"Stay. Just for a moment."
She goes still but doesn't relax.
Like a deer frozen in headlights, knowing the predator is too close but not sure whether to run or submit.
Smart enough to know running didn't work last time.
"How do you feel?" I ask. It's a genuine question. I need to know if I pushed too hard last night, if I damaged something that will make the next three weeks more difficult.
"Sore."
"Anywhere specific?"
Her face flushes deep red, the color spreading down her neck. "You know where."
I do.
I was inside her with my fingers last night.
Two of them, stretching her virgin body, making her accommodate the intrusion even though she'd never felt anything like it before.
Preparing her, gradually, for what's eventually coming.
For when she finally begs me to fuck her properly.
And shewillbeg.
I'll make sure of it.
"That will fade," I say, keeping my tone matter-of-fact rather than apologetic. Because I'm not apologizing for any of it."The more your body gets used to being touched, penetrated, stretched—the less it will hurt. Eventually, it will only feel good."
"I don't want my body to get used to it."
"Yes, you do. You just don't want to admit it yet. Don't want to acknowledge that you're curious about what comes next. What it will feel like when it's not just my fingers inside you."
She's quiet for a long moment, processing that.
I can practically hear her mind working, trying to find an argument that will convince us both that she doesn't want this.
She won't find one that's true.
"My things," she says finally, changing the subject. "They're gone from my room."
"They're here. Where they belong."
"You had no right?—"
"I hadeveryright. You're mine, Eden. Everything about you is mine now. Your room, your clothes, your body, your pleasure. All of it belongs to me. The sooner you accept that, the easier this will be."
She closes her eyes and takes a shaky breath. "I hate you."
"You said that last night. Right after you came on my fingers and cried in my arms, and before you fell asleep against my chest like you belonged there."
The flush deepens, spreading down to her chest.
Beautiful.
She's so responsive, so easy to read.
