Page 188 of The Obedient Lie
She didn’t lie down.
She knelt—on the edge of the bed like a goddess.
Poised. Present.Ours.
She didn’t wait to be told.
Not performance. Not obedience.
Offering.
And that alone nearly wrecked me.
Not because of how pretty she looked down there—though God, she did?—
but because she chose it.
Choseus.
Chosethis.
She was already trembling a little.
Not with fear?—
With the weight of knowing this mattered. Thatshemattered.
Luca touched her cheek first, his voice soft—gentle in the way only she ever was with him.
“Baby, tonight’s going to be intense,” he said, brushing his knuckles along her jaw. “But we want you to know—it’s all with love, okay?”
She nodded slowly, eyes flicking between us.
God, she had no idea how much power she held when she looked at us like that.
“We’ll ask for a color,” Luca continued gently. “Green means you’re okay. Yellow means you need us to slow down. Red means stop. The second you say red…”
I stepped forward before he could finish.
“We stop.”
My voice came out low, rough—weighted with more than just instruction.
I needed her tobelieveit. Because this wasn’t about control.
It was aboutcare.
“No questions. No hesitation.”
I placed a hand over her heart—felt it flutter, fast beneath my palm.
“You say the word,” I said quietly, “and everything halts. That’s a promise.”
She nodded, breath catching, but I saw it—the flicker of doubt.
Like maybe she still believed that choosingherselfwould disappoint us.
Luca saw it too. His hand slid gently across her lower back, grounding her.
