Page 48 of Devoured

He raised his hands to tell me to slow down. “Take a step back for a second. You’ve gotta learn to trust me,” he said. “I did it thinking in your best interest.”

I cocked a brow at him. “My best interest? And yet you didn’t ask me how I felt about it,nordid you tell me that I was going to have new shadows following me.” I shook my head. “Youneed to learn to trustme.”

He stepped towards me, grabbing both of my hands and putting them behind my back. I breathed in deeply, taking in his minty, fresh scent.

“This isn’t about my lack of trust, is it?” he said in a low voice. “This is about you. And how you can’t let go and let things happen. It bothers you, doesn’t it?” He unclasped my wrists, but stayed close, the air magnetic between us. “Think about it. Part of the test of your submission is to see if you can learn to let go. To give yourself freely.” He put a finger under my chin and made me look into his eyes. “Trust me, Iris. Give yourself to me.”

As our eyes locked, my hands loosened and I dropped the apple, the thud shaking me out of my hazy stupor. Roland slid out of the room and helped himself to a glass of water in the kitchen.

“You’re not going to give the club to me?” I asked. “I thought—” I stammered. “But we—”

“Give it to you?” he chuckled. “Come on, Iris.”

“It’s not like you need it.”

“But I’m having so much fun.” He smirked. “Aren’t you?”

Shortly after that, he left to take care of business with Vanish Sage City, and I stood in the office, looking at the chewed up apple on the ground. I hated that he was making me work for the club. That he wasn’t willing to give me any breaks.

And yet I knew he was right. That I liked this game, whatever it was that we were playing. That there was something about him that drew me closer to him every time he molded me in his hands.

Maybe the security was about protecting me.

That was what I wanted to believe. That it wasn’t about keeping me in line, like Dahlia had done with the Adlers.

A spark of worry nagged at me, telling me to question him. To questioneverything. That just because he had a handsome grin and a nice body didn’t mean that I should givehimany breaks either. That I wasn’t safe.

But the Dahlia District was almost mine. I simply had to convince Roland to believe me, that I could run the club by myself, and that I submitted to him, heart and soul.

I stopped nodding. Stilled myself. Pushed that worry down. Buried it deeper. I ignored it.