Chapter 3: Dawning

Here I was with this woman, whom I thought I knew very well (and to be honest desired as much as a drowning man does a breath of air) and she was kneeling in front of me waiting for me to instruct her as to how to prepare my tea. As I looked into her beautiful questioning eyes, things from my studies, interests and "hobbies", and our talks seemed to click into place in my mind. I smiled warmly and said, "Two scoops of tea steeped for five minutes served with two sugars and a dash of cream. If you get it right I will reward you, otherwise I will punish you." I then waited for her reaction.

She watched me intently as I spoke then nodded her head and said, "Yes, Sir," and then a tremor passed from her head to her toes and she nearly dropped the cup she had started picking up when the realization of what I said about punishing her brought her up short. Fortunately, she managed to catch the cup. She then lowered her eyes and in the meekest voice I could ever imagine coming from this woman said, "Yes, Sir. I understand."

I sort of expected this, but for her to actually respond as she did was still quite the shock. From all the information I had at my disposal I'd come to the initial conclusion (or perhaps it was nothing more than a personal belief or desire of mine) this evening that the reason she was not happy in any of her previous relationships was not because the men were not worth her time or that they were bad, they were quite simply wrong for her. They were "too good".