Knots by Chanse Lowell Page A

turned a corner a little faster than he probably should have. She leaned toward him, and his grin went wider.
    “Because I won’t ignore you the way he did. It won’t grow old or stale. I don’t do vanilla, Jeanie. I do me . I do you . I do us . I will always call when I’m gonna be late. I’ll always let you know what I need and want, so you know exactly how to please me without having to guess. This is what I do, and I do it right . You do, too—you know how to please someone. You were just with the wrong person, and that was never your fault. Submissives marry other submissives all the time.”
    “Hold on— what ?” Her eyes widened.
    “You know what I said.” His jaw snapped shut.
    “You think he was a submissive? But he . . . But I wasn’t and he—he wasn’t gay!”
    “I never said he was. There are men with submissive natures—it doesn’t mean he was gay. I know he was straight. He loved you, but when you had sex, like we discussed before, it was always the same, right?”
    “Yeah.” Her head almost lolled on the headrest as she stared at him in awe. It was crazy how he could almost see into her soul and see her past. How was he this observant? And why did it thrill her he could say these difficult things and make it seem easy? God, he set her blood on fire by merely talking to her candidly.
    “He kept it the same because odds are, he didn’t know what to do. He probably kept hoping you’d take over, and when you didn’t, things kind of stalled and it was probably awkward for both of you at times.”
    “How the hell do you know all this? Did he tell you this stuff?” Her voice was all breathy, and she hated how obvious it was she was aroused by him. It wasn’t all about the physical either. It was the mental more than anything—the way he got in her head.
    “No. He never talked about your sex life, and if he’d tried, I wouldn’t have let him. It would’ve killed me.”
    “It would?”
    “Yeah.” He slid his teeth over his bottom lip, and the gesture was innocent enough, but to her, it was potent and obscene. Her thighs slid together to quell the throb building between them.
    “Most of the time it was fine, but yes, I admit, there were times neither of us seemed to know what to do, and forget about talking during. If either of us tried to dirty talk or say what we wanted, we’d wind up laughing or it would just kind of fizzle. God, this sounds pathetic, and it really wasn’t. He was a good lover, and I thought I was okay at it, too, but maybe I’m in denial.”
    The car rolled to a stop.
    She blinked and glanced around. “Is there a reason we’re back at this beach?”
    “Neutral territory. You said you were already afraid of the kind of sway I have over you. We need to discuss it, and if I bring you back to my place, I’ll have no choice but to show you why that’s a good thing.”
    She fought off a visible shiver and wrapped her arms around herself.
    “You said you wanted to get to know me better first, so let’s start this by taking a walk. I’m gonna share with you the first time we met—and what you did to me.”
    “What I did to you?” Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened. She failed to blink.
    “And what you’ve continued to do to me every day since. You’re a part of me, and I can’t let go of that part, because it’s the best fucking piece of my soul. Before you, I don’t know if I even had half a one. But now, I look at you, I breathe in your scent, and I know I have one because I only want what’s best for you—to see you smile, hear you laugh, watch you come undone with pleasure.”
    She slid away from him an inch. Her clit tingled. How the hell did he know exactly what to say to make it throb like that?
    She looked away.
    “Come—walk with me,” he said.
    He got out of the car, helped her out, and they both took their shoes off and chucked them into the foot well.
    She waited for him to lock up, and the moment his hand was extended, she