Page 10 of Becoming the Owners
“I’m pushy and focused and honest to the point of annoying, but I will respect your limits and I take safewords very seriously, pretty bird.” There was still silence between us, but something had shifted and it wasn’t so stark any longer as he leaned back in his chair and almost grinned.
“You know, if you’re going to run a club, that honesty thing might come back to bite you in the ass.” His eyes sparkled in barely suppressed laughter.
“I’m working on professional and appropriate levels of honesty, but that’s for strangers and for work. You’re not either. I have no desire to start off our relationship with that kind of wall between us.” He wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t going to make him question what I was thinking or feeling.
“You are all kinds of layers of interesting.” He crossed his arms in front of him, and I loved the way it accented his chest and gave him a more masculine look than he’d been projecting on the dance floor.
I had a feeling I was getting a peek at another side of his personality. I just wasn’t sure if he was doing it deliberately. Was he trying to make me even more curious about him? Was it a test to see if I could stay focused? “What can I say—I’m an onion.”
That got a snicker from him. “You’re an ogre, huh?”
Grinning, I nodded. “Yep, but just not big and stinky.”
He scoffed. “How about confusing and weird?”
“I’ll take that.” Because even if he’d rolled his eyes as he’d said it, there was still that smile he was trying to hide.
“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you spank me.” His words felt like they’d escaped without him really having thought about it, but I took them seriously.
“I’m crazy about you, but don’t forget, we’re going to have limits. That means I’m not going to even try to get you over my lap.” The honesty thing might come back to bite me in the ass, but I couldn’t hide what I was thinking from my birdie. “I will, however, do my best to talk you into leaning against a wall andarching that pretty ass out while I show you what a flogger can do.”
Imagining what that would look like would fill my dreams for days…but that wouldn’t be my entire focus.
“I’m also going to have more conversations with you about limits and BDSM in general because I want you to understand what I need out of a relationship.” This would be a give and take or it wouldn’t happen at all. “I don’t want you to ever have to guess what I want or who I am.”
That kind of uncertainty would make him feel like a rocking boat about to capsize.
My birdie needed steady and confident to make him feel safe enough to let go.
“The only things I know about BDSM or any of the stuff you’re talking about is that it’s about control and ownership.” He waved his hand before I could respond. “Not like the bad kind. I’m not afraid of ending up locked in your basement, but having someone else take control doesn’t sit right with me.”
Shaking my head, I approached it head-on. “No. I’m not taking control. You’d give it to me.”
That always seemed to trip people up.
“The sub is the one in control in a relationship like this. Period.” But I’d met men who called themselves Doms that didn’t understand that point, so I knew why my birdie didn’t see it that way. “Think of it this way. You own the car. You decide how the car can be driven…when the car can be driven…who gets to drive it…what kind of roads it goes on.”
Shrugging, I tried to break it down in a way he’d understand. “I’m just the man that you trust enough to follow the rulesand drive you around so you can truly enjoy the car without worrying.”
His lips turned up in another smirk. “What kind of car am I?”
I wasn’t sure if it was a trick question or a joke, but I let my eyes take him in and hopefully showed how incredible I thought he was. “Something sleek and beautiful, with long lines and so much power under the hood it feels like it could make you fly.”
Without knowing what he was thinking or anything about his past, I could only guess at what he was actually worried about. But I did my best. “I want to get to know you. To make you laugh. To get that sexy smirk aimed at me again. To watch you dance just for me. But I have no desire to change anything that I know about you so far. Now, if you’ve got a caffeine habit that could kill a junkie or have Twinkies hidden in every room in your house, we’re gonna talk about that.”
And the smirk was back.
“I’m a Ho Hos kind of guy.” There was enough challenge in his eyes that said he wasn’t just talking about the snack cake.
“I can see that pretty mouth stretched out around one.” Pushing back at the sexy image, I grinned. “Did I mention I like to watch?”
He just swallowed, aiming to look laid back and in control, but I could see the way his body tightened.
“I’m not jealous of the other men staring at you. I’ve never imagined hiding you away. I just want to take you out of the cage, pretty bird.” Flying free didn’t mean he had to be on his own or be lost in a crowd. “I want to see my bird flying high, but I also want him to come down to Earth and be worshipped the way he was meant to be.”
He’d been meant to be the most beautiful sub who reigned over a kingdom…but at the moment, he’d locked himself away.
“Sometimes you say shit that doesn’t make any sense and sometimes you say shit that sounds like everything I want to hear.” Pausing, he studied me like he was only half-done with the sentence before his thoughts shifted gears.
