Beg for It(70)

“That’s the whole point. I don’t want to order you. I want you to choose a life with me. The way you didn’t, the first time around.” She turned her coffee mug around and around in her hands, but didn’t drink.

Reese pinched the bridge of his nose. “You want me to move here.”

“I want you to be happy,” she said quietly.

“It’s not that far, you know. We could—”

“When I hurt you,” Corinne interrupted calmly, “it’s always knowing that it’s my job to make sure it’s not too much. I have the responsibility of making sure we don’t go too far. That you’re going to be okay. When I command you, when you obey, it’s always my job to make sure I don’t ask of you what you cannot do. Do you remember?”

He did. “You might ask me to do what I think I can’t do, or what I think I don’t want to, but you won’t ask me to do what I absolutely can’t do. I remember.”

She looked sad. “It doesn’t only apply in the bedroom. We don’t need a notarized contract. I don’t ever need to put you in a collar, or on a leash. But in this relationship, whether you are naked and on your knees for me or not, it will still always be my job to make sure I don’t ask of you what you cannot do.”

“What makes you think I can’t do this?” Reese asked.

Her answer was a long, calm stare he couldn’t interpret. “I need to get back to the office.”

She was quiet in the car ride. No singing. No windows cracked to let in the breeze. When they got there, she left him behind and went into her office, closing the door firmly enough to let him know he would not be welcome to come inside.

An hour later, her resignation letter arrived via email.





Chapter Thirty-Nine



Corinne had, of course, given the minimum two weeks’ notice. Four would’ve been better, but there was no way she could’ve lasted in the office with Reese. She hadn’t needed to worry. He didn’t come in to the office at all.

There’d been no going away party, no cake, no engraved watch to commemorate her service to Stein and Sons. As far as she knew, none of the previous owners even knew that she’d quit. The last she’d heard, the group of them had been planning to go on a family cruise, spending the money Reese had paid them. None of the new staff had even started. She’d promoted Sandy from secretary to office manager before she left, and the two of them had gone out for a celebratory lunch, but it had been strained and a little awkward.

“I’m okay,” she told Caitlyn over glasses of wine and a platter of cheese and crackers. “Really. He gave me a huge raise when he came on, remember? I have money put away. I have three interviews lined up. I’ll get another job. You don’t have to worry.”

Her sister frowned. “I’m hardly worried about you getting a job. Okay, maybe a little, because if we’re both out of work, that could be bad. But that’s not really what I’m worried about, and you know it.”

“I feel very much at peace.” Corinne ate a piece of cheese, then spread another with some spicy mustard and ate that, too. “You can’t make someone love you, or choose you, and I didn’t want to even try to force him.”

“You didn’t even want to think about a long-distance relationship? Philadelphia isn’t that far away.” Caitlyn also ate a piece of cheese.

“It’s far enough. Sure, could we have tried it out? I guess so. Doing every other weekend. Talking on the phone during the week. Seeing each other whenever we could. Anything that’s worthwhile takes work. Being together would’ve taken extra work. Not impossible. But once again, here it is, days later and not a word from him. How long should I wait?”

“You can’t give up,” Caitlyn said.

Corinne shrugged. “Sure I can.”

“You don’t want to give up. You love him.”

“And?” Corinne shook her head. “So what?”

“If you just told him,” her sister began, but cut off at the sight of Corinne’s expression.

“He knows. He’s always known. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter.”

Caitlyn was silent for a moment. “You can’t mean that.”

“He broke my heart once. Should I let him break it again? Let him go break someone else’s heart. I don’t have anything left.” Corinne’s phone buzzed with an alert she wasn’t expecting, and frowning, she swiped the screen to see a message from her credit union app. “What the… Oh. No.”

Caitlyn craned her neck to see. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Someone made a deposit into my account.” She showed her sister the screen. The amount was enough to make Caitlyn choke on the cube of cheese she’d been eating. Corinne gave her sister a grim smile. “Yeah. Right?”

“From him?”

“Who else could it be from?” She shook her head, already thumbing in his number. “I have to tell him I’m not taking it.”

“Are you crazy? With that kind of money you don’t need to work for a long time! If you don’t want it, give it to me!”

Corinne gave her sister a look. “Forget it. He thinks this is all about money? Fuck that.”

“Don’t do anything crazy,” Caitlyn said. “From what you said, five hundred smackers is like something he sneezes into a tissue and throws away.”