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It sometimes astonished Abby how much Mark knew about her, without her having to say anything at all. She couldn’t tell if it was because she was that easy to read or because Mark had super secret psychic abilities. She wouldn’t be surprised if it was the latter. She glanced at the menu and ordered the house salad. As they waited for their lunch, she announced, “Maybe after this we’ll head to the nail salon for a mani-pedi.”
Mark narrowed his own eyes and she smiled. But also true to his word, he didn’t object. It was pretty obvious to Abby at this point in their relationship that Mark was the most reliable man she’d ever met. If he said he was going to do something, he did it. If he said he wasn’t going to do something, then he didn’t. Abby’s other boyfriends had been ridiculously unreliable, making plans and breaking them at the last minute or making plans with other people and not bothering to tell her about it.
Mark kept things from her, that was true. But that was part of the Dom/sub dynamic, she’d discovered. It reinforced his control and kept her constantly guessing. And while she may not always be comfortable with that, she also understood the she wasn’t supposed to be. But in the other vanilla part of their relationship, Mark never did that. He always kept her in the loop about his plans. He was always honest, always reliable, and always showed up when he said he would. Mark was a man she could count on.
“On second thought,” she said, “I’m tired. I think we should just finish up lunch and call it a day.” She couldn’t be sure, but she swore he visibly relaxed at her words. She smiled to herself.
At his house, Mark took most of the bags from her and helped her carry them into his bedroom where he laid them on the bed.
“I have something for you,” he told her.
Abby’s heart fluttered. “A present?”
He shook his head. “No.”
She tried to reign herself in. Mark had just spent quite a bit of money on her this afternoon. Abby wasn’t greedy. She didn’t expect Mark to give her gifts every minute of every day. But it was hard to contain her excitement at the prospect. Because Mark’s gifts weren’t like other people’s gifts. Whereas her other boyfriends could barely be counted on to toss her a birthday card or maybe some tickets to a show she’d been dying to see, Mark’s gifts were truly amazing.
With Mark, it wasn’t the money. He was truly the embodiment of ‘It’s the Thought that Counts.’ Because Mark’s gifts were incredibly thoughtful. Shampoo in her favorite scent, shoes from a designer that she’d only mentioned in passing during a casual conversation. Mark’s gifts were the direct result of him being genuinely interested in everything about her. And that was a feeling that Abby had never had, from anyone.
He turned to the dresser and her heart skipped a beat. But instead of opening the top drawer, his hand passed over the second and down to the third. He gripped the handle and pulled. She held her breath. A whip? More chains? Some strange and terrifying thing she never knew existed? She resisted the urge to close her eyes as it slid open.
Except it was empty.
She blinked at it.
He turned to her and grinned. It took several long seconds before Abby actually understood. Her jaw dropped.
Ignoring her, he walked to the closet and opened the door as well. “There’s space here for you, too.”
Crossing the room back to her, he held up his hand. Abby tore her gaze away from the half empty closet to the small silver key glinting in Mark’s hand. She plucked it from his fingers and turned it over to examine it.
“Now you don’t have to borrow one from Slick when you to want to surprise me.”
He gave her a quick peck on the lips and left the room.
Abby stared at the dresser and the closet for a long time after Mark left the room. She looked down at the key in the palm of her hand. She suppressed the urge to squeal with delight. She stuck the key in her purse, pulled out some of the things she’d bought earlier, including the red corset, which was gorgeous. She added a pair of jeans she’d bought at the mall and a blouse to the pile and began putting them away.
Out of curiosity, she opened the top drawer again and fingered the toys there. A few of them looked scary, like gigantic plugs, and a few of them were scary and also odd looking. And even though she examined every inch of a six inch stainless steel tool that looked like a tiny pizza cutter except with spikes on it, she still couldn’t figure out what the hell that would be for, so she put it away. She wasn’t sure she wanted to ask Mark about that just yet. He might mistake her curiosity for interest, and she didn’t think she wanted her curiosity to kill her cat, especially not with a medieval torture device.
