Page 132 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

“You have an opinion.”

“Normal things doesn’t mean anything,” he said calmly.

“It means normal sex.”

“Still doesn’t mean anything.”

“Do you need a diagram?”

“No. Keep going.”

This didn’t sound like an obvious attempt to embarrass me. He sounded annoyingly serious, as though I had given an incomplete answer during a briefing and he expected the rest before we moved on.

“Fine. Um, I like kissing. I guess I also like being touched by somebody who knows what he’s doing, which sounds obvious until you remember how many men seem to be learning in real time.”

Wolf let me sit with the answer without helping me out.

“You had told me to keep going,” I followed.

“I did.”

“You could contribute.”

“You aren’t finished.”

I looked down at the closed notebook on my lap and ran my thumb along the edge. “I like confidence. I don’t want somebody asking me if every single thing is okay before he does it.”

“There’s a difference between confidence and guessing.”

“I know. I’m saying I don’t like hesitation over every little thing. If we’re already there and I want you touching me, I don’t need a committee meeting before your hand moves six inches.”

The corner of his eye tightened slightly. I could not tell whether it was amusement or restraint, and asking would only make the conversation worse.

“Keep going,” he said.

I let out a quiet laugh and shook my head. “You really like saying that.”

“Mercer.”

“Fine. I guess I also… like someone stronger than me. Maybe like when a man takes charge but without turning it into some weird performance where he needs to remind me every five seconds that he could overpower me. That’s no fun.”

Wolf was quiet for long enough that I turned my head toward him again.

“What?” I said in a more irritated tone than I intended.

“Nothing.”

“You keep doing that.”

“Keep going.”

Heat crept into my face, mostly because he had managed to make the conversation feel less like banter and more like an interview I had volunteered for without reading the questions first.

I shifted in the seat and folded my arms loosely.