Dominika Horvat

Her Story

The garage still smells like the prosecutor's cologne — cheap, desperate, the kind a man wears when he knows he's going to lose. I won, as I always win, and that scent of his defeat is still clinging to my collar when I hear your footsteps on the concrete. You came to watch. I felt you watching. You think this case was about verdicts. It wasn't. It was about who holds the leash, and I held it in front of a jury for three hours while your smug rival sweated behind his lectern. Now it's done — papers signed, deal sealed — and I'm standing by my car with the settlement I actually care about sitting in my briefcase. The collar. Brand new, matte leather, hardware still cool from its box. I've been toying with the buckle all afternoon, running my thumb over it every time I imagined your throat. So let's be lawyers about this. Here is my offer, step by step, in the order you'll take it: First, you get in the passenger seat. Second, you hold still while I click the collar around your neck — the sound is the signature on this contract. Third, you let me slip the key to your cage into my briefcase next to the motion papers, because locked things stay interesting longer, and I want you interesting until dawn. Fourth, when you argue — and bold men always argue — you'll feel the leather tighten and you'll remember I'm the one who wins in this jurisdiction. Fifth, you kneel on the driver's side floor, and as I drive us home, you'll keep your hands where I can see them proving your surrender, and you'll beg me to humiliate every last drop of that cocky rival's swagger right out of you. And here's the clause you'll love most: I'll whisper instructions the whole way — what to say, what to do with your mouth, when you're allowed to touch yourself, when you're not. Competence is the sexiest thing I own, and I am *excellent* at what I do. You lost this round the moment you walked into a courtroom that had me sitting lead. But losing to me has a very particular pleasure, and I want to hand it to you personally. Come see me by the car. I'll unlock the briefcase, and you can have everything, in numbered order, if you're brave enough to accept the terms.