The Submissive's Last Word (The Power to Please #4) by Deena Ward Page B

You’re an important man. You can’t have
someone like me around with a secret like that. It could hurt.”
    “What could it hurt? I don’t care what people think. I never
have. It’s one of the best things about having money, Nonnie, and it’s
something you’ll learn, the longer you’re with me.”
    I shook my head. “No. This is big. What if we were out
together and someone took our picture and printed it and they found out about
me. There it would be for everyone to see. Gibson Reeves dating a porno
actress. It would be terrible. It could hurt your business.”
    “No. Nothing gets printed that I don’t allow. And even if
something got past me, was printed, and they dared to call you names, it could
never touch my business.”
    “You know what I mean. Investors. Business deals could fall
through.”
    “My only investors are Paulina and Xavier, and they have no
control in Roundtree. If a deal falls through, I’ve got a hundred more waiting
to take its place. I employ an entire department of people who do nothing but
manage public relations for Roundtree and me personally. The public at large
knows precisely what we want them to know and nothing else. Period.”
    “You sound like you can’t be taken by surprise.”
    He paused and thought for a second. “I could be, but there’s
nothing that can’t be fixed or altered. And beyond that, at the end of the day,
the only truth that matters is I don’t care what people think about me. I don’t
have to. You don’t have to. That’s it. The truth.”
    I understood I had much to learn about the impact of immense
wealth; there could be no point of reference in my life for such knowledge.
When I thought about Gibson’s money, I thought of it in terms of what I owed
him, of all that he had provided for me in the course of the past month. I was
woefully ignorant, and only now was beginning to realize the extent of it.
    “Wherever or however you got this idea that you’d be an
embarrassment to me or somehow detrimental to me, I want you to forget it,” he
said.
    I’d gotten the idea from Michael. He planted the idea in my
head on that terrible day at my apartment. When would I stop letting Michael
control me? I had to find a way to strip away his residual power over me. But
not tonight.
    Tonight was about Gibson, and what he saw in me
    I turned to face him. “Why haven’t you touched me or kissed
me since everything happened?”
    “At first, it was guilt. But after what happened at your
apartment the day we moved you to the estate, I thought it best to wait until
you approached me again. You needed time to figure out what you wanted, without
pressure from me. Especially no sexual pressure.”
    I lay my palms against his chest, smoothed his shirt over
his firm flesh. “Well, you failed with that. I dream about you every night.”
    He breathed in deeply, his hands closed around my waist.
“Every night?”
    “Every single one. And you always stop right when it’s
getting good.”
    “That’s rude of me.”
    “I know.”
    “If it’s any consolation, I can’t see you without wanting
you.”
    I licked my lips, drawing his gaze to my mouth. “I want you
so much.”
    He looked into my eyes, his expression intent. “No more fits
and starts for us, Nonnie. I need to know you’re ready to move on, to begin the
process of getting past what happened. We can’t start anything, you and me,
until you’re prepared for that, for the future.”
    “I think I am. I want to be.”
    “I’ll help. I don’t expect you to be completely healed. But
you’ve got to be committed to that healing.”
    I felt heat rolling outward from him like a wave, a heat
that matched my own. “I’ll say whatever you want, do whatever you want. I don’t
have any pride left to protect. It’s shredded to pieces.”
    “That’s not true. You —”
    “Shut up, Gibson. Kiss me. You know you want to.”
    “I do, but first —”
    “Kiss me.”
    He looked at my lips. “I will. But