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ChapterEight
Roman
It’s been almost twenty-four hours since the group event, and Ava’s still refusing to talk to me.She’s spent the entire day huddled in a chair in the corner of the bedroom staring out the window.I have no idea what happened last night that made my little spitfire more furious than I’ve ever seen her and then, seconds later, more distant and unreachable.She’d been anxious, for sure, during the mechanical-bull and calf-roping scenes, but she’d also been having fun.I could see it on her face and in the way her eyes had darkened when I’d pinned her during the calf roping, and afterward when I’d laid her across the barrel and devoured her sweetness.But something had happened during the riding scene, something more than just losing to Rebecca, although I’ve noticed there’s no love lost between those two.However, I don’t know what it is, and it’s driving me fucking crazy.
As her Dom, it bothers me to see her hurting, but it’s ten times worse knowing she thinks I’m somehow responsible for it, although I sure as hell can’t figure out how.And she certainly isn’t telling me.I’ve tried giving her some space to get over it, but after twenty-four hours, I’ve had enough.
“Ava, we have to talk,” I say, sitting down on the bed so I’m facing her.
She doesn’t turn to look at me.“There’s nothing to say,” she says mechanically.
“There’s apparently a lot to say.You’re just not saying it.Tell me what happened last night,” I say a little more firmly.
She levels those enormous green eyes at me, and the bleakness in them crushes me.“Or what?You’ll punish me?Spank me?”
“Don’t tempt me,” I say starkly.“The next couples to be voted off will be announced in half an hour, and we have our next group event tomorrow.We don’t have the luxury of time.We need to work this out so we can move forward.”
She looks away.“What if I don’t want to move forward?”
My heart squeezes.“What do you mean?Do you want to quit?”
“Maybe,” she says indifferently.“I haven’t decided yet.”
I take a deep breath.I don’t know what’s put that look in her eyes, but I can’t stand seeing her defeated.She’s a fighter, whether she knows it or not, and I’m not going to let her wallow in whatever has its hold on her.And the only way I know to pull her out of it is to push her until that spark that’s pure Ava catches fire.
“Well, you let me know when you decide.But until then, I’m still your Dom.Although I can’t make you talk to me, you do have to obey me.”I invade her space, grasping her chin and forcing her to look at me.“Am I clear?”
“Crystal,” she says quietly, and somehow I feel like I just lost.
However, she does accompany me to dinner and to the rooftop bar where it’s announced that John and Sophie and Marcus and Lindsey have been voted off.Her friends come over, laughingly begging us to come join them and their Doms for a game of darts, but she pleads a headache, and we’re back in our suite by ten thirty.She’s barely said two words to me.
The more determined she is to shut me out, the more determined I am to try to penetrate that armor of hers and get through to her.Although she seems intent on disappearing behind that mask of feigned composure she puts on to hide her true feelings, I’m not about to let her go without a fight.It’s not healthy for anyone to suppress what they’re feeling the way my little submissive does, and she has it down to an art.
I drag her against me as I climb into bed next to her, and although she doesn’t fight me, she doesn’t melt into me the way she has the past few nights either.I lie awake next to her until her breathing becomes deep and even and her body finally relaxes.Then I quietly slip out of bed and go to find the one person who can help me.
I find Emmett at the bar alone, nursing a glass of whiskey.He eyes me warily as I take a seat next to him.
“Where’s Rebecca?”I ask as the bartender sets a glass of whiskey in front of me.
“Sleeping,” he says tersely.“Where’s Ava?”
“Same.I need your help.”
He looks at me cynically.“You need my help?Well, isn’t that rich.”He takes a gulp of whiskey.
“It’s Ava.Something happened last night during the last event.I don’t know what, but she was different afterward.She was pissed at me and insinuated I had betrayed her somehow, and now she won’t talk to me at all.She won’t tell me what’s wrong, and she’s completely closed herself off.”I rub my neck in frustration.“She’s thinking about quitting.”
That gets his attention.“She said that?What did you say?”
“That it was up to her, but until she did, I was still her Dom and she still had to follow my protocol.”
“You’re an asshole,” he says, shaking his head as he takes another drink.
“Look, I know your MO with Ava is to treat her with kid gloves, but that’s not what she needs.Somewhere along the line she’s gotten the idea that she’s fragile and weak.You can see it in the vulnerability she carries around with her like a shield and the way she holds everything in.She needs someone to push her boundaries a little and let her prove to herself that she’s strong.”
“And you know all of this after a week and a half with her?”he scoffs.“What makes you so sure that’s what she needs or even wants, for that matter?”
“Because I’ve never seen a woman as wet as Ava on the receiving end of a punishment,” I say quietly.
