control
"That's why I wanted you to discover it."
There were other nights when Eli would take charge. When he would guide me through vulnerability I didn't know I could access. When he would make me feel completely safe even as I was completely exposed.
"I want you to know," he said after one particularly intense encounter, "that this—all of this—isn't going anywhere. You're stuck with me. For life. You understand that?"
"Yes," I said, and the certainty in my voice surprised me.
"You're not going to wake up one day and realize you made a mistake?" he asked.