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Tareq opened his mouth, then closed it.He wasn’t a moron, he knew the dialogue that went on around female body size, but he’d never had this kind of blunt conversation before.
“I am happy with myself,” she continued.“With my job, my life, my body.I would even say I have a healthy self-confidence.But at the same time, I’m protective.I have to be.”
“You didn’t want to be assigned a partner because your partner might have a problem with your body.”
“Exactly.”
Tareq eyed her.“I want to tell you that wouldn’t have happened, but that would be bullshit, wouldn’t it?”
“So much bullshit.”Now her smile was more genuine.
“Then I won’t say that.”Tareq stared out over the parking lot.He wanted to fix this for her.But it wasn’t his to fix…and did it even need fixing?
“You said…” Tareq clasped his hands together.“It’s happened in the past, hasn’t it?Someone treated you badly because of how you look.”
“Not necessarily how I look.My size.”
“Right, sorry.But someone hurt you.”
“Yes.”
“A Dom?”
“Yes.”
“Will you tell me about it?”If he was going to top this woman, and he desperately wanted to, he needed to know where she was vulnerable to avoid applying pressure to those spots.
“I… I don’t want to.This is nice.Fun, even.And if I start talking about it…” Her laugh was shaky.“I’ll probably cry, because thinking about it makes me angry, and when I’m angry sometimes I cry and I hate that.”Nomi huddled in on herself.One shoulder of her white t-shirt slipped down her arm, exposing a pale bra strap.
“Can I hug you?”he whispered the question, giving her the option of ignoring it.
Nomi nodded once.
Tareq scooted over, his hip against hers, then put an arm around her shoulders.She leaned into him, stiff at first, but then she relaxed.
It was a sweet moment, them sitting there in the moonlight, her cuddled up against him, accepting the comfort he’d offered after she allowed herself to be vulnerable.
If he were a different man, a better man, he could have left it alone.Could have let it be a sweet movie moment.But he wasn’t sweet, and if this were a movie it was going to be triple-X rated.
“This doesn’t change anything.”
She went stiff under his arm.He squeezed her a little.
“You’re still my lab partner…my game partner.And I still want to do fun, sadistic things to you, and then fuck you if you’re into it.”
Nomi shifted, and Tareq would have bet the pink slip to his car that she was at least a little turned on.
“You came to me,” she said softly.“You clearly recognized me from my photo, saw that I was about to leave, and if you had a problem with my body, you could have just let me leave.”
It sounded more like she was talking to herself.That she was working through this.
“Unless you like the idea of hurting me because of my body, as a punishment because you feel you have the right—”
“Absolutely not.”Tareq shifted away, then grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to turn so they were face to face.“I didn’t look at you and think ‘that woman doesn’t look like an Instagram model and therefore I should hurt her.’”
“What did you think?”
“Honestly?”
