Reversals Ch. 09

CHAPTER NINE

Freefall

Given the hour, the drive home had been fairly quick for Julia. She gathered her things, left the car, and began ambling down the walk to their building. She was curious to discover how good a job Eric had done cleaning her panties. It was another step down for him, something to reinforce his submission to her and to further acclimate him to the job as their homemaker. Besides, there was just something delicious about forcing a man to hand wash her panties. She would have to prepare an extra nasty pair for him to wash sometime. She smiled to herself as she entered the building and began walking up the stairs.

The consultation had run through her mind over and over again on the way home. There was no question that Dr. Joyce and Pamala left her with a queasy feeling. There was something disquieting about them but what they were offering was too rich to pass up. It was the answer to all her problems and Eric had earned what was happening to him now. Besides, feminizing Eric would be improving him, evolving him, she told herself. It was something to celebrate, not feel guilt over. The nagging whispers of doubt in the back of her mind simply needed to be ignored, quieted in favor of more enlightened thinking. Like Samantha had said, it was a new age. It was a time for womyn to lead. Everything she was doing to Eric was right and proper. If anything, he needed more structure, more demands, more discipline and control from her not less.

As she reached the door to their apartment she was looking forward to doing an inspection. If anything was out of place she planned on being harsh with him tonight. He needed to be taken down another notch or two. Pushed further into submission. The only question was, what to do to him next?

Julia keyed the door and pushed on it only to have it immediately stopped.

"What the...."

The door was blocked by something in the entryway, inside the apartment, behind the door. She furrowed her brow in confusion then pushed, putting her back into it, teetering on her heels, forcing it open. Slowly, whatever was there gave way, sliding back as she struggled. Eventually, the door was open enough and she squeeze through into the apartment.

Finally inside, she angrily smoothed out her outfit and hair then dug her nails into her palms at the sight of the problem - Eric's suitcase and travel bag were on the floor behind the door, packed to the point of bulging. It could only mean one thing - Eric was crazy enough to think he could leave her. It was outrageous! Julia's eyes narrowed as she imagined her weak husband deciding to defy her authority over him. She had no intention of allowing that to happen.

Julia's face twisted with anger as she quietly closed the door and moved forward into the apartment, walking gingerly in her heels, inching forward, toe-to-heel, quietly. She hoped to confront Eric without warning, wanted to see the reaction when he suddenly saw her standing there, wanted to hear him fumble around for some delusional explanation.

The apartment was a mess. She grit her teeth at the sight of it. The kitchen table had the remains of a meal and multiple snacks disgracefully scattered about. A dirty plate sat there with smears of tomato paste and disgusting bits of greasy looking cheese covering it, practically ready to fall to the floor. Next to it, a couple of twisted, empty wrappers from frozen deserts were abandoned. A mostly-full bag of microwave popcorn was there too, half burnt, stinking up the area. In the middle of the table was an open bag of potato chips, partially spilled and scattered about. The scene was offensive and filthy! Eric knew better! It wasn't allowed! Clear and obvious evidence of defiance, even contempt. It was a disgusting, vermin inviting mess that he must have intended to leave for her to clean up!

Even worse than all of that though were the two empty beer bottles on the counter, sitting next to the kitchen sink. Alcohol. He'd been drinking again. There was another empty on the dinning room table and, as she looked further, still more that could be seen abandoned on the patio.

Julia's fingers curled into fists. Her nails bit down hard leaving indentations behind in both palms and the beginnings of numerous small bruises. The pain made her all the more furious.

Then, a noise came from the back of the apartment, from the computer room. She took a few more steps towards the sound then noticed, shockingly, right at the doorframe of the bedroom, a pair of her panties laying on the floor. She couldn't fathom what they were doing there and was fairly certain they weren't even among the ones Eric was told to wash. What had he been up to?

One foot in front of the other, quietly, Julia moved further down the hall. As she closed on the computer room and bedroom, both doors opposite each other in the back of the apartment, she peered into the bedroom and discovered, shockingly, that her bras and panties were strewn all over the floor! She could hardly believe what she was seeing! It wasn't a single pair of panties. It was everything she owned! Bras, panties, nighties, everything! It had to be some absurd act of rebellion on Eric's part! Julia seethed at the contemptible attack on her, it was nothing short of that. She intended to make him pay dearly for this outrage, maybe make his boobs so huge he'd never disrespect a bra ever again!

Just a few more steps forward and she stood at the doorway to the computer room. There he was, with his back to the door. Julia grinned widely with grim satisfaction. Her fingers flexed. She felt like a cat that had cornered a plump mouse. He stood next to the computer desk with a plastic crate on it filled with comic books. He was leafing through a comic, quickly flipping the pages. A small stack of them sat off to the side. It looked like he was picking out favorites to take with him, likely the ones with the most buxom heroines, Julia thought. Perhaps soon he'd have something in common with those oversexed, male fantasies. Why bother looking at comic book cleavage when you could play with your own boobs after all?

She took a couple more quiet steps forward. She was in the room now, getting closer to her prey, glaring at him with an intense and enveloping rage, waiting for him to realize she was behind him.

He flipped a few more pages, his back still to the door, oblivious, then something changed. He looked at his watch nervously, checked it, then checked it again. He put his hand to the back of his neck, like maybe he sensed he was being watched, shrugged his shoulders a few times then suddenly twisted all the way around. His eyes went wide with shock as he took in Julia, his jaw went slack, and some vague noise came out of his throat, like a thought was trying to emerge but he said nothing.

"What's the matter, Eric?" she said with a patronizing tone, with her rage writhing just below the surface. "Cat got your tongue?"

Standing there, practically frozen, his blood pressure spiked before his stern wife. A curious, pained expression overtook Eric's face. There was no way she could have missed his luggage, he realized, or the mess he intended to leave her. All at once he felt riddled with shame and embarrassment, like a child that had been caught by his mother in some terrible and stupid lie. He began to stammer unintelligibly but was abruptly cutoff.

"What exactly do you think you're doing, Eric?!" Julia asked acidly, any pretense of calm now gone.

He began to stammer gibberish again, stumbling for words then just stopped. Lies weren't going to help. Julia wasn't stupid. He swallowed hard and stared at her, wishing he was anywhere else at that moment. This wasn't what he had planned at all. It was supposed to be independence day, escape. He was supposed to be gone before she got home. He glanced at his watch again, it finally clicked in. She had come home early from work! He should have left hours ago! Why had he waited so long?

"Well? Answer me, Eric!" Julia pushed. "Your fragile male ego too weak to deal with a strong woman? Planning to walk away from your marriage like a coward? Is that it? Trashing our home to hurt me?" Her eyes burned into him as deeply as her words.

Eric felt diminished next to her. She exuded a fearless confidence in her rage yet she was still crushingly beautiful, maybe even more so for some warped reason. He didn't know what to do, the indecision was paralyzing him.

"I expect an answer, Eric!"

"I... don't know...," he started, then opened his mouth again but said nothing, his face consumed by a vague, confounded expression like he'd somehow lost the power of speech.

"Then let's get more specific," Julia spat out. "We're you planning on walking out on our marriage? Were you? Walk out on me?! Betray me?!"

Eric swallowed hard, afraid to tell her the truth and even more afraid to lie to her. He let his eyes fall down to her smooth, perfect legs, her trim ankles, then finally to her feet and the sexy pumps gracing them. It felt safer to stare at her feet than look into the eyes of his fiery wife.

"Well?!" she demanded.

He couldn't say the words, instead, he simply nodded, feebly confirming the truth.

"How dare you!" she spat. Julia's expression soured further with disgust and rage. Lies had to be dancing through his weak mind, she decided, silly notions of male privilege and pride.

Eric simply accepted the rebuke, eyes down, nodding again.

Her mood continued to darken the more she looked at him. She was getting too damn angry to think straight anymore.

"Get Out," Julia said with searing contempt in her voice, the words emboldening her now that they were out. How dare he trash their home and even consider walking out on her! She glared at him, seething with more fury than she could ever remember and the more she thought about it the angrier she got. "Get out, Eric! Consider yourself cut off! Permanently! From everything! You can live out of your car for all I care! Until they repossess it, because you can be damn sure I'm not going to be making your car payment anymore!" Julia quickly closed the distance between them and slammed both hands into his chest to underscore the point. "You'll probably end up homeless, begging for beer money from strangers! That's your future without me! You want to leave? I'm done with you!"

Eric looked up with confusion and fear spreading across his face. A marked difference from the resolve and certainty in Julia's. He wasn't prepared for this. No Julia? That's not... No! That's not what he wanted! None of it! Somehow, in the back of his mind, he imagined that leaving would make her regret losing him, that she'd want him back, that maybe the old Julia would even return. But that wasn't happening at all. He was about to lose her, really lose her. He'd be empty, lost without her!

"Well, go already!" Julia screamed, her otherwise beautiful face contorted with an ugly rage, the words striking Eric's ears like sledgehammers, making him flinch. "Take your bags and get out!"

She grabbed the crate of comic books and swiftly hurled it towards the hallway. The crate flew through the open door, flipped over and struck the far wall sending comics flying in every direction. An instant later, her hands seized the small pile of comics he'd picked out and flung the entire stack over his head. Eric's treasured comics were on the floor, everywhere, a few landing as far as their bedroom to mix with Julia's bras and panties. "You can pick up your titty comics and take them with you if you care about them so much!" she hissed.

Julia moved even closer, standing mere inches from Eric, close enough for him to smell the exotic scent of perfume mixing with her heat and sweat. He withered in her presence, as if he was standing too close to a roaring fire, the heat and flames threatening to burn him. He tried retreating but the computer table pressed into his back leaving him feeling hemmed in, with Julia standing firmly between him and the door. He stood there quaking inside, unable to evade her, unable to avoid her. He didn't dare so much as touch her either, couldn't push past her, it would be the end of them as a couple, he just knew it would.

"Well? What are you waiting for?!" Julia yelled, bringing him to look into her eyes, making him cringe.

"I..." Eric wavered, trying to put his thoughts and feelings together. He had weakened considerably inside, his resolve to leave melting away like ice cubes thrown into a furnace. A shutter ran up his body. There was a war brewing inside between what he knew he should do and the deep, compelling desire to be caught up in all the fury and fire and drama and beauty that was Julia. He felt transfixed by her suddenly, caught up in her aura, enthralled by her and every curve of that magnificent body. It was like she'd cast a spell on him.

Julia stood there reveling in the power flowing through her. She could see timidity creeping into Eric more and more, his posture and face betraying his doubts and fears. He was practically trembling before her. It was a pivotal moment between them, another point in time that would define them and their marriage.

As the decision enveloped them, the room grew strangely quiet, almost like time itself had stopped. Neither of them moved, the tension became nearly unbearable. Another shutter ran up Eric's spine, enough to make him twitch. It seemed to break the oddness surrounding them. He closed his eyes trying to minimize the eviscerating stare from his wife. His legs felt rubbery suddenly. "Can't I...," he began, stopping as deeply turbulent emotions sweep through him. "Can't I stay?" he asked, with a small, weak voice.

Julia shook her head in disbelief. "Stay?!" she asked, astonishment evident in her voice. "After all this?! After you trashed the apartment and packed your bags?! After the deliberate disrespect to me?! The betrayal?!" Julia paused, staring at him with utter contempt, knowing she had the upper hand and that Eric had just surrendered and doomed himself.

He started to say something but stopped. Inside, part of him was screaming to push past her, grab the bags at the door, and simply leave but he couldn't. In his heart he knew it was wrong to stay but he just couldn't gather the resolve to leave her.

"I asked you a question, Eric!" Julia yelled, demanding an answer. "After all of this, do you really want to stay? Because, there's going to be a serious price to pay if you do!" Julia poked the long nail of her index finger into his chest underscoring the point.

Eric stared at her for a moment, then swallowed hard and nodded, his head bobbing with puny little dips. "Yes. I'd... Please. I do want to stay with you," he said, almost in a whisper.

Julia's expression shifted, a deep satisfying smirk replacing the rage fueled scowl, the corners of her pretty lips turning up in marked satisfaction. She was still filled with bitterness and outrage but she had him right where she wanted him and he was going to pay dearly.

"If I do allow you to stay, Eric," Julia said imperiously, "things are going to have to seriously change. And I mean - seriously!"

Eric nodded with uncertainty, afraid of what was coming, waiting for his fate to be announced.

"You're going to have to fully embrace the fact that this," she pointed her finger like a dagger, back and forth between them a couple times," is a female lead marriage from now on and forever." Julia leaned forward, getting directly in his face. "And you're obviously not the female."

Eric shook his head timidly, acknowledging the truth of it - he was only the male, something less than her.

"I lead. You follow," she said firmly, "In everything. Understand?"

Eric decided to play it safe and meekly nodded before her, tacitly accepting her terms, at least for now. Until he could find a way out of the mess he'd gotten himself into it seemed the only way to keep Julia.

She looked at him suspiciously, his tepid response anything but convincing. "Say it, Eric," she demanded. "Tell me that you fully accept my authority over you. I want to hear the words from your mouth."

Eric's eyes went wide. Julia was breaking his heart. Where was this going to lead? He opened his mouth but the words stuck in his throat.

"This is very simple, Eric. If you can't do this I'll toss your bags over the balcony and kick you out myself! Now, tell me that you accept my authority over you!"

He dropped his eyes back to her feet as his face was gripped in a mask of sorrow. He took a deep breath and raised his eyes. "I... do," Eric said struggling to get the words out, part of him dying inside as they left his mouth.

Julia's eyes were hard. He looked away. "Not enough!" Julia said firmly. "I don't want any misunderstandings. Consider it your new vow for our marriage. You need to accept what you've become. I want to hear it out of your own mouth. You need to make it real. Now, say the words! Tell me that you accept my authority over you!" she demanded.

The tension in the room was intense, palpable. Eric's lip quivered. "I... I fully... accept," he began with a quavering voice, "your authority... over... me."

"Again, Eric! The whole thing, with conviction this time."

His face still filled with sorrow, he took a deep, troubled breath, then submitted to her demand. "I fully accept your authority over me," he said in a loud whisper.

"Again! Louder!"

"I fully accept your authority over me, Julia!" He said it decisively staring at her stilettos the entire time, his face twisting into self-loathing and disgust at being so weak.

The room went quiet.

Julia smiled, forcing Eric to look her in the eyes by pushing his forehead back with the nail of her index finger.

He shuttered with utter shame but also with a perverse sense of thrill at his dominant, sexually powerful wife.

"Strip, Eric!" she shouted suddenly, breaking the silence.

The word struck like a resounding clap of thunder, snapping his head up. Julia's eyes were locked on him with nothing but a chilling, uncompromising resolve.

He began to unbutton his shirt, slowly at first, then quickening the pace as she continued to glare at him.

"Hurry up, Eric. Pants too, get them off."

He worked one button after another, top to bottom, yanking at them, the last one being torn off in haste, tumbling to the floor. The shirt unceremoniously followed as a wadded up ball tossed to the side. He knew it was wrong to obey so blindly but didn't know how to stop. Julia's eyes tightened all the more, waiting for him to finish. His heart was pounding, temples throbbing, her glare urging him on. He undid his belt with a few quick motions then, with nervous fingers, undid the closure on his pants and pulled the zipper down. In a quick motion, he pushed the pants down, dropping them to pool at his feet. He stood there in only socks and underwear, at attention, panic settling in while his engorged cock forcefully tented out his underwear.

"Now your socks!"

Eric quickly complied, feeling all the more vulnerable, standing there in only his absurdly tented, cotton briefs, trembling before the woman he had been foolish enough to think he could walk away from.

She stood there facing him, hands on lovely, rounded hips, proud, powerful, standing tall in her stilettos, with a fierce expression. A couple of quick kicks sent his pants and socks flying to join Eric's shirt off to the side.

"Get on your knees! Submit to me!" she yelled, her dagger like index finger pointing to the ground in front of her.

Eric wasn't sure how much more degradation and shame he could take. He looked down to where she pointed and agonized inside; yet, at the same time, his cock hardened all the more, aching to touch her glorious body or be touched by her. How could he be so twisted inside, he wondered painfully. The very idea of kneeling at his wife's gorgeous feet and pointy stilettos was somehow tremendously exciting. But, what kind of weak, fool of a man was he? A man was not supposed to want this! He should refuse and get angry and-