When she walked away, I picked up the menu.

“You know you didn’t have to send your FBI agents to my school. I thought I was about to be put into some type of witness protection. You couldn’t have spoken to me on your own?”

“Assistants are supposed to assist. Who is Abel Smith to you?”

I looked up at him. “Oh my God. Do you know everything about me?”

Before he could respond, I added, “And what the fuck was that making me ride a bike until I pass out. Is that the type of shit you are into?”

“Ms. Greysen, your potty mouth is very sexy.”

I pressed my lips together. “Don’t try to distract me.”

“I’m not. The other test was them giving you an IV, pumping drugs into you until your heart sped up. The bike was the only other option.”

I blinked. “Oh. You don’t get any cool points. You’re only being nice to me until you get me to New York and you lock me into a dungeon and only let me out to eat and for class.”

He raised his eyebrow. “Is there a question somewhere in there?”

“Yes. Where am I going to sleep?”

“In my home. Where else were you supposed to sleep?”

“I guess I kind of read your manual wrong. It read like we wouldn’t be living together or something.”

“You sure teaching is your thing?”

I squinted at him. “Sorry, I don’t have to explain to six- and seven-year-olds what robotic sadists do.”

He smirked before running his tongue across the top row of his perfect teeth. “Ms. Greysen, you and I will share a home. Different rooms. I sleep alone.”

“Of course you do. And you just come home, smack me on the ass to start me up, and jam your dick in me.”

He opened the manual and then looked at me. “It seems as if that’s what you would like as you’ve circled CNC as a kink. I don’t even have consent-non-consent on my list of kinks.”

“Well, I… I don’t know.”

“Don’t be confused about this, Ms. Greysen.”

The waitress brought our drinks to us. When I took a sip, it tasted so good.

“Ready to order?”

Scanning the menu, I chose the loaded oysters as my appetizer, and he chose the escargot. When my eyes widened, he grinned.

“The escargot?”

“Yes. I would like to think that I am adventurous with a lot of things, but what I eat, I don’t know. The most I would do is calamari, not a snail.”

“Hm. So, about your CNC kink? How did you find out you liked that kink?”

My cheeks started to warm. “I don’t know. I guess my ex coming home drunk did it for me.”

“I see.” He looked down at the manual. “Praise, bondage, impact, degradation…” he paused before looking at me with lowered eyes and a smirk on his face. “Voyeurism,Ms. Greysen andExhibitionist,I can hardly believe this.”

My cheeks burned from embarrassment.

“Are you only into this because this is what I have on my list? I really want you to be comfortable with this lifestyle. It’s going to be a quick and major change for you.”