We get out of Leo’s car in front of a big brick building that looks like it was just painted. It’s in the poor part of the city, so the fresh paint stands out immediately where everything nearby has definitely seen better days. We’re greeted at the door by a stern woman who wears a long, black dress that reminds me of something a nun might wear, but her head is uncovered.

Her eyes light up when she sees Leo. I’m surprised when she reaches out to him and gives him a tight hug with several pats on the back.

Leo laughs a little. “You still recognize me?” he asks incredulously.

“I’d know that little face anywhere,” she says, pinching his cheek and smiling up at him. “You’ve grown so big.” She pauses to smooth her dress and take in the sight of him. “Why haven’t you come? We’ve all wanted to see you so much. The children want to thank you. We want to thank you.”

Leo nods, lowering his eyes and reaching for my hand. “We’re here now. Can we come in?”

“Please,” she says, motioning for us to come in.

I’m surprised by how well-kept the place is. “It’s nicer than I expected,” I say.

He nods with approval, looking around in a way that makes me think he had more than a little something to do with the upkeep. The woman leads us into a big cafeteria, where at least thirty children ranging from ages three or four to late teens are chatting and eating from trays. Leo and I draw curious eyes, and Leo draws nervous giggles and whispers from some of the older girls, but none seem to recognize him.

“Would it be okay if I took Lysa around by myself for a bit?” asks Leo.

“Of course,” says the woman, who takes a step back and lets us continue walking through the cafeteria.

Leo takes me up a staircase, where we pass a narrow hallway lined with doors. “This is where the bedrooms are. Jayce and I shared a room at the end with a handful of other kids. It wasn’t that bad until someone got sick. But I brought you here because I wanted to show you my favorite place. Come,” he says.

He takes me up the stairs until we reach a doorway that leads to the roof access. We’re immediately buffeted by a gust of wind outside, but the air is just the right temperature and the sun is hidden behind the clouds. I look around for something significant--some sign of this being his special place, but I only see the flat roof covered in gravel. A small waist-high concrete wall lines the section of the roof with access, while the rest is a few feet down beyond the wall and too sloped to walk on.

When I look at Leo’s face though, I can immediately see the impact this place has on him. He has wandered to the edge of the barrier, where his hands are planted. He looks out over the city with a distant but almost pained expression. “I never thought,” he says quietly. “Never in a millions years. I didn’t think Jayce and I would make it out of here most days. I’d come up here at night and I’d just look toward the nicer part of town. I’d imagine there was someone looking back at me from one of those skyscrapers. Some perfect parent who would feel how much we needed help and come to rescue us out of this shit.”

He laughs bleakly. “They never came. I guess that was when I learned if I wanted anything, I had to take it. I had to grip it by the fucking horns and wrestle the life out of it until it was mine. And I got good at it, too. But sometimes I think I’ve been fighting and struggling all this time just to prove a point--to say a big fuck you to the world for taking my mom and giving me a nonexistent father. Then there’s you,” he says, turning to look at me.

He looks gorgeous now. Heart-breakingly perfect, even. A sliver of the setting sun slips through the clouds and gives his skin a radiant red glow that seems to intensify the green in his eyes until they are sparkling like polished jade.

“You understand what I’ve been through,” he says. “You’re going through it. And you’ve been doing it all by yourself. I thought I had it hard, but I had a brother to lean on. You’ve had no one, and I want that to change. I want to be there for you every fucking step of the way. I want you to be able to relax, to enjoy yourself, to live a little.”

It would be easy to write off Leo’s words as false promises, to tell myself they’re too good to be true or to turn this moment into an “as soon as.” As soon as I’ve got my shit together, I’ll be ready for a guy like Leo to sweep me off my feet. Or in this case, to tie my feet to the bed. A small smile creeps across my lips because I know I’ve turned a corner. I don’t know when the shift inside happened or when the woman I’ve been trying to be for the past few days took a stronger hold, but I feel it now. I feel it so powerfully that I know it’s real.

“I want that too.” They are the words I’ve held in for what feels like ages, even if it has only been days. The words I knew would be like a key to unlock the final door between us.

I see it in Leo’s face--he knows it too. I expect a hug or a kiss, but instead, he falls to one knee. He digs something out of his pocket and I recognize it immediately. The case he had the collar in from before. He snaps it open and I nearly sink to my knees when I see what’s inside. The collar is there, but there’s a ring, too. A ring that matches the collar. An engagement ring.

“I’m offering you the choice,” he says quietly. “Be my wife. Be my pet. Be both. Be neither. You know what I want, but I’ll have you however I can, Lysa. I just want you.”

A tear rolls down my cheek, startling me. I’ve never been a crier, but I feel like I understand Leo now. I don’t just see the dominant man from the lobby who brought a side of me out I never knew I had. I don’t just see the gorgeous face or the money. I think back to when he said we all just wear masks for the outside world--that what matters is beneath it. For the first time, I think I see the Leo behind the mask, the full view he has been trying to give me all along.

There isn’t a shred of doubt when I reach first for the collar and bring it to my neck, biting my lip and looking into Leo’s eyes. For some reason it feels like I should take the collar first, that if I’m going to be his pet--his slave--I should don that mantle before I take the ring.

He smirks as he stands to help clasp it behind my neck.

It’s snug, but not so tight it feels like it’s cutting off my circulation. Just tight enough to remind me, like having part of Leo with me at all times--a possessive little chain to let the world know I’m claimed and spoken for. I put my fingertips up to the lock, brushing the cold metal before Leo threads the other end of the collar into it and turns the key, locking it in place. He gives me a mischievous look as he tucks the key in his jacket pocket. “Here’s to hoping you never ask for the key.”

He goes to close the box, but I put my fingers to the back of his hand, stopping him. “I wasn’t done, sir,” I add with a curl of my lips.

He falls to his knee again so quickly I nearly laugh. I hold out my hand, waiting as he slides the beautiful ring on my finger. It’s dazzling in even the diminishing sunlight, catching every bit of light and reflecting it in a blinding, prismatic burst of light.

He brings me in close with a tender hand at the back of my head, kissing me slowly and soft at first. He breaks off the kiss to pull me in for a tight embrace with his fingers threaded through my hair. I feel so much in his touch. The relief. The happiness.

And I feel it too. Every bit of it. I fought letting him in for what feels like a lifetime, even if it was just a few days. But for the first time since he took me out of that hotel lobby and rocked my world, I feel at peace--completely at peace. I put a hand to my stomach and smile. Leo may be intense. His sexual tastes may still make me blush. But he’s a good man. A great man--one I can’t wait to call husband, the father of my child, and Master.