Page 42 of Kane
I snap my gaze up, cheeks burning.
“No! I mean… it’s nothing. Just… thesis stuff.”
But my giggles completely betray me. Davey puts his pen down with a dramatic sigh and turns fully toward me, legs tuckedunder him in the big chair. Hardy gets moved gently aside so he can give me his full attention.
“Okay, that’sit,” he says. “We’re not getting any work done until we talk about this. It was only a matter of time before we had this conversation, so let’s rip the Band-Aid off now before we waste the whole study session.”
I groan and hide my face behind my hands for a second, but I know my BFF is right. I’ve been holding everything in, and it’s eating me alive.
So I tell him.Everything.
I start with the spanking in the library, the ruler, the apple in my mouth, standing there exposed while Kane watched. Then the night at his apartment—the Thai food, the cooling cream on my sore bottom, the way he held my hand across the table like I was precious.
I talk about how safe I feel when I’m with Kane, even though every rational part of me knows he’s dangerous.
Davey listens without interrupting, his eyes growing wider with every detail.
When I finally mention the breakfast this morning and the three powerful-looking men who interrupted us, Davey sucks in a sharp breath.
“Three of them?” he whispers. “All looking like… that?”
I nod. “They were polite to me, but I could feel it. The same energy. Like they own the room just by walking into it. I left as fast as I could.”
Davey reaches over and squeezes my hand. “William… I love you, and I’m so happy you’re experiencing this chemistry and obviouslyveryhot dominance for the first time. But you have to be careful. Really careful. This isn’t some university Daddy who reads too many romance novels. Kane and whoever those men are… they’re operating in a completely different world. One that could swallow you whole.”
“I know,” I say quietly. “That’s why I’ve made a decision. I’m going to give him an ultimatum. He has to tell me the truth about who he is and what he does, or… I walk away. I can’t keep doing this half-in, half-out thing. It’s driving me crazy.”
Davey studies me for a long moment, then nods. “Good. That’s the right call. You deserve full honesty. Just… promise me you’ll be safe when you do it. And that you’ll come stay with me again if anything feels off.”
“I promise.”
We manage to salvage the rest of the study session after that, though my notes are messier than usual and my highlighter keeps wandering off the page. By the time we head to the seminar I feel lighter… scared, but determined.
* * *
The afternoon lecture ends with the professor’s usual dramatic flourish about gothic repression. It’s an old bit, but an entertaining one all the same.
Well it is for a pair of literature nerds like me and Davey, anyway!
Davey and I pack up our things and step out of the Uppington Building into the late afternoon sun.
Charles is already waiting at the curb on his bicycle, looking every bit the perfect, safe Daddy in a button-down and jeans. He waves when he sees us.
Davey lights up. “There’s my ride,” he says happily, then pulls me into a tight hug. “Text me later. And be careful, okay?”
“I will. Have fun with Charles.”
I watch them cycle away together: Davey perched on the back of his bike, laughing as he pedals. They look so…normal.
Super-sweet and wholesome.
The kind of relationship you see in movies.
For a second I feel a pang of envy. I don’t think Kane and I will ever have that kind of easy, carefree vibe. He’s too intense. Too commanding. Too wrapped up in whatever dangerous world he lives in.
But there’s something about him—something special and scary and alluring all at once—that keeps pulling me back. The way he looks at me like I’mhis. The way my body responds to his voice even when my brain is screaming caution. Then there are the quiet moments, like when he squeezed my hand at breakfast and told me I could achieve anything.
I pull out my phone as I start walking.
