It was unfortuhat she, of all people, had to initiate a genuine versation. Of her talents, heart-to-heart discussions were most definitely not a specialty. Ana knew she thought, acted, and perceived things differently than most people—and so, naturally, social matters had always been a oint. In fact, she suspected Natalie's awkwardness and unfortableness stemmed, at least in part, from Ana herself.

  Though, maybe unfortable was to of a word. Natalie didn't seem to dislike her, or feel ill at ease around her. Ana didn't think Natalie wao exit the challe couldn't work up the wasn't that extreme. But their unfamiliarity, and her aloof and analytical behavior, certainly didn't mesh with Natalie's passionate and direature.

  That had been part of the reason Ana had taken up a dominating personality, earlier. It had been an intuitive respoo Natalie's reas, an attempt to give the woman some stability. Maybe if Ana acted fident, then Natalie would find fort in that—Ana could be her anchor.

  And it had worked, so she kept on with it. She sidered herself practical above all else. She could be a leader, or a follower, or whoever else was needed for any given situation, so long as it worked toward her current goal. Hence, she had been fih taking a dominant role over Natalie—with the i Natalie drew strength from her.

  Then things had escated. Ana wouldn't have guessed that demeaning Natalie, man-handling her, and dirty-talking would be what the girl o 'be more fortable' with the bizarre challenge of sug her own cock, but it seemed to have dohe job.

  At least in the moment. Long term, it might have backfired. Ana's total barrassment might be making Natalie's even more promi—her fidence siphoning Natalie's, rather than giving the irl something to draw on.

  But Ana wasn't sure. She didn't trust her theories on other people's behavior—she was far from a people person. And there was another more obvious reason for Natalie's embarrassment: the intrinsically mortifying nature of the event. It was more than pusible that Natalie was embarrassed simply because she had sucked her own cock. Ana personally didn't think it was that big of a deal, but Natalie's opinion obviously differed.

  Again, Ana mused on how poorly fit she was to hahis situation. She could, at least, tell that her bnk expression was making it harder for Natalie. Ana wasn't pletely clueless as to what other people were thinking … only more than most. She even liked to py up that cluelessness for ical effect, because it gave her an excuse when she really did fail to notiething obvious. When she'd been younger, people had told her she looked fused a lot—which had oftentimes been true. She didn't uand why most people acted like they did. Only through scrutiny over the years had she even begun to uand. And si was better to be aloof and analytical than fused, especially in political circles, A careful trol of her reas.

  But she wondered whether showing some embarrassment, here, would be good for Natalie. Then again, her fidence had enced Natalie to plete the st challenge—and Natalie had seemed to quite like it, even. Plus, Ana's irreverence for the lewdness of the event might be one of the reasons Natalie wao keep pushing forward.

  In short, Ana had no idea. This whole event was a mess, and she was terrible at reading people, so she didn't know how to tihat said, in her opinion, they should press forward. This enter was worth seeing through to ah—possibly evereme oheir career already included sughtering monsters, wading around in filth, and risking their lives, so while it was weird to suddenly have sexual enters mixed into that, it didn't faze Ana much. She didn't really uand the big deal. People had alut way more importanashing their genitals together than Ana thought it deserved.

  But, she aowledged that her opinion—or even she in general—wasn't 'the normal one'. And she cared about what other people thought, especially her teammates. So she didn't want to state those opinions ht to Natalie, who was clearly hesitant about how far she wao pursue their bizarre circumstances. It might influence her to go farther than she would otherwise, and Ana didn't want that to happen. She would help Natalie work through aance, but she had no iion of f her past any hard boundaries.

  The sed bodies made things even messier. Even Ana's owions had gotten a bit twisted up, seeing Natalie wear her own face to suck her newly-acquired cock dry. Ana had never expected to know what her own mouth and tongue would feel like against her cock, and she also hadn't expected to like it so much. Seeing how she knew she was rather indifferent on many sexual matters that others found mortifying, that even she felt a few fusiions swirling around indicated that a normal person—like Natalie—would be a plete mess.

  Ana shook her thoughts clear. Despite this being a disaster, and Natalie's clear aversion to talking it out, they o have a versation. Ana didn't trust her social judgment enough to hope things worked out. This was too important for that.

  So, it to her to draw Natalie's hohoughts out. Get more than her implied permission—and have her state ht that she was enjoying herself. That she wanted more of her—or Ana's, if she wao think of it that way—cock, and that she wasn't simply trudging along because Ana herself insisted on doing so.

  Ahead of her, Natalie had advao the drabbing the handle as she was about to move to the room. With no more time to muse over her unfortunately perplexing circumstances, Ana interrupted her.

  "We should talk."

  Natalie paused, then turned back with a curious look. "About what?"

  "Us. And what's ing up."

  Natalie's expression shifted into something she couldirely decipher. Not for the first time, Ana wished people weren't so difficult to read. She aowledged the irony there. She was often told she was the hard oo read. But that had been a defense meism developed because she herself found people fusing.

  "I already said that there's no point," Natalie said. "We'll deal with it whe there." She twisted the handle, making to tinue.

  "I disagree," Ana said firmly. "And I'm not moving to the room until I'm fortable that we've worked something out."

  That, oddly, drew a stronger rea from Natalie than Ana would have expected. She stiffehen faced Ana, brow furrowing in .

  "You're … not fortable with this?" Natalie asked slowly.

  It took Ana a sed to uand the sudden worry, but she eventually did. Natalie was more ed about Ana than herself—as soon as there'd been an implication Ana didn't want to tinue, she'd takeuation deadly serious. Never mind her own obvious internal flict. If Ana had even the slightest hesitations, then this was suddenly a serious situation. It was a sweet, if frustrating, trait.

  But maybe that was how Ana should phrase all of this, then. Focus the discussion on herself, not Natalie.

  "Not without knowing where you stand, I'm not," Ana said. "I'm perfectly fine abandoning this series of challenges, but I'm not fih damaging a retionship with a teammate—or iently c you into something you don't want."

  The first half of that statement was a lie. Ana was most decidedly not okay with abandoning su absurdly lucrative venture. But the sed half was firmly true; if Natalie didn't want to tihen Ana didn't. It would cause far worse damage to their team in the lohan taking things slow and easing into Natalie's css.

  And more than that, she did care about Natalie's well-being. Ana knew she could be coldly analytical about things, but she wasn't heartless. She cared about her teammates. Especially ones who had been so friendly to her. Ana had frankly not expected to make friends at Te—and she likely wouldn't have, if not for Elizabeth. So she would rather not mess that up, amazing loot or not.

  Irritation appeared on Natalie's face. "You're not c me into anything," she said hotly. "I'm perfectly capable of making my own decisions, and if I don't want to do something, I say so."

  The heat behind the words assuaged the worst of Ana's worries. But not all of them.

  "heless, I won't be fortable until we talk about what happened, and what's ing up deeper into the dungeon. I o know what you're okay with. Your boundaries."

  "We'll figure it out when—"

  "We'll figure it out now," Ana said firmly. "Or I'm climbing up that dder."

  At the ck of give in her voiatalie's eyebrows went up. She didn't seem pleased. She stepped away from the door, hand thankfully leaving the door handle, but only for her to cross her arms—body nguage pinly dispying irritation. Ana was bad at reading people, but not that bad.

  "Fine," Natalie said shortly. "But if you want to do this so badly, then you start. What are you okay with? How far are you willing to go?" She narrowed her eyes. "And why aren't you reag to any of this? I mean, really! None of this is the least bit disorienting?"

  e was a good first step, Ana supposed.

  But her boundaries? They didn't really exist, or at least were far, far above Natalie's, to the point of not being worth talking about. Certainly, the idea of ht sex—whia expected to be ing soon, or if not soon, theually—didn't faze her in the slightest.

  But how did Ana say that tactfully, without putting Natalie off?