"I wouldn't mind terribly if you watched when I do go out, though."

...he laughs. "If you wouldn't mind then maybe I will!"

"I mean honestly at the point that it's happening having someone I like see it happening is not, like, a meaningful added negative."

Hug. "I like you. You're so - I don't know what it is but I know I like it."

"Blase? Pragmatic?"

"Maybe. I don't know."

"Well. I know what I like about you. You're very sweet and you make interesting faces when you're turned on."

He laughs.

"...That might also be part of the reason I want to sleep with you, come to think of it, if consensual sex is involved with the equation then telling you sexy stories feels less like--cooperating with the curse."

"Hmm?"

"If the curse is trying to make me sexier to you in the misplaced hope that your self-control will snap, then also doing things that make you attracted to me feels a little like cooperating with that unless there is something else for it to be?"

"Mm... I don't know. When you tell me fun stories I like hearing them but it doesn't make me want to fuck you right then. Scoop you up and kiss you because you're delightful, maybe. It's definitely a very different thing from watching you bleed."

"Really?"

"Yeah?"

"Even the time when I told you minotaurs like sharing?"

"Even then! I could listen to your stories all day and it would be very, very enjoyable and you'd probably see a lot of that face you like so much but I wouldn't - have to fight myself the way I did when you hit your head on the doorframe."

"Well. That's good to know."

He smiles.

"Honestly makes me wonder how far I can push it."

"Oh?"

"Remember when I mentioned the first time a minotaur got me and you said you wished you could have seen it?"

Intrigued: "I certainly do."

"Illusions."

She giggles and snuggles him some more. "So would that fall into the story category or the blood category, I wonder?"