“Little thing? Let it go?” he interrupted. “Shit, no, Corinne. That’s not what I want.”
She had been the first and last woman Reese had ever gone to his knees for, but he was not the same man he’d been when they had last been together. She was not the same woman. He ran a hand through his hair, winced at how stiff it felt.
“Why did you come back here?” she demanded with a wave of her hand. “Surely there were other companies you could’ve bought. Other women you could’ve fucked. You didn’t have to…you didn’t…”
Her voice caught, and she straightened. Her eyes glistened, but she’d managed to keep the tears from falling. She shook herself, then spoke in a low tone to keep anyone around them from overhearing.
“I love the way you submit to me. Do you understand that?”
Reese swallowed hard. “Yes.”
“I like to believe…I need to believe, Reese, that you love it too.”
“I do, Corinne.”
“My question to you is, does it go beyond the bedroom?”
Reese coughed, taken aback. “I’m not sure I know what you’re getting at.”
“Do you want to submit to me only in the bedroom?”
Stupidly, he tried to make a joke. “Any room is fine with me.”
She didn’t laugh. “You do as I tell you to do when your cock is hard, but that’s all. Right?”
“That’s not really fair.”
“But it’s true.” She didn’t sound angry. She sounded…resigned. “If I ordered you to sell your apartment in Philadelphia, to move here, would you do it?”
“I… Shit, Corinne. I don’t know. No,” Reese said. “Is that what you want? To order me?”
“That’s the whole point. I don’t want to order you. I want you to choose a life with me. The way you didn’t, the first time around.” She turned her coffee mug around and around in her hands, but didn’t drink.
Reese pinched the bridge of his nose. “You want me to move here.”
“I want you to be happy,” she said quietly.
“It’s not that far, you know. We could—”
“When I hurt you,” Corinne interrupted calmly, “it’s always knowing that it’s my job to make sure it’s not too much. I have the responsibility of making sure we don’t go too far. That you’re going to be okay. When I command you, when you obey, it’s always my job to make sure I don’t ask of you what you cannot do. Do you remember?”
He did. “You might ask me to do what I think I can’t do, or what I think I don’t want to, but you won’t ask me to do what I absolutely can’t do. I remember.”
She looked sad. “It doesn’t only apply in the bedroom. We don’t need a notarized contract. I don’t ever need to put you in a collar, or on a leash. But in this relationship, whether you are naked and on your knees for me or not, it will still always be my job to make sure I don’t ask of you what you cannot do.”
“What makes you think I can’t do this?” Reese asked.
Her answer was a long, calm stare he couldn’t interpret. “I need to get back to the office.”
She was quiet in the car ride. No singing. No windows cracked to let in the breeze. When they got there, she left him behind and went into her office, closing the door firmly enough to let him know he would not be welcome to come inside.
An hour later, her resignation letter arrived via email.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Corinne had, of course, given the minimum two weeks’ notice. Four would’ve been better, but there was no way she could’ve lasted in the office with Reese. She hadn’t needed to worry. He didn’t come in to the office at all.
There’d been no going away party, no cake, no engraved watch to commemorate her service to Stein and Sons. As far as she knew, none of the previous owners even knew that she’d quit. The last she’d heard, the group of them had been planning to go on a family cruise, spending the money Reese had paid them. None of the new staff had even started. She’d promoted Sandy from secretary to office manager before she left, and the two of them had gone out for a celebratory lunch, but it had been strained and a little awkward.
“I’m okay,” she told Caitlyn over glasses of wine and a platter of cheese and crackers. “Really. He gave me a huge raise when he came on, remember? I have money put away. I have three interviews lined up. I’ll get another job. You don’t have to worry.”
Her sister frowned. “I’m hardly worried about you getting a job. Okay, maybe a little, because if we’re both out of work, that could be bad. But that’s not really what I’m worried about, and you know it.”
“I feel very much at peace.” Corinne ate a piece of cheese, then spread another with some spicy mustard and ate that, too. “You can’t make someone love you, or choose you, and I didn’t want to even try to force him.”