‘No, no, you have to stop.’
He kept squeezing. She coughed heavily.
‘Stop.’
‘What’s the word?’ he said.
‘What?’
‘The word.’
‘What word?’
‘The safe word.’
‘I can’t remember.’
‘I don’t have to stop if you can’t remember.’
He lifted his right hand high and with all his might he brought his open palm down onto the cheek of the bare bottom attached to him. She squealed and started to cry. Great heaving sobs that arched her back in convulsions as he watched her breasts jiggle in the mirror. He removed his other hand from the nape of her hair. ‘What’s the matter?’
She collapsed forward onto the bed. He was unsure what to do. He was pretty sure the session was over. He wasn’t going to get to get to come.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asked again.
‘I’m scared,’ she said.
‘I wasn’t going to kill you,’ he said, ‘even if you honestly didn’t know the safe word I wasn’t going to let you die. Not even accidentally.’
‘Too much paperwork,’ he thought to himself.
Her sobbing started to subside.
‘No, it’s not that,’ she said.
‘What is it then?’
‘I’m scared. I thought I could overcome my fear.’
‘Fear? What fear?’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said, ‘you wouldn’t understand.’