I sit back and cross my arms over my chest, watching with amazement as my little spitfire of a girlfriend tries to get out of this ticket.

“A sneezing fit?” the officer asks.

“Yes, you know when you suddenly have to sneeze and you do it like eight or nine times in a row?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve done that before.”

“I couldn’t stop it, and I guess I must have accidentally sped up.” She sniffs again and then to my utter amazement, the cop shrugs and nods.

Shrugs and nods!

“Well, let me have your license anyway so I can make sure everything is in order, and then you can be on your way.”

“Thank you so much,” she gushes and hands over her license then grins smugly at me when the cop walks back to his cruiser.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“What?” she asks innocently with wide eyes and then laughs her ass off. After a few moments, the cop returns with her license.

“Well, it seems it’s your lucky day, Ms. Dalton. My computer is down, so I can’t even issue you a warning.”

“Oh!”

“A sneezing fit, huh?” He shakes his head and laughs, taps the hood of the car. “That’s a new one. Be safe.”

And with that he walks back to his car and pulls away.

“I told you I had it covered,” she says with a smile. “Works way better than crying.”

“Are you pulled over often?” Geez, maybe I should pull her record to see what’s on it.

“No.” She shakes her head and then laughs. “Well, maybe.”

“Slow the fuck down and you won’t get pulled over.”

She parks the car in front of the park where we’re going to have our picnic and drops my keys in my palm when I hold my hand out.

“That was fun.” She grins.

“I’ll drive us home,” I reply and climb out of the car, pull the picnic basket from the trunk and lead her to a tree off the beaten path.

She spreads the red and blue quilt on the ground, kicks off her flip-flops and sits down.

“I’m starving.”

“Are you okay?” I ask. I still worry about her diabetes, but she is always on top of it.

“Oh, I’m fine. I’m always hungry.”

“Before we dig in,” I begin and rub my suddenly sweaty palms down my blue jeans, “I have something for you.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Oh dear God.” Her face pales, making me laugh and shake my head.

“Not that something. And I can see by your reaction that you’re definitely not ready for that yet.”

“Oh.” She frowns for a second, almost in disappointment, making me grin again. Maybe she’ll be ready sooner than I thought.

But not today.

“We’re going to the club tonight,” I remind her.

She grins and nods, blushing beautifully.

“We don’t go very often,” she replies. “It’ll be fun.”

I nod and pull a small square blue box with a white bow out of the picnic basket and watch her eyes widen.

“You have good taste,” she whispers.

“I chose you.” I shrug and push my fingers through my hair, trying to decide what to say. “Have you noticed at the club that some of the submissives wear collars?”

“Yes,” she replies and frowns.

“In some cases, those collars mean as much if not more than a wedding ring between the Dom and his sub. It’s not just a symbol of ownership, but of companionship as well. For me, I’m not interested in seeing you wear a true collar, but…”

I hand her the box and watch as she tugs the lid off and gasps at the platinum chain inside. She pulls it out of the box and holds it up, examining the simple pendant of two linked hearts.

“I would like for you to wear this, as a symbol of being mine. I want you to be tied with me in every way, just as I’m tied to you.” I take the chain from her and clasp it around her neck and brush my finger over the two delicate hearts. “I want everyone to know that you’re mine, little one.”

“I am yours, babe.” She looks down at the hearts and back up into my eyes, smiling happily. “And I’ll wear it proudly. Thank you.”

She launches herself at me, pushing me onto my back on the hard ground and kisses me soundly. “It’s beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful,” I reply and brush my thumb over her lower lip.

“I’m hungry,” she reminds me and rolls onto her back, still admiring the hearts.

I’m so relived that she loves it. I sit up and pull our meal out of the basket, and when I glance back down at her, she’s staring at me with so much love and trust it steals my breath.

“Keep looking at me like that and it’ll be awhile before we get around to lunch, and there are children not far away.”

She grins and sits up next to me, kisses my shoulder and then my cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you back.”

THE END