She felt so good.

Sated. Loose. Relaxed. The way she felt after the best kind of scene. And she hadn’t felt this way in a while.

Which didn’t really make sense because, as intense as the scene had been, she’d had scenes that involved so much more... more pain, more implements, more orgasms. This scene... even though she felt sated, she still wanted more. She didn’t want a scene with someone else, she wanted to go back to Michael.

Which was a really scary feeling.

Even more so because she hadn’t exactly been acting like herself. Although, that seemed to be the theme of the day, from calling Lexie because she was freaking out over what to wear, to sassing Michael, to agreeing to another scene with him. That last one made her feeling particularly antsy because she knew everyone at Stronghold was going to read all kinds of things into it... but she still wanted to do it.

As if sensing her anxiety, Watson let out a particularly loud purr, his paw coming up to bop her on the underside of her chin.

“Yeah, your momma’s got issues,” she said, tilting her head down to kiss his foot. Watson liked having the pads on the bottom of his feet kissed and nuzzled, the little weirdo.

Trust and relationships were two things she didn’t even try to do anymore. She’d made the attempt twice since her first disastrous high school boyfriend, and neither time had worked out well. Her college boyfriend, Steve, had tried, but having a damaged girlfriend wasn’t a lot of fun for a horny guy with a high sex drive, and eventually he’d given up on her. The next guy she’d almost dated had been in the scene, but then he’d ignored her safe word the first time they’d scened alone. She’d had to scream it over and over before he finally gave in, pouting the entire time like she’d been unreasonable about having her hair pulled. If he’d ignore it for a small thing, he would have ignored it for larger ones too and she’d immediately stopped seeing him. After that, Ellie had kept everything in the club where there were Dungeon Monitors and lots of witnesses to everything and she didn’t see anyone regularly. It was why she only did private room scenes with Andrew, and she’d taken months to get to that point with him.

But with Michael...

Everything was different, just as she’d known it would be from the very beginning. Yeah, she’d spent months running from him, but once she’d agreed to scene with him, she’d immediately trusted him enough to go into a private room and close the door. And she’d been... herself. Uncensored. Unguarded. Vulnerable in a way she hadn’t been in so long.