Keeping Dallas Read Free Page B

ever dominated before. “What would you like tonight, Dallas?”
    The sub tilted his head as if he didn’t understand the question. “M-master?”
    “Do you want the flogger, the whip or my hands paddling your ass? What are you looking for?” Laurence opened the armoire, revealing his assortment of toys. “Come pick out two things you’d like.”
    He waited with amusement as Dallas cautiously crawled off the bed and approached the cabinet, more wary than a fidgety cat. He didn’t blame the man—some Doms might use this as a test. Laurence was only curious. He knew Dallas detested anything that blocked his vision and had gone into a true panic the one time Laurence had used a blindfold. Not wanting to scare off his lover, Laurence had put blindfolds on the never-to-be-used list. Dallas’ fear had been so strong Laurence knew it wouldn’t work for a sexy encounter and might lead to psychological trauma if tried again.
    He’d tossed all his blindfolds after that first incident. When Dallas had completely freaked, Laurence vowed to keep them away from his sub.
    As Dallas carefully reviewed his choices, Laurence watched impatiently to see what his submissive would pick. Dallas’ fingers slid across a flogger, traced one particularly wicked whip and caressed the bottom edge of a cane.
    The third time Dallas travelled his fingers around the cabinet, it occurred to Laurence that his submissive was stalling. How curious. Dallas had never tried to delay their lovemaking before.
    “Dallas?”
    “S-sorry, Master. I’m feeling nervous tonight,” Dallas explained, his voice stumbling over his words.
    Laurence walked up behind his sub, wrapped his hands around Dallas’ arms and pulled him close. He placed a soft kiss on Dallas’ neck. “What’s wrong?”
    Dallas shrugged. “I’m worried I’ll choose the wrong thing.”
    Laurence turned his sub around. Dallas’ top teeth gnawed his bottom lip anxiously and his eyes glowed with an uncertain light.
    “There are no wrong answers, love. This isn’t a test. I merely wanted to see what you wished to play with for the night,” he assured his sub.
    “Oh.” Tension flowed out of the slim body like a balloon deflating. “Okay.”
    Laurence spun Dallas back around. “Pick.”
    Dallas quickly chose a soft flogger they’d used a few times before. No cuffs, not even the soft ones, were even glanced at. Dallas hated cuffs almost as much as the blindfold. Any kind of confinement made Dallas uneasy.
    “Why don’t you like the cuffs?” Laurence asked. Although he didn’t like questions himself, it occurred to Laurence that he knew as little about Dallas as his sub knew about him.
    Dallas froze, the hand holding the flogger white-knuckled for an instant before relaxing again.
    Silence.
    “I asked you a question.” Laurence used his best commanding tone and waited to see what Dallas would do.
    Dallas’ attention went to the flogger. Normally, Laurence would make Dallas face him while he answered but instinct told Laurence if he pushed too hard he’d lose his sub entirely. How had they gone from a playful scene to this much tension? He almost wanted to take the question back…almost.
    “I was kidnapped as a child. They chained me to the wall and blindfolded me,” Dallas confessed.
    Oh, crap.
    Laurence had been right when he thought his young lover had been traumatised before. He carefully turned Dallas to face him, tilting up Dallas’ chin with his fingers to see his expression. Memories haunted his beautiful eyes.
    “I’ll never use anything on you that brings back your fear. How old were you?”
    “Twelve,” Dallas whispered.
    “Fuck, you were just a baby. What happened?”
    Dallas’ eyes hardened into a feral expression Laurence had never seen before. “I escaped. My guardian found me and brought me home.”
    “Is that who you live with now?” Laurence asked. Curiosity about his lover’s life hit him. Why had he never asked about it before? He knew he’d