Page 196 of To Catch a Sub

“And what if this is broken?” Her eyes were worried, almost haunted.

“What’s broken?”

“Our sexual relationship.” Her gaze dropped. “What if I can’t…take…things the same way?”

“Then we’ll find other ways for you to take it.” He couldn’t stop the small smirk that slid into his voice.

Colette looked up, brow raised. “Really?”

“Oh yes. I can think of lots of ways you could take it,” he murmured.

She groaned, but arched towards him a little. It was a bad joke, but she was into it.

“I don’t think our sexual relationship is broken,” he assured her. “But tonight, you take the lead, and we’ll go slow.”

“And what if I don’t want to take the lead? What if I need you to make me feel…” She ducked her head, pressing her forehead to his chest.

He massaged her scalp. “What is it, love? You can say anything to me.”

“I need to feel like…” She made a frustrated sound. “If you had a collar, I’d beg you to put it on me.” Her face crumpled. “That’s insane, and stupid, after what he?—”

“It’s not. No one has the right to tell you that the way you process or deal with what was done to you is wrong.”

She didn’t look like she believed him.

He touched her chin, forcing her face up.

Then he gently circled her neck with his fingers.

Colette’s eyes fluttered closed. He’d watched Damien choke her against that tree, and in that minute vowed that if she survived he’d never touch her like this again. Stupid of him to start mentally crossing things off his list without waiting to see what she needed.

“Does a collar make you feel safe?” he asked softly.

“It’s like a wedding ring,” she breathed, “but better. When you wear it, you belong to someone.”

And Colette had never really belonged to anyone. Even the way she spoke about her first Master, the one who’d trained her when she was barely a legal adult, seemed almost clinical.

“It means there’s someone out there who wants to pleasure you, and protect you,” she went on.

“I want to pleasure you,” he growled, pressing his hips to hers so she could feel his cock, while keeping space between their upper bodies.

“And you protected me.”

“Not well enough.”

“You did,” she countered. “You came for me.”

“I’ll always find you.” He watched her carefully as he said the next words. “Because you’re mine.”

Colette shivered, eyes half-closed.

“That doesn’t scare you?” He needed to be sure. “My being possessive.”

“Will you honor my safeword?”

“Of course.”

“Do you expect me to be submissive to you all the time?”