Page 40 of Leverage & Obedience

He’s laughing as he pulls me up his body, kissing me hard. When he breaks it off, his expression sobers, but the warmth stays.

“Wait here.”

He eases me off him and slides out of bed, walking naked through the bedroom doorway. Even after two orgasms, I appreciate the view.

He comes back carrying a square black box and sits on the edge of the bed. What’s this? I clamber up and crawl over to him.

My pulse spikes as he opens the box. Inside is a collar. Black leather with a silver heart where a D-ring usually sits.

My breath stops.

“I bought this last week.” He says it quietly. “I was planning to ask.”

My eyes are on the collar. He really is choosing me.

“Bren.”

“You don’t have to say yes right now if you need time. But I wanted you to know.”

I’m off the bed and on my knees in front of him before he finishes.

The first time I sank down between his legs in his office chair, I was the temp who was leaving in three months and pretending I knew what I was doing. Today I’m the woman who’s staying.

His hand shakes as he lifts the collar from the box. He’s shaking the same way I was when he opened the door, and I don’t look away.

He leans forward, and the leather is cool against my neck as he wraps it around my throat.

The clasp closes, and his fingers linger, adjusting the fit. His thumb skims the silver heart.

“Perfect,” he murmurs.

I’m on my knees on his bedroom rug with a collar around my neck and tears running down my cheeks. I am, apparently, an ugly crier. I do not care.

He slides off the bed and kneels in front of me on the rug. He cups my face with both hands, thumbs wiping the tears off my cheeks.

“I love you,” he says.

My chest goes tight. He hasn’t said those words to anyone since his wife, and he’s saying them to me.

My hands cover his, and I press them harder against my face. The collar is real against my throat. All of it is mine.

I open my mouth, and what comes out is messy.

“I love you.” My voice breaks in the middle, and I laugh through it, a hiccupping laugh that sounds ridiculous and is exactly me. “I love you, and I’m terrified. I want to unpack my boxes, and that’s the most commitment I’ve ever made to anything, and I need you to understand what a massive deal that is for me.”

He laughs. His hands are still on my face, and his cheeks are also wet. We’re both kneeling on his bedroom floor, laughing and crying at the same time. A messy, matched set.

“I understand,” he says.

“Good.” I sniff and drag my knuckles across my nose in a gesture that is very not sexy. “Because those boxes are heavy and I’m going to need help carrying them. Hope you knew offering to be my boyfriend also makes you my pack mule.”

He wraps his arms around me. “You came back to me, Lily. The boxes are easy.”

I smile into the crook of his neck, and when I kiss his throat, his arms tighten.

I’m not the temporary person. Turns out I never was.

Chapter 11