Page 54 of Collared

Epilogue

Diamond’s Birthday, One Year Later

“Are you all right, darling?” Pax asked, walking up to stand behind her as she gazed at herself in the full length mirror.

“Yes,” she told him with a sad smile, and she was. Her day had been perfect, almost too good. She had to remind herself that it wasn’t somehow dishonoring her mother to have a good day on her own birthday, just because it was also the anniversary of her mother’s death. As her dad told her every year—if her mother could have chosen a different day to die—she surely would have.

And as Pax reminded her, her birthday was the start of their love story, even if she didn’t remember the events of that first night.

Pax had poured himself into making sure every detail of her day had been perfect. The perfect flowers, the perfect meals, the perfect gifts, the perfect activities. They had had a big greasy breakfast and sushi for dinner, and after a trip through her favorite shops, they had gone back to the room and Pax had finally, as long promised, fulfilled her fantasy of being flogged. Every nerve in her body was still tingly, and she felt floaty even after a good long nap. The man truly knew how to spoil her and he wasn’t done. They were heading down to the club right now; a perfect end to a perfect day.

“Okay, good.” He swatted her butt, and smiled at her. “Let’s get moving then. I have a few more surprises.”

When they entered the club, Diamond kept her eyes turned to the floor, as she always did to keep from tripping over any unsuspecting bodies. This time she didn’t see any. In fact, as she looked around the room in confusion, she saw very few outward signs of kink at all. The players were all there, and yeah, they dressed like they were ready for a night at Rojo—the spikes and collars and stilettos were out in full force. What was missing were the floggers, and the crops, and the leashes, and the ropes. None of that was prevalent. It looked very much like she had walked into a vanilla party, albeit a very interesting one but a vanilla party nonetheless. The room was set up differently as well. There was a full band on the stage and twinkle lights hung everywhere.

A large table pulled into the back held a giant cake and at least a dozen bottles of champagne. Bright red table cloths covered every table, with red rose centerpieces in the middle of each. As she looked around the room, at all the smiling faces, she realized they were all smiling at her. There were the Tanners and their wives and girlfriends. Lady K and Mistress Carrie had brought their favorite slave boys, Jase was there, with his lady du jour, and Crystal and her friend Topaz from Aubergine. Even Sir Darius and Roxy had shown up.

A birthday party. Pax had thrown her a birthday party. Just when she thought the day couldn’t have gotten any more perfect, her family came down from their hiding spots in the VIP lounge.

Squealing with delight, she hugged her sisters first, and then her dad, and then made the rounds around the room. The band, to her delight played every song about diamonds that had ever been written.

The champagne flowed freely all night, and everyone came up to personally wish her a happy birthday.

She was deep in conversation with Mistress Carrie and Crystal, when Pax’s voice echoed through the microphone.

“Hey, Miss Popular,” he joked, pointing directly at her, and crooking his finger at her in a “come here” gesture. “I’ve been trying to get your attention for a while.”

“Oh you have?” she cooed as she made the long walk to the stage to join him, wondering what was up.

When she was finally across from him, he handed her a large square necklace box, and her breath caught in her throat—thinking of the night, so many months ago, when he had promised that she would someday wear his collar.

She was full of apprehension as she slowly popped open the box—holding her breath as she waited for the contents to be revealed. They had looked at collars, they had discussed collars, but she had never had one, and over the past year, her expectations had gotten pretty high, and very specific, even though she knew it wasn’t up to her.

It was perfect. A thin, gold choker, connected in the center by the eternity symbol. It was exactly, what she wanted. As Pax lifted it out of the box, something caught her eye. There, hanging from the middle of the eternity symbol was a ring. Her blood went cold.

“Pax, I told you I didn’t want an O-ring on my collar.” She was trying to remain calm, but it was a very hard limit for her, and she was starting to tear up in panic.

“It’s not an O-ring,” Pax whispered back.

“Well, I don’t want a D-ring either,” she hissed. “I told you I don’t want a ring period!”

“Oh, you don’t?” Pax questioned, acting very strangely as he lifted the choker from the box, and moved to open the clasp. She watched in confusion as the ring slid off the choker and into the palm of his hand. That was odd. The rings were usually a part of the collars.

“You don’t want a ring?” he repeated.

“No!”

“Not even this one?” Holding the collar in one hand, and the ring in the other, he sank to one knee in front of her and she finally understood.

He was marking her as his in every way possible.

The End