“I know.” She wanted to rest her head on the table, but she didn’t want to get cheeseburger grease in her hair. “Do you think this is part of his plan?”

“What, to drive you wild with lust, make you wait until you’re ready to explode, then take you out in public and force you to talk about all the filthy things you want him to do to you?” Sadie paused to sip her soda. “Honey, he’s a Dom. Of course it’s part of the plan.”

“I’ll be dead by the time he picks me up.”

“He’s going to pick you up at his own house?”

“He said he wanted it to feel like a first date.”

“Aw.” Sadie propped her chin on her fist. “That’s sweet. I knew he had a thing for you.”

“I have a thing for him, too,” Olivia confessed, fiddling with the napkin in her lap. “I just didn’t think I could do anything about it.”

“So you, what? Just forgot about it?”

“I’m very good at compartmentalizing things.”

“Fuck, I guess so. Well.” Sadie lifted her glass in a toast. “Here’s to letting Cade out of his compartment, and here’s hoping you survive it.”

* * * *

At five minutes to seven, Olivia was lying on her reading chair in the third-floor bonus space, practicing her deep breathing. After lunch, she’d gone back to work, letting her full schedule of back-to-back patients distract her. But then she’d gotten back to Cade’s house, and fed Cade’s cat, and taken a shower in Cade’s shower—okay, the guest shower, but still—and now she was trying not to have a heart attack while she waited for the doorbell to ring.

She’d sent him a text when she got off work to ask him what she should wear—she had no idea if he’d planned a fancy or a casual evening—and the only thing he’d texted back was wear what you normally would on a first date.

But did that mean a first vanilla-date, or a first kinky-date? She’d started to ask, then thought better of it. She didn’t want to end up sitting in a fancy restaurant in fetish wear, and she didn’t know yet if he was the kind of Dom who’d enjoy fucking with her that way. So she’d put her phone away, pulled out her classic little black dress and paired it with a pair of red heels that matched her lipstick.

She’d just finished styling her hair in soft, shimmering waves that would hopefully entice him to get his hands in it when her phone dinged. The message from Cade had simply read one last thing—no panties.