Page 15 of Tell Me Something True

Her throat tickled with nerves. Reaching behind her head, she unwound the hairband, dropped it into his palm, then ran her fingers through her hair several times, fluffing it out before it settled around her shoulders.

And what was his royal highness’s response?

He gave a kingly nod, pleased by her actions and her obedience.

“Take off your belt,” he said, not even looking at her as he set her hair items on the table next to the lamp.

“When most people want something, they say please.”

“I won’t be saying please. And I won’t beg.”

“I don’t want you to beg.”

But like most things in her life, that too, felt like a lie.

“What do you want?”

“I want…” She trailed off. Shook her head.

“The truth, Tabitha.”

“I want the man I knew.”

The man she’d come there for.

She wanted the Miles who asked, not demanded. Who seduced with soft touches and flowery words. That Miles was sweet. Kind. Familiar.

She didn’t know him now. No matter how hard she tried to convince herself she did.

He slid his other arm off the back of the couch. Shifted forward until he sat on the edge, linking his hands loosely between his knees. “I’m not that boy anymore. I won’t say please,” he repeated. “I won’t ask you for permission. But I will promise you that I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do.” His gaze stayed on hers. Steady. Honest. “I promise I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. I promise that if, at any time, you want to stop, we’ll stop. And if at any time you want to leave, you can leave.”

She rubbed her fingertip across the scar on her chin. Once. Twice. Three times. He remained silent and still, but in that silence she heard his words.

I promise.

In his stillness she saw what she needed to see.

Lowering her arms, she unhooked her belt and slid it from around her waist.

He held out his hand. “Give it to me.”

She hesitated, winding the faux leather around her fists. Her breathing quickened as the first niggling of panic rooted in her stomach.

You tell me the truth about what you want. About what you like. About what you don’t like.

That was all Miles had ever wanted from her. The real her. He’d been the first man who hadn’t been satisfied with her carefully curated smiles and eagerness to please.

The only man.

But tonight, he didn’t just want her to give him her truth.

He wanted to take her control.

More than that, he wanted her to give it to him.

To trust him with it.

This test was getting harder and harder.

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