“Stay here with Derek for a minute. I want to go have words with your foolish asshole ex.” Fletcher brushed a kiss on her forehead before rising and following Mitchell from the diner.
“Hey,” he called as Mitchell stopped beside a rental car.
“What the fuck do you want?”
“I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be taking care of Mallory from here on and I won’t let anyone or anything hurt her. So if you do anything that will cause her pain in any way, I will end you. And I have the means to do it,” Fletcher said, keeping his tone conversational.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“A man who has vast resources and information at his fingertips. Don’t hurt her or piss me off and you can live to be an old foolish asshole. Otherwise, you might find yourself hurting in ways you could never imagine. Have a safe trip back to wherever you came from.”
With that warning delivered, Fletcher returned to the diner. After paying for their food and leaving a generous tip, he pulled Mallory from the booth and hugged her tight.
“Let’s go back to Rawhide and start working on our future.”
“Yes, Master,” she returned his smile with a bright one of her own, “I’d like that.”
Chapter Eighteen
By the time they returned to Rawhide Ranch, Mallory had a queasy feeling gathering around her heart and stomach. She didn’t quite understand where it came from, except that it had to do with Mitchell.
“You okay, bunny?” Fletcher asked as they entered their room.
“I don’t think so,” she said simply. I think we need to go to the Dungeon so you can tie me up and spank all the yucky feelings out of me,” she said.
“Yucky feelings?”
“Uh-huh.”
“We can do that, but I have a couple of conditions,” Fletcher sat on the side of the bed and pulled her to stand between his knees.
“What conditions?”
“First, I want you to submit to me in every way for the rest of our stay here at Rawhide Ranch.”
Mallory nodded easily as she traced her hands over the top of his shoulders and around to the back of his neck. “I can do that.”
“And second, I want you to come home with me as my permanent, full-time submissive, woman, and life partner.”
Mallory blinked, astonished at his words. “But I don’t know what you do for a living, or where you live, or anything about you, except that you like to tie me up… and you’re amazing in bed.”
“Thank you, sweet bunny. I guess I haven’t told you much about myself. Well, the truth is my name is Samuel Fletcher Thomas and I’m the owner and CEO of SFT Conglomerate.”
“And what does SFT Conglomerate do?”
Fletcher paused a moment before answering. “Mostly we raise and sell cattle on a bunch of acres and deposit the money we’re paid by the oil company who has a number of wells around the ranch.”
“So you’re like, rich?”
Mallory asked the question though she was half afraid of what his answer would be. Though she had enough money in the bank to live on, as far as he knew, she was a struggling artist who worked as an administrative assistant before coming to Rawhide Ranch. Now she was a service submissive and cleaner in the Dungeon who drew silly pictures in her spare time.
Why would he want her in his life?
As if echoing her thoughts, he said, “I want you in my life because you are sweet and submissive and creative and lovely to look at and easy to talk to and you make me feel good about the world. You are the woman I’ve been looking for since my ex-wife walked out on me because I didn’t have any money.”
“I don’t want your money,” she assured him. “I have a little money from both Benjamin and my mother and can pay my own way.”
“I never even considered you’d be concerned with that, Mallory. But what you bring to our relationship is more valuable than money. So, you think about what you want our future to look like and we’ll talk again in a few days. Right now, I wantyou to put on your rope bunny clothes and get ready to go downstairs.”
