To Serve Is Divine by R. E. Hargrave Page A

laying her palm atop his forearm and resisting the urge to bury her nails in and never let go. Being tucked against him felt good and right — peaceful.
    A warm glow tickled her insides, and she allowed him to escort her to a quiet corner of the atrium. Though situated in the center of a heavily-trafficked lobby, Erin felt like they were in a private garden. Assorted vegetation littered the space around them. A small stream wove through and around the trees, flowers, and sitting areas – some of which were secluded islands accessible by quaint, arched bridges.
    They were seated on one of the islands.
    Within moments they were joined by a tiny lady dressed in a pristine, pressed resort uniform. “Good evening. Welcome to the Gaylord. I’m Sylvia, the atrium attendant tonight. I’ll leave you with this pager. If you would like to order something from the bar or kitchen just press the button and I’ll check on you. Otherwise I’ll leave you two to your privacy,” she delivered her well-rehearsed greeting with zeal.
    “Thank you, Sylvia. We’ll each have a Thai tea to start along with a pitcher of ice water with lemon. Also, please bring us the Taste of Asia sampler platter for two,” Jayden placed their order with familiar ease.
    Erin wondered if he was a frequent patron.
    “Very good, Sir,” Sylvia said with a warm smile before she hurried off to put in their order.
    Erin’s initial reaction was to feel her feathers had been ruffled by his audacity in ordering for her without asking her input like she was a dependent, non-thinking possession. Almost as soon as she’d had the thought she reminded herself that Jayden wasn’t Spencer, and she relaxed.
    For all she knew this was a small test of sorts, and throwing a tantrum wouldn’t have gone over well. She was here applying to be his submissive after all. Erin was hopeful that before the evening ended, they both would have signed their names to the contract in her bag, which she had all but memorized from reading so many times.
    “How have you been?” Jayden asked, breaking her free of her thoughts and starting their meeting.
    For the next two hours, they reviewed the limit checklist Erin had filled out with painstaking precision. Sylvia had returned with their order, but then vanished into the garden as promised, leaving them to their business.
    She extracted the paperwork from her purse and Jayden pulled out his own limit list, explaining to Erin that he’d updated it the night before as was common practice for him whenever screening a potential new sub. Erin’s respect for Jayden grew while he went on to indicate that it was important to him to revisit the list before he risked being swayed by seeing theirs, and vice-versa. He claimed that he didn’t want any woman completing their list to match his if they weren’t comfortable with certain actions.
    Erin listened with rapt attention while Jayden recanted how he’d had one submissive – his platinum-blonde Jenny – who had been so desperate to become his that she’d flat-out lied about her fondness for rope bondage. Shibari, or Kinbanku, was the Japanese art of binding one with rope to create visually dynamic patterns. Erin’s heart went out to him when Jayden relayed how he’d had gotten about halfway through the process of weaving the intricate patterns over Jenny’s body one night before realizing something was wrong.
    “So it turned out that she was claustrophobic, and the act of blindfolding and binding her brought on a panic attack. The end result was that we spent the evening at the ER in lieu of seeking mutual satisfactory sexual release.” He shook his head at the memory.
    “Wow.” What else could Erin say?
    “Yeah. Needless to say, our arrangement didn’t last much longer and the encounter was enough to teach me a lesson and change my approach. Initial lists are now done independent of one another, and if the arrangement continues, then I’ll insist on us reviewing our lists