Page 45 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

I decided we were just complete opposites who would never mesh. After our confrontation, I was on my best behavior for a little over a month. Even though at night when I crawled into bed, I thought about what he might do if I poked fun at him and shivered at the ideas that came into my head. Against my better judgement, my naughty fantasies were making the idea more and more appealing, and it was hard for me to remember why it was a bad idea to begin with.

The argument went like this.

But I don’t want a Dom.

But I wanthim.

But he isn’t the kind of Dom I want.

But he’s the kind Ineed.

No. I’m not doing this again. He’ll get tired of me in a few months, or I’ll say something rude or break a rule, and he’ll release me, and I just can’t go through that again.

No, I don’t think he’s the kind of person to do that. He might be exactly the right kind of Dom for me.

But he’s old school.

But he loves it when I brat him, even if he doesn’t realize it.

But I don’t want a Dom.

And so forth.

It all ended up being a moot point. The problem with being a brat is sometimes shit just comes out of my mouth. Coupled with the fact that I was so pent up after almost six weeks of being polite, and the fact that his beard and mustache had filled out and looked fine as hell, I just couldn’t help myself. At least that was my excuse for what happened.

On the Sunday in question, Reuben settled down next to Mark and Cat, who were probably discussing punishment ideas, because that’s what Doms did when they got together. He was scrolling on his phone, listening to their conversation absentmindedly. He wore his dress pants and a button-down, as per usual. He completely ignored me, which kinda pissed me off, and I found myself glaring at him.

“You look like you’re thinking really hard about something,” Scott said, sitting down beside me with a plate of fried chicken.

“How can you eat again? You just ate like an hour ago!”

“I’m hungry,” he shrugged, dipping his chicken into honey mustard.

“You eat more than a fourteen-year-old boy,” Cat said, rolling her eyes. “Wish my metabolism was that fast.”

“Karma will bite him in the ass one of these days,” Reuben said, his voice low with just a hint of humor. “It gets us all in the end.” He patted his stomach and Mark rolled his eyes.

I snickered, putting on a silly voice. “And here we see The Undertaker in his natural habitat, attempting to make a joke and failing miserably.”

“The– the what?” Reuben’s mouth fell open at my words.

The words poured out of my mouth like a tsunami. “TheUndertaker. You’re so glum. And boring. And you never smile. And what’s with the suit every time you’re here? Do you even own a pair of jeans? Take a chill pill.Gawwwd.”

Well, that felt amazing, I thought. Hopefully that wasn’t too obnoxious for him to handle.

Based on the look on his face, I was probably in trouble, but fuck him. Whatever. Life is short and boring without ragging on your friends. I felt so free and so good spouting my shit, it was like the weight on my shoulders lifted. Why the hell had I tried so hard not to be myself just because he’d given me a stupid warning that I knew he probably wouldn’t follow through with?

Then I got a really mean idea and grabbed my cup, fishing an ice cube out of it, and chucked it across the room at him. It hit him in the chest and fell into his lap. “Here, I have an extrachill pill.If you need more, I’m sure Lisa can give you a prescription.”

The look on his face was glorious. He stared with complete and utter shock at the ice cube that now sat in his lap. God I loved getting actual facial expressions out of the stone-faced man. He looked up at me, his eyes narrowing. I snickered and looked away.

“Alice!”

Mister Weston’s voice was loud and harsh, and the others in the room quieted. I froze in place and glanced at him. His voice was as low and as quiet as an oncoming thunderstorm. He said, “What did I tell you about running your mouth?”

I was mad at him. How dare he encroach on me, anyway? Threatening me and telling me he was going to put me in my place... Besides, he was all about the rules. He wasn’t going to just top me out of nowhere when he wasn’t my Dom. Yeah maybe he’d “warned me” but that didn’t mean anything. Right?

I faced him straight on and said, loud and clear, “You ain’t gonna doshit, old man.”

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