“It’s better for you to go. I can’t give you what you need, and I don’t think you can give me what I need. And after that night… I don’t know how we could ever… ”

She reached out and laid her hand over his. “I know you’re a good man. What you did for me… I know we haven’t talked about it but… it was everything. Y-you saw the gravity of what happened and you paid a price higher than I ever would have asked just to try to make it right.”

“It can’t ever be right.”

Leo’s muscles went rigid when she left her chair and knelt at his feet. He could barely breathe.

“I want to be with you. I want to please you. I’ll be your slave. I’ll be whatever you want.”

His suspicions about her being a sub were right. Just not a masochist. One out of two? A strong one out of two wasn’t bad.

“I’m going to my office to do some work. When I’m finished, you will be in one of two places, either in your room with your bags packed and ready to go, or in the dungeon naked in front of the mirror. Like that night.”

She flinched, and he knew she’d be packed in an hour.

* * *

Faith knelt on the kitchen floor as Leo’s footsteps faded from the room. She could go back to her life. Not her exact life, but a better life. She trusted when he said he’d give her a nice apartment or house and help her find a job. But the idea of going back to cats and no real family made her feel cold inside. If she took his offer, she knew she’d never see him again, and despite everything, she couldn’t stand that ending. Let him kill her if he didn’t want her. But tossing her away after all this?

If she were wise, she’d take the offer, go to her room, and pack her things. But she loved the way he smelled and his warmth and the way he held her. She loved how he’d protected her so many times, and despite how wrong it all was, she loved him for the scars he’d always carry for her.

It shouldn’t have been, but the decision was easy.

When she got downstairs, she turned on the lamps and removed her clothing, folding them and placing them carefully on a chest of drawers beside the bed. She paused in front of the record player, thumbing through the cardboard sleeves until she found the dreaded record. They’d agreed never to play it again, but nothing would let him know she was serious more than playing this collection of music, resetting everything exactly as it had been. It was the only way she could prove she was his, and the only way he could ever hope to rewind and redo that night. If she didn’t trust him to make a different set of choices, she should be upstairs in her room packing.