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“So back down at , pride was a hard thing to s

Theto sit here and ad? I didn’t even have a college degree

And I hadn’t forgotten the disgust on his face when he talked just a ers

He respected ht I was here on soht ere equals

“Still going to play mysterious?” he prompted, and I didn’t miss the frustration in his voice But all I could do was pick up , while inside, a little more of me crumbled away

Still, it was a turning point I wouldn’t say ent back to our old selves like we’d been before No, we didn’t go back to Master and submissive twenty-four seven

But after his as done, or during extended lunches, ould… play

The next month passed far less painfully than I would have expected There were a few Trials, but, and I don’t know if the Elders had decided to take it easy on us after the last disastrous one or so to do, but hey, I wasn’t co—they weren’t bad at all

Going downstairs for soies didn’t really botheras he wasn’t expected to share et off on the voyeuristic nature of showing off just how far he could pushfor it

And when things were good like this between us, daood

During our first month and a half, I never knew if Emmett would want to pause work for meals, but ever since the Hunt, he always made time for them Especially breakfast Sometimes we’d spend a couple of hours in the breakfast nook chatting and reading parts of the paper to each other, doing the crossword together, laughing over the dumb comics He was always sweet about the crosswords, which I bet he could do in his sleep, but he letan answer he’d probably known all along

I never realized before getting to know Emmett that a man could be so sweet and also be the most badass, sexy, dominant lover I’d ever known