"Dr. Morgan," I replied, unable to keep a grin off my face. "I see you've got everything well in hand."
"Always," he said, his eyes twinkling in that way that promised so much. "I hope to have you well in hand all evening. I hope you obeyed my orders about your manner of dress."
"Do you doubt it?"
"Of course not, but you have quite a will. One I intend to tame."
"Tame?" I said, matching his mock stern tone. "What could you possibly mean by that, Doctor?"
"Tame," he said, officiously, as he handed me the glass. "To make docile, tractable, obedient. To domesticate. To harness, to control."
We shot back the Anisovaya, the liquor burning down my throat, warming my belly. I'd come to associate the taste with pleasure, and a thrill of desire flooded through me at what would happen next.
"You like your women tame?"
"No," he said, taking the glass from my hands and placing them on the small table by the door. "After meeting you, I realized I like them quite the opposite. I like them wild, willful, self-prepossessed. What I love is taming them. I love the battle of wills." He removed my coat and hung it in the closet in the entry. Then he took me in his arms, one around my waist, pulling me against his body, the other brushing a lock of hair from my cheek. "I love the planning, the reconnaissance, the approach, the first engagement, the attack, the resistance, then the eventual surrender."
He had this look in his eyes, amusement and heat that sent my heart racing.
"But do you lose interest once you've conquered?" I said it without even thinking, but then, a sense of sadness went through me. "Once your adversary has surrendered, when there's nothing left to tame?"
He shook his head. "The wise general never totally destroys the spirit of the conquered. What good is a razed and barren landscape?"
I leaned my head against his chest, never really having thought about what Drake would do once he had my complete submission.
"Will you go off looking for new lands to conquer once you've subdued your current target?"
He pulled away and looked down at me, a frown on his face. "Kate…"
"Well, when you put it that way, it got me thinking."
He led me over to the couch in the living room and sat down, pulling me down to sit on his lap, my legs over to one side, my arms around his neck like that first night in November.
"I was just playing around."
I nodded, but my insecurities came to the surface from out of nowhere.
"Kate, you're not merely a submissive to me. I love you. I want to be with you. Not only as your Dom but as your partner. I'm old enough to know when I've found what I need to make me happy. I have found it. I'm not going to grow bored with you. I want you to stay who you are. I don't want a footstool. I thought you understood."
"I do, but it's every woman's insecurity."
"Shh," he said, a finger against my lips. "You are completely everything I want and need. You're beautiful, intelligent, warm, loving and submissive sexually underneath all the questioning and resistance. You don't have to worry."
"We hardly know each other," I said, thinking of the very brief amount of time that had passed since we met.
"I know you, Kate," he said, kissing my cheek. "You don't easily hide your emotions. You question everything, so I know where your mind is. I know you."
I sighed and leaned my head against his shoulder. We were still so new to each other, having been together for barely four months since the fundraiser. Still, I knew what I wanted.
Drake.
But suddenly, the enormity of what I was doing struck me. I had given up my semester at Columbia. I was packing up my apartment and had given it up, and I'd lose the lease at the end of January. Most of my things were either at my father's or would be in storage. I was going to Kenya with Drake, to live with him.
It was what I wanted, but a little crack of doubt crept in. I'd be alone with Drake in a foreign country, completely dependent on him. I could always leave if need be for I had my own money, but still…
"Stop," Drake said, tilting my chin up so that I had to look into his blue eyes. "I know what's going on in that mind of yours. This is a big commitment, but don't you feel the way I do? That this is exactly what you want and need?"
"Yes."