“You’re the one making it harder,” she shot back. “You’re the one who came in and decided we’re done. Five minutes ago, I was your girl. Now you can’t even look at me.”
I looked.
I shouldn’t have.
The shirt hem had ridden up; there was a faint shadow along her thigh, a bruise I hadn’t seen yet. My stomach tightened. Someone had put their hands on her. Again. And instead of destroying them, I was standing here dismantling the only place she’d ever been safe.
“I don’t want you,” The lie scraped my throat raw. “I’m not doing this anymore.”
“We can change the dynamic,” she whispered. “If being my dom is too much, if the rules are too intense, if I’m too intense?—”
“You are too much work.”
The words tasted like acid. I dropped my gaze to the floor because if I saw her face while I said it, I’d fold.
“I have a syndicate,” I went on, forcing every syllable flat. “A dynasty. My brothers. My family. I don’t have the time or energy to look after you too.”
Fuck, listen to me. Listen to what I’m saying to you. I’m poisoning you on purpose.
The silence that followed felt worse than being shot.
Her breath stuttered. “You’re… bored, is that it?”
“Yeah.” I swallowed down bile. “I got bored. It was fun for a while. But I don’t have the attention span for this level of maintenance.”
Maintenance.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.” A tear slid down her cheek. She wiped it away angrily. “Because two weeks ago you flew to another capital to drag me out of my best friend’s penthouse. You tracked my period so you could order me snacks, Vince. You designed whole systems to know if I sleep. That is not someone who gets bored.”
“Maybe I was entertained for a while,” I said. “The challenge. The control. But there’s nothing left to fix. You’re trained. You follow rules. I like the beginning of things, not the upkeep.”
God, I hated myself.
She put a hand over her heart like she needed to hold it inside her chest. “Oh fuck,” she whispered. “This is going to hurt.”
Her eyes closed tight for a second.
“You’re just going to treat me like a stranger now,” Her eyes went glassy. “I knew you’d do this. I told myself you would and I still—Why am I so fucking stupid.” She shook her head. “I will never forgive you for this. Ever.
“You’re not stupid,” I almost snapped, instinct flaring. Don’t talk about my girl like that. Don’t you dare—I shut it down. Swallowed it.
“This is what it is. You’ll get over it. You’re young.”
She flinched like I’d slapped her. Then my girl just stood there, frozen. As if she was ready to wake up from a nightmare.
“So you found a new submissive?” Her voice was so soft.
Don’t break Crow. I could see it in her eyes. If I didn’t push her away firmly. She would keep fighting for us. I loved her for that.
I exhaled slowly. “No.”
“Someone better? Someone easier? Pretrained? Less ‘work’?”
“No.”
