Read Party Lines for Free Online Page B

punished out of me?” She pulled away, burying her face in the
couch. Ron got up and went over to sit beside her on the couch. He laid a hand
on her shoulder but when he did she tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her
and gently tugged her around to face him.
    “Did
I send you some signal, some vibe that said I was asking for it?” She put her
face in her hands again. “Oh, god, I am so ashamed.”
    He
sighed. It was just as he expected and he suddenly felt a surge of emotion for
this woman, an intense desire to protect her.
    “Don’t
be,” he said. “Don’t be ashamed of who you are. You’re right. I probably wouldn’t
have done that to any woman. But something came over me with you. I won’t lie
to you. I did sense something.”
    “Oh,
god.” She began to cry harder.
    “No,
no, no,” he said. “I don’t mean that to sound negative, Lindsay. Don’t take it
like that, please. It wasn’t weakness I sensed. It wasn’t masochism. It was…I
just sensed that you were like me.”
    She
was so surprised that she stopped crying. “Like you? How?”
    “Different,”
he said. “Primal, for lack of a better word. I think there are women out there
who have a tendency to yield to male influence out of societal expectations.
And then there are women who are hard-wired to that.”
    “Are
you saying I’m a…”
    “Submissive?
Yes.”
    Her
hands had begun to shake again. How could he do this to her? How could he just
say this to her outright, as if he were making an observation about her eye color.
    “I’m
not…”
    “Would
it be so bad to admit you are?” He smiled at her and pulled a handkerchief out
of his pocket. “I’m a dominant.”
    She
took the handkerchief and blew into it but did not look at him. “It’s easier
for a man to admit he’s a dominant than it is for a woman to admit she’s
submissive. We live in a politically correct world , remember ? Women are supposed to be way past that. Especially
women in high profile positions.”
    “Not
everyone gets past their nature,” Ron said, relieved
that she had not launched into a denial. “I don’t think most people really do,
actually. They just live contrary to it. For years I did. When I finally
admitted what I was – a dominant man – I realized that ironically
that women who could complement me were virtually nonexistent in society.”
    Lindsay
shook her head, puzzled. “But you said you could tell if a woman is submissive,
and that conservative women were moreso.”
    “They’re
more submissive than the feminist types, but even they draw the line at putting
total trust in a man – in letting him guide and correct her,” Ron said.
    “Is
that what you want? To find someone you can correct?” Lindsay felt her face
flush as she asked the question.
    “Yes,”
he said. “If she’d have me.”
     She’d
never thought she’d meet a man like this. How like her luck that it would be
the one man she’d been at national odds with. For Ron’s part, he’d begun to
relax. He wasn’t sure why he was able to tell Lindsay all this. He just somehow
knew he could.
    “But
what about your wife?” Lindsay asked. “Was she ..? ”
    “ ..submissive ?” Ron finished for her. “It’s not a bad word.
You shouldn’t be so hesitant to say it.
    “Submissive,”
she said.
    “She
was,” Ron said. “In the start. But she grew to hate being that way, to feel
guilty about it. When she was a homemaker it was easy for her, but once she got
out in the working world it didn’t take long before she adopted a whole new
image of herself that was contrary to who she was. It destroyed our marriage
and handed me a life I never wanted. I have a little son – Brian –
but because of what happened I’m only in his life every other weekend, on
Wednesday nights, holidays…two weeks in the summer…” His voice trailed off.
    Lindsay
shook her head. “Nothing is ever really that simple,” she said softly. “When
marriages end there is usually fault