Page 9 of Dominate Me

She shook her head and as we came to a stop at the top of the stairs, she worried her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Why not?”

Her lip popped from her teeth and she kept her eyes down.

When we got to know each other, I would insist she didn’t look at me unless I asked, but now it was different.

I stepped to the side of the stairs so as not to be in anyone’s way and when she followed me, I touched my thumb to her chin and brought her face up.

“Any sub of mine will not look me in the eye unless I ask, but that’s only during play. When we’re discussing, while we’re learning about each other, I need to read your nonverbal cues as you need to learn mine. Understand?”

“Yes.”

I arched a brow, warning her, and she immediately corrected herself. “Yes, sir. I understand.”

“Good girl,” I whispered. “Now, why have you not had a Dom before now? Why are you just looking into this?”

Her chest heaved and that lip slid back between her teeth. Barely moving my thumb at her chin, I plucked it out and scowled. “There will never be a reason to be afraid of me, or of this. But if you choose to be trained, we will need to communicate, and we’ll discuss things that you never thought you’d have to talk about. So, I’m not going to ask again. If you can’t trust me with this question, the most basic question of all, there is no reason to continue.”

“Yes, sir. It’s personal, but I’m recently divorced. I’ve always been interested, but he, my ex, wasn’t.” She glanced to the side and wrinkled her nose before dragging her gaze back to mine.

“Was he abusive?” I hated to ask, but whether she knew it or not, these types of questions, knowing a sub’s background, were essential to training. The last thing a Dom wanted was to restrain someone in a way that caused flashbacks of horrific memories.

A small, gentle laugh bubbled from her. Holy fuck, smiling and laughing she was so beautiful she almost knocked me back onto my heels. That little gesture hit me straight in the chest. “No, sir,” she said, her eyes still dancing with humor. “That would have involved effort. My ex-husband worked very hard at expending as little energy as possible into anything.”

I would have figured a man who lost someone as beautiful as her was an asshole who didn’t treat her right. Being lazy was probably just as bad. My chest continued to tighten at the thought that she’d been married, though. And had been for a long time. Someone had already claimed her as his, even if he threw her away with disregard.

A low growl bubbled in my throat but I forced it down.

There was no point in becoming territorial over Haley. Train her, teach her, let her go. That was the plan.

I sighed. “Okay. So, there are three rooms we’re about to enter. We’ll go watch, spending only a few minutes in each room. Then, we’ll go to a private room and discuss what you saw. If you decide to pursue training with me, we’ll discuss limits at our next meeting.”

Her eyes widened, the pupils of her eyes expanding until the green was almost invisible. Shit, even discussing this was turning her on.

I had a feeling if I told her to lift the bottom of her dress and allow me to slide a finger against her sex, she’d be dripping. The scent of arousal drifted into the small corner of the hallway we occupied. It was delicious. More tempting than her body.

Without warning, I grabbed her hand and tugged her down the hall into the first room.

It was time she learned the reality of what she was getting herself into, and based on her response, that would be the only way I’d know if she could handle me.

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