Free Safeword by A. J. Rose Page B

it. The irritation ebbed, and I put a hand on his leg, just above his knee.
    “Of course I do,” he answered. “When you’re ready.”
    “Which is not something you get to determine, Ben,” Laura reminded gently. “Just like Gavin doesn’t get to mind read, neither do you.” She paused, pursing her lips. “Ben, what’s one of the most basic principles the BDSM lifestyle contains?”
    “There are many basics, Laura, and I don’t need to be schooled on any of them.” A brief flash passed over his face, and my heart skipped a beat. There he is! My Dom, confident and in control. The wave of desire welling up was wholly inappropriate, and wholly unstoppable.
    “Communication,” she said, ignoring him. She was a sub, but not his sub, and as his business partner, she knew him better than anyone but me and could get away with talking to him in such a manner. “Open communication is a must, or people get hurt. Gavin may be communicating with you, but you don’t appear to be listening. He’s sleeping better. His touch aversion has all but disappeared, if only with you. He’s focusing on a difficult case at work without a single panic attack. And yet you say he’s not ready to begin another facet of his treatment. Why?”
    Ben met her with stony silence.
    “May I speculate?” she asked politely, indifferent to his glare.
    “By all means.” His sarcasm was thick enough to cut with a knife.
    Laura stood, looking out the windows at the wintry landscape. She squared her shoulders as she spoke.
    “Gavin has been the one more outwardly demonstrative of the effects your attack has brought on you both. His reactions have been more immediate, more on the surface, and therefore, front and center since the verdict and your one failed scene six months ago. They are easier to focus on, and after all, it’s your place as his Dom to care for your sub. His troubles give you a point of direction. Gavin is your compass, yours to read and determine the best direction in which to travel.”
    It made me smile, being considered as such, but I remained quiet. Ben’s leg against mine was rock hard, and I thought I knew where she was headed, so I plucked his hand from his lap and entwined our fingers, offering my proximity and support, if not exactly agreement, for his position.
    “I believe you’ve been playing a particularly well-disguised avoidance scheme. You may not even be aware of doing it. Your attention has been on Gavin’s recuperation, and because of this, you have suppressed your own recovery.”
    Ben snorted. “That’s not true, Laura. You have sessions with both of us privately, as well as together. I’m getting help.”
    She gave him a rueful, if sympathetic nod. “We spend most of our one-on-one time discussing your worries about Gavin. Tell me, Ben.” She moved back to her chair, her steps calculated, almost predatory, in their careful approach, as if she expected closing the distance between her and Ben would elicit a reaction again. The chair creaked as she gracefully sank into it, steepling her fingers in front of her lips. “Does what happened to you make you uncomfortable?”
    “I wasn’t the one completely violated.”
    “That doesn’t answer my question.”
    Laura would have made a hell of a detective.
    “Yes, of course it does,” he finally acquiesced.
    “What about it makes you uncomfortable?”
    “Serious?” he scoffed. “Everything. Forced to watch Gavin being tortured. Hearing such hatred pointed at someone I love and being unable to stop Lane from inflicting the pain he did.”
    “What about being restrained and whipped until bloodied yourself, beaten badly enough to require hospitalization?”
    Ben was silent for so long, I thought he wouldn’t answer. I barely breathed, knowing if I made a move or a sound, Ben would latch onto it to change the direction of Laura’s concentration.
    “It’s nothing I haven’t endured before.”
    “In your capacity as a Dom, though, right?” she