“Careful, Love. You can't offer a starving man a feast and expect him not to take you up on it.”

“Taking care of you," he said mildly. "I'm getting you ready for bed right now. And if you start throwing up all of that poison you drank tonight, I'll take you to the bathroom and hold your hair out of your face for you.”

“I'll do it. I said I would. And, though I can't deny I've never thought of doing something like that, it appeals to me simply because yo want it so badly. I can't seem to help myself. I want to please you. I love to please you.”

“You’re insane,” I told him, and stood up to dress.He hugged me from behind, pressing hard against me, rubbing his smooth chest along my back. He spoke into my ear, “Insane for you, my love.”

“Yes, you scare me,” I told him, after a very long silence, while I processed his answer. “But I’m irrevocably fucked up, so you excite me in equal measures. I find it liberating, to let someone control me…”

“Do you…love me?” I asked him, my chesthurting.“That’s a silly question,” he said, stroking my cheek. “An unnecessary question. I’ve never made a secret of my feelings, Bianca. I know you’re a skeptic, but you must have realized that I fell for you right away.”

“God, did I miss you, Love. Is thirty too young to retire from working? I'd love to just make love to you full-time, instead”