“I haven’t, I promise,” I tell him.
How can I tell him that I have in my head? How I’ve fantasized about just this? How I’ve sucked down romance novels like they were candy while taking copious mental notes?
I mean, it’s a viable way to learn.
“You’re lying,” he says, but a corner of his lips quirks up a bit, as if he’s teasing me now, and he really hopes that I’m telling the truth. But I want him to know that while I might tease him, I might push my boundaries, and I’m no angel, that he can believe me when I tell him the truth. So I look up at him, take his face between my hands, and hold his eyes with mine.
“I would never lie to you,” I say, with every bit of sincerity I can muster, because this isn’t just about a blow job I just gave the man, but the very premise for my captivity. “Never. I value honesty with you far too much to ever tell a lie.”
He holds my gaze for long moments, his hands resting on my wrists, before he leans in closer and kisses me. Just a brief touch of lips to lips. Just one moment of the two of us together in a crowded room. But it’s all I need.
I close my eyes and drown in this kiss. This stolen moment. In the truth that will, please God, eradicate any doubt he has about me and tether me to him in the way that I long for. The way that I need. The way that we both do. And then he pulls away, and I become aware of the voices and sounds around us.
I want to run. I want to leave this place, burrow myself in his chest and let him cover me so that no one else knows I’m here. I want to be alone with Stefan.
But I have a job to do.
“Thank you, daddy,” I say, not shyly this time but with all the hope and confidence I can muster. I can’t understand it and don’t even bother trying. I’m not the first woman to call her lover daddy and I won’t be the last.
Wait.
Wait.
Lover?
What are we?
“Thank you for what, little one?”
My heart melts a little every time he calls me that. “For looking at me like I mean something to you. For kissing me.”
I close my eyes as soon as the words leave my mouth. I’ve gone too far, and I can’t bring myself to look at him. I’ve said too much. Stefan and I have a job to do, and we can’t let my ridiculous infatuation with him in any way affect our focus. And what if my honesty has pushed him away?
“You’re right,” he says with a smile. “Christ, Taara. I know it now.”
“What?” I whisper. What’s he talking about?
He tugs a lock of my hair and shoots me a brief, crooked grin that melts me into a puddle. “You can’t tell a lie.”
Then believe me, I want to say.
But maybe… maybe he already does? But it’s someone else he needs to prove this to? He takes my hand in his and laces our fingers together, and I smile at him.
“I really can’t. My nose practically grows.”
“Good to know. Any Pinocchio-like symptoms, and my babygirl’s earned a spanking for lying to daddy.”
Oh hell, I could get into this, big time.
On instinct, I pout, which earns me a good tug to a lock of my hair.
“Behave, Taara.”
I drop my head to his chest and breathe him in. We have so much ahead of us, I need to steel myself for what I need to do. For the trials I know we face. If we’re going find out what we need to, we’ll have to become just like them. And how much can one role play without having a transformation of sorts?
Still cuddled up to him, I’m enjoying every damn minute of this. He’s strong and warm and this is utter perfection. He holds me so tight, so close, I wonder if he likes this as much as I do.
I let my gaze roam a few feet away. I catch the eye of a woman who looks so similar to me, we could be cousins, and that gets my attention.
She’s one of them. One of the stolen ones. To my surprise, when she catches my eye, she crooks a finger at me. I point wordlessly to my chest.
Me?
She nods, her expression darkening, and beckons me with more urgency. Then she turns on her heel and steps quickly to a door marked restroom.
She knows something.
I make a split-second decision.
“I have to use the bathroom,” I tell him.
“You’ll have to wait,” he says firmly. “There’s no fucking way you’re getting out of my sight and I’m not allowed in the restroom with you.”