TNSWB

– Epilogue –

(Edward)

If you had told me two years ago that I would be sitting in a place called 'The Domination Den,' partaking in a group discussion on male chastity devices and how to use them with my submissive wife seated comfortably beside me, I would have laughed right in your face.

Yet a little more than two years since our first taste of what the world of BDSM held for us, here I was.

Here we were.

Dom and sub.

And what a wild ride it had been for us to get here.

Bella shifted on the couch to my right, one hand trailing absently over her throat as she listened to a fellow member recount his experience with the specific apparatus being demonstrated today. I smiled to myself, knowing exactly what she was yearning for, what awaited us just an hour's drive away once this meeting ended.

Speaking of which…

I checked my watch discretely, a small thrill of anticipation sparking in my chest when I saw the time. We were nearly through here; our usual hour-long Friday night meetings always ended by seven o'clock, and it was now six fifty.

Just ten more minutes on the subject at hand, then a quick friendly chat with Angela and Ben before we could escape it all and set our true selves free.

Not that it was difficult to lead a conventional life from Monday to Friday; Bella and I had always had an enjoyable and healthy relationship, and our weekday bedroom antics were anything but dull. Still, there was a side to both of us that we needed to fulfill, two pieces of a D/s puzzle that were even stronger when they were linked together.

After a few closing words from Angela, the meeting was dismissed and people either stayed to mingle or began to file out. Bella and I stood from the couch, making short, pleasant greetings to the members we passed on our way to see Angela and Ben.

"Hello, Bella dear," Angela said as my wife wrapped her into a friendly hug. Still becoming accustomed to this level of friendship, the taller woman shot me a look of affectionate resignation over Bella's head, to which I just smiled and nodded.

After our first successful weekend in the Sanctuary, we had invited Angela and Ben over to our home in Seattle to share the news of our reconciliation with them. It hadn't taken long for Bella to see through Ms. Weber's icy exterior to the kind and generous friend I had myself discovered only a few weeks before. The two were talking and laughing together before I knew it, and learned that outside of the world of BDSM, they actually had a fair bit in common. They now got together regularly to bake and discuss their favorite books, and I often saw Bella smile at her phone as they texted each other randomly throughout the week.

While the women chatted I shared a fist bump with Ben, who grinned at me and then quickly looked away. With Angela's permission, I had begun an attempt to get him to open up to me as well, but in the last year I hadn't gotten much further than this. Still, it was a big change from the man who before this had only ever made eye contact with the floor, so I took our slowly-growing relationship as it was, hoping that one day, no matter how far off, we might find shared interests to talk about, too.

"I have copies of the newest Molina novel for us," Bella told Angela with a glint of excitement in her eyes. "I promise I haven't peeked, but if the back cover is anything to go by, this one is going to be his best book yet!"

"I can't wait," Angela replied with a dark grin. "Are we still on for Wednesday at six thirty?"

"Yes!" Bella exclaimed. "I already have all the ingredients for Paradise Pumpkin Pie. Did you get more of the cinnamon-cardamom tea?"

"I did, at least a year's worth. We'll bake, and then start with chapters one and two while we enjoy the fruits of our labors?" Angela asked.

"Um, at what point do we get to enjoy the fruits of your labors?" I interjected, motioning between Ben and myself. The other man looked up and smiled again before squeezing his lips together and casting his eyes back down, leaving me hopeful that one day soon he might feel comfortable enough to voice his own thoughts, too.

Bella giggled, stepping closer to me and wrapping an arm around my back. "I'll make sure to bring a piece home," she assured me. "And no, I won't eat it all in the car like I did with the cookies. I swear."

Angela and I both laughed while Bella blushed and buried her face into my chest. "Is it my fault that we're like, world-class bakers whose wares one simply cannot resist?" she joked against my shirt.

"Certainly not," I said fondly, pulling her close and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I, for one, have never been able to resist anything about you, love."

Angela beamed at us from where she stood, her eyes moving back and forth between Bella and me in obvious admiration. She had told me once that she was completely satisfied with what she and Ben shared, and yet it seemed the more time they spent with us, the more I thought I might see a spark for something more growing in her eyes. I only hoped that whatever path they followed, be it old or a journey to something new, it lead them to happiness, together.

"All right, well … we'd better get a move on if we're to make it out before full dark," I told Bella. She straightened up immediately, apparently as excited and impatient as I was to get our weekend started.

"Okay, yes. Good call," she said, and then turned to our friends with a big smile. "Thanks for another fun meeting. Not that it pertained to me, really, but it was fascinating to learn about, nonetheless."

"I appreciate you saying so," Angela replied, her eyes darting to Ben with a mischievous smirk and quickly back to Bella again.

I coughed into my fist, trying desperately to stomp out the mental picture forming in my mind, and then put a hand on the small of Bella's back to lead her on our way. "I'll see you next Friday," I said to Angela, with a friendly nod at Ben. He nodded in return and stepped closer to his Mistress, and I couldn't help my grin when she placed a hand lightly on his shoulder.

Bella and I left them then, seeing ourselves out and hurrying down the front walk to our car. The evening air was crisp as fall settled on Seattle, so I turned on the heater as we settled in for the drive out to our cabin.

The Sanctuary.

What a truly apt name I had given it, as it had become everything Bella and I could ever need or want to practice safe and sane BDSM. After our first successful experience within its walls, things had only gotten better the next time, and then better again. We thrived within our roles, pushing and testing our boundaries and continually finding new avenues to lead us to ultimate pleasure.

And what a pleasure it was.

Bella was not only everything I had ever wanted in a wife, but also more than I had ever dreamed of having in a submissive. Her determination was unparalleled, her strength of both body and mind unyielding, and the absolute purity of her trust in me as a Dominant was the rock-solid foundation our arrangement sustained itself on. She took it all—the pleasure, the pain, the punishment—and wove it into something beautiful that fulfilled us both to our very cores.

I was such a lucky bastard. I always had been, and with Bella by my side, I would be until my very last minute on this earth.

Bella's phone chimed from her purse, pulling me from my musings. "It's Alice," she said when I glanced over. "She's asking us to confirm for dinner at their place on Sunday."

I frowned, hating to cut our weekend short by even a few hours, but family was family and I knew Bella and I couldn't be quite so selfish with our time. Not if we wanted to maintain our close and loving relationships with the people who mattered most to us, anyway. "Yes, of course," I replied. "Though it means we'll need to head back into the city by four thirty…"

Bella giggled at my pouty expression. "I know," she said with a grin. "I don't like having to leave early, either. I do have a field trip on Monday, though, and it's my class's first of the year, so I'd wouldn't mind being home in time for a good night's sleep. Twenty-three new kindergarteners out at the zoo is daunting, to say the least!"

I chucked at the thought, but with the way Bella's eyes now lit up when she talked about school and 'her kids,' I was sure she was just as excited as they were for this experience. "Ah. Well in that case, we will be sure to be on our way home by what … nine o'clock then?"

"Sounds perfect," she said, and tuned into her phone to tap out a response to Alice.

The rest of the drive passed with a mixture of light conversation and comfortable silences, and before I could grow too impatient we pulled to a stop in front of the cabin.

"The flower boxes will need to be culled before it gets any colder and the possibility for snow sets in," I mentioned as I retrieved our overnight bags from the trunk. "I suppose that will be a job for tomorrow, then."

Bella hummed in response as she followed me up the stairs to the porch. "Maybe you can work on that while I finish reorganizing the bookshelves? I didn't quite get through them all last weekend."

I smiled at my charming wife as I unlocked the door and we stepped into the house, where I set our bags down so I could pull her close. "Excellent plan," I said, my mouth descending on hers.

Her arms wound around my back, pulling me closer still as I kissed her deeply, passionately, my hands aching to get themselves on her warm, naked flesh. I pulled away and smirked at her flushed cheeks and hungry eyes, reaching into my back pocket while she waited with bated breath. I wound the velvet collar around her neck, the sparkling letters on it beckoning me to do exactly as they asked, and fastened it carefully behind her head.

"Welcome home, sub," I told her, and she grinned. "Your fifteen minutes starts now."

"Yes, Dom," Bella said, and she dashed off without a glance back. Once I heard the door to the sanctuary click shut, I made my own way down the hall and into our bedroom. I set our bags aside, retrieving one small item from mine before stripping out of my clothes and into a comfortable pair of jeans.

Bare of chest and foot, I padded silently across to the dark-wooden door, stopping outside and looking down at the gift I now held in my hands. A printed book, small and bound in black silk, the title embossed in shiny red curling script. Inside it is a story, one of love and passion and dark desires fulfilled. A gift for my beloved, a token of my love and utmost respect for her and her position, a reminder of where this all began.

For before I even knew it, our true lives were born in Bella's mind, a dream of how much more we could be. Fantasy eventually became reality, and now here we were. Dom and sub, a true harmony of souls—and we owed it all to The Night She Wore Black.

Author's Note: That's a wrap, folks. I want to take a moment here to once again thank everyone who has ever been a part of this story: betas, pre-readers, readers, reviewers, pimps, cheerleaders, and friends. No matter if you loved this story or hated it, disagreed with it or just didn't understand it, I really am grateful for the time you spent here with me and I will always treasure this experience we shared. BIG LOVE to you all! I am working on PDF and (hopefully) e-reader copies of this story, so if you enjoyed it enough to want one for your very own, I will put them up on my blog as soon as they are done and add an announcement for that here.

I will be starting a whole new story adventure tomorrow, so if you would like to come along for that ride with me, too, either add me to Author Alert or check back in with my profile soon. I'm super excited to be off in a new and exciting direction and I hope to see you all there!

XOXO,

maniacalmuse