“You know how much I love him,” she said dreamily, and I nodded as we both gazed at her beauty of a ring.

“I know.”

“This is it for me, Alice.” Her eyes were soft as she gazed at me. “He’s the one I’ve been waiting for my whole life. He’s the one who makes me feel whole. He’s my better half. My perfect half. And he loves me. He really loves me. After everything.” She stopped then and grabbed my hands. “I never thought I’d meet someone like him.”

“I know. And you deserve him,” I said seriously. “He’s perfect for you. I’m so happy for you, Liv.”

“I want you to have what I have.” She squeezed my hands. “I want you to be loved and to love like I love.”

“Maybe it’s just not in the cards for me,” I said, my eyes watering. “Maybe I’m not the girl who gets the forever love. Maybe I’m not the girl who gets the guy. Maybe I’m just destined to be by myself forever.” A lone tear fell from my eyes, and I looked down and I felt my heart breaking for the millionth time that week “Maybe I’m that girl who gets no one.”

“You’ve got Aiden.”

“I don’t know what I’ve got with Aiden,” I groaned and more tears fell from my eyes. “We spent last night together and it was wonderful, Liv. It was so perfect, and I felt as if my heart and soul were on fire. He was perfect. The perfect lover.”

“Ugh,” Liv groaned. “This is weird to hear about my brother.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” She smiled. “I can deal with it.”

“He did things to me, Liv.” My voice dropped. “You don’t even want to know, but he bossed me around and made me strip off and then we made love against his window.”

“His window?” Her eyes widened.

“You had to be there.” I laughed. “Let’s just say it was hotter than hot.”

“Wow.”

“But then Elizabeth texted him.” I bit my lower lip.

“And said what?”

“She asked him something about me seeing the handcuff marks.”

“No way!” Liv’s mouth dropped open. “Why would she ask him that?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “I was too scared to ask him.” I sighed. “Do you think he is seeing both of us? Do you think I should pretend to have another boyfriend to try and make him jealous?”

“No.” Liv shook her head vehemently. “Maybe we’ve gone about this the wrong way,” Liv said after a few seconds.

“What do you mean?” I looked up at her and wiped my tears from my eyes.

“Maybe we’ve been too immature.” She sighed. “Maybe we tried playing too many games.”

“You think so?”

“I think so.” She nodded. “And so does Xander.”

“Huh?” I sighed. “What did he say?”

“He said that he thinks we need to grow up.”

“What?” My jaw dropped.

“I know, right?” Liv wrinkled her nose. “I was like, excuse me, who do you think you’re talking to?” Then she paused. “But I think he’s right. Maybe all the games and tricks and stuff aren’t the way to go about getting a guy.”

“It worked for you,” I said softly.

“Barely,” she said. “And maybe the games didn’t help me. Maybe it was the games that nearly made me lose him.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I guess we’re really growing up now.”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Who would have thunk it?”

“A skunk.” I grinned at her and blew my nose. “A skunk would have thunk it.”

“I love you, Alice.” She squeezed my hand. “My brother’s an idiot if he can’t see how perfect you are for him.”

“We both already know he’s an idiot.”

“That is true.” She grinned. “Hey, before I forget, will you be my maid of honor?”

“Try and stop me.” I laughed.

“I have some advice for you.” She wrinkled her nose. “Well, the advice comes from Xander, but it’s good advice.”

“What’s the advice?”

“Xander thinks you need to have a serious talk with Aiden. He thinks you need to tell him everything you’re thinking and see where he stands.”

“I don’t know about that.” I made a face. “I don’t want him to think I’m a sad case.”

“You should have a conversation with him,” she said and then grinned. “I just had an idea.”

“Oh, gosh, what idea?” My eyes narrowed. “Didn’t we say that we need to be mature from here on out?”

“We do.” She held up her finger. “Hold on, let me get something.” She jumped up, ran out of the room and returned a minute later with her laptop. “You need to go here.”

“Where?” I looked at the page on her screen. The site said “Kat’s Corner” and had a pair of furry handcuffs on the top of the screen. “What’s Kat’s Corner?”

“That’s where you’re going to take Aiden.”

“I’m going to take Aiden to Kat’s Corner? Why?”

“Because you want to show him that you can be all things.” She grinned. “Imagine how shocked he’ll be if you bring up the BDSM stuff first; unless of course you guys discussed it last night.”

“Well, we didn’t discuss it.” I grinned. “But I think it was pretty obvious that he was into taking control.”

“Text him,” Liv said. “Text him and tell him to meet you there tomorrow night.”

“What?” My eyes widened. “You’re being serious?”

“Totally serious.” She nodded. “Put all your cards on the table and let’s see what he says.”

“You think this is a good idea?”

“Oh yeah.” She nodded. “My brother needs to stop playing games. Put it all on the table, and let’s see how he reacts.”

“Okay.” I grinned back, even though I was really nervous. “Here goes.” I grabbed my phone and texted Aiden. “Here’s to special BDSM stores and the truth.”

“Here’s to you and Aiden,” Liv said and jumped up. “Now we need to drink some champagne and celebrate the fact that Xander wants to marry me.”

“Here’s to Xander and you getting married, and here’s to me getting a good spanking from Aiden.” I giggled. “Or maybe here’s to Aiden getting a good spanking from me.”

Chapter Eleven

Oops! I Did It Again

What I know about a Dom/sub relationship is virtually nothing aside from what I’ve read in two erotic romance books and seen in one almost-porn movie. Needless to say, that doesn’t make me an expert or even close to an expert. That was why I’d decided to rent a room at Kat’s Corner, a local sex store and club that specialized in introducing couples to dominatrix relationships. You could rent rooms with all sorts of equipment, outfits and toys for a couple hundred dollars, and I had taken money out of my Louis Vuitton handbag fund to rent the room. I wanted to show Aiden that I was the sort of girl who enjoyed spice and that I was the girl to enjoy his alternative lifestyle. At least that’s what the lady at the front of the store had said when I’d rented the room. She’d said that alternative lifestyles were for men and women who enjoyed spice and didn’t mind straying from the norm. I nodded and smiled as if I knew exactly what she was talking about. I didn’t really know what I was willing to do and accept. It was all a pretty new process to me and the more I thought about it¸ the more I was worried that I wasn’t the sort of person who could feel relaxed doing heavens knows what. Even though the other night with Aiden had been hot.

I was also surprised that Aiden was into this stuff as well. I just didn’t see him as being completely Dominant, but what did I know? He’d told Xander, and Xander had told me, and now I was going to show him—well, hoping to show him—that I could be the ball to his chain. Or maybe it was the chain to his ball. Or maybe it was the tongue to his balls. Or the tongue on his balls. I giggled as I groaned at myself. This relationship was never going to make it off the ground if I couldn’t stop myself from making stupid jokes.

Knock. Knock. My breath froze as I realized Aiden was here. It was time for me to go into action. I took a quick breath and shook my hands out to calm my nerves before he came into the room.

“Can I come in?” Aiden’s voice sounded confused through the door and I knew that he was wondering where he was. The sign on the outside of the store said “Kat’s Corner” and so it wasn’t completely evident that this was a sex store, or in fact that this was a BDSM store. Unless, of course, he’d been here before, and I didn’t want to think about that possibility.