Page 73 of Point of Contention

My breath caught.

“For Lacey, too. Whatever happened…” She shook her head. “I know you wouldn’t have hurt her intentionally.”

I closed my eyes and dropped my head. She was so willing to forgive me for my past mistakes, without even knowing the whole story. But I had to tell her everything.

If we moved forward, if she chose me, she had to know what she was choosing.

Opening my eyes and meeting her gaze again, I said, “Lacey is the only submissive I’ve ever collared.”

Her eyes widened, but she didn’t say anything.

“I wasn’t new to the lifestyle anymore, had been a Master at the Rabbit Hole for years by the time we met, but our relationship was chaotic. She wanted things I didn’t know how to give. Wanted it rougher than I did. And she wanted me outside the club too. Everything became so convoluted, so…”

“Messy?”

“Yes,” I sighed. “When I collared her, it was to get her off my back. It was a way to placate her.” I winced at the honesty of that statement because it had been a shitty thing to do. Giving Lacey something that mattered so much to her and so little to me had been cruel.

“But you didn’t want her? Didn’t feel that way about her?”

“No.”

“She fell in love with you.”

“Yes.”

“And you broke her heart.”

“Yes.” I pressed my lips together, bracing myself for the next truth I was about to set free. “And then I sold her to another Dom.”

Rylan’s mouth dropped open. “Youwhat?”

“I sold her. Traded,” I quickly corrected, then swallowed hard. The word choice mattered little in light of what I’d done, but I had to lay it all out on the table, strip myself bare if she was truly going to love a man like me. “I wanted his job; he wanted my sub. If he stepped down, I was next in line for the Ombudsman position.” I grit my teeth. “And I didn’t want to deal with Lacey anymore. She’d become too much. Too needy. Too…” I stopped to inhale a deep breath, shame constricting my chest. “He wasn’t a good Dom. He…” I closed my eyes on a long blink. “He wasn’t kind to her.”

When I opened my eyes again and dared to look at Rylan, the disgust I’d been anticipating had finally crept into her eyes.

“That’s what Mina meant,” she whispered, “about how hard she had to work with Lacey after you.”

I tightened my jaw, but gave her a quick nod of confirmation.

“You were supposed to show her how a Dom should treat her, how he should care for her…”

I nodded again.

“She was supposed to besafe.”

I closed my eyes shut, wincing as guilt tightened my lungs.

Rylan sighed loudly, then leaned her forehead against mine. “That’s fucked up.”

“Yeah.”

After a long stretch of silence, she said, “I still forgive you.”

“What?” I shook my head. “How? How can you?”

“Easy.” She touched my cheek. “That’s not who you are, Cabot. Not now, anyway, and now is what matters.”

I wasn’t so sure. My treatment of Stella was a prime example that maybe I was still that man. I’d discarded her and caused all of this—