Previous: When Nathaniel Met Katie

Katie led him out the door and almost as soon as it was just the two of them, she seemed to let some of her shell fade, leaning lightly on him, perhaps she didn't even notice it as they walked together. When they reached the Tower, she led him into the lobby and to the elevator, hitting the button for the top floor. “I've thought about selling it, but my mother inherited it from my grandfather, who bought the floor before the tower was built. I thought…maybe a 'skyview' cafe and coffee bar…” She said softly as the elevator began to rise.

Nate matched her step for step, adjusting his stride to mesh with her, letting her lean on him. He was glad she felt comfortable with him, that she'd taken his hand when he'd given it to her. All subtle little signs he'd given, and she returned. He looked up at the tower when they arrived, then followed her through the lobby to the elevator. “The view from the top is breathtaking, it would be a shame not to use it to bring in customers.” He looked down at the girl by his side, so small against him. So vulnerable. So… Open.

Katie looked up at him and smiled. “I can't bear to get rid of it….” She replied as they reached the floor. She punched in the pin code on the security panel and the door opened, revealing an open floor. A ballet barre along a mirrored wall, a piano in the opposing corner. There was a futon bed in one corner, a desk beside it with notebooks, textbooks. It was sparse, she couldn't bring herself to change it much. “It was hers, but then there's this…” She looked at him, the gold flecks in her blue eyes sparkling.

She took a deep breath and then… “You did not break me….I'm still fighting for peace….” She threw her voice as it reverberated off the walls, this was not the shy, timid, yet beautifully quiet voice at the lounge. She was using her entire body to truly belt the notes, her eyes closing as her cheeks turned pink. She opened her eyes and let her voice trail off. “The acoustics here…along with the space…it'd be great for local music….”

Nate slipped his hand out of hers once inside, then folded it into his other behind his back. His eyes took in the whole of the space as he looked around, her voice carrying with the acoustics well enough he could hear her. It was almost spartan. He stopped in front of the full-length window across the room and gazed into the distance. Then…

Her words carried across the space, filling it like a concert hall. He turned, his grin broad at the knowledge it would make a good musical space, and he walked back over to stand in front of her. “It would be beautiful. Really, it would.” He considered a choice of words that might push some buttons, but he was willing to take that risk. “You would do her memory proud.” It might tip her one way, it might tip her the other. That was the gamble.

Katie turned her gaze up to him as he came to stand before her. “You think so?” She said, and then…he mentioned her mother's memory. Her hand came up and she tucked her hair back behind her ear, but a little further back than usual. There was a tiny semicolon tattooed behind and slightly below her ear. “I've tried so very hard. I tried to follow in her footsteps…” Her fingers touched the little punctuation mark, her eyes slipping down to the floor. “All we had was each other and I struggled so hard to understand why. I tried to follow, but I didn't succeed. And then…I figured if I couldn't follow her…I'd do my best to have a happy life to honor her.” She said softly. No one knew what had happened to her mother. Except now…this man did, and if he connected the dots…he'd know she'd tried to do the same as her mother.

Nate tilted his head to one side as he caught the tattoo behind her ear. The way she spoke, the way she touched it when she mentioned 'her'. He could tell how it made her feel. He would ask her about it, but not now. “All we can do is honor our parents.” Cogs started to whir in his mind. Connecting things. She missed her mother so much. She wanted to be like her mother. The symbol behind her ear. Then…

Click. Boom. Like an explosion going off in his mind. His eyes welled up and he reached out, his arms wrapping around her, pulling her into his chest. He felt like words weren't enough to express what he wanted to say, so he just kept quiet.

Katie smiled, nodding. She never knew her father. It had always been her and her mother. But then…she almost felt the air crackle with the weight of his realization, and she was in his arms, her own wrapping around him as the collision of her body to his brought her walls down. “I stopped playing, I stopped singing. I stopped dancing. I just wanted to get my degree and help others…but today….I felt moved to do it all…and then you walked into my life and I am not one to charge into things but everything about you feels like home to me. I've never let anyone sit beside me while I played. Ever. Except her. And now you. I don't feel right calling you by your name but being polite seems more…intimate than the word implies. There's something about you that speaks to something in me and god help me sir, I don't want to stop listening.”

Nate released her from his arms, pulling back a little from her embrace, and lowered himself to his knees, legs extended to place his head at the same height as hers. It might look odd to someone looking in from outside, but he didn't care. He held her chin in his hand and made sure she was looking him in the eye before he started to speak. “Never stop playing. Never stop singing. Never stop dancing. Even if you do those things for me, from this day forth. I ask that you never stop.” He kept his steely blue eyes locked on hers. He considered how to break the subject. “You've seen the relationships at the club, right?”

Katie stared into his eyes, not protesting his hold on her chin. “For you? I promise.” She whispered, then tilted her head slightly in his grip but not enough to break contact. “I have, yes.” She replied, pushing up her glasses and then, lightly touching his cheek with her fingertips. “Why?”

Nate tilted his head slightly, releasing her chin, then settling back on his heels. Then he shifted to take a seated position, legs crossed. He considered a test. He patted his lap. He knew it might be a little awkward, but it would see if she could follow an unspoken order. Something she shouldn't even know how to follow.

Katie watched him quietly, curiosity knitting her brow. She watched as he shifted to sit, legs crossed, then patted his lap. Did he want her to sit there? She wanted to sit there. She missed his arms around her already. She'd felt…secure…it was a nice feeling. He'd patted the stool to beckon her to sit back down, maybe this was the same? Those expressive eyes held something in them. Some part of her knew this step was big. She needed it. Needed him. She dropped to her knees and slipped into his lap as she descended. He'd meant to take his time.

They both knew she was already His.

Nate wrapped his arms around her, applying a little pressure against her, meaning to let her know he intended to keep her safe. “Tell me. Why did you do what you just did?” He wanted to hear her reasoning. He knew why. He could tell her exactly why. But it would be interesting to hear how she rationalized what she just did.

He needed to teach her, to mould her. To keep her safe. This was only the beginning.

Katie swallowed audibly. “I don't know if I can put it into words, but I'll try…” She replied, looking down at her hands. For a moment, fingers fidgeted and then one arm slipped around him as he held her close. “You…I don't know what it is. You're the only one I feel safe being…me….around. I almost lost it talking about my mother…but you…held me together, didn't you? I don't know how you did it. I don't know why you'd want to, there's so many beautiful women, you could have any of them. They'd know what you want already. I don't know anything.” She whispered.

Nate smiled a wide, happy smile. He leaned down and placed a kiss on her head, something affectionate, soft. “Let me introduce you to my world, Katie.” There were a lot of things he could teach her, but right here, right now, she was a blank slate. There were two concepts, to begin with. “Do you understand the concept of dominance and submission?” He wasn't going to let her answer that, it didn't matter what the answer was. If she'd read any of the suggested material, she'd have a headstart. “You're naturally submissive. You need someone to listen to, to look up to. Someone who will take control, but still keep your best interests at heart.” He could fill in more, but that would do to begin.

“I'm naturally dominant. Not like that trash, mind.” There, he'd finally let his feelings be known, it made him laugh while holding her. “That means I expect you to listen. I will guide you, I will control you. I may hurt you, physically, mentally. But I will always… Always. Bring you back to safety.” He had one more question. “There is one word you choose to use. Instead of my name. What is that? More importantly, search your soul for the answer to this following question, I can wait. For all eternity, if needs be. Why do you call me that?”

Katie turned red at the kiss, a sweet little smile curling those heart-shaped lips of hers. “I do…yes.” She replied. She listened to what he said about her…and she knew he was speaking truth. Was she strong, independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant? Absolutely. But during her mother's illness, then the fatal diagnosis that led to her mother wasting away until she took her own life so that she wouldn't lose her dignity? Katie had been forced into those roles. She'd had to be strong. She didn't have a choice. She couldn't fall apart. She couldn't crack and yet this man had walked into her life during the one moment when she'd eased up, let a little sliver of herself shine through. And he'd slipped into the cracks. But he didn't force her apart.

Why did she call him 'sir'? Why did it feel more natural than his name? She closed her eyes, trembling. It was right there. She knew. “Because…” She looked up at him. “I trust you…and I want and need you to guide me, control me, hurt me and bring me back. Hold me together. Give me a safe space to fall apart and help me put the pieces back together. I want to make you smile. I want to tend to you, touch you. I want you, everything you offer and expect of me. Everything you would take and give back. I don't make decisions swiftly but I know this one…with you, is right. And I want it. I want you, sir.”

Nate listened as she spoke her answer. He'd left subtle little gaps. She filled them in, papering over the cracks of his description, much like he'd slipped between the cracks in her shell. He'd known many who would drive a wedge into those cracks, make them bigger, break the girl currently in his arms, but… That wasn't him. He preferred to take someone and lead them a merry dance, to help them improve, become the best they could be. To give herself wholeheartedly to him, by choice. She had taken that first step in her answer, now he had to confirm he was what she wanted.

Her final word, after everything else. He felt the same way about her. “Good answer.” He paused for a moment, considering. He rolled her name around in his head in that fraction of a second. Katie. Kate. Kat. So small, not a full grown cat, but… “Kitten.” He finished his sentence. That would be what he called her from now on. He took his arm away, slipping his hand into his jacket pocket and pulling out a small, flat jewelry box. He placed it in her lap, then spoke quietly, almost a whisper in her ear, but not quite. _{“I have a present for you if you will accept.”} He hadn't expected to need it this soon, but he was always prepared.

Katie snapped her head up to meet his as he called her Kitten. And then her eyes drifted to the sky for a moment. She wasn't religious, she'd lost her way after her mother's death, but this was all too symbolic and meaningful to be anything other than what it felt like…her childhood nickname. But this was no morbid obsession. It was a sign and from his lips, it only reinforced all the feelings he evoked within her. Her eyes met his again. “A present…for me, Sir?” She asked softly, her fingers curling around the edges of the lid. “I accept it if you are certain I am the one worthy of it.” She whispered.

And then her fingers lifted the lid.

Nate watched as she lifted the lid on the jewelry box. Inside is a silver chain necklace, a T-bar on one end, an O ring on the other to loop it through. A simple item, but one with meaning for him. He reached down, picking up each end in his fingers. “Lift your hair, Kitten.” He laid his arms over her shoulders, waiting for her to do as she was asked.

Nay, to do as she was required.

Katie looked at the beautiful necklace and then up at him. “It's beautiful, Sir….” She breathed, lifting her long, dark brown hair off her neck, baring the elegant slope of alabaster skin to him. She didn't hesitate, she didn't question. She did as he asked with no protest….as she had from the moment they met.

Nate brought the necklace to her throat, bringing the ends behind her and slipping the T-bar through to hold it in place. With his fingers inside, he turned it so the link was at the front, where people would see it. Some might understand the nature of it, but that was nowhere near his mind. He wondered if she would understand the nature of what he had just done. She was so new, but she'd taken to his previous inquiries like a duck to water. He swallowed. Paused. Then spoke.

“Do you understand?”

Katie knew something momentous was happening. She'd witnessed enough of the attire and behaviors in the club to understand and feel the full intensity of the meaning. He accepted her. He saw her actions and her words for what they were. She had been offering him her submission…and in turn, he accepted her, claimed her as his. “I do, Sir. I am Yours, wholly. You…claimed me, yes? It means…You control me. All I am is Yours now, and this makes it clear to everyone, right? That no one is to attempt to claim me, right? I am…this is….” She ran through all she had learned.

“I have submitted to You…and You have…collared me…right?”

Nate nodded slowly, his fingers tracing over the soft flesh of her throat before he placed both arms around her again. He listened to the words tumbling from her lips, almost as if she was going through everything she had learned, understood, and stored for the future. That future being now. Everything was correct, even if it was the jumbled mess of someone new. He waited until she finished, before agreeing, and providing a minimum of correction.

“Essentially… Yes. It is my claim on you, but it is also my promise to you. While you wear my… Collar.” He stumbled over the word. It wasn't a collar in the conventional sense, but it had the same meaning to him. It was also something she could wear in public and nobody would blink an eye. “I promise to protect you. From others, from yourself, and from me.” That last one might sound a little strange. He wouldn't explain unless she asked, but she might understand without. “But there is one caveat. 2 weeks. We will speak our minds to one another and decide to continue, or part ways. This is part of my promise to you.”

Katie looked up at him. “And if in two weeks, You wish to not have me anymore, we part? What if You choose to keep me?” She asked softly, her fingers slowly stroking along his arms. She hadn't even allowed for the possibility of her changing her mind. Katie was never one to make such a weighty offering or decision without being prepared to follow through for wherever it led her. The thought that she might want to refute His claim was simply one that never occurred to her.

Nate tilted his head slightly, looking down at her with his steely grey eyes. He hadn't considered she wouldn't take it as something mutual, and only as His decision. That was a surprise. A pleasant one, nonetheless. That meant a lot to him, it meant she was sure. That was a good sign. It meant she understood on a deeper level. It meant, more than anything, she wouldn't just play. She would live. And that was what he needed in someone.

He answered her. Well, he tried to answer her. His words caught in his throat. This time she had Him flustered. He was unaccustomed to that. He held up a finger, the universal sign of “hold on one moment”, and frowned, taking a long, deep breath. Only then could He speak as He intended. “Oh, Kitten. I could make that decision now. I always hope for the best, but I expect the worst. That is all the two weeks is for. I have never been the one to walk away.” A single tear rolled down his cheek, a memory from long ago. He let it fall.

Katie tilted her head. She watched him, observing every minute shift in his expression. She could sense the flustering. She frowned as he spoke. Someone had hurt him. This made her heartache, made her unhappy even if it led him on the path to her. Her fingers lifted. He might have let the tear fall but she did not. Slender, gentle fingers caught it on her fingertips and she pressed it to the skin, the slight rounded top of the luscious globe of flesh that sat over her heart. “I am sorry You have felt pain. I will endeavor to never be the source of this. But if something else is? I will comfort You. Always.” She whispered. “My life almost ended a year ago, by my own hand. My own mother was not yet forty-five when she died, by her own hand. I do not make decisions lightly. I will not walk away. And You will learn this about me, Sir, as I will learn many, many things about You.”

Nate smiled, his lips quirking up at her action, taking the tear he let fall down his cheek and placing it over her heart. It was weak, a mockery of his normal bright cheerful smile, but given the pain he felt, it was a miracle it was there at all. His eyes followed her fingers, and his tongue traced over his dry lips. He closed his eyes, then raised his head from where it had dropped, bringing it up to look in her direction. When his eyes opened, all trace of that pain was gone, replaced for the affection that had grown for the woman in his lap.

That she called him Sir, without his request, without his requirement, that she chose that word above his name… She had dug herself into the hole in his heart left previously and had already started to repair that jagged gash.

“Thank you, Kitten.” He could not express his thanks any more than that. “I'm glad to have met you, and that you could meet me.” If he were a religious man, he might have called it fate. Or destiny. He simply called it luck. “We will learn. Together.”

Katie 's smile lit up her face. “No time limits, please, Sir. Two weeks…it's not long enough. I…would rather not have it in the back of my mind that two weeks is approaching, even now. Please? Can we just…may I just….” She bit her lip. Pushed her glasses up. Touched her neck. All her nervous little tells in one fell swoop and then she leaned up and placed a soft kiss to his lips. “I would, if You are willing…simply…be. Teach me, guide me. Let me abandon fear and reservation and grow under Your care. Two weeks is not long, even for a more 'conventional' dynamic. That…is all I ask You to consider…please.” She said tenderly.

Nate nodded to her initial comment. The request. He saw each of those tells, making a little mental note, understanding what each of them meant. Then the kiss, soft, precious, unexpected. He closed his eyes, his head nodding slowly along with the rest of her words, simply listening to her voice as the words tumbled out one after the other. She reached the end and his eyes remained closed. He listened to the silence. Quiet. Calm. Tranquil. How his heartfelt after that moment of dismay.

He opened his eyes, a soft look on his visage as he considered those words. “Then perhaps, another time frame is more suitable.” He considered his options. He chose a single word. “Forever.” It rolled off his tongue and he shivered involuntarily. That was a long time to promise someone. As he spoke, he reached up with his right hand, lacing his fingers into her hair, and pulled her forward into a longer, more passionate kiss as he finished speaking. His tongue darted between her lips, toying with her. He considered that their first kiss, sealing their verbal contract, even without waiting for her answer.

Katie had her whole attention on him, biting her lip as she waited for him to consider. She waited though, to react until she heard his time frame. And then he said one word and her eyes grew radiant. She didn't have time to react or answer. His hands were in her hair and he pulled her to him. Lips, grip, and then his tongue. Her lips parted, granting him passage, answering him without words as her slender fingers gripped in the back of his shirt, trembling. It was likely, almost a guarantee, that His Kitten had never, ever been kissed so passionately before in her entire life.

Nate maintained that kiss for several moments, moments leading into seconds, then into much longer. He pulled away after those many seconds, his eyes twinkling, his lips curled up in a smile. He took in a long breath of air before uttering one word. “Mine.” Single words. Simple. Plain. Hard to misunderstand. Much like the man speaking those words.

He noticed the tremble in her fingers where they lay, tucked into the back of his shirt. Because of him. He wasn't playing a game with her, chasing someone, toying with them. He was living his life and bringing her along for the ride. He chose her. She chose Him. All those tiny, subtle little moments passing between them had led to this.

He had to add to that one word. He couldn't help himself, he liked the sound, the way it rolled around in his mind, the way it would echo in the space if he spoke it loud enough. He did. “My Kitten.”

Katie held close to him, never tiring of the dance of their lips, his teasing tongue. Timidly, a few times, her own caught his, tasted him, causing her fingers to tremble against his back. She was utterly breathless when he pulled away. “Yours. Your Kitten.” She spoke, the sound echoing on the tail end of his words. “My…” She bit her lip and looked up at him.

“My Master.” She nodded. She'd call him both Sir and Master…but Master was what he was to her.

Next: First Lessons