“I’m sorry, Master Griffin. I didn’t mean it that way.”
Carefully, he began to massage her biceps. “I know, little one. Just relax. Let me make you feel good.” Again.
After a few minutes, she spoke. “Can I ask you something, Sir?”
“Of course,” he said, curious about what she’d want to know. After all this time.
“Did you not...I mean, we could, I could...” She gave a little huff.
“What are you trying to ask me, Kenna?”
Her cheeks went pink. “What about you?”
He frowned, and then understanding hit him. He shook his head. “Not tonight.” Although of course the question had his cock stirring again.
“Oh,” she said.
He tipped up her chin. “Tonight was for you.”
She nodded, but there was something about the cast of her eyes that worried him and made him need to know.
“Now’s when you tell me there will be other nights, Kenna. So, will there?” His gut churned. “Will I get to see you again?”
CHAPTER SIX
The next morning, Kenna lay in bed long after she should’ve gotten up. Normally, she was only too ready to get up because she never slept that well anyway. She was way more familiar with the middle-of-the-night cable TV schedule than any person ever ought to be. But last night, she’d actually slept the whole night through.
It might’ve been the emotional drain of seeing Master Griffin again after so long and after so much had changed. It might’ve been the mind-numbingly good orgasm she’d had and the way that submission and bondage had set her free. Or, it might’ve been the way that the whole of the experience—the reunion , the conversation, the orgasm, her immersion into deep subspace—had so taxed her mind and body that she’d just shut down.
Or, possibly, it was the anxiety she felt over having given him her cell phone number and agreeing to see him again tomorrow night. Despite the fact that a part of her wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. Submitting and serving had definitely made her feel better—for however long it might last—but Griffin was too observant, too persistent, and too damn appealing. And it was hard to remember all the reasons she was there—and remind herself of all the reasons she wasn’t—when she was in his presence.
But whatever was responsible, sleeping all night without the nagging torment of phantom pain had been bliss.
Kenna felt so rested that she was maybe even ready to tackle something she’d been putting off for so long that it actually made her feel nauseous whenever she let herself think about it. She had a visit to arrange. And she’d been putting it off for too long.
Crawling out of bed, she freshened up but didn’t bother with her prosthetic yet. She brewed a small pot of coffee and popped some bread into the toaster, and then she fired up her laptop at the little two-seater table outside the galley-style kitchen.
It didn’t take five minutes to check her schedule and find a free three-day window in which she could plan the trip—a trip that was so long overdue. Not letting herself second-guess it this time, she booked a flight, hotel, and rental car.
“I wish you were here to kick my ass, George. Because I need it a lot these days,” she said out loud.
Would George have kicked her ass for going back to Master Griffin? In those first weeks of boot camp, in the spare moments when they weren’t training, sleeping, or shoveling food into their faces as fast as they could, they’d gotten to know each other. Georgia had shared that she came from a long line of Marines but didn’t get along with her estranged father at all, and Kenna had shared that her status-conscious parents hadn’t approved of her enlistment. The two women had also realized that they’d both seriously debated—and rejected—going to law school. All things over which they’d bonded fast and hard.
And, of course, Kenna had eventually spilled her sorrows about Griffin, which made George the only person who knew what putting herself out there had cost her and how long it had taken her to feel better. No one else knew Kenna that well. And now Georgia was gone.
And Kenna was really fucking lonely. Being with Master Griffin last night made her realize that. Which was why she was sitting there talking to ghosts.