For the first time in years, Dominic didn't check the stock markets the next morning.
He didn't answer board calls, didn't return messages from his assistant, didn't even acknowledge the ten missed calls from his father.
He lay in bed, naked except for the collar Lyra left fastened around his throat. His wrists still bore faint red lines where the chains had held him down. They throbbed—gently—like her memory pressing kisses into his skin.
Every movement reminded him that he had been used, mastered, and adored… all at once.
And gods, he wanted more.
But the silence left behind was almost deafening.
Until it wasn't.
A door creaked open. He sat up quickly. "Lyra?"
But it wasn't Lyra.
It was Nadine—his ex-fiancée.
The one he'd left at the altar.
She stood in his penthouse like she'd never been banished from it. Her silk dress shimmered like venom. Her red lips curled in amusement. Her eyes... locked on the collar.
"My, my," she purred. "Looks like the great Dominic Hayes has found himself a new leash."
His heart froze.
"Nadine—how did you—"
She walked in, her heels merciless against his floors. "Oh, please. Do you think you're the only one who knows how to play games?"
He stood, flinching at the exposure. He was utterly naked, and she… she was soaking in every inch of his humiliation.
"What do you want?"
"I wanted to see it for myself," she said. "The rumors. That Dominic Hayes—the man who once made a senator cry with a single phone call—now crawls for a woman who kisses him like a curse."
He clenched his fists. "You don't know anything about her."
"I know enough." She stepped closer. "She has you. Not just in body… but in soul. And you love it. That's the part that shocked me."
He didn't respond. Couldn't.
Nadine laughed softly, and it wasn't cruel—it was sad. "You broke me once. Left me shattered at the altar. And I told myself I would ruin you."
Her eyes darkened.
"But now… I don't have to." She brushed her fingers over the collar. "She's doing it for me. More exquisitely than I ever could."
Before he could speak, she turned to leave.
Then paused.
"But beware, Dominic," she whispered. "Women like her don't kiss men. They devour them. One piece at a time."
---
Later that evening, Dominic waited in the darkness.
On the floor. Where Lyra told him to kneel.
Nadine's words haunted him—but they didn't frighten him.
They thrilled him.
He didn't want to be kissed.
He wanted to be devoured.
When Lyra finally returned, her silhouette lit by candlelight, she saw him exactly where she'd left him.
And she smiled.
"Good boy."
He shuddered.
"I had a visitor," he murmured. "Nadine."
Lyra didn't flinch. "I know."
He looked up. "You sent her."
She smirked, tilting his chin with a single red-tipped finger. "I needed you to see what you've become. Through the eyes of someone who used to hold you."
He swallowed. "And what did she see?"
Lyra's eyes glowed like twin flames.
"She saw a man on the edge of true surrender."
Dominic trembled. "And if I fall?"
Her fingers dragged slowly down his throat.
"Then you'll finally belong to me."