“Can I trust you?”

“Can I trust you?” Danni asks.

“Yes,” I say quietly, trying to sound as solid and trustworthy as I can.

“How am I supposed to be sure?” she asks equally quietly, with a sound very like despair in her voice.

“Danni, have I done anything that actually hurt you?” I ask.

Danni opens her mouth to speak, then closes it again. I wait. Finally, unwillingly, she admits, “No.”

“Have I broken any promises to you?”

“No.”

“Have I lied to you?”

“Yes!” Danni says passionately.

“How?” I ask, working hard to keep my voice calm and reasonable.

“You didn’t tell me about this!” she cries.

“Again, how was I supposed to bring it up? And did I ever claim to be celibate, or to still be a virgin?” I ask, choosing my words carefully.

“Well . . . no,” Danni concedes.

“I made it clear I don’t have a girlfriend, and I don’t,” I go on, pressing my point. “I don’t even have a set ‘friends with benefits’-type relationship. The closest to anything is my friendship with Emily, and I told you about reconnecting with her. No, I didn’t tell you I’d eaten her pussy—but you understand, that’s private. On my end, at least, it’s confidential. And Emily and her boyfriend seem to have solidified things, so it doesn’t look like I have any romantic prospects there.

“I’ll grant, I didn’t tell you that I haven’t been celibate, but again, part of the deal with my clients is that I promise not to talk about them. I didn’t try to make you think I’m celibate—we just never talked about sex. Sure, I didn’t bring it up, but neither did you. Even when we met, when I was a virgin, I didn’t say I was. The thing is—is it any surprise that a college guy is having sex? I suppose not everybody is, but if you assume everybody is, you won’t be wrong all that often.

“What have I told you that wasn’t true?”

Danni sits in silence for a while. Finally, she heaves a huge sigh and says, “Nothing I can think of. But—this doesn’t fit the image I had of you.”

“I can understand that,” I admit. “All I can say is, it does fit with everything I’ve told you about myself. I’ve tried to be as open and honest and authentic as I can figure out how to be; I’ve told you who I am as best as I know myself.”

“But you tell me you’re only interested in me, you only want me. If you’re spending so much time with your face buried between other girls’ legs, how can I know you’ll stay only interested in me?” From the sound of Danni’s voice, this is really the key point for her.

“In other words, how could you trust me to be faithful?” I ask quietly.

“Yes!” she responds passionately.

“Danni, for all the girls I’ve eaten, I’m still only interested in you,” I point out.

“But you said none of them have been interested in you. What if they had been? What if a girl comes along who is?”

“If one of my clients had wanted to date me,” I say carefully, “I might have said yes, since I didn’t know if I had any real chance with you. If that had been the case, I would have told all my clients after that point that I had a girlfriend, and that I was keeping my client relationships within strict bounds—and any client who tried to push them would be cut off. If you decide to date me, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll draw the lines before I ever start, so they know that I’m taken.”

“If I date you, can you guarantee that some girl won’t come along and steal you away from me?” Danni asks. The bitterness in her voice makes me think this has already happened to her once, and that the relationship was pretty serious (on her end, at least).

“Danni, can any other guy give you that guarantee? Guys dump one girl for another all the time, and so far as I know, none of them are eating pussy for money.” I see Danni flinch as I say that, which seems to support my suspicion. “I can promise you that as much as anyone can. I can tell you that I’ll do everything in my power to keep any of my clients from getting that idea, and that if any of them decides to push it anyway, I’ll come to you and tell you about it so we can deal with her together.”

At that, Danni suddenly relaxes and looks a lot happier. Almost shyly, she says, “It still doesn’t seem fair, though, that you’ve eaten all these other girls’ pussies and you haven’t eaten mine. Would you—please?”

I let out a huge breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding; I feel about twenty pounds lighter. “OK,” I say, sounding almost as giddy as I actually am. “But one condition.”

Danni looks surprised and a little apprehensive as she asks, “What?”

“I won’t eat you for money,” I say firmly. “I’ll only do it for free.” She looks startled at that, but I continue. “I don’t want a business relationship with you, I only want a real one. When I’m eating a client’s pussy, I have to be good with it when she wants nothing more from me and gives me nothing back but money. I can’t do that with you. I don’t want your money, I want you. It’s too much for me to ask you to give me your heart—I know that doesn’t happen all at once—but I want you to give me a chance. I want you to let me eat your pussy for me as well as for you.”

“What do you mean by that?” Danni asks, puzzlement and curiosity plain in her voice.

“Well, if I eat your pussy, the only thing that matters is to please you, and I admit that’s also true with a client,” I say. “The difference is the reason. For a client, it’s because she paid me to provide a service. Some of them have gotten to be friends of a sort, so there’s a certain amount of affection involved, but the root of it is, it’s my job to give them what they paid for. I’m doing it only for them, whatever pleasure I may get from the act myself, and—more importantly—they are only letting me do it for their own sake. They might give me more of themselves, if they want more from me, but the only thing they’re committing to me is money. None of them have offered any more of a commitment than that. I want more from you. I want to eat your pussy because you’re giving yourself to me, at least a little.”

Danni looks deep into my eyes, her face serious. I don’t know what she’s looking for, but apparently she finds it, because she says, “Good.” Then she blinks, because I can’t help smiling hugely in relief and delight. “What happens next?” she asks.