He leaned over and placed his hand over her mouth. “You’re scared.”
Well, duh.
“You don’t need to be scared. I’m going to take care of everything. Of you. Tonight, is just going to be about fun and me taking care of you. No pressure, little girl. All you have to do is try to relax and let me worry about everything else.”
Have someone worry about everything? It sounded like freaking heaven. She just had no clue how to do any of that.
“Where is somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit?” he asked strangely.
She stared at him in confusion. “Um, Venice.”
“Venice. Good. That’s your safeword. If I push any boundaries that make you feel extremely uncomfortable, you’re going to say the word Venice, all right?”
You can do this, Eden. You want this. One night. One chance to experience what it would be like. Being a Little.
Being his.
“Yes.”
2
What had she agreed to? Was she insane? She had to be.
She stared at herself in the mirror above the sink in her bathroom. After the car accident when she was ten, Clint had her bedroom and bathroom completely remodeled. It would have been far easier to put her in one of the downstairs bedrooms, instead he’d put in a freaking elevator. Just for her. She shook her head. All that money spent just so she could come home to as much normalcy as possible.
At the time she hadn’t appreciated it. Now, she knew just how far he’d gone to try to make everything as easy on her as he could.
And had she ever thanked him?
Nope. Shit. Right now, she felt like a selfish bitch. What had she ever been to her family but a burden?
She sucked in a breath. She knew that wasn’t fair. Knew Clint and Kent didn’t think that. But sometimes she couldn’t help but feel that way. Sometimes in this house, on this ranch, it felt like she was being slowly suffocated by her guilt and worries.
That’s usually when she got in her car and drove. Fast. When she tried to race away from her demons by hanging out with people who were shallow.
It was stupid. And selfish in its own way, since she knew she worried her brothers.
But sometimes, it was the only way she could damn well breathe.
A knock on the door startled her. Okay, now wasn’t the time for self-reflection. Zeke-freaking-Jonas was waiting in her bedroom. Alone. What the hell had she been thinking?
Okay, calm down, it’s not like he’s going to go searching through your panty drawer or something.
She grinned. The thought of the huge ex-SEAL searching through her delicate, lace panties was hilarious.
“Baby? You all right?”
Warmth filled her at the endearment. It created a familiarity between them she wasn’t certain about. They’d spent so long buttin
g heads that this change in dynamics was weird.
Was she really going to do this? With him?
When are you going to get another chance? Who else would offer you this? Most of the men on this ranch saw her as a little sister. They treated her with care and affection but never anything more. Zeke was the only one who looked at her with heat in his gaze. Mostly, she figured that heat came from annoyance and anger. But the way he’d treated her tonight, that spoke of a deeper attraction.
Something more like what she felt for him. Because when she stopped lying to herself, she did want him. Desperately.
But tonight wasn’t about sex. No, it was about something far more intimate. Not that she’d had sex before. But this felt like she was revealing part of her soul.