Page 83 of Dark Bonds

“I know they did, Chase. I know you two are right. My head is so fucked over all of this.”

“Yeah, falling in love for the first time will do that.”

“It didn’t happen to you guys.”

“Chase and I were looking for a long-term, monogamous relationship, not simply a Dom/sub one. We made that clear from the very beginning.”

“Leah and I made it clear from the beginning that we only wanted that. She’s the one that changed the rules.”

“No, you did that.”

“How the fuck do you figure that, Seb?”

“She had never been in one before, so she didn’t have a wholly realistic view of what one looked like. You did! Name one sub you ever took shopping.”

“I…”

“Exactly. Name one sub you ever bought a shitload of stuff for.”

“Well, I…”

“Name one sub that has ever slept in your bedroom,” Chase added.

“Fuck. I did change the rules and she never had any idea. Damn it all anyway.”

Chase got up to grab the food from the kitchen and a few bottles of water.

Probably not a bad idea.

“Why are there four bottles of water?”

“Because you’re going to chug one of them now. With any luck, you won’t be hungover too bad when you get to talk with her. Now, we need to watch shit blow up or something. Throw Netflix on.”

“Maybe I should call Sasha. They’ve been gone a while.”

“Jason.” Seb warned, “Leave them be. Let the girls work their magic.”

I agreed and turned on the TV. I threw on Angel Has Fallen and I was glad for the distraction. Once it was done, I headed to bed for the night and the guys took my guest room. They shared a bed with Raven every night, so it was hardly out of the ordinary. I prayed the next day would go well. I hoped she would at least agree to see me.

* * *

Sasha and Raven actually convinced Leah to come to my place and listen to my side of things. Frankly, I was surprised. I hadn’t expected them to be successful. I doubted it would be easy making things right with her. For whatever reason, she struggled with trust and I had broken hers. I needed her in my life and I would do anything to make it happen.

There was a knock on my door and I rushed to open it. Leah looked like shit. Though she was beautiful as ever, it was obvious she’d had a couple of very long days. It killed me not to hug her, but I knew it wouldn’t be welcomed at this point. Standing to the side to let her in, I couldn’t help but breathe deeply as she slid past me.

“Thank you for coming, Leah.”

“Honestly? If Raven and Sasha hadn’t insisted I give you a chance, I wouldn’t have.”

“I understand that. I acted like a complete asshole when we went for dinner. You shared your very legitimate feelings with me and I basically stomped all over them. I also lied. Leah, I don’t think you’ve been just my sub since day one. You made me question every single decision I’ve ever made where women were concerned. We said the words at the beginning… that we didn’t want hearts and flowers… but, Leah, I think we were both fooling ourselves.

“I know that I might have ruined everything the other night. God only knows, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive myself for hurting you that way. Right now, though, all I want to do is take you in my arms and never let you go. I’ve fallen in love with you, baby girl. I don’t know if it happened at the beginning or along the way, but it’s the truth.

“I want you to be my sub, but only in the club or dungeon. Only where we choose to have it like that. Everywhere else, though, I want you to be my girlfriend. I want to fall asleep with you in my arms every night and wake up every morning to your beautiful face. You are an amazing human being and I’m lucky to even know you. To be able to love you? That’s the greatest honor I could even imagine.”

“And Cindi? However will you find time for her while you’re so busy loving me?” she sneered.

“Cindi? Cindi doesn’t fit into this anywhere. She was gone, even before I met you.”

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