The_Submissive - Tara Sue Me by Erotic Romance Page A

thought back, after she left,” Elaina said, oblivious to my disappointment. “To the other girls. I remember Paige and Beth. They both wore collars, plain ones, though.” She waved at mine. “Nothing like yours. I’m sure there have been others. He just never introduced us.”
    “Why are you telling me all this?”
    “Because you deserve to know what you’ve done for him and he won’t tell you.”
    I was totally confused.
    “He gives you this great collar, almost immediately after you meet,” Elaina said. “He talks about you.He has a spring in his step I haven’t seen in forever and…I don’t know. He’s just changed.” She raised an eyebrow. “I hear you make mean French toast.”
    He talked about me? Mentioned my cooking?
    The waitress set our salads down.
    “Abby,” Elaina said. “Listen to me. You have to handle Nathaniel carefully. His parents died in a car accident when he was ten.”
    I nodded. I’d heard this before.
    “He was in the car with them,” she said. “It was mangled up so badly, it took hours to cut them out.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I don’t think they died immediately. I don’t know. He won’t talk about it. Never has. But he changed after the accident. He was always so happy before they died, and so withdrawn and sad afterward.” She looked at me with hopeful eyes. “And now you’re changing him back. You’re bringing Nathaniel back.”

    After that little bombshell, we talked about other things—Elaina’s work, my tutoring, Felicia and Jackson. The time passed quickly, and all too soon I had to leave to go back to work.
    I climbed into a cab, thinking about what Elaina had said, that I was changing Nathaniel, bringing him back.
    I wanted to believe her, but I couldn’t.

    So he’d collared me quickly. That didn’t mean anything. And so what if he took me to his aunt’s nonprofit benefit. None of it mattered. He was who he was and our relationship was what it was. Nothing had changed.
    I turned around. Elaina stood on the sidewalk behind me, looking in my direction and talking on the phone to someone. Her expression changed. She was screaming.
    Why was she screaming?
    Metal collided with metal. Horns blared. The earth spun in a crazy twirl. My head struck something hard.
    And then nothing.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

    I was in pain.
    For the longest time, that was all I could concentrate on.
    Pain.
    Then the lights came. And the noise. And I wanted to tell everyone to be quiet and turn the lights off because the light and the noise hurt. And if it could just be dark and quiet I’d be fine. But even though I could hear, I couldn’t talk.
    Then I was aware of moving and that was worse, because moving hurt. And numerous hands were pulling at me. They didn’t stop when I told them to leave me alone.
    The noise got louder.
    “Abby! Abby!”
    “BP steady at 120 over 69.”
    “Pupils equal and reactive.”
    “Call CT, she’s…too long.”
    “…possible intracranial hemorrhage…”
    And mercifully, the darkness came back.

    I woke again to the sounds of arguing.
    Felicia. She was arguing.
    “…heart of a fucking animal…don’t even know…”
    “…don’t know anything…”
    “…why don’t you…”
    “…I refuse…”
    “…have to ask you both…disturbing the patients…”
    And again the darkness fell.
    The next time I woke, I was able to open my eyes. It was dark. And there was no sound but a steady beep, beep, beep.
    “Abby?”
    I turned my eyes to the noise. Linda.
    I licked my lips. Why were they so dry? “Dr. Clark?”
    “You’re in the hospital, Abby. How are you feeling?”
    Like hell. Like utter and complete hell. “I must be badly off to have the Chief of Staff in my room.”
    “Or else you’re very important.” She stepped to the side. Nathaniel stood behind her.
    Nathaniel!
    “Hey,” I said.
    He came forward, took my hand, and lightly ran his thumb over my knuckles. “You scared me.”
    “Sorry.” I wrinkled my