It is complicated, especially now; it had taken everything in him to trust what V had said, to take that chance, and then he was dumped right into the kind of contract he had been most afraid of. Even a man - or woman - who would actively have abused K in some way would have been preferable, for reasons he has difficulty explaining.

"The Dominant who took over when V - was gone." He takes a moment, steadies, keeps going. "He believed the things he was saying. He believed that I showed promise as a Submissive but that I needed... cultivation, is what he called it. He wanted me to earn back friends, earn back freedom. Earn any relationship outside of the one I'm meant to have with my contract partner."