"Tell me everything he said and did."
"Do you really want me to?" I said, shaking my head, brushing a hank of his black hair from his forehead.
"Tell me, Kate. We need complete openness and honesty. I need to know what he did and how you felt."
I tried to hold back a smile. "Most men avoid talking about feelings at all costs."
"They didn't study psychology like I did." He ran a finger over my wet shoulder and down to the cure of my breast. "Men want to do, and believe me, I want to do. I want to go and punch his lights out. We usually don't want to talk. But I know women talk things out. So talk. Tell me."
I sighed, not really wanting to go over it all again.
"Come on," he said and shook my shoulder gently. "Tell me. I won't get mad or upset."
I told him everything, from the moment we left to the moment I saw him at the hospital with Sam.
"Sounds passive-aggressive. Or else he thinks you're attracted to a sadistic Dom who likes to humiliate a submissive. Some women respond to that kind of behavior. I know you don't but he doesn't seem too bright if he was treating you like that."
"He actually suggested that he and I would be 24/7 if we were together. That I needed it, even if I didn't want to accept that fact."
Drake shook his head. "No, and that's how I know he's not a good Dom. You're not the type for TPE. I'm not the type for TPE and that's why we're good together. I might be able to do it for a weekend for fun and games, role playing, but not all the time."
I exhaled and sank lower in the water, my hands on his strong shoulders. "I might like roleplaying TPE for a weekend, too, but not all the time. Pretend I was your slave girl. That kind of thing but it would only be an act for fun. It wouldn’t be real. And no humiliation. I do that enough on my own."
"You don't humiliate yourself."
"In my mind I do. Like today, when I walked away. I should have gone in the room and pushed Sam out of the way, put my arms around you and kissed you in front of her. Claimed you as my own. But instead, I ran away like a child because I was afraid you'd read my texts and Claire's and were turning to her for comfort."
"You were vulnerable because we'd been apart all weekend and you’d been hounded by Sefton. You were emotional and couldn't face a confrontation. You didn't humiliate yourself."
"Sam was probably laughing at me."
"Why would you think that?"
"She wants you, and don't you think otherwise. That first night at the student-faculty mixer, she admitted as much."
"What?"
"She said that you weren't married and pretty much indicated you were fair game…"
He made a face of disapproval. "She'd be wrong." He touched my cheek, a smile slowly starting on his lips. "I just haven't made you a respectable woman yet."
I bit back a smile. "Drake, no single woman goes up to a single man as good looking as you and offers to give him a massage without wanting more… You're very naïve," I said and sighed in a mock-resigned manner. "She wants to jump your oh-so-desirable bones, Doctor Delish."
Drake laughed, throwing his head back. He looked back at me, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "You think she's still lusting after me after all this time? She knows I'm a Dom and that I don't want a purely vanilla relationship. She's far too dominant herself. She has an icicle's chance in hell of ever getting me. You've got me, Ms. Bennet, by the mind, heart and balls."
I smiled at that, my breath catching in my throat when he leaned down and kissed me. I reached one hand down, trailing it from his hair to his chest, where I placed my hand over his heart and then down over the crest of his hip.
"I do, do I?"
He moaned softly when I cupped him with my hand. "Most assuredly you do. Now, don't touch me there unless you mean serious business and plan on being fucked hard."
He quirked an eyebrow at me, his mouth turning up in a lopsided grin.
When I ran my hand along his quickly-hardening length, my fingers slipping around the head, he inhaled sharply and leaned down to me, his lips hovering over mine.
"I take that as a yes," he said and covered my lips with his and soon, once more, I was lost, all thoughts of Sam and Sefton swept away by the strength of our mutual passion.
Although the safari had been a momentous failure, one good thing had come of it. Sefton had unsettled me about my art and now I knew I had to take myself more seriously, think about what I wanted to do as an artist. I had him to thank for that and so even though it was a hard lesson to learn, I wanted to settle back quickly into my routine glad now that I had the time to focus on my art.