I pretended he’d deafened me, bringing my hands to my ears. “Not yet.” I smirked. “Why? Eager to be my slave?”
I suddenly understood why Taylor had worn that shit-eating grin when he won. There was something irresistible about the power. Taylor King belonged tome.
“No,” he snapped. “I just don’t want this to hang over me.”
“Imagine how I felt.”
“I didn’t make you wait that long,” he said.
“Right,” I drawled, remembering the two days of anticip— torture. It’d definitely been torture. “You were too busy buying that stupid collar.” I leaned against the arm of the couch, propping my head on my palm, gazing at him.
“What?” he snapped.
“I’m thinking about what I’ll make you wear.”
He made a show of huffing, and jerkily got up to his feet, even though he still had half of his breakfast to go. “Just don’t take forever, alright?”
I made Taylor wait five days. It wasn’t on purpose, but the weekdays were full of classes, club commitments and soccer, and I wanted to dedicate a full day to ordering Taylor around.
“When does the night start?” I mused on Saturday morning, leaning against the kitchen island, sipping a coffee. Taylor was scrubbing dishes with a scowl. He’d worn a thunderous expression for the past five days.
“When the sun sets,” he said, voice dripping withduh, that’s obvious.
“Damn,” I replied, setting my mug down and stretching my arms above my head. “And I had so many cute activities planned.”
“Cute activities? Like…a date?”
He looked horrified and I bit back a laugh. I wasn’t sure what he was so worried about. Did he think he was so irresistible that I wouldn’t be able to help myself from doing romantic stuff with him? Come on.
“Kinda,” I replied, wanting to wind him up. “Y’know. Just the stuff couples do.”
He was holding a porcelain plate so hard, I thought it might shatter. “We said it’d be for one night.” Once again, I forced myself not to laugh at his strained attempt at being diplomatic.
“That’s a pity. Especially because most of the hours would be wasted. Sleeping,” I clarified.
“You could force me to stay awake.”
“I think that’s a war crime.”
I hadn’t intended to be funny, but Taylor suddenly laughed. I stared, mouth open. I’d never seen him laugh like that before. It softened his face, rounding his cheeks, and I wanted to reach out and tug on them.
“I’ll be generous. We can amend the conditions,” he said, once he’d sobered. “Nighttime’s twelve hours from, say, seven at night to seven in the morning. We can shift the window from midday to midnight.”
I rolled my coffee mug between my hands. “What’s in it for you?”
“Nothing. Like I said, I’m generous.”
“Yeah, right. You’d never be that nice.”
He rinsed the plate and slowly dried it. I suspected he was trying to drive me crazy, but I patiently waited him out. “I get a safe word,” he said finally.
“Dude, do you think I’m a monster? I’m not going to do anything awful.” Yes, I loved the idea of getting to boss him around. But I wasn’t evil. I’d never make him do something he didn’t want to do. Especially when it came to sex.
Because we were going to have sex. Both of us knew it, even if we weren’t going to say it aloud.
“I don’t think you will,” he said calmly. “I just want it for my peace of mind.”
“I mean, sure. But you could just say no.”
