Page 100 of Heart of Stone

“Remember lesson number one? Unconditional obedience. You want to learn, don’t you?” he asked, but it wasn’t really a question. It was more like a challenge.

I could feel the heat coming off of him, his body so close to mine, yet not quite touching. His eyes burned into me, blazing with desire. I slowly let out the air in my lungs that I hadn’t realized I had been holding.

“Yes,” I finally answered hesitantly.

“Good. Then here’s another lesson for you. When you are in my home, you will be naked. Always. Unless I command you otherwise. Since you’re so focused on my list, you’ll remember that nudity was written on there. I want you easily accessible to me at all times.”

My eyes widened and I couldn’t respond to him if I tried. All words had escaped me. I wanted to argue that I couldn’talwaysbe naked, yet a part of me relished the idea. It was so easy to get wrapped up in his words. His fantasies. It was so simple to get lost in the haze, my thoughts constantly muddled in the depths of those sapphire eyes.

I shook my head to clear the fog, the practical side of me winning out yet again.

“Look, I know you said to forget it, but we really need to discuss that list. Last night was beyond amazing, but I know that you went gentle on me. I’m afraid of what’s coming next. If I’m going to do this, it’s important that we talk about it.”

“I knew that’s how you would feel,” he said, shaking his head in resignation. He stepped away from me, leaving a cold and vacant space that was once fiery hot just seconds before. He leaned over his desk and plucked out a sheet of paper that was buried under a pile of folders. “That’s why I brought the damn thing with me today. I figured that I wouldn’t be able to convince you to drop it.”

“You brought the listhere?”

“Are you surprised?”

“Well…yes. I mean, what if someone saw it!” I exclaimed, mortified at the thought of Laura stumbling across a list of taboo sexcapades.

“Don’t worry, Krystina. Nobody enters this office without my knowledge,” he said, laughing at my outward shock.

“I just assumed, considering your concerns over privacy, that we would keep our personal stuff a little more discrete.”

“And we will, for the most part. Come on. Let’s sit down and get this over with.” He motioned me to follow him to cushy leather loveseat at the far end of the room. Once we were comfortably seated, he spread the list out on the low glass table that was in front of us. “We’ll go through this together, one thing at a time. You can cross off anything that is off limits and then we can discuss anything that you would consider.”

“You want to go through this here? Right now?”

“I do. And when we are finished, we put this away for good and you’re all mine. Deal?”

“Why are you doing this? You clearly have certain expectations. Why would you consider altering them for me? What if I say that I can’t doanyof these things?”

He looked up sharply, tearing his eyes from the paper and fixing me with his steely gaze. For a moment I could see right through him, all of his turmoil and indecision transparent. He wasn’t used to changing his ways. Yet, there was certain amount of savagery in his expression as well, and I believed it to be the driving force behind sorting out his uncertainties.

“There’s something about you, Krystina. I don’t really know what it is – I only know that from the first moment I saw you, all I’ve thought about is burying my cock inside you. If I have to make a few adjustments, trust me when I say that I’m willing to do so. However, you get today only. After we go through this, I won’t coddle you any more.”

His tenacity was inspiring, and I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of determination. I had to do this. I didn’t want to be a scared timid girl, afraid of the shadows that lurked in the night. I wanted to explore the dark edges of desire. With him. And I wanted to please him.

“Do you have any highlighters around here?” I asked.

“Ah, I might?”

The perplexed expression on his face was almost comical, forcing me to clarify my obsessive need for organization.

“My OCD is kicking in. I mean, I’m notreallyOCD. I just need to color code this stuff, okay?”

His confusion was slowly replaced by amusement, making me fully aware of how silly this all was, despite my crazy need to have some sort of framework outlined for this relationship.

“Let me see what I can find,” he obliged with a slight chuckle.

Alexander went back over to his desk and began rifling through a drawer. I took a minute to scan the list again. I thought about the night before and the way he had worked magic on my body. I certainly enjoyed last night, ropes and all. I was sure that was only a sampling of what he could make me feel.

I need to keep an open mind.

With both pain and pleasure.

CHAPTER 28

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