Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 154595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
He’d never been this nervous in his life. Fuck. He never put himself out there like this. But he knew that if he was going to ask her to give him everything that he had to make an effort back.
Her eyes were wide as she gaped up at him.
“Well?” he asked, unable to wait any longer.
“I . . . I want that too. Only, I’ve never had a relationship with a Daddy Dom, either. I only know about any of this because I have a friend, Cat, who is a Little. And her husband is her Daddy. She helped me discover who I was and not to . . . not to feel ashamed of who I am.”
“Good,” he told her. “Because I wouldn’t put up with that shit.”
She rolled her eyes. She was such a brat.
“Just because you say something, doesn’t mean it will happen.”
Why not? “It would if I put you over my knee every time you talked shit about yourself.”
“Would you . . . would you do that?” she asked.
Fuck. Could she take the truth? Well, he should start as he meant to go on. “Yep.”
“Aren’t we supposed to talk about limits? A safeword? Rules?”
He grunted. “Maybe in a normal Dominant-submissive relationship.”
“Ours isn’t normal?”
“My feelings for you aren’t normal. I’ve felt nothing like this level of protectiveness and possessiveness in my life. I don’t feel things like normal people. Maybe something’s broken in me. Don’t know. Don’t much care. I feel what I feel. I have loyalty to my boss. He’s the closest thing I have to family and yet what I feel for him? Grain of sand in the beach compared to what I feel for you.”
Maeve sucked in a sharp breath.
Whoa. Just whoa.
He was full of all sorts of information today. And she was here for it. But some of it took some processing.
“I know what you mean. Not the . . . I mean I have friends who are my family and I love them. But it’s definitely not the same as what I feel for you. But I’ve never been in a relationship like this. What if I do something wrong?” She couldn’t look at him, scared that he’d be upset with her.
He cupped her chin. “You won’t ever do anything wrong, understand me?”
She wasn’t so sure of that.
“If you need a safeword to start, that’s fine. And rules are a good thing. You definitely need them.”
She did not!
All right, perhaps she did. But still, she wasn’t going to admit that.
“I’m a good girl.” Her bottom lip was doing that thing again, but she was going to ignore it. Because she did not pout.
“Of course you are. Even when you’re naughty, you’ll always be a good girl. My good girl.”
Jeez Louise. The last thing she needed right now was wet panties. It felt so wrong that being called a good girl made her so hot. And yet, at the same time it felt so right.
“You tell me where the line is and I won’t cross it.”
“What if I don’t know where it is? I’ve never been in this sort of relationship? I mean, okay, I know I don’t want you to make me bleed. Nope. No. I do not do blood. And I don’t want to be called names or humiliated. Suffered that enough.”
“What do you mean, you’ve suffered that enough?” he asked in a warning voice.
“But other than that . . . I don’t know where the line is,” she said, ignoring his question. She shouldn’t have said that. “I want to experiment; can I do that?”
“Of course you can. And you can say red at any time if you want to stop.”
“All right . . . okay, I can do that. Yeah, I like to learn new things. It’s good to keep trying new stuff. As long as there isn’t any blood involved. Or spiders. Or hamsters. That’s a hard limit.”
He gave her a shocked look. “I would hope that’s a hard limit for everyone.”
She shuddered. Her too.
“Tell me who called you names and humiliated you,” he demanded.
Drat. He wasn’t letting that go, huh? “Can I . . . can I tell you another time? I’m just . . . I’m a bit raw right now and everything is a lot and it’s . . . it’s not really important.”
“First, everything that affects you is important to me. Are they still in your life? A threat?”
“What? No. This was years ago. I’m fine.”
“Not fine. But you will be. Just tell me if I frighten you. I want your trust and I won’t get that if you’re scared of me.” He looked away, swallowing heavily. And she thought she’d seen a flash of vulnerability. “I don’t want you scared of me, Maeve. Never that.”
“Hey. Hey, look at me.” It almost felt like their roles had reversed. Reaching out, she grasped his chin, turning him to face her.