Rowan exhales a heavy breath and unclenches the facial muscles he didn’t know he’d clenched in an effort to chill out. Hell, less than an hour ago he had a mind-blowing orgasm with a smokin’ hot guy and is currently eating homemade grilled cheese and tomato soup, and he’s tenser than a guilty defendant on trial.

“I liked everything you did,” Mal says, as if sensing Rowan finally relax.

And that… well, it’s got Rowan feeling all sorts of things he doesn’t want to name right now. All of them soft and warm and pleasant.

“Yeah?”

“Mmm. You stuck to the acts we talked about beforehand. Checked in when you thought I was telling you ‘no’ or thought it was too much. Kept the dirty talk to shit I told you I liked.”

A thought strikes Rowan even through Mal’s praise of his performance.

“When I said I was gonna slap your face and you told me to do it, what’s….” He pauses, trying to figure out how to phrase his question. “We were obviously in the middle of the scene, so like… how much can I take what you say during that time seriously? I mean, I obviously wasn’t gonna do it right then, but is that something you’d be open to me doing in the future, or was that just heat-of-the-moment type shit?”

Mal sucks his bottom lip into his mouth, wetting it with his tongue. “In general, you should assume that anything we don’t explicitly talk about is just dirty talk. Kinda like you sayin’ you’d leave the room if I didn’t comply. We both know it’s not gonna happen, but it’s hot. The face slappin’ thing, though… I did mean that.”

God, Rowan feels his cock jump at the thought. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. You were right for not doin’ it. We’ve only talked about spanking and impact play on less sensitive areas. Legs and chest and ass like you stuck to tonight.”

Rowan is glad he wasn’t too tempted to give in to that desire earlier. “I read one of those books you recommended. The Loving Dominant. Said some people write up an actual contract for this type of stuff.”

“Yeah,” Mal tells him. “I have with Doms in the past who wanted everything written out. ’S fine if you wanna do that—we can draw somethin’ up in writing. I never thought it was that necessary since the shit I’m into isn’t overly intense. Nothin’ that could cause significant pain or situations that could be traumatizing or anything.”

From what he’s read and from his few scenes with Mal, both their interests do fall on the more vanilla side of the BDSM landscape. “No, I’m good. Fine with talking stuff out. Just still need to check when things happen that I obviously haven’t dealt with before.”