Chapter 16: Obedience

  The morning after, Mira could barely look at herself in the mirror.

  Not because she was ashamed—though maybe a part of her was—but because she didn’t feel real. Her lips were still swollen from Lena’s mouth, her thighs sore from where Lena had held her, her neck smudged faintly with the ghost of Lena’s teeth. And worse, her thoughts were still stuck back in that tiny practice room. Her body was quieter now, but her mind wasn’t.

  Lena had wrecked her.

  And now, standing in front of her mirror with her toothbrush hanging forgotten in her mouth, Mira couldn’t stop repying every second. The way Lena had pulled her in. The way she had said mine. The things she'd said in her ear right before she—

  Mira pressed the heels of her palms to her flushed cheeks and groaned softly.

  Get it together.

  But she couldn’t. Not at breakfast, not during her walk to css, not even when a friend waved and asked if she wanted to sit together. She’d muttered something about needing to study and tucked herself into a back corner of the lecture hall, biting her lip to keep herself grounded.

  It hadn’t been a dream. But the memory felt impossible, like a secret too big to hold.

  She hadn’t seen Lena since that night. No texts. No library sessions scheduled. Not even a passing gnce in the hallway.

  Until today.

  Mira nearly tripped when she spotted her. Lena, sitting alone under one of the tall sycamores near the quad, ptop open and unreadable behind a pair of sleek bck sungsses. She didn’t look up when Mira passed, but her fingers moved—two slow taps against the lid of her ptop. Barely noticeable.

  But Mira saw it.

  Her heart stuttered.

  It was a signal.

  She tried to keep walking, but her pulse throbbed in her throat. Those taps had weight to them. Like a pull she couldn’t ignore. So she detoured into the library.

  Where she waited.

  Ten minutes passed. Then twenty.

  By the time Lena finally walked in, Mira’s nerves were in full swing. She sat at their usual table, notebook open, trying to pretend she was focused.

  Lena didn’t sit right away.

  She just stood behind Mira for a long moment—long enough to make Mira’s skin tingle.

  “You’re here early,” Lena said at st, voice soft and dry.

  “I—I saw you on the quad.”

  “Oh?” A slow smile in her tone. “And you followed?”

  Mira's cheeks warmed. “Maybe.”

  Lena pulled out the chair beside her. She didn’t sit across from her like usual—no, she stayed close. Leaned in. Her hand brushed the side of Mira’s thigh under the table, slow and deliberate.

  “You listen so well.”

  Mira almost dropped her pen.

  Lena gnced around the library. No one near enough to hear. Still, her next words were a breath against Mira’s ear.

  “I’m going to give you a task.”

  Mira’s body went rigid. Her breath caught.

  “You’ll do it because I say so. Because you want to. Because you belong to me.”

  Mira’s head turned instinctively, like she could meet her gaze. But Lena was already flipping open a textbook like nothing had happened.

  “What’s the task?” Mira whispered, lips barely moving.

  Lena reached into her bag and slid something small across the table. Mira caught it with trembling fingers.

  A smooth, sleek wireless earbud.

  Her brow furrowed. “What is this…?”

  “Put it in during your next lecture,” Lena said, voice even. “I’ll give you instructions. You’ll listen. You won’t speak. You’ll stay composed.”

  Mira’s breath turned shaky.

  “And if I mess up?”

  “You won’t,” Lena said, calmly. “Because you don’t want to disappoint me.”

  The words wrapped around Mira like a net. Her thighs pressed tighter together under the table.

  I’ll give you instructions.

  Mira had no idea what Lena meant—what she’d say. But just the thought of having her voice in her ear, in public, during css...

  The power of it flooded through her. Heat curled low in her belly.

  Lena leaned close again, brushing Mira’s hair behind her ear.

  “Tonight. Ten p.m. Psychology building. You’ll be in the back row.”

  Mira nodded, heart galloping.

  Lena kissed the top of her head—so soft it could’ve been mistaken for nothing at all.

  Then she packed up and left.

  Leaving Mira shaking, alone, with the earbud clutched in her hand.

  ---

  She didn’t make it through dinner. Her hands were useless. Her thoughts knotted. By the time nine-thirty hit, she was already walking—too fast, too warm under her jacket, nerves brimming over.

  She kept repying it. The way Lena had said You belong to me. The way she hadn’t touched her in days but had still made her feel owned.

  Mira arrived early. Back row, just like Lena had said. She kept her head down. Her chest was tight with anticipation. The room filled in slowly with students, but Mira didn’t notice any of them.

  Then, her phone buzzed.

  From: Lena

  Put in the left earbud. Only the left one.

  Don’t make a face.

  Mira’s heart smmed against her ribs. She looked around, but no one was looking at her. Not even the professor yet. The hall was still buzzing with the low hum of chatter and shuffling paper.

  With shaking fingers, she slipped her hand into her bag and found the pair of wireless earbuds she’d brought. She took the left one, slipped it into her ear like she always did when listening to music, and tucked the wire beneath her hair.

  Another buzz.

  From: Lena

  Good girl.

  Her entire spine went taut.

  She shifted in her seat, pulse thundering. She could hear Lena breathe through the mic. Then—

  “Sit still,” Lena said quietly into her ear. “And listen to me.”

  The voice was velvet and cool and made Mira's insides tighten immediately. She looked down at her notebook, opened to a bnk page.

  “We’re going to start something new today,” Lena went on. “You’ll follow instructions exactly. If you don’t, we stop. You don’t want that, do you?”

  Mira swallowed. Then shook her head.

  “Say it.”

  “No,” she whispered.

  “No what?”

  “No, I don’t want that.”

  “Good.”

  The lecture began. The professor’s voice rose above the room, but Mira couldn’t hear a word of it—not over the sound of Lena’s voice in her ear, measured and calm.

  “I want you to uncross your legs.”

  Mira obeyed.

  “Good. Now, slide your skirt up. Just a little. No one should see.”

  She hesitated—but only for a second. Her fingers were stiff. Trembling. But she did as she was told, until the backs of her thighs kissed the cold of the seat.

  “I want you to sit like that the entire lecture.”

  Mira felt her breath stutter.

  “And every time you think about touching me again, every time your mind wanders, you’ll press your thighs together and remember who you belong to. Understood?”

  Mira whimpered, so softly no one would hear.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Yes who?”

  “…Yes, Lena.”

  “Wonderful.”

  Her body ached with it. The wanting. The memory. She squeezed her thighs together, and the heat pulsed low in her stomach.

  “I wish you could see yourself,” Lena murmured. “You’re such a mess already. Are you wet?”

  Mira’s cheeks burned.

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  The professor asked a question. Mira couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. Her pen hovered over the page without purpose. And all the while, Lena’s voice kept coming—low, possessive, full of dark praise that made Mira sink deeper and deeper into the feeling of being owned.

  By the time css ended, Mira’s legs were unsteady. Her notebook was bnk. And her body was singing with the same need that had nearly destroyed her in the practice room.

  Another buzz.

  From: Lena

  Meet me after. Practice Room C.

  Mira didn’t think. She just gathered her things and stood, her skin flushed and her underwear ruined.

  This was her now.

  Obedient. Desperate. Hers.