The_Submissive - Tara Sue Me by Erotic Romance

working at the library six and a half years ago.
    Wonder who issued him a card? I glanced around. So many people had come and gone in six and a half years. It could have been anyone. The only thing I knew was that it wasn’t me. If I clicked on the next link—
    “Abby?”
    “Ahhh!” I jumped ten feet in the air.
    Elaina Welling was staring at me strangely when I came back down from the ceiling.
    “Elaina!” I said, putting a hand over my pounding heart. “You scared the crap out of me.” She had a sly grin on her face and I wondered if she’d seen the screen. “Ready for the big game?” I asked.

    Jackson and the Giants were in the play-offs the upcoming weekend in Philadelphia. He’d given Felicia tickets to the game. She had been beside herself all week. Hard to live with, truth be told. All Nathaniel had given me was a spanking.
    Stop it. Here and now, remember?
    I was sure Nathaniel would be going to the game, which meant we only had tomorrow night. Just one night…
    “Getting ready, but I was hoping I could take you to lunch today,” Elaina said, dragging me away from thoughts of the next night.
    “Oh.” I looked at my watch. “I don’t take lunch until noon.”
    “That’s okay, I have a few things to take care of. How about Delphina’s at ten past?”
    We agreed, and half an hour later I walked into the bistro Elaina had picked out.
    She was waiting for me at a secluded corner booth. We both ordered iced tea, and when the waitress left, Elaina leaned across the table.
    “I’m going to tell you a secret,” she said. “I know what you are. I know about Nathaniel.”
    My jaw hit the table. Elaina knew. If Elaina knew then Todd knew and if Todd knew—
    “You’re in shock. I should have said it differently. It’s just—” she stammered, “—I thought it’d be better to lay it all out. And I don’t care. You’re great. And I love Nathaniel. I’d love him no matter what.”

    “Wait a minute,” I said, holding a hand up. “Does Nathaniel know? Does he know you know and does he know you’re taking me to lunch?” Because, damn it, she wouldn’t be the one with the sore ass.
    She nodded. “He knows I’m taking you to lunch. He doesn’t know I know.”
    I really didn’t want to keep secrets from Nathaniel. I sighed. Why did this have to be so complicated?
    “Todd knows?” I asked instead.
    “Yes. Linda doesn’t, though, but I’m not sure about Jackson.” She took a sip of tea. “Todd and I wouldn’t have known if Melanie hadn’t shown up at our house four months ago, crying her eyes out.”
    Pearl Girl cried her eyes out to Elaina and Todd? Okay, this was too juicy not to hear.
    “Melanie, his last submissive?” I asked.
    She leaned across the table again. “Melanie was never his submissive.”
    The waitress interrupted us. It took me three tries to get my order out. Melanie wasn’t his submissive? What the hell was she?
    “I don’t guess you could call her a submissive,” Elaina continued once the waitress left. “I don’t know the proper terms for all this stuff. He never gave her a collar. Pissed her off something horrible.”
    That didn’t make sense. “But Jackson called her Pearl Girl because she always wore pearls.”
    “That was just Melanie. Maybe she was pretendingto have a collar, I don’t know.” Elaina shook her head. “Not long after Nathaniel broke it off with her, she came to our apartment. She’s known Todd since grade school.”
    I took a long sip of tea. This was too much information to process.
    “Melanie grew up with them,” Elaina said. “She’s always had a crush on Nathaniel. He tried his best to ignore her, but she was persistent. She finally got him, but only for six months or so.”
    I sat back and tried to decide if it was good or bad that he never collared her. What did that say about me?
    “Did Nathaniel kiss her?” I asked.
    “Kiss her? Yeah, sure he did.”
    Damn. It was just me then. He didn’t want to kiss me.
    “I