Page 74 of Auctioned Surrender

There’s a brief pause, but I don’t need to coax her response further. She clears her throat and tells me exactly what I want to hear. “Yes.”

The fact that she’s upset because she lied is pleasing to me on so many different levels. “Lying to me bothered you, Layla?”

“Yes, very much.”

She’s not giving me her defensive attitude this time. I’m going to hear what’s on her mind. “Tell me what you can then. I’m listening, princess.”

Her voice catches, but she doesn’t let that stop her. “I don’t want to lie to you anymore, Dereck. You don’t deserve that, or to be saddled with someone like me who has a shit ton of baggage and lies right to your face, time and time again after you did everything you could to help me.”

I smirk. My little submissive has a special knack for skirting right around the question, answering only the parts she wants to reply to and disregarding those she wants to avoid. “Layla, you may be sorry for lying, and that pleases me, but that’s not the entire reason why you left. I want to know why and for you to tell me.”

“That’s the dilemma. One of the people at your martial arts center knows me personally. I didn’t want him to see or recognize me, so I got out of there pretty quick.”

“I’ve told you how I feel about half-truths, princess, and I can assure you that your ass cheeks won’t like the consequence if you don’t tell me what spooked you.”

“He’s an old friend. It’s complicated, but it would blow my entire plan if he recognized me at the center. Please, don’t push for more than I can share. Just trust that I had to leave, didn’t want you to worry, and that I miss you. I suck at this submissive stuff, but I really don’t want to mess up what we have. It means something to me,” Layla says.

I contemplate every word she’s said, and as much as I dislike the fact that another man caused her to flee and that she doesn’t feel she can trust me with this information, we’ve barely gotten to know each other. She’s been upfront and honest about not allowing anything to stand in the way of finding her sister, but not about herself, evidenced by the three different passports I saw in her bag. I draw on my patience, which is usually in ready supply, already instinctively knowing her intentions are good, relieved Layla is safe and felt comfortable enough to share her feelings about our developing relationship.

“I know it does, princess. You forget I was the one watching the pulse on the side of your neck quicken when your desire grew. Your eyes dilate and turn hazy with need, and not just in the bedroom, Layla. It’s the dynamic we share. The connection between a dominant and submissive, and ours is exceptionally magnetic and powerful. It draws you in and holds you firm to each other, regardless of what tries to pull it apart, even trust. All you had to do was pull me to the side at the center and tell me exactly what you’ve shared with me tonight, and we could have avoided this entire situation. I may have pushed a little for answers, but I would have accepted your explanation; instead, you lied. Do you know what the consequences are for lying to me? Do you know what the punishment will be when you learn to trust me and return to me, princess?”

Her voice squeaks as she responds, “No.”

“I think now is as good a time as any to go over my rules, to discuss any hard or soft limits you may have, talk specifically about the consequences of your actions, and find out what fully submitting to me in the future would entail. Are you ready, princess?”

Chapter 16

Layla

I don’t know how Dereck has come to mean so much to me. It wasn’t the plan, not part of any of it. He just kept showing up, helping me, and breaking through all my defenses, making it impossible to push aside the submissive desires craving to be free. The professional side of me, the one that understands what’s coming and what I have to do to find my sister, knows this whirlwind relationship may very well end tomorrow, while the soft submissive side of me needs to make sure he realizes just how much I care. We may need to go our separate ways after all that I have planned, but his question only serves to ignite my need into a full-blown fire tonight. “Yes.”

I can envision his gray eyes, dark and watchful, assessing my emotions, the ones he likes to see when I would rather hide. “What are you wearing, Layla?” Dereck asks, and just the sound of his deep voice causes my center to clench.

“A tank top and a pair of panties.”

“The clothes you brought to the gym to change into?”

“Yes, I didn’t plan to leave, if that’s what you were going to ask. It just happened. I don’t have much with me.”

“I deduced that much when I found your bag lying in the guest room,” he says, pausing, giving me yet another chance toexplain what he’s obviously found. When I don’t, he doesn’t call me on it but continues. “What color are your panties, Layla? Describe them to me, princess?”

I close my eyes, inhaling, and enveloping myself with that husky voice that wraps around me like a seductive blanket. “White, with a red bow in the center, high cut.”

“Sexy. What else are you wearing, Layla?”

I know what he means, but I avoid the question. “No bra, nothing else.”

“What happened to your plug, princess?”

I inhale, my center wetting as he talks to me. “I took it out to go to the bathroom and shower.”

“And you didn’t put it back?”

I pause. “No,” I say, so quietly that I can barely hear it myself.

“I see. If you submit to me, the next time I place my plug inside of you, it will stay there until you have permission to remove it, but for now, we’ll leave it out since we have more to discuss before we determine the course,” Dereck says, making my chest tighten with the thought that after all I’ve done, he may be trying to determine if we are even compatible. Maybe after he goes over his rules, it won’t be a matter of me being able to stay or not wanting to submit. Perhaps I was right, and I do come with too much baggage, too much drama and trouble, and he’ll find through this conversation that we just aren’t going to be compatible in anything except the bedroom.

“Rule one.We’ve already discussed it at length. No lying. Small white lies and avoidance all constitute that behavior to me. You’ve managed to break this rule not only once, but multiple times. Trust takes time, and with that, I do not doubt that given time, you’ll tell me the truth from now on. That doesn’t mean that I won’t administer a consequence because I told you up front that I would, and I am a man of my word. I was waiting for you to trust me a little more before we delved too farinto punishments. Would you like to know what that is now or after you hear all the rules?”

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