Rainie heard herself whispering the rules.

The slow slide of a deep voice murmured. “Hell. She thought she was helping—and instead she overdid it, didn’t she?”

She got another kiss. So light that her thoughts floated again.

Sweet Miss Lily. She could almost smell the elderly woman’s lavender, feel her soft wrinkled cheek. “She loved me.” Rainie’s lips curved up as she soaked in the memory.

Question. A question hovered in her mind, whispered by a husky voice.

“Answer me, sweetling.”

Question. “Geoffrey’s family didn’t like me. Said I was coarse. And heavy.” The hurt dug into her like sharp claws. She pulled in a breath, blinking.

Her world changed, came clear.

Holding the dark glasses, Jake leaned down to her. His eyes were sharper than lasers. The forehead strap kept her from looking away from his hard face. “Abandoned by your parents, attacked in foster care, criticized by your mentor, dumped by your wimpy boyfriend. No wonder your thinking got screwed up.”

Her mouth worked, but nothing escaped. She’d…told him that? Fragments of her own words drifted through her memory, leaving her more naked than any lack of clothing would.

“You figure you have to make yourself over in order to be loved?”

He couldn’t understand. “I do,” she whispered. “I have to be smooth and put together and polished and—”

“Jesus. Sweetheart, you’re not expected to change yourself.” He cupped his hands on each side of her face. “You’re supposed to find someone who likes you as you are.” His jaw was so tense he had trouble speaking. “The rest is just…polish…like you said, but not who you really are, Rainie.”

Not who she was?

“It’s like clothes—sometimes you dress up for an occasion. But, sweetling, friends like you no matter what you wear. The man who loves you will adore you without any polish…or clothes.”

She stared at him.

His lips curved. “As it happens, I love you naked.”

A second later, he stepped back.

And wax splashed on her stomach, up over a breast and down again. Over and over. The heat flared along her skin and through her, growing, blossoming, until she floated away in a cloud of sensation.

Jake stopped to survey his work. Rainie’s body was covered in a light sweat, and the wax glowed in the dungeon lights.

He felt as if he’d been dragged behind a truck for a few miles, yet exhilarated at the progress they’d made. Fuck, she’d had a hell of a childhood. Everyone had let her down. In a way, he’d been part of her trauma. That ugly revelation still grated through his system.

She’d seen him at Jennifer’s party.

He’d have been near twenty-one, just starting to explore BDSM with his mentor, and thinking about enlisting. Hell, if only he’d met her that day, what might he have spared her? Regret bit at him.

But if he’d met her then...if she’d managed to avoid the heartbreak and trauma, would she be the same woman?

All her friends and even his clinic clients poured out their life stories…because she listened without judging. Because compassion was a river running through her so strongly that anyone who knew her could feel it.

He had to think destiny had set Rainie’s feet on her path. And, being the amazing person she was, she’d climbed higher than anyone could imagine.

Dammit, though… Thinking about what she’d been through made him growl. Even her beloved mentor had messed with her head. With the best of intentions, Miss Lily had tried to redesign a brilliant spirit rather than teaching her the difference between internal and external appearances.

He sighed. One scene wouldn’t address those insecurities of hers. They’d have to come back to this often. If fact, he should talk her into some counseling as well.

As he ran his hand through his hair, he decided to sign himself up for a bit of therapy too. Damned if he didn’t have a few problems to work through himself.

Heather’d been quite clear. “If you’d said you needed me…if you’d given the slightest hint that losing me would upset your life, I’d never have been able to leave.” He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

Jake picked up Rainie’s hand. “Sweetling, look at me.”

Her eyes had glazed again. Good. She had no defenses to keep his request, his plea, from sliding in deep. She’d hear him true. “Rainie, I love you, just the way you are. Please don’t leave me.”

“Jake,” she whispered. Her hazel eyes started to clear, to focus on his face. “Wh-what?”

“I need you, sweetheart. Stay here. With me.” If he could, he’d relocate with her, but he and Saxon owned the clinic together.

“Need me?” Rainie’s brow puckered. “No.”

His jaw clamped down. Had he been wrong about what she felt?

“I’m not good for you. Hurt your future. When I’m more. Better—”

He had to blink away the tears. Jesus, he’d been an idiot. Not good for him? “You’re perfect, sweetling. Everything I need in a woman. I don’t want you to change.”

And next time he asked her to do a list of her strengths and weaknesses, he’d write out his own…and share.

His words slid between the clouds and streaked down like lightning bolts into Rainie’s soul. She blinked, unsure if she was really looking at him. But he stood beside her, his eyes brilliantly green. And then he kissed her.

Oh yes, it was Jake.

When he lifted his head, she blinked as the world and the evening spun into focus. The dungeon. Her bet. His vow.

“Rainie, I love you, just the way you are. Please don’t leave me.” He’d said he loved her.

Oh. My. God.

Her breasts were prickling as the wax cooled. Her skin was tingling and throbbing with heat, as if someone had turned the thermostat of her sensations up to the top.

“Do you trust me, baby?” he asked.

“Yes.” She did. She really did.

He grinned and put the dark glasses on her. And lifted something long and shiny from the table.

It wavered, ballooned, curved in the distorting glasses—but she knew he held a knife.

Her insides wanted to flinch, but she breathed out and closed her eyes. He’d never hurt her. Not Jake.

The blade burned as it touched her upper breast—and she stiffened with a surge of panic. He was burning her, branding her, cutting her.

He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. A second later, she realized the burn was…cold. The knife was cold. And wet. “You sadistic jerk.” Her voice came out hoarse.

The sound of his easy laugh was like sunlight breaking through a morning fog.

Piece by piece, he pried the wax off her, forming small piles to the sides, and the slow scrape of the knife was incredibly erotic.

The glasses and straps came off. He disengaged the pussy pump and removed the anal plug. Every cell in her body, inside and out, was exquisitely sensitive and quivering.

“Up you come.” Without any sign of effort, he carried her to a couch in the dim dungeon corner.

Sprawled on top of him, she relaxed into his embrace. God, she’d missed him so, so much. His arms were hard, safe. When she rubbed her cheek against his shoulder, his scent pulled at her as if she were coming home—coming home in a way she’d not ever had.

“Rainie.”

She lifted her head.

“I love you, Rainie. Don’t leave me.”

How could she leave him? But, she couldn’t stay. She wasn’t good enough—no, she was. He didn’t want someone else. Just her. And she loved him—completely. Her voice cracked as she reached out for what life held. “I-I want to stay with you.”

The happiness lightened his eyes. Her tears started again. He really did need her.

He kissed her, a velvety brush of his lips. “I’ll assist you with your polish, if that’s what you want. As long as you don’t change the wonderful person you are inside.”

A sob broke free.

His thumb wiped her tears away. “I can help you find a fancy corporate job here—although losing you will devastate our staff and clients.”

“I love your clinic,” she whispered.

“Then stay. Stay at the clinic. And stay with me, Rainie.”

Her heart kept expanding faster than she could tolerate, pushing on her ribs and filling her with joy. Her words bubbled up and out. “I love you, Jake.”

The pleasure hit his eyes first, then his lips curved. “I’ve waited a long time to hear that.” He kissed her, slowly, possessively, and staked his claim thoroughly.

“Now, for something else I’ve been anticipating.” His gaze heated as he leaned back on the arm of the couch and positioned her to straddle his groin.

Every wiggle rubbed her acutely swollen pussy against him. He urged her to kneel up as he undid his pants and sheathed himself with a condom.

Holding her gaze with his, he put his cock between her puffy labia. Although she was slickly wet, the pressure of his iron-hard erection on her abused, suction-distended tissues made her hiss.

“Yes, this’ll be fun,” he murmured, a wicked glint in his eyes. “You’re going to be even tighter than normal.” He gripped her hips, firmly pulling her down onto his thick cock.