He chuckled. “That’s reasonable. So you hated René for giving O to Sir Stephen.”
“Yeah, I think all the sharing in general turned me off,” I said. “But it was beautifully written. And of course, some parts were very hot. I’m honestly shocked it was released in the fifties, but I guess the French have always been thought leaders in the freak community.”
“It was hugely controversial and faced a lot of censorship, as you can imagine.” He paused. “I’m not a fan of sharing either, Nova.”
I swallowed, a current of satisfaction rolling through my body as I crossed the street.
“What were the parts that werevery hot?”
I took a deep breath. “Oh, you know, ownership, as a concept. O’s body being open for her Master’s pleasure at all times—free use, I believe is the term from your reading list.” My heart pounded. “Pain, to an extent.”
Wes’s silence was deafening, even as the world around me was alight with energy and movement. All I could focus on was his long pause.
Had I said too much? Had he been rethinking his decision to try domming again after he’d sworn it off forever? Was he going to tell me the distance had sobered him, that we needed to stop? Did he?—
“I wish I was with you right now,” Wes said, strained. “Fuck, Nova.”
I exhaled. I reached a busy intersection, turning up my volume all the way so I didn’t miss a single word.
“You have no idea, do you?” he asked me. “How fucking insane you make me.”
“I thought we decided you were already crazy before we met.”
He chuckled darkly. “Which should make my current state even more alarming.”
“So… those things are hot to you too?” I asked, still desperate for reassurance. My head was floaty from excitement, anticipation, and the sound of Wes unraveling. The sound of memakingWes unravel.
I knew there was an important reason for his emphasis on my desires over his own, given our power dynamic and the discrepancy in our experience levels, but I wanted more of Wes. I’d wanted more of him since the beginning.
“Yes, Nova, the idea of owning someone—their body mine to flood with both pleasure and pain whenever I please—ishotto me.”
I could hear the tension in his low, gravelly voice, as if he were on the verge of breaking.
“God, if I were with you right now, I would bite the shit out of you,” he said.
“Like a vampire?” My core pulsed, my voice failing to convey my teasing tone. I sounded breathless instead.
“Like a man who wants every other man who looks at you to see his bite mark on your skin.”
“Oh. Yes. Like that,” I said, rubbing my tingling neck as if I could feel Wes’s lips and teeth there from across the country. “Only if I can bite you back.”
“That can be arranged.”
34
NOVA
Ever since The Circle had made it abundantly clear they knew where I was at all times, I’d been getting the eerie feeling I was being watched. I’d even taken a page out of Wes’s tinfoil hat playbook and placed a sliding cover over my laptop and phone cameras.
Wes’s working theory was that they’d tampered with my phone while it was locked up during the soirée, which, of course, prompted him to insist on buying me a new one. Which ledmeto heavily protest due to my severe financial assistance discomfort.
I was feeling that familiar sensation now, as I left my cave for the first time in forty-eight hours to take a long artist’s walk. I smiled at a woman’s stubborn pug, who refused to move out of my way even as his owner tugged on his leash. I hopped over him, offering a cheerfulno worriesto the pug’s apologetic mother.
After rounding a corner, the feeling became undeniable. A black SUV slowly inched closer in my periphery, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up. My head swiveled.
A car door opened.
“Get in.”
