“Yes.”
My eyes roam up and down her as I think back to that magical night, and what ran across my mind.
“I imagined her naked on her knees with her wrists chained and arms spread out beside her.” I gulp as that image collides with the one Obsidian made me see. I shake it away and get back to the real thing. “The whip I’d use isn’t like a normal whip you’d use for punishment, but for pleasure. The end isn’t sharp or crafted in a way that’d break the skin. It’d just leave a little mark.
“I’d flick it against her ass then lick away the sting. She’d never know when or where my next strike would land, but after each one, I’d tell her how good she was doing while I dragged the handle across her pussy. Just as she tried to grind herself against it, it’d pull it back and flick it against her flesh once again. Over and over again until she begged me to fuck her.”
My mouth parts as I plan to continue on, but I snap it shut when I notice how red and bright her face is.
“Well then.” Amick clears his voice and he shifts on his feet. “At no point did it sound like you planned to bring her any harm, so I’m not sure what your reservation still is.”
“My reservation is, I don’t know why I want to do this to her.”
“I think you’ll figure it out once you do it,” Thayla says with eagerness in her tone. She catches the sound of her excitement as well. “That’s, of course, if you want to do this.”
I don’t want to feel like I’m…them when I do this.
“Tell me what you actually want from it,” I say.
Plead maybe.
She breathes in once, steady.
“I want to feel in control while giving that control to you,” she says. “I want it to be my choice, every second of it. I want to know I can stop it and you’ll stop. And I want it to feel…intentional. Not like anything that was done to me before.”
My chest rises and falls, more uneven than I’d like.
“If you want this, I need you to be honest about exactly what you mean by it.”
Her face softens in a way I don’t understand. “I was just honest.”
“I know. I just needed to clarify that again.”
That gets me a small nod.
So I keep going.
“No punishment,” I say first, making it absolute before anything else can blur it. “That’s not what this is. And it never becomes that.”
She doesn’t hesitate. “I agree.”
“And no expectation that I’ll use my Harmony or Chaos or anything like that,” I add. “If something feels off, we stop. No questions. No convincing. No powers coming out to play. It just stops.”
“I agree,” she says again.
“And it’s not about pushing past limits for the sake of it,” I say. “It’s about control. You choosing the experience. Me staying aware of that the entire time.”
She gives me a small smile as she strolls up to me and cups my cheeks. My skin shivers.
“I agree, Riven.” Her power flows across my body and I slump as the agreement locks in place around us. “And just as important, you agree too, or that wouldn’t have worked.
My soul twitches in my chest.
“I do agree. With everything in me.”
She lays a kiss to the corner of my mouth, and backs away from me slowly. She holds my gaze as she unknots her towel and lets it fall to the floor.
“Where do you want me?”
