A Dom is Forever (Masters and Mercenaries #3)(30)

But it required that the subject not realize her phone had ever been taken.

“Maybe I should follow Ian’s lead. I think I’ll try to find the bathroom and fix my hair. I got a little windblown,” Avery said.

And naturally she would take her purse and check her phone. She was a creature of habit. She routinely checked her phone for messages. He had to break that routine.

He turned slightly in his seat, his arm curling around her shoulders. “Stay with me for a minute. I haven’t gotten you alone all day. I’m glad you came to find me today, Avery.”

Her eyes went wide as she looked up at him, but he watched her make a decision. She forced herself to relax, letting her body cuddle close to his. “I almost didn’t. I was afraid you wouldn’t talk to me.”

“Somehow I think I would have been back at your doorstep in a day or two. I was a little miffed that you thought I was a hustler, but when I calmed down, I realized I hadn’t told you the whole truth about myself. I came on strong. It’s kind of a part of my personality. I thought about it all last night. Maybe you were picking up some clues I was giving you, but you came to the wrong conclusion.” Honesty worked at times. Honesty would keep her sitting right where she was until Ian had found Alex and they’d gotten the job done. Alex had been shadowing them all day, waiting for a chance. “I’m certainly not a hustler, but I do have some…proclivities you might want to know about before you make the decision to become involved with me.”

She bit into that gorgeous bottom lip, the sight going straight to his cock. “Proclivities? What do you mean? Are you bi?”

He shook his head. “I’m one hundred percent hetero, sweetheart. But I do like to spank my partners from time to time. Nothing harsh. Maybe a little flogger play. I like to be in charge of the sexual side of my relationships.”

Her whole body flushed, the blush rushing across her like a tidal wave. Yeah, he had her attention now. “You’re a sadist?”

Ah, the uneducated. He’d been around Grace and Serena for too long. He’d forgotten there were women who didn’t understand BDSM. It seemed they all read the novels these days. “No. I’m not a sadist. Well, there’s a tiny bit of it in there, but I never cause my submissives more pain than they want. I’m a Dom. Do you know what that means?”

“I’ve heard the term before. Some of the women in the office were talking about fetish clubs and Doms.” Her voice was just breathy enough that he was sure she’d been intrigued. It was up to him to get her even more curious.

“Ian belongs to one of those clubs,” Liam said. “And I belong to one back in the States. I’m a regular there, though I don’t have a full-time submissive. I play around. I train other Doms and some couples. I’m certified in Shibari and all forms of suspension play.”

Her eyes went round, and a sexy little smile lit her face. “Certified?”

It was time to make her comfortable. “Yes, certified. Safety is very important, and so is proper form and protocols. Especially when playing in public. In private, with someone I care about, it’s not so formal. It’s more intimate, and we can make up our own rules.”

He could see the pulse on her throat racing. Her breathing was a bit shallower than before.

“I don’t know, Lee. I’m not very experienced.”

“But you’re not a virgin, either.” He’d never prized virginity. He’d lost his own at the age of fifteen to a woman in his block of flats. He didn’t expect a woman to come to him without a little mileage of her own.

She looked down, her eyes darkening slightly. “That was a long time ago, and there hasn’t been anyone since.”

Fuck. Eve had told him she thought Avery hadn’t had many lovers, but she hadn’t had sex in ten years? He’d spent his twenties f*cking his way across three continents, and she’d been a bloody nun. He found his role slipping a little. His curiosity about her wasn’t an act. It was real and visceral. “Why?”

Her head came back up, but there was a sadness in her eyes. “A lot of reasons.”

He let his arm tighten and pulled her close. He followed his instincts. He might be a son of a bitch, but he was a good Dom. A good Dom knew when a sub needed comfort. Fuck. What was wrong with him? He wasn’t a cuddler. Alex McKay was the Dom every sub ran to for cuddles and a shoulder to cry on. Liam was the Dom subs ran to for a good flogging and a meaningless f*ck, but holding Avery felt so right. Her softness practically blanketed him. “You don’t have to tell me.”

She frowned for a minute and then her head found his shoulder, her hand lying across his chest. “I was in and out of hospitals for a long time after my accident. I guess I was in recovery for years. Not that people in hospitals don’t have sex. Seriously. They do. A lot. But I didn’t.”

He knew the story, but hearing it come from her somehow made it more real. “So you had surgery?”

“A bunch of them. I spent a couple of years in nursing homes.” She shuddered a little.

Nursing homes. Sad dank places that smelled like piss and shit and death. He couldn’t imagine her stuck in a bed, shoved away and forgotten. “Why the hell did they put you there?”

She settled in, hugging him closer as though physical contact made the story easier to tell. She hadn’t seemed to mind his gruff question. “I didn’t have anyone to take care of me. My parents were gone. My husband and, well, my husband died in the accident. I didn’t have siblings. I was alone, and I couldn’t take care of myself so insurance paid for a nursing home for a while. It wasn’t so bad.”