Exactly! Surprised how many people are confusing Ice Queen (which Akira is) with femdom, just because she unsuccessfully tries to put the MC down. And she isn't actually trying to humiliate the MC, it's all a big fencing match. Every barb is a way to see how the MC reacts, and see what he throws back. And the MC knows he hasn't got a great hand at the moment, so decides to go with the flow a bit, bide his time, learn, and see if he can change the situation. Which he does admirably fast. It's not done yet, but Akira and Valentine have gone from skeptically blackmailing and threatening, to being very helpful and getting intimately closer (probably) to MC than they are to anyone in their organisation other than each other. He's proven he's not a doormat, also can read the room when it comes to power and position, makes sure to push back and twist in their hand enough, but keep it under the threshold of true annoyance. If anything, it's masterful.
It's very surprising that the long hand licking scene didn't clue folks into the Ice Queen aspect. MC licked past her layers of protection until he reached the human underneath.