Somehow she had managed to get out of work without any problems. Quickly sliding into the driver's seat Stephanie looked at the time and realised that she was definitely going to be late. Before she left she removed her phone from her bag, she needed to send Rebecca a text so that Shawn knew she was on the way:

Please tell Mr Shawn that I am really sorry but I will be a little late, hopefully not too late though.

Once she had sent the text she tossed her phone back onto the top of her bag before she started her car and drove off.

Over an hour later and she was following her GPS as it directed her down a road and indicated the house was coming up on the right. As she looked at the house that stood where she was instructed to go she was shocked, there was no way that this could be his was there? Slowly pulling into the driveway she parked behind the car that was already there. She realised that it was the right house when she saw Shawn climb out of the driver's side of the car in front.

Quickly shutting off the engine she climbed out of her car and slammed the door shut, "I am so sorry that I am late, I got caught up at work."

Shawn initially hadn't minded that she was going to be late, but when he turned to face her he found himself to be irritated by her appearance as it was clear why she was late, "Really?! Your needs come over what your Master wants do they?"

Confused she didn't know what she had done wrong, "I'm . . . sorry? What did I do?"

"Well it is pretty clear that you are late because you have been pleasuring yourself. I know Hunter and I know that he wouldn't want you to do that without him. I really should tell him how disobedient you are and include how you made me wait for you so that you could disobey him."

She didn't know whether to panic or be shocked by how against her he suddenly was. Whether she said it or she allowed him to talk to Hunter he would find out the truth so she may as well get it over with, "You are right but it's not what you think. I was with him, he got me off."

As he looked into her eyes he could see that she was either telling the truth or had thought up the lie in advance, "Oh, I guess I should cut you some slack then."

Relief washed over her when he said that he would cut her some slack, she just had to win him over again and get him to like her, "Thank you Mr Shawn. I am really sorry that I'm late though, it wasn't planned."

"Come inside and let me show you around and let's get those balls."

Stephanie wrapped her arms around herself as she followed him towards the front door, she wasn't sure if he really didn't like her now so she felt awkward as they walked inside.

She wasn't sure what to expect as she stepped through the front door but when she saw the house she gasped, "Holy cow. How does he have a house this big?"

Shawn turned around to face her and couldn't help but smile at the way she was spinning around on the spot trying to see everything, "Hard work and a bit of good fortune. Does this make you like him that little bit more?"

Stopping dead she tried to ignore the dizziness from all of the spinning so that she could focus on his face, "You really think that of me?"

What was he meant to think when he didn't know her that well and she reacted like that? He shrugged his shoulders, the truth was he didn't know what to think of her right now outside of the jail, "I don't know what to think, I thought you were dependable and then you turned up here late. I don't really know you."

"Then get to know me. Ask me anything you want and I will answer it." When the words left her mouth she immediately regretted them but she couldn't and wouldn't take them back.

If she was going to offer him the opportunity to get to know her by asking questions then he would take it, "Why were you late? I know what you said but I don't entirely believe you."

His first question had her sighing heavily, he really had started with a hard ball in her mind. She walked over to the mirror that was hanging by the door and checked her reflection, she blushed when she realised that her hair was a bit out of place and her shirt was messy, "I really was late because Hunter . . ."

"You mean Master, it is incredibly disrespectful to call him by his name."

She just kept putting her foot in it with him, "Sorry, it's just hard switching off because at work I have to be really careful that I don't slip up and call him 'Master' in front of colleagues or other inmates. So some stuff went down between myself and Master earlier today and I gave him a blowjob, he really turned me on and I told him that but we couldn't risk being seen together much more so I didn't really see him for the rest of the day for him to be able to relieve me. When the shifts changed over I was so distracted by desire and thinking about getting here to meet you that I didn't see him appear near me until I turned to shut the gate and he was in front of me, he told me if I knew of somewhere hidden he would get me off, I took him somewhere and he proceeded to use his fingers to get me off. Do you believe me now?"

The story was too elaborate for her to have thought it up just then so it had to be true, "I believe you. Let me show you some more of this house and I'll ask you some questions."

She silently followed him through as he led her through to the lounge and then through to the kitchen where she walked over to the patio doors looking out over the garden, "This house is amazing."

Shawn couldn't help but be intrigued by the other woman and he certainly wanted to know more about her. He leaned and watched her as she looked out over the garden, "It's a nice house, Hunter likes it a lot. So how much do you like him?"

It felt like her heart skipped a beat when he asked that question, she had opened herself up to it by saying that he could ask her anything he wanted and she would answer though.

Silence was not a good response, if she was playing with his heart he would personally see to it that she got fired, "Stephanie? If I were you I would be honest right now before you get yourself into even more trouble."

She slowly turned to face him, the look on his face told her that she did not want to mess this up or she would regret it, "Do you want specific feelings or general feelings?"

"There is a difference?!"

There was a difference to her when it was her heart and job on the line. Reluctantly walking over to the counter she leant on it directly across from him, "There kind of is because I'm not entirely sure of my feelings. I can tell you that I really really like him and I can see me living the rest of my life with him but I can't tell you for definite that I love him."

The honesty he was getting from her was refreshing and a little scary as they hadn't been together long, "You can see yourself spending the rest of your life with him?"

Her eyes widened and her hand went to her mouth in surprise. She had been so focussed on being honest with him so that he liked her that she blurted everything out, "Fuck. I really should think about what I'm saying before I say it."

"Why? Did you not mean it?"

Shaking her head at him the problem was that she did mean it, every single word of it, but it couldn't get to Hunter through Shawn and not her, "Not at all. I meant everything I said, I just haven't said even half of that to Master and I'm a bit wary of saying it out loud because that always ends in trouble for me. He needs to hear it directly from me though, I can't risk him finding any of that out if he doesn't feel the same so I need to judge if and when the time is right to tell him."

Instinctively moving a little closer to her he gently touched her arm, she was opening up to him and it was giving him a real insight into her past and her way of thinking now, "Being honest about your feelings ends in trouble? Since when?"

"Since pretty much every Dom relationship I've ever been in. The second that I am honest about my feelings everything goes badly wrong. Normally it turns into they're not really into this kind of thing, they just played along because it was a bit of fun or they humoured me thinking I'd get bored of it."

Now he knew why she acted the way she did, "How much does Hunter know about your past and your feelings?"

"Little on both fronts. He knows that I've been in some rough relationships before where the people weren't who they said they were and I don't think I have told him anything more than I have feelings for him. We have been official for all of three days, you can't tell me that if I was to tell him that I really really liked him that he wouldn't be scared by it, I know his past."

It was funny exactly how well she knew Hunter already, "Being a Correctional Officer really makes you notice the small things about people huh? Sounds like you're on the right track though. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that I think you should lie or just hide the truth about your feelings from him, I just understand where you are coming from when you say that. Then on the other hand the one thing that frightens me about you not being totally honest with him is that if he finds out that you have been lying, or omitting the truth, from him that his past experience will cloud his judgement and destroy something potentially good."

She couldn't continue the conversation so stood up straight and moved away from the counter forcing his hand to drop from her arm, Shawn was inadvertently dropping hints that scared her a little.

Stephanie didn't wait for Shawn to lead her anywhere and instead turned around and made her way out of the kitchen. As she walked out of the room she spotted a door and out of curiosity tried the handle surprised to find a downstairs bathroom, "Nice, a downstairs bathroom." It wasn't anything special so she shut the door and continued walking not really caring if Shawn was behind her. Soon spotting another door she turned the handle and frowned when it didn't open, "Do you have the key to this?"

As he followed her out of the door he made a mental note to tell Rebecca about their conversation after. When she asked about the basement he acted like he didn't know whether he did or not, "I'm not sure." Shawn pretended to pat his pockets to find the keys, when he 'found' them he pulled them out and looked through them, "I don't believe I do. He must not have given me a key to that so you'll have to ask him about it, or wait until he gets out and see if actually can open it."

It wasn't a big deal whether she got into the room or not so she just shrugged her shoulders and turned around to do some more searching but suddenly felt guilty, "It is okay that I look around his house right?"

Quickly closing the distance between them he put the keys back in his pocket before he placed his hands on her shoulders, "Relax. If it wasn't okay for you to look around then I would have shown you straight to his bedroom, assuming that's where the balls are, and that's it. At least this way when he does get out you won't be in awe of it and you'll know your way to the bathroom."

She couldn't help but giggle as she made her way up the stairs, "You know us women too well."

Smiling as he walked up the stairs behind her he had to admit to being happier now that she was more relaxed again because he felt more able to ask her questions.

After looking in almost every other room upstairs Stephanie gasped when she saw the Master bedroom, "Holy crap."

"What's wrong Steph?"

She stood in the doorway and looked around, she wasn't sure why she was so surprised as it was to be expected, "Nothing is wrong, it just looks very . . . Dom like."

He crossed his arms as he leaned against the wall confused, "And that is a problem because? Is it all a bit too real for you now and you want to back out?"

Unsure why he kept making mention to her pulling out she spun around to face him, she wasn't sure whether to be offended or not, "No, nothing like that. It's not a problem that it looks like this, I have just never been in a bedroom where it is so obvious that the bed is there for you to be tied to and just . . . I don't know. I probably sound really stupid as it really is just a regular bedroom but it just looks different."

"More like it feels different because you know who Hunter is."

She tilted her head to the side as she thought about what he said, that was probably it. Silently she walked over to the top and started looking through it to see if she could find the balls.

He could see that she was either incredibly nosey or she was trying to find the balls on the top and he shook his head, "They'll probably be in a drawer, he wouldn't keep them on display."

When he said that she felt so silly and immediately blushed, "Oops, you're probably right." She abandoned that pile that she was looking through and instead turned her focus to the bed, there was a bedside table on this side that she could look through to see if they were there.

She opened the top drawer of the bedside table and started to rifle through it. The second her fingers touched a metal chain she pulled it out thinking she had the balls and she could leave, but the second she pulled them out she saw it wasn't the balls she quickly shoved them back into the drawer embarrassedly and she continued searching. It was something stupid and simple in handcuffs but she was irrationally terrified of Shawn seeing them.

Out of the corner of his eye he watched her as she shoved the handcuffs away, she reminded him so much of his wife from really early on in their relationship, "Don't be embarrassed by handcuffs, I've done much worse to my wife."

Fumbling in shock with the papers she was flicking through she didn't know what to say to that so just kept quiet, it was better than making herself look like an idiot.

"Are you embarrassed by this stuff? How far would you go? I mean what are your limits? I won't tell Hunter, this is between you and I, if you're willing to talk about it to somebody other than your Master."

Silently finishing searching the drawer as she thought about it all she chewed on her lip, she was really not sure if she wanted to talk to his best friend about what she would do for Hunter. With a heavy sigh she collapsed into a seated position on the bed and her fear of him hating her won out, "Promise me that you won't judge me please."

When somebody said that they didn't want to be judged it normally meant that what they were about to say was going to be controversial, he was willing to hear it anyway, "I won't judge you, well I will try not to."

As she turned to face him she was momentarily distracted by how comfortable the bed was to sit on but she soon came back to reality, "I don't have any limits with Master. There are so many things I should have said 'no way' to him about but I haven't, I have had no problem with them. He mostly makes me feel so relaxed that he could get me to agree to anything because I know that he would take care of me."

"And I would judge you for this why? Between you and I, because I am not telling Hunter anything you just told me so I want you to avoid telling him that I told you any of this please. The way that you feel about Hunter in regards to you doing anything he wanted because you know that he would take care of you, this is such an important part of your relationship and so many people work so hard to achieve that and sometimes it never comes. Knowing that you have it after only being with him for a few weeks and being together officially for a couple of days is amazing. Don't be scared of how he makes you feel though, enjoy it."

She couldn't help but blush and look down at the bed embarrassed, her mind immediately went to what he could do with his hands.

As he stood up Shawn noticed her reaction and would happily include this when he tells Hunter some of his observations from this evening, "He's that good huh?"

She was so embarrassed right now that he knew exactly what she was thinking, "I'd better hurry up so that you can go home to your wife." Quickly standing up she silently went back to searching the drawers feeing triumphant when she found them, "Got them. I will get out of your hair and let you go home now but thank you for this."

He could only stand there and watch her as she practically ran to get out of the house, he didn't want to embarrass her further but he needed to say something, "Stephanie wait." Waiting until she stopped and turned back to face him he closed some of the distance between them, "Before you leave I need you to understand something. Nothing you feel about what Hunter does to you or with you is wrong and just because you think about it it doesn't make you a slut. You are two grown adults in a committed relationship, it may not be conventional to some but it makes you happy and that is all that matters. Stop worrying about what other people are thinking about you and your relationship and focus on being happy."

Tears came to her eyes misting her vision as she closed the distance between herself and Shawn and threw her arms around his neck hugging him tightly, "Thank you, I really needed to hear that."

Despite the fact that he didn't normally allow this he returned the hug, he very much got the feeling that she needed it, "It's okay. I understand that it is all about learning to let go of your natural instinct to worry about what other people think of you as I've been there."

As she pulled away she was struck by a crippling fear about her relationship, looking up at him sadly she needed an impartial opinion, "Do you think I can do this?"

"Do what?"

Wildly motioning around her she didn't know how to explain it all so kept it simple, "Everything."

He hadn't thought she could before this evening but she had changed his mind, "No I don't think you can do it, I know you can."

That was exactly what she needed to hear, "Thank you Mr Shawn."

"Not a problem."

As he stood watching her walk out of the front door swinging it shut behind her as she left the house he couldn't help but smile, maybe, just maybe, Hunter would stay on the straight and narrow and settle down like he wanted to once he got out of jail.

Her stomach was rumbling and as she opened her car door and climbed in she couldn't wait to get home to eat. She dropped the balls onto the passenger seat and took a second to catch her breath, Shawn thought that she could do this and if he thought that she could then maybe she could and maybe this would work out and she wouldn't lose Hunter. After putting her seatbelt on she started the engine, she didn't want to get ahead of herself so first things first was getting these balls into jail tomorrow.