Without making a conscious decision to do so, Dahlia pulled away from him. “I need a break,” she said, the words tumbling sharply from her lips before she could stop them.
Hayden looked startled. Then he furrowed his brows, his eyes narrowing. “Did you just speak without permission again? Do I need to put you right back in that cage?”
He wasn’t getting it. She would need to speak his language. “Rosebud,” she said, her body going at once hot and cold as she realized the import of her words. “Scene is over.”
~*~
Hayden stood stock-still, wondering how he hadn’t seen that coming. He’d always prided himself on taking his slaves to the very edge, but never pushing them so far they had to invoke their safeword.
He reached for her, filled with remorse. “I’m so sorry, Dahlia. This is my fault. I should have had a better handle on your distress cues.”
Even as he apologized, he was trying to get his bearings. He remained taken aback by Dahlia’s abrupt ending of the scene. Things had been going so awesomely well. She had proved herself at every step to have the strength, passion and desire to become a full-fledged erotic slave. She’d exceeded his expectations and then some.
He’d been so sure of the trajectory of this wonderful weekend that he’d used the time while she was in the cage to check his favorite BDSM leather site. He wanted to find the perfect collar to present her when he formally claimed her for his own.
Dahlia wrapped her arms protectively around her torso and took a step back. “I’m sorry, too. I was trying so hard to please you—to prove to you and to myself that I could do this. I wanted to be this perfect slave girl for you, but it’s just not… It’s just not working for me, Hayden.” Tears filled her eyes. She blinked them away.
Ignoring the fault line cracking along his heart, Hayden managed a lopsided smile. “Hey, I get it,” he said, though he really didn’t.
How had he so misread her cues? Had she been white-knuckling her way through the entire weekend? Had she been going along only in order to please him? Because if that was the case, he’d failed her, and himself.
“Let’s go sit down. We can talk this through. Okay?”
She bit her lower lip, at first saying nothing. But then she nodded. “Okay,” she agreed. “But I want to put something on.”
Hayden wanted to refuse. But she’d invoked her safeword. Whatever had been happening between them was over—at least for now.
They walked together to the kitchen, Dahlia in one of Hayden’s T-shirts and her panties, Hayden in his pajama bottoms. Dahlia sat at the bar while Hayden made them hot tea and cinnamon toast. “My mom always made me cinnamon toast when I was having a bad day,” he said, managing a more genuine smile as he placed their snack on the bar and took a seat next to her.
Dahlia smiled back, which gave him hope. They would talk this through. Whatever her issue was, he would fix it. He would make it right.
They ate their toast without speaking, save for Dahlia’s saying it was good.
Finally, Hayden swiveled on his stool to face her. “You’ve made incredible progress in such a short time. You were doing so beautifully that I got carried away in the moment. I wanted to make it real for you—to show you how intense and deeply satisfying this kind of total power exchange can be. Don’t quit before the miracle, Dahlia. We can figure this out together.”
Dahlia sighed, placing her elbows on the counter. Without looking at him, she said, “I really like you, Hayden. Hell, who am I kidding? I’m falling in love with you.”
Her words gave him some hope, yet he could hear the but in her voice.
And, sure enough, along it came. “But I can’t do this. I thought I could, but it’s just not me.” Finally, she turned to face him with a sad smile. “You’re an amazing guy. I really appreciate how you’ve trusted me to enter your world. And while I absolutely love what we’ve been exploring together, I realize now that I can’t give you what you want. It’s not just about being afraid, or not connecting with my inner sub or however you want to define it. It’s that I can’t do it. Certainly not on a 24/7 basis, at any rate.”
She sighed. “You were right at the very beginning, when you tried to tell me I was biting off more than I could chew.”
“No,” Hayden protested, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. “I was wrong about what you could or couldn’t handle. You’ve proved me wrong every step of the way. You’ve been incredible. Let’s not give up because we hit a temporary road block. We can fix this. I still believe you have amazing potential as an erotic slave, potential we’ve just barely begun to tap.”