“But that's okay," I added while opening my arms for a hug. "I'm always happy to see you.”

Belle smiled and leaned into my embrace. I squatted and scooped up her light body in my arms Like she weighed nothing, carried her over to my bed, and sat down with her in my lap. She spread her legs to straddle me, wincing as she did so, and my eyes immediately sharpened in alarm.

“Are you okay?"

Belle winced and gave me a helpless shrug.

“I'm pretty sore, actually."

I winced sympathetically, picking her up and setting her down beside me so her inner thigh muscles wouldn't be so stretched. "I'm sorry. That's all my fault."

“Stop saying that. At this point I don't want to argue over whose fault it was. It just IS. I love you and don't blame you and that's that."

I shrugged, accepting her answer but still feeling guilty for causing my Annabelle any pain. Giving her a warm smile, I leaned in and kissed her gently. She held my head and kissed me back, sighing happily as she did so.

But when she pulled away, her smile vanished quickly. "I wanna do it again ASAP, but I don't think it's gonna happen anytime soon. I'm afraid it'll just hurt too much as long as I'm feeling this sore."

“I get it. Don't worry about it." Giving her a reassuring smile again,

I added, "We have the rest of our lives to make love."

"I'm looking forward to it. At least we tried it again immediately and got it right. THAT'S the time I'll always remember as the first time we made love." She smiled back, her pale green eyes sparkling. But then she popped her eyebrows and exhaled. "Still, if this doesn't get better tomorrow, I'm going to have to concentrate just to walk normally so I don't totally give away that we had sex."

I arched an eyebrow. "So you've decided not to tell the girls just yet?"

Belle nodded.

“I haven't figured out what I'm going to say to them

This really could blow up everything."

“Keeping me to yourself for a couple of weeks? Like the blowjob thing?"

Belle giggled. "Don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind. Thing is: if I'd gotten caught giving you a blowjob, I knew things would have pretty much turned out the exact same way they did. This is different.

Mari is NOT ready to have sex, and I don't think Alice is either. I'm not as sure about Zofi, but she still hasn't even given you a blowjob.

The BTC is not ‘in balance’ already, and this would throw everything even further out of whack.”

“Not YOUR fault. Sam started it."

Belle nodded. "What did SHE say about telling the girls? I mean, I'm assuming she hasn't told anybody given the fact that none of them have come breaking down your door to ask you about it yet. More to the point, no one has called ME to find out if I knew already."

I shook my head. "She hasn't told anyone yet, not even Zofi. But she also said she didn't know how long she'd be able to keep it under wraps. She doesn't think she could Lie to the BTC for very long.”

Belle's eyes suddenly sharpened.

“You didn't tell her about US, did you?"