I couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out over my face. “Yes, sweet girl, a safeword.”
She looked up at me, her green eyes bright and watery in the fluorescent lights of the underground garage. “I want—” She took a deep breath. “Stoplight. I want to use the stoplight system,” she rushed out. “Because maybe I just need to talk something through instead of stopping, and I don’t want you to feel like?—”
“Eva,” I growled, and she snapped her mouth shut on her adorable fucking babbling. “You don’t need to explain anything.”
“Wrong,” she snarled at me, her eyes glowing with fierce determination. “We’re going to talk, you and me. We are going to explain what the fuck we’re thinking and why we’re doing shit, whether I submit to you or not. I deserve that, and so do you.”
Thiswoman. My heart was hers, and I should have realized that the first time I put her on her knees to serve me coffee—so fucking brave, so fucking resilient, willing to stand up to me even though I had the power to destroy her.
I wouldn’t abuse the gift of her trust ever again.
Gently, she pushed on my chest so she could climb out of the car. I rescued her bag from the back seat and slung it over my shoulder.
To my surprise, she twined her fingers in mine and tucked her shoulder against my arm.
“I’m going to give you some rules to follow tonight,” I said as I led her into the elevator. “I need you to tell me if any of them won’t work for you.”
She shifted so she stood in front of me, and I couldn’t bear the distance between us, so I stepped forward and tugged her into my chest, inhaling the scent of her. Eva relaxed against me, and then slowly, tentatively, she liftedher arms to wrap around my back and hold me as tightly as I held her.
I thought I heard her sniffle, but then the elevator dinged on my floor, and she lifted her head.
“Oh fuck, I’m sorry,” she said, patting where her tears had dampened my shirt.
I gently wrapped my fingers around her wrist. “I’m happy for you to leave a wet spot on me.”
Her cheeks turned pink, and she looked at her shoes, but I could see the smile peeking out from behind the riot of red curls.
Silently, still smiling, she followed me down the hall, letting me keep her hand in mine until we reached my apartment. I swiped my key card and made a mental note to get her one too. I’d hold it until I could be sure giving it to her wouldn’t spook her.
I tried to view my apartment through her eyes—a few paintings on the wall, shelves of well-worn books in several languages, and floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the city, but otherwise, it was sparse, as if I barely lived here.
Eva swallowed and took a step away from me. “Thanks for coming to get me,” she said, uncertainty making her voice softer than usual. “I can just crash in the guest room and get out of your way?”
I set her duffle bag on the floor beside us, then maneuvered her until she stood in front of me.
She wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I’m sorry, this is so much trouble, and?—”
I pinched her chin and dragged her gaze up to mine. “I don’t want to hear a single apology for calling me, for being here, or for bothering me. You trusted me enough to call me when you were hurting, and I’m grateful for that gift.”
Her eyes widened.
“What’s your safeword?”
“Red,” she breathed.
“And?”
“Red to stop, yellow to check in, and green to keep going.”
The stoplight system was more complex than that, but it’d do for tonight. She was too vulnerable to negotiate.
“Tonight, you’re going to do what I say, when I say it. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Yes what?”
She licked her lips and her breathing sped up, as if she were fighting her instincts. “Yes, Sir,” she said finally, and need shot straight to my cock, which I wouldnotbe indulging tonight, no matter how fucking bad I wanted to.
