Page 34 of Danger and Dominance

“Let’s start with… do you want to scene in general?Then we can move on to who you’d like to scene with,” he said, which sounded eminently reasonable, but there was a problem.

“I won’t know if I want to scene unless I know who I’d be scening with.”She wasn’t going to scene with just anyone.Especially when she was surrounded by strangers.“Claudia also said she’d give me the okay on whether or not she thought a Dom would be good for me to scene with.”

“Claudia, Yasmine,andNaomi will probably all weigh in,” David admitted, his mobile lips twitching in something reminiscent of a smile before it faded again.His expression went completely blank, so she couldn’t tell what he was thinking at all as he studied her face.“Um.Did you want to scene with me?”

Yes.

But only if he wanted to scene with her.

“I don’t want you to feel like youhaveto scene with me.”Because how utterly humiliating would that be?She’d only been interested because she’d thought he was offering.She would never presume to ask.

“I know I don’t have to, but did you want to?You seemed interested when you thought I was offering.”

“Yeah, but then I found out that you weren’t actually offering,” she countered, crossing her arms over her chest.It wasn’t defiance so much as wanting to feel like she had some kind of defense against him.Maybe a little bit of a self-hug.

“I wasn’tnotoffering.”His expression was still decidedly neutral, but he was examining her very closely, as if he was trying to read her mind.

If only she could readhis.

“Well, if you’re not offering, then you don’t have to scene with me,” she said, trying not to sound irritated, even though she kind of was.Well, not irritated, exactly.Feeling rejected.Like he’d gotten her hopes up, then it turned out to be false.

His stone-faced expression was slowly giving way to a frown.

“I just said I wasn’tnotoffering!”

Cassidy blinked, trying to put together the double negative.

“So, that means youareoffering?”She just wanted to make sure she understood what he was saying because right now, she was very confused about whether he actually wanted to scene with her.

“If you want to.”

“You’re the Dom, you’re supposed to decide!”There was no way in hell she was going to admit she wanted to scene with him if he didn’t want to scene with her.

Had he just growled?

Cassidy squeaked, starting to step back as he stepped forward, reaching for her.His hand caught her around the back of her neck, halting her retreat, and her breath caught in her throat.A heated flush went through her whole body, flaming her cheeks and making her sensitive parts tingle.

Behind her, she could hear a chorus of feminine “ooohs”, proving the other women were definitely paying attention, even if they hadn’t been able to hear the full conversation.Since none of them were jumping in to stop what was happening, she could only assume all three of them approved.

“Cassidy, I would like to scene with you, but we need to lay a few ground rules first.”

Staring up at him, wide-eyed, she nodded her head.Well, nodded it as much as she could when he was holding her by the back of her neck.And why was that so freaking hot?She’d never liked being choked, but no one had ever held her by the back of her neck before.

It was intimate, but more than that, it made her feel safe.Protected.

Part of her wanted to melt against his grip, but the other part of her was on pins and needles, waiting for the rules.

His eyes were jade with little flecks of gold, his gaze boring into hers.

“Rule number one, this is a scene only.Since my team is guarding you, it would be a conflict of interest for me to be involved with you in any way outside of the club.”

Did that mean that he would want to be if there wasn’t a conflict of interest?Moot point.She felt a little flare of anger for yet another thing Don had stolen from her.If she and David had met in another way… and yet, they might not have met at all if it wasn’t for Don.

Either way, what he was saying was the most sensible route for them.It wasn’t like she was trying to jump into a new relationship.She was still trying to get rid of the old one.

“Rule number two…” He stopped for a moment, as if he’d forgotten rule number two, before he cleared his throat and kept going.“Rule number two, we are going to go over everything that might trigger you before we start, and rule number three is that if you feel uncomfortable or unsure at any point in the evening, you are to say your safe word.And rule number four is that nothing that happens inside the club affects us outside of the club.Agreed?”

Cassidy relaxed because none of that was unreasonable, and all of it made sense to her.She nodded.