“Ruby, it’s not you that I’m mad at. This man, this so-called ‘Dom.’ He mistreated you, didn’t he?”

“Not at first.” Ruby’s voice faltered. “When I started seeing him as a client, he seemed so charming and kind. We clicked instantly. I’ve been doing the escort thing for a long time, and until then I’d never had feelings for a client, let alone considered a relationship with one. So many clients tried to win me over, to ‘save’ me, to buy me away from my life of escorting.

“But he wasn’t like that at all. He seemed so genuine. And I was so drawn to the power he radiated, even before he told me he was a Dom. I’ve always had a submissive side, but I’d never truly explored it until him. The more we explored together, the harder I fell for him, until eventually, I realized I was in love with him. So when he asked me to move in with him, to be his girlfriend and submissive, and to give up my job, I agreed. Everything was great at first. But it didn’t take long before things began to change.”

Ruby swallowed. “He wasn’t like you. He wasn’t careful. He didn’t care about safewords and limits, let alone aftercare. He said we didn’t need any of that. He said that we trusted each other, and that was all that mattered. And I believed him, until he…”

Yvonne put her hand on Ruby’s. “You don’t need to talk about this if you don’t want to.”

“No, I do.” Ruby drew in a deep breath. “It started when he became controlling in subtle ways, with small, mundane things. He’d dictate what I was allowed to do, how I was allowed to dress, all in a way that made it seem like it was part of our power games. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Then, he started crossing lines in a physical way. He’d push my limits, do things he knew I didn’t like, and he’d apologize after. But then he started taking things even further. He wouldn’t listen when I said no, wouldn’t stop when I said stop.”

She cast her eyes down, not wanting to face Yvonne’s reaction. “He never forced himself on me in the typical sense. It was everything else that he’d take too far. He’d hurt me, or he’d keep me tied up when I wanted him to let me go. And when I protested, he’d tell me that I wanted him to do those things, that I’d asked for it. It made me doubt myself. I’d wanted all those things, hadn’t I? So I couldn’t complain when he was just doing what I wanted, what I’d agreed to. And most of the time, everything else between us was good, so I just let his treatment of me slide.”

“Oh, Ruby.” Yvonne’s voice trembled.

“I know that he was manipulating me, abusing me, but back then it was so hard to see it. I’d just become this shell of a person, this empty, formless vessel with no desires of my own. I became nothing more than what he wanted me to be.”