Make Me (29 page)

She asked me to show up to give her the chance to explain. I don’t know how I feel until I see her, small, pale, looking resigned but hopeful in front of the small table we had lunch at once.

“Am I interrupting your pacing?”

“Darko!” She spins toward me and takes three steps closer, still wringing her hands. “Thank you for coming. You read the article? Of course you did. Stupid question, Captain Obvious.”

Caution tempers my reactions. Her words are important. “You wanted to talk to me.”

“Yes. I quit my job.”

Not what I wanted, for it fixes nothing. “For me?”

“No. What I loved about journalism was getting the truth to people. Raw facts, unbiased by agenda. They wanted me to publish the story I thought I’d find and not the one I wrote. They didn’t want the truth. So I took it to their competition because that’s the story that needed to be told.”

That is what I wanted to hear, that the motivation driving the actions is true. “It was a good story.”

Hope lights her eyes. “I went into this with the intention of ruining the club and everyone in it, of revealing the ‘truth’ and that was a dick move, whatever the good I thought I was doing. I never considered the devastation on the people. All I could think about was getting my sister, getting the world to see the awful lifestyle for what it really is. The notes you saw were early ones, not a representation of any of my real feelings.”

I figured as much but let her continue.

She takes a deep breath. “But then I saw the truth: that the lifestyle is incredibly empowering and sexy, and in you I’ve found a deeper level of trust and love than I thought possible. It’s not dangerous, though there’s potential there, but that’s true for every place.” She smiles. “Even the dentist’s office.”

She remembers that discussion? “Will you be working for the paper?” I hold up the article—the thing that made me show up. Not only did she not name any names, but she wrote it anonymously, taking no credit for the piece that has the city buzzing with the romance of it all. It shows kink for what it is, and there’s nothing exploitative about the article. She didn’t ask me to show up if I forgive her. “Jumping ship to the competition?”

She shakes her head. “No. I’m going to use this as an opportunity to focus on my true passion. Someone told me not too long ago, that I should write a book based on the things I’ve experienced as a journalist. I think I’m finally ready to face them.” She swallows. “Who knows, maybe I’ll write a novel or two as well.”

I move until her body heat mingles with mine. “I will read every word you ever write, Sloane Winters.”

She blinks back tears and breathes slowly for a moment. “There’s one more thing. Along the lines of following my passions?” She digs in her pocket and comes up with a small rectangular piece of plastic. A membership card to The Underground with her name on it.

My heart applauds wildly. “What is this?”

Her fingernails are ragged on hands that flutter like wounded birds. “I don’t expect it to happen overnight, maybe not ever. God, I’m rambling. But I became a member. For you.”

But this means... “You went through the trials?”

“Yes.”

Who vetted her? “How did you get three Doms to agree to test you so quickly?”

“They approved of my reasons for wanting a membership.”

“And your reasons?”

“I know I can’t win you back, but I wanted to earn
the chance
to win you back. I know I screwed everything up between us. If it’s easier for you and if it’s what you need me to do, I’ll go.”

Words evaporate from my throat before I can speak them.

She looks down, nodding at the ground. “Or, if you’ll let me, I will grovel at your feet for the rest of my life if that’s what it takes for you to give me another chance. I love you, Darko.”

“I’m not in the market for a slave. But I don’t want you to go away, not without me.”

Her head whips up. “What?”

“I love you, Sloane. One mistake—even a rather large one—doesn’t erase that fact. I’ve lost people in my life. I’d be making the worst mistake ever to send you away.” I pull out a dark blue velvet jewelry box and open it for her. Her gaze fixes on the amber brooch from my mantle. I’ve had it made into the center piece of an amber-studded, gold choker necklace for her. A collar.

She gasps. “Darko, this is your brooch. It’s too much, this is your magic, the thing that takes you away to a happier place. I can’t take this from you.”

“You are what takes me away. You are my happy place. What you almost did was wrong, but the true reasons behind it weren’t malicious. I know your heart and you’re not a bad person. You would never have hurt me.”

“I wouldn’t have!”

“I don’t wish to have a slave. But I would be honored if you would accept my collar and be my submissive.”

Her eyes shine with tears. “You forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive. Truly, no harm was done, though it hurt like hell for a while. I want you in my life, but I will hold you to nothing you do not want. I need you to know that it’s okay if you need time to figure things out, that this offer has no expiration date. I realize this lifestyle is still all new to you and you might need to experience things with other people to learn what you want, to know if I’m the Dom you want.” My jaw clenches around the difficulty of saying those words, but I get them out. I take a breath and continue before she can talk. “I need you to know I will wait for you for as long as it takes because even if you are not mine, I am, and always will be, yours.”

“Darko.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t regret the result of everything that happened.”

Pride swells within me, and I smile. “And you shouldn’t. You stand before me now, glorious, unbreakable in the knowledge of who you truly are.”

“And that’s because of you and all the things you did to help me find my strength. If I wanted to experiment, I’d be with any of the other Doms who made their intentions and interest very clear to me.”

“I wasn’t sure if I was being fair. I didn’t want any harm to come to you—even if it meant letting you go.”

She traces the front of the jewelry box with a fingertip. “Please put it on me. Not because I want to be yours, but because I already am.”

She crouches and I fasten the necklace. Perfect fit. The warmth of the stones plays up the gold flecks in her eyes.

“Tessa was right. I’m done lying to myself, rigidly controlling who I think I am and how things should be. Giving up control has been the best thing for finding my strength.” She grins. “You know, I thought you were supposed to be good at reading people. What is my body telling you right now?”

Two breaths later, I come at her like a tidal wave and sweep her into my arms. This is the woman I need to be with.

And she’s mine.

Smiles interrupt our kisses, knocking our lips out of the way. So I use my teeth, nipping her neck, nibbling the delicate shell of her ear. Her hands wind around me and grab my ass, and she starts grinding against me. The last few horrible days fade with every second Sloane is back in my arms and only one thing could make this better.

“Remove those clothes.” I kiss her neck. “I want to see how my collar looks on you.”

She steps back, fingers already stripping the shirt off. I hate not taking her clothes off myself but love that I get to be the one who this woman lets in, lets herself be vulnerable with. I love that gleam in her eyes.

She hooks her thumbs into the loops of her jeans and pauses. “Bra next or pants?”

“Pants.”

She unbuttons and slides them down her hips and legs, kicking out of them to stand in only black panties and a matching bra. They look gorgeous with her collar, and I stroke myself through my jeans, savoring her blush spreading all the way down.

I sit on one of the chairs. “Bra.”

Soon her breasts are free, the nipples in stiff peaks, and I can’t wait.

“Come here.”

Her entire body ripples in a shiver, and she moves to stand before me.

“Spread your legs.”

Her panties are already wet, but I stroke her through them, circling her clit, running my fingers all the way to her ass and back a few times, pressing harder with each pass, seizing her nipple in my teeth and rasping my tongue across the tip. She arches against me, tipping her head back.

I pull away. “Take off my shirt.”

Her lust-clumsy fingers fumble with the buttons, but soon my chest is bare. I stand.

“Pants.”

She leans in and kisses me while she savagely tears them open and down.

I want to make him struggle for control by giving him mine, because seeing the way he values my trust is humbling and heady and I know he will never harm me.

So I sink my teeth into his lip and knead his balls. Before I can smile, his hand is inside my panties and he’s knuckle-deep inside me, working my g-spot with a curled fingertip and an unrestrained rhythm.

My eyes roll back and my legs wobble, but he wraps his other arm around me for support as I come fast, too fast, and hard. My breathing hasn’t slowed much when he tugs my panties off and eases to the tile floor with his legs extended but bent. “Sit.”

One glimpse at his hard cock, and I’m hungry for more. He holds his arms up to help me balance into a squat. I rub the tip of his cock along my wetness, making him feel what he’s done to me before positioning him at my pussy.

“Sloane?”

I immediately stop moving and look into his eyes. “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

His dark blue eyes steal the breath from my lungs. “I love you too. So much.” And I press down, crying out as his cock stretches me in a beautiful ache I’d thought I’d never feel again. He pulls my feet out, wrapping my legs around him.

“Lean back.” He gently pushes me until my back presses against the tops of his thighs, exposing my stomach and breasts. The position limits my ability to ride him but presses him so tight inside I can barely breathe, and he grinds his hips, rubbing his cock against my g-spot, short-circuiting every synapse in my brain.

“Open your eyes, Sloane.”

He intertwines his fingers in mine, and even after all the ways I’ve been touched since we met, this simple contact undoes me the most. I cup his face, the sincerity in his eyes melting my heart. “I know I’m new at this but hear me. You are the only Dom I want; the only Dom I’ll ever need. The only man I want and need. Don’t ever think about sending me away for my own good again.”

He shakes his head. “Never.”

“Never is a promise.”

“I know.” He kisses me like he can’t believe I’m real. Like I’m a bubble he’ll pop if he touches me too hard.

One nip to his lips and he gets over that really fast, crushing me to him, locking his lips to mine, stroking my tongue with his in a way that feels like home, like he’s locking us together, two parts of a two-piece puzzle.

Then he flips me onto my back and drives into me until I’m screaming his name, and then only sounds when I can no longer remember words. Everything inside me seizes, clamping around his cock when I come, like my body can’t bear to be without him again. He slows his thrusts, riding me gently through it until his cock stiffens inside me, and he pulls me into an embrace, hands gripping me tightly then relaxing on top of my body.

There’s so much to plan out, lives to redefine now that ours are connected. I smile up at the glass ceiling, gratitude filling every cell in my body.

When he finally pulls back, he looks as dazed as I feel, smiling tenderly down at me, tracing my lip with the edge of his thumb.