Page 86 of Coiled Tight

More breathing that didn’t help ensued. Was I even doing it right? Maybe I wasn’t. Breathing was supposed to be easy,but it wasn’t. There were literal courses people ran on breathing techniques. Obviously, the courses wouldn’t be there if they were as easy as people made it out to be.

Okay.

In through the nose.

Count to four.

Out through the mouth.

Slowly. Count to six.

It was important to breathe with your entire chest and not keep it all above the lungs.

I was doing it right.

Maybe.

Probably.

The tablet rang.

Kara’s profile image was there. It wasn’t her usual account, so it wasn’t her usual image. Instead, it was a pink teddy bear with fairy wings that looked soft instead of the gritty glittery type that I knew she didn’t like.

Okay. Okay, I could do this.

Totally.

I just had to tap on the green button. That was it.

The teddy bear staring back at me was sweet. Kara had so many teddy bears. She wasn’t like other Littles who took their stuffies with them all the time, but her room was filled to the brim with them. She’d showed me her collection once, and that one hadn’t been a part of it.

It had to be a good sign. Kara hadn’t bought teddy bears for herself after she broke up with her ex, so it had to be a sign. Right?

Right.

Shit.

The call ended.

Oh, fuck.

Had she ended it? Or had I taken too long and it had cut off on its own?

I didn’t know.

A whimper caught in the back of my throat.

At least, it spurred me on to start a call myself. My heart lodged up my neck, but it was done, and now there was no going back. No going back at all, because the call connected right away after two seconds of it ringing, and then Kara covered the entire screen. She had her hair in a messy, loose braid tucked over her shoulder. She was wearing one of those fluffy hoodies I was jealous of but never felt like I could justify buying.

“Hi.” I croaked out.

I could see myself in the corner of the screen. It looked grainy. The connection must be spotty. We’d done worse, and I didn’t usually care, but I did when my heart beat as fast as it did now.

“Hi.” Kara scratched her skin above the elbow. “How are you?”

“Um.” I started fidgeting. A lot.Fuck. “I’m good. Are you good? You look good. And you have a new stuffie, I think. But you also have a new Domme, and is it good? Are you good with her? Is she good?”

I froze before I continued rambling and interrogating her. That was not good, either. I really was fucking up this already, and we hadn’t been on call for more than a minute.