Page 42 of His to Teach

I don’t tell her that I’ve wondered the same. That I’ve laid in bed feeling like I’m going crazy, wondering where she spends her time, what her room looks like, where she sleeps at night.

“You really don’t have a playroom?” she asks, lips turning up in a sly smile. I’m starting to think that I like this teasing side of her almost as much as the obedient, innocent side.

“No playroom. That’s what Club Wyld is for.”

She sounds surprised when she answers. “You only do…this…kind of thing at the club?”

“Yes.”

“And when you bring your subs here you’re, what? Vanilla?”

I stop at the foot of the stairs, letting the silence settle around us for a moment. The answer to that question seems oddly big just now.

“I don’t bring subs here.”

She’s quiet for even longer. “Never?”

I shrug. “Never.”

“Wow.”

I look down at her. “It’s a night of firsts for both of us.”

That makes her smile and it doesn’t look the slightest bit shy. It looks proud. Almost smug. Then her face tightens in confusion.

“So does that mean you have other relationships? Like, ones outside of the lifestyle?”

“No, Harper. I have subs. That’s all.”

I watch as she chews on her lip, thinking how much I would like to do that myself. “You’re saying you never have women here?”

“I haven’t brought a woman to this house in more than five years.”

She looks equally surprised and pleased. I wish I could feel a fraction of her pleasure. Because now I’m thinking of the last woman who was here, the only woman who has ever been here. And those thoughts never bring a smile to my face.

“You know what I was thinking?” She stands up on her tiptoes a little, getting closer, her warm breath brushing across the skin of my neck, causing goosebumps to erupt.

“What were you thinking?” I look down at her to see bright eyes staring back at me, a sly grin on her face. I vaguely wonder if she sensed my mood shift, if she’s trying to bring me back intothe here and now. That teasing little smile is a damn good way to do it.

“You said before that we should consider this a test run,” she points out. A flash of those fevered moments in the foyer hits me, the overwhelming desire I had felt to claim her. It had been absolute, primal, as if I couldn’tnottake her right then.

Jesus, what is she doing to me? I shake my head a little to clear it.

“I remember.”

“Well it doesn’t seem to me that it was much of a test.”

I raise my eyebrows. She better not be implying that our earlier activities had been anything less than fantastic. She must read the expression on my face because she hurries to continue. “It was amazing,” she assures me, and I feel a surge of relief. Fuck yes it was amazing. “But it wasn’t really a full representation of the lifestyle.”

I watch her for a long moment, trying to decide if she’s joking. Finally, I wave my hand for her to continue. “Please go on. Since you’re the expert on this lifestyle.”

She blushes crimson. “I mean, you were pretty bossy and everything?—”

“Bossy? Sweetheart, you haven’t seen bossy.”

“Dominant,” she corrects herself. “You were plenty dominant. But…”

“But…” I encourage her.