Page 85 of Dreamscape Therapies

"I don't understand." There's no judgment in her voice, only genuine confusion.

"We actually met through an online kink forum," I explain. "That's how we started talking. We were both pretty open about what we were looking for, and we found out pretty quickly that we were… um… sexually compatible."

Dany's eyebrows lift. "So this was something you both wanted?"

"Yes."

"From the beginning?"

"Pretty much."

She looks down at the table, processing that. "I've never heard of a relationship working like that."

"Neither had I before I joined the forum."

"Very romantic," Jay says, mouth twitching with a hidden smile. “What was your username?”

"Don't."

“Party pooper,” he says with a fake pout.

Dany laughs, and some of the tension leaves her shoulders.

"So when you say you were controlling..."

"I was. In bed."

"Only in bed?"

"Yes. That's what you were missing." I lean back in my chair. "The control was something we agreed on. He wanted me to take charge during scenes. He wanted to feel like prey, and I wanted to be the one in control. Outside of that, we were supposed to be equals."

Dany nods slowly, understanding dawning on her face. "So he could tell you no?"

"Absolutely."

"And you would stop?"

"Immediately."

She studies my face for a moment before looking back down at our joined hands. "And the bruises…"

"Were part of what he asked for."

"He asked you to hurt him?"

"Not hurt him. Mark him."

She still looks confused.

"I know that probably sounds like the same thing."

"It does."

I can't help smiling a little. "I know. But there is a difference. We talked about what we were comfortable with beforehand. We had limits. We had safewords. If he said stop, everything stopped."

Dany's gaze drops to our hands again. "So the things he told me about you being controlling..."

"Were missing a pretty important detail. I never decided who he could talk to. I never decided where he could go. I never told him what he could wear or who he could be friends with. Hell, half the time I couldn't even get the man to decide what he wanted for dinner."