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He cleared his throat. "To answer your question. Duncan. You asked me if that was my real name. It is. Duncan Marius Walczek."
"Okay. It suits you. Though you hold yourself a different way when you say it. It's not a familiar fit, but more honest, maybe. Why meet me here to tell me that?"
"I want to get back into The Zone. I like the work. I need it. And I'd..." He sighed. "I'm sorry for how I acted. I can do better for you, if you'll give me another chance."
"So your primary motive is getting restored to The Zone's good graces and employment." She lifted a finger before he could answer. "Fortunately, I'm interested in you, Marius. Duncan." She purred the name, intrigued when he shifted. It made him less confident, more uncomfortable. Her evaluation was correct. It was his truer name.
"It's a self-serving relationship," she continued. "But I have no desire to cater to your side of that equation. I'll take this where I want it to go."
He came a step closer, but at her stare, he moved back. "So does that mean we can try again, whatever it is you're willing to try?"
A little edge to his tone. He was sure he was getting a victory, though she sensed some surprise...maybe even a little disappointment that the challenge hadn't been as difficult as he'd expected.
"Maybe." She slid a thorough perusal over him, head to toe. "First, you take me on a normal date."
If she'd told him to lie down in the street and pretend to be roadkill, she couldn't have surprised him more. "Excuse me?" he asked, brow furrowing.
"You're a man, I'm a woman. You do know how to take a woman on a date? You didn't hit puberty, walk into a BDSM club and that was the sum of your hookup experiences?"
"No." He didn't smile. "It's been awhile, though."
"For me, too." She met his troubled gaze. Interesting. This did kind of freak him out. "I've seen the sub. I want to see the man, how he treats a woman outside of a club. So I want a normal date."
He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "I don't get it."
"Is there a question there?" She leveled cool eyes on his arms. The muscle in his jaw twitched, but he uncrossed them.
"Why do you want a normal date, Mistress?"
An extra bonus. She hadn't required him to call her that, but it had a nice sound to it, sliding down her spine like his fingertips.
"It's too easy for you to weaponize yourself inside the BDSM world," she said evenly. "It may be what you crave, but you've poisoned it, and I don't think you know how to purify the waters. Show me who you are outside of the scene, why you'd be worth the risk to go inside it with you again. I'm going to give you a clue, so you have a slim chance of not fucking it up. No over-the-top grand gestures that mask the man behind a show. You're limited to a fifty-dollar budget."
His scowl deepened. "Teenagers spend more than that just to go out to the movies."
"Yeah, they probably do."
"I can afford--"
"Your income is not the issue. Fifty dollars. Save receipts."
"No."
She'd turned to open the car door but stopped, brows raised. His jaw set in a stubborn line, he stepped forward. Closing his hand over the car door handle, he opened it for her and stepped back. "If it's a real date, no guy would show a woman his receipts. If you say fifty, that's what I'll do. I assume you can take my word on that at least."
"I can." She'd laid her hand on the window frame, and his other hand was resting just above it. Their smallest fingers were touching, a brush of contact. He withdrew, his touch sliding over hers, and then he thrust his hand back into his pocket, as if he might be burned.
"A real date," he said. "Next Friday, at six? I'll pick you up."
"In front of Safe Word," she said.
He scowled. "You can trust me to pick you up at your place."
"That may or may not be true, but I'm not letting you into that part of my life."
"Right." He watched her get into the car. "Because this is just about getting back into The Zone for me, and trying out a new sub for you, because you like new flavors."
"Maybe. It doesn't bother me that you're using me as a means to an end, Marius. Why should it bother you, unless it isn't just about that?"
