Submit and Surrender

chapter 6


Ford looked over the pages that had been thrust into his hand by the harried director and frowned. It was apparently the first BDSM scene they were shooting, but one that occurred somewhere in the middle of the movie, at least in the script he’d read. He would never understand why they filmed things out of order, but he did have a grudging respect for the ability of actors to jump in and out of their character’s heads like that.

Still, for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what this scene was actually about. All he saw was some light discipline. That wasn’t nearly enough to go on.

“What do you want from us?” Ford asked.

“Anything you can give us,” Olivia said, laughing nervously. “I have so many questions.”

“Ask away,” Adra said.

“I just…I don’t understand what’s going through her head, here, you know?” Olivia said. “Like, I get the motivation—she’s just defied one of his orders, but it’s because she realizes that she’s actually in love with him, even though it’s supposed to be ‘no strings attached,’” Olivia said, rolling her eyes slightly at the phrase ‘no strings attached.’ “And so she has to like…pull away, or rebel or something. And he’s not having it.”

“You seem to get it pretty well,” Derrick said from where he was lounging on a couch. Ford wondered if his smile was leering, and then decided to let it go. For now.

Besides, Olivia did seem to have a pretty good grasp on the material.

“Yeah, I get the emotional aspect,” Olivia said, picking at some non-existent lint on her jeans. “I just don’t know what she’s supposed to be actually feeling, physically and mentally, as this is going on. As a submissive. Or how it relates, I guess. Like, I have no idea, even the gestures… I don’t know.”

Santos, who had been on the phone, whispering frantically, finally looked over.

“You can help with this?” he demanded, looking at Adra and Ford.

Adra looked up from the script. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “I can definitely help with this.”

Ford did not like how that got Derrick's attention.

“Good,” Santos said. “You coach, I’ll be back in ten. This f*cking shitshow outside has thrown everything off.”

And with that, the director actually walked off.

Ford frowned. This entire production was a disorganized mess, from the lax security to the lack of planning and preparation for the actors. Ford and Adra had no experience with coaching a scene, Olivia had no idea what she was doing, and Derrick was focused on Adra. The disorganization showed.

Olivia looked at Adra, her expression shy.

“Can you show me?” she asked. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Um, yeah,” Adra said. She smiled nervously. “I guess I’m not sure what I’m doing either? I’ve never acted or anything, so…”

And Derrick made his move.

“Let’s show her,” Derrick said, getting up off his couch. Looking directly at Adra. “Let’s do the scene together.”

That was it.

“Sit down,” Ford ordered.

Derrick sat, slightly stunned. Everyone else froze.

Ford had read the scene. He knew the words—what few there were. But more than that, he knew the scene, in his bones. Now that Olivia had given an emotional context it made sense. He knew what it was, what to do. He was a Dom. And he was damned if he was going to let Derrick use Adra to demonstrate anything.

He pinned Adra with his eyes and said, “Pay attention, Olivia.”

Then he walked over to Adra, threaded his hand through her hair, pulled her head back, and started the scene.

“You knew the rules, and you broke them,” Ford said, his eyes taking in all of Adra—her big brown eyes, her parted lips, her delicate neck. Her undeniable reaction to him. “Now there are consequences.”

~ * ~ * ~

Adra’s mind went blank.

For an eternal second, her mind actually went blank.

There was just Ford’s hand in her hair, his lips so close to hers, his body controlling her own…

And then she remembered. The scene. This was the scene. He was speaking lines.

She barely remembered to breathe.

“This,” Ford said, tightening his grip on Adra’s hair, “shocks her into a submissive mindset. It bypasses thought and goes directly for the body. You see her eyes, the pupils dilated? Her lips parted, her breathing shallow and fast?”


He was speaking to Olivia. But his eyes never left Adra’s.

“Yes,” she heard Olivia say.

“This is where he would kiss her,” Ford said.

He pulled Adra’s head back just a little more.

“Softly, at first, but thoroughly,” he said, his eyes on Adra’s lips. “Then harder. Firmer. Establishing dominance.”

Adra licked her lips and felt her breath hitch. His mouth was so close, hovering over hers while he described what he could do to her. What she was feeling. How it would work.

And damn him, he was right.

“This is where she would begin to yield,” he said. “Where she’d begin to feel powerless.”

He was right. The warm, wet feeling started to spread from her core, her skin dancing with a million little tingles. She was enthralled.

“Adra, tell them what you feel,” Ford said.

It was an order.

“Warm,” she said, before she could stop herself. “Warmth. Light. I need—”

“She’s starting to lose words,” Ford said softly. “This is the first reason he reminds her of the safeword.”

He leaned his head down, his mouth by Adra’s ear.

“Tell me the safeword, Adra,” he said.

“Red,” she whispered. “It’s red.”

“What’s the second reason?” Olivia said. Adra could barely hear her.

“To make sure she knows she’s making the choice,” Ford said. “That she’s choosing to submit. That his dominance is so complete that she doesn’t even have control over her own desires.”

There was a pause.

“Oh,” Olivia said quietly.

“That’s when he leads her over to the bench,” Ford said, walking Adra the short distance to one of Volare’s own spanking benches.

When he let her go, she missed him. Felt adrift. Staring at the bench, thinking about what it meant. About who was behind her.

About how he had taken control of this situation without consulting her, without asking. About how she had no idea what this meant, if it meant anything at all. And about how she wanted it to go on so much that she didn’t even care.

She had her safeword, after all.

“He would make her look at the bench,” Ford went on. “He’d make sure she knew what it meant, what it was for. This is when she’s confronted with that choice—submit, or safeword out.”

Adra felt Ford’s hand on her shoulder, pushing her one step forward, just in front of the bench. She couldn’t do this. If she did this, she’d be betraying their friendship. They both would. But Adra would fall so much harder. If she did this, she didn’t know if she could stop. She didn’t know if she could come back from it. She didn’t know if she’d want to.

“Her mind would be in conflict,” Ford said behind her. “The tension between every social convention, every emotional defense mechanism, telling her not to do this, to run away from what she feels, versus the overwhelming urge to obey. To let go, give in, and be free.”

Adra closed her eyes. How far would he take this?

“And then he would give the order,” Ford said.

His hand pushed on her shoulder.

“Bend over,” he commanded.

Adra obeyed.

She did it reflexively, automatically. She bent at the waist, her ass up in the air, her hands reaching out for the handles, fingers spread wide as she savored the way it felt to wrap her hands around the contoured rubber. She turned her head, resting her cheek on the bench. And she gave in.

“She surrenders,” Ford said.

His voice beat with a rhythm she could feel between her legs. Her body hummed with the timbre of his voice.

“Her entire body is like a primed instrument,” Ford said, his hand moving to her hip. “She can feel everything. She can feel me breathe. She is pulled tight, waiting for it. The slightest touch, the slightest impact…”

Would he do it?

Jesus, would he do it?

She’d let him.

“Do you know anything about impact play?” Ford said.

Olivia didn’t answer him.

No one answered him.

Adra waited.

And then she heard the door and Santos’s hurried steps, and the spell was broken. Ford’s hand slid off her hip, and his other hand came up under her arm, lifting her up gently, his fingers soft. His voice murmuring something in her ear, something calm. Something caring.

Santos pulling at his hair, yelling. Derrick staring angrily, Olivia just staring.

“What’s going on?” Adra finally asked.

“I need you two downstairs to shoot scene 3A right f*cking now,” Santos was shouting. “Now, now, now! We can’t secure the grounds, so we have to set up inside, and we can’t lose a damn day to this leak!”

Adra watched this renowned creative genius pull at his hair while Derrick and Olivia scrambled to get ready for a different scene, and couldn’t feel anything but detached. It was like everybody else was shouting underwater. The only person she was aware of was Ford.

Ford, standing next to her, watching her.

They stood like that until they were alone, watching each other. Adra could feel her mind begin to churn, begin to wake up, to scream at her about what the hell had just happened. What about him? Did he feel that? Did he have that uncertainty, that doubt, fringed by this dark desire that threatened to overrun everything? Or was he just calm, and collected, and so goddamn Dom-y it was infuriating. Unperturbed, unbothered. Certain.

He knew what he was. He knew what she was. He knew what he’d just done.

“Goddammit, Ford,” Adra whispered.

“Talk to me,” he said.

She shook her head. Now that reality was rushing in felt like she was drowning. You can’t talk about drowning until you’re safe. Until you’re on dry land.

“I need time,” she said. “Go deal with the security issue. Go make it safe here.”

Ford frowned, his eyes sad, but he didn’t move. “Adra,” he said.

“Please,” she said. “Please, Ford? This isn’t my first time.”

Ford smiled a kind of haunted smile.

“No, it isn’t.”

“I know what I need,” Adra said. “I need you to go make the club safe. I need…”

“You’ll need to talk to me,” Ford said. “Eventually. But I’ll deal with this now. I’ll do you anything you want.”

He had walked half way to the door before he turned around.

“You know that, right?” he said.

“You’ll do anything I want,” Adra said.

Ford grinned. “Within the rules.”

And then he was gone.