their new relationship.

Elena possessed the secrecy of the office: the covered desk, the immaculate Louboutins and the authority no one outside the three of them suspected.

Mara possessed the hours surrounding it.

One night she returned after a difficult board dinner and found Adrian asleep on the sofa. The red Casadeis were in her hand.

She could wake him and direct him to the floor. Instead, she removed the stilettos quietly and lay beside him.

Adrian stirred.

“What do you want?” he asked.

Mara rested her head against his chest.

“Tonight, you may hold me.”

Having someone at her feet was intoxicating.

Having him remain when she removed the heels was something else entirely.

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