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“A few, but so few that I can remember the names and circumstances of each of them,” I reply proudly. “I can tell you every single one of them received the outcome they deserved.”
Gabriel smirks. “So I’ve heard.”
I smirk back at him, leading the way back to my office. “Joshua?” I guess, glancing over my shoulder, and he nods.
“I know that sometimes I might be too cautious, and Joshua’s jokingly said that I mother hen the new submissives, especially those who go up for auction. But if I am, I’m proud of the fact that my wins far outnumber my losses. And the Club’s doing well, financially.”
“I’m glad.”
“There’s one more space I want you to see...”
He lets out a hum of contentment, a masculine sound that brings back so many memories. Every nerve ending in my body lights aflame at the sound.
“This way... Sir,” I tell him, the word slipping out like a lover’s caress. Gabriel’s eyes glow at the term of respect, and as I take him up the stairs, I feel like I’m showing him the true me. Not my apartment, which he’s seen. Not my car. It’s just a vehicle.
But as I open the door to my office, I know that my heart’s here. This is where Kiersten and Madam Lynn reside together. “This is my office.”
As he looks around, my heart hammers in my chest.
This room is where I’ve spent hours and hours waiting for him to come back for me.
It’s in the subtle details, though, that I’ve poured myself, and as Gabriel’s eyes rest on the picture, his lips lift at the corners. “Your collar.”
“That’s one of them,” I point out, going over to my desk drawer and removing the collar with its diamond. “This is the one Joshua said you got for me before you left.”
Gabriel’s breath catches, and he traces the diamond with a finger. “You did receive it.”
“I did.”
“Did you ever wear it?” he asks, and there’s a vulnerability in the question I haven’t seen from him.
“I waited for you to come back... to put it on me.”
Gabriel clears his throat and steps back, his eyes tightening, and I set the collar back down in the drawer. It’s quiet a long moment, and I wonder if he’ll allow the conversation to continue from earlier.
“When I learned what you’d done with the money I left you, I have to say I was shocked.”
“It’s what I know,” I explain, and Gabriel nods in understanding. “I wasn’t sure I could do anything else at that point...” I start but then stop myself.
Gabriel’s eyes narrow in curiosity.
“Continue. Explain for me in your words, my love,” he says, and in that final word, I feel the knot in my chest loosen. He does still love me.
It takes me a moment to realize he asked me to explain it to him. I’m too caught up on the fact that he called me ‘my love’.
Slowly walking to the other side of my desk, I try to bring myself back to that moment... but at a safe enough distance. “After you left, I was shattered.”
I can’t look up at him as I take my own seat. I can hear him take the seat across from me, though. “I cried my eyes out for a day or two, maybe a few weeks, thinking that there was nothing really left for me. But then a thought came to me. When you did come back, because I had convinced myself you would, how would you like me to be? What would you expect of me?”
“You thought I would come back?”
“I knew you would. For years, I waited every day thinking you would simply open that door and tell me how good I’d been for you while you were away.”
Saying it out loud makes me feel nearly pathetic. I wouldn’t dare lie to him, though. I glance up, brushing under my eyes to keep myself from crying, and catch his gaze.
“At some point, though?” he guesses but doesn’t finish the question. He doesn’t have to.
“At some point, I did stop waiting, but I still hoped you’d come back.”
