Page 48 of Petting Penelope
Closing her eyes, she snuggled in closer, and let herself cry some more.
CHAPTER 41
Penelope
The first time she’d gone to the London club, it’d been an open day, with mini lectures, and one of the people had given a talk about the importance of aftercare for Tops. It had never really occurred to Penelope before, how often aftercare was focused on the submissive.
They’d spoken about the need for care and tenderness on both sides; that Dommes got to safeword too, and that sometimes the scenes they enabled would take more energy from them than they might be able to give.
Everything that Rachel had done for her over the last couple of days—actually, over all the months that they’d been scening together—she deserved the most tender care that Penelope had to give.
She shifted Rachel onto her side, so the brunette was facing away from her, and then carefully pulled out her plug and Kegel ball, wincing slightly as they stretched her, and then came behind Rachel to spoon her.
“But the room…” said Rachel, her protest quiet and sleepy.
“It hasn’t been booked until this evening, so we have some time,” said Penelope reassuringly. “Just hush now, I’ve got you.”
And to her surprise, Rachel closed her eyes and fell silent.
Rachel fell asleep in her arms.
At some point, Penny must have drifted off as well, because when she awoke, Rachel was sitting up in bed, looking down at her.
“Hey,” said Penelope softly. “You okay?”
“Am I okay? I didn’t do any aftercare, Pen; you had to take out the plug yourself!”
“It’s not the first time I’ve done that this week,” pointed out Penny reasonably. “And besides, you needed the aftercare more than I did. Just getting to eat you out felt like the loveliest aftercare for me.”
But Rachel wasn’t listening. “Fuck, I’m so sorry, seriously, Penelope, I?—”
“Stop,” said Penelope sternly.
Rachel shut up promptly.
“Right, listen to me. We both deserve aftercare, and you needed it the most, so you’re the one who got looked after. And I got to sleep too, so it really was the loveliest. Please stop panicking. If this is going to be an equal partnership… relationship… whatever it is, then I want to look after you too. That’s important to me. I’m not a baby to be continually doted upon. I want us to be able to support each other, understand?”
Rachel looked a little sheepish, as well she might. “I understand; I’m sorry for talking over you.”
“You’re forgiven,” said Penny. “But I’m hungry now, so let’s get dressed and go have brunch, lunch, whatever it is by this point.”
It was in fact after noon, and so they borrowed a hairbrush from the same service submissive, who seemed to just sense that they’d need one, tidied themselves up and got the elevator straight up to their floor to change into slightly more appropriate clothing for public appearances.
But when they got there, they looked at each other, and both headed straight to the shower without even having to say a word.
Penelope had mainly paid attention to the bath because soaking in it each day had felt like a complete luxury for someone who didn’t have a tub in her small apartment at home. But now they both looked at the shower. It was more than big enough for two people, encased in glass with a rainfall showeranda shower spray on a removeable wand; it felt like the biggest treat to be able to step in and turn the warm water on.
It fell about the two them and Penny pulled Rachel to her and kissed her.
It was, she imagined, similar to what kissing in the rain must feel like—only warmer and without the horrible feeling of being stuck in wet clothes.
Rachel’s arms came around her, and they kissed like that for a while. This wasn’t about sex; this was connection and emotion and affection. When they soaped each other up and washed the suds from their bodies, it wasn’t anything like porn would suggest. It was tender and careful, and almost completely non-sexual.
Almost. Penny was still drawn to Rachel’s body, but they’d done so much that morning, that she was worn out. All she wanted was a crappy movie and popcorn and pizza in front of the tv.
Luckily, that was on the cards.
“Shall we stay in, the rest of today?” she asked Rachel as they got out of the shower and toweled themselves dry. “I kind of don’t want to go anywhere.”
