Page 67 of Take Me, Sir

“And you.” He put his hand on my knee. “Yes, I wanted them to find Anthony because I would have to be a monster to not have been thinking of him. But I wanted them to find you, too, because I knew you were in trouble.”

“What did it matter if they found me or not?” I slid away from his hand, unable to think when he was touching me. “Dalton and Juliette might've said that what happened to Anthony wasn't my fault, but me being at that game definitely was. Whatever could've happened would've been my own fault.”

After a moment of silence, Dean moved so that he was sitting right against me. His hand cupped my chin, holding my face in place as he spoke, “I want you to listen to me, so we have no misunderstanding. I will not accept harm coming to you. If it is in my power to protect you, I will, no matter the cost.”

My eyes burned with tears, guilt churning in my stomach. Not only for what I'd done, for what might have been, but for what I saw on Dean's face, what I heard in his voice.

“I looked for you all day,” he said. “I needed to apologize for the things I'd said, for the way I treated you.”

“You don't need to apologize.”

“Yes, I do, because that is what we do when we're wrong.” His thumb brushed the corner of my mouth. “And then we forgive, and we move on.”

“Of course I forgive you.”

He smiled, but it wasn't a full one. “Thank you, love, but I wasn't only speaking of forgiveness to each other, but for ourselves as well.”

I turned my head away. “I don't think I can.”

“Look at me, love.”

I closed my eyes, wishing I could leave, hide away from all of it.

“Kyndall. Look at me.”

I shivered at his tone. There was no denying the authority in his voice. I hadn't been with him long, but everything in me wanted to respond to his command.

“Kyndall.”

I looked at him, the heat in his eyes sending a wash of warmth over me. He studied me for a moment, then stood, holding out his hand.

“Come with me.” When I hesitated, he added, “now.”

He led me into my bedroom, his fingers clasped comfortably around mine. Once inside, he gave me another searching look.

“Do you trust me?”

The question held weight, I knew, and I took a moment to consider it. After what happened between us, did I still want him? Yes. And I loved him. But none of that would matter if I didn't trust him.

He told Dalton and Juliette about my gambling, but he'd done it to save Anthony's life. He'd known that I would've put Anthony above myself, that my nephew meant more to me than anything else.

“Yes.”

“Bend over and put your hands on the edge of the bed.”

I gave him a puzzled look but didn't argue. My hair fell around my face, shielding it. I stayed quiet as he unbuttoned my shorts, then pulled them down, taking my panties with them.

“You believe that you're guilty.”

It wasn't a question, but I nodded anyway.

“When a person does something wrong, they should be punished.”

Again, not a question.

“So here's what's going to happen.” A strange sound followed his words, something not like metal on metal, but some sort of cloth. “I'm going to punish you until the guilt is gone, and then I'm going to make you come.”

I had absolutely no response to any of that. Who would?

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