A/N: Spinning her web…

Q: How long before Christian comes to his senses?

A: :deadpan: it's Christian

Q: So an eternity.

A: Elena called him. He just picked up. It's not like he's figured out she's the Whore of Babylon.

Inspiration Song(s): Annie Lennox - I Put A Spell On You, Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

"And that's all for 5 at 5!"

ElenaPoV

So this is why I've been passed over? Over that twit who has managed to get herself practically beaten to death and sent to the hospital? I wonder who could have attacked her. I'm pissed they didn't show the perp. Was he caught? Or is there some criminal on the loose in Seattle? I'm certain it wasn't Christian. That's not his style. He likes his women sentient and willing. Even if he was very angry with Anastasia, I don't see him attacking her. Maybe it was one of those puerile adolescents who she attends college with. Maybe she twitched her tail at them like she did for Christian and got dinged when she wouldn't put out.

I'm surprised he didn't call me to let me know; even worse, why didn't Grace? I haven't heard anything from her either. I hate this new life, being left out of the loop. It's almost as if they forgot how much I helped them. I guess it's up to me to remind them. A little guilt goes a long way. I suppose I'd have to call him, but I really wish he would reach out to me first. We can't have too many times of me reaching out to him; it's not the proper protocol. I shouldn't have to chase after him.

I decided to peruse my business records. Not Esclava, that pretty much takes care of itself; they don't even need me there. I was thinking about my other business, maybe a little darker and a lot shadier. Perhaps. I am a matchmaker. I present Doms and Dommes with submissives for their use.

Every once in awhile, however, there are people with more exotic tastes, things that they can't exactly find on Tinder. And Craigslist is just an arrest warrant waiting to happen. I expedite. I have my finger on the pulse of something that most people would never understand if they lived a lifetime. I understand their wants, needs, passions and cravings, and I know just how to make their dreams come true.

It's easily my most profitable enterprise. Something even Christian, as depraved as he can be, would never touch with a ten-foot pole. He would never want to be exposed or even peripherally involved with my type of business. When it comes to certain things, he's just as vanilla as his parents. I had to work very hard to break him down, to make him understand what his true needs were, to convince him that he was not a welcome member of his family and that they would never understand who we really were. Some might call me manipulative. I consider myself an arranger of outcomes. It's my stock and trade, giving people what they want or what I tell them to want. It was as easy as rolling downhill. Sometimes it takes repositioning, at others, it just takes a little push as they were already falling.

People want to be told what to do; the only problem is most people want to be directed without knowing they're being managed. They wouldn't know what to do with their days with no-one to tell them. Their lives are empty, boring and purposeless. That's another reason why what they want is so fucking dark. With enough wealth, you can have almost everything you need and almost everything you want; pretty soon it gets boring. Everybody wants bigger, better, faster, brighter, sexier, lustier and nastier. The world is debauched. And I bring that world to them.

They don't like to believe that they're victims of their own hormones and slaves to their gonads, but they are. Boy meets girl, falls in love, gets married, has babies and then one day he decides he wants to fuck his secretary. It happens all the time. Love never lasts; it's a chemical reaction, and we're all slaves to the chemicals. The key is to know your addiction and learn to control it before it controls you.

I've found the best way to control myself is to indulge my every whim. Some fools would tell you that the best way is to edge, to keep yourself away from those things that you want, not to indulge, but to make a life of sacrifice. Pah! Those people are the biggest hypocrites in the world! How do I know this? My biggest clients are the ones preaching abstinence. But while they're telling everyone to keep their legs closed and keep their dicks in their pants, they're giving facials to some of my best girls. Pastors preaching about Sodom and Gomorrah but they don't mind that Temple of Sodom when my subs are bending over for them and taking all they have to give. There's nothing wrong with hypocrites; hypocrites are profitable, and just like I'll rarely turn away a nice, hard dick, I rarely turn away profit.

However, there's usually a premium if I have to deal with that type of nonsense. You don't get to decry my dark passions when yours are darker than the bitterest chocolate and blacker than night. We're all in love with the tenderest meats. What did my father used to say? Young and dumb and full of cum? It's true. I like it best when they don't know what they're doing, because you don't have to unteach them anything. And if they have no set moral compass all the better. I make sure none gets installed. Then they'd be willing to do any little thing you want. No barriers, no limits. Allow everything. It's the nearest thing to Paradise. Sometimes I'm tempted to give up Esclava altogether.

It's not like I need it to rub my nickels together anymore, but it's a great place to make contacts and I'm all about making contacts. Young and old, rich or poor, male or female, many people grace the doors of my beauty salons. And with that, comes a plethora of benefits. I get names, addresses, phone numbers, credit cards, and IDs. There's hardly a secret I don't know in all of Seattle. Once I have their little heads in my hand over the shampoo bowl, their secrets slide right out of them. It's a more difficult hand job than usual, but it normally turns a great profit in the end.

I know who's cheating, who wants to cheat, who's cheated before and is oh so repentant until it happens again. Seattle must be packed clumsy dicks and cunts with all the accidental fucking that goes on. I know whose wife is pregnant, and whose husband has a hard on that won't quit. I know almost every surgical procedure. I also know what times the ladies are wrapped up in procedures at our salon and when the coast is clear. I've actually been paid top dollar by hard up husbands to keep their wives busy here for three or more hours. I bet I know what they did during their lunch hour. I provide alibis. Like I said, I'm a fixer. Only a few times have I guessed wrong and made a bad decision, but you'd be surprised how saying "I think I've had a few too many drinks" can get you excused from the most egregious errors.

Faux apologies are even better if you can ever fix your mouth to lie or obfuscate, and I'm a dab hand at that. I know people see me and think, "Is she trying to chase the fountain of youth?"

Sure I am! Why wouldn't I? Everybody's chasing youth. Everyone's a vampire sucking the life out of everyone that they meet. Don't believe me, consider the clusterfuck called remarriage. Look at the age gaps. How many people actually marry up in age if they can avoid it? Men are always chasing the youngest, tightest snatch from women who know absolutely nothing about them and are innocent enough to believe that they're actually good men. Yeah, good men who left great women. Why? Because they wanted it younger and snappier.

Every once in awhile you'll see an old broad like me with a younger man and say "She should be ashamed of herself!"

How ridiculously prudish. Perhaps I like it young and snappy, too, and unlike the old fools that remarry women thirty years younger than themselves, I can still orgasm multiple times without the use of a pill. It's a tragedy really, that as women get up in age and become more horny, men get just as old, but less capable or willing to satisfy.

Linc was such a man. Yeah he got me when I was young and stupid, or at least just young but maybe a bit stupid because I undersold myself by a lot. And when the bill came due, I knew I had very little coming. Well I had a lot coming only it was from Christian. I enjoyed him. He is my greatest masterpiece. He may have come from less than nothing, but he had potential. I always saw it. Even his parents, as oblivious as they were, saw the potential in him and expected him to conform to their demands.

God! I could just imagine Christian as a lawyer. Sure he had the chops. He could argue someone out of house and home, but he was never going to be happy working for someone else or at least realizing he had an employer. The trick was to make him believe he was in charge. And all the ladies I provided gave him that confidence. And for that, they were remunerated very generously.

Christian was the power, and I wanted to plug in and enjoy the ride for once. He dominated in both the boardroom and the playroom. Though I'd provided him with all of his subs. Until this last one. Christian was proving he was just like every other man led by his cock. He'd found himself a sweet young thing and decided to play Higgins to her Miss Eliza Doilittle, training her himself. As if he could be trusted to guide the green girl himself!

I'd offered to take the ignorant child in hand, mainly because I wanted to get a good look at her. I was sure that the picture in the paper had not done her justice, as Christian accepted only the best. Therefore, despite anything and everything I had taught him, he was going to see this through to the end. Worse, she had him competing with college schoolboys for her attention! I'd be impressed despite myself if I'd thought she was doing it on purpose. She must have the hottest, tightest snatch in Seattle to have my creature twisted in knots. The trick had the nerve to dub me Mrs Robinson of all things, comparing me to that older woman who seduced her friend's son in The Graduate.

Her very simplistic, judgemental view of BDSM and its trappings pissed me off, and I would be extremely shocked if Christian let her get away with it. I'm sure her ass had seen some stripes based off of that alone. He doesn't like to be corrected. And he would refuse to be guilted. She would have to learn to go along and get along to stay, and her stay would only be as long as I'd allow. All I had to do was get to know her and when I did, I would own her too. Thus she'd go the way of the dodo like all the others.

Now she's in the hospital I can only hope that Christian isn't there trying to play the part of a grieving husband, supporting her in her time of need. Thankfully, he's only been mentioned in passing, which means he hasn't been seen visiting the hospital. Pretty soon, people will wonder where he is if he stays shut-in for too long. I have to get him out and about.

He is desirable, though, with his copper hair, laser gray eyes and splendid physique. A Roman God come to Earth. Mercury, Mars or Pluto? He had elements of them all. I couldn't blame her for falling for him, but she'd have to understand that in the end there just wouldn't be room for all of us. I would always have my share, and she would have to take it or she would be gone. I don't appreciate that he's been keeping us apart because his little tart doesn't approve of me. I wasn't going to let him hide me away like a dirty little secret. And I definitely wouldn't allow her attempt to supplant me.

So this is why him not calling me has upset me so much. He's trying to pass me over and make me irrelevant. I'm not going to let him make me feel obsolete. I want him to see me. It's time for my pet to return home.

Unfortunately, all this dithering around brought me to one rather salient point. Unsavory though it was, I was forced to reach out. I'd have to call him because he wasn't calling me. It was almost as if he had forgotten who I am. It was as if he was taking our friendship for granted. After all I've done for him! After all we've been to one another. All over some girl? I wanted to scratch her eyes out! I wanted to attack him with vitriol. He was letting me down.

Wasting all his training on a woman who couldn't even appreciate it. Someone who would make him feel less than. It was almost as if she didn't realize he was a billionaire. She didn't really even see him as a powerful man. She wasn't giving him the proper respect. But I'm sure he had set her straight, after I wound him up and sent him off to Georgia to pursue her. She must have been scared shitless when he showed up.

I'd told him to show her who he really was. And I'm sure he followed my instructions to the letter. It says a lot that he didn't accompany her to the hospital, which means he must not have known. Even better, they must have been separate after his visit to Georgia. She probably ran away from him as far and fast as her skinny legs could carry her. I didn't know why I worried, I was sure she was just a flash in the pan.

But what I did not like is that he had gone off script. I don't trust people who deviate. They're harder to control. I liked Christian predictable, manageable, appreciative and generous.

This new determination of his to improvise worried me. It reminded me of his youth, that wildness inside him that I had to break. He still had the same amount of passion but I had taught him how to redirect it. And he was wasting it on some coed. He was giving her ideas above her station and pay grade. Imagine! She treated his money as if it was toxic. It was clear she had never really had money in her life, but she was playing hard to get. When I knew he had to be getting her quite often to have his nose open so wide. Maybe it was that he just wanted to smell some nice young flesh. I really hope that he hadn't fallen into the trap of trying to build a dynasty through her snatch. I prayed he had not fallen victim to the lure of creating an heir and a spare.

With Grace desiring him to be normal, maybe he was simply trying to please her. Finding a nice girl that his parents would accept. Also someone he could take public. Perhaps she was his beard and I was overreacting. Maybe he was tired of people believing he was gay and wanted to show them he had a dick and he was willing to fuck a woman instead of a man. The idea of Christian with a man was preposterous. Who would be the top?

Suddenly, my phone rings. I thought Christian, right on time. But as I picked up not looking at the caller ID I heard Isaac's voice through the line. Disappointment crashed into me. And I knew I would be taking out my rage on an unsuspecting Isaac. Because he was not who I wanted to be talking to. That just simply meant that I would have to give him something to do, some task to keep him busy while the adults were talking.

"Isaac darling," I said. "Now what have I told you about calling me?"

"Mistress, I thought you'd like to know. I heard on the wire that they don't have a suspect in the case. And for some reason they're leaving it open," he gushed.

I wouldn't hurt him as badly since he had given me useful information. But still it pays to keep pets on their toes, to make them feel off balance; otherwise they get airs and think they have more control than they do.

I'd already set out to hear the scuttlebutt myself. I knew a lot of people: doctors, lawyers, cops, judges. In the end, even so-called pillars of society ended up in my playgroup. There were none above the rest; they all descended to mad animals when given the proper push and allowance. I sent my feelers out. I would have more information by the end of the week for sure. One thing was for certain, Ana and I would be having a conversation.

I finally dialed Christian's number.

"Hello Elena," Christian said, sounding distracted.

Oh this attitude would never do. I expected him to be a little more pleased to hear from me. After all, based on the fact that his dear Anastasia was laid up in the hospital, he would probably need someone else to fulfill his needs. And he would need me to provide. It's almost as if he is willing to bite the hand that fed him.

"Christian, what is this that I hear that your little friend has been hospitalized? What happened?" I asked.

"I just recently found out that she had been attacked in her apartment. The police are unsure of who her attacker was. All I know is that she was beat all to hell," he replied shortly, tight-lipped. Surely he must know more.

While I was somewhat happy about her condition, as I wanted to slap the bitch myself, it wouldn't do to let him know how satisfied I felt about this turn of events. It's one thing to be conniving, it's another thing to be caught holding the calculator. We talked business for a while as he had quickly diverted the subject. I'd let him get away with that for now. It wouldn't do to focus even more of his attention on the ungrateful Miss Steele. Because like any child, if you challenged them, they would more than pick up the gauntlet to prove you wrong.