Page 13 of Right Next Door (Stone Family #3)

“Yo! Ian, Nicole! I’ll have you out in a few minutes.”

A drill starts up, and I take one of Nicole’s clammy hands in mine. “Don’t put yourself down. You are mistress of yourself, remember? You ask for what you want.”

She smiles shyly, tucking her chin toward her chest. “I guess so.”

I give her hand a squeeze, and she squeezes back. “If I’m mistress of myself, what does that make you?”

She really does have some attitude hidden behind that good girl, doesn’t she?

I cluck my tongue, seeing how far I can push her. “Master.”

She smiles. “What exactly does that mean?”

“Nothing.” I flick my hand up, clearing the air since she thought I was joking. Might as well run with that. “I was kidding.”

“No, you weren’t.” Her amusement melts. Those soft blue eyes of hers study me, seeing so much more than I want her to. She slowly lifts her fingers to my face, combing them over my beard, dragging her thumb along my lower lip. “You meant something . I can tell.”

She doesn’t need to tie me to a chair. Use a lie detector. Extract all my secrets with torture. All she has to do is blink those stunners at me and run her fingers over my beard. I’ll tell her anything she wants.

“How?”

She tilts her head. “How what?”

“How can you tell?” How can she read me so well?

Maybe the same way I read her?

How I can decipher the shy curve of her mouth when she’s hesitant to say what’s on her mind. Or the way she bites her lip when she’s nervous. Or blinks rapidly when she’s trying to hide something.

“I’m not sure,” she says, almost as if she’s afraid to admit it.

“A feeling, maybe. It’s funny…” She trails her hands from my face to my throat and down my chest to my sides, where she holds on to my T-shirt.

“I was always so intimidated by you, but now it feels…” She tips her head, nibbling on her lip.

“Like I know you.” She blushes scarlet and covers her face.

“It’s stupid. That’s stupid. Pretend I didn’t say that. ”

When she shifts away from me, I don’t let her, hooking my finger into the collar of her dress, twisting the material in my grip. She’s not going anywhere.

“I’m not going to pretend you didn’t say it, because you’re right.” I tug her toward me, ghosting my lips across hers. “It feels like I know you too.”

When she doesn’t move, I chance a kiss, one that starts as a press of my mouth on hers and leads to long caresses of her tongue, pulls of her lip between mine.

By the time we’re done, she’s slow to open her eyes, swaying into me, and I can’t help but chuckle.

She’s so goddamn cute.

“Are you going to tell me?” She scratches her fingernails over my pecs.

“Tell you what?”

“Your secret. Whatever it is you’re hiding.”

I heave a sigh like she’s a pain in my ass. When really, I’m just not sure what her reaction will be. I made her come with my fingers the other night, and there’s nothing I want more than to make her come again and again and again .

But she’s married.

Fucking married .

Sure, she and her asshat of a husband are doing this experimenting or whatever the fuck they want to call it, but it doesn’t change the fact that she still wears her wedding ring.

I may have tried a lot of shit in my life, but I’ve never slept with a married woman. And I never plan to.

Although the temptation to do more with this married woman is already too hard to ignore.

“What are we doing here?” I ask, for possibly the first time ever in my life.

She blinks once then twice, a third time. “I don’t… I’m not sure, but I know I don’t want to stop.”

I’d been so cavalier when she first told me. Fuck around and find out .

Well, now I fucked around and found out.

I can’t go backward. I can’t simply erase what happened between us.

I won’t be able to forget and go back to the way things were before, acknowledging each other as if we’re acquaintances at neighboring businesses and nothing else.

These last few days of her hiding away from me made me feel like shit, and it’ll be even worse when she decides she’s done with me.

But then again, I can’t pass up what she’s offering me. Whatever it is. I want it.

I need it.

For better or for worse, I’m in this now.

I bury my hands in her hair, holding her head so she can’t look anywhere but right at me. “I’m a Dominant.”

Her brows narrow. “A what?”

“A Dominant.”

Her pupils dilate, lips part, and it’s a few seconds before she responds. “Like BDSM?”

I nod.

“With, like, whips and paddles and… Fifty Shades of Grey ?”

I shake my head. “I never read it, but no. I don’t do whips and paddles. At least, not unless my partner wants me to, but it’s not what I like.”

She licks her lips, evidently interested. “What do you like?”

“I like control.”

Her jaw bobs. She stays silent, though she breathes faster.

“I do it with pleasure instead of pain. I control my partners with orgasms. When and where they have them or how many.”

She blows out a breath that fans over my face.

“I don’t?—”

“I want to try it,” she interrupts, and I search her eyes for the truth. If she really wants it or is simply confused.

She’s gone through a lot lately, and this isn’t something to jump into.

She has to trust me. To really want this.

But she’s biting her lip, blinking, and fidgeting with her hair.

None of that’s making me feel particularly comfortable with her interest in the lifestyle.

A lot of people think they want to do it but don’t take it seriously—like her fuckwit husband and his idea for an “open relationship”—and when that happens, people get hurt.

At best, emotionally. At worst, physically.

Yet, I am nothing if not a fucking shithead like the rest of the male human species because the idea of her submitting to me makes my dick throb and my mouth literally water.

“You want to try it?”

Her sass breaks through the nerves. “Do I have to say, like, yes, sir and no, sir ?”

There is no other person who can make me smile and laugh like she does. “No, but I would ask you to do things.”

“Like what?”

“Things to make me happy.”

“For example…?”

“Insistent little thing.” I tweak her nose.

“I might tell you to wear certain clothing or run different errands. To not touch yourself or to touch yourself.” I let my hands drift from the back of her head down her spine, scrunching up her dress.

I could easily tie her up with it. Blindfold her. “Whatever I want. Whenever I want it.”

“That sounds…” Color rises high in her cheeks. “…intense.”

Something hammers outside, but in here with Nicole, I feel nothing but peace and calm. I stroke the side of her head, sifting the sleek strands of her hair between my fingers. “Of course, there are rules. Certain lines won’t be crossed, which would be discussed beforehand.”

“It’s ironic, isn’t it? How all of this is supposed to set us free, but it’s full of rules?”

“Rules keep you safe.” Keep me safe.

Already, I fear I’m too far gone over this girl. Any more, and I’ll lose that last piece of my heart that isn’t broken. And maybe I should think that over for myself.

I stand and turn away from her to shake out my limbs, tension filling my muscles, my heart beating faster, but I feel Nicole behind me. Her hand on my back. Her cheek near my shoulder. And it takes everything in me not to pull her into my arms, wrap her up, and keep her there.

“I know you’re trying things, figuring out what you want, but—” I gesture between us “—I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

She sweeps her fingers over my ribs, the tattoo she admired with the writing that matches her own, as she comes to stand in front of me, fisting my T-shirt. “Please, Ian. I want to know what it’s like. I want to feel it again, how you made me feel in your shop.”

When I don’t immediately answer, she tugs at her hair, features screwed up like she’s in pain.

“I’m constantly thinking—overthinking—and worrying, and I don’t want to be like that anymore.

I walked into Stone Ink on Tuesday and…” She holds her arm up to show off her tattoo, the wrinkles on her face smoothing, blue eyes glowing.

“I made this decision, and it felt so good to follow my gut. And you, you… God, I don’t know if I’ve ever…

” She drops her arm, and her throat bobs on a swallow.

The truth wrapped around each of her words and the glassiness of her eyes is a punch in the solar plexus.

“You made me feel better than I ever have, and I didn’t have to think about it.

I didn’t have to make any decisions. I wasn’t worrying. I was in the moment with you.”

When she lifts her shoulder in an embarrassed shrug, it breaks my heart.

I won’t say no to her. I can’t. Not when I can recall the taste of her on my tongue, feel the phantom wetness on my fingers.

Let alone knowing how she feels right now is how I feel.

How I always want her to feel. Confident and free.

“Listen,” I start, dragging my hands over my head and neck before taking a deep breath to steady myself.

“If you really, truly want to do this, you need to be completely honest with me and with yourself. If you want to fuck around and get back at your husband…” The thought makes my jaw clench, and it takes me a bit to continue.

“That’s whatever, but if you want to be an actual submissive with me, it’s different.

We need to have different kinds of conversations, and you have to be sure. ”

“I’m sure,” she says almost immediately.

“Really?” Because I sure as hell am not.

I don’t know how the fuck I’ll make it out of whatever this arrangement is without losing my goddamn mind over her.

To say nothing of how my heart beats more erratically the longer we’re trapped together.

“I’m sure,” she says and stands on her toes to kiss me.

Right as the refrigerator door swings open to reveal Dante with safety goggles, drill in hand, and a red bandanna tied across his forehead like the fucking Karate Kid.

Nicole leaps away from me, and Eloise throws herself at us.

“I am so, so sorry! I knew the lock was busted, but I never thought I’d have lots of people coming and going in it.

I’m due for an inspection soon, and I was going to get it fixed before then, but I guess I’m getting a whole new walk-in.

Good lord, the money I don’t have.” She elbows Nicole.

“Small business problems, am I right?” Then she hugs me. “You’re my hero.”

I stiffly pat her back. “I didn’t do anything.”

Dante waves his hand. “Yeah, he didn’t do anything. I did.”

Eloise jumps at Dante, hugging him while my sister watches all this with a smug smirk. I point my index finger at Taryn, ready to get the hell out of here. “I owe you and your boyfriend a dinner.”

“Thanks, man,” Dante says, tossing me a thumbs-up as he tries to wiggle out of Eloise’s grip.

“Let’s go, Nicole. Get some fresh air.” I motion for her to exit ahead of me, and we burst out onto the sidewalk on Aster Street.

She tilts her head back, breathing deeply for a minute before turning her attention to me. “I’m glad it was you I was stuck with. I’m not sure I would have made it with anyone else.”

I shake my head, stuffing my hands in my pockets so I don’t touch her. “You’re stronger than you think you are.”

She considers that for a bit then crosses her arms, toying with her necklace. “Strong enough to…” She darts her gaze around, making sure no one can hear when she says, “Be your submissive?”

“As long as you’re honest with yourself and trust me completely, then yeah.

” The problem is, I’m not sure she can do that.

Nicole is sweet and soft-spoken, a people pleaser.

As a submissive, she would be pleasing me but only because she wants that, and I don’t think she has any idea what she wants right now.

With a sigh, I check the time. I hate to leave this conversation, but I have an appointment coming up, and she needs to really think about her decision. “Text me your final answer tomorrow. Yes or no.”

She backs up toward Chapter and Verse, a playful curl to her mouth that lands a direct hit on my heart. “Yes, sir.”

And I know I’m in for it with this girl.