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“Absolutely.”

“The lady’s meal will take about forty-five minutes to prepare.”

“That’s fine. We’ll be extra hungry.” Helen winked at the waiter. The man in a tuxedo was off, and the door to their private paradise clicked shut. Both wine glasses remained empty. Helen sat expectantly across from Monique, candlelight licking her skin and face glowing in the same hunger that had stewed in the boutique.

Monique crossed her legs. It was the only way to keep her naked thighs from going crazy. “You know,” she began, opening the wine without a second thought. A steady stream poured into Helen’s glass. “I love it when a woman knows how to order for me.”

Now it wasn’t just candlelight licking Helen’s lips. It was a smile, too. “I know.”

Steady. Low. Monique had entered a scene and barely realized it. “Should I pour myself a glass too, ma’am?”

“Of course. And I expect a different word out of you, Monique.”

She steeled herself in her chair. “Of course. Mistress.” This was it. This was what Monique had been waiting for. What she wrote in her letter. Her need to serve and submit at the same time. Helen was good at getting her to submit easily enough, but Monique wanted more. She wanted to serve – to have someone else become her whole world for a while.

She held up her wine for a toast. Helen matched her. “To new adventures,” Monique’s Mistress said. Their glasses clinked together, and they drank, never once lowering their gazes.

Bitterness washed down Monique’s throat. She did not flinch. “Are you pleased with my dress?” She tugged on the keyhole, revealing more skin for Helen to devour in the candlelight.Be honest.Monique didn’t want platitudes. She coveted compliments, but only if she had earned them. The dress? Helen chose that. The hair and makeup? That was Monique. While she liked the way she looked, she would be happier knowing that Helen thought she was gorgeous.

From the way Helen pulled her bottom lip into her mouth… perhaps they were on the right track.

“I think you tempt me on purpose.”

Well, of course.Monique couldn’t say that. Her stomach also growled, but Helen had made a point of making sure they weren’t disturbed for a long while.What’s her plan?She wasn’t… was she? Monique wished she had her underwear on right now. Especially when this dress was brand new, and she woke up to certain ideas.

“It’s not my intention to tempt you, Mistress.”

Helen drank more wine. “Yes, it is. You’ve been tempting me since we first met. Do you know how hard I have to work to keep myself steady around you?” She leaned forward, her dark blond hair almost brown in the low light. “Women like you get off on grabbing a Domme by the throat in public.”

Did this count as public? “I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“No, you’re not. Look at you in this dress. You want me to stare at your breasts all night.” The last of the wine disappeared past Helen’s tongue. Monique picked up the bottle and offered her more. It was readily accepted.

“What can I do to please you?”

Helen glanced into her purse. Her phone? Monique’s underwear?The list.The damned list of things Monique said she wanted from the Mistress who promised to help heal her.Anything off that list right now would be…Monique sucked in her breath.

As expected, Helen’s interest lingered on the keyhole in her girlfriend’s dress. “Contain yourself. We’re in public.”

Tingles forced Monique to cross her legs. She looked at the tablecloth, mind racing with what Helen was up to. Deep down, she knew.Humiliation. The thought shouldn’t have made Monique’s nipples harden in her dress, and yet… “I’m trying, Mistress.” The best part? She didn’t have to be demure. She didn’t have to sweeten her voice. She was still the same Monique she had always been.

“Try harder, for God’s sake.” Helen held her wineglass but didn’t drink. “If you don’t tone it down, I may be forced to deal with you.”

Neither of them said anything for a few moments.

“Shit.” Helen stood, her chair shooting out behind her and the wineglass nearly spilling on the white tablecloth. “Why do you have to be so bewitching? You’re turning me into a sick woman, Monique.”

She cast her eyes down. “I’m sorry, Mistress.”

“Sorry isn’t good enough. You clearly don’t know your place.” Slowly, Helen rounded the table, standing only a few inches from her sub. Her hand gently patted Monique’s head and toyed with her curls. “You need to learn that you can’t tempt me twenty-four hours a day. I’m a woman with a schedule. I need to be… collected… for the other people around me. Whenever I’m with you…” Helen’s hand slipped down, clutching Monique’s breast and rolling her nipple through both dress and bra. Monique whimpered. “I want to lose my fucking mind.”

Two fingers pushed into the keyhole, encountering the sweat in Monique’s cleavage. She regulated her breathing but could not stop the fluttering of her eyelashes.

“I have to constantly if I will continue to deny you...” Helen pulled out her hand and placed it on top of Monique’s untouched water glass. “Or am I going to indulge in you? You know what I want to do, of course.”

Ice swirled in the glass. Helen picked out a sizable cube.

“I want the same thing, Mistress.”