Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 93751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Lucia smiled. “Everything’s great with her. That’s not who I’m texting with. It’s Lia.”
“Lia,” Hannah exclaimed, remembering the poor girl’s tears of the day before. “Is she okay? Where is she?”
Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen Lia since their talk. She hadn’t been at lunch, now that Hannah thought about it. She had been so distracted and self-conscious by all the attention she’d received that she hadn’t thought to question Lia’s absence.
“She left The Enclave very early this morning,” Lucia said. “Hans drove her back down to Asheville. This is the first chance I’ve had to connect with her. She’s feeling very conflicted at the moment. She has a lot of external pressures we didn’t know about when she entered the program. She has stuff she needs to work out, so this decision was probably for the best.”
“Poor Lia,” Hannah said, recalling the girl’s sobs the evening before. “I know she was having a hard time.”
“It was a struggle for her from the beginning,” Lucia agreed. “She was pretty much in non-stop trouble since she arrived at The Enclave.”
“Yeah,” Jaime agreed, shaking her head. “She’s such a tough little cookie. I sometimes wondered if she wasn’t more Domme than sub. She’s definitely a hardcore masochist. She could take anything the Masters dished out, and only ask for more. Even if she had been allowed a safeword, that girl would never have used it. I was in awe, to tell you the truth.”
“Which is all well and good,” Lucia said. “But masochism is only part of the equation for an Enclave slave. True submission from the heart is an essential. And while I believe Lia has the potential to embrace submission, she resisted it at every turn. It’s why she was constantly being punished—she was holding back that part of herself.”
“Maybe she’s just not cut out for the whole slave thing,” Hannah suggested, thinking at the moment more of herself than Lia.
“Maybe,” Lucia said. Then she sighed. “I hate to see anyone quit before the miracle, but for her this was probably the right decision, at least for now. Lia says she took your advice, Hannah.”
“My advice?” Hannah asked, alarmed. Was she to blame for Lia’s “quitting before the miracle?”
“Yes,” Lucia said, smiling again. “You told her to follow her heart. Apparently her heart told her to leave.”
“Yikes,” Hannah said, clutching the pillow to her chest. She’d had no idea she’d had such an impact on the girl. “Maybe I should have kept my big mouth shut. I mean, what do I know?”
“No,” Lucia said decisively. “You did her a service. Not everyone is the right fit for what we offer. Sometimes potential trainees sign up for the wrong reasons or have unrealistic expectations. Lia had been white-knuckling her way through the program since day one.” She shrugged philosophically. “And who knows? Maybe one day she’ll be back.”
“Meanwhile, you’re still here, Hannah,” Jaime chimed in. “And inquiring minds want to know—how in the world did you manage to talk Master Grump, I mean Master Mason, into personally taking over your training?”
Hannah laughed in spite of herself. “It’s the other way around, actually. And it’s the question I keep asking myself. How did I let him and Master Anthony talk me into this? While I do want a more authentic experience, I’m wondering if maybe I should have stayed with BDSM lite, as Mason calls it. I’m afraid I might be in over my head.”
Lucia pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I disagree, Hannah. Master Anthony and I talked over the idea after Master Mason approached him last night. We both see something in you—something more than just a writer wanting to lend authenticity to her stories. You may not yet be ready for full 24/7 immersion training, but that’s why you were permitted those hard limits. None of us have hard limits, do we Jaime?”
As Jaime shook her head, Lucia added, “That doesn’t mean our Masters exploit what might be triggers for us. They’re very careful to keep us safe in that regard. But the key to take away from that is that they are the ones who keep us safe—who decide what we can and can’t handle. It takes time and a building of trust to get to that point. Since you’re only here for such a short time, those limits are a good framework for Master Mason to operate within. And hopefully, it frees you up to give yourself more fully to the experience.”
“And not just that,” Jaime interjected. “You’re the first woman to catch Master Mason’s attention since Ashley left us last year. I know he comes across super gruff and unapproachable, but, as cornbally as it sounds, there’s a tender heart beneath all that. Finding a guy was probably not your prime motivation for coming here, but hey”—she shrugged, smiling—“you could definitely do worse.”