Free Broken Bonds (Club Imperial Series) by Katherine Rhodes

loved what it gave her, and…it was now abundantly clear that Nathaniel was not going to be a sub. Not the way she had originally wanted him to be.
    But that wasn’t why she was falling in love with him. He was smart, funny, sweet, kind, a bit naïve, and generous to a fault. Who else would go buy four whole beef tenderloins for the soup kitchen? He was patient and he worried about her. He’d been right about the security. She couldn’t ask him to put up with it if she refused the exact same thing.
    There had been Franz who always worried about her, but he was more like a big brother now. Was it fair, though, that Nathaniel was going to have to put up with her baggage? She’d said it, a cargo plane full of it. Hey. You messed up, sister. You didn’t tell him your limits. Truth. They’d talked about his, but she’d forgotten he wasn’t a sub. He was going to cross lines she didn’t want crossed.
    The cut-out bustier had been a surprise and a wonderful compromise. But even Dan, who had been with her for well over a year and a half, had never seen her completely naked. It scared her in ways she couldn’t put into words.
    Sure you can. Freak. Deviant. Weirdo. All good to start with.
    She was pretty fubar’ed. She knew Franz was holding her place at the club. She liked the club. She was completely in control there, and that’s what she needed. Control. Routine. No one to tell her what to do, no one to risk crossing a line.
    Why couldn’t I just find another nice sub?
    Nathaniel challenged her. Made her think, made her feel more than she’d felt in years. Years and years. The Domme had allowed her to shove all that ‘feelings’ shit to the back of her head and just be in the moment. Now, they were coming back up and she was having trouble dealing with them. There were too many things she had just shoved into the back of her mind and forgot.
    Until he crossed the line. Until she’d been beaten up by a faceless assailant. Until Eric had reappeared in her boss’ life.
    Now, she was a mess again. Physically and mentally.
    This sucks.
    Her phone pinged, and she pulled it out.
    Nathaniel W: House is too big, LOL. Where r u?
    E Westerly: Tower room. It’s amazing.
    She sighed. It was time to start talking. All she really wanted to do, though, right at that moment, was to take him to bed. Longest dry spell since she was sixteen.
    The door below opened and Nathaniel’s head appeared above the stairs. He was surprised for a moment, and looked around the room. “I’ve never been up here at sunset,” he marveled.
    “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
    “La Sainte-Chapelle,” he said.
    She laughed. “I thought the same thing.”
    “I’m sorry we’ve been so busy, Emmy.” He sat down next to her on the highly polished dark wood floor. “Between the police investigation and trying to figure out the yard issues and what’s going on with the take-over, I’ve just been overwhelmed.”
    “It’s okay.” She assured him. “I needed the time to think about everything. I get confused around you.”
    “Why?” he asked softly.
    “Because the first thing I want to do when I see you is tie you up and fuck your brains out,” she confessed. “Then I remember what happened, and I freak out a little, and I remember I can’t do anything anyway until this cast comes off.”
    Nathaniel nodded. “Well, point three we can’t do anything about. You need to heal. Point one, I’m glad to see we’re on the same page.” Emmy looked at him confused. He smirked. “Because the first thing I want you to do to me when I see you is tie me up and fuck me.”
    Emmy laughed. “So you’ve come over the dark side.”
    “Only with you, sweetheart.” He touched her cheek gently. “I want to make that clear. You asked me to be a submissive, but I will only ever do this with you. I won’t go to another mistress. What you want, you can teach me.”
    “Going to another mistress—”
    “Isn’t going to happen,” he stated, again.