Page 7 of Accepting Love

She searches my face with the most serious expression. “I don’t know what I want.” At least she’s honest. “I can’t think.”

“What does Audrey know?” I need to understand this before she barges back into the room.

“Everything.”

Okay. That’s surprising and it helps.

“It was her idea. That I join Surrender, I mean. She thought it would be good for me.”

I furrow my brow. “She knew you were Little?”

Hannah, Lordy, Carolina nods. “She’s like a mother to me. I’ve known her my entire life. I was never like other kids. I didn’t have friends. I had my piano and my music teachers. Audrey was my friend. My champion. She’s the one I went to when I started my period. She’s the one who read to me at night. She’s my everything.”

“She sounds amazing.”

“She is.”

“How did she find out you were Little?”

Carolina—I need to engrain this name in my brain and learn to toggle it. It feels important. She looks out the window again. “I tried to keep it private. I only let myself be real in my bedroom. My grandfather never knew. But Audrey knew. She knew for a long time before she confronted me. She researched age play thoroughly before she came to me.”

“That must have been scary.”

“Oh, I freaked out. I wanted to die. But we talked about it for hours, long into the night. She helped me understand that I wasn’t a freak, that there are others like me. She had already found Surrender, visited it, and spoken to Master Roman.”

I wince. I might have lost my shit if someone did all that behind my back. “Did this make you mad?”

She shrugs. “At first. But she only wants what’s best for me.” She looks down and wrings her hands together. “She’s the only family I have. I don’t know what I would do without her.”

I wonder how much of Carolina’s life is managed by Audrey. Perhaps more than just her business.

“I’m out of sorts,” Carolina whispers.

I turn and step between her and the window, facing her. I slowly lift my hand to her chin, making sure she’s well aware I’m going to touch her.

She inhales sharply at the contact, her eyes wide as she meets my gaze. I’m six-two. She’s about five-five. I tower over her. I don’t want to intimidate her, but I do want her to pay attention to what I’m going to say. “I need to know something.”

She licks her lips.

“When I’ve asked you out in the past, did you turn me down because you weren’t interested in me?”

She shudders. “No, Sir,” she whispers.

My God. She’s submitting to me. She’s brave enough not to lower her gaze too. “Did you turn me down because you made a vow to yourself not to ever let your personal life mix with your preferred kink?”

Her voice is even softer when she murmurs, “Yes, Sir.”

“In a perfect world, would you want a relationship with me?” My heart is racing.

She blinks. “We don’t live in a perfect world.”

I step closer. “Answer my question.”

Her breath hitches. “Yes.” She immediately steps back, breaking contact with me and putting several feet between us.

Her sudden distance doesn’t change the admissions she’s made.

As I stand here, watching her every move, I know one thing for certain.

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