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“About a week, mistress.” Though with her stroking him like that, it felt like he hadn’t come in oh—the last thirty-seven years of his life.
“How long since you’ve come with someone else?”
He swallowed hard. “About three years.”
Her hand stilled for a moment, but then she seemed to catch her reaction and moved her fingers again. “That’s a long time, Theo.”
“It’s easier that way.”
She let her fingernails trace up along the line of hair at his navel all the way to the patch on his chest, sending shivers over his skin. “I’m not about the easy way.”
She bent and tapped his leg, indicating that she wanted him to lift his feet. He did, one at a time, so she could take his jeans and underwear off, leaving him completely bare while she remained fully dressed.
She stalked around him, dragging her fingertips over his shoulder as she went. When she stopped behind him, she let the pad of her finger gently trace over the long scar that ran from his left shoulder to his rib cage. He shuddered and his hands curled into his palms.
“How did you get this?” she asked quietly.
He closed his eyes. That question had been one of his limits in his sessions. Don’t ask about the scar. Maggie was proving the point that nothing was out of bounds for her tonight. He could safe word but all this would stop if he did that. He swallowed hard. “I got it in the car accident that killed my wife.”
Maggie inhaled audibly behind them then pressed the flat of her hand along the scar. He braced for the sympathy, the empty words that any normal person would give him. But instead she moved her hand aside and put her lips to the scar, leaving a line of kisses along the length of it.
The injury didn’t hurt anymore, but the feel of her gentle mouth soothing it knifed through him. He could handle her brutality, but he wasn’t sure he could handle her tenderness. His hands trembled at his sides.
She slid her palms to his biceps, giving them a hard squeeze and digging her nails into him. The tiny points of pain dragged him back into the moment. He focused on the feel of it, the physical response, the grounded feeling of her holding him in place. He released a breath.
Her grip eased. “I’m so glad the accident didn’t take you, too, Theo.”
He sniffed. Fate had so gotten it wrong when it’d taken Lori instead of him. “Yeah, the world was so lucky on that one. Everyone needs another asshole to deal with.”
Maggie pinched him hard on his side, sending fire to the spot. “I don’t need the sarcasm, sub.” She stepped in front of him, green eyes fierce, and put a finger to his chest. “The bastard routine doesn’t work with me, so you can drop it. Insulting yourself insults me. You think I would welcome a jerk into my bed? You’re a good man, Theodore Montgomery.”
“Maggie, please, I don’t—”
“You save lives.”
“It’s my job.”
She stepped closer, her gaze holding his and her palm splaying against his chest. “And you saved me.”
“What?” he looked down at her, confused.
“If you hadn’t come along, I’d still be spending my nights taking clients, keeping everybody at a safe, professional distance. I thought I’d gotten past my shit with the old boyfriend, but I kept safe by not letting anyone really be with me. Until you came in and made me want things I thought I’d never want again—a real connection, a man’s touch, a guy who would make me nervous and excited in the best way possible.”
The words spilled over him, stunning him. “Maggie …”
She pressed her finger over his lips. “Shh. I’m not telling you this to put pressure on you. I’m not saying you have to be that guy. Tonight can just be tonight. But I’m not going to stand
here and let you act like it doesn’t matter that you are who you are and that you’re in this world. You matter to the patients you help, and you matter to me.”
Without bidding them to do so, his hands went to her head to clasp it and pull her against his chest. It was against the rules to touch her without permission, but she didn’t stop him. Instead she settled easily against him, and he put his lips to the crown of her head, holding her tight, inhaling the wintery scent of her hair, and wishing once again that he could be a man worthy of her. “Thank you, mistress.”
Her shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath, and then she grabbed his wrists and tugged his hands away from her. When she stepped back, the cool mistress expression was back in place. “Clasp your hands behind your neck and keep them there.”
He did as he was told. His arousal had flagged when she’d touched his scar, but now the way she was looking at him was stirring interest anew.
“Three years is definitely too long. If I let you in my bed tonight, I want you to last.”
He smirked. “I assure you my control is just fine, mistress.”
