Page 69 of Theirs to Tempt: The Marriage Claim

“I liked some of it,” I finally whisper.

There. I said it.

And the world doesn’t crack open.

No lightning bolt strikes me dead.

I’m still Sophie Langford.

“And when he praised me…” I shake my head violently. “God, I don’t even want to talk about that.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted more.”

“I could mainline praise.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

She pulls me to a stop, and we sink onto a park bench beneath a live oak tree.

“Keep this in mind.” She considers me over her cup. “You don’t have to decide today whether you’re submissive or kinky or anything else. You’re allowed to just say, I liked that particular thing with those particular men.”

Those particular men.

That may be the biggest problem of all.

Because I don’t know whether I would have reacted that way with anyone else.

And I really don’t want to examine that question too closely.

“There’s something else.”

She slurps the bottom of the cup through her straw. “I figured there had to be.”

“The spanks were because I masturbated when they told me not to.”

And then I tell her all about the cameras.

Her mouth falls open. “They were watching you in your apartment?”

“Were,” I agree. “Past tense. But last night when they dropped me off, they told me to masturbate so that they could watch from the penthouse.”

Even though she’s the one with the experience, she’s looking at me as if this is some entirely new form of crazy. “So what did you do? Put on a show for them?”

“I destroyed the cameras.”

She laughs. “You didn’t!”

“Every last one of them.”

“I’m so fucking proud of you. Great job.”

I’m so glad she met me. I’d spent all night and all morning struggling with this entire mess. Everything is tangled: the Retreat, the cameras, the way my body reacted, the fact I stayed when I could have left.

Piper seems to understand.