Page 70 of Breaking Free

This morning, there was something else he couldn’t ignore. Ever since he’d suggested expanding their arrangement, an uneasiness had settled into the pit of his stomach. It was like when he had a hunch that a case was about to go south. Those hunches were rarely off.

Piper was inexperienced and softhearted. He’d have to be extra careful with her, no matter her assurances. Perhaps he could help her find a safe dom she could build a future with.

But the thought of her with someone else twisted the uneasiness into an uncomfortable knot.

Hell, Rogers. You can’t have it both ways!

Surely, after all these years, his heart had hardened sufficiently that he could walk away when the time was right. Other doms took on new submissives for training all the time. Many for a defined period of time, then they moved on. Why did that seem so callous now?

Because this was gorgeous, funny, down-to-earth Piper, who was so fucking sweet he got a toothache. He couldn’t wait to see her wrapped in his ropes. Another driving force behind his suggestion; one taste of her wasn’t nearly enough.

“Damn,” he muttered as he entered his condo, barely keeping from slamming the door out of pure frustration.

A string of nagging thoughts plagued his mind. What if he was mistaken and his heart wasn’t shielded in stone, as he believed? What if he couldn’t walk away? What if what he feared most came true? That he came to care for her, possibly love her, then one day she suddenly vanished from his life, like everyone else, and his heart was decimated once again?

Chapter 19

THE CRISP SOUND OFTristan’s knock echoed through the hallway at precisely seven o’clock. She rushed to the door but forced herself to take a deep, calming breath before letting him in.

“I just have to grab my bag, and I’m ready to go,” she said in greeting.

With a slow, appraising glance, he took in her scoop neck, spaghetti-strap black dress. She had chosen it for its simplicity. The fabric draped nicely, highlighting her figure without being too revealing. But now she was having doubts.

“It’s too conservative, isn’t it?” she asked, smoothing the material in front.

“Tonight, dresses will range from gaudy to classy, and everything in between. As long as it’s black, you’ll fit right in.”

“I was going for the classy end of that scale.”

“Then you succeeded. Relax,” he urged. “You look amazing. LBD night is about music, dancing, fruity cocktails, and fun just like at any regular club.”

“Relaxing isn’t exactly my strong suit. Maybe you should tie me up first.”

She said it jokingly, but when his piercing blue-gray eyes locked with hers, he seemed deadly serious. “Don’t tempt me.”

“I’ll...um...just grab my purse.”

A swarm of butterflies took flight in her stomach as she retraced her steps to her kitchen counter and grabbed her simple black clutch.Great day in the morning! Did she really just say what she said?

When she returned to him—shock of shocks without tripping and falling flat on her face—he offered her his hand. She accepted it and patiently waited as he set her alarm because, heading to the club as a full-fledged member on the arm of the hottest yet most exasperating man she had ever been out with, her hands shook too badly to do it herself.

She almost changed her mind, hesitating when he opened the door to his truck to help her in, and again when he started the engine. An image of herself bolting from the car and racing up the steps to lock herself in her condo while she packed and called a moving company to take her back to Iowa flashed in her mind. The sound of her mother’s saccharine-sweet, patronizing response as she returned home with her tail between her legs was as predictable as the sunrise. “Didn’t I tell you she’d be back, Earl?”

It was the only thing that stopped her, aside from Tristan, of course. Dressed in black from head to toe, he seemed taller, broader, and leaner. Memories of his lips on hers, his beard tickling her cheeks and the sensitive skin of her inner thighs, and him driving her wild with passion, obliterated her recollection of everyone else.

---