Part of it was lust. A whole week of anticipation—and no way to give herself any relief—meant she was primed. And he wasn’t helping by looking so marvelously edible. If she were the kind of woman who enjoyed taking the reins in a sexual encounter, she’d have already slipped him her panties and a note that read “meet me in the bathroom”. Except she wasn’t that kind of woman, and she wasn’t wearing panties, so all she could do was sit there and hope that when she stood, the back of her dress would not be sporting a wet spot.

Once the waiter had brought their drinks and taken their orders—for food, she assumed, she honestly couldn’t remember even looking at a menu—Cade lifted his sparkling water with lime for a sip, watching her over the rim so carefully she wondered if she’d smeared her lipstick again.

“I have a couple of questions,” he said once he’d put the drink down again.

“Oh?” she said and tried to pay attention to the sounds coming out of his mouth rather than the mouth itself.

“We got most of the details hashed out via email this week,” he went on, calm and cool on the other side of the table while she tried not to burst into flames. “But I want to go over a few things.”

“All right.”

“Is your safeword still the same?”

She blinked, surprised to realize that hadn’t come up this week. And that he remembered it after two years. “I’ve gotten used to using the stoplight system because it’s so common, but, yeah. You remember my safeword?”

He grinned, his teeth a flash of white in the dimly lit restaurant. “You’re the only person I know who uses ‘safeword’ as a safeword.”

“More people should,” she said with a shrug. “It’s clear, unambiguous, and instantly recognizable.”

“You’re not wrong. Which one do you want to use for CNC scenes?”

She frowned. “Do I need to choose?”

“Some people like to have a CNC scene safeword so they can use their regular one as part of the scene. Like if they use the stoplight system, but want that to be ignored in a CNC situation.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” She thought for a moment. “How about we keep ‘safeword’ as the actual ‘stop everything right now’ safeword. Then I can use the stoplight system as part of the scene if I want?”

“Good enough. How’s your ability to suspend disbelief?”

She picked up her water for a fortifying sip. “What do you mean?”

“We’ve talked about a lot of pretty heavy scenarios,” he said, his voice low. “How deep are you likely to get?”