I have spent years perfecting the commands that keep men exactly where I want them, because the thought of one walking away still claws at my chest. Roderick Vesper offers the one surrender that quiets that fear, his lean frame yielding under my voice even as the shame he carries from past mockery pulls at something deeper in me, and our shared venture now risks everything if this need between us fractures under the pressure.

Now I draw the black silk from the drawer and hold it open in the space between us, where his collarbone scar shows above his collar. I wait in the silence for the nod that will render him blind to everything except my voice and touch. He gives it every time, and every time I ask for more.