“Follow me.” It was Luke.
He led them through the crowd to a row of private rooms. He unlocked one, pushed the door open, and followed Simon in.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Luke said as Simon placed Lynne in the middle of the bed and crawled up to curl himself around her and covered them up. “Let me make sure there’s water and chocolate in here.”
Simon watched him locate both and called to him before he left. “Would you mind bringing my bag in here? There are some things in it I need.”
“Sure thing,” Luke said. “Do you need anything else?”
“Just make sure we’re not disturbed.”
“I can do that.” Luke’s eyebrow lifted. “Out of curiosity, what did she say there at the end?”
“Humpty Dumpty, I think.”
Luke nodded. “That’s what I thought I heard. Is that her safe word?”
“No. I’m not exactly sure why she was speaking in nursery rhymes.”
“Subspace is a curious thing,” Luke said, and closed the door behind him.
Simon needed to care for Lynne’s back, but at the moment he simply wanted to hold her. He pulled her closer and smelled her hair, enjoying the light floral scent he’d come to associate with her over the last few weeks. Then, because he couldn’t help it, he kissed the top of her head and sighed. He tried to live in such a way that he didn’t have a lot of regrets. But the one thing he did regret was letting Lynne go the first time. He didn’t plan to ever let that happen again.
He wasn’t going to let her walk away again like he had at the conference either. Nope, if she tried to run, he was going to follow. Not that he regretted letting her do it then. It was something she had to do to work things out in her head. He didn’t begrudge her that time.
But now that they were back together, it wouldn’t be happening again. If she had an issue, they would talk about it together.
She gave a little snore in her sleep, and he smiled. Lord, what he’d ever done to deserve her, he wasn’t sure, but now that he had her, he never planned to let her go. Realizing he had too much energy to stay in bed, he eased out from beside her but left her on her side so he could see her back.
She was sleeping so deeply, she barely stirred as he cared for her back. He was pleased with the way it looked. There would be enough marks to satisfy her inner masochist, but not anything that would mark her permanently. He placed a kiss on her shoulder blades.
It was his own personal kind of hell. Lynne was in bed, naked, and they were alone. But she was sleeping, and he didn’t want to wake her. He had no idea how long she’d be out. She’d never passed out before. At least they had the private room for the night, and she could take her time drifting back to the land of the living.
With her back attended to, he joined her on the bed and pulled her into his arms, finally content to rest beside her.
Surprisingly, she didn’t sleep very long. Less than thirty minutes after he got on the bed with her, she began to stir. Of course, doing so meant that she was wiggling around against his dick. He knew she would probably be out of sorts when she woke up, so he told his dick to stand down, that it wasn’t time for fun just yet.
“Ow, ow, ow,” Lynne mumbled in her half-awake, half-asleep state.
Simon pulled back a bit to give her room and to make sure the ibuprofen and water were nearby. She groaned as she rolled over to look at him, her eyes blinking several times before opening completely.
“Hey,” he said, feeling giddy as a teenager on his first date for some reason.
“Hey,” she answered back. “Where are we?”
He pushed aside a lock of hair that had fallen in her face. “At Luke’s club. One of his private rooms. You passed out after the scene. Do you feel okay?”
“I ache all over and I’m sore everywhere, but interestingly enough, I feel fine.”
He nodded toward the table. “Even so, go ahead and take two.”
She didn’t argue, but sat up and took the tablets. “It’s coming back to me now.”
“The scene?”
“Yes.” She took a sip of water. He loved how she was altogether comfortable being naked around him. “You know, there at the end, when you said you were going to make me scream?”
He grinned. “Like I could forget that.”
“I didn’t know you meant you wanted me to have a screaming orgasm.”
“I couldn’t tell you everything, now, could I? What would be fun about that? Besides, it’s fun to keep you on your toes.”
“I couldn’t get to my toes. Some mean Dom tied me to a cross so I couldn’t move.”
“Is that right?” He ran his knuckles across her shoulder, unable to keep his hands to himself anymore, and leaned forward to kiss her gently when she nodded. “But I think we may have to lay off the screaming orgasms.”
Her forehead crinkled in that delightful way it did when she didn’t understand something. “Why?”
“The screaming orgasm itself is fine. It’s when you pass out and call yourself Humpty Dumpty that I have to draw the line.”
“Humpty Dumpty?”
“Yes, you called yourself that after the scene. Right before you went out.”
“That explains why that rhyme kept repeating in my head.”
He brushed her cheekbone. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I honestly can’t remember a time I felt more okay than I am right now.” She looked around the room for the first time. “Private room, you said? How long do we have it?”
“For as long as we want.”
“Really?” She dropped a hand between them and slowly let it inch up his leg. “That certainly opens up a lot of possibilities.”
He stopped her hand with his own. “Not if you’re too sore or tired.”
“Do I look too sore or tired?”
He slapped her thigh. “Sassy wench. Who do you think has been holding you while you recuperated from the last time we explored possibilities?”
She bit her bottom lip in mock chastisement and dropped her head, but not before he caught her smile. “Thank you for holding me, Sir. I just wanted to let you know that if you wanted to—you know—I’m definitely up for it.”
“First, I enjoyed holding you. Second, we’re not doing anything until you call it what it is instead of ‘you know.’ And third, are you trying to tell me what to do?”
“No, never, Sir.” At his raised eyebrow, she added, “Okay, but just a little and just so you’d know that I was ready, willing, and able . . .”
“Say it.”
“For you to fuck me senseless, Sir,” she said, and he loved how her cheeks flushed when she spoke the words.
“That’s more like it,” he said while devising a plan in his head. He didn’t want her in any sort of strenuous position. Not with how she’d reacted after the single-tail scene. In fact, after that scene, the sadist part of him was sated. Now he just wanted her. “But I think since I whipped you senseless not too long ago, maybe we should take it easy?”
“Not to argue, but you didn’t whip me senseless, Sir.”
“Oh,” he said, wondering how she was going to claim that when she’d just woken up.
“Yes, you see, I think it was the orgasm that rendered me senseless.” She looked so proud of the fact, he couldn’t help but tease her some more.
“In that case, perhaps you shouldn’t have any more orgasms.”
Her mouth dropped open, and then her lips formed the cutest pout.
“Did I render you speechless?” he asked.
“Yes, Sir. The only reply I have for that is no, no, no, no, no, no. But then I remember you are a sadist, so maybe I shouldn’t say that for fear that you’ll use it against me. Then I think you probably know my thoughts on that already, because who would want to never have an orgasm again, right? So I’ll say—”
“Lynne?”
“Yes, Sir?”
“Shut up so I can kiss you.”