“Good girl.” I swung off her and climbed off the bed, offering her my hand to help her up. We were a state, both of us with our shirts on and our jeans halfway down to our knees.
Emmy noticed that about the same time I did and we started snickering and snorting at first, and that devolved into roaring belly laughs that had us sitting on the edge of the bed so we didn’t fall over.
I pulled her to me. “Thisis the most important thing,” I said. “Above everything else.”
“Sex?” She grinned.
“No. Having fun. Laughing together. We both have to enjoy what we’re doing, or get what we need from what we’re doing, or else why bother doing it?”
She cocked her head, studying me. “I never thought about it like that.”
“It’s kind of the main point, baby. Like I said, I’m not a psychopath or sociopath. I have no interest in forcing you to mold yourself to me and my likes. I need to know you’re getting what you need or want out of this, too.”
We finally untangled ourselves, again, and I started unbuttoning my shirt when I caught a glimpse of her watching me.
I turned. “Want me to do a strip tease for you, babygirl?”
She grinned. “That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.”
I hammed it up, relieved that she was laughing, smiling, and her mood had shifted and lightened from when I’d first carried her back to our room. I could tell there’d be private research in my future, educating myself about childhood traumas so I could be a better partner to her, but for now I wanted to keep her laughing.
I turned my back to her, arms over my head and was doing my best imitation of swinging my hips back and forth in a semi-sexy fashion when she yanked her shirt off over her head, twirled it in the air, and tossed it at me.
“I thought you were supposed to throw panties?” I teased over my shoulder.
“You don’t want these panties smacking you in the face,” she said as she peeled off her bra. “They’re a complete splash zone.”
I howled with laughter as her bra zinged through the air, landing on my head as I reached for the bed to steady myself. Then she shoved off her jeans and panties and stepped out of them and I opened my arms to her.
Bashful now, she stepped into my embrace and wrapped her arms around my neck, our bare flesh pressed together.
“You’re beautiful, babygirl,” I said, awed that this complex woman had faith in me.
I’d damned sure do my best to never fuck that up, either.
Pink filled her cheeks. “You’re not so bad yourself, Sir.”
My hands slid down to her ass, where I gently patted her, gauging her reaction, lightly swatting, again, over and over, just a little harder each time, pleased that she didn’t tense. More pink filled her cheeks and flowed down to her neck, but she still met my gaze and I stopped, kneading her flesh. “Good girl,” I said.
“Test?”
I smiled. “Small one. I’m not hauling you down to the Dungeon tonight and whacking you with a crop or cane. Even when we do try impact play, I promise I’ll start very easy and build you up.”
“What if I don’t like it?”
I shrugged. “Then we’ll find something else we both enjoy.”
“Why’s this sound too easy?”
I slanted my lips over hers, wanting to derail her brain again. “It’snoteasy,” I said, nipping her bottom lip. “It’s complicated. But it doesn’t mean we have to make it difficult.”
Adorable furrows appeared in her brow. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know you’ve put together those building block kits—you have one of the Enterprise on your shelf.”
“Yeah?”
“Was it difficult to do?”
