Vivian watched her so closely Bryn wanted to squirm but she forced herself to be still. To hold Vivian’s gaze.
“And you’re comfortable with that much power?” The question was heavy—weighed down by the obvious fact that there was a wrong answer.
Bryn cringed. “I don’t think of it as power. I think of it as permission.” Her voice went softer without her meaning it to. “I’m not telling them what to do because control is my thing. I’m telling them it’s okay to want things and modeling how it can sound to ask. That it doesn’t make them weird or broken. That someone can call them a needy little slut to get them off and still be gentle with them afterwards.”
Vivian coughed, but she recovered with remarkable speed. Her gaze dropped to Bryn’s mouth, lingered, then dragged back up. “You should listen to yourself.”
“What?”
“You talk about what you give them like it’s some abstract service,” Vivian said. “But that’s more care than most people receive in their actual relationships.”
Heat rose in Bryn’s chest. “Yeah, well, audio is easier than real life.” She gave a crooked smile. “I can’t control anything about anyone’s day. I can’t make their boss less of a dick or their kids less demanding or figure out their money troubles. But Icansay, ride my face like a good girl.”
Vivian’s laugh was low and genuine, and Bryn felt it in the base of her spine.
“You really should listen to some,” Bryn heard herself say before her liquid courage disappeared. “Not just the SFW.” She swallowed to ease her pulse pounding at the back of her throat. “I have a discount code,” she added because she was driving at break-neck speed and needed humor as an off-ramp.
Vivian’s high cheekbones flushed just enough to make Bryn’s palms sweat. “You’re offering me discount pricing on your porn?”
“You’re the one who said it’s not porn,” Bryn shot back. “Make up your mind, Vivian.” She dared to use her authoritative Domme voice.
Vivian’s gaze turned thoughtful. Dangerous. Enthralling. “And what if I listened to yours?” she asked, each word placed with surgical precision. “Wouldn’t that be… strange?”
Bryn’s heart stopped, victim to a single hard squeeze that stopped all motor function. It would be unbearable. It would be everything. Her mouth answered while her vodka-dipped brain was still catching up. “Only if I didn’t turn you on.”
The silence that followed turned the air solid and impossible to inhale. Vivian went still and Bryn was sure she’d gone too far. That she’d pushed Vivian too far too fast and now she was going to leave.
Instead, Vivian’s lips parted on a breath that Bryn imagined falling against the column of her neck. A breath that set Bryn’s skin on fire. Waiting was unbearable, and then Vivian rolled her chair an inch closer.
“Confident,” Vivian murmured, tone unreadable.
“I’ve had… practice,” she said, white knuckle grip on any semblance of chill left in her body. “Making people feel things.” She let the sentence hang there, pulse roaring in her ears.
Vivian rolled forward another inch, parted thighs engulfing Bryn and sending a pounding rush straight through her. “You’re circling some big promises,” she muttered.
Bryn’s body made the decision without consulting her brain. She shifted to the very edge of the bed, leg between Vivian’s so securely there was no question what she wanted. “I only promise what I can deliver.”
Vivian’s chin dipped, gaze locked on Bryn’s mouth like it was a line she told herself she wouldn’t cross but lied. “And if I listened… then what?”
Bryn moistened her lips. They were aching to feel Vivian again. To return to her lips. To run along her collarbone. To worship her and devour her and fill her in every possible way.
She was barely breathing when she said, “Then you might learn something about your own desire.” She pulsed with an unbearable hunger only Vivian could satisfy. “You might learn that what you really want is something you’d never let yourself consider before.” Bryn tried to hold it back but there was no stopping her confessions, hot and raw and wild as they were. “You might discover that what you want…” She grabbed the chair’s arms and pulled it in so hard the edge slammed her knee, but it had brought Vivian within kissing distance. Had brought her so close that Bryn could almost feel the heat radiating from her body. “That what you want is me.”
Vivian’s composure cracked. She closed her eyes, perfect mouth falling open to let out something between a gasp and a curse.
“Careful,” she whispered, lips drifting closer.
“Why?”
Vivian reached out, hands resting on Bryn’s thighs. Her touch was agonizing heat and unbearable want. Bryn closed her eyes and let Vivian anchor herself there. Let her pin her to the edge. The longer Vivian made her ache for it, the better the relief of her kiss would feel.
“For tonight,” Vivian said, thumb moving in destabilizing circles on the inside of her thigh, “let’s agree on one thing.”
Bryn would have agreed to anything. Would have given Vivian anything.
When Vivian’s mouth brushed against Bryn’s bottom lip, Bryn made a sound embarrassingly close to a whimper. Vivian’s soft laugh stayed in her throat, warm but with a bite like the booze wreaking havoc on Bryn’s nervous system.
“I don’t need a bunch of acronyms to take what I want.” She smiled against Bryn’s mouth and stood, taking every ounce of heat in Bryn’s body with her.
