Refocusing Priorities

"Saris, can you hear me?"

She nodded, swaying slightly on her feet.

"You must be very proud of your granddaughter."

She nodded slowly, the barest hint of a smile on her dark lips.

"You have a great deal of respect for her abilities and upbringing, don't you?" More agreement. "You trust her to know what she's doing, and even if she makes a mess of it, it will be a valuable learning experience for her. You're a very formidable person, it would be trivial to clean up her mess, which means... you shouldn’t worry about it at all."

Tension she hadn’t realized she'd been holding melted out of her, and slight breath of relief escaped her mouth. Arthur’s imagination flashed, he didn't know why but he suddenly felt as though he had read the story of her life from beginning to end as if she were an open book. He could feel every considerable worry and stress that filled her life, Every burden from the moment she awoke to the moment her eyes closed. That flash of insight danced through his mind, as he considered how best to move forward.

"You're glad you came to me to talk about it. You feel much better now dont you? And since you don’t have to worry so much you don't really care about what goes on in this department."

Agreement.

"Saris, tell me about your romantic partners."

"Haven't had many."

"That’s okay. Tell me about them."

"It’s not appropriate, with employee."

"I think that I'm hardly a normal employee. You came to my office and now you just feel so relaxed, don't you?"

She nodded. "They all... they all want me to be scary. They watch all those Smut films that Clan Singellen put out, and they want chains and whips and leather, in a dark dungeon. I dont... that’s..."

She stopped.

"That’s not what you want." He finished for her.

She nodded, releived. "It's hard. I'm supposed to be the big bad scary CEO. The matriarch of Dreaded Clan Violora, But I'm constantly alert for betrayal, never allowed to show weakness or drop my guard. It's... it’s terrible."

"Have you ever told anyone this?"

She shook her head.

"But you felt comfortable telling me?"

She nodded, uncertain.

"You must be very comfortable with me. If you've never told anyone that then you must trust me more than anyone."

She nodded, the words sinking deeper into her subconscious.

"You want to be caring and nurturing and soft, but you've never had someone who you could drop your guard around. Or if you could, they just wanted you to be a dominating mistress, right?"

Agreement.

"But you felt comfortable with me."

More agreement.

"You wonder if I can be that for you. Someone you can spoil and dote on. You'd really like that. You’d be happy doting on me however I wanted because I make you feel so comfortable, wouldn't you?"

Her face held an expression of bliss as he talked, as she fell deeper and deeper into the soft delightful abyss he created for her.

"I could give you what none of your other lovers could, and you know it."

He paused. "You're glad you came to talk to me about Gwenneth today, aren't you?" She nodded, dreamily. "Well, I'll let you in on a little secret."

Imperceptibly she leaned closer.

"Gwen has been calling me daddy all weekend."

She blinked, her brow furrowed.

"You're not worried about it, remember?"

"Not... worried, right."

"You don’t have to answer but if I'm her new daddy, what does that make me to you?"

No response.

"You should think about it. And as you think about it you realize, more and more, that it makes perfect sense, in fact, you're incredibly pleased with the situation. You can’t imagine how things could have worked out better for you and Gwen. You're so glad to have such a strong handsome man around."

Wow, and they called me a drama queen. Just make her your mommy, already. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.