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“I was busy.” I shrugged.
She reached toward the box, then stopped before touching the leather. “What does it do?”
“It monitors a few simple things,” I explained. “Your pulse. Whether the collar is still touching your skin. Sudden movement combined with a rapid change in your heart rate. If enough of those happen at once, the collar vibrates against your neck.”
“And then?”
“You tap it once if you are safe. If you do nothing, it sends me an alert.”
“What if I’m dancing?”
“You cancel it.”
“What if someone tears it off?”
“It sends one final location before it turns itself off.”
Alessia picked it up and looked at me. “My location?”
“There’s a tracker built into the collar. I’ll know your location at all times if you choose to wear it.”
She looked down at the leather resting in her hands. Then she stood and carried the collar to the mirror above the sideboard. She lifted her hair, exposing the delicate line of her spine and the small pulse beating in her throat.
I didn’t move.
She fastened it, and the silver clasp clicked shut. The black leather looked darker than velvet against her skin, simple and elegant enough that no stranger would understand why the sight of it tightened every muscle in my body.
Alessia turned toward me.
“You may call me your pet when we are alone,” she said.
I crossed the room slowly and slipped one finger beneath the leather at the side of her throat, checking the fit even though I knew it was perfect. The collar was warm already, taking heat from her skin. Her pulse moved against my knuckle.
“Is it comfortable?”
“Yeah.”
“It isn’t too tight?”
“Nope.”
Her hands settled against my chest. She rose onto her toes, her mouth close enough that her breath warmed mine.
“I like it, Daddy.”
I closed my eyes for one second, and when I opened them, she was still there.
“My little pet,” I crooned.
Her smile was slow and wicked. “I have a question.”
“What?”
She reached past me, picked up the pen I kept aligned beside the folders on the sideboard, and placed it diagonally across the wood.
I stared at it.
“What happens,” she asked, “if your pet deliberately provokes you because she wants to see what Daddy will do?”
