I wish I could stay and talk longer with Avery, but I spent most of the day with Nana. “I have to go; Tristan wants me to be home bysix.”
“Home?” sheasks.
Shit. I did just say that, didn’t I? “I’m not referring to his house as my home. Because obviously it’snot.”
“Didn’t sound that way to me. In fact, everything you’ve told me today sounds as though you’re pretty comfortable with him and also with living at his house in NewOrleans.”
“I’m resigned to doing what I have to do. There’s adifference.”
“If you say so, Em.” I know that grin on her face. She doesn’t believeme.
“I do sayso.”
Avery walks out of the restaurant with me to the parking lot. “How long are you going to be living withhim?”
“That’s a whole other story.” Damn, I can’t believe I forgot to tell her about paying back my debt. Or the involuntary IUD placement that led to his new deal. “We originally agreed that I would receive credit toward my debt every time I… satisfied him sexually.” It sounds horrible when I say it out loud. “Which makes me a totalprostitute.”
Avery shakes her head. “That wasn’t what I was thinking atall.”
“Do I want to know what you’re thinking?” Avery is honest. She doesn’t beat around the bush, so I’m a little frightened to hear what she has tosay.
“I was only thinking that you seem really calm and relaxed, maybe even happy, about being with this man. It seems like you’re enjoying your time withhim.”
I can be honest with Avery about my true feelings. “I’d be lying if I said that I’m not. His lifestyle is new to me, but I like the things that he has done to me. The control, the punishments, the commands… I’ve never been so turned on by a man in my entirelife.”
“You never told me how long you’d bethere.”
“Oh, yeah… my stay is up in the air. We replaced the original repayment method with something different. I blindly pull a key from a box filled with one hundred keys after we engage in his choice of sex. My debt is free and clear when I pull the key that works on a specific padlock. It’s basically a game of chance. What can I say? We’re bothgamblers.”
“His idea or yours?” sheasks.
“His. It’s a deal he came up with to get me tostay.”
“I thought you liked what he was doing toyou.”
“I left off the part of the story where I got abducted and drugged before being transported across the state line to New Orleans. And while I was sedated, I was examined by the OB-GYN who cares for his submissives, and an IUD was inserted into my body without mypermission.”
“Oh fuckno.”
“Oh fuck yes. The bastard is a total control freak. He has to be in charge of everything, and that includes birthcontrol.”
“That’s some of the craziest shit I’ve ever heardof.”
“I was so pissed off when I found out that I was on my way out the door, freedom be damned. But then he offered this new deal where I could literally clear my debt and any incriminating evidence in a single key pull. I had to take his deal. And I haven’t regretted that decisionyet.”
“I get why you’re doing it. I’d have great sex with a hot man to stay out of jail too. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t if faced with those twooptions.”
Other women would have judged me and my decision. Probably even slut-shamed me for what I’m doing. But not Avery. And it’s only one of the reasons why I love her somuch.
“I need to start back. I don’t want to be late. Tristan forced me over the dining room table and spanked me the last time I wasn’t ontime.”
“As demented as that sounds, I bet it washot.”
“It was after I got over the shock ofit.”
I point to the Bentley. “This isme.”
“Whaaat?”
“He kidnapped me, remember? My car isn’t at his house in New Orleans, so he had to let me drive one ofhis.”
“He let you borrow aBentley?”
“He’s crazyrich.”
“Does he have any crazy rich friends who will kidnap me and force me intosubmission?”
“Careful what you ask for with aDom.”
