Page 70 of Crystal Luna

“I’m really sorry.”

“You don’t have to be.”

“I was rough with you.”

“And? I’m not poor and defenceless.” The word anymore hung in the air, but he could have been imagining it. “You don’t have to feel bad for it. And if it makes you feel better in the future, we can set up rules and talk about it before doing it again.”

“You want to do it again?”

“It helped you, didn’t it?”

“Kind of.”

“Then, we’ll figure it out.”

His mind was blown. He held Velora in his arms, making up for his roughness with sweet caresses until the water went cold, and he wrapped her up in his bed until she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Twenty-One

Velora

Velora opened her eyes the next morning to find herself cradled to Heath’s chest. He was already awake and looked like he hadn’t slept all night.

“You look awful.”

A crooked smile spread on his lips, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I feel awful, thanks.”

“What happened?”

“I happened.”

“Are you upset about last night?”

“Yes—I shouldn’t have done that. I hurt and disrespected you.”

She lifted onto her elbow to look down at him, softly combing her fingers through his hair. “I offered.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but she silenced him with her finger to his lips.

“Don’t. You didn’t do anything I didn’t agree to. I could’ve stopped you at any point and I trust that you would have too. Me offering this to you was no different from you offering yourself to me.”

“I enjoy pleasing you.”

“And I enjoyed seeing you last night.”

“I pretended you were someone else.”

“I hear role play is a pretty popular kink.”

“That was different.”

“Only because you’re overthinking it. If you don’t want to do it again, that’s fine. But know my offer stands. I’ll even buy you a new bottle of whiskey just in case.”

He sighed but didn’t rev up the argument again. Velora laid her head back down on his chest, focusing on his heartbeat and the relaxing pace of his breaths.

“My friends asked to meet you.”

“They did?”