Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Brody woke up to find the winter sun already well up in the cloudy sky.
He was normally up around six am, but apparently he’d slept in.
Had to be the four times he’d gotten himself off last night.
He hadn’t even known he could get hard that many times in one night—he wasn’t a teenager anymore.
But Claudia’s eyes, her plush pink mouth, her soft curves, the way she’d let him know how much she wanted him, were all he could think about.
He was hard again now. Not that he didn’t wake up with at least half a hard-on every day, but this morning he was rigid as stone and ready to go again.
He pulled a pillow over his head and tried to meditate it away, but it wasn’t working. Eventually, he gave up, got out of bed, put on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, and sat down at the small dining table to open his laptop.
There was email from her. She’d already finished the long questionnaire he’d sent last night. He glanced at the time stamp and saw that she’d sent it just after midnight.
Good girl.
He forced himself to let it sit unopened while he made a pot of coffee and poured himself a cup, then he went back and clicked to open the email.
He scanned it quickly, seeing that she’d answered in a fair amount of detail, which was exactly what he’d hoped she would do. He took a sip of coffee and settled in to read.
Most of what she’d written in answer to the questions about triggers were things he already knew: no humiliation or degradation, with three exclamation marks next to her answer.
That would have told him exactly how she felt about it even if they hadn’t already talked about it, and he hadn’t seen with his own eyes why that was such a trigger for her.
He saw that she’d asked for words of praise.
That would be easy enough—the woman was amazing, and he wanted to do everything he could to show her that, especially since he sensed she often doubted herself.
She wanted to call him “Sir”, which he frankly fucking loved.
He had a quick flash of her calling him that last night, but they hadn’t been in role, and it hadn’t been agreed to yet.
Now that it had been, it was a thousand more times powerful for him, and, he hoped, for her. He thought it would be.
He read further down the page. She loved all the standard impact play: spanking, floggers, paddles, some light canes.
Whips were a maybe. So were gags. Blindfolds were a yes, which pleased him.
He loved the way the mind worked when deprived of one of the senses, how it often took a submissive deeper into subspace, allowing them the freedom to feel everything, both physically and emotionally.
And she would look so damn pretty with the leather blindfold over her eyes, with only her lovely pink mouth and the tension in her muscles to give away where her head was at, how she was feeling.
Knife play was also listed as a maybe, and he had to command himself to take that bit of information in without allowing the small thrill that ran through him to grab all of his attention.
He was well-trained with knives, but it wasn’t something he did very often.
It felt extremely intimate to him, and he was careful who he played with at that level.
It had been a long time. Too long, and he hoped they would get there together eventually.
Slow down, buddy.
They hadn’t even scened yet. And despite having met her several times, having seen each other at the kink club in Dallas, their connection through Micah and Arrow, that long evening they’d had around the fire pit together the last time they’d seen each other two years ago, they were still getting to know each other.
Knife play would take building trust first. That, and the fact that he didn’t want to get that deep with someone unless they were going somewhere.
But it was way too early to even consider it.
He hadn’t been in a relationship for a few years, and there was no reason to rush things, or to build up an expectation for something that might never happen.
Why was he even thinking in those terms, anyway? He’d kissed her for the first time last night, for fuck’s sake.
He’d kissed her, then kissed her again. He wanted more, and not only the physical aspects. But he was getting way ahead of himself.
He drank his coffee as he scrolled further through the questions, reviewing her answers, making mental notes.
She liked rope but had little experience with it.
She was interested in electrical play but had only tried it once at a tasting experience at the dungeon.
He was glad he’d brought his Violet Wand kit.
No needles or fire play for her, which was fine, since he didn’t do either, and he’d never try something with a new sub he hadn’t been trained in.
She mentioned at the end that despite living at Rawhide Ranch, she wasn’t into ageplay, which was also fine with him.
He had friends who identified as Littles and a buddy’s wife was a Middle.
He thought they were adorable, but it wasn’t necessarily his thing.
She wasn’t into being shared or passed around—again, not an issue, since he didn’t intend to do that with her, anyway. Not fucking ever.
Stop it, bud.
Man, his head was all over the place when it came to her.
He’d need to really do some meditating before he took her to the Dungeon.
Had to get centered. He remembered that Derek had mentioned yoga and meditation classes—he’d see if there was one available today.
Because he was anything but grounded when it came to her.
He looked over the rest of Claudia’s answers, but there was nothing concerning there that they hadn’t already spoken about.
And every time he got to one of her kinks or an implement she liked, a small thrill ran through him.
She loved big, black boots—easy enough, since that’s pretty much all he wore when he wasn’t working on his little ranch or riding, and then it was big brown boots.
She loved a leather belt. Again, he always wore a leather belt, and had a nice, heavy black one he kept polished for kink play.
And she wanted to be commanded, to be made to feel as if she was completely in his hands.
There was nothing he wanted more than to command her.
He knew he’d have to really gain her trust, but he felt he could get her there, to that floaty, ethereal place she said she’d had difficulty reaching.
Subspace.
He wanted her there not as a stroke to his ego, but because she deserved it.
She deserved all the good feelings he could bring her.
Nothing would please him more. But first things first—he’d need that meditation class.
He clicked out of his email and went to the password-protected website to look over the Ranch’s class schedule.
It was only nine am, and there was a class at ten.
Just enough time to have a light breakfast and get his head in a more solid space before he reached out to Claudia to meet up.
Claudia.
He’d have to meditate like a fucking boss to get his need for her under control, to maintain the control that meant everything to him as a Dominant.
Maybe a little yoga, too, before taking her into the Dungeon, which he planned to do as soon as she felt ready.
He hoped to hell she would be sooner rather than later because he really could not fucking wait.
The yoga and meditation class had been just what he’d needed.
The instructor, a woman named Bliss with a long, bright red braid down to her waist, had a soothing voice, and the movements had been easy and smooth, since she worked the meditation in with the yoga.
He felt refreshed as he walked the tunnel back to the staff apartments.
But as soon as he got in the shower to clean up, he was hard as stone once more.
“Down boy,” he told his rigid erection. Not that it helped.
He did his best to ignore it, since he was meeting Claudia for lunch shortly, and quickly finished rinsing off, then got out, dried off, and got dressed. Then he sat down with his laptop to review her answers one more time. He wanted to go into their discussion prepared.
She’d wanted privacy for their discussion, and he couldn’t blame her, since she worked in the restaurants at the Ranch, so he’d grabbed food from the café and brought it back to his apartment, where she would meet him at noon.
Just as he was finishing up his review of the questionnaire, there was a knock, and his pulse sped up, hammering in his veins.
Claudia.
He was being as ridiculous as a teenager with his first crush, but he couldn’t help it.
She’d always had this effect on him to some degree, ever since the first time they’d met.
He’d gone home thinking about her. He’d tried not to, and it had been especially hard once she was single.
But if he’d thought it was tough after spending time with her back in Dallas, now that they’d gotten to know each other a little better here at the Ranch, he had to admit he was crushing like mad.
And this crush? He literally could not stop thinking about her.
He’d never been so ridiculously focused on a woman in his life.
He pulled in a deep breath before answering the door. And there she was, in snug-fitting jeans that hugged her curves, and a deep green sweater that brought out the subtle gold tones in her brown eyes. Her cheeks looked a bit flushed as he stood back to usher her in.
“Hey. I’ve got lunch—a BLT with avocado for you, and an iced tea, as ordered.”
“That’s very accommodating of you for a Dom,” she said with a low chuckle as she moved past him into the apartment, and he got a whiff of her fresh floral scent.
“Doms should be accommodating,” he said. “That’s part of our job. But you’ll learn that as we go.”