The last two weeks were the best two weeks of my life. I loved every second of it. It was freeing to give in and allow someone to take care of me. Growing in such a harsh environment with lack of love and support from anyone, it felt odd to receive full attention from one person.

Santiago never failed to show me how much I meant to him.

There were times where I kept saying that I was deluding myself. He was a married man who I met at the Caroline estate. If he hadn't met me, he would have fucked someone else and left her with a big tip. That thought might have hurt other woman but it didn't bother me at all.

Sex was merely a job to me. I'd never had any emotional feelings during sex. Before Santiago, I have had amazing sex before but I was never a submissive.

That was new.

I remembered the first time I had slept with David. My first and longest client. He was kind and slow with me. I wasn't a virgin then and the boyfriend I had in high school for a limited amount of time wasn't someone I was in love with. I'd always been emotionally detached from the concept of sex. Yes, it was something intimate and it took me a long time after joining Miss Caroline's company to perform any type of sexual acts.

David, at first, didn't like the idea of me just dating other men but at the end of the day, I had six figure amount of debts to pay off and I had just dropped out. I needed the money. For a short while, I felt cheap. Sleeping with men I hardly knew. With men who were married or were just looking for an adventure.

Miss Caroline had found me, crying one day, after a successful night. The horror in her face startled me.

"Mariana, what happened, did he hurt you?" She stopped me in the hall way when I walked out of the room after the man had left. He was a Judge but not one of my regulars. I had met him on dates a few time before I agreed to have sex. For someone in his late 50s, he was in excellent shape.

I guess those daddy issues really played into the type of men I used to sleep with.

"Oh, it's nothing." I tried to play reassured her that he hadn't done anything. The guy had been a perfect gentleman. I told her that he even asked what bags I liked so he could buy one for me. That made me feel cheap.

After that, Miss Caroline took me to her office. Her office looked like a library and the shelves were filled with books on sex, psychology, Kamasutra and travel.

"Do you know that I am a trained Psychiatrist?"

My red eyes widened, tears soon forgotten. She handed me a tissue and retrieved to her bedroom behind. When she re-emerged, she had a towel in her hand. She asked me to sit on the plush leather sofa, facing away from her. Slowly, she towel dried my hair.

"You shower the minute they leave, don't you?" She chuckled. I couldn't say anything so I just nodded.

"That's okay." She took her time drying my hair. Tears prickled my eyes when I thought about the last my mother had sat me down and did my hair. I was 7 and we were still back in Cuba. In America, I doubted she even knew that I used to cut my own hair in the back of the house, over the round black bin.

There was a reason why my hair was so long. We didn't have enough money to spare on salon hair-cuts.

"Why do you so this now if you're a licensed Psychiatrist?" I asked to deflect my thoughts.

"That is still my job. I am a professional Psychiatrist." She paused and when I turned around, I found her smiling. "With a side business." She added with a cheeky smirk.

"If I had your profession, I wouldn't be here." I confessed and suddenly regretted it. I didn't want her to think I was ungrateful for taking me in and being so patient with me. She even gave me to option to choose and I chose this.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I know what you mean." She took the towel back and dimmed the lights when she came back to sit with me. There was a tray with a tea pot and two cups. "Tea?"

I declined but she still poured for two. "Just in case." She'd said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't meant to be disrespectful."

"You weren't. Sleeping with men for money isn't every girl's first choice. That is why when I started this, I always gave my girls the choice." She leaned back after setting two tea bags into the hot steaming water.

"Do you know how long it takes for someone to become a Psychiatrist?" She asked. When I shook my head, she continued. "4 years of college. 4 years to complete your M.D. Then, 4 years of residency."

"12 years?" I gasped. I didn't make it 2 fucking years and she spend 12 years studying.

"I also have to renew it every 10 years but that's okay now." She pointed to all the books on her shelves.

"Where are your certificates?" There were not on the walls as I expected them to be.

"Not in this house. It's in my Santa Monica house." She spoke of it so nonchalantly that it made me ache to buy my own house. I lived just outside of Beverly Hills, in a small studio apartment with a decent rent. I grew up in Boyle Heights and we were currently sitting in a mansion that was in Beverly Hills.

I wanted to say that I made it but I definitely didn't

"My parents were kind, working class people. They couldn't afford my college tuition, so I took out a student loan. As time went on, the debt started getting bigger and bigger but I was managing. Working hard and studying." She leaned forward to scoop some honey out of the china pot next to tea pot. The blue pattern on white china looked out of place in the dark room.

"Then, my father got cancer." She stirred the liquid in her cup. The bright yellow liquid from the tea turned darker shade of gold.

I deflated. Of course.

"My mother took out a loan to pay for his treatment. I wanted to drop out and help my father but he said that he'll die one day. Maybe from Cancer but definitely from old age." A soft smile curled up on her perfect lips. "I carried on. Stayed away from home."

"You weren't at UCLA?"

"I was but my parents lived in Monterey Park. Anyways, he got better. The cancer was gone but the debt was there." She sighed. "They weren't old enough for pension but weren't young enough to work because who would hire them." She took a sip and put it back down. "You see, they meticulously planned out their life and saved every penny and pension in ways where they could retire early and sit back and enjoy life without dipping into the pension so soon."

"Life doesn't really care for plans." I mumbled. She smiled wide and nodded.

"Yes, yes the bitch really doesn't care." Hearing her swear for the first time shocked me. I was stuck mid smile where I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or remain stunned. She chuckled, her deep throaty voice was always soothing.

"Mom and dad used their pension to start paying off the debt but it wasn't enough. They didn't have any other source of income and they didn't even buy a house because of Mortgage. So, they were getting late on rents and the stress was pilling up until my dad died from a stroke. My mother was devastated."

I listened, comparing the similarities between our lives.

"I just graduated but I was doing my M.D. So, I moved into a small apartment, asked my mother to move in with me. She did and everything after that was too much. I took on the responsibility for that loan and of course, interest was accumulating. I was working, paying rent, putting food on the table and paying for my tuition fees. The loans just kept bigger and bigger until I went into my residency years after I got my M.D."

"That must have been very hard." I tried to comfort her.

"It was but I met a gentleman who constantly hit on me every time he came for his sessions with an Attending. He sought me out outside of the hospital and asked me out on a date. I don't know why I said yes. I supposed I just wanted to be someone else for the night."

"That night, my life changed." She took another sip. "The world he showed me was glamourous and stress free and I wanted everything in it. So, I pretended to be someone else. I took on this persona of Miss Caroline instead of just ordinary Caroline and I felt empowered. He was charming and the ring on his finger didn't stop me from following him to his hotel room on our second date."

"Did he pay you?" I asked. Did she feel sick when he paid her and left her with a tip in the morning?

"No but Miss Caroline she wanted things. So, I put on a rather dashing show every time we were together. I used my skills that I was learning to tap into his fetishes and he it all spun his head. I used sex as a weapon to get what I wanted. I was soon getting Prada bags, Christian Louboutin shoes and Birkins. I needed money, not things but the places we went to, only had eyes for brands so, I kept them. A college of mine, a girl who was also putting herself through college asked me about how I got my things and I told her.

"Later on, I asked the man if he had a friend that my friend could date. We went on a double date and I taught her everything she needed to know. After a few months of dating, I off handedly asked him about why don't I become his therapist. I was learning and I could really use a patient. He quit his therapy sessions with my Attending and I became his primary shrink and we had professional sessions where I'd get paid but not for sex. He wrote it off as my student loan donation and that was it."

"You hustled him out of money." My mouth was completely hanging open.

"Yes, I did." She nodded. "He wasn't an idiot. He was a senior hedge fund manager, he knew what I was doing but he didn't mind. He loved the things I did to him." She winked at me.

"Dominatrix?"

"Yes, her eyes widened. I don't know why these powerful men has this weird fetish." She waved her hands. "Anyways, he had other friends and I found other girls who needed money and soon, I was paying off my debt and the student loan. My mother didn't know, she was too weak and frail so I put her up in a nice nursing home. He wanted to give me an apartment but I realized there were certain things, I needed to do for myself. I rented out a normal apartment and after a year, I started to go out with other men."

"What about him?" I wondered.

"He's still around but we are just friends now. He admired my accomplishments and he's my oldest friend. He even helped me get this house. He recommends me to his friends for women. A lot of my girls are Psychologically trained in the art of mind, body and sex. They are excellent listeners and I teach them psychology. It's not that men doesn't share emotions, they do with the wrong woman. We are the wrong woman of society but we hold the power over the men who run the society. If we didn't, they wouldn't come back for more." She straightened her back and I found myself sipping from the cup.

"Sex is a weapon. You can utilize it to bring a man to his knees." She a wet strand of hair behind my ear.

"I don't know how. It's just... a job for me. Once the debt is over and I can earn enough to go back to College, I will. I hope you don't mind." I put the cup down, the gold rim caught and reflected the yellow light scattered around her room.

"Of course not. But can I give you some advice?" She asked softly.

"Of course."

"When you're with a man, you don't have to be Mariana. You can be anyone you want. You could be a rich socialite whose father disowned her or a model looking for a date. Your whole night could be a fantasy. Mariana never has to sleep with someone but whoever you chose to be, will." I gaped at her as she spoke.

"Be someone who you always wanted to be. Be someone else. Be anyone you want to be."

That's who I was. I was someone else. One day I was Elsa and another day I was Valentina. I had never revealed my real name to anyone after David. Until Santiago. They both knew each other and David was the one who brought Santiago over to the house.

A huge part of me wished that I met Santiago instead of David or how close we were to meeting each other. I wouldn't have had this life but at the end of the day, life was really a bitch sometimes. But other times, times like this -when I was hearing the alarm going off and then being set- it was fucking beautiful. It meant Tiago was home.

Our relationship wasn't a classic Dom and Sub relationship. We were partners and Tiago had shown that to me time and time again. That we valued my opinions, values my strengths and protected my weakness. I loved that about him.

"Mariana?" He called out. A giddy feeling erupted from the pits of my stomach.

"In the closet." I called out. He walked into the closet and paused to find me sitting on the floor, make up all tossed carelessly on the floor, a round mirror propped up on the shelf so it was eye line with me and a laptop with you tube makeup tutorial on it sat on the little built in dresser. Which was just a bit too fight to put the mirror on.

He beamed.

The power he exuberated standing over me in his grey suit with a briefcase while I played with make was seductive. The power play here was provocative. I understood the Dom and the Sub relationship the more we explored it. It wasn't about submitting, it was about willing to submit.

I was so damn willing.

My eyes went to his crotch.

He crouched down, tapped my nose with this forefinger. "Are we going anywhere tonight." I suddenly realized I trying on a sun kissed bronze make up.

"No, I was just trying on some make up." I smiled, turned back to the mirror to put on the fake eye lashes.

"We can go out if you want." He got up, walked around me to get undressed. I watched him through the mirror. Soon after, he was on his way to the bathroom for a shower. I really liked the bronze make up on my face but it was around 6:30 in the evening and I had no plans to go out.

I didn't want to go out at places with him until he'd divorced her.

He already had the papers and he'd sighed it but getting her to sign it was going to be the problem. I didn't care being the other woman.

Sighing, I cleared up and put all my things into my side of the closet. Taking my makeup wipes and makeup remover bottle to the bathroom, I started to take it all off.

"What? Why?" Santiago asked, as he walked out bare ass naked with a towel around his neck, drying his hair.

"I was just practicing." I shrugged.

"I'm gonna speak to the contractor tomorrow. I'll make you a pretty make up room." He leaned onto me, all the water his body slung to was now soaked into the back of my clothes.

"AH!" I squeaked, his dick brushed against my back.

Laughing, he existed as I admired the view of his clenching ass as he moved.

"How was your day?" He asked as we sat down to eat later.

"As you saw, I was just recreating some make up looks. Just relaxing. I feel like I'm on vacation." I confessed.

"Good. Relax. I don't want you to worry about a thing." He bought Greek food and I was loving it.

"Gosh, so bossy." I teased and that made him smile.

"Can I ask you something?" I wondered.

"Of course."

"Did you go to college." He was slightly taken aback by my question.

"No, why? Are you thinking about going back?" The question was so casual that I wondered what he would say if I'd said yes.

"Maybe?" I tested.

"That's great. You can carry on what you started or do something different. I'm sure you don't like being cooped up in here all the time so, that'd be awesome." His eyes were all sparkly.

"Yeah, I'm not doing that." I huffed. "I had the change to go back to College. After I paid off my debts and the student loan, I had earned enough to pay for the rest of my tuition fees. I would have never had to worry about money for as long as I was in College. But I just never went back. I don't know why." I confessed.

"What were you studying?"

"I didn't declare yet but I really enjoyed Economics. Maybe get into business but after I got my own high rise apartment and was more than stable, I didn't want pour all the money down college fees."

"You can do it now. You have me." He was so sincere, that it gripped my chest. I reached out to him, my hand on his cheek, thumb brushed across his lips. We were sitting at the kitchen counter instead of the dining table right in front of us.

"Thank you but I genuinely am not interested in it." I retreated, tucking into my food.

A thought prickled my mind.

"I sometimes wonder, if our paths ever crossed before. If we ever went to the same event." I spoke sadly.

"We didn't. I would have remembered you if we did." Pulling back, he cleared his throat. "I have something to tell you."

I wondered if he was going to that Gina had signed the Divorce papers but he would have told me that already. Instead of making me wait. Was this where he told me that he wasn't going to leave her?

"I found him." He looked me, gripped my hand as his I would bolt.

"Found who?"

"The guy who killed your family. I found him."