“Steak,” she told him. “I’ll handle the waffles. Do you still have maple syrup?”
“I do.”
She made the waffle batter from scratch and by memory, and they were exquisite. His omelets came out great too, thank goodness.
And it’s a given his steaks were perfect.
“So,” he said once they’d both dug into their food. “Two or maybethree weeks?”
She nodded. “At least two Mondays away. Not so sure about the third. Could go either way.”
“I feel like I got gypped out of aftercare. You good? That was an intense scene.”
She sat back and chewed. Thought about how to answer truthfully without diving into the deep shit. “Yeah. I’m good. Twochangeshealed all the physical stuff, and I’ll need to live with the mental bits to figure them out. You do have ways of taking me down to just… sensation. Tearing me apart.”
“That’s the goal, but part of it is supposed to be putting you back together, and I told you tochange, so it’s okay you did, but I still feel…” he shrugged. “The important thing is making sure you’re okay without the aftercare.”
When she didn’t answer, he decided to ask a direct question. A sneaky one. It’d either worked for her, or it hadn’t, and he needed details.
“If you could change something about the night, what would it be? Not the morning. We’ll get to that in a minute. The night.”
She sat back. “That isn’t how I think. It happened, and it’s my job to conform to your needs. It’s nice you sometimes give me what I think I want, like a blindfold, but that’s up to you. It was harder in some ways, without one, but the moon was…” She shrugged. “It was there for me, outside the window.”
“So, you wouldn’t change anything?”
“I didn’t say that!” She seemed frustrated. “If I changed something, the end result would be different. And I’m not the one deciding things. That’s your job.”
He tried another tack.
“Okay. Help me out here. Was the overall scene, last night and this morning, did it work for you? Is there something you needed that you didn’t get?”
She cut another piece of waffle off, sopped it into the melted butter and then the syrup, and chewed slowly. Finally, she shook her head.
“That’s the thing. If I say I wanted to be blindfolded, which I did for a while, I’d immediately change my mind. And I’ll say I hated the damned toothbrush on my clit, but I can’t say I wish you hadn’t used it, even though I really,reallyhated it.”
And he suddenly knew what to ask. How to get his answer.
“Did the overall scene change anything for you?”
She stopped chewing.
He waited.
She swallowed, set her fork down, and looked at her plate for a long moment before she looked up at him.
“Yes.”
He waited again, because there was more, and she was deciding whether to give it to him.
“It was different. The long day a few weeks ago, it was about ramping things up. But last night was completely different. I hung there and hurt because you put me there. You had plans for me, and that was how it started. Out of my control because I trust you to…”
She blew out a breath. “I’ll be able to articulate this better once I’ve had a few days with it.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want the polished answer. I want the raw one.” Time for him to be honest.
“It changed something for me. Made you more mine, and I know that only lasts while you’re here, while we’re in each other’s presence, but I’m not going to shy away from it.”
She nodded. “Thanks for that. Every scene builds trust. Builds shared experiences. We learn more about each other.” She took a sip of her milk and set the glass down. “I surrendered completely, and I’m not sure that was a choice. You broke me apart and pushed me to it, but I let you.”
