“I did, Beautiful.” And that was the first time I ever felt so fucking connected to someone that I did. Normally it took longer, more pain, more foreplay, a longer scene. But with Mya? Everything was different.
Nine
Mya
My knees were sore, my wrists tingled from the cuffs, and my heart was beating rapidly after that. My skin was flushed, my chest rising and falling as I tried to slow my breathing. Nick’s hands were the first thing to find me. They were so gentle after everything we’d just been through.
He rubbed soft circles where the restraints had been. He pressed his forehead to mine for a second. “You okay, Sunshine?”
I nodded, unable to find my voice yet. My body was jelly, my thoughts even worse. But I wasn’t scared. Not even a little. I felt…held.
He wrapped a blanket around me and went to the corner of the room for a bottle of water and wipes. It felt like protocol but also like care.
“I’m gonna clean you up a bit,” he said, kneeling in front of me. “Then we’ll go home, yeah?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded again. He didn’t say he was takingmehome or that he’d take me tohishouse. He worded it like he was taking me toourhome, and that was probably wishful thinking and some fucked-up subspace or something.
He moved slowly, checking in with every touch. Using warm cloths to wipe sweat and slick from my skin, wrapping the blanket tighter around me when I shivered. He dabbed soothing lotion onto the marks he’d left. On my thighs, my sides, my ass.
“This is good for muscles. You’re gonna be sore.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Nick smiled, but it was the soft kind, the one I was learning meant his heart was way too close to the surface.
Once I was dressed again, he helped me stand, still wrapped in the blanket like a human burrito. I leaned against him as we walked out, cheek to his chest, his arm banded around my waist.
I felt his breath at the top of my head. “Let’s go home.”
* * *
I didn’t remember the ride home.
One minute, I was floating in the soft aftermath of everything… The club lights, his voice, the way my body had gone pliant under his hands. The next, I was on Nick’s couch, his hoodie draped over my shoulders, my legs pulled into his lap like they belonged there.
I was warm, but also… trembling a little. Everything was quiet. Too quiet.
His house always smelled like cedar and something earthy, but now there was also the lingering trace of leather and sweat, and him.Master.The word still echoed inside me.
He rubbed my calves in slow, grounding strokes, and his voice broke through the fog. “You still with me, Sunshine?”
I nodded, but barely. My mouth felt dry, and my body buzzed with a strange ache. Not painful, just… sensitive. Open.
“I’m here,” I said, barely more than a whisper.
Nick leaned forward and brushed a strand of hair from my face. “You did so good for me tonight. You gave me everything. I’m so proud of you.”
Those words hit harder than anything else. I blinked rapidly, but the tears still came, slipping sideways onto the cushion.
His arms wrapped around me before I could even feel embarrassed. “Shh, baby. Let it happen. That’s just the drop starting. It’s okay.”
I didn’t fight it. I let my head fall against his shoulder as the tears came soft and silent, my chest shaking even though I wasn’t sobbing. It wasn’t sadness… Not really. There was too much space inside me and not enough at the same time.
He rocked me slightly, his thumb tracing circles on my back. “Your nervous system’s just resetting,” he murmured. “You gave over so much control. It takes a while to come back to yourself. I’ve got you. I’m gonna take care of you.”
I didn’t want to move, but I was starting to notice the sting on my skin now. The heat along my thighs and the marks across my hips and wrists where the cuffs had pressed.
Nick must’ve noticed the way I shifted. “Sore?”
“A little,” I admitted. “But not bad.”
