“I don’t do the submissive thing.” Adrian stood abruptly. While his words and tone said one thing, his body language spoke of something entirely different. He was strung out and jittery, moving in disjointed, sudden bursts like a marionette jerked around by its strings. “I’m a Dom, Sterling. Just because I want a dick in my ass doesn’t mean I’m apushover.”
“Being a submissive isn’t about being a pushover—it’s about having tremendous strength. If you were a Dom, you’d know that.” The comment was meant to be inflammatory, and Sterling was delighted to see Adrian’s brows knit together and his eyes narrow inanger.
The downpour was about to begin, and Sterling was readyforit.
“Are you really going to tell me what I can and cannot be?” Adrian demanded. He crossed the space between them, hitting the coffee table with his leg on his way past. The drinks on its surface rattled. “Do you really think you’re the authority on our lifestyle just because you own this club? You’re so goddamn full ofyourself.”
“And you’re getting awfully worked up for someone who’s supposed to be in total control of himself.” Sterling remained seated even as Adrian closed in on him. “I’ve already explained my reasoning to you. I won’t repeat it again. Either you will submit and prove that you have repented for what you’ve done, or we’ll have to discuss your removal from The Shepherd. Either way, you’ll be losing your rights. It’s up to you to choose which rights will be limited, and forhowlong.”
They stood knee to knee now, Adrian’s shoulders broad and his chest pushed forward, as though making his lithe body bigger might change Sterling’s mind. It didn’t, and it wouldn’t. Sterling liked to think that his conditions had been madeclear.
“Two weeks.” Like icicles snapping from a roof to violently pierce the snowbanks below, Adrian’s words penetrated Sterling and were meant to harm. “I’ll give you two weeks of TPE, and in exchange, I’m allowed back in The Shepherd as usual and you’ll leave me the hellalone.”
“Onemonth.”
“Threeweeks.”
“Twenty-fivedays.”
Adrian’s jaw clenched and his fingers curled into fists. “I won’t do household chores for you. No cooking, no cleaning, no folding your laundry or runningerrands.”
“If I agree to terms like those, our arrangement isn’t really a TPE anymore,isit?”
“Take it or leave it.” Adrian’s face was unyielding. “If you’re really a Dom, shouldn’t you understand that submissives have limits? You have no idea who I am. You need to respect what I say I can andcannotdo.”
Themouthonhim.
This time, Sterling allowed himself to grin. “In my eyes, it’s odd that you’d rather bargain your way out of housework than out of any of the things I might be inclined to do to your body. I could keep you in a cage like a crated dog if I wanted to. I could blindfold you and invite anyone to use you as they wish. Shouldn’t you be more concerned with that than with whether or not you have to do thedishes?”
The fury in Adrian’s expression flickered out of existence for a brief, stunning moment. The storm clouds behind his eyes parted, and for a second, Sterling was able to see the core of who Adrian was. The grief in his expression was vulnerable, and it tore away at Sterling’sresolve.
Suddenly, a full total power exchange didn’t sound as satisfyinganymore.
“I don’t care what happens to my body,” Adrian muttered. Then, as quickly as the storm had broken, it was back in full force. The anger returned, unchecked and raw. “If you want to keep me in a cage, fine. If you want to keep me bound while you’re out of the house, whatever. If you want people to use me like a cum dumpster, I’ll deal. But you’re not going to degrade me by treating me like your live-in maid. Either you use me for sex, or you use me for housecleaning. I’m not going to be bound to youforboth.”
There were problems in that statement—deeply packed issues that Sterling wanted to de-construct and remedy. The Shepherd was a beacon for the lost and served as a home for the broken, but this? This wasn’t broken. Adrian was mangled, and Sterling didn’t know where to begin to fix thedamagedone.
Maybe total submissionwaswhat Adrian needed. If nothing else, it would be a chance for him to let go of his hurt. But no matter how he turned the thought around in his head, Sterling couldn’t feel good about it. Notlikethis.
“Are you trying to get me to back down?” Sterling asked, biding his time before he made achoice.
Adrian’s eyes said yes. His lipssaid, “No.”
“I’m notconvinced.”
“Well, you’re going to have to be.” Adrian folded his arms over his chest and took a step back. The sound of the coffee table sliding across the floor disrupted their conversation—Adrian had bumped against it with the back of his calves. He was still too wired to be conscientious of his surroundings. “I only tell my Master the truth,don’tI?”
The corner of Sterling’s lips quirked upward. “Has anyone ever told you that you’ve got a wickedmouth?”
Adrian scowled. “Most humans have mouths, Sterling. Do you want amedal?”
“If you consider yourself a trophy, I won’trefuse.”
Adrian hid his eyes behind his palm and sighed, then pinched the bridge of his nose and dropped his hand. “Twenty-five days, no household chores, total submission in sex only, and then you’ll let me back into The Shepherd like nothing everhappened.”
“Correct.”
Adrian glanced away. Their broken eye contact allowed Sterling to take a moment to himself. When he wasn’t spitting fire, Adrian had all the delicate trademarks of an omega. A slender, refined body marked by tight, but understated muscle. Narrow hips. A pretty face. On a surface level, hewasa trophy. But his lashing tongue would never let Sterling forget who Adrianreallywas.
