“And that’s one of the things that you find so damn sexy about him,right?”
She isn’t wrong. Although I’ve never told Tristan, I actually liked that he saw me in his casino and wanted me and made it happen without any regard for the consequences. Once I got over my hating him so badly, I thought that what he did was hot as hell. I’ve never felt so desired by aman.
“I love his determination and persistence, but he’s taken it too far thistime.”
I blink rapidly because the tears forming in my eyessting.
“Oh, girl. Don’t cry. Whatever it is, it will beokay.”
“No man has ever betrayed me this way,Ave.”
“Has he cheated? Because I will go to his house and kick his ass and hers too if that’s thecase.”
My pal, Avery—always willing to open a can of whup-ass on mybehalf.
“It’s nothing like that. It’s quite the opposite, actually.” I reach for a napkin on the countertop and wipe my eyes and nose. “Tristan and I had adeal.”
“The one where your debt with him was clear after you pulled the rightkey?”
“Yes, but our relationship has been morphing into something else for a while now. It’s become so much more than I ever dreamed it couldbe.”
Avery lifts a brow. “You mean something more like his putting a very expensive necklace around yourneck?”
I touch his collar around my neck. “This isn’t an ordinary necklace. He has collaredme.”
“Oh wow. That’s very significant in the Dominant-submissive world,right?”
“It’s the symbol of a very serious commitment that we have made to one another. And I was so happy about it, Avery. I wanted this. I wanted to be his, but then he went and fucked upeverything.”
I breathe in deeply, gathering the words in my head to explain what happened so that her non-submissive mind mightunderstand.
“Tristan is a control freak, and he doesn’t deal well with situations where he isn’t in control. And such an occasion happened about a month ago. He got some really fucked-up news about his parents, and he didn’t know how to deal withit.”
“I hate to break it to you, but most guys aren’t great with losing control or dealing with serious issues,” Averysays.
“Well, this was especially bad. He found out that his maternal uncle who has raised him since he was a baby is actually his biological father. Which means that his mother’s brother raped her, and Tristan was conceived as a result of therape.”
Avery’s eyes widen. “Holy shit. I can see why he wouldn’t deal well withthat.”
“No one would. And I understand his not being able to deal with that. I can only imagine how he must have felt when he found out, but the way he chose to handle it isunacceptable.”
“Well, come on, Em. Tell me what he did before I die ofcuriosity.”
“He is my Dom, and I knew what he needed from me that night. I also knew that he was going to push me beyond the limits we’d already reached. I was prepared to give him any- and everything heneeded.”
Avery is leaning over the kitchen counter, completely engrossed in what I’m about tospill.
“First, he turned on this song. It was really loud, so loud that it was all I could hear. And I immediately recognized it as ‘The Sound of Silence,’ but it was a rendition that I’ve never heard. It was dark and gloomy… and oddly sexy and erotic at the sametime.”
Avery reaches for her phone. “Hold on. I want to listen to this while you tell the rest of thestory.”
She thumbs her phone’s keyboard. “It’s byDisturbed?”
I shrug. “I don’t know.Maybe.”
The song begins to play from her phone, and I’m immediately sucked back into that night. “Fuck yes. That’sit.”
Avery puts her phone on the counter and leans in again. “Continue.”
