Page 10 of Imperfect Gifts

“It was reasonable for you to expect to be safe. The fault is mine, not yours.”

Someone came to their table to offer chicken wrapped in bacon, and they both accepted a few pieces.

“In retrospect,” Dev told her, “this might not have been the best place to go. I want to ask about intimate things, but that will have to wait until later.”

“We have time. I think we’ll be fine though. I can’t imagine you’re even a tiny bit submissive, or that you might expect me to take control. I’ve already told you I enjoy handing someone else the reins in bed because I have to be in control of so many peopleand carry so much responsibility at work. How long has it been since you were in a serious relationship?”

Her last sentence threw him for a second, but he answered as soon as his mind took the sharp turn hers had. “Decades. Someone in the flock, back in the sixties, I think. No, seventies — I took her to see Stayin’ Alive and Saturday Night Fever.” He grinned and then gave a tiny shrug. “We were an item for eight years. Her mother got sick and she moved six hundred miles away to care for her. My life is tied to Brooke now, so moving away for decades or even years isn’t an option. I’d have considered leaving for a month or two, but this was a permanent move.”

“Your longest relationship?”

“Seventy years, with a vampire near the bottom of the hierarchy, which meant I was still over him and Dominant to him. I helped him find control and learn to hold it. We eventually grew apart, and he joined another coterie under a different Master. How about you?”

“My longest relationship was three years, and we’ve been broken up for four. He was a Dom, and we were only in power exchange during scenes. He wanted more, and I wouldn’t agree to twenty-four/seven. He gave me an ultimatum, and I packed my shit, rented an apartment, and hired movers. I enjoyed living with him, but not enough to submit full-time. One of the reasons I agreed to this traveling thing is because I want a big down payment so I can buy a house with some land. I want to raise chickens, and I want a dog. Maybe a border collie, and he or she can help me keep the chickens in line. Maybe goats, too. It’d be nice to have fresh eggs and raw goat milk.”

“Brooke owns several hobby farms spread around the state, and she pays people to live on them and run them. We have fresh eggs, and the chicken and beef we feed our people are grown onthe farms. Our milk comes from our cows. I can check to see if we have goat milk, if you’d like.”

She shook her head. “No, unadulterated cow milk is perfect if other people are milking the cows. I just figured I could personally handle goats easier than cows.”

After they ate, he took her to one of those places that let you throw axes at a piece of plywood with a target painted on it, and she had a blast. She didn’t think it was a great idea for them to also sell beer, but there was no bloodshed while she was there, so it was probably okay. She especially liked it when Dev stood behind her and helped her with her form, so she threw the ax with more control.

When they finally sat down in the bar area, he moved his chair so they were at an angle to each other, rather than across the table, and he fed her a fried mushroom. She made sure her lips grazed his fingers, and her blood heated and shot straight to her clit.

She fed him one, and his lips did more than merely graze her fingers, they hugged her fingers. Caressed them. The promise of what they could do to herother lipsmade her want to climb onto his lap. He put his face a few inches from the crook of her neck and breathed in.

“Oh,” he said in that deep voice, ever so quietly, “sitting here with you while we eat is going to be a special kind of torture.” His warm breath brushed over her ear, and the heat made parts of herthrob. He sat back up and fed her another bite. “Tell me, little owl, what do you most enjoy in bed?”

She’d long ago learned not to waffle on this. It was best just to say it. Get it out. “I like to be dominated in bed. Choices taken away, so I accept whatever pleasure you give me. I’m not especially fond of intense pain, but there are some kinds I enjoy in moderation.”

“If I’m to dominate you, consequences for not following orders will be painful.”

Her clit fuckingthrobbed, but she managed to speak without begging him to take her somewhere and fuck her right this minute. “Of course they will, that’s a given. But when there isn’t a reason for consequences, I’m not necessarily a masochist. A few kinds of moderate pain work for me — some light breast torture, a little more intense nipple torture, light spanking with a hand or a paddle, a little harder with a flogger, but I don’t especially like belts or whips or canes. The thing is, if you like using those things, belts and canes, then I can handle them because it’s about pleasing the man I care about, but I’m really happier in a relationship with people who are more Dom than sadist.”

He looked at her a few seconds as if waiting for more, and finally said, “There’s something else?”

“I was hoping for some feedback before I told you more.” She was submissive, not a pushover. If there was to be a relationship, it’d have to be about give and take when they weren’t having sex, and they weren’t,yet.

“I’m a dominant personality,” he told her. “I train nearly all the shapeshifters and some of the vampires Brooke takes on, many of whom never learned proper control. In my relationships, there’s some training on the front end, but I’m not a fan of smart-assed-masochists who brat for punishment. As a normal part of sex, breast and nipple torture make me especially happy. I’m also a fan of clit torture, fisting, and chemical play. Mostly, I reserve impact tools for consequences and punishments, though a quick fun spanking can be a nice way to start things off. I also enjoy certain rituals, such as a lengthy enema session before a promised anal fisting, and the ritual of filing my nails ahead of time, with both of us knowing why it’s important there not be any rough edges.”

The more he talked, the more her clit pulsed and the more heated her blood became, racing through her veins.

He’d certainly given her a lot, all at once. She started with chemical play. “I really, really enjoy figging, mostly because I know when it’s over, that’s it. No burning asshole for days afterwards. Diluted cinnamon can be okay, and mint can be fun. Peppers can be too much unless it’s a punishment, though.” She breathed out. “I have a love/hate relationship with enemas, but the idea of them as a ritual for a specific activity is kind of hot.”

The server brought their burgers, and they were works of art. She’d ordered a fried egg on hers, and it was cookedperfectly. She took a bite, swiped a fry through the ketchup, ate it, and pulled her thoughts together enough to respond to some of the rest of what he’d said. “I like fisting when it’s someone I have an emotional connection to, but your hands are huge, so I’m not certain that’s…” she shook her head, unwilling to issue an absolute negative even though she didn’t think his fist would fit without tearing her open. “If I’m in the right headspace, I can enjoy needles to my clit, and light impact play on it as well, though not usually at the same time. Clips and clamps on my clit take me out of the scene and just hurt, though. Not a good hurt.”

“How about clamps on your nipples?”

“Oh, I like that. Needles on my nipples work, too, but not back in the meat of my breast. Surface needles on my breasts are okay. Light impact play on my breasts — floggers — works. Someone once used a whip to just hit the tips of my nipples and it hurt worse than anything I’d ever felt on them, but it worked. I don’t think it always would, but I was deep into the scene, and it did.”

She put the burger down and met his gaze. “What we’re doing now, where I tell you what I like and don’t like? I know it’s necessary because you aren’t a mind reader, but I hate this. I don’t want to tell you what to do, or what not to do. I’mabsolutely not a SAM, I’m not even really a masochist, other than a few specific kinds of pain that work for me, but I am absolutely a submissive who needs to be dominated, and that means I don’t get to dictate what you can do, once we establish outer boundaries. I hate having the power of a safeword, but I’m sane enough to know it has to be in place.” Though she rarely used them. She’d never had to with the bikers — they always knew when something was too much and they backed off. When a man she’d been dating a while forced her to safeword more than a few times, it’d mostly meant they weren’t a good fit for each other, and she’d broken up with them.

“I want to take care of you and pleasure you,” Dev told her. “Causing some pain is part of dominance, for me, but it isn’t the primary aspect. I don’t think we’re very far apart, based on what you’ve said.”

She nodded. “Okay, there’s one more thing, and it isn’t a deal breaker, but I’m a huge fan of role play. Pirate and wench, doctor and patient, prostitute and john, student and professor, blackmailer and whatever the person being blackmailed is called, maid and billionaire or king or even bratty prince, prison guard and prisoner, cop and woman who gets pulled over on a lonely dark road. Oh! And the whole prisoner intake thing, where every orifice has to be inspected.”

His smile encompassed his entire face. Mouth, cheeks, gorgeous brown eyes, even eyebrows. “I’m partial to the student doing her hardest to convince the professor she just needs a couple of points added to her grade. Also, the pirate thing sounds interesting. I really,reallyenjoy interrogation scenes, though. I give you a word the day before, and then when we start the scene, I need the password to a computer where you work, and you have to see how long you can last without giving me the word back. You won’t be able to see a clock, and if you can hold out an hour without giving me the word, you’ll get orgasms whenwe finally have sex. If you can’t, no orgasm for a week. I’ve even been known to move five to ten thousand dollars into someone’s account, and then try to get their account login so I can take it back out – not more than what I put in, because this is a game, of course, and you’d be free to change the password as soon as the scene is over.”

Genie could only return his smile. She’d have never considered that scenario, but she immediately wanted to do it. There would be pain, of course, but she got the feeling he had to go to extremes when he actually trained people, so this would be a fun thing that he’d keep within the realm of play.

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