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It was more than good, but words were hard to come by—even harder when Tony walked me all the way to my bed. It wasn’t big enough for the two of us to fit comfortably, but logistics didn’t matter right this minute. What mattered was the way my whole body felt when the back of my calves hit the wooden base of the bed. What mattered was the way his body covered mine, the way my heart kicked up without the itch to run away or to get on equal footing.

I was a bundle of nerves for him to play with, and I couldn’t care less that I was.

“I actually wanted to talk.” Tony paused. “To ask you something.”

His chest heaved as noticeably as mine as he pushed the words out. The idea had me reaching for the hem of his shirt. I needed skin, heat.

“What did you want to ask?”

Tony pulled my hand off him. I was all too ready to scowl at him, to protest. That was before he laid me down on the bed. Before he grabbed both my hands with one of his and kept them above my head.

“I’m hosting a workshop next week.”

I frowned. I knew he wanted me to connect some dots, but I hadn’t checked the events tab in the club’s app in forever, and I wasn’t one to go to many workshops to begin with. It was bad, yeah, but most required some kind of fee for the person running it, and others… just didn’t interest me that much.

“Okay?”

Tony tilted his head to the side, eyes narrowed. He must’ve seen I wasn’t trying to get under his skin for once because he just shook his head. Fondly. I decided to interpret it as a fond gesture, at least.

“I want you on the stage with me.”

Ohhhhh.

I swallowed. He did?

“What’s the workshop about?”

That smirk was not good. It was good for the heat swirling in my lower gut, but it was not good for the part of me still attached to my brain.

“Spanking.”

I breathed out, eyes closed. I might have squirmed. “You haven’t spanked me yet. What if I’m not into it?”

That had to be a rational response. It was better than admitting his spanking sessions got me incredibly bothered butintimidated the fuck out of me, too. It didn’t leave me as exposed. It was too soon for that level of exposure.

“I see you, pup.” He sounded way too smug. “I’m happy to remedy the first thing you said, but don’t pretend for a second you’re not into it.”

I frowned. A protest formed at the tip of my tongue. I was so ready to utter it, but then I opened my eyes. I saw the intent way he watched me. The same way I’d caught him watching me more than once at the club.

Hehadnoticed me when he’d spanked one of the girls, hadn’t he?

“I’m not a hardcore masochist.” The words took raw effort to get out. I licked my lips after it was done. Why did the words not feel exactly true? They always had been. “And I don’t have a high pain tolerance.”

Tony looked undeterred. It confused me. He wasn’t supposed to look like that when I was stalling and giving him all the excuses in the world to?—

Fuck.

Excuses.

That’s what I was doing.

Maybe that was why he looked the way he did—because he somehow knew, too. If there was someone who would fit that stereotype in the media about the Dom who could read their sub’s mind and anticipate every one of their needs? It was Tony. I’d always known it was. It’s what had always drawn me to him, what made me notice him even when he would go out of his way to keep his distance. He just… When he was in a room, he commanded it. You felt his presence, his power, his focus on you.

It was wild and the kind of thing that had left me shaking more than once. Back then, I’d thought I would not survive beingin close quarters with him. I wouldn’t be able to handle all that energy solely directed at me.

It was strange. In a way, I was still making sense of it, processing the way it was affecting me. The way I responded to it.

“Are you done?”