Rough Ryder (2 page)

As soon as the clock struck s
ix a.m., she was out of bed.  She made the bed, turned on the coffee and jumped in the shower. By six thirty, she was walking down the path with a thermos of coffee in one hand and a good book to read in the other.

Climbing on board the boat
, she settled into her lounge chair to watch the sun come up.  She felt closer to them on the water.  Sometimes, she thought she could hear their laughter whenever a plane would fly over.

The occasional splash of water always made her smile.  Maybe it was them saying good morning to her. 

She smiled as she picked up her book.  Why did she choose this one?  She didn’t really like westerns. That was more Sam’s style.  He used to tease her about all her romance books.  Oh, well, maybe it was time to try something new.  Turning the first page, she soon found herself engrossed in it.

“Cowboys and
horses?  Who would of thought I would get wrapped up in that.”
  She smiled to herself.  Rising from her chair, she realized she had been sitting there so long that every bone in her body was stiff and sore.

It wasn’t long and five chapters later, she laid the book down giving her eyes a rest.  The light breeze blew against her skin. 
It was times like this that she imagined the touch of the wind was Sam’s caress.  She closed her eyes, soaking in his imagined touch.

*****

“Trinket, what are you doing?”  Sam’s voice echoed around her.

     
              “Taking a nap.”  She whispered.

    
              “No, Trinket, what are you doing?”  His voice turned stern.

She opened her eyes to find Sam standing in front of her. 
“Enjoying the warm breeze.”

“Trinket, you were never good at lying to me.  You have to move on
, honey.  You’re killing yourself.  Look at you.  You have dark circles under your eyes.”

    
              She felt anger hit her.  “No, I didn’t kill anyone.  You killed you and Mandy!  You should have taken me with you, damn it.  You wanna know why I have dark circles around my eyes, it’s because I can’t sleep.  You want to know why… because you and that damn plane took my life away from me and left me here to suffer.”

She watch
ed as a sadness washed over his face.  “I didn’t know.  If I had known… I wouldn’t have taken her.  I swear.”

“Yeah, well think about that before you try to tell me what I’m doing to myself.”  She felt the tears trying to swell from her eyes.

“There is nothing we can do.  What is done is done.  Now, you need to wipe your face and pull yourself together.  Someone has been patiently waiting to see you.”

She felt her body tense.  Qui
ckly her hands came to her eyes wiping away evidence of her upset.

“Mommy!
  I missed you.”  She looked up to her baby, her Mandy, running towards her,  her feet kissing the top of the water as she made her way across it.  Trinket stood.  She couldn’t believe her eyes.  It had been so long.  Quickly, she wrapped her arms around Mandy, pulling her up and into her chest.

“Oh
, baby, I have missed you.”  She felt the tears falling uncontrollably now and there was nothing she could do to stop them.

“Why are you crying
, Mommy?  You are supposed to be happy.  I didn’t mean to make you sad again.”

“I’m not sad
, honey, mommy is very happy right now.”

Mandy pulled her head from Trinket’s shoulder.  She looked into her eyes, “You
’re sad all the time Mommy.  I see you cry always.”

“What do you mean, you see me cry?”

“Daddy said we can’t go to our new home until you stop crying.  We watch you sometimes.”

“You’ve been watching me.”

“Yep.  When you come out here to talk to us, we hear you.  We hear you when you lay in bed to.”

“Mandy, why don’t you go play for a while, I need to talk to
, Mommy.”

Mandy crawled down out of her arms a
nd ran back to shore.  Trinket watched as Mandy ran along, kicking the sand with her toes.  The little blue dress she had worn that day, flapping in the wind.

“You have to move on
, Trinket.  Sell this place, go somewhere and be the Trinket that we both know and love.”

She didn’t take her eyes away from
, Mandy.  “That’s easier said than done.”

“Ok
ay, do you want us to keep floating around out here?  I can’t move on, we can’t move on, until we know you are happy.”

“I will never be happy again.”

“Then Mandy and I will be stuck here forever.”

“Is that such a bad thing?  At least here
… we are together again.”

“Only when you dream.
  Do this for me.  Do this for us.  Let go.”  His voice fell to a whisper.  She watched as Mandy quit playing looking back at her, she smiled.  Her little hand began waving goodbye in the air.  Trinket stood quickly, diving into the water.  She swam as fast as she could back to shore, but slowly Mandy disappeared.  That smiling face was no longer there. 

                                                                                 
*****

Trinket
woke with a start, tumbling over into the water.  She broke the surface with a gasp.  She felt a knot in her chest.  She lay back in the warmth of the water and began floating.  She didn’t care where to.  She didn’t need anything but her family back.

    
              Her family that was stuck or so he had said.  It was then in that moment, that she made up her mind.

Chapter One

Five Years Later

    
              “Lisa, do you have that proof done on that yet?”  Trinket yelled across the room.  She had a deadline.  If she didn’t get that notice to the press soon, they would be clawing at her client.  And her client was paying her big time to keep the press from doing that.

    
              “Yep, here.”  Lisa handed it over as Trinket began skimming over quickly.

    
              “Good.”

    
              “You know, you work too hard.  Why don’t you come out with us girls tonight?  We are heading down to Bliss tonight.”

    
              Trinket smiled as she grabbed her jacket, rushing out the door.  The last time the girls talked her in to going out, she spent the next day with a hangover from hell.  After dropping off the new statement from her client to the television station, she made her way home. 

    
              It was no Florida beach line, but she loved the little piece of heaven she had stumbled upon.  It had taken her some time to find a new place.  It took her even more time to let go of her past.  Although, she still hadn’t completely let go.  The house she once loved, now sat empty.  She couldn’t bring herself to sell it.

    
              After making the forty five minute drive home, she changed into a hoody and pair of jeans.  Grabbing her book, she had started the night before, she commenced to reading it. 

    
              Four hours later and a bowl of popcorn, she sat the book down.  She stood stretching.  She grumbled when she heard a knock on the door.

    
              When she opened the door, there stood Lisa, Amber, and Peggy. 

“I told you we are going out tonight.  Amber keeps trying to get us to go to this club,
Bliss with her.”

    
              “Ha, I know what kind of club that is.”  She moved out of the way so the ladies could enter.  “I am not into all that, tie me up and beat me shit.  You can have at it.”

    
              “Don’t knock it until you try it.”  Amber smiled.

    
              “Look it is just one night.  Newbies can come in one night every 3 months.  Tonight is open door.  Don’t make me go with them by myself.  Peggy is all excited.  I’m gonna be left alone I know it.”

    
              Trinket turned looking at Lisa.  There was a desperate cry for rescuing that she could see. 

“Fine.
  Let me get ready.”  Trinket turned to go to her bedroom.

    
              “Wait.  You need these.”  Amber threw a bag her way.

    
              “What is it?”

    
              About that time, the women all opened their long jackets revealing more than Trinket would have liked. 

    
              “I don’t think so.  I am not going out wearing a corset, and a skirt short enough I won’t be able to move in without showing off my ass.”

    
              “You have to.  They have a dress code.  Everyone is going to be wearing these.”  Amber again smiled.  This might have been Amber’s comfort zone, but it was not Trinket’s.

    
              “Come on, Trink, live a little.” Peggy coaxed.

     
              The words live a little echoed in her mind.  She was living.  She was happy again.  So what if she worked twelve hour days, so what if she ate alone, so what if her food was microwaveable.  She loved reading a new book nightly or watching a rerun of Golden Girls.  She didn’t care.  She was comfortable. 

As she thought about that, she realized how boring her life really was.

                   She walked into the bedroom.  She began taking the items from the bag laying them out on the bed.  She stood there looking at the clothing.  A red and black corset, black skirt, red thong, and black five inch heels.  This outfit had ‘beat until I pass out’, all over it.

     
             
“Put it on for me.  Let me see.”

     
              She heard Sam’s voice whisper.  She turned around, tears filling her eyes.  What the hell?  She looked around the room.  Nothing.  Like always.  She began folding the items back, putting them into the bag.

    
              “
Chicken shit.  I dare you.”

    
              Her heart stopped.  Her breath hitched.  “I’m no chicken shit.”  She quickly dressed.  Grabbing a long pea coat from her closet, she made her way back out.  The women began whistling and calling out her name. 

    
              “Watch out Amber, you have competition.”  Lisa yelled.

    
              “Holy shit, Hottie alert!”  Amber laughed.

    
              “You have ‘fuck me’, written all over your face.”  Peggy smiled.

    
              “No… there will be no fucking, no beating, no nothing.  I am doing this because I am no chicken shit, one night.  That’s it.”  She turned the door knob after grabbing her purse.

xxx

                   “What the hell have you guys gotten me into?”  Trinket looked around the club.  Some women and men had clothes on, others didn’t. 

    
              “You haven’t seen anything yet.  Just wait till the scenes start.  Now, before we go in further, you have to promise me you will not judge this lifestyle, nor will you interrupt any of the scenes.”  Amber was stern, laying down the law of the club.

    
              “Why would we?”  Peggy asked.

    
              “I’m just saying.  Now, you ladies will need to follow me first to another section of the club where Master Ron will go over the basics with you.”

      
              Trinket stopped.  “I’m sorry, did I hear you right?  Master Ron?”  There was no way in hell she would ever call any man master. 

     
              “I know what you’re thinking, but trust and believe when I say, you will.”  Amber smiled before leading the women into a room to the right.  They walked in seeing all the other women seated already. 

    
              “Okay, from here on out, no talking unless Master Ron asks you something.  Meet me at the bar when you are done.”  Amber whispered her advice before leaving.

    
              Trinket sat next to Peggy and Lisa waiting.  She couldn’t help but to notice everyone still had their coats on, including her.  She felt like she was in school again.  A swirl of butterflies began to flutter in her stomach.  Her palms were beginning to sweat.  Her confusion of her body’s reaction sent her mind into hyper drive.

    
              She didn’t understand what the hell her body was doing.  It wasn’t like she was going to actually go through with this.  She was here for, Lisa.  She could walk around, or sit around for one night. 

     
              The door opened and in walked, Master Ron.  Lisa gasped before whispering, “Hello Master Ron.”

    
              Trinket couldn’t do anything but control the giggle that accidently escaped her lips.

    
              Tall, blonde hair pulled back into a tight pony, bright blue eyes, dimple in his chin, centered below a perfect set of lips.  Broad shoulders made him look like a football player, his waist slimming on the way down.  The black t-shirt he wore fit snug against his massive chest.  Tucked into a pair of black leather pants that showed off the muscle of his thighs, and bulge of his groin.

    
              Trinket might have been giggling at Lisa but the fact was that, the way this man looked, she would call him Master for the night.

    
              He stood there looking around the room.  Glancing at each woman and locking eyes with them momentarily, like he was reading their hidden thoughts. 

    
              Trinket watched as one by one, each woman broke eye contact, lowering their head.  She didn’t get it.  She didn’t understand what their problem was.  Just because the man looked like a God didn’t mean anything.

    
              She watched Peggy next, head lowering down.  Lisa, lasted longer than what anyone else had, but eventually she did the same, with a smile on her lips.  Then his gaze turned to Trinket. 

In that moment
, she didn’t understand why any woman would look away.  He was gorgeous.  His eyes shined, but his facial expression never changed. 

    
              If his eyes were supposed to be intimidating, they weren’t.  Not to her.  Mesmerizing, hypnotizing, beautiful, yes.  Everything but intimidating.  When his lips twitched into a small smile, he was the one that broke eye contact before finally speaking.

“I’m
, Master Ron.  You have just been taught your first lesson.  You do not look a Dom in the eye unless he speaking directly to you.  If he chooses for you not to, he will let you know.” 

He turned looking back at Trinket.  She couldn’t help the little smile on her lips before tilting her head down.

                    “Now, next lesson.  Everyone stand.”  Immediately all stood, except of course Trinket who didn’t rush, but did stand.  “Coats off.  Whenever you are outside this room, you are to be in appropriate attire.”

    
              And this was the moment Trinket wasn’t looking forward to.  She took a deep breath.  Slowly with trembling fingers, she undid the tie of her coat, letting it fall open.  Her eyes closed.  She couldn’t do it.  There was no way.  She hadn’t been this naked in front of a man since… before.

    
              Fingertips brushed against her neck, then slowly began pulling the coat from her shoulders.  Her eyes opened, but she didn’t dare to look around behind her.  Master Ron no doubt was the one behind her as he was no longer in front of the class. 

    
              Slowly, the cool air of the room kissed her skin.  Then his warm breath whispered in her ear.  “Beautiful.  Just breathe.” 

She watched as he walked around her heading back to front of the room.

                   “If a scene makes you uncomfortable, you are not to interrupt.  If you do, you will be immediately escorted out of our club.  This is place where we come to be ourselves and we don’t have to worry about being judged for who we are.”

    
              Trinket now understood.  It would be no different if someone came into her home and began to ridicule her for something about her life that they didn’t like.  She would quickly show them to the door as well.

     
              “Now, I’m assuming you have a sponsor or you would have never made it past the front door.  Just so you know, they are putting a lot of trust in you.  If your actions are severe, your sponsor will pay the price.  I hope  you enjoy yourself tonight.  Happy fucking!”  With that said, he turned walking out of the room.

    
              As if everyone had been holding their breath, the room was filled with sighs.  Laughter broke out amongst the woman. 

“If that is any indication of how tonight is going to be, sign me up now.”  Lisa chuckled.

                   “Oh, please.  And I thought I was coming so you wouldn’t be alone.”  Trinket stood.  This was it, now or never.  While her bravery was still there, she was going to find Amber and a drink.

    
              She quickly spotted Amber speaking with a man.  She also noticed Amber did not hold eye contact and kept her eyes pointed towards the floor.  Trinket walked up to the bar, ordering her a long island.  If she was going to watch this go on tonight, she was going to need something strong.

    
              “My friend is here, may I introduce you, Sir.”  Amber asked.

    
              “By all mean, please do, pet.”  No doubt that was her Dom. 

    
              Trinket took a deep breath, turning in her chair looking at Amber. 

“Trinket this is my Dom, Master J, Master J this is my friend
, Trinket.”

    
              Trinket fought the urge to look at him. 
Oh, fuck it.
  She looked up, extending her hand.  “Nice to meet you, Master J.” 

    
              She watched him smile before taking her hand and shaking it with a firm grip.  “Nice to meet you, Trinket.”

    
              Trinket heard Lisa and Peggy talking behind her.  “Master J, these are our friends, Lisa and Peggy.”  He smiled, letting go of her hand. 

    
“Nice to meet you ladies.  Pet, mingle with your friends, find me before you leave, or if you would like to scene.”

    
              “Yes, Sir.”  Amber waited until she saw his feet turn, then she looked up admiring the view from behind, before turning back to the women.