I was genuinely considering stepping out of the hall entirely. Give Maribel the space, the silence, the four walls to herself for a few minutes. Whatever she was feeling right now, the embarrassment, the disorientation, the rawness of a first time that hadn't exactly happened under normal circumstances, I doubted my presence was making any of it easier to process. She hadn't signed up for any of this when she decided to follow me.
So I stayed at the back of the hall, sat down in one of the rear seats, lowered my head, and gave her the time she needed without making a thing of it.
I used the quiet to deal with my own side of it, which was less straightforward than I would have liked to admit. Control had always been something I could rely on. It took a few minutes, but the edge of it settled, and I let it go.
And by control I meant control over my lust to say it bluntly.
