Page 28 of The Healing Touch (Manwhore #3)

“Dimitri, I may not want to eat where you want to eat or see the movie you want to see. We don’t see eye to eye on movies. I’d go watch The Notebook while you’d see a rerun of whatever action movie is playing.”

He chuckled. She knew him all too well. He hated chick flicks even though that was what he wrote.

“That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t compromise on those things.

I’m not an evil bastard who’s going to tell you what to do, how to do it, and where to do it in all things.

You are a brilliant woman. I wouldn’t take that from you.

Let me ask you something, though. When was the last time you were able to not worry about something?

About having to solve something all by yourself.

Wouldn’t you like someone to help you? Even make some of those hard decisions?

Wouldn’t you like it, for once, to rely on someone else? ”

“Not if it meant giving up my own free will.”

Her reply was quick and to the heart of it.

He didn’t want her to give that up. That wasn’t what he was trying to do…

or was it? He thought about all his past relationships with women, at least the ones he’d had this kind of relationship with.

Hadn’t he asked them to do that? To give up everything and do as he told them?

Was that why he’d gotten so bored so fast?

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that wasn’t the type of relationship he wanted with Becca. He wanted her to be herself, not someone there to do with as he pleased.

“Here is what I want from you, Becca. I want you to be yourself, no worries about what I might do or say or think. Just be the same person you’ve always been around me.

The only place I really want dominance is in the bedroom.

I want to tie to you up and fuck you. I want to bind you so you can’t move while I make you come over and over. I want control there.”

“But what if I want to tie you up?”

Her question surprised him so much, he couldn’t even form a response. Tie him up?

She sat up and twisted so she could face him, and he saw the devilment in her eyes. She was enjoying his discomfort. “What? You never thought about anyone doing those things to you?”

“Well, no.”

“Let me get this straight. You want me to let you do these things to me, but you’re not willing to follow that old adage, ‘what’s good for the goose is good for the gander’?”

Well, when she put it like that, it wasn’t fair, but he’d never so much as ever let anyone near him with any kind of bondage. He was the dominant, not the submissive.

“If you ever want me to let you do that, D, you’re going to have to cave and let me tie you up first.”

“The fuck you say.”

“The fuck I say.” Becca jumped off his lap. “I mean it, Dimitri. If you’re not willing to do the same, then you can forget about ever tying me up.”

Wait, had she just agreed to give them a chance?

“Does that mean you’re willing to try this? To see if what we have is true love or…”

“Or just two horny adults who have no control?” she asked sarcastically.

“I have control.” Usually. “It’s just when I got back and you weren’t here, I panicked, thinking you’d left me. Then I see you naked and…well, yeah, I did lose it, but can you blame me? You’re a beautiful woman.”

“This isn’t a romance novel, D. It’s real life, and we can both get hurt, so very much.”

“I know.”

“But you know how I feel about you. I want us to work more than you can ever know because I’ve been in love with you since I was fifteen years old. Does that mean I’m blind? No. It does mean I am willing to give this a shot, but on one condition.”

“What?”

“No sex.”

“The fuck?”

Becca watched his expression bleed from hope to confusion to outrage. He hadn’t expected that, but it was the one thing she could think of that would give her time to sort all this out. If he added sex into the mix, she’d not stand a chance of protecting her heart.

“You heard me. If you want me to believe I mean more to you than your other women, then you’re going to prove it.”

“By not fucking you?” He followed her inside, their meals forgotten. “How is that going to prove a damn thing?”

“It means you respect us enough to see what’s here without the lust and the blind passion sex brings.

Sexual chemistry only goes so far, D. I want to know if you’re going to be around for the long haul, if you’re going to be able to deal with my anxiety, if I can deal with it enough to give you everything you deserve. ”

His eyes softened, and he dropped his outraged stance. “You are all I need and more than I deserve. I could give two shits about your anxiety.”

“And you can say that now because you haven’t been around it day in and day out.

Two weeks from now? You might change your mind.

I want you to think about this, Dimitri.

Really think about what it means. Take the next two weeks to do that.

Then when we go to Texas, if you still feel the same, we can go at it like two Energizer bunnies if you want, but until then, no sex. I mean it.”

“You seriously think I’m going to go home and change my mind?”

“You might, Dimitri. Once you realize I can’t do all the things your other flavors of the week can.

I hate going out. I’d rather be home, safe behind four walls and a door.

You saw what crowds do to me. You’re asking me to accept you being the control freak in the bedroom.

The least you can do is respect me enough to take the time to think about what I’m asking you to accept. ”

His gaze became calculated, and her hinky feeling decided to rear its head. He was up to something. She knew that look.

“You’re right. I haven’t been around your anxiety day in and day out. I don’t know what it looks like, but how am I expected to evaluate it if I’m not around it?”

The asshole. She knew where this was going.

“So, to be fair, you need to come to LA with me. We need to spend time together, to get to know each other’s ins and outs. Like the fact I leave the cap off the toothpaste all the time. Or I leave my dirty socks laying around. Things like that.”

“You want me to come to LA?” That meant an airport. People. Crowds. Standing in line…

He grabbed her hand before she could panic. “No airplanes. I can book a train, our own private car. You won’t have to be around anyone longer than it takes to board.”

He really was beginning to learn the early signs of her panic. Not only that, but he’d thwarted it. Maybe he could handle it.

“So, what do you say? I’ll stop trying to seduce you if you agree to come to LA and let us work on our relationship.”

“No sex for two weeks.”

“No sex until Texas. Pinkie swear.”

Becca took a deep breath and let the first real ray of hope invade her chest. She hooked her pinkie with his.

“You have a deal, Dimitri.”