Safeword: Mayday by Candace Blevins
Chapter 18
As Heather prepared to land in the field near Marcus’s house, she was amazed at the view. She went through the shutdown procedure before she admired it too much though, and she noted Marcus watched her with an odd look on his face while she went through the three-minute process.
When it was finally time to get out, she reached for her seatbelt and saw Marcus reaching for his. “Like I said, it’s not like just turning off a car.”
“What would happen if you didn’t do all of that?”
“The rotors are spinning pretty fast when we land. I have to safely get them slowed down, but the problem with that is the bird wants to flip over if you don’t do it just right. That’s why I asked you to keep your seatbelt on until you saw me taking mine off.”
“Probably best you word that a bit differently should you ever instruct Kyle to keep his seatbelt on for that part of the ride.”
“Right. You’re sure no vandals are going to come along and do something to it here?”
“I own twenty-nine acres up here. There are some rental cabins below us, but this house is fenced in with a privacy fence, and that includes this lot. I like to host clothing-optional parties, and I don’t want people stumbling upon my outdoor guests.”
“You said you could get someone to mow this field, and it looks like they did — who has access onto the property?”
“The management company that handles the rentals has access so they can handle the maintenance for the house, and so their cleaning staff can enter. Dinner and some groceries should be in the fridge; we’ll just need to pop dinner in the oven and we’ll be good to go.”
“What are we eating?”
“There’s a mom-and-pop Italian place in town, family run, and their food is beyond delicious. I had them put together a lasagna, ready for the oven, and the management company had someone pick it up along with my groceries. They usually bring flowers too, though I never ask for them.”
Heather shook her head. “We could’ve brought groceries, so you didn’t have to pay your management company to shop and run errands for you.”
“But then I’d have had to do the grocery shopping before I met you, and I went straight from the office to the airport. I have someone who does my shopping for me at home, too. It isn’t a chore I enjoy.”
“Did you grow up with a lifestyle of maids and chauffeurs?”
She saw a muscle in his jaw tighten. “Yes.”
Hmm, a one-word answer. Probably time to back off. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s your money, and you seem to have plenty of it. Nothing wrong with paying people to make your life easier.”
He pulled his keys from his pocket, touched a key fob to a pad over the deadbolt, and then reached for the doorknob, “No offense. Are you ready to talk about you now that you aren’t flying?”
She took a breath, caught off guard, and then said, “Yeah, sure. No time like the present, I guess.”
“It makes you uncomfortable? To talk about yourself?”
Heather stepped inside, and Marcus closed the door behind her.
“With you? It seems to work out that way. Especially once you consider I’m not really used to talking about sex at all, and your conversations require a whole lot of... I don’t know, sometimes I feel like my conversations with you make me vulnerable, and that’s not a comfortable feeling for me.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way. If there’s anything I can do to make you feel less vulnerable, please tell me.”
“This whole sex thing is kind of new to me. Just have some patience, I guess.”
They’d made it through the huge great room into the kitchen by that time, and Marcus pulled a pan out of the fridge. “The instructions say to bake at three hundred and fifty degrees for forty minutes. Let’s get this in the oven and then I’ll show you around. I think I might like to take a quick shower before we eat, too. Would you like to join me?”
Heather didn’t know what to say, and as she was trying to think of how to answer, he said, “No need to give me the deer in the headlights look. There’s more than one shower if you’d rather hold off on seeing each other naked.”
“You just caught me off guard. I’m not really sure where you and I stand. I mean, you’ve done... things... to me. And I gave you a blowjob. And you’ve seen Kyle and I having sex. And you’ve given me some, well, some earthshattering orgasms — but you’re not my boyfriend, and some of this feels awkward.”
Marcus put the lasagna in the oven, and she asked, “Doesn’t the oven need to heat up first?”
He pushed some buttons on the number pad above the oven and said, “No, it’s a new model, and it heats up almost immediately. Here’s what I’d like to see happen. I’d like to give you a quick tour of the house and then let you undress me, then me undress you, and then I’d like for us to take a practical shower together. Lots of soap and warm water, but nothing overtly sexual. And then I’d like for us to put on these fabulously soft robes I have, and eat lasagna together, and talk a little about the new experiences I’d like to introduce you to this evening.”
Heather closed her eyes, and without opening them, asked, “Am I being high maintenance?”
He chuckled. “Not even a tiny bit. You’ve seen the living room, though you probably didn’t notice that the way the rafters are built allow for slaves, submissives, and masochists to be suspended. There are also various implements on the walls that allow someone to be attached to said walls. The dining room is through here, but the table seats eighteen and is mostly just used for parties.” He motioned off to his right. “I usually eat in what the realtor called the breakfast nook, but it just looks like an eating area with huge windows to me. I love the view here though, and when I need to work while I’m here, I usually set up by the windows.”
He walked down a hall and she followed him, watching as he gestured to the left. “There’s a movie room in there, and this is the game room — do you play pool?”
“I know how, but I’m not especially good at it.”
“You’ll note the three stripes of rope going around the room in here, and you’ll note that one is about waist level of the average human, one about the level of arms held above the head, and one is at the floor. The ropes are secured firmly to the wall every eighteen inches, and can be used to restrain wrist cuffs, ankle cuffs, or harness holding a submissive in a variety of possible positions.”
“You’re serious about your parties, aren’t you?”
“It’s a wonderful spectacle — the Dominants playing games while their submissives kneel at their feet, or are bound to the wall to watch. The sight of a dozen or more people secured to the wall in here during a party is beautiful. Better than art.”
“It’s a long drive for a party.”
“I host people for the weekend a few times a year. I have three guest bedrooms, and you already know there are rental cabins just below us.”
He walked down the hall, and Heather followed him into one of the most masculine bedrooms she’d ever seen. It looked like something out of a medieval castle, with tan walls, navy bedding, navy curtains, and lots of wood and wrought iron. The headboard and footboard were a complicated wrought iron design, and the four-poster bed had the biggest columns she’d ever seen on a bed — as big around as a large tree trunk. It looked like a normal king-sized bed though, not another monstrosity of a bed like he had in his playroom at home. There were also two armoires in the same rich tones as the wood of the bed, and a leather padded wooden bench stood against one wall.
“This is my bedroom. I would be honored if you decide to stay in here tonight, but I’ve had a bed freshly made up in another room in case you don’t feel comfortable with that. No need to make a decision now, I just wanted you to know it’s entirely up to you. No pressure. When we get to that point we’ll figure it out, but right now, I’d like a shower.”
He reached for her hand and urged her towards what appeared to be a dressing area and then through a large doorway into a spa-fantasy bathroom with a huge tub, and a separate shower that matched the one at his other house, with lots and lots of showerheads and jets all over the place. He walked to the shower and reached for the number pad, hitting a few buttons to get it started and then turned back to her. “If you’d like to strip me first, I’m all yours.”
“Why don’t I just take my clothes off, and you take yours off?”
He shrugged. “We can do it that way, if you’d prefer.”
He began unbuttoning his shirt and she did the same. They mirrored each other with pretty much everything, with the exception of Heather’s bra, but Marcus took his belt off as she took her bra off, so the synchronization thing they had going didn’t get interrupted. Not a word was said, but they connected as they moved together, in a way Heather couldn’t quite define. Marcus’s eyes showed both a serious intent along with an unexpected playfulness, and the contradiction was unexpected, but appreciated.
When they finally stepped into the shower, she realized he’d turned the water on in such a way that their bodies were getting wet while their heads stayed dry, and she smiled with thanks because she didn’t really want to wash her hair and deal with it before they ate.
Marcus sudsed a poof, and when she stepped near him, he gently touched her shoulder to face her away from him. She complied and he began washing her shoulders, working his way down to her ankles. He washed her methodically and she enjoyed the attention and the sensations. Somehow, by doing it in a way that was obviously not supposed to be a turn on, it freed her to be able to enjoy it. When he was finished, he handed the poof to her and moved to an area the water wasn’t hitting, so her hair wouldn’t get wet when she returned the favor.
Heather washed him as he’d washed her, and she resisted the urge to spend a lot of time on his cock and balls. She tried to be methodical about it, as he’d been, and thought she pulled it off.
When she finished he wasn’t erect, but wasn’t totally soft, either. He stepped back into the spray and rinsed, and Heather grabbed a sprayer to make sure she was rinsed everywhere. When she followed him out, he held a huge bath sheet, which she allowed him to wrap around her. She put her foot up on one of the benches and dried her legs, then made sure the rest of her was dry. She looked up to see him holding a robe open for her, and she slipped out of the towel and into the most comfortable robe she’d ever put on. It was the perfect weight on her body — just enough to cocoon her and make her feel cozy, and it was incredibly soft. She noted he put one on as well, and realized hers was the right length, and that never happened unless she shopped in the children’s section. Her hands even stuck out at the wrists without her having to bunch the sleeves up.
She finally broke their silence to say, “This fits me.”
He smiled. “I’d hoped it would. I told my seamstress how tall you are, and she worked her magic with it.”
Heather didn’t know what to say, so she just shook her head and told him, “Thank you. That was thoughtful.”
“And yet you shook your head in the negative as you said it. What are you worried about?”
“I don’t know that worried is the right word, it’s just that you aren’t supposed to be trying to seduce me, are you? I’m your best friend’s girlfriend. It’s more than a little surreal, and I feel completely out of my element.”
“I’m not trying to seduce you. I’m trying to make you feel comfortable, and I’m hoping to show how special I think you are. As you said, you’re my best friend’s girlfriend. You mean a lot to him, and thus you mean a lot to me. But now, you and I are figuring our own balance, and whether we’ll have our own relationship. I’m content to let things play out and see what happens. I don’t think a threesome will work long-term because I’m looking for a twenty-four-seven slave, but that doesn’t mean we won’t find some balance between the three of us that involves a lot of feelings all the way around. No matter what happens, you are special, and I want to do things to show you how important you are.”
A gentle ding sounded through a speaker in the wall, and he said, “That’s the oven shutting off.”
“Good, I’m starving.”
Heather uncorked the wine and poured it while Marcus plated their lasagna, and within moments, they were seated and eating.
Their conversation was casual at first, talking about their days, the mountains they could see out the windows, and nearby trails. About halfway through their meal, Marcus told her, “We need to talk about some of what I’ve planned for tonight. We’ll get the stuff that’ll probably make you the most uncomfortable over with first: I promised you before we left Chattanooga there would be no vaginal sex between us tonight, and I’ll hold to that. That doesn’t rule out anal sex. Normally, an anal virgin would need more prep and training, but you were fairly relaxed when I put the plug in the other night. I think it’s because you aren’t terrified of the pain, but for whatever reason, I think you’ll deal with it okay. So, I have it on the table as a possibility, but the final decision will have to be yours.”
Marcus was pretty big around, but not a whole lot bigger than a giant turd. Logistically speaking, everything should fit without tearing anything. She wasn’t opposed to the idea anymore, but she doubted she’d agree to it tonight. For one thing, shouldn’t her first time be with Kyle? On the other hand, Kyle had been clear the only thing he was uncomfortable with would be her Topping someone besides him.
When she didn’t respond, Marcus said, “That can be decided later. Regardless, you can expect to have a plug in your ass and a dildo in your pussy, and I hope you’ll have more — how did you describe them? Earthshattering orgasms?”
She gave him an uncomfortable half smile, and he continued. “You’ve already given me a blowjob, so I’m assuming that’s on the table tonight, if I choose?”
She nodded, and he took a drink of wine. “What I think we most need to play around with tonight is impact play. That means paddles and floggers, probably a whip. Depending on how you’re doing, possibly the single tail. Have you read about any of those things yet?”
“Some of them were used in the fiction books. I haven’t made it to any of the non-fiction stuff yet.”
“Let me explain the mechanics of how some of it works — the physiological aspects, completely ignoring the emotional bits for the moment. Basically, impact to the ass and thighs creates blood flow and heat to the area, and that can create arousal. The same with the breast area. I’ll be flogging your back as well, so we can see how you react to it. Impact play creates endorphins, which I’m not sure are that important with you, but we need to see how you react before and after the endorphins are released. The most important thing for you to remember is that I’m not going to do anything to cause you physical harm. Nothing I do will damage you in any way. If you feel pain but think it’s a good pain, then just relax and enjoy it. If the pain ever becomes unenjoyable, then you must let me know. How do you let me know?”
“I say mayday.”
He smiled. “Exactly. And remember, tonight you do not need to turn on the part of your brain that senses for injury or damage. When these things, flogging and spanking, are done to people who have what is considered normal sensory values, there can be a great deal of pain for them, but it’s specifically done to avoid injury. People who’ve been together a long time often discard the safeword, and when there is punishment or discipline, it can be quite harsh, with pain that goes beyond the threshold of what the person thinks they’re capable of taking. But even in those cases, there’s no damage or injury when the instruments I’ll be using are wielded correctly. That means I’ll avoid the kidney area and direct impact to the spine. I’ll strike from mid-thigh to about halfway up your ass, and from your shoulders to a few inches above where your rib cage ends. On the front, I’ll strike your breasts, but with gentler instruments.”
“Will you teach me how to use them? How to safely spank and flog Kyle?”
“Yes, but later. Tonight, I want it to be all about sensations, so I’m not going to give you the tutorial of what I’m using ahead of time. Tomorrow morning, we’ll look at all the items used and discuss each in detail. Next week, if you agree, I’d like to bring a female submissive to my home and have you learn to safely wield some of these instruments, but for tonight, I don’t want you thinking, I just want you feeling. Agreed?”
Heather was getting aroused by this talk. Not exactly horny, but she felt something stirring to life. “Sure, agreed, though Kyle will have to sign off on me learning on someone besides him. For tonight, I think you’re saying that since no damage is going to happen, if I safeword it will only be because the pain is above the threshold of what I can take.” And unless he burned her, that wasn’t likely to happen.
Marcus considered that a moment. “Not exactly. If the pain is erotic pain, if it turns you on, then enjoy it. If the pain turns into something that isn’t erotic, so you aren’t horny, then I want you to safeword. But if the pain is turning you on, even if it’s excruciating pain that makes you scream or cry or gasp for breath, I’d rather you just experience it.” He held her gaze a few seconds and added, “It isn’t about the level of pain you’re feeling, it’s about whether you’re horny or not. Your arousal levels. Does that make sense?”
“If I say mayday, you untie me and everything stops. What if I just need a breather? Or maybe just need reassurance that you aren’t injuring me? It sounds like you intend to see how far you can push me, and to be honest, that makes me a little nervous.”
“If you just need to check in with me then say the word yellow. I may or may not stop what I’m doing, but I’ll at the very least back off on the intensity so you can talk to me.”
Heather put her fork down. “Well okay then, Mister Marcus, where do you want me?”
He smiled. “We won’t get started for at least another thirty minutes. I’d like to give your food some time to digest. Meanwhile, we need to talk about the books you read. Tell me your impressions about them, and the things you think you learned from them.”
“I learned I’m decidedly not submissive, at least, not in the way any of those three were. In all cases, I identified with the Dom, not the submissive or slave. However, the stories were written so well that I understood why the bottoms felt the way they did, even if I couldn’t identify with them. But, during some of the scenes where the Top was doing something similar to what you’ve done to me, I had a hard time...”
Marcus gave her a good twenty seconds to finish, and when she didn’t, he said, “You like giving up control enough for someone to do something to you, as opposed to you doing something to someone else, but you don’t think you like giving up control enough to be defined as submissive.”
“You and Kyle have been talking.”
“Yes, but he only told me that you’ve realized you have different types of orgasms with me and with him. Whether you are in control, or whether you are allowing me to do something to you, creates distinctly flavored orgasms. Not better or worse, just different.”
She nodded. “Yes. But, in all the books you gave me to read, the Doms had gone through some period of submitting in order to be a better Dom. Were you trying to tell me I need to submit to you in order to learn how to Top Kyle?”
Marcus took a bite, and Heather had the idea he was taking a moment to compose his answer, or maybe to figure out how to answer. Finally, he said, “I think that’s a conversation we have in another four to six weeks. For tonight, I want you to submit your body to me, but I’m not asking for your mind. However, I do want you to use common courtesy, which means if you want more, or if you want me to move to another place on your body, you say please when you make the request, rather than issue it as a directive. Also, that you realize I’m going for a particular set of sensations, and I may not do as you ask. You can always stop the scene completely by saying your safeword, of course.”
“What would be different if you asked me to fully submit for a scene?”
“If you fully submit, you’ll wear a training collar for the night, and you’ll spend a good bit of the night on your knees. You’ll be restrained while we eat, and I will feed you. You’ll be treated as a submissive for the duration of our agreement. I’ll give orders and you will obey them. Should you not immediately follow orders, there’ll be punishment.”
Damn if his words didn’t make her clit start fucking throbbing. She crossed her legs, uncrossed them, and said, “Good to know. I’m going to use the restroom and brush my teeth. Is there anything else I need to do to prepare?”
“I want to rub some coconut oil on your body before we get started. Go do what you need to, and call Kyle, he should be home by now. I’ll get things set up in the great room. Meet me in there in twenty to thirty minutes?”
She nodded, and it felt like leaving his presence was an escape, of sorts. She wasn’t afraid of him, but she had some trepidations about what he intended to do to her tonight. She felt the beginnings of adrenaline, and she was horny. For someone who’d never felt true arousal until those clothespins, and who only felt adrenaline while doing extreme sports, that was quite a trick.