Page 10 of Surrender to Me

I smirked, wanting to know exactly what Owen thought would be the perfect inspiration. This ought to be good, I thought to myself. “What do you have in mind?”

“Be mine,” he said.

I laughed. That was a good joke. But the serious look that stayed on his face, even at the sound of my laughter, told me he wasn’t messing around, nor was he amused at my assumption. “Wait. You’re serious?”

“Only when we’re in Surrender.”

“So I’d be your submissive?”

“Yes.”

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. I definitely wasn’t going to risk my spot in the program to be his booty call, which was what it sounded like. Not his girlfriend. Not his partner. His submissive. I didn’t want to be anyone’s sex slave, not even Owen Lowell’s. I had my own will, my own drive, and I knew what I wanted. It was my choice to do these things. I couldn’t give it up for a dumb title, and definitely not at the risk of being found out.

“Would the members—”

“No one would speak a word of it,” he said, reading my mind. “They know me.”

Those last three words came off as a warning to his members, a harsh reprimand should they threaten his or my private life. Against my own logic, I believed him. I knew in my heart that he wouldn’t put me in harm’s way when it came to my dreams, or anything, for that matter. And I knew that if the members agreed to put their secret lives on film, they would hold my life secret as well.

“I’m not sure how I feel about being a submissive,” I said.

“Not any submissive,” he said. “My submissive. It would be pure power dynamics. No sexual aspect. No kissing, no licking, no penetration,” he said. He was baring his teeth as he said this, almost like it pained him to take those things off of the table. Those acts were relief from the intensity of sadomasochism to me, and I didn’t know if I wanted to give them up. We had agreed to no sex or kissing before, and it hadn’t gotten us anywhere.

“No biting?” I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.

“Do you want biting off of the table?”

“No,” I flushed. “I need more than that.”

“I know what you need,” he said. My heart surged. “And I know what you have on the line.” He stood up. “This is a compromise.” A compromise between who? I thought. “Consider the offer and let me know your answer at the party this Friday.”

“That’s only two days away,” I said.

“You have a deadline. I’m respecting that.”

I shrugged. It was strange that he was willing to host that kind of party for me now, when a few months ago, he had to ask individual people if they were willing to reveal themselves to me. Maybe he trusted me more now. Either way, it was kind of him to host the party for me and to do it quickly.

“So outside of Surrender, I would be—”

“Riley Glass.”

“And inside of Surrender?”

“Mine.” The word clutched at my stomach, spreading a soft and tense heat in my core. “Friday, then?”

“Friday,” I said.

The party was two days away and I knew the days in between would be agonizingly long and dangerously short. A long time to wait to start my project, and too short of a time to decide on Owen’s proposition.

The phone rang three times before my mother picked up. That was unlike her.

“What’s the hold-up?” I asked.

“I do have a life here, you know,” Regina said. “Now, now, you’re calling me? What’s going on, sweetness? I usually have to beg you to call me.”

I sighed and told her about the results of the review, even if that wasn’t why I had called. The glass project would be shocking and beautiful, and would impress the admissions committee. As long as Wile Stevens was fair in his judgment, I would get my scholarship back.

“You’ll be fine, Riles. You’ve got Glass blood in you; you’re a fighter,” she said. I smiled sadly to myself. I was glad she had given me her own last name, even after desperately wanting to marry Grayson. I had never thought of my mother as a fighter, but she had never given up on me, nor Grayson, not even after all of the times he had let her down. That was love, I guess, even if it was painful.

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