Page 28 of Veil of Shadows

“You know that the second your color changes, it’s your job to inform me, right?” he asked.

I smiled lazily up at him. “I thought that’s what I did.”

He dipped down into my vision. “Look at me, Bexley.”

I focused my tired eyes on him. “Yes, Dom?”

He pinned me with a look as he popped my fingers. “The second your color changes, you open your mouth. Understood?”

I nodded softly. “Yes, I understand.”

He put my hand down and kissed my forehead. “Good girl. I’m going to massage your other hand, and then I’m going to get you some water before you try to sit up.”

I giggled softly. “You don’t have to dote on me like this, you know.”

“Yes, I do,” he said as he moved to the other side of the bed.

My head moved with him, and I watched as he picked up my hand and placed it into his lap. “It’s called ‘aftercare,’ and it’s a vital component with something like this.”

“What does it do?”

He smiled softly as he popped my fingers. “It gives both parties a chance to reconnect with one another, outside of everything that may have happened beforehand.”

“Oh.”

He settled my hand at my side before looking over at me. “For some, scenes in the bedroom can get a bit intense. Some people like impact play to the point of being bruised. Others enjoy being degraded, or spat on?—”

“I’m sorry, did you say people liked to be spit on?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Don’t yuck someone else’s yum now.”

My eyes widened. “Do you like to be spit on!?”

He threw his head back and barked with laughter. “Not a fucking chance. But, for some people, it’s a thing. And aftercare, especially after a scene with heavy elements like that, helps to reassure both parties that what they’ve just experienced was an isolated event for both of their enjoyments and has no bearing on what their relationship and dynamic is like outside of the closed door they’re behind.”

I considered his words as he lifted my head and placed it into his lap. And as he started working out the knots in my hair, I drew in a deep breath.

“So, if you were to call me names in bed, then the aftercare is to reassure me that you don’t actually mean any of those names?”

“Exactly,” he said.

I nodded slowly. “Is there aftercare for you?”

He chuckled. “What do you think this is?”

I tilted my head up softly, looking at his upside-down face. “I mean, where I can reassure you of things. Like you’re doing right now with me.”

His smile was soft and genuine. “Again, what do you think this is?”

“Hey! Dom!” Voss barked.

I heard a door slam before Ronyn’s deep voice ricocheted up the stairs. “Dom! We need to talk!”

“Be there in a second!” Dom called back.

I snickered. “You know they’re going to come up here, right?”

Like clockwork, Voss’s heavy-handed footsteps sounded as they approached us.

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