Free Sophie's Surrender [Viper's Dungeon 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Abby Blake

off.
    When he didn’t say anything, she finally plucked up the courage to look over her shoulder at him.
    “This is really why you left me, isn’t it?” he asked as he stepped up behind her and wrapped an arm around her from behind. “You expected that as my submissive that I would try and tell you how to live your life, and when you could and couldn’t work. Maybe even order you not to work.”
    “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I suppose that was part of it. I was young, just finding my feet as an adult, and I saw what you wanted for us as a threat to that.” She shook her head, leaning back against him even though it was probably the last thing she should do. “But I think it was that I was so crazy in love with you that I probably would have done anything you commanded that scared me the most. I didn’t want to be like my mother—loving a man so hopelessly that she was blind to his faults.”
    As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. Malcolm was nothing like her stepfather—not one iota. Comparing the two men was a horrible insult to a man who’d done nothing but love her.
    He stayed quiet, perhaps trying to find a diplomatic way to tell her how very wrong she was.
    “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “That came out all wrong.”
    “But I think I understand anyway,” Malcolm said, resting his chin on the top of her head. “I didn’t do a very good job of explaining what I wanted either.”
    He held her close for a while, seeming to need to hold her as much as she needed to be held. Considering that they hadn’t actually touched each other since the divorce, it was surprising how familiar his embrace still felt. Unfortunately all that did was make her feel guilty. Intellectually she knew she’d done nothing wrong, but it seemed her emotions didn’t give a damn when it came to logical thinking.
    “I’m sorry about Adrian and Al—”
    Her words cut off when he turned her to face him. She didn’t really want to look at him at that moment. The soft touch of his hand against her cheek made her want to cry all over again.
    “Don’t ever apologize for that, baby. Alex said he and Adrian wanted more than one night. They wanted to begin a true relationship with you but when you found out about them owning Viper’s Dungeon that you freaked out.”
    She half giggled, half sobbed at the rather apt description of her behavior.
    “Did they do anything that frightened you? Anything that you wouldn’t want to do again?”
    “No,” she said, feeling her face heat with embarrassment. This didn’t feel like an appropriate conversation to be having with her ex-husband, no matter how long they’d been divorced.
    “So it was only the fact that they own Viper’s Dungeon that scared you?”
    She shrugged. Put that way it sounded like she was jumping at shadows.
    “Sophie,” he said, lifting her chin so that she had no choice but to look at him, “they sensed what I’ve always known. You’re an independent, self-confident woman who’s in charge of her own life. They wouldn’t take that away from you.”
    “But isn’t that what being submissive is all about? Letting someone else take over the decision making?”
    “Basically that’s exactly what it is, but not everyone lives it full-time. Most of the subs at Viper’s Dungeon are only submissive in the Dungeon. Outside of it they’re confident, independent women just like you.”
    “But some live that way full-time?”
    “Some do,” he said with a nod, “but even that’s not set in stone. Viper and his sub, Bianca, lived a full-time Dom-sub lifestyle for over a decade. A couple of years ago they realized it wasn’t working for either of them anymore.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that,” Sophie said, truly meaning it. She’d only met the couple briefly, and even though they’d lived a lifestyle that would never have suited her, she’d sensed the deep love between them.
    “They had a rough time for a while,