Page 23 of We Own Each Other

My gaze was just beginning to trail downward to admire his ass, though the shape of his coat obscured most of his form, much to my frustration, when we made it to our table. Corin was pulling out a chair, presumably to sit down, only for him to stare at me expectantly. Once again, there was that intense pounding in my chest.

Had I ever been truly wooed before?

I had done some playful wooing myself, though not to this extent, and I certainly didn’t recall ever being wooed this way.

This man was special. I already knew that, but this only cemented the fact that I needed to make sure I claimed him in every way possible. I needed to woo him as much as he was wooing me, and I needed to fuck him to such an intense satisfaction that he could never be satisfied with another person. I felt confident in the latter, but the former…

I took my seat while Corin made his way around the table, peeling his coat off in the process. He hung it on the back of his chair and then sat down. All the while, I was trying to determine how best I could make him fall for me as hard as I had fallen for him in this short time we’d known each other.

The host placed our menus down in front of us and offered a few specials before taking our drink orders and leaving us to peruse the rest.

To my surprise, though I had ordered a beer, he just ordered water.

“Do you drink?”

Corin chuckled, his eyes flashing over the top of the menu.

“Sometimes. I like sweet stuff, if you can believe that.”

I could. On the outside, he came off rough, tumble, and intimidating, but inside, he was soft and sweet. I imagined that was true physically as well, and I intended to find that out tonight, but I had to keep those thoughts at bay.

I was trying to make this last. I was always making things physical, and while that was fun and had its advantages, it wouldn’t last forever. I was already trying to come up with something else to think about and eventually talk about when Corin set his menu down.

“So, you have been staying at a hotel. Are you on vacation, or…”

“Ha. Shit.”

The words came out before I could stop them. Corin, thankfully, didn’t seem bothered. Instead, he laughed, resting his elbows on the table and interlacing his fingers so he could rest his chin on top of them.

“Sorry. Is it a sore subject?”

I shook my head, swallowing.

“No, no. It’s just… embarrassing.”

Just then, the waiter came by, sliding my beer and his water in front of us before disappearing back onto the floor. I mentally cursed him, wishing he had taken the chance to break into our conversation and take our orders so I could think of what all I should and shouldn’t say on the topic at hand, but he was long gone.

Corin did give me a bit of a reprieve, taking a moment to pick up his glass and take a small sip before setting it down again.

“We can talk about it another time. I mean, it is only our first date.”

My face was burning. It was only our first date. That implied we would have more. I really hoped that would be the case, but after this conversation, I wasn’t so sure. Still, there was no point in delaying the inevitable.

“Nah. We might as well get it out of the way. I don’t want you worrying about it later on.” With a sigh, I sat back. “You already know I’m a Switch, but I’ve been living as a Sub for a while now.”

Corin bobbed his head, sending his curly black bangs tumbling back down over his forehead. He was too cute for words.

I could only hope that I’d get to see this sight again after this.

“Feel free to judge, but I was a live-in Sub for Rutherford Griff.” As soon as that last name left my lips, his brows suddenly knit together. I couldn’t tell if he was disgusted or confused, but I kept on speaking. If he hated that, then there was no need to go into the details. Was it lying? Maybe, but what Corin didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. “I was living it up at his place, but I was getting tired of just playing Sub, so we broke up — pretty badly, too. I packed my stuff and went out to a bar, which is where I met you, and the rest is history.”

He leaned forward, brows still furrowed.

“Griff? Like the Griffs?”

He gave me a weird look, and I was a bit confused myself. I couldn’t imagine why who I was living with really mattered in the grand scheme of things. Didn’t potential partners worry about why breakups happened more than who it was with? I had been trying to come up with a way to explain how I had dominated the Griff heir and subsequently his father without sounding like a creep, but it seemed like that wouldn’t even come up.

Even if that wasn’t an issue, how about being a live-in Sub? Shouldn’t that have caused some red flags to pop up?