The smile on Michael’s face shifted to something more predatory, making her nipples pucker beneath the corset Angel had insisted was now hers. He really was ridiculously hot. It kind of wasn’t fair. All he had to do was smile and she creamed her panties. Add in his sweetness, his protectiveness, and his persistence in reaching out to her (without being creepy or stalkery about it), and how was she supposed to have kept resisting? She wanted him.

“We’ll decide that during negotiations,” he said, opening the door and ushering her into the room with his hand on the small of her back. She swore she could feel the heat even through the corset.

“Negotiations?” she echoed. There was no way he’d skipped looking over her play sheet, which had all of her hard and soft limits on it. Especially since she knew he had to be the Dom who had joined in the scene with Andrew. Maybe he was just trying to make her wonder whether or not he really had been?

Giving her a gentle push towards one of the desks in the first row, Michael moved to the teacher’s desk, standing in front of it and leaning back against it with his arms crossed as Ellie settled into her chair. With her sitting and him standing right in front of her, she could already feel herself settling into a submissive mindset, and it made her feel calmer emotionally, even as her body tingled with growing excitement.

“I’ve already looked over your limits, but I still want to talk about them first, since this is our first scene together,” he said, although one side of his mouth hitched up into a little half-smile when he called it their first scene. Yeah, he was definitely the “mystery Dom” from her scene with Andrew. “You have some unusual limits.”

Immediately, Ellie’s body tensed, the calm she was feeling retreated as she scrambled for the walls which normally kept her from feeling vulnerable. It was a long moment before she realized Michael was still standing there, watching her reactions, and she had to force herself to release her white-knuckled grip on the sides of the desk. She pressed her palms flat against the desk, spreading out her fingers. Tilting her head back, she looked up into his eyes, somewhat defiantly.

He just raised his eyebrow at her.

Damn observant Doms. He was probably reading all sorts of things into her reaction. Maybe even hitting somewhere near the truth.

“I haven’t had anyone complain before,” she finally said, unable to bear the silence and his measuring gaze.

“It’s not a complaint, but we’re going to talk about them,” he said, his tone calm and even.