Page 90 of Role Play
Lucy
Iwasn’t surprised to find Ash gone in the morning. Beside my bed, he’d left a bottle of Advil and a glass ofwater.
Instead of Ash, I found Andrea asleep beside me, curled up on her side. When she opened her eyes, I gave her a raspy, “Hey.”
She smiled. “Heyyourself.”
“DidAsh…”
“Leave?” She lifted a fair eyebrow in my direction. “Yeah. When I got home, he met me in the hallway to explain what happened. I took over nursingduty.”
I groaned and even though my mouth was dry, the thought of putting anything in my stomach made me want topuke.
“So… tequila shots?” Andrea asked. “Doesn’t really sound like you. At least not the you from recentyears.”
“I’m an idiot,” Igroaned.
“Yeah,” Andrea scooted closer and draped her arm over my stomach. “But you’re my idiot.” She paused. “I’ve been busy working, but you never told me what went wrong between you and Ash. Only that it didn’tlast.”
She didn’t outright ask. Andrea was good at that. Skilled at the slow prod and getting people to open up without even realizing that she had coaxed it out ofthem.
I turned my head to look at her. “His lifestyle just isn’t meant forme.”
Her face twisted, expression souring. “Did he hurt you? Like… for real hurt you? Not just playtime scenes andstuff.”
“Not intentionally. He just got… carriedaway.”
She licked her lips and wiped at her eye. Mascara smeared below her lashline—on me that would have looked greasy, but on Andrea, she looked gorgeous and smoky-eyed, with bedhead like she was in an ad for luxury sleepwear. “Doms are supposed to be in the utmost control. They aren’t supposed to get carriedaway.”
“I asked him to show me his worst,” I blurted out, defending Ash. My face heated in embarrassment. God, I was stupid. Andthatwas the reason I wasn’t mad at him. And the main difference between him and my dad. To my knowledge, my mom never asked my dad to hit her. She never begged for it, or bent over a bench anticipating it. She never looked him in the eyes and asked him to show her how rough it can get. But Ihad.
It didn’t mean I wanted that life for myself. But it did mean that I wouldn’t hold it againsthim.
Andrea studied me harder. “So… you asked him to show you how dark and rough it can get, then blamed him when you didn’t likeit?”
“It’s not that simple,” I groaned. “And I’m not blaming him. I’m not mad at him.”Anymore.
“Babe, I am on your side.Always. But for the first time since high school, you’re not being forthright with information and that has me nervous considering the last time you kept shit from me, it was because your mom was telling you that you were fat and you were locking yourself in the bathroom while you shoved your finger down yourthroat.”
I winced. “This isn’t like that. I just got scared that night. And I-I didn’t like it reallyrough.”
Andrea paused for a beat. “Or maybe you were liking it too much andthatwasscary?”
Damn, she knew me too well.She wasn’t wrong. At least until I got stabbed with a safety pin. It both was Ash’s fault and also wasn’t. “He also has a thing about food. He wants women to eat and he wants to know what they’reeating.”
Andrea’s silence said more than anywords.
“What? What are you thinking?” I rolled onto my side, facing Andrea. We were nose to nose now, each on oursides.
She scrunched her nose. “I’m thinking you have dragonbreath.”
“I’mserious!”
“So am I,” she said,laughing.
I rolled my eyes and forced myself to sit up in bed and have a sip of water. The cool liquid hit my stomach and I paused, fearing the worst. Miraculously, I kept it down and drank some more, feeling better with eachsip.
“Okay,” Andrea said. “Seriously though… most Dominants have diet and food in their contracts. It’s odd, but it’s pretty typical of thelifestyle.”
