Page 317 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

She looked up in surprise, and he felt a little thrill of fear come off her. She knew what he meant, then. “I guess so,” she said, sounding a little nervous.

“Okay,” he said, pulling her bread plate away from her. “Here are the rules: no more wheat. If you decide something's really worth eating, which I'm sure will happen, you have to text or call me first and explain to me why it's worth it. You don't have to wait for my permission if I'm not around, but you do have to provide the explanation in advance. Does that make sense?”

She smiled and nodded at him and strangely, he could feel a rush of love pouring out of her. Just then their waiter appeared to take their order and Kate suddenly scrambled to open her menu again, mumbling, “Well, I was going to get the penne pasta, but I don't think it's worth it…”

“Do you want another few minutes?” the waiter asked.

“Please,” he said. “And will you take the bread away?”

“Of course, sir,” the waiter said smoothly and glided off with the bread basket in hand.

Kate chose something else and closed her menu again.

“Would it bother you if I ordered the penne?” he asked.

“Of course not!” she assured him.

“Great. So back to the rules. If you eat something with wheat in it without prior explanation, you must come to me and let me know. And then I'll put you over my knee and spank you soundly.”

She turned a little pink at that and he saw her eyes dart around the room, as if to make sure no one overheard.

“If you eat wheat and you don't tell me…then you'll get spanked with my belt.” He sat back in his chair then and watched as she flushed a deep red. Adorable.

She caught him trying to hide his smirk and laughed at herself. He felt another rush of love pour from her. “Dom, why do you think I'm like this?” she asked, sobering.

He shook his head. “Don't go there, cara. It's a quirk, that's all. There's nothing wrong with you. I would guess that a pretty large percentage of women have the same quirk.”

“Really?” she said doubtfully. “I've always wondered, you know, why.” She leaned forward to say in a low voice, “I sometimes can't get turned on or orgasm during sex without thinking about it.”

“So? Be happy you know that about yourself. Some women have never orgasmed at all and can't figure out why not.”

“True,” she said doubtfully. “So what is your experience with it, really?”

He smiled slowly. “Vampires have a lot of sex—more than mortals. I guess originally it was because we were so separated from religion that we were the only ones who were uninhibited. Now our sex lives probably aren't so shockingly different from those of many mortals.”

“And…?”

“Well, when you've had that much sex, you've pretty much tried it every way. I got my personal experience caning women in Victorian England. You wouldn't believe the kinds of things they were into.”

She leaned forward eagerly. “Like what?”

He grinned. “Have you ever heard of using a piece of ginger as a butt plug?”

“Shut. Up.”

“It's true. Add a little caning to that and you've got the true Victorian S & M experience.”

“Whoa.”

The waiter returned and Kate ordered a steak, cooked to medium. He ordered the penne pasta himself.

“They make excellent authentic Italian food here,” he said.

“Do they? You would know, wouldn't you? I suppose you know how to make it all.”

He laughed at that. “No, cara mia. Men didn't cook when I lived in Italy.”

“Oh. Right.” She blushed. “What does cara mia mean—'my dear'?”

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