Page 80 of Sugar

“Want your usual drink?”

As fucking ridiculous yet fitting as it is since it’s also sweet, cute, and young…

She shook her head. “I have a class at eight tomorrow.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that? We could’ve rescheduled. Or I’d have left work earlier.” I was about to suggest we go grab a quick burger instead, but she waved off my concern.

“It’s not like I go to bed before one or so. I just don’t want alcohol slowing me down even more.”

“You need to start going to bed earlier.”

“Why? I’m fine.”

“Because I said so.” I set the drink menu down since I couldn’t have built a better opening.

Usually, I didn’t give a shit what my subs did outside of our time together. It wasn’t my business. Maddie wasn’t my sub, though. She was, for lack of a better phrase, my sugar baby. That gave me more reach. More options.

More control.

Unless she threw the burning candle on the table at my crotch for suggesting the changes.

I nudged the candle farther from her reach. “I’d like to negotiate a few contract amendments.”

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth before slowly releasing it. “Did I, uh, do something wrong on Saturday?”

“No. Fuck no. It was the opposite. That was the first time one of those dinners didn’t feel like hell on earth. That’s why I’d like more.” Christ, I was nervous. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt like that outside of a big case. “I want you to be my sugar baby. Officially.”

She leaned back, and there was a flash of something mixed with her surprise. I might’ve been imagining it, though, because there was no trace of anything but confused amusement in her voice. “I thought you didn’t like that phrase.”

“I don’t. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t accurate.”

“Isn’t that what I already am?”

“In a manner of speaking, but I’d like more.”

“How so?”

“I work a lot of hours at a stressful job. There are times, like tonight, where I’d like company after a long day. Would you be open to that?”

“So… extending our arrangement beyond business functions?” At my chin lift, she nodded. “I’d like that.”

Some of the tension in my gut lessened, but I didn’t accept her immediate answer. She needed to know what she was agreeing to. “There are some stipulations. Rules and guidelines you’ll be expected to follow.”

Her words came out as little more than an airy breath, and that shot straight to my dick. “Like what?”

“That I have access to you twenty-four seven.” I held up a hand to cut off her protests. “Unless it’s school. You’ll send me your schedule, and I won’t interfere during those times.”

Usually.

“What if I have other plans?” she asked.

“Depends on what they are but assume that plans with me will supersede anything else.”

She didn’t laugh in my face at that, but she also looked more hesitant than she had moments ago. It also made her question further before she instantly agreed. “What else?”

Smart girl.

“You’ll take andusemy card. That money is yours regardless of anything else. If you’re agreeable to this, you’ll be compensated for your time. Beyond that, you’ll accept whatever I give you without making it into an argument. If you don’t like it, that’s one thing. I want to know that. But don’t fight me for the sake of fighting. Understood?”