Caden

Five.

The week following their trip to the club went by slowly. Caden felt like Rapunzel pre-freedom, her days were slow, redundant and meaningless. But eventually, punishments passed and Friday came.

Caden was surprisingly looking forward to returning to the club, even though she had felt overwhelmingly uncomfortable her first time there.

Lucas and Darius had said "see you Friday," so Caden assumed they would be working tonight. She wasn't sure how, but she wanted to let them know she had read and kept the business card. Right now, it was stuffed safely in the bottom of a box of tampons. Anthony didn't even like hearing the word "period," so she knew he wouldn't go digging around in her tampons.

Thinking back to her first time at the club, she remembered the comforting nature of the Latina bartender, Valentina. Caden hoped she was there tonight. Nicole was truly her one and only girl friend, but Caden already felt relaxed around the curvy woman.

In fact, everyone that she had talked to at the club was nice, even the buff security guard, Aston. Caden was torn between wanting him to be there or not, because although he was nice, she didn't want Anthony to say anything else derogatory to him.

"Babe," Anthony yelled from his bedroom. "Come put this on!"

Caden stood up from her study area on the couch, and began walking towards her boyfriend.

"It's too cold out for that skirt I wore last time, Tony," she started to say in the hallway. "I was just going to wear jeans."

As soon as she stepped foot into his room, she knew she had said something wrong. His face was lethal, eyes like ice, fists clenched.

"Who am I, Caden?"

He stood up and grabbed her by the back of her neck, forcing her head back to look him in the eyes.

"Y-you're-" she stumbled on her words, her neck shooting in pain.

"Are you stupid? Did you forget?" He dug his nails in deeper. "Do I need to remind you?"

"N-no, I know!"

"Then why can't you tell me, you stupid bitch? I'll give you one more chance before I punish you. Who. Am. I."

"Y-you're master," she cried out, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Whose master?" He snarled in her face.

"M-my master."

"Yes," he let go of her neck and pushed her towards the bed. "Now put the clothes on and don't sass me again."

He slammed the bedroom door behind him and left her alone, in pain.

He had left an outfit laid on the bed and Caden felt freezing cold just looking at it. If she thought the last outfit for the club was bad, this one was ten times worse.

The top was a red crop top, sheer everywhere except for a small circle of lace barely big enough to cover her areolas. He hadn't laid a bra out, so he clearly didn't want her to wear one.

The bottoms were a tight, black velvet skirt that only had thin ties holding together one side, and would leave all of that skin exposed. If she moved the wrong way, she would certainly flash someone with the red lacy thong Anthony had also put on the bed.

Caden's heart beat faster in nervous anticipation. She didn't want to go anywhere in that, she wouldn't even feel comfortable wearing it around the house with Anthony.

It was an undeniably fashionable outfit, and if Caden had seen anyone else wearing it, she would have thought they looked great and commended their confidence, but it just wasn't what Caden was comfortable wearing. It was wayyyyy out of her comfort zone. Before college, she had been hesitant to even wear a dress that hadn't come down to her fingertips. Now she dreamed of wearing something that covered her that well.

Caden rubbed the back of her neck that still stung, and sighed. She was willing to bet that his fingernails had left marks. Reluctantly, she took her clothes off and folded them into a neat pile before slipping into Anthony's chosen outfit. Avoiding the mirror as much as possible, she put on some makeup and brushed her long hair so it hung over both her shoulders, successfully hiding more of her exposed breasts.

Caden's eyes flickered up to the mirror. Okay, that's not too bad, she thought. With her thick hair hiding the more risqué parts of the top, she felt a little more comfortable with the outfit. I've got this.

She slowly stepped out of the room and went looking for Anthony. She found him in the living room with a can of beer.

"Are we leaving now?" She asked.

"Are you trying to piss me off, Caden?" His eyes were narrowed into slits.

"What?" She had no idea what he was talking about, she hadn't even complained about the outfit he chose for her!

"Did I say you could put your hair down like that?"

She looked down at her hair, unsure what to say. He hadn't said anything about her hair, but apparently it was an unspoken rule.

"I-I'm sorry."

"You should be. Now put it up properly," he grabbed the car keys roughly. "You know how much I like pulling your hair." And he went out the door.

She quickly pulled her hair into a high ponytail, grabbed her purse, and ran out the door, not wanting the wrath of Anthony to get any worse tonight.

*•*•*•*

The line to get in the club was once again long, curling around the corner of the building like a snake. It felt like deja vu as Anthony wrapped his arm around her shivering waist with his hand relentlessly squeezing her butt.

When they finally reached the front of the line, they were greeted by the bouncers, Lucas and Darius.

"Hey!" Lucas grinned at them. "I'm glad you came, the show won't disappoint."

"Yeah, man," Anthony replies in his bro-tone. "I can't wait."

With the other two distracted, Caden grabbed Darius's hand and whispered to him softly, "The note... thank you."

"We mean it," he whispers back. "You say the word and we'll be there."

She offered him a broken smile.

Darius didn't really understand the full situation. She agreed to this. She signed a contract for god's sake saying that she was okay with this relationship. She felt hopeless, like there was nothing she could do. Trapped, a bird in a cage still looking out at the world.

"C'mon babe," Anthony waved her over to his side, immediately finding her butt and squeezing. "We're going up to the second floor." 

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