Most Dominants would impress this message by having her strip and leaving themselves clothed, stressing that the submissive was baring themself physically, emotionally, and psychologically. No secrets kept. No emotions hidden. No thoughts suppressed. It also emphasized the power dynamic, solidifying the roles both individuals took on.
But while he would certainly dominate Glennon in their bedroom play, he did not want her to see herself only as a submissive. By being unclothed with her, he sent the message that what was true for her with him, he also vowed to return. He would not hide himself from her, either physically, emotionally, or psychologically.
They were in this relationship together, true partners, one hundred percent. Whatever she experienced, he would support her, and vice versa.
His hand returned to the back of her neck.
“Before we go any further, we need to review the rules. Most important—traffic light system. ‘Green’ means you’re good. Keep going. ‘Yellow’ means slow down—you need a break, or we need to talk something through. Maybe you don’t want to stop, but you need to adjust.
“Even more important is using your safe word. ‘Red’ means we stop immediately. If I’m hurting you, if you become panicked, or if you change your mind, and something becomes a hard limit when you didn’t think it would be.
“I mean it, Glennon. I will read your responses the best I can. But use your safe word if you need to. I will stop. Immediately. No questions asked. I will not be angry. I’ll be furious, though, if you need to use it and don’t. I need a verbal answer to show you understand and agree.”
“Yes.”
“I know that right now you think you have no limits, but trust me. You do have some; you just don’t know what they are yet.Even if we do something once and, after the fact, you decide it’s not for you, you can change your mind. When you find those things, you tell me. I don’t care what we’re doing at the time—together in private, out in public, in the middle of having sex. Doesn’t matter. I want to know immediately. Waiting to have conversations about things like this can cause anxiety and make mountains out of flat surfaces. That also means no hinting, no holding out, no lying. It sometimes feels awkward to be that blunt, but it’s the only way this works.
“I can tell you right now, there will be no urination, scat, or blood play. Those are my hard limits. However, we will never discuss trying something for the first time during a scene. We talk about it when we’re out of the headspace. Verbal answer—do you agree with everything I’ve said so far?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent. You do not need to use an honorific with me. I hate that shit. When we’re in a scene, you call me Mason or Mase. No one has called me that since I started high school. That name is now between you and me only. Hearing you use my given name will please me more than a title.”
In the soft glow of the room’s only lit lamp, he watched her pupils expand. She liked the idea of having something that was just between them.
“Is there anything you want to say, Glennon? Speak now because you’ll have very little opportunity to talk in a few minutes.”
“No.”
“Remember: You set the terms. I live within them. Always.”
She was so fucking beautiful. So perfect. For her entire life, people had recognized the need she had inside to please others and used it to her detriment. When she was young, it had been her parents. She loved them. She loved her brother. She wantedthem to be happy. It made her happy to sacrifice some of her joy so they could experience happiness.
The problem came when her parents perverted that need in her and twisted it to appease their own guilt—a guilt that shouldn’t have existed because no one was at fault for her mother getting sick. Glennon wanted them to be happy? They might fuck something up, then let Glennon sacrifice everything because she was happy to do so. And then, when something went wrong, it wasn’t their fault—it was hers.
Then Joey learned to use her desire to his advantage, keeping him from being held responsible for his mistakes. He’d been taught that was how things were done.
Enter the CIA. Like her parents, they saw that her nature was to never leave someone in need. Dangling the innocent victims of the Colonel Cartel in front of her and setting up her brother as her talisman, they saw the perfect opportunity to not only get what they wanted but to use her nature against herself rather than against those to whom it belonged.
Triumph knew that if he wasn’t careful, he had the power to destroy her. His impulse was to put her on a pedestal. To protect her and keep others, including himself, from asking anything of her ever again.
However, stopping her from giving herself to others was the wrong thing to do. Helping others was her whole purpose in life, but it should never be at the expense ofwhoshe was.
She needed to see that other people could recognize their needs while still respecting hers. Being second in line wasn’t the problem. She preferred to be second. She just didn’t want to be forgotten.
So what he was about to do might seem, on the surface, like a dick move or, at best, selfish. But he was going to let her give him what she thought he wanted, and then he was going to give her and himself what they both needed.
Everything.
“Tonight we’re setting a baseline, so I’m going to stay relatively vanilla in terms of play, but I will push to gauge your strength and stamina. I have some rules, and if you break those rules, there are consequences. I’ll lay them out now.
“One. You may not talk unless I ask you a question that requires a verbal answer, give you permission to speak, or command you to say something. This rule includes telling me to go faster or slower, harder or softer, complaining about when or how I do something, or begging for more or less.
“You also may not ask for anything. Trust me to give you what you want and need. If you speak without permission, I will gag you. If that happens, rest assured, I will supply you with an alternate means to safe-word by.
“Two. The only touching you get is if I initiate contact. Touch me without permission, and I will bind you.
“Three. No lying to me. I cannot stress this enough. If something is uncomfortable, if something hurts, if you need to stop, whatever. Do not pretend everything is okay if it isn’t. All of these should be instances where you either call out yellow or red. Not using your traffic lights is a form of lying. The safe word is there for a reason.
