Page 11 of Hunting Little Hope
I stepped into her space and pressed a soft, chaste kiss to her cheek. “Hello, Hope. It’s very nice to see you again.”
Her face warmed to a pretty shade of pink, eyes dropping before lifting back to mine through her lashes. “Yes, Sir. It really is.”
For a moment we simply looked at one another, both a little caught off guard. Then I cleared my throat, reclaimed the moment, and helped her back into her chair.
“How did the rest of your afternoon go?” I asked as a server appeared with menus. “Did you survive the remainder of Rawhide’s social experiments?”
I had endured another hour of rotations myself, but none of the remaining conversations had held my interest.
Hope snorted before immediately blushing. “Let’s just say... I won’t be speed dating again any time soon.”
That was unexpectedly gratifying.
“Oh?” I said mildly. “Should I be concerned for your well-being?”
She bit her lip, clearly debating how much to tell me.
“Before I even got to my date with you, one of the men wanted to know how obedient I could be before I even had a chance to introduce myself,” she began.
I went very still. My protective instincts roared to the surface but this was—for all intents and purposes—our first date and there was no point for me to come in all “knight-in-shining-armor”.
“Oh?” I repeated.
“Yup,” she responded, clearly getting into the topic. “I’d never felt quite as much like an object. I mean, if that’s your thing, that’s totally fine, but the point was for us to get to knowone another, right? What’s more basic get to know you, than asking someone their name?”
I smiled and nodded my head in encouragement for her to continue.
Her beautiful grin in return soothed some of the anger I felt simmering.
“And then there was the guy who spent the entire six minutes explaining his cryptocurrency investments.”
I blinked. “And you’re saying youdidn’tlike that?”
Hope snorted again before shaking her head emphatically.
I leaned back in my chair. “Good to know. I’ll resist the urge to seduce you with my twenty-minute lecture on atmospheric data sets. Luckily for both of us, I left those flash cards in my other jacket.”
Her shoulders shook with laughter now, the soft sound of it going straight to my dick.
“That’s a pity,” she finally managed to respond. “I might have enjoyed falling asleep at dinner.”
She grinned at me when I let out a chuckle in response.
“Any other riveting dates to tell me about?” I shouldn’t be this… hopeful… that she hadn’t met any decent men yet. It was only day one, after all. But I liked her. A lot.
“Nothing exciting, really. There were a few complete duds, a couple that might have shown promise if they weren’t interested in a full-time submissive, and then the asshole who refused to let me finish a single sentence, so sure of what I was going to say each time.”
“Looks to me like he failed the most basic test,” I said calmly. “Listening is not an advanced skill.”
Her smile faded into something softer, almost relieved. “You’d be surprised how many people don’t seem to know how to listen.”
“No,” I replied. “I really wouldn’t.”
She toyed with the edge of her napkin. “I wasn’t quite prepared for how it would all feel, you know? It almost felt like I was being evaluated. If I said the wrong thing, they’d decide I wasn’t submissive enough. Or too much.Ornot the right kind.” She scoffed as her cheeks reddened again. “Which is just silly, isn’t it? Because that’s exactly whatIwas doing with them.”
I leaned back in my chair, studying her for a moment. “It’s not silly. Those feelings aren’t mutually exclusive. If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t feel evaluated when I sat with you. All I felt was a connection.”
Her eyes lifted to mine, searching. “Yeah?”
