Read Bound to be Tested: Emergence, Book 3 for Free Online Page A

let them slide down her face. Margaret didn’t comment. She just held her tighter.
    When Lori was spent, she sucked in a long breath and forced a smile. She didn’t mention the tears, but she wiggled free of Margaret’s grasp, grabbed the shampoo and proceeded to squeeze a line onto her palm. “Kneel,” she said as she nodded toward the tile.
    Margaret flinched, but she did as she was told, her body conditioned to follow instructions. She kneeled on the hard floor as she had many times, and Lori worked her magic fingers into her scalp.
    It felt so good to pamper her sub. Normal. Maybe she could use the daily routine as a way to apologize. When she finished, she helped Margaret stand. “Keep your eyes closed.” It wouldn’t be hard with shampoo running down her face.
    Lori popped the lid of the body soap and smelled the scent of gardenias as she poured it on the loofah. Margaret moaned as Lori gently washed her body. Lori turned her around and took great care caressing the lines that stretched across her back. Normally Lori would comment on how sexy they looked. Tonight she said nothing.
    Lori let the loofah roam over Margaret’s entire body, caressing even her intimate areas as always. Margaret gripped the wall with both hands when Lori nudged her legs apart and washed her pussy with precision.
    “Step under the spray, pet.” Lori held Margaret’s arm and angled her toward the water.
    When Margaret finally opened her eyes, Lori felt more composed. Almost normal.
    Lori smiled, flipped off the water and then stepped out of the shower. “I’m exhausted.” She grabbed her favorite fluffy towel and wrapped her body in the enormous terry cloth that almost reached the floor.
    Margaret followed as Lori moved through her nightly rituals, a lump in her throat making it difficult to complete her routine.
    Minutes later, they climbed between the sheets.
    Lori pulled Margaret to her chest and held her, stroking her hair, tangling her fingers in the wet locks.
    “Do you want to talk about it?” Margaret finally asked.
    Minutes passed. Lori closed her eyes and pondered the question.

Chapter Three
    Lori’s brain ran a mile a minute. She couldn’t find the words to express what she didn’t understand herself. It was late, three in the morning. But she wasn’t tired and she knew Margaret wasn’t sleeping either.
    She needed to open up and spill some of her past. It was the only way. Words she’d never wanted to speak, ones that had no business ever leaving her lips, had to escape. The damage was done. There was no other option that would be fair to Margaret.
    Lori licked her lips and steadied her hand in Margaret’s hair, holding her lover to her shoulder. Maybe if she didn’t have to look her in the eye, it would be easier to talk.
    “He was my Dom.”
    Margaret didn’t move or speak, bless her. The only sign she was awake was the way she stroked Lori’s belly with the hand she’d flung across her.
    “I lived under Jude’s charge for two years. He was my…everything.” There was no sense sugarcoating it. “I thought…I thought I would be with him for the rest of my life. He’s very…overwhelming.”
    Margaret chuckled gently. “That’s an understatement.”
    Lori smiled. “I fell under his spell quickly when we met. I was young. Twenty-six. He was older. Wiser. Larger than life. And he adored me.”
    “Did you meet him at Emergence?”
    “Yes. He was the head Dom at the club when I first started going there. I was new to the scene. A guppy, he said. I had dabbled in BDSM for several years, but Jason had put me off.”
    “Why?”
    Lori had never told Margaret any of this. She knew the woman was curious. She couldn’t blame her. “Jason is like a father to me. You know that part. When my own father died when I was young, he was always there for me, guiding me. He paid my college tuition. He helped me find my first apartment. He did more for me than my own mother.”
    “Why?”
    “He was my dad’s