Page 60 of The Healing Touch

Well, when she put it like that, it wasn’t fair, but he’d never so much as ever let anyone near him with any kind of bondage. He was the dominant, not the submissive.

“If you ever want me to let you do that, D, you’re going to have to cave and let me tie you up first.”

“The fuck you say.”

“The fuck I say.” Becca jumped off his lap. “I mean it, Dimitri. If you’re not willing to do the same, then you can forget about ever tying me up.”

Wait, had she just agreed to give them a chance?

“Does that mean you’re willing to try this? To see if what we have is true love or…”

“Or just two horny adults who have no control?” she asked sarcastically.

“I have control.” Usually. “It’s just when I got back and you weren’t here, I panicked, thinking you’d left me. Then I see you naked and…well, yeah, I did lose it, but can you blame me? You’re a beautiful woman.”

“This isn’t a romance novel, D. It’s real life, and we can both get hurt, so very much.”

“I know.”

“But you know how I feel about you. I want us to work more than you can ever know because I’ve been in love with you since I was fifteen years old. Does that mean I’m blind? No. It does mean I am willing to give this a shot, but on one condition.”

“What?”

“No sex.”

“The fuck?”

Becca watched his expression bleed from hope to confusion to outrage. He hadn’t expected that, but it was the one thing she could think of that would give her time to sort all this out. If he added sex into the mix, she’d not stand a chance of protecting her heart.

“You heard me. If you want me to believe I mean more to you than your other women, then you’re going to prove it.”

“By not fucking you?” He followed her inside, their meals forgotten. “How is that going to prove a damn thing?”

“It means you respect us enough to see what’s here without the lust and the blind passion sex brings. Sexual chemistry only goes so far, D. I want to know if you’re going to be around for the long haul, if you’re going to be able to deal with my anxiety, if I can deal with it enough to give you everything you deserve.”

His eyes softened, and he dropped his outraged stance. “You are all I need and more than I deserve. I could give two shits about your anxiety.”

“And you can say that now because you haven’t been around it day in and day out. Two weeks from now? You might change your mind. I want you to think about this, Dimitri. Really think about what it means. Take the next two weeks to do that. Then when we go to Texas, if you still feel the same, we can go at it like two Energizer bunnies if you want, but until then, no sex. I mean it.”

“You seriously think I’m going to go home and change my mind?”

“You might, Dimitri. Once you realize I can’t do all the things your other flavors of the week can. I hate going out. I’d rather be home, safe behind four walls and a door. You saw what crowds do to me. You’re asking me to accept you being the control freak in the bedroom. The least you can do is respect me enough to take the time to think about what I’m asking you to accept.”

His gaze became calculated, and her hinky feeling decided to rear its head. He was up to something. She knew that look.

“You’re right. I haven’t been around your anxiety day in and day out. I don’t know what it looks like, but how am I expected to evaluate it if I’m not around it?”

The asshole. She knew where this was going.

“So, to be fair, you need to come to LA with me. We need to spend time together, to get to know each other’s ins and outs. Like the fact I leave the cap off the toothpaste all the time. Or I leave my dirty socks laying around. Things like that.”

“You want me to come to LA?” That meant an airport. People. Crowds. Standing in line…

He grabbed her hand before she could panic. “No airplanes. I can book a train, our own private car. You won’t have to be around anyone longer than it takes to board.”

He really was beginning to learn the early signs of her panic. Not only that, but he’d thwarted it. Maybe he could handle it.

“So, what do you say? I’ll stop trying to seduce you if you agree to come to LA and let us work on our relationship.”

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