Page 58 of Take Her

My mouth went dry at the thought. “What does that entail?” I managed to ask, without a quaver in my voice.

“It means I become your sun and your goddamned moon.” My heartbeat took up all the space inside my body, turning all of me into a drum—and there was no longer anyone left in the restaurant—in fact, we were the only ones left on the planet. “And no brat shit—because from here on out, you and I are on the same team. I don’t want to worry about your loyalties or intentions—nor should you worry about mine. Your only job is making me happy, and I will give you very clear rules and instructions toward that end.”

All of my blood sank. Not into my feet, to escape, like a normal girl’s would have, I thought, but instead to the parts of me that had wanted this for almost my whole life. I felt heavy with need for him. My breasts ached, my core melted, and my jaw fell slightly open as my breathing shifted into far more shallow panting.

“And if I don’t?” I asked so quietly he must’ve read my lips.

“Accidentally? Redirection. On purpose?” he said, and then paused. “Punishment. And my punishments are actual punishments, Lia. When they happen—if they happen—you will regret having crossed me. Do you understand?” he asked. I nodded so quickly he went on. “And you still want to do this with me?”

I hesitated, but in the end, I had nothing to go on but his word. We were either starting this, or we weren’t, and it was very much literally his way or no way at all.

Not that I thought I would mind his methodology.

“Yes,” I said, with an intensity that frightened me, and that he noted. “If you give me Corvo,” I added quickly, for cover.

He laughed darkly. “Yeah. I will.”

“How?” I asked, then realized he might construe my astonishment as rude.

But instead of becoming angry at my doubt, his expression softened ever so slightly around his eyes. “Because in Mrs. Armstrong’s office, you’ll be Business Lia. I’ll teach you everything you want to learn. Even the things I’m not supposed to—Sopranos shit,” he said, with a bemused snort.

And this was what I had spent ten years waiting for.

For someone to take me seriously again.

It was every bit as much a turn on as anything else we could possibly do.

“And in your office?” I pressed.

“You’ll be my little girl,” he said simply. “But don’t think we’re not going to investigate that further,” he went on as our lunches arrived.

He’d ordered himself a burger, which he tucked into without shame—and I had no idea how I was going to eat a salad in front of him, with the way my stomach was doing loop-de-loops.

He mistook my silence for concern.

“It’s not on you,” he said, after he’d taken three bites. “And lord knows I’m not judging you for the things that you need. It’s because I’ve never had a little girl before. I don’t want to fuck things up.”

“Oh,” I said softly. Of course he hadn’t. Because surely his beautiful dead wife, who was a highly valued member of the community, had been respectable.

“Don’t worry,” he said, and when I looked over there was a slight smirk on his lips. “I appreciate challenges. But you don’t get to call me Daddy for a while yet—that’s something you need to earn. You okay?”

It wasn’t till he asked me if I was that I realized I was not. Suddenly the rest of the noisy restaurant, which had seemed so far away, rushed in, all around me, all at once. I was dizzy and there wasn’t enough air—I threw my napkin on my salad and ran out of the place.

It took him a bit to follow me, but he was faster than I was, because he wasn’t running in heels. He didn’t lay a hand on me though, he just caught up and jogged alongside till I felt foolish and slowed.

“Lambo?” he asked, giving my safeword back to me—along with my abandoned purse.

I took it from him, so overwhelmed in the moment that I wanted to sob. “No,” I said, refuting him.

“Then what happened? And don’t you dare apologize—I don’t want I’m sorrys—I just want the truth.” He was standing in front of me now. He’d moved to block out the sun so I wouldn’t have to squint, possibly without noticing, but all I could think of now was how it gave him a halo.

It took me a moment to assign the appropriate feeling. “I got scared,” I said honestly, because he’d asked for it.

He didn’t seem angry at that—and I didn’t have words to express to him what his safety meant to me. “Of which part?” he asked.

I ran the back of my hand beneath my nose, hoping that I wouldn’t cry. “The good parts.” Because it sounded like I was getting everything I’d ever hoped for and it turned out, when you were wired like me, that that was frightening too.

Rhaim leaned forward then, casting the half of his face nearest me in shadow. “Mmm. They won’t all be good, Lia. In fact, sometimes your new Daddy can be very, very mean.”

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