Ashley's Bend (8 page)

“Get up and go to the cross,” I demand. Without hesitation, she obeyed my command and walked over to face the cross. I walked over to her and strapped her arms in and left her feet free so that I could bend her over and fuck her hard and fast from behind. I ripped opened the foil packet that I carried with me and rolled it on. I gave my dick a few priming pumps and just before I entered her from behind, my subconscious flashed a pair of green eyes and blonde hair into my mind. I couldn’t move. I was frozen. I knew my sub was wondering what was taking so long. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t fuck this girl.

“
FUCK
!” I roared. I reached up and unshackled her from the restraints.

“Get dressed.”

I walked over and grabbed my clothes and threw them on with intense fury. I stormed out of The Rapture and made my way toward my office and slammed the door closed behind me. I threw myself down in my chair and banged my fists against the desk.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

I rubbed my temples as my headache pounded with full force. I would rather be anywhere than in mediation and facing Jared for the first time since I found him cheating on me. Kelly had been wonderful in not allowing him to bother me at the apartment, and I had done an even better job at dodging his calls. Now, we were two and a half weeks after our separation, discussing our divorce. Actually, discussing would be putting it mildly. It has basically been Jared’s repeated attempts at begging me not to go through with it. I did have to say that he looked disheveled, a broken version of the man I once knew, or thought I knew.

“Ashley, please, baby, don’t do this. I’m sorry, I’m so fucking sorry. I swear to you that it will never happen again,
ever
,” Jared pleaded with me. I couldn’t help the tears that fell from my eyes. Once upon a time, we had a beautiful relationship built on trust, love and passion. That ended the night I caught him with his secretary.

“No, Jared. It is over. I can’t ever trust you again.
You
broke our vows,
you
fucked another girl, and
you
were always more concerned with
your
job than me. I want to live for me now, do what I love to do and build a career for myself,” I replied.

“You can do all that. I promise I will support you no matter what. Besides, I will have plenty of time on my hands since the firm let me go last week. Karen told everyone in the office what happened and it got around to the partners. They said that they did not want someone who was dishonest working for them.”

In all my twenty five years, I had never seen a man cry, until then. Jared was sobbing like a blubbering idiot right in that conference room as we met with our respective lawyers. I knew it felt strange, but I had no sympathy for him. Yes, part of me still hurt, but other than feeling sorry for what was then, I had no feelings toward this coward in front of me.

“I want the divorce,” I said as I reached for the paperwork in front of me and signed my name. I then slid the documents over to him and tossed the pen on top. A horrid look crossed his face before his eyes darkened with anger.

He narrowed his eyes at me before leaning in to try to get closer to me from across the table.

“This is not over, Ashley.”

“Yes, Jared, it is. I have been nice to you in this proceeding. I could take everything from you, the house, money, everything all due to your infidelity, but I chose not to. That wouldn’t make me any better of a person than you are.
You
decided this when you slept with your secretary,” I said with seriousness in my voice.

“I told you I was weak and made a fucking mistake, Ashley. What more do you want?” he said as is his eyes still glistened with tears.

“I want a man who loves me enough to not go shoving his dick in anyone he wishes. Arghhhh. I am not going through this with you again! Sign the damn papers!” My irritation at him was starting to become prevalent and my lawyer reached a hand over to place it on my forearm as a warning to calm down.

“Mr. Kyle, I would suggest that you persuade your client to sign the papers. Mrs. Carter has been forgiving in her divorce request considering the circumstances behind the dissolution of the marriage,” my lawyer said to Jared’s counsel.

“Mr. Carter, he is right. As a lawyer yourself, you know that the act of infidelity can ensure that Mrs. Carter is entitled to all property and finances between the two of you. You also know that you potentially face the risk of very high alimony payments. I suggest you sign,” Jared’s lawyer said to him.

Jared glanced around the room at the two men and me. Angrily he picked up the pen and scratched his name on the divorce documents. I let out the breath I was holding. I was almost certain from his actions that he was going to refuse to sign. Jared abruptly stood and his chair screeched against the floor in the conference room.

“I don’t care what those papers say, Ash. You are
my
wife. Make no mistake about that. You will realize the mistake you are making. Go live your
free
life, but I’ll be damned if I let anyone else have you.”

“Is that a threat?” I asked standing up from my own chair. I would not let him intimidate me.

“It’s a promise.”

“Mr. Carter!” Jared’s lawyer said in chastisement, “I suggest you leave and try to keep your thoughts to yourself.”

Jared just looked at his lawyer like he had grown two heads. In a final attempt to put the nail in the coffin of our lives together, I turned to my lawyer, “I would also like to petition to the court to be able to go back to my maiden surname.”

“What? No!” Jared yelled as he pounded his fists onto the table. My lawyer nodded his head and I reached down next to the chair I was sitting in and grabbed my purse. After positioning it on my shoulder, I made my way over to the exit of the conference room.

“Ashley, this is not over,” Jared said as he gripped me by the arm when I tried to leave. I yanked my arm from his grasp and didn’t say a word as I walked out of the room, leaving him and our past behind to begin my new life.

Sitting in the living room of my now shared apartment with Kelly, I stared at the signed documents in my hands. I couldn’t help but think about the last words that Jared said to me.

This is not over.

I have to admit that I was a little afraid of how things were left. Jared was not someone to make threats to someone, so his words were unnerving. I sat the documents down on the coffee table and pulled the envelope that Dominic gave me from out of my purse. Unfolding the pages inside, I carefully began to read the words on the page.

Kelly came out of her room with her hair up in a towel turban style. I quickly stuffed the papers back into the envelope and then into my purse before she walked over and plopped down on the sofa next to me.

“So it’s done, huh?” she asked gesturing to the divorce papers sitting on the coffee table.

“Yeah, the lawyers said it should only take a few days to finalize in the courts. Indiana marriage dissolution laws are pretty quick when infidelity is involved.”

“How are you feeling about it?”

“I am ok with it. Thinking about it, Jared and I haven’t had that great of a relationship in the last year, and definitely not in the last six months. I did kind of feel sorry for him when I heard he lost his job at the firm. He did work hard to get that job. You should have seen him Kell, he looked completely disheveled.”

“You aren’t softening on him are you?”

“No, no, nothing like that, I just was making an observation was all.”

“Speaking of observations, what is that?” she said as she pointed to the envelope sticking out of my purse. She reached for it before I could stop her and was nearly bouncing in her seat with excitement.

“Holy shit, Ash! Is this what I think it is?” She opened the flap on the envelope and read the contents inside.

“It’s a fucking invitation to join the sub training? How did you get this?”

I picked at the hem of my skirt out of nervousness. I thought back when Dominic came into the bar while I was working.

“I, uh, got it from Dominic.” For a moment, I don’t think that my answer had seeped into her brain until her eyes went wide with shock as she glanced from the paper in her hands to me and back again.

“Master Dominic gave this to you? How? When?