Safeword: Mayday by Candace Blevins
Chapter 6
Heather awakened in a bed with Kyle and Marcus on either side of her. Memories of obscene pleasure assaulted her, and she remembered she was naked. She looked down and noted a different sheet over her, a silky one, maybe polished bamboo? Shit, was she trying to guess the content of the sheets? How had she gotten here — that was the question to ask. The last thing she remembered she’d been... oh, how embarrassing.
“None of that,” said Marcus. “You’ve just had an incredible orgasm, one so good you passed out from it. Congratulations are in order, not embarrassment.”
Filmy curtains hung around them, and a medieval looking iron wall sconce dominated the wall over the headboard. At first she thought they’d lit candles, but soon realized they had to be the electronic fake candles because she didn’t smell anything.
“Where am I?”
“I have a bed in the playroom. I pulled the curtains so you wouldn’t have to look at what you at first saw as instruments of torture, but may now see in a new light.”
She and Kyle were both naked, but Marcus still had his pants on. She was about to comment on it, but it finally registered that the entire curtained area was all bed.
“This is one bed? Damn, how many people do you need to have in bed at once?”
Marcus laughed. “The more the merrier, I always say. It’s four queen mattresses on a platform, with custom headboard, footboard, and canopy. I had a seamstress sew sheet sets together so it can be made up as one unit, and I had a single pillowtop big enough to cover the whole shebang custom made by the factory, so you can’t feel the seams.”
She shook her head and snuggled closer to Kyle. “So, you’re truly depraved, but I guess I shouldn’t be complaining. I’m still a bit mortified, but not so much I can’t say thank you, because that was incredible. I didn’t think you could do it, but you did — on the first try, when I didn’t think you were even trying.”
His smile was soft, and he caressed her arm with a gentle touch. “I needed you to just relax and feel the sensations without trying to do anything about them. It was better you didn’t know we were trying for anything except total relaxation.”
“It’s funny, in all my study of human anatomy, I don’t remember there being a nerve that travels straight from the nipples to... you know, down there. But I sure think I felt one spring into existence when Kyle put those things on my nipples.”
Marcus’s smile was bigger this time, and his eyes sparkled. “You’re cute with your ‘downthere’. It’s called a clit. Can you do an inventory for me, tell me how you feel? Any residual feedback I need to know about?”
She flexed her muscles and wiggled a little. “Nothing yet, and there really shouldn’t be, should there?”
“You may have a few small bruises from some of the clothespins. If you do, I need to see them. It won’t mean we can’t do it again, it just means if you’re going to be in a bathing suit in the next week we may want to do something else — or work within the confines of a one-piece suit that covers a little more. If you have major bruises, we can downgrade to normal wooden clothespins. No matter what, there are plenty of other ways to get your body’s attention — if you want to continue.”
Kyle tucked her into him a little more, and she snuggled in. It didn’t feel right, Marcus all by himself while she and Kyle spooned, so she reached for his hand and told him, “You certainly made your point, and I’m willing to discuss your extreme-sex concept. I have a zillion questions, all of which I doubt you’re going to want to sit and answer for me. I don’t suppose there are some books I can read?”
“I have a few I can lend you, but you should always feel free to come to Kyle or me — neither of us will mind answering your questions.” He glanced at Kyle and looked back to her. “If you’re in your own head again, it’s time for another conversation. I’d like you to drink some water first, though.”
He slid the headboard open to reveal shelves and drawers, retrieved a bottle of water, removed the top, and handed her the bottle.
Kyle helped her sit up and the sheet fell down. She was reaching to pull it back up when she realized there wasn’t much point. Marcus had seen her all squirmy and screaming — covering her chest now seemed silly.
Kyle arranged pillows and encouraged her to lean into them, and the three sat propped against the headboard. She noted Kyle’s hard-on, and he told her, “I’m perfect. This is from watching you get off. We’ll play more later tonight or tomorrow morning if you want, and maybe I’ll get off then, okay? Meanwhile, let me enjoy my erection.”
She rolled her eyes at him and pulled the sheet up to cover them both. She turned and lifted her eyebrows at Marcus. “Okay, talk.”
“There are a number of designations in the BDSM lifestyle. I’m known as a Top, a Dom, a Master, and a Sadist. You’ll likely need to take a while to figure out what you are, if anything, but I’m going to start by explaining the submissive side of things, because you need to hear them all.”
Marcus spent a great deal of time explaining the difference between a submissive and slave. He also explained that masochists aren’t always submissives, and submissives aren’t always masochists.
“Then there are the SAMs, but I have no patience whatsoever with smart-assed masochists who try to top from the bottom.”
“Everyone knows this, Marcus,” Kyle said with a chuckle. “You haven’t told her about another kind of submissive, yet.”
Marcus spent fifteen minutes explaining a Service Top and a Service Submissive, which flowed into more discussion about sadism and masochism, which led to a detailed conversation about power exchange. Kyle went to get snacks at some point, and offered Heather a robe, though he stayed nude.
As she learned more and more about how various power exchange relationships could work, she asked Marcus, “When you were talking about service submissives, you were talking about Kyle, weren’t you?”
Marcus looked at Kyle, and Kyle said, “Yes, my love, he was talking about me. Are you okay with that?”
Her beautiful, kind, affectionate, romantic Kyle. Heather’s heart warmed, thinking of all he’d done for her, but she wasn’t right for him. He needed so much more than she could ever give him.
“That’s why he said once you figured out what turned me on, you’d learn to do it because it would be what made me happy. Right? You wouldn’t normally enjoy doing this stuff to someone though. This is Marcus’s kink, not yours.”
“That isn’t exactly right,” Marcus said. “Kyle’s fine with learning what turns you on. A service submissive, by definition, enjoys doing whatever pleases his or her partner.”
Okay, that made sense, but, “If I’m guessing right, I’m going to be a Dom and a masochist? How fucked up is that?”
Marcus laughed. “Not fucked up. A bit unusual, but you’re not the first I’ve met.” He shrugged. “Based on the way you reacted with me, we may find out you’re a switch, but we’ve only scratched the surface. Only time and experience will tell.”
Ah, there was that word again. “What’s a switch?”
“Most switches Dom some people and submit to others, though some switch out with the same person. I know a couple who have a cabin in the mountains, and when they’re at the cabin she’s in control, but he’s in control everywhere else. Most of my friends who’re switches don’t work that way, though. A good friend is submissive to her boyfriend and dominant to her girlfriend.”
Marcus reached up and brushed her hair back out of her eyes, and she said, “Come here. Back up to me and let me hold you.”
“Okay, but let’s get something straight between us, okay? I’m a Dom, and I don’t deal well with orders. You’ll likely be giving orders to Kyle and he’ll love it, but please don’t give them to me. A simple please at the end, so it’s a request, is appreciated. I’ll do the same to you, because you and I are equals right now. I may occasionally ask that you follow some rules within a scene, but even then, we’ll be equals — not sub and Dom in either direction. Agreed?”
“Yes, agreed. Sorry if that sounded like an order.”
“Quite alright.” He turned to do as she’d asked. “Remember, we told you it was your responsibility to tell us if there’s something that makes you uncomfortable. The same goes for us — if there’s something Kyle or I are uncomfortable with, it’s our responsibility to make sure the other two parties know about it.”
“Does Kyle submit to you?”
Marcus paused. “Not directly.”
Heather turned to meet her boyfriend’s gaze. “Kyle, please explain the relationship the two of you had with the girlfriend you shared.”
Marcus turned in her arms with a chuckle, facing so he could see them. “She’s catching on pretty quick, Richardson. You may be in for more than you bargained.”
Kyle kissed the top of her head and answered without acknowledging Marcus while the other man settled in beside Heather so she was snuggled between them. “Jules was a switch. She Topped me and bottomed to Marcus. When it was the three of us, it was Marcus over Jules and Jules over me, which made Marcus dominant over me by default. We had a lot of ground rules about it, and Marcus never pushed enough it was a problem, but we couldn’t completely ignore it. He ran the show when it was the three of us, even if it was through Jules. Eventually, I’d have had to be okay with it being less and less through Jules, but then we all graduated and Jules went off to Stanford for medical school, and Marcus and I went to Johns Hopkins, and there isn’t time for a relationship during med school anyway.”
“Where is she now?”
“She lives in Nashville and works at Vanderbilt,” Kyle said. “She’s married to a guy she’s submissive to, and they have a third who lives with them who’s submissive to both of them. Their third is another girl instead of another guy, though I understand for a while they had a fourth living with them — a submissive guy. He didn’t work out, but they’re looking for another submissive man to round things out.”
“Four people in one relationship? I thought three was a big deal.”
“As long as everything’s consensual,” said Marcus, “and everyone’s getting what they need, you can have any configuration of people you want. Legally, you can only have two people marry — but that doesn’t mean you can’t create your own contracts and stipulations to tie everyone together.”
Heather’s stomach growled, and Marcus leaned to kiss her stomach. “The fruit and snacks helped, but we need a meal. I’ll pull something together in the adjoining room. Your bag’s on the floor to the left of the bed. You’re welcome to keep the robe on, or you can put clothes on — totally up to you. You should consider letting Kyle know how you prefer him, and the two of you can join me in the other room when you’re ready.”