ɪ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴍʏ ᴅᴏᴍ | ʙᴅꜱᴍ𝟣𝟪+

ꜰɪʀꜱᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ

A high-pitchedscream rent the unseasonably warm night air and Heidi sat bolt upright, heart pounding. Her eyes quickly scanned each corner of the still-unfamiliar bedroom for the source of the noise, but there was no movement save the soft billowing of the thin curtain in the breeze, and no sound but the soft snores of Princess, curled up at the end of the bed.

She fumbled beneath her pillow for her phone, cursing the fact that she'd yet to buy a single lamp for this place, let alone a nightstand to put it on. What moderately intelligent, thirty-year-old woman moved to a new apartment in a new city, without a lamp to turn on in the middle of the night… or to bash someone's head with, in a pinch?

The display on the phone read 12:48. She quickly turned it to flashlight mode and swung the beam around the room. Nothing whatsoever but a tower of boxes, neatly stacked and untouched since the movers had placed them there two weeks ago. Okay. She took a deep breath as panic gave way to reason. Okay. Had it been one of the cats out in the back alley? There were plenty of them back there, though Princess strained her leash and valiantly tried to yap them out of her territory every time they went for a walk. Or maybe it had been a dream? Some weird, subconscious sign that she'd been working too hard, that the fifteen-hour days she'd been putting in, trying to get her consulting business off the ground, were catching up to her? That seemed more likely. After all, whatever it was hadn't even woken Princess. My vicious guard dog, she thought wryly, glancing at the sleeping ball of fur.

Step one, she thought, as she settled herself back against the pillows and tried to close her eyes, buy new lamps. Immediately.Well, after work at least. Step two, start tackling those boxes and get settled. Maybe that would—

Another scream echoed through the night, louder this time. Definitely not her imagination. She pushed back the covers and hurried to the window. Had one of the cats fallen into the recycling area behind the building? Should she try to help? She bit her lip in indecision and pushed the curtain aside, straining her eyes against the darkness, to see if she could get a better view of the ground below. Something was definitely moving out there—slap-thump, slap-thump, like an animal trying to get out of a—

Oh. Gah! Sweet Jesus. From across the narrow alley, Heidi could make out dim shapes moving just beyond the window. Not a trapped animal, she thought in disgust, letting the curtain fall again. At least not in the traditional sense. Just her neighbor, the Christian Grey-wannabe in 6F, tying it on with his girl du jour.

She blew out a breath and turned, sinking back against the wall, annoyed with herself for panicking and aggravated that she had left the window open in the first place. After all, she'd heard this little concert before.

Last Friday, when she'd first heard loud slapping followed by a woman's soft cries, she'd done what anyone would do and grabbed her phone to dial 9-1-1. And wouldn't that have been a lovely way to meet her new neighbor? She snorted. Fortunately, before she could hit Call, she'd heard the soft voice counting in time to the slaps, and realized what she was hearing. A punishment scene, just like in one of the novels she'd read. A submissive being spanked, probably for breaking some trumped-up rule, and counting out the strokes. Totally not Heidi's thing thankyouverymuch, but not exactly criminal. Heidi had shut the window firmly and tried to put it out of her mind.

But she hadn't kept it out of her mind any more than she had kept the window shut. Nor had she called the maintenance guy to put in her air conditioner, or bought a white noise machine, or fallen asleep with her headphones in, all of which she had resolved to do, before dismissing each one in turn. She had reasons for those things, she reminded herself. It was too stuffy with the window closed, too soon to put in the air conditioner, too uncomfortable to sleep with headphones in.