… solipsubmissive …

The door opened quietly, allowing an ever-increasing triangle of light to penetrate the dim room.  When it fell on the figured huddled in the far corner, he stepped inside.

“elise.”

She turned her head slowly, blinking a little as she opened her eyes.  The light illuminated the dark red abrasion on her left cheekbone, the area around it already blossoming in a riot of purples and blues.  Her eyes traveled up the length of his body, squinting as they reached his face, then dropped respectfully back to the hardwood floor.  “Good morning, mi Lieja,” she said.

He didn’t say anything else, just stood in the doorway with the light spilling in behind him, the ominous shadow of his silhouette almost reaching her corner.  Carefully, painfully, she uncurled from the wall against which she’d slept fitfully, and found her way to her hands and knees.  The expanse of hardwood floor between her corner and the door was daunting, given the shape she was in.  Wincing, she began crawling toward him.

He watched her progress, his face impassive.  Her hair hung to the floor as she crawled, a dark, tangled tumble on each side of her lowered face, obscuring any possible glimpse of her expression.  The tiny hiss of her breath reached him, emphasized her struggle to control the pain.  His eyes roamed over her back and the curve of her buttocks, drank in the violent contrast of the marks he’d left the night before against her pale skin. 

Fighting the agony rippling down her ruined back, she stifled a moan, grateful when his shoes finally appeared before her lowered eyes.  Softly, she sighed and settled so that her buttocks rested on her heels.  She placed her hands flat on the floor beside his feet and lowered her forehead to rest on the tops of his shoes, her hair spilling around his ankles.

He moved a foot and knelt on one knee.  His hand gently cupped her chin, lifted her face to his.  “To whom do you belong, petal?”

Her lips, swollen and cracked, parted on her whispered response, “Pertenezco a usted, mi Lieja.”

He almost smiled.  “And where do you belong?”

A tear slipped from the corner of one eye, traced a path down her ruined face.  She winced as it disappeared into a cut at the corner of her mouth, but spoke clearly.  “En sus pies, mi Lieja. Por siempre en sus pies.”  Her eyes remained on his until he settled on the floor beside her, pulled her into his arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Yes,” he said softly.