Free No Strings Attached by Erin Lark Page B

having those submissive tendencies the same way I have them as a Dom, we'd be another couple experimenting with kink. And we can still work along those lines. This can go as little or as far as you like.”
    “For now?” I paused, but the lift of his eyebrows asked me to continue. “I want to forget about the kink, my submission or anything else that might have to do with that lifestyle.”
    He nodded, but I didn't miss the flicker of disappointment in his eyes. “I'm okay with that, but if you change your mind—”
    “I'll let you know.”
    Thayre patted on the mattress. “Lie back and, if it's not too much to ask, close your eyes.”
    I settled down, and after a bit of hesitation on my part, I shut my eyes. Thayre didn't move or speak for a long, unnerving moment. And soon, I couldn't remember where I'd left him before I closed my eyes. At the foot of the bed, of course, but how close was he? Where were his hands? His eyes? Was he looking at me or something else?
    I shivered and folded my hands behind my head. I was still clothed. My legs hung off the edge of the bed. I wasn't exposed, and yet I was completely vulnerable. In a good way. This was the one guy I knew I could trust, as much from our past as the events that had happened over the last two weeks. And while we might not have gotten into bed together when we were teens, I knew now that the attraction hadn't been one-sided.
    Something clicked off to my left, but before I could react, music danced in the air above me. I tried to concentrate on where Thayre had gone, but found myself following the music instead. It wasn't something I'd heard before, but it was definitely his. Strings opened the piece, joined by a bit of trance less than a minute into the song.
    My head bobbed on its own while I gently tapped my foot against the air.
    “Open your eyes.”
    I did, smiling as small orbs of colored light moved from one side of the ceiling to the other. “Thayre, this—”
    “Even without bondage, floggers and blindfolds, you can still submit. Your apprehension is more than enough for me. The entire time you were laying there, probably going out of your mind, I was standing right over here.”
    I turned my head in his direction, laughing at the small disco ball sitting on his dresser beside the source of his music. “Head games.”
    He smiled, then stepped toward me, leaning in to kiss me on the lips. “The best kind. But you see what I mean? You can't control your submission. It's a part of who you are, and, like it or not, you're stuck with it.”
    “Why are you so desperate to see me give into it?”
    He caressed my cheek with the backs of his fingers. “Because, I can see fighting it frustrates you. But also because you would make a beautiful submissive.” He brushed a thumb under my eye, removing a tear I hadn't noticed was there. “Listen, I might not know what happened in your last relationship, but it obviously wasn't bad enough to throw you out of the lifestyle completely. Even if you hadn't brought this up tonight, I saw the submissive side in you well before you saw the Dom in me. You wear your submission on your sleeve, and while you may think you're tricking yourself, you aren't hiding it from anyone else. And again, I'm not asking anything from you, only that you be yourself around me. Especially when it comes to your music.”  
    Tears burned my eyes. I was angry with myself and beyond frustrated with my life. When I wasn't defending myself at work, I was struggling to make heads or tails of my sex-life, and the other night with Thayre only seemed to complicate things more. Something had to give, and it all started in this room. Right now.
    I threw my arms around Thayre, grateful when he hugged me. I buried my face against his neck, but even then, I was pretty sure he knew I was crying. He held me closer. Tighter. And once I'd taken a handful of steady breaths, he drew his head back to look into my eyes.
    Lifting my chin, he asked, “You