Her breath grew faster. “How do you know all that? You ... you shouldn’t ask. You should just stay away from me. I’m toxic. I’m poison. I will hurt you.”
“Hurt me? I don’t think so.”
“Ink,” Duke rumbled again. Ink shot him a look as Betsy stiffened, the other man’s voice a reminder of their audience.
“I got this, Duke.”
“Who are they?” she asked him, her gaze moving from Duke to Brody to Reyes.
“Don’t worry about them. Worry about me. I’m the one you answer to.”
“Not anymore,” she said.
“I am your Dom, Betsy. You do as I say.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That’s not the way it works.”
He was proud of her. When they’d first met, she wouldn’t have dared stand up to him like that. She’d likely have gone along with anything he said.
“You’ve been lying to me, Betsy. Keeping things from me. Not telling your Dom that you’re in trouble is a huge issue.”
“We don’t…we don’t have a contract. You’re not really my Dom.”
“Am I not?” Christ. Hearing those words coming from her felt so wrong. His entire body rebelled. This was it. The decision that could change everything.
“Look me in the eyes, Betsy and tell me it was all a lie. Tell me your submission wasn’t a gift but rather a trick. Tell me that connection isn’t there. That you don’t want to be my sub. That you never were my Little girl. Tell me that it wasn’t real and I will stop. There will be nothing between us again. I will stop acting as your Dom and your Daddy. We’ll just talk Betsy to Ink.”
Her breath was loud. Her eyes wide. Skin pale and despite her attempts to hide them with make-up he could see the dark smudges under her eyes.
But he had to know.
She was his. Sure, they had some big hurdles to overcome and it would take him a long time to trust her, but he still wanted her.
Whatever mess she’d gotten herself caught up in. He could fix.
He would claim her.
And what he claimed stayed his.
No. Matter. What.
All right, rein it in a bit, man.
“You tell me that it wasn’t an act. That you are my sub, my Little, and I will fix this shit. I promise you. We got shit to work out, like trust and communication. That’s all fucked up so much that it’s not going to be easy. But you ask for my help, you tell me that it was real and I won’t let anything happen to you, Betsy. I’ll wrap you up in so many layers of protection that nothing will get through to hurt you.”
She shook her head. “You should hate me.”
“Because you lied to me? Because meeting you was all a set-up? Because you’re working with whoever is trying to set me up?”
“I’m not working with them,” she spat out.
“Tell me, Betsy. Tell me I’m your Dom. Let me help you.”
“God. God. How can you say these things to me? They make me want…want what I can’t have.”
“And what can’t you have?”
“You.” Her eyes blazed now. “I can’t have you. I can’t have anyone. Anyone I care about they threaten them to get me to do what they want.”