Pleasure and Danger Read Free Page A

to get me off. How often did people meet their absolute perfect partner? How many people were truly lucky to find everything they’d dreamed of? How many people hadn’t found it?
    At the jewelry shop window, I stared at rings and watches that didn’t particularly attract. My attention was drawn to the necklaces, except they weren’t quite what I’d wear either. The chains were too dainty, with heart pendants or keys—although the latter would be significant for me. Like I held the key to what I wanted, no one else.
    That brought me up short. Wasn’t that way of thinking something a sub would entertain? Subs were the real ones in control, or so I’d heard. And where had I heard that? I must have read it somewhere—and why would I have been reading something like that if I wasn’t what Gabriel had said I was?
    A sub deep inside.
    I frowned, not wanting to go down that road, yet at the same time it beckoned, as though I’d been traveling through the desert all this time and at last there was an oasis at the end of a long road, in the form of Gabriel. He’d slake my thirst and keep me as wet as I wanted to be. Or shaded from others under cooling—or stinging—palms, keeping me safe and feeling wanted, attending to my every need.
    That’s what he’d said he was prepared to give, wasn’t it?
    The only thing left was for me to either accept what he’d offered or reject it. Already I couldn’t imagine not having his hands on me, not hearing his commands, not having him giving me everything I’d ever wished for. I’d become addicted to him long before the moment he’d swept my hair from my face at the train station. Had it been just three days? Really? Had I been fucked in ways I’d never imagined I would be, all in such a short space of time?
    I wouldn’t be rejecting his offer, and if it meant learning how to be a sub, I’d do it. Just to be with him—and, I lightly acknowledged, because it was deep inside me.
    I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
    I’d need to learn so much, but this morning was a lesson I’d caught on to very quickly. Lose the belligerence. Express my needs in a way that showed I was grateful, not expectant.
    I could do that.
    “Those necklaces,” Gabriel said behind me. “They’re not what I had in mind for you.”
    My stomach churned with excitement. Oh, God. Was it eleven-thirty already? I shifted my gaze to one of the watches behind the glass—all of them were set to the correct time. Eleven-twenty. Was he early because he couldn’t wait?
    “What did you have in mind?” I asked, breathless, my heart clattering. I didn’t turn to look at him, keeping my sights on the watches instead. If I did turn, if I stared at him, I’d want to get down that alley as quickly as possible. No, I had to let him lead, let him show me what him, being a true Master was like—what me, being a sub could be like if I learnt all the rules.
    “Something like that one, Isabella.”
    His hand came over my shoulder, and he pointed to a diamond choker. Ah, I knew exactly what that piece of jewelry signified, but for him to have highlighted that one, one that was so close to being a collar…
    Oh, God, he’s serious about this. About me.
    I swallowed. “That’s…that’s very pretty.” My hands were shaking.
    “It is. It also hides the true purpose,” he said. “Although we shouldn’t be ashamed to wear our collars, it’s sometimes easier, what with people not understanding what we do and why we like it, to disguise a few things. Take that choker, for instance.”
    I riveted my attention to it, imagined it around my neck. It was chunky, so far along the scale from the other, more delicate necklaces, and very much the kind of thing I would have chosen for myself.
    “To others it just looks like a choker, wouldn’t you say?” he asked.
    “Yes.”
    “But it means so much more. Do you know anything about the lifestyle, my Isabella?”
    My Isabella…
    “Enough to know that wearing one of