Was it partly my way of staking my claim to her in front of all present? Maybe.

It backfired when she smiled at Melody instead of me. “Will you be my Freya?”

Perfect. Now I got to watch my current fake girlfriend top my future fake girlfriend. Likely a fantasy for some dudes, but I didn’t need the reminder that Elena had chemistry with literally everyone she interacted with.

“Would you mind kneeling?” Elena asked softly.

“No prob.” Melody dropped gracefully to her knees in front of Elena.

Elena didn’t so much as glance in my direction.

“And do you mind if I gently act out the scene without actually hurting you or doing any of the extreme stuff? So I promise not to actually have sex with you,” Elena joked. “But may I pull your hair and push you around a little?”

“Please do! In fact, will you spank me for real? I’m dying to know what it feels like and you’re a pro,” Melody said enthusiastically.

“I’ll give you a light spanking, but if you want to feel heavier we can talk later and figure something out privately.”

Great.

Max, who was now standing just inside the door, scoffed, “Is that really how you’re suggesting he do it?”

Elena whipped around to look at him. “No, that’s me being polite to an actress and not simply assuming she’s okay with what I’m about to do.”

Okay, so maybe she didn’t have chemistry with absolutely everyone.

Elena turned back to Melody. “Now I’m going to show you. So in the script, he literally just hauls her over his lap, spanks her raw, she maybe somehow has an orgasm—from spanking? Not sure how that works, but whatever. Then, he kisses her, drags her from the throne room to the bedroom, and they do it, right? There’s been no discussion of BDSM at this point, he doesn’t ask her permission beyond ‘I’m going to punish you now, pet,’ and there are no boundaries set. But she’s turned on…so it’s okay?” She shook her head and wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Here’s how I would get to the same outcome with the same actions, but some dialogue thrown in to spell out the enthusiastic consent and boundaries.”

Melody was looking down at the floor until Elena lifted her chin gently and looked her in the eye. “You disobeyed me by freeing that dragon, and I think you did it because you want me to punish you, but I want to hear you say it. Do you want me to punish you?”

“Yes. Punish me,” Melody answered instantly.

“Then get over my knee, pet.” Elena said it with an effortlessly dominant half smile that made it clear she was both enjoying herself and indulging her sub.

I was left thinking that maybe all of TikTok had a point. We should just flip the gender and have the queer version of the book because there was no way I was going to pull this off as well as Elena.