"Was it yours?"
"Was it yours?"
"Yeah."
Something in her gave way just a little bit. "Oh." she said, pulling the blanket up to her chin. What could she say next? Should she reassure him? But what reassurance could Pari, who'd also been a virgin, give him? "Me too."
"Was it what you expected, you think?" He asked, trying not to sound too delicate about it though it was a delicate question. The curiosity itself was about the act of sex at large, but it was also intimately personal to the fact that the only experience they both had was right now, with each other.
Pari pressed her lips together, considering his question and how to answer it. She could reach over and take his hand, assure him that it had been exactly what she'd wanted-- what she'd needed... but what if he pulled away - again?
She could say, it was fine, stop asking, and she'd shut his line of questioning down, but she'd also cut him deeply, and he wouldn't believe her, because what well-tussled woman would wave it off like that? Even if it had been fine and she did want him to stop asking.
"No," she said instead. She couldn't be kind, and she couldn't always be honest, but she could be honest about this, at least. "I thought sex would be boring. I figured I'd just have to look nice and make some noises and let a guy do what he wanted, and maybe, if I was lucky, it wouldn't hurt too bad. And that would be that."
His eyebrows twitched upwards in surprise. "Damn, that... sounds awful."
"Yeah. Which is why I've never really cared about it." she admitted. "Or I guess, why I've avoided it for so long. I never really considered having sex with anyone unless I had to because we were married. My parents are like, super sex-positive, which is gross to talk about, I know, but... growing up entrenched in palace politics, it's different. They would tell me one thing and I'd learn something else from living as royalty. But none of that really matters, I guess. I'm just trying to say that... I wanted to do it with you. And I'm glad that I did. So... yeah."
He could feel the relief loosen up muscles he didn't know he'd been tensing. It wasn't outlandish to assume she had enjoyed herself, given all the live feedback, but still, the fear of that post-orgasm clarity telling a different story had been looming.
"I'm so glad," he related. "I mean, it sounds like it was a low bar to beat, but... I didn't want to be the only one having a good time. And it was a pretty great time."
"It was," she agreed quietly. "... like I said, I didn't think I'd have a good time. But you... you made sure that I did."
There was silence between them for a beat, and then he asked, "Would you want to have more good times together? Maybe out on a date, sometime?"