Page 56 of Dmitri

Instead, she challenged me to chase her. Riled me up and set me loose.

I saw the way her eyes lit up when I admitted I would tear the world apart to get inside her. What she fails to realize is that I wasn’t talking about her pussy.

This woman is playing a cat-and-mouse game I don’t entirely understand.

Standing at the foot of the bed, I stare at her, taking in all the tiny clues her body’s giving me. “How do you feel right now, Daelyn?”

She swallows hard and glowers at me. “Like an idiot.”

“Why?”

“Because…” She looks away and I snap my fingers, which makes her eyes lock on mine again. Daelyn bristles, her grip tightening on the straps. “I feel too confused.”

Now we’re getting somewhere. “May I sit on the corner of the bed?”

She nods, looking surprised I’d ask permission.

The mattress dips from my weight. “What are you confused about?”

She takes several heartbeats to answer. “I don’t know why I slapped you. I don’t understand how I… what I’m…” She cursesunder her breath and lets go of the straps. “I’m a bad person.”

Agree to disagree. “Nothing you did here with me makes you a bad person, Daelyn. If someone’s ever made you feel shameful about what you like, that’s a conversation we’re going to have too. No one has the right to make you feel—”

“No, I mean I’m abadperson, Dmitri.” She tucks her legs under her butt and sits up. I can’t tell if she’s positioning herself to bolt again or curl up and hold herself.

Or pounce on me.

“Tell me how you’re bad.” If I know her thought process, then maybe I can help her work through it.

“I’m not telling you anything. I’ve already said too much, and it’s got me all messed up.” She scrubs her face and sighs. “I need to leave.”

I don’t want her walking out of here with how things stand between us. “Stay the night with me here in the club.”

“I think it’s better if I go.”

“Why?”

“Jesus, can’t you just drop it! I’m a bad person who does bad things and being here… with you… it’s only because I—” She sucks back the rest of the sentence. I notice her hands are shaking. “I should check in with someone. Where’s my phone?”

“It’s safely locked away downstairs. We don’t allow cells or cameras of any kind in the club for several reasons. I can’t allow you to have it, Daelyn. It’s protocol.”

She climbs off the bed in a huff. “Then I definitely have to leave.”

“Who do you need to check in with?”

“That’s none of your fucking business.”

“It is when you’re under my care.”

Her expression softens for a fraction of a second. It happens so fast I almost miss it. But she likes the idea of being under my care and the way she pushed, obeyed, and is currentlyacting out, has me scratching my original plan and forming a new one.

“As your Dom, in or out of the club, I’ll protect you and take care of you, Daelyn.”

Her breathing picks up, and I think she’s about to cry.

“You hitting me earlier wasn’t to spike my lust. Hurt people, hurt people. Is that why you think you’re a bad person, Daelyn?”

She stares at me like she loathes me. For someone who wears some kind of mask to hide her emotions, they always end up leaking out of her eyes, anyway. I don’t like it when she cries. But sometimes we have to let our emotions out, so they don’t eat us alive. I have fighting as my outlet. What does Daelyn have?

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