Bound to You

Chapter 37

You took me to dinner that night, and as I sat across the table from you, I realized it was the first time we'd ever done this: gone on a date. I pressed my foot against yours and smiled and you smiled back.

"Champagne?" you asked, pouring me a generous serving without waiting for an answer.

"Are you trying to liquor me up, sir?" I asked, playfully.

You scoffed. "Why would I need to do that? I know you'll put out for me."

Heat raced up my neck when you said that. Oh yes. I would put out for you alright.

You ordered us food in French, and when it came, it smelled like butter and warm grain, and I couldn't think of a time in my life when I had ever been happier.

"So, I bared my soul to you last night," you said, cutting into a piece of meat that was so rare that red liquid flowed out of it at the touch of your knife and fork. "I want to hear your side of the story."

I laughed down at the table. "My side of the story?"

You chewed and nodded, your eyes sparkling with excitement. "Yes. I sort...suspected...early on that you..." You couldn't seem to say the words.

"Wanted to bone you?"

You snorted. "Yes, to put it gently."

I took a bite of my pasta and grinned at him. "You were pretty much my sexual awakening."

You choked on your food and reached for your water glass. Your eyes darted around the restaurant before landing on me. "Don't say that. You'll get me hard in the middle of this restaurant, and then I won't be able to leave. They'll have to turn off all the lights, and I'll just be sitting here alone in the dark with my erection."

I giggled and bit my lip. "I would never leave you alone with an erection. What a waste."

You grinned at me. "But honestly, Lena. Tell me."

I put down my fork and let the humor ease out of my chest. "I guess I suspected as soon as we met. I mean, what fifteen-year-old isn't at some point attracted to an older man? I figured it was nothing. But then I couldn't stop thinking about you, couldn't wait to see you again. You were so kind to me that first night. You--"

I paused. I felt, suddenly, like every wall I'd ever built against the world was crumbling down.

"What?" you asked, your voice quiet, soft.

"You saw me." I looked up at you, and you looked right back. "You listened to me. Before that night, nobody had ever really done that before. Even after, people never seemed to hear me when I told them what I wanted. You were the first person who ever took me seriously when I said out loud what I liked."

Across the table, your eyes lingered on me. "I think what you want and what you like are some of the most wonderful things. I want to help you get everything you want in life, Lena."

"I'm already halfway there. I have you."

You looked back and forth between my eyes. "I love you."

I felt that spark under my skin that I got every time you said it. "I love you, too." I slipped off my shoes and perched my feet on the booth beside your hip. "So why is your mom such a bitch?"

You laughed and shook your head. "She's not normally so bad. She just had it in her head that you were some kind of gold-digging hussy, and that we were going to fuck for a little while and then get tired of each other."

I licked sauce off my fork. "Well, she was right about the fucking."

You laughed again. "After you left, I felt gutted. I felt like I'd been flayed open. I told her I wouldn't be coming back until she apologized and until you were welcome to return with me. I'll still fly in as often as I can to see my dad."