Page 103 of The Dom with a Safeword

“No!” Q tried to sit up but Sabrina held her down – or tried to. The girl was fucking strong, even when barely conscious. “No hospitals. I just need to sleep.”

“Q, you’re –”

“Sabrina, please?” The sorrow in her voice tugged at her. “Please don’t make me answer questions about what happened.”

Nosy doctors would be all over her ass, demanding answers, calling in social workers. Q would be mortified. Now that they’d covered her body, she’d stopped shivering. Her eyes looked clearer. The wounds were superficial – they could bandage them at home.

She sighed. “Alright. To the apartment.” Gently, she tugged Q back into her lap. Stroking her hair, she scolded, “Why on earth would you do this to yourself, Q? You scared the shit out of me. I get that you’re upset about Jude. Piercings are one thing, but my god, you could’ve been murdered! Do you have any sense at all?” Then her brain processed what her fingers already had. “Your hair!” It looked like someone had taken a blunt machete to it. “What did you do to your beautiful hair?”

Q remained quiet, but her breathing had steadied and her muscles relaxed.

“I should have never broken things off,” she whispered, more to herself. It was her fault Q had almost just died – hers and Jude’s. She wished she could kick his sorry ass for leaving her. And if Sabrina had been brave enough to stand up for what she believed in instead of hiding – like a coward – this never would’ve happened. Thank god she’d made it in time. If something worse than this had happened to Q…tears welled up in her eyes.

“I’m so sorry.” Sabrina leaned down and kissed her hair.

“I don’t want your pity,” she slurred.

“It’s not pity. I mean it. I love you. It just took me a while to…realize it.” Denial was a powerful trap.

“No.” She shifted as if trying to get away then seemed to think better of it and gave up with a sigh. “I definitely don’t want your pity love. I’m pathetic enough without it.”

Sabrina’s patience snapped. “It’s not pity, dumbass! I busted down the door of a stranger’s house for you. If he had tried to keep me from taking you, I probably would’ve gotten myself killed protecting you. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is. Now lie still and shut up!”

There was a pause long enough to make Sabrina think she’d fallen asleep, then, “When did you get so bossy?”

She chuckled and kissed her temple. “When I thought I’d lost you.”

Ivy dropped them at the apartment, promising to get her car back to her in the morning. Q seemed stronger and pushed Sabrina away when she tried to help her into the house. But Sabrina managed to bully her into her bedroom and lie down on the bed while she bandaged her wounds.

The dim lamp on the side table didn’t provide much light but Sabrina didn’t want to disturb Q, who seemed to be resting soundly. She only winced a few times when Sabrina dabbed on the antiseptic cream. The wounds would probably heal without scarring. Luckily, it did seem like Fuckface knew what he was doing – for that part of things anyway. There wasn’t much Sabrina could do for the bruising though. Q would feel that tomorrow. But she bandaged up the gashes on her thighs then tucked her under the covers.

She considered her options from here. This was Q’s room and they hadn’t been the closest of roommates lately. Should she sit beside her or leave right away or –

“Fuck it,” she mumbled, unzipping her jeans then letting them fall to the floor. She kicked off her flip flops then freed herself from her bra before approaching the bed.

“What are you doing, little girl?” Q’s voice sounded too small to be in big, bad Domme mode.

“Oh, I’m ‘little girl’ again, huh?” She made a scooting motion with her hands. “I’m getting in bed with you, and you know I only wear underwear and a tee to bed. Move over.”

Q chuckled softly as she made room for Sabrina. It was good to hear her laugh, even if it was weak. Sabrina slid in under the covers and lay down on her side, facing away from Q.

She could feel Q’s breath warming the back of her neck but Q didn’t touch her. After a few moments of scrambling for something to say and coming up empty, she reached back and grabbed Q’s wrist then tugged it around her waist. Q chuckled again and tightened her hold while Sabrina ran her fingers up and down her arm.

“You don’t act like a straight girl,” Q whispered, nuzzling into her hair.

She smiled into the pillow. “You don’t make me feel like one.”

Another moment of silence then, “So this is it, Sabrina? One night I was in danger and suddenly you’re bi?”

She inhaled slowly then exhaled, thinking through the right words. It was more complicated than what Q boiled it down to. And it would be hard for Q to believe her no matter what she said. So she did her best to explain.

“You know that song, Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell? Counting Crows did a cover of it in the early two thousands, I think. It was a good cover. I almost like it better than the…”

Q’s soft laughter made her trail off. “A serious conversation and you talk about pop songs. Figures.”

Sabrina squeezed her arm. “I have a point. Anyway, the idea of the song is that you don’t always know what you have until it’s gone. And I…”

Her voice cracked and she had to stop.