Page 46 of Necessary Space

Miles: Love that. Not tomorrow, though. Tomorrow, I want to make sure you know exactly who is coming inside of you.

My phone fell out of my hands, clattering against my desk. I swallowed, throat and lips dry. Where had all my saliva gone? And why had my first reaction been…

Me: Can I call you? I need to ask you something.

Instead of answering, Miles called me.

“Hello?” It took me too long to answer, considering the phone was in my hands. My voice sounded like sandpaper, even to my own ears.

“What do you need?” Miles asked, worry ringing like a bell in his voice. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine.” I cleared my throat. “I just…okay. Can we do the yes or no thing, but in reverse?”

“Like you ask me, and I answer?”

“Yeah.”

“Of course,” he agreed.

“Honorifics,” I rasped.

“Yes.”

My heart slammed against my sternum.

“Master?”

“No,” he said.

“Sir?”

Miles all but growled in my ear, a deep echo vibrating straight down between my legs. “Yes.”

“In context, though. Not all the time.” I didn’t phrase that as a question because, for me, it wasn’t.

“Not all the time,” he confirmed.

“Not even always in the bedroom.”

“Yes.” Miles inhaled sharply. “Only when it feels right for you.”

“Okay.” I still couldn’t catch my breath, my heart was still as frantic as a lost child. Racing and running in circles, never getting anywhere except for more lost.

“Is that all you wanted to ask me?”

“Yes.”

“I have to cut this call short then. I was in a meeting,” he said.

“You were texting!”

“You started it.” Miles’s answer sounded like it made all the sense in the world. “We’ll talk soon. We can text. Gotta run.”

“Bye.”

Miles was quick to end the call and I stared down at my phone, the call ending and our text messages appearing back on the screen. I didn’t know what had come over me. Rome hadn’t been a stickler for honorifics, so I’d used them when it felt right or on the rare occasions that he asked. Sometimes we roleplayed at a more serious dynamic and then it was always used, but most of the time…most of the time things with Rome were easy and informal.

I snorted, the reality of my relationship with him slapping me in the face.