Chapter 15 #4
His expression hardened at that. He got suddenly serious. “Don’t you dare ever dim your light to match my dark. Do you understand, Ophelia?”
There was a strange tightness in my throat. I’d only ever had men try to put me in a box. Men who wanted me to match their perfect image.
He wanted to give me wings. He wanted to watch me fly.
How could I say no?
So I said, “Yes, Sir.”
“Good girl.”
He kissed my forehead. It was the sweetest kiss, but…I felt a tug on my heart. It was as though he were writing the obituary on our relationship before it had even died.
Well, fuck that. Not on my watch.
“Hold on.” I scrambled out from underneath him. “I have something for you.”
I went into my room and grabbed the present I’d tucked away. I carried it back and set it down on the table in front of him.
He stared at it like it might bite him. “Do I have a birthday I don’t know about?”
I sighed dramatically. “Gifts are my love language. Open it!”
He looked dubious, like he was waiting for a catch, but he pulled the box into his lap. He opened it gently, slipping his thumb under the folds to peel back the tape and removed the wrapping in one piece. He opened the shoe box and, for a second, just stared at the shoes.
“These are for me?” Again, confused, like he’d never experienced a gift before.
I lifted one of the sneakers out of the box and ran my finger over the thick sole.
“You need something with support. It’ll help your knees.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “What’s wrong with my knees?”
“You wince every time you bend them. I know they’re bothering you.”
He shook his head. “It’s called getting old. It’ll happen to you, too, one day.”
“No,” I protested. “It’s because you jump in and out of an ambulance all day and you’ve worn your soles down to nothing. Try them on.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
He pushed back the tongue of the shoe, inspecting it, then squinted up at me. “They’re my size.”
Smug, I replied, “Oh, I clocked your shoe size the moment I met you.”
He slipped them on. It was a look—Phantom, wearing nothing but briefs and brand new sneakers. He entertained me by getting up, walking a circle around the room, and then coming back to sit down beside me.
“They’re very comfortable,” he admitted, taking them off.
I grinned, pleased with myself. “The emperor has no clothes, but he has damn fly shoes. You have to actually take care of these.”
His arm circled around me. He pulled me into his lap, and demanded, “Show me.”
Oh. This was a new kind of intimacy, a man commanding you to teach him all about your special interest. I beamed.
I picked up the shoe box and pulled one of his shoes into my lap.
I pulled out a marker-shaped cleaning pen from the box.
“This keeps your whites white,” I inform him.
“You want to rub out the dirt at the end of the day like this. Then just let them dry, and you’re golden. ”
His head rested on my shoulder. After a moment, he said, “This might be the nicest thing anyone’s done for me.”
“It’s nothing.”
“I love them.” His voice was strangely quiet when he said it.
He seemed genuinely touched in a way I hadn’t anticipated, which sent lovely little flutters through me.
“Come here,” he said. The rumble of his voice drew me like a moth to a flame.
I tilted my head over my shoulder so my lips could meet his.
“Pull your hair back, baby,” he instructed.
The way he said baby made a heat swoop low in my belly.
Baby. Not pet. Submissive. I was his baby, and my whole body suddenly wanted to be cherished by his large hands and commanding lips.
I drew my hair off my shoulders and he filled the space, kissing my throat. His teeth scraped the vulnerable space underneath my ear and the sensation sent a delicious shudder through me.
“I’m going to thank you,” he promised, “in a way you’ll remember until Friday.”
When I woke up the next morning, my hand reached out and grasped nothing but empty air.
True to his name, Phantom pulled his typical vanishing act. One minute, he was making me scream. The next, he was gone.
Well. Not entirely gone.
I sat up on the edge of the bed and admired myself in the mirror.
Dark bite marks covered my neck. My breasts.
My thighs. They bloomed across my skin like purple flowers and I found myself tracing them with my fingertips, delighted by the pleasant soreness.
I pushed against a bruise and I felt the ache all the way between my legs.
I had to get out of bed before I broke the rule about touching myself without his permission.
I got up and exited my bedroom. My feet came to a halt and for a second, I froze.
Wait. Was this the same apartment?
My place was spotless. My laundry was folded into a neat stack. The kitchen sink was cleared and the counter sparkled. Coffee was brewing in a pot that I thought I’d broken for good.
When did he have time to do all…this?
There were flowers in a vase at the center of my tiny, round kitchen table. In front of the flowers was a box of breakfast pastries and a note.
I read the note and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Have a good day, baby. That’s an order.”