The Agreement (55 page)

I sorted through my artwork, taking down the
framed pictures and stacking them against the wall. Drake stood at the sound
system, hooking his iPhone into it, selecting a song to play.

Something soft came on, and it wasn't his usual
sixties music.

"What's this?" I said, liking its
somber tone.

"
Please Don't Go
by Barcelona."

I listened for a  moment. "Sounds
awfully sad for you."

"I listened to this a lot during those days
between Christmas and New Years."

I smiled, amazed that he admitted that. I turned
back to the pictures and started to sort through them. He came and stood beside
me.

"I want to keep all of these, but none of
them have to come with us."

"I want this one to come," Drake said.
He stood and examined my pencil drawing of the knight and his lady.

"You like that one?"

He nodded. "That was me when you met
me."

"Really?" I remembered that first time
he was in my apartment. "I thought you said it was about me and how I
couldn't have sex without intimacy because I wanted to feel like a good
girl."

He shook his head and pulled me against him, his
arms slipping around my waist.

"I can rationalize anything," he said
and kissed my neck. "I was trying so hard to keep everything separated, my
emotions under control."

I took his hands in mine. "Why? I don’t
understand. I
want
to fall in love. It's a loveless relationship I
couldn’t imagine."

"When my marriage failed and I was given
that restraining order, it was as if I had failed as a man." He was silent
for a moment as if considering. "Kate, I was like Flyboy. I was the
asshole who didn't know what I was doing. I had to face up to who and what I
was. I had to keep myself under complete control. Whatever the reason, I tried
to keep you under control, confined to one spot, my emotions restrained.
Luckily, I failed miserably."

"I thought you had me quite well under
control. I submitted completely and willingly. If it hadn’t been for Dawn, you
might have had your wish. She kind of forced things."

"Like I said, luckily."

"Do you really feel that way? If she
hadn't, we might have been happy in a simple D/s relationship and none of this
would have happened."

"I was already in love with you. Just in
denial."

"Already?"

He kissed my neck, his hands moving up under my left
breast, as if to feel my apical pulse.

"I think I fell in love with you at the
concert. No, I
know
I fell in love with you then."

I turned around in his arms, my hands on his
chest. I wanted to look in his eyes.

"Why the concert? That was so soon after we
met. You hardly knew me."

He shook his head slowly. "You don't
understand. I'd heard your father speak about you for years. Katherine the
beautiful, the brilliant, the humanitarian, the sweetheart who cried when she
listened to music."

"He told you that? You knew that when we
went to the concert?"

He nodded, a sheepish grin on his face.
"That's why I had to be there with you."

"But you left when I asked you to."

"Yes, but I hid and watched you. I had to
see you, see if what he said was true."

I turned back around, still in his arms, and
stared at the drawing. It was as if Drake
wanted
to fall in love with
me.

"I asked someone who met you what you
looked like," Drake said as we examined the drawing. "He was sniffing
around you, another hungry dog like me, and he said you had these huge green
eyes and long dark hair. Fair skin like your late mother. How petite you were
but with lush breasts and curvy hips. I think I was a bit in love with you
before I even met you. I kept hoping your father would bring you to a function,
but he never did, as if he was protecting you. I should have known it was you
when I saw you in the hallway at your father's apartment, and then I was so
close to you in the bedroom, but I was distracted by your garters."

I smiled. "Those garters were my
undoing."

"No, it was the heels. The heels did it.
They're responsible for everything, so as much as I hated Dawn, she made you
wear them and I could kiss her for it. You bumped into me and practically fell
into my arms at the bar because of them, and you did fall in the alley because
of them, and then you were in my arms when I carried you to the bed. You were
so lovely and desirable with your cut knees and ripped nylons, your scraped
hands and those damn garters. It brought out the doctor in me and the Dom all
at the same time. Even before I knew you were her, I was a goner. Not a chance
in hell."

He nuzzled the back of my neck.

"Her?"

"The beloved
Katherine
. The daughter
of my second father. He was so proud of you. But he would never bring you
anywhere as if you were this princess who was too good for the rest of us. He
was the kind of father I felt would never let a man anywhere near you unless he
was top notch. I was so damn curious about you but you were like this mythic
creature."

I inhaled, so amazed at how wrong I was about my
father all those years. "I feel like such an idiot. I thought my father
disapproved of me. That he thought I was a lightweight compared to Heath and
that's why he never invited me to join him."

"He didn't invite you to join him because
he was sensitive about your problems after Africa. He wanted to give you time.
My father died soon after your return and that's when your father and I really
started to be friends. When I asked about you, he said to me that a daughter
embodied a father's hopes and dreams. He said he wished for you the kind of man
he wanted to be to his own wife – someone who would love you forever,
deeply, passionately, and be devoted to you, would allow you to be who you
were, and respect you for it, but who would help bring out the best in
you."

"That's so sweet," I said, my throat
choking up.

"That's why I didn't ask you out after we
met, despite wanting to. I didn't think I'd be able to be that man."

I turned around again and hugged him, my arms
slipping around his waist.

He ran his hands over my hair. "He talked
about your trip to Africa. He talked about your thesis. About your position at
the school newspaper. I knew you'd be amazing before I ever met you. Like I
said, a goner. And then I met you at the fundraiser and you were the girl with
the luscious tits and garters and you were Katherine. I wanted to know you so
badly. I wanted so badly to be with you despite knowing it was probably
impossible for us to be together, given what I was. I thought your father would
hate me if he knew…"

I smiled and ran my fingers through his hair.
"He loves you like another son."

"And then," he said, pulling me
closer. "Then a miracle happened and you were this little subbie,
pretending to be a researcher who wanted to meet a Dom and learn about BDSM.
You were this sweet little thing Lara wanted me to mentor because she thought
you wanted this for real and I was the best teacher she knew.
God
, Kate…
You can't understand how I felt when I saw you at the café and realized it was
you."

"I was so mortified."

"I was
ecstatic
. There you were,
this woman I'd always wondered about, this delicious little morsel of
womanflesh I couldn’t wait to eat, and you wanted a Dom. It was like I'd won
the lottery. Found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

My heart did a flip at that. "I felt like a
silly girl in above her head, mortified that you knew I was interested in
kink."

"I felt like the luckiest man alive. I knew
I'd have the battle of my life with you, keeping things under control, but it
was a battle I just couldn't turn away from, no matter what."

I just stared at him, amazed. "My dad
talked about you, too. He used to talk about your father. Liam the crazy man,
his best friend from 'Nam. A wild sonofabitch. A crazy idealistic socialist. He
talked about Liam's son – this brilliant young neurosurgeon who spent
time in Africa doing delicate surgeries for free. Donating hospital
equipment.  A man's man. Solid. Strong. Intelligent. Professional. In
control. You sounded like a dream, a fantasy. If it wasn't for the fact you
were a Republican, I would have wanted to meet you."

"I told you none of that matters when we
fuck." He grinned. "Do you suppose he was matchmaking even then?
Before we ever met?"

"He was! I realized it the night of his
first campaign fundraiser." I shook my head in amazement. "He knew
you were a Dom and yet he was pushing us together. He thought I needed someone
like you."

"He did."

"I do." I pulled him down and kissed
him.

"My father would love you, too," he
said when he pulled away.  "I think he'd especially love the thought
that you're Ethan's daughter."

"I remember the moment I fell in love with
you," I said, cupping his cheek. "It was that night on 8
th
Avenue when you played
that song for me. Hearing you play and sing that song, knowing it was from my
father to yours and that it meant so much to you, it was as if you were letting
me in. Letting go of all the control and dominance and confidence to see right
into your heart and I just
fell
."

We embraced, our arms around each other, the
bright sun of the clear January day streaming in from the bare windows.

"You know," he said, looking around
the apartment. "I always felt deprived after that first night…"

"What do you mean?"

"I never
did
get to fuck you here.
If I recall correctly, I walked out of here that night with a boner."

"That was entirely your choice," I
said, unable to keep a huge grin off my face. "You could have done me. Why
didn’t you?"

"I didn’t want you to think that I would
use you like that."

"You still won't even though it’s a fantasy
of mine. Even on New Year's Eve, you made me come."

"No, that was just you being far too
hot," he said, grinning now, too.

"One of these days, I want you to just fuck
me until you come, leaving me panting and desperate for you."

"Why on
earth
would I want you not
to come? I said that for psychological purposes because I knew it turned you
on. But I wouldn't enjoy myself unless you did."

"
Chivalry is not dead with you, Drake
Morgan."

"I don’t want to leave this apartment
without at least christening it," he said, pressing his hips against me. I
could feel his erection through my clothes. "I want my last memory of this
place to be a good one."

Then he kissed me, his mouth finding mine,
pulling me up and into his embrace so that my feet lifted off the floor. As
usual, my body responded to him immediately, my heart racing, a thrill going
through me.

"Let's fuck missionary-style on the bed.
It’s still here."

"Missionary style?" I said, running my
hands up under his shirt. "Again? Where's your imagination?"

"It's the middle of the day. I want to see
you naked beneath me in the full light so I can watch you come."

My body trembled as he bent down and ran his
tongue over the tops of my breasts. He took my hand, dragging me into the
bedroom, throwing me across the bed. Then, he lay on top of me, his hands on
either side of my face. He had that look in his eyes – I could see the
Dom take over in that way that thrilled me so much because I knew underneath
the kink was a man who could love,
deeply
.

"We're having a lot more plain old vanilla
sex since New Year's Eve," I said. "I hope you’re not losing your
taste for D/s and bondage."

"No fear of that," he said, one hand
slipping beneath my sweater. "I love that you’re such an eager student. I
want to see how far I can take you. I'm always going to be a Dom, Kate. I'm
always going to want to have control, but I don’t need to use it any longer as
a shield to keep things in their proper place."

"Meat, potatoes and gravy touching each
other?"

"My plate is thoroughly mixed up now,"
he said, smiling, his gaze moving over my face. "There's no chance of
keeping things compartmentalized any longer. You're in each part of my life and
I'm in yours. "

My breath hitched at that, and I pulled him down
in a kiss that moved quickly from tenderness to passion.

He
was
deep in every part of my life.

That was exactly where I wanted him to stay.

THE END

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