Saavik sighed. Their common psychosomatic response to true intimacy meant that they could really only try once an evening, and he wanted it a certain way.

"Peter, I will allow it."

Excited, he began to turn her on her stomach, but she halted this.

"I will allow it. But only if you understand certain harsh truths about this position."

Looking a little deflated, the man who could stop Armageddon stopped his engines, as well.
He nodded for her to go ahead.

"Very well. First, you must understand that for me, the position has some inherent pain. This is unavoidable. The area in question is not set up for this activity."

When he gulped and didn't speak, she kept on.

"It is also demeaning, in some respects. When you take me, and do not look me in the eye, I miss you, and feel as though I have submitted to you. I shouldn't have to add our negative childhood associations with this activity, and those who sought to destroy us. I was taken this way. So were you."

Feeling ever-smaller on several levels, Peter Kirk still didn't speak. So Saavik kept right on.

"Remember well my other pleasure centers. And focus elsewhere than your activity, for I think the forbidden aspect of it all makes you more excited than necessary to achieve a decent interval."

He almost felt numb as she finally turned on her stomach, and threw off the sheets. He finally spoke.

"Anything---else?"

Her face turned away from his direct view, he didn't catch the sly smile she wore as she spoke.

"Yes. You must reaaallly put your back into it, this time!"

And as her backside raised, so did his spirits. His back was indeed in it, so to speak. Saavik's one and only regret was that it took so long a speech to get him lathered up.

She learned to live with it.