Wade watched her head for the bathroom, sweat clothes in hand. A nice woman, he thought, but crazy as a loon. Whatever could possess a woman to have the desires she had? It was still a mystery. But then, last night … he remembered the nightmare all too well. It was always the same, and sometimes even a huge dose of sleeping pills wouldn’t keep them from him. Time and time again, he’d woken up in the middle of the night screaming, scared to go back to sleep, but this night … well, it had been different. There was something about being in her arms that had comforted him. It was all very confusing, but it was also the best night’s sleep he’d had in over a year without the help of pills, even though there had been that one bad period that he only vaguely remembered. He shook his head again, went to the kitchen, and started the coffee pot going.

“Wade,” he heard her call from the bathroom. “Could you come help me for a moment?”

“Just a moment,” he said, wondering what this was about. He walked into the bathroom – she hadn’t locked the door, and said, “What do you need, Acacia?”

“I think maybe you’d better do my back,” he heard her say from behind the shower curtain. “I’m having trouble reaching far enough to do a good job.”

“Perhaps I’d better not,” he said. “After all, Miss Rose, you do have your modesty to protect.”

“Oh, Wade,” she sighed, and threw the shower curtain back. He could see her standing there in the nude looking at him. Instinctively, he turned his head away. “Wade,” she snapped. “Look at me!”

Reluctantly, he turned his head. Yes, she stood there nude, wet, and covered with soap, looking directly at him. While one part of him commented that it was a nice view, another part was shocked at the impropriety. “Yes, Miss Rose?” he said reluctantly.

“Wade,” she said, shaking her head. “Haven’t you ever seen a naked woman before?”

“Yes, Miss Rose,” he replied. “I have. But this is different. I do not wish to compromise your modesty.”

“Wade, Wade,” she smiled, shaking her head again. “You don’t get it, do you? Wade, after the last year, I have no modesty to compromise. Now come over here and wash my back. I promise, I won’t bite.”

“All right,” he sighed, picking up the washcloth and cooperating with the inevitable. “Miss Rose, this does make me uncomfortable.”

“Not me,” she said, turning her back. “So long as it’s you. How does the whole thing look?”

“Overall, still pretty terrible,” he said professionally. “The, uh, whole scene is shocking, but from what I saw of the parts yesterday, it does appear there has been some improvement.” He took his time, trying to do a careful job, but not unaware of some unprofessional desires of his own … soon he was done. “All right,” he said. “That’s about what I can help you with. The rest, you’re going to have to do for yourself.”

“I can manage,” she smirked. “Thanks, Wade.”

The coffee was almost done when she came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, carrying her dirty clothes, wearing some extremely baggy sweats, with a towel wrapped around her head, some wet and stringy hair sticking out from under. “I feel better already,” she announced. “Is there any chance that I could borrow a hairbrush, or a comb?”

Now, it was his chance to smirk. “Acacia,” he smiled. “Look at me.”

“Yes?” she frowned.

“I haven’t owned a comb in over six years,” he smiled, brushing his hand over his head, which didn’t have a hair longer than an eighth of an inch anywhere on it.

“Oh, crap,” she said, shaking her head. “I should have thought. You got any ideas?”

Wade frowned for a minute, then shook his head. “The only thing I can think of is a fork. There’s a bottle brush by the sink that might help.”

“I’ll make do,” she smiled. “That ought to do all right. And Wade?”

“Yes?”

“I shouldn’t have done that to you, but we’re even now. You need to use the bathroom a bit?”

“Yes, Miss Rose,” he smiled. “If you don’t mind.”

“Take your time,” she smiled. “I’ll just stay here and fork my hair.”

“There should be some coffee ready, any minute,” he smiled as he headed for the bathroom.

He took his time, and he was back out in a few minutes, to see her standing by the sink, working the fork through her hair. He’d been aware that it was long, but now he realized just how long and thick it was, jet black, glistening as she worked on it. “I’ll get going on breakfast,” he suggested. “I’m afraid it won’t be anything much, unless you wouldn’t mind something that would normally be dinner.”

“I think I could stand for something more than cold cereal,” she replied. “I’m famished.”

“I’m afraid it still won’t be anything special,” he sighed. “I usually just open cans and warm things in the microwave. I’m actually a fair cook, but I just don’t go to the bother for myself.”

“Whatever you want, sir,” she smiled. “If I can eat it, I’m ready.”

It was ready in a very few minutes. He handed her a big bowl of canned stew, and she tore into it like she meant it, standing at the breakfast bar. “I think that makes me feel even better than anything else,” she reported. “Wade, thank you a lot. I owe you more than I can imagine.”

“Just trying to help, miss,” he replied.

“Look, I’ve been thinking about it,” she replied. “Can I ask a hell of a big favor of you?”

“What is it?” he said.

“I don’t know that it’s the answer to everything,” she said, “but if I could stay with you for a few days, ’til the term ends and my back doesn’t look like it’s been whipped, maybe I can go home over the holidays and fake it long enough to work a transfer to somewhere else. I mean, somewhere where I’m not known as ‘Supersub.’ It’ll be hard to stay away from that, but I don’t know how I can manage it here.”

“Not a bad idea,” he said, just a little surprised at the slight pang it caused, “and I’m amenable. But you are correct. With your desires, if you’re not careful, you run the risk of getting right back into the same position.”

“I know,” she agreed. “Maybe I can think of something. Maybe a real conservative Christian college, out in the country someplace, where they never heard the term ‘BDSM.’”

“I would strongly suggest professional counseling to go along with that,” he observed. “Realistically, it sounds like it has potential. You’re really going to have problems with your desire to serve a master, though.”

“I know,” she agreed again. “I really don’t know how I’m going to deal with this desire to obey orders. I mean, you had to learn how to do that as a Marine, right? I’m obsessed with it.”

“It’s not quite the same thing,” he frowned. “You know, I was thinking about this a lot last night, while you were sleeping and I was sharpening my K-Bar. I think we’re using some of the same words and saying two different things.”

“I don’t quite follow you,” she frowned.

He shook his head. “After we talked about it yesterday, I think you have a tendency to see dominance and submission as black and white. It can’t be, there have to be shades of gray. Even as a Marine, in fact especially as a Marine, there are times we all must be submissive and times when we all have to be dominant. Once you become a non-commissioned officer, the range gets even broader. You have to obey your superiors, but at the same time you have to command your subordinates. And it’s not just blind command, at least not if you want your subordinates to work well for you. I mean, it’s possible to just say, ‘Do this,’ and stand over them. I mean, a commander has to respect his subordinates, just as much as they respect them, or things aren’t going to work very well.”

“You’re right,” she nodded. “At the Institute, especially, it was pretty black and white, but I can see it would be different in the Marines. I mean, there are parts about it that I think would be pretty neat, and would work well for me. And there are parts that I don’t think would work as well. What do you think?”

It turned into an interesting morning. Wade had been a Marine for six years, and had been through the Non-Commissioned Officer Academy, so he had a pretty good understanding of command and obedience, but it wasn’t the same as she understood it. As the morning went on, after he treated her back, he washed her clothes while she lay on the couch, keeping her weight off her back. Eventually, the subject branched out, talking about the way he had been brought up, compared to the way she had. At some point he made lunch, and they ate, still talking, two very different but interesting people learning a lot about each other that they’d never dreamed. It was a pleasant day.

Somewhere along in there, without much conscious discussion, the decision was made for her to stay with him until the end of the term, but it was well into the afternoon when they finally got to the practical details. “I really should get at least some of my stuff from the dorm room,” she said. “I need my textbooks, I need some changes of clothes, and I can’t continue to comb my hair with a fork.”

“We could run over and get what you need,” he suggested. “I can go with you, so no one should bother you.”

“I appreciate that,” she said. “I doubt many people are going to want to mess with you. But let’s not cause a scene. Melissa will probably be out scening, probably pretty early, and we can sneak in and out while she’s not there. I don’t really have a lot of stuff like some girls. Just clothes and textbooks and like that. We can probably haul everything I’ve got out of there in two or three trips, and then I won’t even have to go back there ever. There should be plenty of room for it here.”

It was not comfortable for her to ride in Wade’s older economy car, but she gritted her teeth and made it work. The parking lot near the dorm was fairly empty for the hour, and they were able to park close to the door. As expected, Melissa was nowhere around, and two trips got most of Acacia’s stuff down to the car. They went back for a third load and were just heading out the door of the dorm room, when they heard an angry woman’s voice. “Just where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

“Oh, God,” Acacia whispered. “Melissa!”

Wade turned around to look at her, and in a hard voice, said. “Away.”

“What the fuck do you mean, away, you little shit?” Melissa sneered. “Sir Phillip wants to see you.”

Wade set the bags down carefully and turned to look at the woman. “Ma’am,” he said in a flat voice, which absolutely reeked of threat. “If this Phillip creature wishes to speak with her, he will have to speak to me first.”

“And who the fuck do you think you are?” she sneered. Wade knew from the discussion earlier that she was a lesbian and a domme and didn’t have a lot of use for men.

“A friend,” Wade said, even more hardness evident in his voice, “who is taking her away.”

“Look, if you think you can barge in here and take her away from Phillip, you’ve …”

“Ma’am,” Wade said flatly, Marine to the core, not raising his voice but not needing to. “I prefer to treat a lady in the manner which she prefers to be treated, but you are no lady. I am taking her away. You will not stop us. Is that clear?”

“You’re … you’re not getting away with this,” she said, obviously backing down. “I’ll tell Sir Phillip.”

“Come, Miss Rose,” Wade said, in that flat, hard voice.

“Y – yes, sir,” she said, obviously frightened. She rushed downstairs, but Wade took his time, hearing the yells from Melissa behind him.

In a minute, they were out in his car. As always, gentleman that he was, he held the door for her, then went around and got in the driver’s side. “Wade!” she said, half in hysteria. “She’ll tell him. She’ll tell my folks! I don’t know what I’m going to do!”

“Miss Rose,” he said in a voice not much less hard than he’d used with Melissa. “First, you are going to get control of yourself and stay calm. I have told you before that you are safe in my presence. Don’t you believe that?”

“Y-yes,” she said. She’d seen a lot of Wade as a gentle, friendly man in the last few hours, but now, she remembered there was a reason he was called “Hardass” around campus. “But what are we going to do?”

“The situation seems to be worse than I imagined,” he said absently. “As far as your parents are concerned, if need be, we will tell them that I was forced to rescue you from an abusive situation. I will accompany you if necessary. But that is not the issue at the moment.” He let out a sigh. “I think, Miss Rose, I am tired of my own cooking. Would you care for a dinner out?”

“But … but …” Acacia said, still on the verge of hysterical.

“Get control of yourself,” he said. “On my honor, you will come to no further harm from these people.”

“But Wade,” she protested. “They’re really mean.”

“Miss Rose,” he said hardly. “I do not know who you are talking about. But I suspect they only think they’re mean. There are times to run and hide. And there are times when it is not appropriate. This is one of the latter. If we show fear, they will smell fear, and I can see from your former roommate that they deal in fear. So we dare not show fear. Now, calm yourself. Miss Rose, I am afraid I have failed to ask. Are you over twenty-one?”

“No, I just turned twenty,” she said. “Why?”

“I was going to suggest a drink, but I do not wish to deal with that issue,” he said, glancing at the lights in the rear-view mirror. Without signaling, he made a quick right turn, and the lights followed. There was no point in mentioning it to Acacia, though. “Sorry, wrong turn there,” he commented, and made another right turn without signaling. Shaking a tail wasn’t something they taught in the Marines, but whoever was tailing him didn’t know what they were doing, either. Besides, right at the moment, he wanted to be tailed. “I know a small restaurant that should still be open on this hour of a Saturday night,” he said, leaning forward to reach under the seat.

Once he drove around the block, he continued on toward downtown. The restaurant was not large, and not being a place where alcohol was served, it was getting near closing time. “Wade,” she said nervously as she got out of the car, as he held the door for her. “I’m not sure about this.”

“One can never be sure of these things, Miss Rose,” he said, snapping up his Marine Corps field jacket. “But the odds are in our favor. Let’s just have a nice dinner, perhaps nothing heavy.”

“All right,” she sighed. “If you say so.”

They hadn’t been sitting in the restaurant ten minutes when a big man walked in, bigger than Wade, heavier, and walked right up to their table. “There you are, you little slut,” the man said. “Get your ass down to my basement. Now!”

“You sir,” Wade bristled. “Are very rude. Please leave us in peace.”

“Don’t get smart mouthed with me,” he sneered. “Slave, get your ass down to the basement if you know what’s good for you. I’ll be waiting.” He turned on his heel and left.

“He was that Phillip creature, I presume,” Wade said flatly.

“Y-yes,” she said. “Wade, I’m scared.”

“I told you that you are safe when you are with me,” Wade said. “It is no less true. I presume you know where this basement is?”

“Yes, yes, of course,” she stammered.

“Good,” he said. “Let us take our time finishing our dinner, and then perhaps I should have a private discussion with him about his lack of manners.”

“You’re going there?” she said, shocked.

“Were it not for the fact that you feel safer with me, I would go alone,” he said. “But for that, and the fact that I need you to show me where to go, I would leave you elsewhere.”

Acacia was still very nervous twenty minutes later, as she directed Wade to drive to a rundown section of downtown, not far away, as it turned out. “Wade, I’m really nervous,” she said.

“Acacia …”

“I know,” she said. “I’m safe when I’m with you. But the last time I was here …”

“I’m aware of that,” he told her. “That’s why we’re here.”

The door was standing half open. Wade opened it, and bade Acacia to head down the dimly lighted stairs.

“There you are, slave,” they heard Phillip say from inside. Wade looked up, and saw him head toward the stairs, anger on his face. He saw Wade, and sneered, “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I came to deliver a message from Sam,” Wade said flatly.

“Sam?” Phillip frowned. “Sam who?”

Wade took a step to the side, and as he did, he pulled an M1911A1 .45 automatic from under his jacket. “Sam Colt,” he said.

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