PENELOPE I flipped the last pancake onto the growing stack on the plate and stepped back with a satisfied hum. It was the first real quiet moment I’d had in what felt like weeks. Well—quiet enough. I was still riding the aftershocks of last night. My thighs were sore in places that had no business being sore. My arms ached, my jaw ached, my throat ached, my voice had a slight rasp. And I felt… incredible. He let me have control. Let me wreck him. Let me pleasure him the way he always had me. I’d never seen him like that before—his head thrown back, his eyes rolling, and his body trembling under my touch. The sound he made when he came? I was going to keep that tucked away in a vault and play it in my head like a favorite playlist. It made me smile like an i***t while I poured syrup in

