I had thought I was protecting Brianna by not initiating sex the last two nights, but instead I’d made her feel insecure. That wasn’t what I’d wanted at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. Last night, I’d realized she was even stronger than what I’d understood her to be, yet she needed something from me. Brianna was submissive, at least to me. She trusted that I would take care of her, and there was nothing that said that more than the way her body became relaxed and pliant beneath me when I dominated her sexually. She came twice—once with my fingers, once with my mouth—before I’d taken her. The instant connection I felt to her once we’d come together was hard to describe. It got better every time. Her sleep had been interrupted only once during the night, which wasn’t bad considering. She’d woken up screaming, not knowing where she was, just after two in the morning. Once I’d got her to calm down, I’d held her until she’d fallen back to sleep. She was smiling as she served me breakfast, all signs of her distress gone.