Free Submission by Ella Ardent Page A

didn’t care.
    What had the Master done to her? A
woman with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes looked back at Joanna from the
mirror, a woman with an adventurous glint in her eye and her lips swollen from
fierce kisses.
    A woman who wasn’t going to fall
asleep anytime soon. No, she felt too alive, too aware of every increment of
her body to sleep. She opened her raincoat and ran and hand over herself,
echoing the gesture of the Master, and felt a thrill of recollection.
    This couldn’t end here.
     
    ***
     
    “It’s pathetic,” Athena
complained, pointing at the email messages on her screen. She and Rex were in
the back office of the Plume on Monday morning. “Look at how she’s begging for
you. Honestly, a person would think you’d invented sex.”
    “I thought I did,” Rex said, by
rote, and Athena swatted him, by rote. He leaned over the screen, reading
Joanna’s requests for readmission to the Plume with more interest than he knew
they deserved.
    She hadn’t meant any of it.
    She just wanted the story.
    He still wanted her.
    “They all fall in love with you,”
Athena continued. “Every single one you train. Doesn’t matter what age or
gender.” She flung out her hands. “It’s just sad.”
    “I think your trainees are pretty
taken with you.” Rex had reviewed those pictures of Joanna more times than he
knew was healthy. He wondered whether he’d ever tire of them.
    “Well?” Athena prompted.
    “Sorry, what did you say?”
    “It’s not the same and you know
it.” She spun in the chair to face him, tossing her hair over her shoulder and
smiling. “So, why don’t you train me? Fight in your own class for a change.”
    Rex chose to make a joke of what
he knew wasn’t a joke. “Because it would ruin everything and you know it,” he
said lightly.
    “I’m willing to take the chance.”
    “I’m not.”
    “Boundaries and rules.” Athena
exhaled then shook her head. “Okay, you didn’t invent sex, but you invented the
rule book for it.”
    “It’s just smart to have
boundaries.”
    “Then why are you reading those
groveling emails as if they hold the secret of turning shit into gold?” Athena
leaned closer, her eyes gleaming. “Are you going to break one of your own
rules, Mr. Cool?”
    That was when Rex knew he had to
do it.
    “Just one.” He took the mouse and
clicked through the inventory page for the boutique. He selected an item, then
wrote a note. “Order her one of these, send her this and book her in for
Friday.” He straightened and made to leave the office. “If she has the nerve to
accept, I’ll make sure she never comes around again.”
    “How are you going to do that?”
Athena asked with a smile.
    Rex grinned from the doorway.
“I’ll give her exactly what she says she wants.”
    “You’re bringing her here again?”
    “No. I’ll handle this off-site.”
    “But the rules…”
    “Fuck the rules, Athena.” Rex left
the office and headed to the gym, Athena’s surprised laughter making him smile.
    Or maybe it was the prospect of
seeing Joanna again, exactly the way he wanted to see her, that filled his week
with promise.
     
    ***
     
    “Package for you today,” Joanna’s
superintendent said on Thursday when she was emptying her mailbox. Joanna spun
to face her. That woman was leaning in the doorway, waving a box. “I signed for
it for you.” Her expectation was obvious.
    “Thanks!” Joanna ignored that
curiosity and took the box with a smile. Her smile faltered and her heart leapt
when she saw that it had no return address.
    Could it be another invitation?
    “Has no return address,” the super
noted, following Joanna into the building.
    “My sister’s handwriting, though,”
Joanna lied. “She’s probably thinking she’ll surprise me.” She rolled her eyes
as if that was unlikely and the super laughed. “Thanks again.” She clutched the
parcel and tried to not look like she was running to her apartment.
    She ripped it open in the foyer,
her