Page 323 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

He put his arms around her and held her close for a moment.

“I'm sorry,” she murmured. “You must think I'm the stupidest girl alive.”

“No. I don't. I think you're my girl. And I don't want you to forget it.”

He felt the love from her then, and knew they were okay.

She was wearing her new Victoria's Secret panties. They were pink and silver striped with the word “naughty” stenciled across the butt. Of course, Dom had already previewed them when he spanked her in his office earlier. Like always, it had made her knees go weak to have him bend her over and pull down her panties like that. The spanking itself had been pretty gentle—more of a warning or reset, than anything. But then he left her with the question of whether he'd be giving her another one later.

Sitting in the passenger seat of the Mercedes, she stole a sidelong look at him. The corner of his mouth curled just a little bit to let her know that he was aware of her spying, and probably that he knew what was on her mind, too. An involuntary shiver ran through her.

“Dom, I really am sorry about earlier.”

“It's forgotten, amore.”

“You were really mad?” she asked, remembering how worried Fox had been for her.

“I was not mad,” he said a bit defensively, as if Fox were still there with them.

Fox had shaken his head when he saw her come down happily snuggled under Dom's arm. “All I can say,” he had said to her when they went on stage together, “is that I've never seen Dom so emotional in the entire time I've known him. You do something to him.” She'd been pleased to hear that and she filed that information away with a note to herself to quiz Fox later on the full history of Dom's past love life.

“Fox made me mad. Not you,” he clarified. “I was exasperated with you, that's all.”

She stared at his profile for a while without comment. Then she said, “Fox seemed worried about my safety.”

“Were you worried?” he asked, taking his eyes off the road to look at her.

She shook her head. “No,” she said softly.

“Good.”

She waited to see if he'd offer any more.

He sighed. “Fox isn't used to seeing me worked up about much, I suppose. I must have sounded similar to the way I do when I'm angry. And an enraged vampire should always be feared, even by his closest friends. Remember that, okay?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

When they reached Dom's residence, he led her through the marble-statued magnificence and opened the back door. “Come here, I want to show you something,” he said, leading her out to a beautiful courtyard and garden. It was all subtly lit with lights under trees and bushes, and there was a water feature, with a mini waterfall splashing down into a pond.

“It's beautiful,” she breathed.

“I have every type of night blooming flower I can grow here.”

She looked around. “Evening primrose,” she identified.

“Yep.”

“And night-blooming cereus. That grows well here.” There was something blooming in the pond. “What is that?” she asked pointing to it.

“A night blooming water lily.”

“That's not native.”

“No.”

“Incredible.” She pointed to a large, dark-green leafed plant that spilled out of several pots. “Sacred datura.”

“Very good,” he said. “It probably won't bloom till August.”

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