Page 46 of Auctioned Surrender

“I think that’s what we agreed to, right?”

She glances down, and I feel a twinge of guilt, but only a small one, because she still can’t get past the fact that I was paid to protect her and thinks that’s all she is to me.

“I guess we’re going to your place then,” Bryanna says, leaning her head against the back of the seat as Garrett navigates the traffic of the city and pulls up outside the entrance to my high-rise. The valet is quick to open the door for us, and has started to assist Bryanna before I make it around the corner. I tell Garrett goodnight and ignore his smile, keeping my hand pressed against the small of her back as I guide her to the elevator.

She looks nervous as we enter the hotel. “Come, sit with me at the bar and have a drink,” I say, taking her hand and then gently lifting her onto the stool. The long pink gauzy material of her dress parts seductively, displaying a creamy thigh right up to her hip. My cock hardens as I watch this woman, who looks at me with a need as great as my own, but with hesitancy and uncertainty.

I pour each of us a glass of wine and take a seat next to her on the barstool. “You left without letting me know what you were planning,” I say, trailing a finger down her arm and delighting in the little goosebumps that form along its path.

“I overheard you on the phone and knew you wouldn’t have let me go with you.”

“So you decided to take matters into your own hands and do what, kill your own brother?”

“I thought he sold me! I thought he was the one responsible for everything and for threatening me with the lives of the kids. I wasn’t going to kill him. I was going to get a recorded confession out of him and then turn him over to the police. But if I would have had to defend myself against him, I was prepared, and I fully intended to do whatever had to be done tonight to save my family!”

“But yet, I’m paid to protect you. Paid to keep you safe and out of harm’s way, and you let me walk right out that door without telling me, knowing exactly what you intended to do, didn’t you?”

She has the good grace to look as guilty as she is.

“Bryanna, as my submissive, you would never have done that. I can only surmise you heard me talking about your brother. When you did and became alarmed, you should have come to me and told me your fears. That’s what I would expect, do expect.”

“And you wouldn’t have let me go!” Bryanna says, wiping a tear of frustration from her lovely cheeks.

She’s not wrong. I wouldn’t have let her anywhere near anything that could have harmed her. “Correct, and as my submissive, you would have understood that I wanted to take care of you myself, to protect you from harm. I wouldn’t have allowed you to go until I knew you were no longer in harm’s way, and at every minute, of every hour this evening, you most definitely were in harm’s way.”

She starts to speak, and I put a finger to her lip to quiet her voice, along with her worry.

“I would have asked you to stay in bed. I would have given you a list of requests to keep your mind from that fear. I would have instructed you to soak in a bubble bath and then to pour yourself a glass of wine, before curling into bed naked with one of your favorite novels. When I returned home, I could tell you things were taken care of. I would have kissed down your body until I found your center, and licked you until you were spent and all the worry of the evening was gone, but you didn’t give me that chance, Bryanna.”

I like the way her eyes have dilated and her breathing has shallowed, and even the look of remorse that flashes over her lovely features. When she crosses her legs, I smile. “Uncross your legs, Bryanna. Any pleasure you receive tonight, if any, will be mine to give.”

Her cheeks flush with embarrassment, and my cock hardens at the prospect of doing exactly what I’ve told her I will do. “Now, doesn’t that sound like a better way to spend the evening than racing around town with a cab driver? Oh, who, by the way, ended up being pretty decent. He and the shop owners were both paid quite a bit of money to forget you. He was more than a little confused that Cole wanted him to forget everything about you when you had explicitly told him to memorize every feature of your pretty little face and remember them.”

She looks at the floor, and a tear slides down her cheek.

“Bryanna, I don’t like it when you don’t look at me. It feels like you want to hide from me, Doll.”

She sniffs. “I told you, I’m not a real submissive. I can’t even let my protector take care of me and do the job he’s supposed to do.”

“If you knew it would please me for you to stay home and let me take care of the situation this evening, would you have told me then? If you weren’t thinking of me as the man paid to protect you, but as the man who wanted desperately tosafeguard you for no other reason than the fact that he has fallen head over heels in love with you, would you have stayed then?”

That brings her face to mine, and her eyes widen, and more tears pool and spill from her gorgeous eyes as she looks up at me. “It would make a difference. I would want to do anything that you asked me,” Bryanna says softly, and my cock throbs hard with the need to make this woman entirely mine.

“Then that makes you the perfect submissive, Bryanna. We’ll talk more, but I think first you owe me a dance,” I say, placing my hand behind her neck to pull her closer to me, so close that I can lick away the salt of her tears and kiss the sweetness of her lips.

Chapter 32

Bryanna

Damian stands and carefully lifts me from the barstool, pushing away a straggling piece of hair that has fallen across my face. He then places the white-and-silver mask on my face and secures it before putting on his own black mask and picking up the remote from the counter.

“Dance with me, Bryanna,” Damian says as he fingers the small remote. The lights in the ceiling dim, and the easy voice of Harry Connick Jr. singing his rendition of “It Had To Be You” begins oozing from the sound system overhead.

Damian holds out his hand and then takes mine as I offer it, placing his other hand firmly around my waist, pulling me close to his body, and gently guiding me to the slow, easy rhythm that washes over the room. The muscles in his thighs brush against mine with every stride, helping to guide and a gentle reminder that this man exudes power and is in absolute control of every step we take, both on and off the dance floor.

The music winds down, and Damian whispers into my ear, “It had to be you, Bryanna. The minute I saw your picture, that draw was already there, and after I saw you staring up at me from the bathtub, I should have known then that it was always going to end with you being mine.”

“I love that.”

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