Page 43 of Descent

His dark eyes heat with desire.

Of course he likes that scenario.

I swallow past my doubts and keep talking. “But there are things you can’t do that way. Things you can’t take.” To emphasize my point, I place another tender kiss against the palm of his hand.

“I’m listening,” he says.

I caress the back of his hand with my fingers and let my lips linger against his skin. I need to think through what I’m about to say one more time before I let it out into the world because I think it’s fucking crazy—no, Iknowit’s fucking crazy—but it’s the least painful way I can realistically envision this night going.

I look up at his face to gauge his reaction to what I’m about to say. “You want a second taste. The first and second are the best, like you said at dinner. So you already had the first taste, and you had it your way. You trapped me in that dungeon, you stripped away my will, and you violated my body because that was what you wanted. But, because of the way you did that, there was stuff you didn’t get to experience. Maybe that’s why you’re still thinking about it. Maybe it’s just the missing pieces. The things you can’t have.”

His eyes narrow in consideration.

“So, tonight, what if we do that other stuff? And maybe it will lead to sex, I don’t know. That’s crazy, it definitely shouldn’t, but maybe it will. I’ll be open-minded. I’ll listen to my body. If it wants something crazy… maybe just for this one night, I’ll do something crazy. But if I don’t, if I say no, you have to respect that. You have to stop and let me leave. Those are my terms.”

“What is included in this ‘other stuff’ package?”

Somehow, the answer seems scarier than waking up in a strange bed. “All the normal parts of physical intimacy. We’ll kiss. We’ll touch. We can explore each other’s bodies, but only within the confines of consent. The moment I ask you to stop, you have to respect that or the whole thing is off.”

He doesn’t bother telling me that I can withdraw my consent at any time and he can ignore it all he wants—I know that, but he doesn’t say it.

My confidence in this plan grows. If I don’t think about it too hard, it feels like a good plan. A plan where everybody wins… or, at least, nobody loses more than they can afford to.

Of course, it hinges on himwantingto kiss me, wanting my tenderness, but now that I’ve given him a little sample of it, I think he does.

Chapter Twelve

Calvin

She’s so goddamn hopeful as she looks up at me, awaiting my decision.

I think that’s what does it.

She’s asking me for the most basic level of decency—just to let her have a say in what happens to her—and she isn’t angry about it just because she’s entitled to be. She’s sweet and soft and flexible, offering up things that shouldn’t be on the menu for me and saying they can be, if I’ll just compromise a little bit.

I don’t tell her that I’ve had dozens of boring sexual encounters with women before her that included all that nice, normal stuff and it never did much for me. In fact, I don’t evenlikekissing—not on the mouth, anyway.

But I do like the light of hope in her eyes. I like what she’s doing now, too. I’ve had plenty of passion-laced kisses from women who wanted them much more than I did, but none of them moved me even a little bit. I’m more moved by the soft, sweet, wordless pleading in those little kisses she’s offering up, and she’s only kissing myhand.

Imagine how that would feel on my cock.

Maybe it’s not precisely whatI’minto, but that doesn’t mean I won’t like it when I’m doing it with her. I have a strong hunch I could like just about anything as long as she’s the one I’m doing it with.

There’s also a place deep down where I know with alarming certainty that this woman isn’t like any of the ones that have been through my revolving door. I don’t know why, it isn’t a logical thing, but I know she’ll be around for a while. And Iwanther to be. And while I don’t normallydatewomen, I know if Iwantto date one, I’ll have to make some compromises.

Kissing those perfect lips of hers while my hands roam her naked, squirming body isn’t much of a compromise, but I want an even better offer, so I don’t tip my hand.

“I’m open to it, but I have terms of my own.”

Her eyes dim a little, but she nods, eager to work with me. “Okay. What did you have in mind?”

She’s so goddamn adorable. I want to stroke her again, my treasured little pet, but I don’t. This is negotiating time. “Regardless of how tonight ends, I want a guarantee of a third date.”

“A third date.”

“I’ll count the wedding as the first and tonight as the second. I want a third.”

“The wedding… we weren’t even there together.”

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