It made me feel better, to have come up with that solution: I would wash the sheets, and learn how to use the deluxe washer and dryer I felt certain came with this palatial house. That was a wifely duty, wasn’t it? Laundry, cooking, and regular lovemaking—after last night, I felt certain I could cope with the regular lovemaking, if Rick would just, you know, calm down.
I sat up against the pillows, wedging them tightly between my naked back and the headboard. I refused to think about the headboard, about the slats… the way they had felt in my hands, when…
I pulled the covers up, to keep my nudity hidden. I thought about getting out of bed and putting on the nightgown, so that I wouldn’t have to read the note from Rick this way, still with no clothes on. Not only would that make me even more conscious of my nakedness, though, but I might also catch a glimpse of myself in the full-length mirror on the bathroom door.
With my elbows lowered tightly to my sides to keep the covers in place, I unfolded the note.
Good morning, Dee! I didn’t want to wake you. Scott’s coming to pick me up for an early tee time. I’ll see you after your lunch with the ladies.
I felt blood rush to my cheeks at the thought of laying eyes on Scott Dennison again. For a moment, the castle I had built in the air of living in Rocky Falls without having to pay attention to all the New Modesty nonsense crumbled a little before the prospect of Scott and April and their mortifying knowledge of what had led to our coming here. I pushed that idea away, but I couldn’t rid myself of my unwilling speculation as to what Rick and Scott would discuss in their hours on the golf course.
I felt happy—really, honestly happy—that Rick would get the chance to golf on what I felt sure must be a great course. He loved the game but he had never gotten the chance to play as much as he would like. To think that as an executive he might have the opportunity to play golf with senior colleagues and other up-and-coming businessmen gave me a warm glow inside. The question of their locker-room conversations about marital life in Rocky Falls, though, made me bite my lip as I read on.
I quickly came to a part of the note, however, that pushed that small matter well to the side.
April is going to come by for you at 10 to take you to the day spa, like I told you about last night.
A little flash of pain from my lower lip told me I had just almost drawn blood, reading these words. I looked over to the bedside table and saw the clock there said 9:15.
She’ll take you to the club for lunch after that, and then we’ll come back home together. I know you’re nervous, but I know you’ll be a good girl, just like you were for me last night.
I felt my forehead furrow very hard. What did Rick mean, about the nervousness and the good-girl behavior? Was he talking about the day spa? The lunch? Or… or what would happen after we had gotten home, together?
All of them, I realized with another blush. My mouth twisted to the side as I finished reading.
I love you so much, darling Dee. I’m so glad we’re here and on the right track to building a marriage that meets both our needs.
Always,
Rick
For an instant I hesitated, the covers still pulled up over my chest, the note starting to fall from my slightly trembling fingers. Different pictures of me came to my mind’s eye, doing something—anything—that could change the shameful story that seemed to be unfolding with me as its wanton, submissive heroine… or rather its degraded, owned victim.
Me, pulling on clothes and slouching down the street to the edge of town, to some place where I could buy a bus ticket home. Me, caught by Mrs. Purdy on the road, returned to my husband for his terrible justice.
Me, reasoning with Rick that of course I would have sex with him, and do the cooking and the laundry, but not… not with no hair down there, no way, and not with the threat of the belt, and not with him talking that way to me, using those filthy words, and…
My bottom squirmed on the soft, satiny sheet. I let out a little sob at the soreness there, and the ambiguous tendrils of warmth it had sent to the soreness up front. At the need that had started to gather there. At the dark memories of my first whipping over the pillows, my bottom offered for the old-fashioned lesson I had earned… my pussy offered for the hard… the brutal…
Lovemaking, I told myself, at the same moment forcing myself to get out of bed.
I did everything I could not to notice my reflection, but how could I not see it, since I had to get to the bathroom to take a shower? I saw my naked body, the little breasts and the golden triangle of crinkly hair, the place Rick had claimed as his personal property. I would persuade him how ridiculous and shameful his idea of taking those intimate curls away was. I would tell April thank you, yes, I would love a mani-pedi at a day spa.
I opened the door and I kept my eyes straight ahead toward the shower. My tummy fluttered with alarm at the idea that I might catch sight of my rear end, of the welts I had touched in bed under the covers, before I had fully woken up and gotten possession of my wits. I found I could keep my eyes away from the mirror whenever it might show me my backside, and that gave me increasing confidence, as I showered and then got dressed, that I could make it all work out.
I winced a little as I put on a pair of my everyday pink bikini panties, but I had already begun thinking about the cute skirt I would wear—one I had bought for the honeymoon but hadn’t had a chance to put on in the Adirondacks.
By the time April’s car pulled up in front of the house, I felt ready to get this new life in Rocky Falls off to a solid start. I had shown Rick, even during the craziness that his masculine needs had clearly brought on, that I could fulfill the most extreme of conjugal duties. I didn’t intend to fulfill themthatway again, but, sure, yes, I meant to be a good girl, in my own way.
Brat,the observer observed. I shook my head as I went out the door to clear that voice away.
“Hi, Mandy!” April called through the driver’s side window. “Hop in!”
CHAPTER25
Rick
“How did last night go?” Scott asked as we he drove the cart up the beautifully manicured first fairway toward the green, where I had landed my second shot perfectly.