Page 48 of Bared

Shit, shit, shit.

Her words were everything. Soft entreaty. Erotic offering. Best of all, clear consent. That was it, right? At least the gateway for a good time? Safe words and limits could come with clear communication, something they didn’t have a problem with.

But it wasn’t enough. Not yet.

From her, only her, he needed…

More.

It was a bizarre recognition. This had never happened to him before. But it was as crucial as it was strange. He couldn’t ignore the demand, which emerged in the form of a single word back to her.

“Why?”

Jayd slowly blinked her big turquoises. “Wh-What?”

Brick shifted a hand back down, wrapping it beneath her chin. “I want to know why, Pixie. Tell me why you were interested in the scene back at the dungeon. What did you see there that you’re still craving here?”

She grew quiet, though remained engaged. He saw it in the attention of her breaths, the sustenance beneath her spine. And then she gave it to him in the silken steadiness of her voice.

“Escape, I suppose. The kind that comes from such complete surrender.” More thoughts chased each other across her face. “Surrender…though it is not disconnection,” she amended. “Just the opposite. I mean, there was a clear protocol to everything. Everyone was obeying such elegant manners. I suppose I noticed that more because I relate to it. But it was not like the etiquette at court. It was not so…”

“Not so what?” he prompted when she drifted for a few seconds.

“So…rote,” she supplied. “Not so stuffy. So…meaningless.”

Brick cocked half a smile. “You observed all that? Just during our brief time there?”

“Am I wrong?”

“You couldn’t be more right.” He tried to stroke away the new worry lines across her brow. “And I couldn’t be happier about that.”

A wave of warmth seemed to flow over her. “Then I am glad.”

Brick moved his fingers back to the side of her cheek. Christ. She was beyond exquisite, but her beauty only started with Mother Nature’s blessings. Her light came from the inside too: a glow that mesmerized him more and more as the night deepened. An addiction he was guiltless about indulging, knowing he’d have to be going cold turkey too damn soon.

“You really like making me happy, don’t you, Pixie?”

She tilted her face into his hand. “You sound surprised by that.”

“We met a few hours ago, Jayd.”

“We did?” Though she kept her huge irises locked on him, they glittered with frissons of confusion. “Why is that impossible for me to believe?”

Brick couldn’t offer her an answer. Why, indeed? Wasn’t he racked by the same surreal disbelief? The same sense that every minute since their first glance in the alley had been, in truth, a day? A week? A month? And what was the difference when all of it was intended to lead to this? The rightness of her at his feet. The flawlessness of her gaze up at him, replete with such reverence and reliance.

Seeing him. Waiting for him…

“I want to make you happy too, sweetheart.”

…to say exactly that.

He was expecting what that did to her. The wave of tangible excitement that coursed through her, making him wish she was already naked for his study of her flushed skin…everywhere. But instead of acting to make that happen, he paused. He was forced to, shaken to his marrow by a recognition just as deep.

As deep as the place from which his own vow had emerged. A part of himself that he’d written off long ago. The place in his soul that had first awakened with his need for Dominance and the corresponding longing for a submissive who understood the exchange part of Total Power Exchange. Over the last five years, many subbies had dropped to their knees and told him they understood—and so many times, he’d kissed them goodbye with a rueful smile. He’d simply wanted too much. Either that or fate was determined not to give it to him. Maybe it was part of the cosmic penance for how he’d fucked up Asha’s mission.

But now, he saw the universe’s larger plan.

He was going to get his perfect submissive. Just not for forever.