She slipped her journal back into the drawer she kept it in and decided she wouldn’t even think about Saturday until Friday night, at the earliest.

Cole, of course, had other plans.

On Monday, he sent her an e-mail telling her to write the date, time, and location of her punishment under her list of infractions.

On Tuesday, his e-mail informed her that their only meeting for the week would be on Saturday.

On Wednesday, she gave up trying to put it out of her mind and instead thought about what his daily e-mail would say. Typically, he would send something by midmorning, but that day there was nothing before noon.

Sasha and Julie had set up a lunch date that day with Kelly and Abby to discuss Dena’s baby shower. Kelly called shortly after eleven and said there’d been a break-in she had to investigate and couldn’t make lunch, but to go on without her. Abby arrived right at noon with sandwiches from the local deli, and Sasha slipped her phone into her pocket. Of course, the chime of an incoming e-mail rang out five minutes into their meal. She debated waiting until lunch was over to read it, but her curiosity got the better of her and she pulled out her phone to check.

She nearly choked when she read the subject line.

“Are you okay?” Julie asked, putting down her sandwich and wiping her mouth.

Sasha scrolled through the e-mail. “Holy shit.”

“Sasha?” Abby’s voice held more than a note of concern.

“I’m okay,” she assured her friends. “Just, damn, he’s a bastard.”

“Must be Cole.” Julie shifted in her seat, scooting closer to Sasha and craning her neck. “But now I’m all curious. Just what did he e-mail you?”

“His discipline protocol. It’s fucking five hundred pages. Damn writers.” She reached the bottom of the e-mail and scrolled back up to the top. She tried reading it, but after the first few sentences decided to wait until there weren’t multiple eyes watching her and stuck the phone back in her pocket.

“What? You aren’t going to read it?” Julie asked.

“Not yet. I’m hungry right now.” Though to be honest, the email had zapped most of her hunger. She looked over to Abby. “What’s the smile for?”

Abby shook her head. “He might be a bastard, but he sure as hell knows what he’s doing.”

“Because he has a five-hundred-page discipline protocol?” Sasha scowled. “I think it just means he has too much time on his hands.”

“No, because a few months ago, just the mention of anything pertaining to a physical scene would have sent you into a panic attack.” Abby took a sip of her water. “But now, I’m guessing he’s going to discipline you finally—and instead of withdrawing into yourself, you’re acting a bit bratty. I call that progress.”

“I don’t know,” Julie said. “If Daniel handed me a discipline protocol, I’d probably head for the hills. I think that’s a bit much.”

“Is it?” Abby asked. “Or does it provide a sense of security knowing exactly what’s going to happen, no more and no less? This is what is expected of you, so prepare yourself.”

“Well, when you put it that way . . .” Sasha couldn’t help but agree it made a bit of sense.

“A Dominant has reasons for everything he does,” Abby said. “I doubt Cole wrote his protocol out because he was bored. I’m guessing he wrote it out and sent it as a way to help ease your mind.”

Sasha picked her ham and cheese back up. “Nah, I think he sent it as a way to fuck with my mind. Because now I’m going to think about nothing but that e-mail until I have a chance to read it.”

“I doubt you’ll stop thinking about it after you read it,” Julie added.

Abby smiled. “That’s why I said reasons. What’s better than a mind fuck wrapped up like a security blanket?”

Sasha figured she could come up with at least three hundred twenty things that were better, but kept her thought to herself. What Abby said made a lot of sense. But for the rest of lunch, it felt like her phone was burning a hole in her pocket.

When Julie left for an afternoon appointment and Abby went back home, Sasha pulled out her phone to read the e-mail. She tried to keep what Abby said in the back of her mind while she read. Truthfully, her friend was right. Cole had detailed a lot of what would happen, how he would act, and his expectations of her. There was comfort in that knowledge.

But when he sent her a text before bed that said, “In two and a half days you’ll be bent over a chair, bare arse offered for my discipline,” she decided he thoroughly enjoyed the mind fuck, too.

•   •   •

It seemed like it took forever for Saturday to arrive, yet when it did, Sasha felt like the week had flown by. She worked in the shop in the morning, breathing a sigh of relief when two o’clock came and she and Julie closed for the day. Julie hadn’t asked for details, but she’d watched Sasha with careful eyes.

According to Cole’s protocol, she was to wear a dress. She looked through her closet. She didn’t want to wear the one she’d worn to tea, so instead she settled on a light green cotton dress someone once said brought out the color of her eyes.

She showered, making certain she shaved everywhere. Another thing she knew was that he would not require her to be naked this time. It wasn’t so much that she was nervous about him seeing her naked. She didn’t want him to see her back.

As she finished getting ready, the truth of Abby’s words hit her again. Sure she was nervous, but he had ensured she knew what to expect. It wasn’t until she grabbed her keys, purse, and journal that she realized how much she appreciated that knowledge.

However, even knowing what to expect, the sight of Cole in a three-piece suit took her breath away.

“Good afternoon, Sasha,” he said, sounding like a perfect gentleman and not at all like he would soon have her bent over a chair with her naked ass in the air.

“Good afternoon, Sir.”

He moved to the side to let her in and with a tilt of his head indicated she was to lead their way to his office. Once inside, she placed her journal on his desk and knelt on the floor.

He followed silently, sat down, and opened her journal to the page in the back. “List out the offenses you’re here for.”

One by one, she recited them, noting as she did that her voice didn’t shake. Surprising, she thought, since every other part of her couldn’t stop trembling.