Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
I didn’t tell him that it was okay and I understood, because I didn’t think I was part of that particular discussion he was having with himself. Instead, I told him, “I know what you mean about playing roles. At first, I felt like Charlotte playing a silly game. Then, I did feel like that princess in the story you told me over the phone that night. And it felt really good to make my dragon happy.”
He grinned. “I knew it.”
I tilted my head.
“I knew you had a praise kink.” He booped the end of my nose with his finger.
I rolled my eyes at him and laughed. “Yeah. A praise kink. Because I’m so needy for your approval.”
“I never said that.” He turned serious. Too serious for my liking. “I don’t think you want to hear anything positive about yourself, from anyone. Even me.”
“False. I like to hear that you think I’m hot,” I pointed out, trying to keep things light. Dread built up in the back of my mind. Dread of what, I couldn’t guess.
He leaned close, studying my face for a long moment, as if he would see past the emotional guards I constantly put up. Obviously, he had, while I’d been strapped down on that bench, eager to suffer anything for him.
He kissed me, soft and gentle and slow, then pulled back and said, “I think you aren’t comfortable hearing anything positive about yourself unless you believe it’s pretend.”
The fact that he’d hit the mark so dead center almost felt like a violation. I dipped my head to hide the tears that inexplicably sprang to my eyes. Why did it feel like a failure, like my darkest secret had escaped, because the man who loved me learned something true about me?
How messed up was that?
“Hey.” He drew my head to his shoulder and cradled it there. “It’s okay. It’s not a bad thing, I promise.”
“It’s embarrassing. Sex has never been serious for me. It’s never been with someone I loved and trusted. Or who was creepy observant.” I try to laugh. It sounds bitter and wrong for the moment at hand.
“Charlotte. Look at me.”
I lifted my eyes hesitantly.
“Does it make you feel good to hear that you’re a good girl? That you’re my princess?”
I flushed at how silly it sounded out of context. “You know it does.”
“Then keep enjoying it,” he said. “And I’ll feel good knowing that I’m saying these things to you and you’re hearing them, even if it makes you more comfortable to think it’s a game.”
Laughing through my tears, I kissed him again.
“Come on,” he said with a nudge of his elbow. “Let’s get you cleaned up, princess.”
I got to my feet, feeling every single one of those ten spanks and every muscle-straining orgasm. Maybe Matt was right. Maybe I did need to hear that praise from him in a state where I could deny it was authentic in order to accept it.
I supposed we’d have to keep testing his theory. Again and again and again…
CHAPTER SEVEN
(Matthew)
I didn’t take a lot of time in the shower. Charlotte was clearly exhausted. She swayed on her feet while I washed her hair and soaped her body. Every time her slick skin rubbed against me, my cock leapt at the contact. I’d been so fucking turned on all night, it was a miracle I hadn’t come in my pants. Or in her mouth. I’d been perilously close.
But since she was so tired and, frankly, since I’d overdone it in the forced orgasms department, I wasn’t going to hold her to her earlier suggestion of intercourse. Like a gentleman, I would wait until she fell asleep, then masturbate.
When I helped her to bed, I wished I could have scooped her up in my arms and carried her. I wasn’t supposed to hate having a disability. That thinking was out of touch with modern values, as I told myself all the time. But I hadn’t quite acclimated to the separation between old me and new me, yet. Now, assuming a dom role for the first time since before the bear accident, I felt… powerless.
We didn’t go all the way to the bed upstairs. I pulled down the covers on the guest bed, and she climbed in with a happy sigh.
“Why do you have guest rooms if you don’t bring people here?” she asked sleepily.
“Because I’m always open to possibilities,” I said, leaning down to kiss her on the cheek. “Get some rest.”
“Wait.” She sat up, blinking big, sleepy eyes. “You don’t want to finish?”
“I almost did. Several times,” I joked. “I thought maybe you’d had enough tonight.”
“I will never get enough of you,” she said with a lazy smile. “Unless you’re finished for the night?”
I climbed into the bed beside her. “I was going upstairs to jerk off,” I admitted.