October, Six months later
Simone woke up to a bright Kentucky autumn morning. The sky outside their bedroom window was so blue she had to blink a few times to take it all in.
“Master Jason?” she called out and then yawned hugely. No answer. Jason had already slipped out to do his morning check on the horses. Well, that was fine. She would get up, get dressed, and maybe she’d have breakfast ready by the time he came back. Busy day for both of them. Jason was packing to leave on a two-day road trip to pick up a Quarter Horse in Georgia he’d scouted for a local teenage girl who was learning to barrel race, and Simone was going with him. The horse farm they were visiting outside of Savannah had hired her to take the photographs of all their stock for their website. In just two months’ time, ever since packing up her apartment in New York and moving in with Jason, she’d already begun to make a name for herself in the tight-knit horse industry with her equine photography side business. People said she had a gift for capturing a horse’s personality with her pictures. She’d already been working on a charity calendar to raise money for Jason’s nonprofit, which helped provide therapy animals to kids in need. Every month was a shot of a child with a horse. April, the month she and Jason had met, was for Katie and Cupcake, Simone’s favorite picture by far. Mainly because Jason was in it too, at Katie’s insistence. The little girl had a big crush on Jason.
Simone couldn’t blame her. She had a big crush on him, too. And she had the tattoo on her arm to prove it. A tiny Ps 23:2, a reference to Psalm twenty-three, the second verse, “He leads me beside the still waters…” Jason “Still” Waters approved wholeheartedly of her ink. His family might not, but they were working on that. They’d been almost as angry about Simone as they were about Jason posing nude in the charity calendar. Jason said it was nice to have company on the shit list. He didn’t seem worried about it much so Simone didn’t worry, either.
In an effort to make peace, Simone had made two copies of the photo of Jason, Cupcake and Katie, framed them, and sent one to Jason’s mother and one to Jason’s sister Aimee. She’d received a very nice handwritten thank you note from Jason’s mother—progress. Meanwhile, Aimee had actually called and said the photo was so sweet it had made her cry. Aimee had even let Simone talk to both of Jason’s nieces on the phone. When the girls asked her if she’d take pictures of them with their horses, Simone had said they’d have to ask their mother about that. Aimee said, “Next time we visit.” Another good sign.
Jason had told his whole family that he and Simone were together now, and he wouldn’t be going anywhere she wasn’t welcome. That hadn’t gone over very well at first. But now, maybe, it seemed the Waters family was warming up to her. Aimee had even sent Jason a text message saying that she was happy he was so happy.
Maybe by Christmas, they’d actually let Simone into their homes. But if not, she would take Jason with her to visit her family back in Connecticut. Or invite her parents, sister and nephew down here. Or…maybe she and Jason would just spend all December from Hanukkah to New Year’s Eve in bed together.
They’d probably go with that last option. They had plenty of holidays ahead of them to spend with family. Simone stood up and pulled on Jason’s abandoned flannel shirt from yesterday. He loved it when she slept in his shirts, loved taking them off of her in the middle of the night even more. Simone stood up and stretched, thought about taking a shower, eating breakfast, drinking coffee…that didn’t last long. She collapsed onto the covers intending to sleep a few more minutes. But when she rolled over she heard a weird sound, like she’d lain on a pile of paper. She sat up and saw she’d accidentally landed on a large envelope Jason had left laying on the covers. What on earth?
A note on the envelope said, “Open me.”
Interesting.
She smiled as she opened the envelope. She loved when Jason was in the mood to play games with her. He’d fully embraced his role as her owner and master, and not a day passed he didn’t remind her who was boss in the house. Considering the orders he gave her were things like, “Come for me” and “Suck me” and “Tell me how you want me to fuck you,” it was a pretty easy job being his submissive, servant, and slave. She’d never been more content in her life. The only thing that could make her any happier was Jason hurrying back from the barn to spank her again before breakfast. If her ass could take it. She had a nice blue bruise on it this morning. Turned out Jason was a natural with the paddle. Not that she was complaining. Not at all.
Inside the envelope was a calendar. Not just any calendar—their calendar. It was the Naked Men Reading Books literacy charity calendar. It had come in the mail to them yesterday, but Jason hadn’t let her see the final product. She’d thought he was simply torturing her by hiding it. Now she discovered he apparently had an ulterior motive for keeping it from her.
She flipped immediately to the month of November. Jason was Mister November, after all.
She groaned. The evil man had taped another, smaller envelope over his picture. How rude. If she opened this envelope to find an even smaller envelope inside it, she would scream.
Simone screamed.
Then, very carefully, as it was so small, she opened the third tiny envelope.
Inside that envelope was a tiny card, and on the tiny card were written three words.
“Pick a date.”
Pick a date?
Pick a date…
No. No way…he didn’t mean that date, did he?
Jason appeared in the doorway. Simone looked up at him in shock. She was breathing so hard she thought she might pass out.
“Jason?”
He held out his hand and in his palm was a ring.
“You have to say ‘yes,’ Spanky,” he said. “It’s an order.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, already crying, already shaking, already ready to marry him today.
Then he slipped the ring on her finger and as soon as she saw it she knew he was the perfect man for her and always would be.
It was a diamond ring, of course. But not just any old diamond.
A pink diamond.
THE END.