Collar

The flat is quiet and still. Outside birds are singing and it's beginning to get light. In the semi darkness I can feel you cuddled up next to me, warm and soft.

As you shift in your sleep that wonderful lustrous dark hair parts at the side of your neck and I can see your collar. It fits closely but not tightly and accentuates the softness and vulnerability of your throat and neck. You skin looks pale and soft next to it.

I look down at you and feel a strong surge of love.

The collar has changed everything. You are different, both emotionally and physically. I wonder whether these changes would have been possible without it. It was certainly the catalyst for a huge change in our relationship. We were very much in love and deliriously happy before it and I didn't think I could love you any more.

Your submission wasn't a response to a crisis in our relationship. Quite the reverse in fact. We'd been saying for the last week or so how close we felt, how in love. But it has made everything better still.

There is something different about you now, a softness, a vulnerability, which was only hinted at before. You're so much more you. You take my breath away.

Maybe the best thing is that you agree. It hasn't taken anything away from us, it's given instead. We're closer now than ever. And there is much love, respect, admiration as there always was. Maybe more. And a protectiveness has been added. I think that's what has allowed you to bloom as much as you have. And it's made me feel calmer too, more serene, confident, stronger.

You waken, aware of my gaze on you and your eyes focus. That incredible smile of yours spreads across your face, illuminating it, like the sun coming out.

'Master' is the first thing you say today.