Page 33 of Temptation at Randy's

It was also a good thing that they couldn’t see the grin splitting my cheeks wide. To be honest, it was actually a relief—that they weren’t acting quite themselves. I would’ve been way more anxious if they were their cooler, more collected self. If they were anxious, they kind of forced me to keep my cool. Well, to keep my cool slightly better.

Whatever.

I shook my head as I finished up plating the pancakes. At least Claude did have plenty of sugar so I could whip up a quick caramel sauce.

Dylan was not going to let me hear the end of it when I told him about this.

First, though, I should have a clearer idea of what this was, and that meant talking to Claude about it. Hopefully, they’d had time to calm down some.

“Where should I put these?”

“Lemme.”

They’d been sitting in front of their laptop when I popped my face in the living room. The moment I spoke, though, they straightened up right away. Yeah, they might need another minute or two before I could trust them to lead a conversation.

“Sure.”

I could’ve just put everything on a tray, but I couldn’t find any. Well, I was sure there were a couple behind a bunch of saucepans, but it felt too invasive to snoop around.

“Did you update your grocery order yet?”

“Yep.” Claude spoke as they grabbed plates and forks. “Not sorry for all the things I probably ordered wrong.”

“How can you order flour wrong?”

Claude quirked an eyebrow as they passed by me.

“Watch me,” they said. I snorted but followed them to the table in the living room where they’d been placing everything. “These smell amazing, by the way.”

They did. There weren’t many things I was actively proud of in my life, but my pancakes were one of them. “Thanks.”

Claude was more than happy to pile up their plate with three pancakes before even trying one. Not going to lie, it made me blush. I blushed a lot around them. It was a thing.

“We should talk about last night after breakfast, right?”

I nodded. Nerves threatened to make an appearance, but I kept them under the surface. “We should.”

Last night had been… I had no words, but I had lots of questions. In many ways, it had been revealing. As naive as it sounded, I’d learned things about my body I didn’t think I would’ve learned otherwise—not even if I’d dared to go to a kink club or anywhere else on my own. That said, discovering things about my body also brought up new insecurities.

The most pressing one was probably what it all meant going forward. It wasn’t like I could just ask Claude. It wasn’t even about what Claude thought or wanted, anyway.

I’d suspected I’d be more submissive if I ever got into a kink-based dynamic, but there was a world of difference between suspecting, having an inkling, and definitely knowing.

I had no interest in reversing the roles—with Claude, or any other prospective Dominant. Even if I tried to imagine it… I simply couldn’t.

“How do you feel about it?” Claude asked after stuffing their face with half a pancake.

I was glad they weren’t the kind of person to moan loudly around their food. I got that people wanted to show their love for food, but I never got the appeal.

“I…” My head blanked for a second. I had to blink twice before I could actually answer. “I liked it. A lot. Obviously.”

Claude hummed around the food. “These are so fucking good, by the way.”

The blunt compliment made me blush. It didn’t matter that I knew they were good. “Thanks.”

“Sorry.” They cleared their throat. “The people I’ve been with, if you can call it that, were usually more experienced and happy to lead these talks.”

“It’s okay.”

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