Chapter Fourteen
Cassia wasn’t surprised when the knock finally came, but the fact that he knocked set off a little pang in her chest. He had a key, after all. Her Master would’ve used his key.
Right?
GodGodGod. This mess of feelings, this angst, this uncertainty, this pain—all of it was why she hadn’t thought she was ready for a relationship. Because she barely felt like she could stand and cross the room from the weight of it.
But she did, and then Quinton was standing in front of her.
Sexy and handsome and—
“Oh, my God, what happened to your face?” she asked. A nasty cut split open his left cheekbone, and it was already swelling and bruising around the corner of his eye.
He stepped into the apartment and closed the door. “You think I care about that when you believe I broke my word and did that demonstration?”
The question stole her breath and made her head spin. Did that mean he didn’t? “I…I…didn’t know what to believe. Actually, I thought I did know, and I tried to hang on to that, but Master Wolf was so certain.”
“Christ, Cass,” he said, coming right up to her. “With everything going on this week, I forgot to take it off the schedule. So that’s my fucking fault. And I’m sorry for not being more careful.”
“You didn’t…” Her voice was no more than a whisper as relief rushed over her like a tsunami.
“No. I didn’t. But you left,” he said, his voice stern.
She nodded and swallowed thickly. “I just…I panicked. If it was true, I couldn’t be there. I couldn’t hear people talking about it. And in public wouldn’t have been the place to speak about it with you anyway,” she said, hugging herself and ducking her chin. “I had to get out of there. I’m sorry.”
“I said we’re exclusive, Cassia.” He cupped her face in both of his hands and forced her to look at him.
“I know, Sir.” The first of her tears finally fell. From the adrenaline let-down. From the relief. From the guilt she felt at ever doubting him in the first place.
He caught the tears with his thumbs and his lips. “But what I didn’t say was this. I didn’t play with someone else—and I couldn’t play with someone else—because I’m fucking head over heels in love with you.”
After the whirlwind of emotion tonight, her brain froze, like she couldn’t quite process the words. And then they were sinking in, sinking deep, hitting her in every scared, cold, lonely place she’d ever had. And completing her.
“Oh, my God. You do?”
His eyes were dark fire. “I do. So now you know. Now you never have to doubt. I am yours and you are mine, and we are each other’s. And there’s no one else in this. Ever.”
It was exactly what she’d needed to know. “Oh, God, I am yours, Quinton. And I love you, too.”
“Fuck, that’s what I wanted to hear.” On a moan, he kissed her. He kissed her as if he could mark her with his hands and his tongue and his lips. And he could. He already had. She would never be the same.
Whispering words of love and devotion over and over, he walked her back the hallway to her bedroom. He shed their clothes piece by piece, until they were both naked and completely bare to one another.
He flattened her palm against his chest and held it there. “Yours, baby. Do you understand?”
“I do,” she whispered, so overwhelmed with love for this man.
Quinton placed his big hand against her chest. “Mine.”
“Yes,” she said. “All yours.”
He laid her out on the bed, and then he crawled up over her and reached for the drawer of the bedside table.
Cass grasped his arm. “I don’t want anything between us. Not anymore.”
“Are you sure, Cassia? I get tested regularly, and I’m clean, but we could get a new round of tests together first so you can be sure.”
Smiling, she took his face in his hands, because after everything, she needed him to know. “I trust you, Quinton. And I’m sure.”
His cock penetrated deep, skin on skin for the first time, and he gave her those life-giving, soul-healing words all over again.
“Love you, Cassia. Love you so fucking much.”
Her hips surged under him as his body and his declarations wrung pleasure out of her. “Oh, Quinton. Oh, Master. I love you, too.”
Finally, his release shook through him, and he moaned as he moved through it, giving her everything he had. She held her man in his arms, almost stunned at how joyous she felt.
They fell asleep with him still on top of her, still inside her.
And then he woke her up again, already moving inside her. Again and again, all night long, they came together. He claimed her, and she claimed him.
In the morning, they showered and dressed, and then Quinton turned to her with a nervousness she didn’t understand.
“Come with me to my house.”
She’d been dying to do that, so her answer came easily. “Okay. I’d love to see your place.”
Fifteen minutes later, they pulled into the garage of a newer apartment building downtown. The elevator took them to the tenth floor and spilled out into a small lobby with only four apartment doors. He opened one of them, and she stepped into a sleek, modern apartment filled with leather and dark-finished woods and warm accents that managed to be stylish and inviting at the same time. It had a stunning view of the harbor and a killer kitchen.
“Quinton, this is amazing,” she said, admiring the view.
He watched her walk around his space. “I’ve never liked this apartment more than I do right at this moment,” he said, giving her a little smile that seemed loaded with significance.
“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because you being here makes it feel like a home.”
She froze, because that was seriously the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to her. “Keep saying things like that, Quinton Ross, and you’ll never get rid of me.”
“Actually, that’s what I’m hoping,” he said, coming right up to her and making her heart trip into a sprint.
“What do you mean?” she whispered, butterflies taking up flight in her belly until she thought she might lift right off the ground.
He stared at her a long moment, as if he were debating, and then he swallowed. Hard. “Undress and kneel for me, Cassia. Right here and right now.”
* * *
Quinton carried the boxes out of his bedroom and found Cassia kneeling in the middle of his living room, naked and gorgeous and absolutely everything he’d ever wanted.
He stood before her. “Look at me, please.”
She lifted her gaze, her eyes full of awareness that something significant was happening between them. And she was right. Because Quinton had never done this before. He opened the large velvet box.
He crouched before her, wanting to look her eye to eye, wanting her to know exactly what she meant to him. “Cassia, I want you as a woman, and I want you as my submissive. I want to claim all of you, and I want to give you all of me.” Glassiness suddenly shimmered in her pretty hazel eyes. “I want to care for you and cherish you and pleasure you. I want to spend my days and my nights with you. I want everything with you.”
He lifted the choker so she could see it. It had a wide, flat platinum band, and where it met at the hollow of her throat sat a large diamond heart. The store had modified the clasp so that it was shaped like a lock.
“Cassia, would you do me the honor of wearing my collar?” he asked, emotion planting a knot in his throat.
“Yes, Master. Nothing would make me happier than being yours.” She blinked as a tear fell, and laughed as her happiness bubbled over.
Coming behind her, he draped the choker around her neck, and then he secured the lock clasp. The little click sounded like forever in the making, and when he stood in front of her again, he was overwhelmed at the sight of the collar—his collar—around Cassia’s beautiful throat.
And that was only the first of his plans. The first of the ways he wanted to claim her.
“I have something else I want to give you,” he said, the mix of arousal and unusual nerves wreaking havoc with his gut. Because Quinton knew he was going fast. But apparently, that’s what happened to a man when he claimed his woman and wanted to nail down all kinds of forevers.
“You do?” she asked, awe in her voice as her fingertips traced the diamond at her throat.
He held out his hand and helped her rise, and then he drew the flat, rectangular box from his pocket.
Fuck, he hated being nervous. It made him chuckle, even though he was dead fucking serious about the words on the tip of his tongue. He opened it, revealing another heart-shaped diamond, this one dangling from a key chain. He held it out to her.
Cass grasped the loop, and her gaze lifted from the two keys hanging there to him. “Master?”
“I know this is fucking fast. And maybe a little crazy. But I want you here. With me. Would you consider making my apartment our home? Would you consider moving in with me?” he asked.
Her mouth dropped into an oval, and her gaze latched onto the keys.
As the seconds stretched out, Quinton thought he might crawl out of his skin. Too fast. It was too damned fast. “Aw, hell, I haven’t even shown you the rest of the—”
“Yes.”
He almost swallowed his tongue. “Yes? Did you say yes?”
She laughed, and the sound lit him up inside. “Yes, it’s fast and it’s crazy and I’ll move in with you.”
“Holy shit, Cass,” he said, hugging her and spinning her around. “Holy shit.” Words spilled out of him in a fast jumble. “You can change whatever you want. Do whatever you want. Make it yours.”
She kissed him and laughed and held him tight. Had his place ever heard so much laughter? Quinton determined right then and there that it always would. Every day.
“We’ll figure it out,” she said. “But maybe, you know, since I live here now and all, you could show me the rest.”
“Yeah? Of course,” he said, his head spinning from getting everything he wanted. And so much more. For a moment, he just stared at her standing there, naked, wearing his collar, holding their key, and agreeing to walk this life together with him. It made his heart race and his cock turn to steel. “Baby, I was thinking. Maybe this tour should start with the bedroom.”
She arched a brow and tried to bite back a threatening smile. “Wherever you lead, I’ll follow, Master. Always.”
Which was the moment he threw his submissive over his shoulder, walked her back to their bedroom, and kept her there all night long.