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All the better to eat you with.

She put her hands in her lap, twisting her napkin between her fingers. “It’s good to meet you, too.”

“Am I the first Dominant you’ve met with?” he asked.

“I… didn’t expect that we’d get right into this conversation so quickly.”

“That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I guess we are. It’s just that it’s…” She paused, shrugged.

He arched a dark brow. “So public? But no one can really hear us. No one is listening. And if they are, then they deserve whatever earful they get, don’t you think?”

There was a wicked glint in his dark blue eyes.

Lust.

It was a sharp pang in the center of her body—sharp and hot. She hadn’t expected to feel this, hadn’t thought it would be necessary. She understood now that it would have to be part of the equation. How could she have imagined doing this otherwise?

She smiled, relaxing a bit, accepting that this element of the dynamic would exist between them. That already did. “Yes, I suppose so.”

The waitress brought his espresso and set it before him, and Skye swore the woman actually made a small bow as she backed away.

He lifted the cup and sipped, seemed satisfied. “So? Am I the first?”

“There have been several others but they… I don’t know. I just wasn’t comfortable with any of them.”

“Are you comfortable with me?”

It felt like a trick question. Her pulse was racing a thousand miles an hour.

“I don’t think I can answer that yet.”

He took another sip from the small white cup. “I’m glad to see you’re being honest with me. That’s important. We’re here to get to know each other, to see if we’ll work well together.” He set the cup down in its saucer and leaned forward, folding his hands on the table. “You’ve said in your e-mails that you’re interested in exploring what it’s like to be a submissive. Interesting to me, the way you phrased it. It seemed… detached. As though this interest is something outside of yourself. As though you don’t think of yourself as a submissive.”

“I don’t. I believe this is simply one small corner of myself, that this one experience will purge this… yearning from my system.”

“I’m not sure that’s actually a healthy attitude to have going in, Skye.”

“You don’t think my attitude is healthy?”

He nodded; his expression thoughtful. Enigmatic. “You seem open to the idea of exploring kink, but I have to wonder about your motivation given that you’ve put this kind of limit on something you haven’t even tried yet.”

“I think exploring even our darkest sides can be a healthy way to express repressed desires and needs,” she argued. “Once expressed, the need often disappears. It’s the symbols that count, what these things represent to people. What it represents to me.”

He sat back in his chair and sipped his coffee as he studied her. “You truly believe that?”

Skye shrugged. “I’m an artist. I believe very strongly in symbols.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He grinned a little crookedly, making her heart race. “But you know that. Are you at all willing to have your mind changed?”

Why the sudden flutter in her stomach? She picked up the cup of Darjeeling tea she’d ordered before he’d arrived, sipped and found it cold. She set the cup down again.

He leaned closer, until he was only inches from her. His big, warm hand slid over hers. He said quietly, “I think I can challenge your theory. But that’s not why I want to do this with you. You intrigue me, Skye. I’ve worked as a trainer for ten years. I’ve learned to read people. I can read you. So strong on the outside, so controlled. But you need to break that control, to let it go. That’s why you’re really here, isn’t it? You recognize that need, symbols aside. And I can absolutely do this for you. But only on my terms.” He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, and a startling heat seeped into her skin. “You are, of course, free to accept or not.”

She swallowed hard. Her whole body surged with need for his touch. She shook her head to clear it. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“That you give yourself over to me.”

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