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“W-what does that mean?” Her voice was little more than a whisper now, but he could tell she was deeply aroused. Part of him thrilled at that, even as another part of him still doubted she was thinking clearly on the matter. Lust could cloud a woman’s mind every bit as comprehensively as it could a man’s. He had to make sure she was thinking with her head, and not with her clit.
“That means that essentially you’d be subject to all males in the community.”
She made a tiny sound at that, but didn’t protest.
“Traditionally, out here females have to obey any male who commands them. It’s just how it is. And it’s for their own good.”
Her slender throat worked for a moment. “That sounds like a… patriarchy. A… p-patriarchal society.”
He inclined his head, giving her a little smile of reassurance. “And that sounds like a protest to me. Is that what you’re saying? Are you saying you’d never live under such a thing?”
Her mouth opened, then shut again, her fingers twisting together upon her lap. “No… I’m not saying I wouldn’t. I’m just saying it’s a lot to take in… and part of it frightens me.”
“And the other part?” He watched her very closely, trying to discern if she was telling him what he wanted to hear, or if it was truly something that intrigued her.
“Part of me… thinks it sounds like a wet dream come true.” Her head drooped, her hair hanging in her face, her cheeks crimson. “God, I sound like such a fucking slut. Stupid horny girl is horny.”
Max laughed out loud at that, and somehow her little quip lowered the tension just the slightest bit. “Horny you may be. But stupid? You couldn’t be if you tried.”
Despite the fierceness of her blush, she glanced up at him, giving him a bashful smile. “Thank you, sir.” She took a deep breath, then raised her gaze to his once more. “Can I… can I ask you something? It’s been… I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
“Of course.” He caressed the top of her head, a gesture of both tenderness and diminution, and somehow just doing that turned him on, his cock beginning to harden at how it signified his growing sense of ownership of this gorgeous young woman.
“I… I don’t like not telling Dad about this. About us.”
“Understandable,” he said, giving her a little shrug. “But for now, it’s something we don’t really have a choice about, do we?”
“Are you sure?” Her perfect white teeth worried the corner of her mouth. “Because I’d feel much better just being straight with him. Getting it out in the open. And whatever fallout comes of it, I can deal with it. He’s a reasonable man, and he thinks… he thinks the world of you, if I’m being honest.”
“And I him,” he said, meaning every word. He’d shared a lot with Mitchell over the years, and he’d shared a lot with Kelsey, too. They’d been close for a while now. But this was different. “Still, it’s not a good idea. For now. Disclosing this to him now… it would be misguided, at best. Destructive, at worst. There will be a better time. I just don’t think this is it.”
“You really think that?” Her breasts rose and fell as she breathed, and he wanted to pull on those clamps, to hear her high-pitched cries as he pulled them each off the hard way. “Because I think it’s better to rip that Band-Aid off early. Get it over with.”
Sipping his coffee again, he lifted one shoulder. “I could be wrong. He’s your dad after all. But if I know Mitchell the way I think I do… he’d flip a fucking lid.”
He didn’t say anything for a while then, letting her stew in it, knowing her mind would be playing at all the possibilities, and everything that might happen if indeed they actually tried to make a go of this. But the more he thought of it the more he realized something, and the truth of it was both unsettling and exhilarating.
He was falling for her. Hard.
And while he still was concerned about her conception of what a relationship with him would actually look like, that she was totally unrealistic about it, it still didn’t change the fact that he wanted her, too. He wanted her very, very much indeed.
Which made the situation more difficult, more fraught. He knew he should let her go. But he was just as certain that he wouldn’t.
That he’d be willing to sacrifice almost anything. Even—if it came to that—his friendship with Mitchell.
Anything to keep Kelsey.
Chapter 22
She’d waited to send it until Max had left in the Gator to go talk to George. He’d been muttering something about a financial plan, or portfolio or something, but she’d long ago given up trying to decipher what it was Max actually did. It was related to finances, and it was complex as fuck, was how she usually thought of it. That was good enough for her.
She was washing the potatoes when she decided to just do it this way. It would be easier. Well, a little easier.
Following their tête-à-tête Max had decided that keeping her nude in the house was going to be pretty much the norm, moving forward. She’d almost gotten used to it.
Before he’d left to go see George, he’d locked her wrist cuffs together, then added a hobble chain linking new cuffs around her ankles, too. The chain was just long enough to be able to shuffle about, but not quickly, and not at all with ease—or dignity.
Max had watched her several times that day as she’d gone about the chores on her list of the day, remarking more than once about how much “I love the way your ass bounces and jiggles in your cute little hobble chain.”
