Page 194 of The Circle

“You do.”

“Who else?”

I smiled, my chest still warm and vibrating. “Me. I know what’s best for me.”

“Good girl.” Wes inhaled deeply, continuing to stroke my hair like I was his human pet, waiting at his feet for his next command.

I reflected on the past six months. I’d started to make a good living from my author business two months after my release. Lorelei relapsed around the same time. I went to my first Al-Anon meeting—which was a twelve-step program for family and friends of addicts, which was where I learned my neurosis was beautifully un-special. As it turned out, everyone else in that meeting struggled with the exact same control issues and people-pleasing I did. Which meant that, like them, I could get better.

Lorelei was four months sober, and she went to a meeting almost every day. Now, she wouldn’t shut the hell up about the Big Book and the fellowship of AA, much to Wes’s amusement and my surprise.

He called her aBig Book thumper, which was an AA fanatic. At the end of the day, all Lorelei had ever wanted was to belong somewhere, to dedicate herself to something higher.

So, she did, and the AA community had embraced her with open arms.

I smiled.

“What are you smiling about, baby?”

“Cults,” I said. “I think there’s one for everyone.”

“What’s yours?”

“You, probably,” I whispered.

Wes laughed.

“You tell me what to do, what to worship, how to behave, what to think. But unlike a malicious cult leader, you only ever command me to beme.”

“Mmm, I’m enjoying where this roleplay is headed…”

I giggled. “Can I look at you please?”

“Yes.”

I lifted my head, still kneeling. Wes’s eyes were bright and adoring. Gazing at his beautiful face still made my stomach flutter, and I had no doubt he would elicit these reactions from me forever.

“Thank you,” I said softly. “I’m my best self when I’m following you.”

He gestured for me to sit in his lap. “And I’m my best self when I’m caring for you.”

I melted into his kiss as his hands roamed my body—his body,to do with as he pleased. I thought about how we met, and I wondered if it was the Universe’s algorithm or PicWave’s that was responsible for our crossed paths.

We’d found each other in a city of millions, and maybe that was the greatest evidence of magic I’d witnessed so far.

“Your cult leader is taking you to his dungeon now,” Wes whispered, tickling my ear with his warm breath until he lightlytugged at my lobe with his teeth. “I built something new, and I need a willing victim to test it out for me.”

“What is it?”

He laughed. “Nice try.”

My lips twitched. I’m not sure why I’d bothered with an insufferable sadist.

“I’m going to hypnotize you first so you’re nice and pliable,” he taunted. He gripped my neck, where my eternity collar rested, a sleek silver reminder of Wes’s ownership. “What do we say to that, baby?”

“Yes, Sir,” I whispered. “Thank you, Sir.”

We stared at each other like this for a moment, a current of intensity electrifying the air.

Wes smiled. “I love you endlessly.”

I smiled back. I quoted my love letter, the one Wes kept in a box on his desk like some precious artifact. “You’re my favorite person.”

Wes’s eyes filled with emotion as he thumbed my silver collar, appreciating my nude form in his lap while he released a long breath. His lips curved, glancing at the copy of my book on the side table. Next to it was his tarot deck, a single card face-up with the roman numerals XXI.

“You are mine, Nova. But the world is yours.”