Bondage Buddies (Masters of Marquis #1) - Golden Angel Page 0,22

both gone home. Nothing stood out as different. Not until this morning when she’d texted him.

He’d smiled seeing her name on his phone and had been frowning ever since he’d read the actual message.

“Fuck it.”

He pressed the call button. For some reason, he couldn’t shrug off her dismissal of him the way he normally did. It felt wrong, though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.

This wouldn’t be the first time a woman had broken up with him, though he had to admit it normally happened within a month or two because she either got tired of only being fuck buddies or they fell apart naturally, but he’d always seen it coming. There was a certain feel to a connection when it started to diminish. Mitch was practically an expert on that feeling.

The connection between him and Domi hadn’t diminished at all, and if he’d been asked, he would have said they were both happily still going strong as friends-with-benefits.

The relief he felt when Domi picked up the phone, rather than letting the call go to voicemail, was disturbingly intense.

“Hello?”

It was hard to tell what she felt about him calling her from one word, which had been imbued with very little inflection.

“Hey, Domi, it’s Mitch.” He paused. Dammit. He really should have thought through what he wanted to say. “I, uh, I was just calling to make sure you’re okay.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Amusement tinged her voice. “Is this about my text message? I thought I was clear.”

“You were… I just… I wondered why, I guess. I wanted to make sure I didn’t cross any lines last night or anything.”

“Oh, no!” The almost horrified way she rushed to reassure him he hadn’t done anything wrong loosened the tightness in his chest. It felt as though a burden he hadn’t been aware of had lifted, and now that it was gone, he could breathe a little easier. “No… I, I’m so sorry, I never meant to make you feel that way. I…” Her voice trailed off, becoming hesitant.

“You…” Mitch supposed it didn’t matter much. If she was done with him, she was done, and he would have to deal with it. The thought of never playing with her again hurt him more than he’d expected, but he would respect her decision.

Domi blew out her breath, the way she often did before making herself say something she wasn’t completely comfortable revealing. Mitch had heard her do it often enough, either before or after a scene when he’d wanted to push her limits. What she said next threw him for an unexpected loop.

“I’m starting to fall for you.” She said it matter-of-factly, with very little emotion as if she was talking about nothing more shocking than the weather. “So, I decided we needed to break up.”

Wait… that was his line. Normally, when he sensed a woman was getting involved emotionally, Mitch would break it off—the polite thing to do, the gentlemanly thing to do—but he’d never had a woman break up with him because she was falling for him. He hadn’t realized Domi was starting to have feelings for him. Granted, they’d been scening together for far longer than any of his previous partners, and he’d gotten used to always scening with her… Hell, he hadn’t been interested in scening with anyone else in ages.

“I realize that’s not what we agreed to when we first started playing,” she continued as though she wasn’t messing with his entire worldview. “I don’t want to get hurt, and I didn’t want to put you in a bad position. I think it’s better we end things before my emotions get more involved.”

“You’re breaking off our agreement because you like me too much?” he asked, just to make sure he understood correctly.

Domi snorted. “When you put it that way, it sounds ridiculous, but sort of. I am emotionally involved, and you’re not, which seems like a disaster in the making.”

That was hard to argue with, but it also seemed she was making some assumptions. Like, the fact he wasn’t emotionally involved. Sure, he might not be a relationship guy, but he still cared about her. Liked having her around. Liked being with her. Those emotions might be confined to the times when they saw each other, which were all at Stronghold or Marquis, but they existed.

“I think I’m just past the point of wanting a fuck buddy.” A little note of yearning entered her tone. “I think I want a relationship. I know it won’t be with you, but I feel