“If I do it right you will.”

“Are you going to do it right?”

“I am,” Elle said, making the words a solemn vow. “But don’t think about what’s going to happen. Think about this instead.”

“What?”

Elle kissed her.

In the beginning, the kiss was nothing but light. A light brush of lips on lips. Elle let her mouth linger on Kyrie’s, waiting, patiently waiting. Elle would do the work, but Kyrie would set the pace. They had all night and tomorrow night. They had all week, all month, all year. As sweet as the kiss was, as beautiful as the girl she kissed, Elle was in no hurry for it to end. Only in a hurry for it to begin.

Kyrie tilted her chin up and parted her lips. Elle deepened the kiss. With the tip of her tongue she touched Kyrie’s teeth, lightly and without pressure. But Kyrie took the hint and opened her mouth even more to Elle.

She tasted sweet, like warm honey, and Elle cupped the back of her head to hold her mouth right where she wanted it—against her own. Kyrie whimpered at the force but didn’t pull away. The kissed deepened further, grew heated as Kyrie fell into the rhythm of lips on lips and tongue to tongue.

Elle moved her hand from Kyrie’s head to her shoulder, from her shoulder to her neck. She felt Kyrie’s pulse throbbing in the vein under her ear. She was scared, aroused, everything Elle wanted her to be.

From her neck, Elle dropped her hand to Kyrie’s waist. She found the tie of Kyrie’s white robe and unknotted it.

“Elle?” Kyrie made her name a question, a panicked question.

“It’s all right,” Elle said, resting her palm on Kyrie’s burning face. “You’ll get used to this.”

“Get used to what?”

“Get used to me undressing you. I’ll go slowly tonight. But when we’re alone together in my room, your body belongs to me. I’ll touch it when I want to touch it, undress it when I want to undress it and use it however I want to use it. You understand that?”

Kyrie nodded.

“How does that make you feel?” Elle asked.

“Better,” she said. “Scared, but better. I don’t know what I’m doing. I want...I want you to do it all.”

“I will. I promise. And I’m taking care of you.”

“You’ll take care of me?”

“Yes,” Elle whispered. “That’s what I want to do. You do what I tell you to do. And I’ll take care of you.”

“Thank you,” Kyrie said. And Elle had to stop herself from laughing. Thank her? Kyrie was letting Elle kiss her and touch her and dominate her and Kyrie was thanking her? Submissives were so cute sometimes.

Elle kissed Kyrie again, a slow sensual kiss. A kiss to distract the girl while Elle finished unknotting the tie of her robe. Once it was untied, Elle parted the robe and rested her hand on Kyrie’s stomach. She felt the muscles fluttering like bird’s wings with every nervous breath.

Beneath the robe Kyrie wore an old-fashioned gown of white cotton, tied with a drawstring at the neck. On the other sisters, the gown looked like a relic from another era. On Kyrie, it looked unbearably erotic. One little bow to untie and the gown would fall open like a flower.

“Are you okay?” Elle asked, between kisses.

“I think so.”

“Scared?”

“Terrified.”

“Good. I like that you’re scared,” Elle said.

“Why?”

The question caught her off guard. She didn’t have an answer for it.

“I don’t know. I just do. Maybe...” She kissed Kyrie’s neck under her ear and over the pounding vein. “Maybe I want you to be afraid of me. That way your trust means more than if you weren’t afraid.”

“I do trust you,” Kyrie said.

“I know. You’ll be brave for me, and do everything I tell you to do even if it scares you?”

Kyrie took a breath, looked away. “Whatever you want, Elle. Do whatever you want. I’m yours.”

Let it be done unto me...

“Good. I’m going to take your robe off you. Just the robe. For now.”

Kyrie took a breath as if bracing herself. Elle bit back a smile. With her mouth on Kyrie’s neck, Elle pushed the robe down her back and off her arms.

“Tell me if you get cold,” Elle asked.

“I’m okay,” she said. “I’m anything but cold right now.”

Elle pulled back and wrapped a leg around either side of Kyrie’s waist. They were face-to-face now, Kyrie sitting in the circle of her legs and arms.

“Do you like kissing?” Elle asked, kissing her again on the mouth, the cheek, the ear.

“I love it.” Kyrie’s head fell back, giving Elle better access to her neck and throat. Without any warning Elle nipped Kyrie’s neck with a quick snap of her teeth. Kyrie flinched but didn’t protest. A good sign. “I was just thinking kissing felt so good I wished I’d done it a long time ago. But then maybe I wouldn’t have come here, and I wouldn’t have met you. And you’re my first kiss, Elle. I’m so glad you’re my first kiss.”

Their lips met again in renewed passion. All gentleness had fled from the kiss. Elle took Kyrie’s face in her hands and kissed the girl until she moaned. While their lips were otherwise occupied, Elle raised her hands to Kyrie’s neck and found the bow of her nightgown. She untied it and yanked lightly on the silky string.