His Absolute Domination: The Billionaire's Paradigm (#5) (A BDSM Erotic Romance) (The Billionaire's Ultimatum, Book Two) by Cerys du Lys Page B

stared at me afterwards,
dumbstruck, with the vaguest red imprint of my hand across his
cheek. I slapped him good, too. He'd taught me how to properly
spank him during our nicer times together, and a cheek was a cheek,
no matter where it was.
    "You just slapped me," he said,
confused.
    "I did," I said. "Now move over. I'm
going to sit next to you."
    "What?"
    I didn't give him more time to think
or protest or do anything. Sliding away from my side of the booth,
I slipped in next to him and scooted him over. We sat close, side
by side, possibly companionable except that he kept staring at me
with the most confounded, odd expression.
    I smiled sweetly at him, my expression
unable to hide the acerbic tone of my voice. "Don't ever say
something like that to me again, Lucent."
    Lucent frowned at me and narrowed his
eyes. He frowned, and narrowed, and then he laughed.
    Now it was my turn to look at him with
an odd expression. "What?" I asked.
    "You're so peculiar," he said. "I must
say, out of anyone I've met, you're probably the most interesting.
A poor submissive, and probably an impossible slave, but you
definitely intrigue me, Miss Tanner."
    Did he just say that? In here? In
front of... well, it was just Sam. But Lucent didn't even try to
hide it. I hissed at him. "Do you really think you should be saying
things like that in here?"
    "What?" he asked. "Oh. Ah, right. You
wouldn't know, would you. My apologies."
    "What?" There were a lot of "what"s
being passed between us, apparently. Not unexpected considering we
both apparently confused each other far beyond what I thought was
normal.
    "Aside from owning a popular
delicatessen, Sam is also the owner of one of those 'BDSM thing'
clubs, as you might say. It's connected to this building on the
opposite side, partly hidden in an alleyway. It's not a secret, per
se, but many don't know about it. I'm a regular patron and attend
most Wednesday nights for dinner and to see the shows. For those
who Sam takes a liking to, he offers them an open invitation to
this deli for breakfast. That's how we were able to enter when he's
usually closed, as you noted earlier."
    "Oh," I said.
    Lucent nodded. "Nothing I say will
sound overly peculiarity to anyone who comes in," he said. "Nor
will anything you say sound odd, either. Someone might get the
wrong idea about you, though."
    "Oh," I said again. "So you've brought
me to a BDSM place?"
    "It's nothing more than a restaurant,"
Lucent said.
    "A BDSM restaurant," I added. This
interested me.
    "No one does anything even remotely
related to BDSM inside of Sam's Delicatessen, I can assure
you."
    "Except talk about it while they're
closed, you mean?"
    "Talking about 'BDSM things' is hardly
the same as performing them."
    "Why don't you like me?" I
asked.
    And, honestly, as out of the blue as
the question seemed, I realized this was the root of our problem.
Why didn't Lucent like me? Nothing else really mattered. If we
figured this out, everything would be good. I vaguely understood
why he didn't. His tirade yesterday about me being a poor
submissive, and then again, mentioning it more recently, but was
that really it?
    Did people start out being
good submissives? Were they born into it? I didn't think so, or
else I didn't know how. Except, if that was it, then I must not be
one, right? If I should just know , but I didn't know, then I
couldn't. I hoped that wasn't it, and I hoped there was more to it,
but I worried there wasn't.
    Lucent frowned at me. "I do like you,"
he said. "It's not a matter of liking you or not, though. The issue
is far more complicated than that. I'm controlling, Miss Tanner. I
nearly hurt you before, if you'll take a moment to remember. In the
library, when you wanted to leave, I restrained you. I squeezed
your wrist once and I held you with excessive force."
    "I didn't mind," I said.
    "Miss Tanner, please understand. Do
you remember our first discussion about these things after we
played cards? You said it was mean and abusive, and