HisIndecentBoxSetpub (21 page)

IN THE DARK

My walk of shame was
wrought with emotion. What I had experienced with Damien in the pool
was unlike anything I had felt from him before? It was like he was
having a hard time keeping his calm demeanor, as if the light of his
humanity was finally shining through.

By the time we
reached the front door, Damien the teacher had returned. He handed me
another questionnaire, an entire packet with several pages stapled
together, and then sent me on my way, telling me that if I decided to
take him up on his BDSM lessons, he'd want it returned to him by the
following weekend. Unlike with the first questionnaire he gave me, I
didn't have to wait in wonder of the contents of this one until I got
home. As soon as I stepped into my car, I looked over the paperwork.
Some of the questions I thought should have been on the original
questionnaire, though most of them, not surprisingly, pertained to
BDSM.

Feeling awkward for
sitting in front of Damien's house for so long, I set the
questionnaire aside and put my car in drive, heading home. When I got
there, I did a bit of homework and then thought about working on the
questionnaire for a while. It would be wasted time if I decided BDSM
wasn't for me though, so I ended up leaving it for another time. For
now, I needed to figure out if lessons in BDSM were something I
really wanted. Damien had indicated it would be a big commitment, but
the perk was that I would become closer to him.

Part of me wished he
had never extended the offer. I had things pretty much figured out
inside my head. The plan had been to string Chase along until I got
my fill of Damien, then end my lessons with Damien and become a
committed girlfriend to Chase. If Damien and I took things to this
next level, I wasn't sure if I would be able to follow through with
that plan. It sounded like training to be a submissive was going to
make me committed to Damien, in a sense. Then again, he had talked
about passing me off to someone else once the training was complete.
I wasn't sure how much I liked that either, though it did provide me
with a convenient way out. Maybe I could just stick around until my
training was over, however long that would take.

I licked my lips,
thinking of all the kink play Damien had enticed me with. He had said
we could do it even if I didn't want to learn about BDSM. That was a
plus. Still, I craved to know more about him, craved to be closer to
him.

In truth, I hadn't
made up my mind when I arrived at his doorstep for my lessons the
following day. I was torn between doing the logical thing or the
greedy thing. To be logical, I would steer the same course as I had
been, deny the offer of BDSM lessons and enjoy the pleasures of
Damien's body while they lasted. The greedy path would have me take
him up on the offer, allow myself to get closer to him, and probably
have my heartbroken in the process. Somehow, either choice felt like
it would lead to a losing situation.

After a causal
greeting, Damien asked if I had made up my mind. His face was deadpan
as normal, as if he didn't care either way, but I could sense that
wasn't the truth. Or, at least, part of me hoped that wasn't the
truth. I wanted him to want me desperately.

“
Can
I have a bit more time to decide?” I asked, scrunching my face
in fear he'd be upset.

“
Well,
at least I'm glad you're not taking the decision lightly,” he
said, but I could sense disappointment in his voice.

“
Yeah.
It seems pretty intense.”

“
It
can be.”

“
So,
what's on the agenda today?” I asked.

Usually, when I came
inside, he led me straight to the classroom. Today, he seemed to want
to linger in the doorway.

“
Dinner,”
he replied finally.

“
Dinner?”

“
Yes,
dinner. I thought we could make dinner together.”

“
Are
you teaching a cooking class now too?” I teased.

“
If
you don't know how to cook, then I suppose you could think of it that
way.” He smirked, leading me to the kitchen.

As was the rest of
Damien's house, his kitchen was absolutely gorgeous, with marble
counter tops, stainless steel appliances, a large island in the
middle with a sink, and a rack of expensive pots and pans hanging
above it. To be honest, I thought that cooking had been a clever
euphemism for something kinky until I saw him start pulling
vegetables out of the refrigerator. He set me up with a cutting
board, a knife, and bags full of bell peppers, red onions, and
broccoli.

“
Hope
you like stir fry,” he said before disappearing around the
corner.

I scowled. For being
such a smart guy, he seemed to have no idea what the word together
meant. With a sigh, I got to work chopping an onion.

While I worked, I
stared forward blankly, analyzing Damien's strange behavior. Had he
seriously planned for dinner to be part of tonight's lesson? Maybe he
was too busy during the week to come up with a full weekends worth of
lessons. That didn't make sense though. For heaven's sake, he only
saw me for about two hours on the weekend. It couldn't possibly be
that difficult to come up with a curriculum. Besides, if Damien was
nothing else, he was meticulous. I highly doubted he would have
forgotten to plan something for us to do. He was a creative guy. The
well couldn't possibly be running dry already.

“
Ouch,”
I gasped, dropping the knife and looking down at my finger. At first,
I thought I had just nicked myself, but then I saw the deep gash, and
my head went all fuzzy.

Blood dripped from
the wound in rapid succession, painting the cutting board red.
Desperately, I clutched at the sides of the counter top to keep
myself from falling, but everything around me was going white.

Damien appeared at
my side. He took one look at my finger and rushed to grab a towel to
wrap around my hand.

“
Come
on,” he said, helping me to my feet. “We need to get you
to the minor emergency clinic.”

I leaned against him
as he walked me out to his Corvette, trying not to concentrate on the
injury. By the way that my blood was soaking through the towel, you
would have thought I hit an artery. It felt and looked far worse than
a minor emergency.

Thankfully, the
clinic was just down the road. Even if I had lost an entire finger,
we got there in such a short time that they probably could have sewn
it back on.

Damien stayed by my
side, handling most of the interactions. When the girl at the front
desk saw the blood-soaked towel, she brought us back immediately. Now
that the initial shock of slicing my finger had worn off, I was
becoming increasingly afraid at the thought of having stitches. I had
never gotten them before, and feared it would hurt worse than the cut
itself.

“
You'll
be fine,” Damien tried to assure me.

“
Maybe
they can use those liquid stitches,” I said, hopeful.

“
I
doubt it. You cut yourself pretty badly.”

A strange thought
came to me. “Aren't you worried about people seeing us
together?”

“
No.
Your health is far more important to me than what anyone might
think.”

“
But
what about your job?”

“
Don't
worry about it. It's not important right now. The only thing that's
important is making sure you're taken care of.”

My cheeks might have
flushed, but it felt like I had lost too much blood for that to
happen. Did he really mean what he said?

Before I had time to
ponder it any longer, a nurse walked in to take my vitals. When her
eyes landed on Damien, she blushed, and the slightest twinge of
jealous ran through me. Was I really so possessive over him that I
didn't want other women looking at him? He wasn't even mine. Besides,
he was incredibly attractive. It was hard not to want to look at him.

After I was presumed
very much alive, though badly injured, the nurse left, and the doctor
came in shortly afterward to stitch up my finger. I felt like I might
faint when I saw the needle she planned to stick in my wound to numb
the pain. Tears welled up in my eyes, and it took almost everything
in me not to jerk away.

“
I'm
scared,” I told her, holding back sobs as if I was a small
child.

“
It
will only hurt for a little while,” she said.

When she first
approached my hand with the needle, I jerked away.

“
You're
going to have to stay still,” she told me.

Damien stood and
came to my side, taking up my other hand in his. “Look at me,
okay. Everything is going to be alright.”

I looked at him and
nodded, trying to concentrate on the feeling of his large hand
engulfing mine. His fingers were so warm . . . and so were his eyes.
Gazing into them, I felt completely lost, and the rest of the world
melted around me.

“
Stay
with me and hold my hand while they do the stitches,” I said.

“
I'm
not going anywhere.” He gave my hand a gentle squeeze, and I
swooned. I wanted to kiss him, and for him to hold me, and for us to
just be together. This wasn't the time or place for any of that
though, so I endured my tortured doctoring and swallowed my feelings
until it was all over.

Damien picked up
what my insurance wouldn't cover and then took me to the grocery
store to fill my prescription for pain medication, which he also paid
for. While we waited for the prescription to be filled, we went
through drive-thru to get something to eat.

“
Let
me pay for this,” I offered.

“
I
got it. Don't worry about it,” he insisted.

I slumped in my
seat, feeling absolutely useless. Not only had I ruined his dinner
plans, but I had also cost him a fortune. If he never wanted to see
me again after this, I would understand.

After eating, we
picked up my prescription and headed back to his place. As soon as we
got inside, I went into the kitchen and popped a pain pill. The sight
of my blood dried up on the cutting board made me nauseous, and I
found myself retching into the garbage can.

“
Are
you alright?” Damien asked, coming to my aid. He held back my
hair while I finished throwing up. It didn't seem like the night
could possibly get any worse.

Once I was done
making an ass of myself . . . again, Damien led me into the classroom
to lay down until my nausea passed. He put a wastebasket next to the
bed and then went back to the kitchen to clean everything up. I felt
absolutely horrible, though apparently the pain medication had stayed
down, because I was also starting to feel a bit loopy.

I clung to the
pillow and cried silently until Damien returned. Everything was
overwhelming me at once. Between hurting my finger, and these strange
emotions racing through me, and embarrassing myself, and the
medicine, I felt like a complete wreck.

“
I'm
sorry,” I sobbed. “I didn't mean to ruin your night.”

“
Shhh.
You didn't ruin my night. Don't even worry about it.” He pulled
one of the chairs up next to the bed and sat in it to brush my hair
away from my face. Then he took off his shoes and climbed into bed
beside me, wrapping his arm around me.

My crying almost
instantly stopped, and I wondered if he could hear my heart thudding
against my chest. This was affectionate behavior. Very affectionate
behavior. Damien had never been like this with me before. And I liked
it.

I slid my hand on
top of his and nuzzled against him. It was as if his touch put my
mind at ease, and my emotions calmed into a sea of contentment. Or
maybe that was just the drugs. Either way, I was pretty damn happy.

If I could have laid
there with him forever, I probably would have. Minutes turned into
hours, or at least what felt like hours. The sun had long gone down
over the horizon, leaving us shrouded in shadows. And I knew it was
time to go.

I rolled over onto
my back, hoping he wasn't asleep. Damien was laying there, looking at
me. His gaze was so intent that I was afraid to say anything. And
then he leaned down to kiss me, very gently, on the lips. I cringed
away, feeling bad for it.