That desire is a beautiful thing. That’s what I crave: complete, consuming dependency on my next choice.

I pick up the low-temp candle, my pulse thrumming with the need to own her completely. The way she trembles blind beneath me feeds the chaos I’ve barely learned to contain.

I tilt the candle and watch a drop of deep red wax fall.

I don't aim for the already tortured core, but just beside it, onto her incredibly sensitive, pulsing inner thigh.

I watch the wax hit and instantly harden into a tight warm shell against her skin.

She lets out a startled animal sound that vibrates right through me.

"That's how...