Nicole Edwards - Perception

She made straight A’s; she didn’t miss school, didn’t even ask to stay home when her temperature had been over one hundred, and she had been throwing up all night.

She knew better. Her father would’ve stayed home, keeping her right under his thumb, telling her to quit faking it, to grow up. And if that didn’t work, if he didn’t get the reaction he wanted, he would hit her.

Never did he spank her like she’d heard some parents did to their children when they were bad. No, he back handed her. Once he had even punched her in the stomach.

Just like he did to her mother.

And that’s what made this situation all the more surprising. Her mother was standing up for her. She was sixteen years old and for as long as she could remember, Priscilla had never stood up for her against her father. Not once.

But here Priscilla was, standing up to her father, a gleam in her once pretty gray eyes.

“Let her go out,” Priscilla said through gritted teeth, shocking Mercedes with her boldness.

“Fuck you,” Phillip argued. “She’s staying right here. Until she turns eighteen. Then she can do whatever the fuck she wants. She can go out and fuck the defensive line for her school’s pitiful excuse for a football team for all I care.”

What? Mercedes couldn’t believe her father was saying such disgusting things. She was a freaking virgin.

“You’re too hard on her,” Priscilla said, that eerie glow still in her eyes.

“And you’re a pitiful excuse for a human being,” he barked. “But I fucked you once and you fucked me for the rest of my life. So this is what you get. But don’t worry, the day she turns eighteen, neither of you will see me again.”

“I hate you!” Priscilla yelled.

“Not nearly as much as I hate you,” Phillip growled.

Mercedes didn’t stick around to listen to more. She turned on her heels just in time to hear the loud smack that she’d been waiting for. He’d hit her mother. Again.

As she closed her bedroom door, Mercedes took a deep breath. It wouldn’t last long, she knew that much. Even abusing them took too much effort for Phillip. Instead, he would leave her mother lying on the floor wherever she fell. And once Priscilla pulled herself up off the ground, she would head to the medicine cabinet to find something to alleviate the pain.

That’s how it always happened.

Mercedes blinked, and the room came into focus.

God, she hated thinking about her parents. She wanted to scream at them for all they’d put her through. It was their fault she was the way that she was.

It was why she insisted on dominating people. It was why she’d become so successful. She’d turned her hatred for them into success because she hadn’t had a choice.

And that’s why she didn’t want to give up control. She’d spent every single day of her life up until she was eighteen years old living with a man who wanted to punish her because he felt as though his life sucked. She was a mistake, one he wished he could’ve taken back. But since she’d been born, despite his desire for her mother to have an abortion, Phillip Bryant had made it his mission to ruin their lives as well.

“Good morning.”

The sexy, rough grumble of Xander’s voice startled her, but she tried to play it off, turning her head slowly to see him moving toward her.

“Morning,” she said, her voice still raspy from sleep. Yeah, that definitely wasn’t emotion lodged deep in her throat.

“Sleep well?”

She didn’t answer, but she forced a nod. That was the best she could do because honestly, she didn’t know if she did or not. It all seemed to depend on how she interpreted that dream.

“Do you know what today is?” he asked.

Mercedes frowned, doing her best to think. “Monday?”

“It’s Monday,” he confirmed, a sexy smirk on his lips. “It’s also BDSM night at Devotion.”

Oh, crap. That meant…

“That means today is my day,” she said, trying to sound excited by the idea. Maybe that’s what the dream was about. Or at least why she’d had it last night. Because today was the day she would own Xander Boone, even if for just a little while.

“ Tonight is your night,” he corrected as he crawled over her, his muscles tensing as he held himself above her.

He was on the wrong side of naked in her opinion, wearing only a pair of black boxer briefs and a mischievous smile, the titanium bars in his nipples drawing her attention to his chest. She gazed at him momentarily, her eyes trailing down until they stopped on the word “Trust” scrolled along his side.

Trust.

That’s what it all boiled down to, didn’t it?

“And that means?” she asked, lifting her gaze back up, hoping for clarification as she reached up and fingered his nipples.

She needed a distraction. And he was perfect for the role.

“I agreed to let you top me. You wanted the first time to be at Devotion. That means while we’re there tonight, I’ll be at your mercy. Until then,” he mumbled, nuzzling his mouth against her neck, “you’re mine.”

Why that didn’t bother her, she had no idea. Four days ago, she probably would’ve argued and told him that wasn’t the deal. But, technically – and yes, Xander was all about technicalities – it was. She had only requested that she be allowed to dominate him in public – once at Devotion and another at a place of her choosing. When she wanted. Didn’t mean it would be during their five day time frame either. No, she was reserving that date for a time and place that would offer the most optimum payback.

Pretty optimistic of her, she knew.

If she were completely honest with herself, she never thought this night would happen when she originally requested it, so, for now, she’d let him have his way.

But tonight…

Yeah, tonight he was all hers.

As part owner of Devotion, Xander had several reservations about what was about to happen. For one, submitting to Mercedes, even if it was a one time – or rather two time – deal wasn’t at the top of his list of things he wanted to accomplish in his lifetime.

Actually, it wasn’t even on the list.

However, he had seen that familiar spark in her eyes earlier when they’d left his condo, right after she’d given him strict instruction as to how the night would go. He had complied half-heartedly, hating himself for agreeing to this in the first place.

If the woman thought it went against her nature to submit, she had no fucking clue what it was like for him. Even if it meant he was fulfilling a fantasy of hers – her words exactly – he felt the animal beneath his skin itching to get free.

When they’d arrived at the club, he had allowed the valet to take his Escalade while he walked Mercedes inside, still being the perfect gentleman he was raised to be. But it was the moment they stepped into the club proper that his world tipped on its axis. And not in a good way either.

She’d warned him of her expectations so he’d gone along with it. After all, tomorrow morning – when their time was officially over – would depend on his participation tonight, even he knew that much.

Thankfully, she had allowed him to wear his comfortable attire, which consisted of leather pants, his shit kickers and a plain black t-shirt. She’d handpicked everything from his closet earlier, and he’d been impressed.

But, that’s where his comfort level took a quick nosedive.

It wasn’t that he had a problem being partially naked in public. That didn’t bother him in the least. But removing his shirt so that everyone could see the thick black collar that now wrapped like a noose around his neck wasn’t thrilling him at all.