Page 120 of Axe Marks the Spot

I hold back a laugh, stepping closer to her so she’s overtaken by my presence. Lindsey doesn’t shrink back, but her skin does pink up at my nearness.

“That’s a lot of perfection to live up to.”

“You don’t need to live up to it; you just are,” she responds, her voice a bit quieter now.

I brush a few baby hairs off her forehead tenderly. “I love that you think I’m perfect. As your Dom, it pleases me greatly. But…” I soothe my finger down her cheek, and she shivers. “I’m not perfect. Far from it. I’ve made mistakes with you; I’ve not been the best Dom I could be. Lately, I’ve been failing a lot, actually.”

“How so?”

“Did I not cross lines for you, baby?”

She blinks. “I’m sorry—”

“No.” I stop her. “I’m glad to have crossed them. But I’m seeing more and more that we’ve skipped a lot of important things, and in doing so, I’ve failed you.”

“You haven’t,” she insists.

I trace her lips with my thumb. “Why did you email me?”

“So you could be my Dom,” she answers.

“Yes, but what did you want from our time together?”

“You know what,” she says.

“I want to hear you say it.”

“I wanted to get my life together.”

“Which meant what to you?”

“More discipline, setting up routines, getting my schedule and bills organized. And to be a better mom to Kas because of it.”

“Do you feel like any of that has improved?”

“I do feel more confident in some things. I like my morning and night routines—now that I’ve been doing them,” she mutters with a cringe. “I also have put my foot down with Kas a couple of times, like when she wanted to eat chicken nuggets instead of the lunch I packed her.”

“That’s good,” I say. “But I’m not happy with how you feel otherwise or that you’ve not been consistent. I think it’s time we change that, don’t you?”

“Does that mean we’re not going to be intimate anymore?”

I shake my head. “Far from it. We made an agreement, unless you’d like to change it again?”

“No, Sir. I don’t want that.”

A spike of anxiety I hadn’t realized had flared calms at her words. “I don’t, either,” I assure her. “In fact, we made claims on each other last night and today. Do you remember what they were?”

She smiles softly. “You said I’m yours, Sir.”

“You are.” I reach out and touch her throat where her necklace was earlier. “And what else?”

“I said I’d accept a training collar.”

“Hmm, you did. Now that you’ve had some distance from last night, is that still what you want?”

“Yes, Sir.”

I nod. “Good to know.” I brush her chin again. “And you understand what that means to me?”