“I’m not going anywhere,” she told him, reading him clearly. “You said you wouldn’t ask me for any promises, but I’m going to give you one. I promise I won’t walk away again like I did before. I promise that if there’s ever a time I want to leave, I’ll tell you first. I’ll give you a chance to try and fix it.”
His chest swelled, filled with warmth and gratitude. “Thank you.”
Her promise meant more to him than her apology did. Because it was given freely. Because she’d never made him any promises before.
Because he trusted her to keep it.
Her nod was solemn, her smile serene. “Now, will you let me kiss you?”
His answering grin, on the other hand, was all smirk. He dragged his thumb up her throat, pressing it under her chin, forcing her head back. “Say please.”
She didn’t hesitate. “Please.”
His smirk grew right along with his cock. What could he say?
He fucking loved it when she was his good girl.
“Yes,” he told her, all benevolence and kindness. “You may kiss me.”
But instead of taking what she’d asked for, she pressed gently against his chest. “Lean back.” Still smirking, he did as she asked, but she wasn’t done. “Stretch your arms along the back.”
Eyebrows lifted, he raised his arms, settling them straight out along the back of the sofa. And realized this was the same way he’d sat that first night at his house. When he’d given her orders like a king on a throne.
When she’d obeyed him so prettily.
Wiggling to get more comfortable, smile widening, he opened his mouth, but his first command died in his throat when she placed her hands on his shoulders, sat up, then swung her left leg over his thighs, his shirt riding up to expose her bare hip before she straddled him.
His breath caught and he started to lower his arms, his fingers twitching with the need to slide under his shirt, to feel her skin, but she shook her head and clamped her fingers around his forearms, holding his arms still.
“I want to take care of you,” she told him, her voice husky, her expression almost painfully earnest. “Please let me. Let me make you feel good.”
Chapter 41
Miles’s heart fluttered. His dick surged, becoming so hard, he ached. This, too, was something new between them. Her asking for what she wanted.
He’d gladly hand over control to Tabitha. Would willingly give up his power so that she could embrace hers.
“Tell me what you need.”
That power flared in her eyes, making the blue of them glow. “I need you to keep your arms where they are. No touching me.”
Well, hell. If he’d known that was going to be one of her stipulations, he wouldn’t have given in quite so easily. But he had given in, so he nodded.
And, lifting his arms back where they’d been, curled his fingers around the back of the sofa. “What else?”
“No talking,” she blurted, slightly breathless, her peaked nipples visible against the soft cotton of his shirt, as if his easy compliance turned her on as much as her obedience to his demands turned him on. “You can only speak if I ask you a direct question or if you want me to stop. Or if you want to beg me to keep going.”
Everything inside of him went still. Alert.
Aroused as hell.
Her words—no, her command—was the same as the one he’d given her that first night.
She was reversing the roles they’d taken on that night, the ones they’d been playing ever since.
“Do you understand?” she asked.
While he normally hated showing even the slightest bit of weakness, and was scared shitless of what he couldn’t control, it was time for a change.