“So, it’s time to spill,” Kaylee said, bouncing up and down as Inara brushed her hair.

“Spill about what?” Inara asked.

“You and the Cap’n, of course,” Kaylee replied. As the brush paused mid-stroke, she continued, “Come on, Inara. I wanna know what he’s like when you’re sexin’. Always have wondered. I figure he’s all…masterful and dominant. Am I right?”

“Kaylee,” Inara chided gently. “I don’t really think it would be …appropriate to talk about that.”

“Why not?” Kaylee asked, genuinely puzzled. “I tell you ‘bout what me and Simon get up to all the time, don’t I? And it ain’t like the Cap’n’s a client, so you ain’t got to keep client confidentiality or nothin’.”

Inara found herself blushing unaccountably. “Well, it’s just that I don’t think Mal would…I think it would make him very angry if he thought I would talk about…that.”

She paused for a minute, wondering at what point Mal’s prudishness about sex had rubbed off on her.

“Ain’t like I’d run out and tell ‘im,” Kaylee said, though she had already discerned that Inara would not be forthcoming about her intimacies with the Captain.

“I know you wouldn’t, mei mei,” Inara said soothingly. “I just don’t feel…comfortable with it. He is the Captain, you know.”

Kaylee smiled. “It’s okay, Inara. It’s plain as day you’re happy and he looks downright giddy most of the time, so I guess I don’t need all the juicy details anyways.”

Inara laughed, relieved that Kaylee was going to let the subject drop. “Giddy, huh?”

xxxxxxxxxxx

As Inara finished up the supply list for Serenity’s stopover on Boros the next day, Kaylee’s question about Mal’s inclinations kept replaying in her head. She couldn’t help but wonder if Kaylee’s guess was completely correct, or if Mal might be amenable to a change of pace. In the short months they’d been together, she had discovered many things that gave Mal pleasure and he had done the same with her. But there was a vast unexplored territory that Kaylee’s questions had brought to Inara’s mind. P