Evan returned to the room and quickly untied her hands. Lying down next to her, he gently rubbed her wrists until the slight redness faded. All the while, he inspected her face.
Finally he said, “You’re awfully quiet. You doing okay over there?”
Taryn gave an utterly relaxed smile and said, “Fantastic.”
Less concerned now, he flashed her a grin and said, “Good.”
Her eyes drifted closed as he tucked her up against his side. Snuggling against him, she said, “That was amazing.”
“It was,” he said, his voice gravelly. “By the way. You’re most definitely a screamer.”
She heard the note of male pride in his voice and laughed a little sheepishly at herself. She agreed, “I was tonight. I don’t think I’ve ever come that hard before.”
“The tying up. Did it add to the experience?” he asked.
“Definitely,” she said. “I didn’t know if I’d like it. I was worried that I would freak out. Not sure if you noticed, but I have some control issues.”
His hand played with the back of her hair as he said, “No kidding. Totally missed that.”
She thumped his side playfully and said, “Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor.”
“…She said, sarcastically,” he added, dryly.
They drifted into a comfortable silence for a few minutes until she finally spoke. She said, “At the risk of being tacky, I’m going to say that I assume that you’ve done the whole tying someone up thing before.”
He showed no signs of being at all surprised by the question when he said, “I dated a girl who was really into the BDSM scene a couple years back. She introduced me to it. Some of it I found I really liked. Some of it, not so much.”
Curious now, she asked, “What parts didn’t work for you?”
“Well, she wanted to push things further than I did for one thing. I’m all for consensual adults doing what they want, but I didn’t want to physical hurt her. She was into caning and shit that I could never do to another person.”
“Ouch,” she said, grimacing.
“Yeah,” he said. “She was very into the whole D/s dynamic, too. I very much enjoy being in control in the bedroom, but that’s about where it ends. Outside the bedroom, she would almost…I guess, wait for instruction. It was more like having a pet sometimes. I want an equal, ya know? Needless to say, neither of us were very happy so it ended pretty quickly.”
“Well, rest assured. Being someone’s pet isn’t on my list of requests,” she said, a smile playing on her lips.
“Good,” he said. A moment later he asked, “Would you want to experiment more with that sort of thing?”
“I think I would,” she said. “Knowing you had total control was incredibly sexy. Also, it was kind of a relief. I don’t even know if that makes sense.”
She felt his lips brush against the top of her head, then heard him say, “I think I understand.”
She yawned and said, “By the way. Cora and Jamie set the whole thing up last night. I had twenty texts waiting for me this morning. They were a mix of Cora prying for information and apologizing. She’s terrible at handling guilt.”
“I kind of picked up on that. Jamie has the shittiest poker face of all time. As soon as I asked him, he crumbled,” Evan said. “Speaking of. You and Cora are invited over tomorrow. We’re doing beer and pizza again.”
“Aw. Like a double date?” she asked, laughing.
“Totally Jamie’s idea. I’m a bit past the double dating stage.”
“She’s being quiet about it, but I think she really likes him. Your brother isn’t secretly a douche, is he?” Taryn asked.
“Nah. He’s a good guy,” he said.
“Oh, good. And, uh. Could we maybe not do pizza?” Taryn asked.
His hand paused midway down her back and he asked, “What do you have against pizza?”