"Days and nights." I twist my lips. "It took me a week to find it."
"A week?" She lowers her arms to her side. "You were looking for it all this time?"
"I almost gave up." I chuckle. "At one point, I was cold and wet, and my fingers had almost frozen off, but then I knew that if I came here without it… Without the symbol of what it means to me to be forgiven, without putting in the penance for what I did... I knew, without it, you wouldn’t forgive me."
She scowls. "You sound very sure of yourself that I’ll take you back now."
"Won’t you?" I arch an eyebrow. Damn it, and I was doing so well up until now. But the moment she challenged me, that dominant part of me surged to the fore. This groveling thing… Clearly, I need more lessons to get it right. I hold out my palm. "You’re going to forgive me, Aurora; you know you want to."
She opens her mouth, then nods. "I want to, Christian, but I’m not going to."
What the fuck? I glare at her. "You’re not going to forgive me?"
"Unless…"
“Unless?”
"Unless you allow me to tie you up."
56
Aurora
"Tie me up?" He rises to his feet. "You want to tie me up?"
"You tied me up," I point out.
"That was different.’
"Oh, yeah?" I tip my chin up. "How is that?"
"I’m the dominant in this relationship; you’re forgetting that, Flower."
"No, I’m not. It’s because you are the aggressor that I am asking for this."
He glowers at me. "You know what it means if I allow myself to be tied up by you?"
"That you trust me?" I say softly. "That you’re ready to strip yourself of all ego and put yourself in my hands to allow me to do with you as I want?"
"Which, I admit, is not a bad scenario at all," he murmurs.
"So, you’ll let me—"
"Yes," his massive chest rises and falls, "I’ll let you tie me up if it means you’ll forgive me."
"You will?" Jesus, he’ll actually do that? He’ll actually swallow his ego and his machismo and that dominance that drips from every pore in his body and allow me to have him at my mercy? A pulse throbs to life between my legs, my pussy clenches, moisture laces my core, and honestly, I don’t know why, but the thought of having this big brute of a man tied up and in my power is so freakin’ hot.
"On one condition."
A-n-d, there it is, alphahole’s ego always means he has to have the last word.
"I didn’t think this was a negotiation." I pout.
"Oh, I’m always negotiating, Flower." He smirks. "You know that."
"And if I don’t want to?"
"I think you’d enjoy it more if you did..." His smile widens. "Go on; you know you want to find out what I want in return."