Chapter 4: The new routine and a proposal
The rhythm became a law of its own. Three evenings a week, after the last weight rack was wiped down at the gym, Sasha’s SUV would point itself toward the shimmering spire of Cassie’s building. Her body, still humming with endorphins and the ache of heavy lifts, already knew what it was for.
Sometimes, Cassie would be waiting in the gym nook, sipping sparkling water, her lips leaving a glossy print on the rim. “Did you do your squats today, baby? Let mommy see.” Her hands would knead Sasha’s glutes through her leggings before they’d even made it to the bedroom.
Other times, Sasha would find her on the terrace, trying to coax the disdainful Persian onto her lap. “She knows I’m a fraud,” Cassie would laugh, not looking up as Sasha’s shadow fell over her. “But you don’t, do you? Come here. You smell like a real animal.”
The acts themselves took on a ritualistic, deepening filth.
“You’ve been saving it for me, haven’t you?” Cassie would murmur, her face buried between Sasha’s cheeks, her voice muffled. “My big girl knows what I like. Let me hear it.”
And Sasha, after a tense, silent moment of rebellion, would. The releases were longer, wetter, more surrendered. Cassie worshipped the source with a perverse devotion, her fingers spreading the muscle, her tongue tracing the wrinkled skin. “So perfect,” she’d rasp, her bimbo facade utterly dissolved into something hungry and base. “This fat, greedy ring. All mine.”
Afterward, wrapped in Cassie’s silk sheets, the pet talk would flow like a poisoned lullaby.
“Did my stinky pet have a good day? Hmm? Did you think about me while you were lifting all those heavy things for other people?” Cassie’s fingers would twist in Sasha’s short hair.
“I wasn’t thinking about you,” Sasha grumbled once, her voice thick, turning her face away.
The response wasn’t anger. It was a giggle, a light pinch on her nipple. “Ooh, a little bite! That’s okay. You can lie to yourself, my wuv. You can’t lie to this.” Her hand slid down, palming Sasha’s sex, already slick from the earlier degradation. Sasha’s body arched, betraying her completely.
“See?” Cassie whispered, triumphant. “Your body tells the truth. It’s my bestest, smelliest girl. And it wuvs its mommy.”
The fight always left Sasha like air from a punctured lung, leaving her hollow and pliant.
One Tuesday, the city below was a grid of sparkling amber. The usual scent of sweat and vanilla hung in the air, but there was a new charge to it. Cassie seemed unusually alert. She’d used her nails more, left burning tracks down Sasha’s back. Now, they were on the couch, Sasha’s head in her lap. Cassie was scrolling her phone with one hand, the other idly tracing the shell of Sasha’s ear.
“This is getting inconvenient,” Cassie said, her tone conversational.
Sasha stiffened. “What is?”
“This… scheduling. You leaving. It’s boring.” She put her phone down. “Sit up.”
Sasha obeyed, turning to face her. Cassie reached for a manila folder on the lacquered coffee table—a stark, corporate object in the sea of sensual decay. She dropped it in Sasha’s lap.
“What’s this?”
“Open it, silly.”
Inside was a contract. Not long, maybe five pages. Clean, legal phrasing. Sasha’s eyes scanned, catching phrases. “…full room, board, and a discretionary stipend…”“…primary residence at the aforementioned property…”“…agreement of exclusive companionship and domestic availability…”
Her blood went cold, then hot. “What is this?” she repeated, her voice low.
“It’s a proposal, baby.” Cassie smiled, all pouty innocence, but her eyes were sharp as diamonds. “I have money. You have… this.” Her gesture encompassed all of Sasha’s formidable body. “I’m pissed I only get pieces of you. Scraps. So, I’ll pay you. Properly. You move in. You can still go to your gym, see your boring friends, whatever. But the rest of the time? You’re here. With me. Available.”
She leaned forward, tapping a clause about ‘reasonable notice for social engagements.’ “It’s very fair. More than fair. It’s generous.”
Sasha stared at the paper. The words blurred. It was madness. It was a gilded cage with a legal document for a lock.
“You want to pay me… to live here?” Sasha said, the absurdity choking her.
“To be mine,” Cassie corrected, sweetly. “The sex stuff is just our fun. This is the foundation. I want my good little bitch where I can see her. Where I don’t have to wait for her to finish training other people.” She said ‘other people’ like it was a contagious disease.
Sasha stood up, the folder falling to the floor. She felt colossal and ridiculous, standing naked in this perfumed cell. “I’m not a pet you can buy.”
Cassie didn’t move. She just looked up, that vacant expression now completely, terrifyingly focused. “Aren’t you?” Her head tilted. “You come when I call. You eat from my hand. You perform on command. You even,” she said, letting the word hang, “shit for my amusement. What would you call that?”
The truth of it was a physical blow. Sasha’s fists clenched. Every muscle fiber screamed to walk out, to shatter the glass coffee table, to reclaim her dignity in an explosion of violence.
Cassie watched the storm cross Sasha’s face. Then she smiled, a slow, knowing curve of her collagen-filled lips. She got up, padded over, and pressed herself against Sasha’s front, a tiny, relentless pressure. She looked up, her voice dropping into that cooing, possessive register that turned Sasha’s spine to liquid.
“You wanna say no, don’t you, my big strong girl? You wanna prove you’re free.” She nuzzled Sasha’s sternum. “But you won’t. Because you know where you belong. Right here. With all your money and all your muscles, you belong right here, being my wuvvy little bitch.”
Her hand slipped between them, fingertips grazing. Sasha sucked in a breath.
“The pen is on the table,” Cassie whispered, her lips against Sasha’s pounding heart. “Sign it, baby. Then we can stop pretending this was ever anything else.”
Sasha looked over Cassie’s platinum head. The contract lay splayed on the floor. The city’ endless, free lights twinkled beyond the glass. Inside, the only light that mattered was the one in Cassie’s eyes, holding her, claiming her, waiting.