She Left Her Cheating Fiancé, Then Met the Mafia Boss Who Wanted Her novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Collar

I stood in Lark's mother's doorway in my socks and looked at him.

He had driven forty minutes in the dark to ask me to send him away.

I did not send him away.

"Get in the car," I said. "I'm not sleeping under your friend's mother's roof with you on her porch."

"Ariella, I'll go if you tell me to," he said quietly.

"Dominic."

"Yes."

"Be quiet."

He was quiet.

I left a note for Lark on the kitchen table and took my quilt.

In the car I sat on the far side of the back seat and said what I'd decided on the stairs.

"Silvio is mine."

His head turned.

"You don't touch him. Not by Friday, not ever, not unless I say. I'll do it in front of your family, in your own back room, and I'll do it with the recording."

"That's dangerous."

"Say yes."

He held my eyes.

"Yes," he said.

"You tell me everything from now on. Even the ugly parts."

"Yes."

"Nobody goes near Lark."

"Nobody goes near Lark."

"And one more thing."

"Name it."

I took a breath.

"I want to wear your collar."

The car went silent.

I could hear the tires on the road. I could hear him breathing.

"Say that again," he said.

"I want to wear it. Because I choose to. Not because Silvio picked me, or Ethan sold me, or you stood in a lobby." My throat was tight. "Because I want to kneel for you, and I want everyone who sees it to know that I decided."

"I haven't bought one."

"You have."

He closed his eyes.

"It's in my study drawer," he said. "I ordered it the night I met you. I haven't touched it since. I wanted to wait until you asked."

"Then I'm asking."

When the elevator doors closed at the top of the hotel, he was breathing hard.

In the study he unlocked a drawer and took out a flat black box.

Inside lay a collar of soft black leather, narrow and plain, with a small silver ring at the front.

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