Page 106 of Every Bit As Perfect
My chin snapped up.“Daire!What are you doing here?”
He offered me a small, tight smile.“Always the same question.What are you doing here?”
Everything I believed I left behind at the top of the trail came flooding back.
“Fuck, Harley,” he groaned in dismay, opening his arms.
I fell against his chest, pressing my face into his fleece.“What are you doing here?”
“I called to check on you.When you didn’t answer, I checked in at your work.Your mom told me you were sick.This is my fault.”
I shook my head against his chest.“How is this your fault?”
“Last night was intense.I shouldn’t have gone swimming this morning.I should have made sure you were still okay.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sub-drop.We need to have a conversation.And I need to pay more attention.Harley,” he tipped my chin up with his finger.He winced as he met my swollen eyes.“I’m so sorry, baby.”
Another tear fell.
He brushed it away with his thumb and pressed his lips to my forehead.
I leaned hard against his chest.
“I don’t think this has anything to do with you.I just woke up so sad.”
“Sometimes, when the release is intense like it was last night, there’s a bit of a boomerang effect.”He wrapped his arms around me.“We should have spoken about this being a possibility.I’m sorry.”
I didn’t buy into his explanation, but it seemed important to him, so I accepted his apology just the same.
Turning us around, he led me back down the trail to the beach.
I turned his words over in my head.“I don’t much like the idea of being submissive.”
He chuckled.“Only in the bedroom.Everywhere else, with everyone else, you’re a spitfire.But with me, you can let down your guard.Hand over control.Give yourself permission to feel instead of overthinking all the time.”
“I do tend to overthink,” I muttered, feeling infinitely better now that I had my hand nestled into his.
And I loved the world he’d opened up to me in our bed.
“It’s a privilege I don’t take lightly.It’s another way I can take care of you.And I think it’s something you need.”
“Don’t you have to get back to work?”
“Harley, it’s three-thirty.How long were you up there?”
“Not that long.I left the house at 11:00.”
“For fuck’s sake,” he grumbled shortly.
At the bottom of the trail, he tucked me into the front seat of his car, then headed back to my place.“Go on up.I’ll be there in a minute.”
Ten minutes later he came in bearing home-made hot cocoa from Mary-Lou’s and a box of chocolates.
Tucking the blankets around me on the couch, he climbed in beside me and passed me my drink.
It didn’t take long for the lethargy and sadness to lift.I began to feel all kinds of foolish for being so affected.“Stop looking at me,” I groused.
