Safewords: Davenport and Chiffon (8 page)

"Yes. The latest version will be in effect at all times?"

"Okay, you'll decide whether decisions are major. I can discuss the minor stuff with you, but can't argue them."

"Yes, once I say discussion is over, bringing it up again will probably mean you're punished.” He continued. “You won't have a right to privacy. For any reason. I've been allowing a certain amount when I thought you had enough other things to deal with, but I'll eventually insist you be open to me for everything. When you redo your bathroom I'll have the door left off, and when you use the other bathrooms you won't be allowed to close yourself in unless we have guests in the house."

She sighed. “I'm not a fan of that one, but I understand it, and I'll accept it. You want all of me, and I want to give you all of me; it's just hard."

He reached out his hand, took hers, and ran his thumb along the back of it. “I know it's hard, but I'll help. It means more because you have to fight to accept it—thanks for giving this to us."

Dana's voice wouldn't cooperate, so she merely nodded. He smiled and continued, “Along the same lines, you'll be honest with me at all times. That means not just telling me the truth, but providing me with all information—full disclosure. If you think I'd want to know it, you'll tell me, whether I ask or not."

He stopped, sat up, and looked at her a few seconds before saying, “This isn't something you'll be punished for, Dana. Trust is the foundation of any relationship, but especially one with a power exchange element. If I can't trust you, we don't have a relationship."

"I don't have a problem with that, but I have a few caveats. First, it goes both ways, I need to know I'll get the whole truth out of you, too. No falling back on being the Dom and not having to share. Second, if there's something I can't tell you, I'll be honest about the fact I can't, and will try to give you an explanation of why. And third, I reserve the right to withhold information if I'm surprising you—if I've shopped for a surprise party, I won't tell you I went shopping when you ask what I did."

"Sounds fair.” He spent some time typing. “Okay, punishment and discipline. I have sole decision-making power here, and I'd like your consent to discipline you without a safeword."

Dana's arousal was taking on a life of its own as the throbbing between her thighs intensified. “If I'd had my safeword during my punishment, I'd have used it, and I'd regret stopping it. You didn't harm me, and I trust you to know how to hurt me without damage. So, yeah, I'll give you what you're wanting—no safeword during punishment."

He leaned forward to kiss her, his lips soft on hers, and she resisted the urge to beg for more. He pulled back to say, “Thank you. I know how much trust you're giving me. I won't abuse it."

They talked for four hours, and covered things Dana would never have considered. She tried to come up with hard limits, but the only things she could provide were no scat play and watersports, no bestiality, no exhibitionism of any kind (play parties and BDSM clubs not included), and no permanent marks. He wanted the ability to have her pierced at his whim, and they negotiated it down so he could require genital and nipple piercings, in whatever number and location he chose.

She agreed he'd have control of her orgasms, she'd spend time kneeling before him in the evenings to tell him about her day, and all disagreements would be discussed rationally and respectfully, with any name-calling or other disrespectful behavior resulting in punishment.

She also agreed to stay with him for the next two weeks, at which point they would discuss her moving in with him.

They ate at a downtown restaurant before dropping by her condo to pack a week's worth of clothes and her laptop, along with more toiletries. In the car on the way back to his house, she finally said what she'd been thinking. “It doesn't feel any different, yet."

"Do you want it to?"

"Yeah, a little."

"I can invoke a scene at any time, as long as it doesn't interfere with your work. Once I do, I can micromanage just about every aspect of your life—the food you eat, whether you feel pleasure or pain, whether you have freedom to move about or are locked in the cage or chained to the bed, all at my discretion. I'm choosing to allow you to walk and talk normally right now. It may seem the same, but it's not. When we get home I'd like you to take your clothes to my closet, I cleared a section of the bar this morning. You'll also find another empty drawer in the bathroom under the one you're using now; the rest of your toiletries should go in there."

When she didn't say anything, he continued. “Once you've put all of your things away I'd like you to take a quick shower, lube your ass, and come to the bedroom."

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The two weeks passed quickly, with lots of communication, lots of sex, and a little pain here and there. Dana's back and ass were finally healed and she craved the kiss of the whip again.

The first couple of days of kneeling and telling him about her day had been awkward, but by the end of the first week she found herself looking forward to it. Kneeling before him, having his undivided attention, telling him of the good and bad, and anything that tweaked her emotionally—she understood it gave him information he needed about her state of mind, as well as putting her back into submissive mode after being in charge at work.

She asked him about his day during dinner, and tried to give him the same attention he gave her. She was amazed at how much she was learning about electricity, but also how much she discovered about him as a man.

At the end of two weeks she had no doubts about moving in with him. Her closet was built, with shelves, bars, and drawers ready for her things, but the bathroom still had a long ways to go.

The morning of the move, Dana and Zach drove to her condo to meet the movers, and she found herself looking at the largest man she'd ever seen.

"Dana, this is Ethan Levi. Ethan, I'd like you to meet my Dana."

She looked at Zach, wondering at his phrasing, and Zach smiled and said, “Ethan's in the scene, pet. I've known him for years, from when I spent time in Atlanta. He came to Chattanooga temporarily to expand his moving business and met the woman of his dreams, so he lives here now."

Ethan shook her hand, and hers seemed to disappear in his. She tried not to gawk at his size, and his muscles, but it was hard. He said, “I understand you're an interior designer, I'm considering adding design services. Would you be interested?"

"Sure, though I think you may want to have someone like me for your upper end clients, and possibly a less expensive designer for everyone else."

Nodding in agreement, he said, “That's what I've done in Atlanta. I've been asking around and your name has come up a few times, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover you belong to Zach. He wouldn't care about someone who wasn't honest, so if you want the job it's yours. Let me get to work, I expect we'll be ready to leave here in around three hours."

The movers emptied her condo before lunch, and Zach had his cook set up a large buffet style lunch for them before they began unloading everything. She noticed Ethan drove his own vehicle, and wasn't surprised when he stayed after his crew left for the day.

"You've done a great job on the remodel here, Dana."

Zach spoke up. “She'll be redoing some of it; this was done before we were together. She'll need to add her own personal touches so it's our home and not my house."

She ignored Zach and answered Ethan. “Thank you, he was very easy to work with. I'm currently dealing with the client from hell, who can't make a decision to save his life. Tell me, when were you thinking of adding design services?"

"Soon. Zach tells me you have a crew of contractors on your payroll?"

Ethan and Dana talked shop awhile, and when the conversation wore down Zach said, “Pet, Ethan's going to teach me the fine art of the single tail. I know you're itching to get into your office and closet so you can sort through all of your things, but I'd like you to work on the boxes in the bedroom first. Go on up and get started—we'll be in the garage if you need us for anything."

"You're learning... for me?"

He laughed. “Of course for you, silly girl."

Dana's heart was in her stomach as she walked to him, so overwhelmed he would take on something so difficult, for her, when it wasn't really his kink. She looked up at him and quietly said, “Thank you, Sir."

She turned to Ethan. “And thank you, for offering to teach him."

Her phone rang and she reached into her pocket, thrilled to see Jacob's face.

"Oh, sorry, gotta take this. You two have fun. Thanks again.” She was walking towards the stairs as she answered with, “Jacob, I'm so glad you called, all my stuff is here! My armoire is in our bedroom, it's... surreal."

"I can't wait to see it. Did Zach tell you yet? Brent and I will be there in two weeks, for an entire weekend. I'm so excited!"

"Umm, no. He didn't."

"Oh, well, hope I didn't spoil a surprise. No one told me not to tell you."

"Probably an oversight, then,” she said, stretching across the bed and wondering if she should incorporate the chiffon from her canopy onto this one. “I've been meaning to ask about your safeword—why Chiffon?"

He chuckled. “I'd avoided Brent at the club; he scared me. Partly because he demands so much, but mostly because I was so attracted to him. Anyway, long story short, I steered clear of working with him, but one of my best clients wanted me to design the clothing and costumes for a music video, and I ended up on set working for him. He recognized me from the club—turns out I'd intrigued him, too. Anyway, he invaded my workspace and picked up some fabric. I freaked, because it was silk chiffon and it's so fragile and his hands are so big and strong and... right. Anyway, I couldn't get a sentence out, all I could do was point and say
chiffon
, and he closed the door and said, “Boy, you're going to have to use complete sentences. You say
chiffon
like it's your safeword."

Dana laughed, but asked, “He doesn't call you boy, at least, not like that. When he's talking to me he'll say you're ‘our boy', but—"

Jacob interrupted with a laugh. “If I'd gone on with the story, it would have included the part about his words making me find my spine. I proceeded to tell him I'm not a boy, I'm a man, and if he liked to fuck boys he needed to open the door and turn the conversation back to business, but if he enjoyed fucking men then maybe we could talk."

"And I'm betting he informed you he liked to do a lot more than
fuck
men, right?"

"Yeah, something like that, and then he kissed me and turned my world inside out. I don't know what I'd do without him; he keeps me sane, even if he doesn't understand anything about design or fashion. When I was decorating our house I wanted to throttle him. I think I ended up on speech restriction for most of a month, so I guess he really did throttle me. Speaking of which, how's the bathroom coming?"

"It's getting there—did you see the fabric scan I sent?"

"Yes, I love it; it's going to feel like a European spa when you're done. Which tub did you decide to go with?"

When Zach came upstairs an hour later, she was still stretched across the bed talking to Jacob. They'd debated the merits of natural textiles versus the latest tech fabrics, phasing into a discussion about the newest bamboo materials. Zach walked into his closet and changed into pajama bottoms, listening to Dana joke and cut up with Jacob. She began wrapping up, and by the time he stepped back into the bedroom she was laying her phone on the side table.

"You had a good conversation?"

"Yes, we did. You didn't tell me they're coming in two weeks."

"Brent didn't let me know for sure they could come until this afternoon; I'd planned to let you know this evening.” He leaned against the doorframe, thought about his words. “I've learned a lot about your business, but I had no idea you could talk at such length about fabrics. The two of you really do have a great deal in common, don't you?"

She looked up, uncomfortable with his tone of voice. “You aren't jealous of Jacob, are you? I thought you were good with us talking."

"No, not jealous. I listened in a few minutes before coming in the bedroom, and I love the joy in your voice when you talk to him. I'm glad you've got him in your life.” He shifted his weight, walked towards her a few paces, ran his fingers through his hair. “I've just spent an hour throwing a whip though, and I find I need to... I'm not sure what I need to do. We can start with you standing and stripping."

She immediately came to attention, realized she was in the bedroom at night, with clothes on—a punishable offense. Worse, she'd been
on
the bed
while dressed, which was strictly forbidden at any time of day. She stood and stripped, dropping her clothes to the floor, not daring to ask to take them to her closet to put into her hamper.

"Ah, I see you've noted the time, and that you were lounging on the bed fully clothed?"

"Yes, Sir. I'm sorry; there hasn't really been a schedule to follow today."

"Mmm. Put your clothes away and get into the cage."

She scurried to do as told, crawling into her cage and stretching out. He wordlessly locked her in and climbed into bed with his laptop. She heard him typing, then didn't hear any noises at all. She drifted off a few times and woke herself, it'd been a long day and she was tired, but she didn't want to fall asleep in the cage when he was upset with her.

When Zach finally came to get her, she felt as if she'd been locked away for hours, though he'd purposefully kept all clocks out of her view from the cage, so she had no idea how long it'd been.

He unlocked the door and opened it, saying only, “Out."

Dana crawled out and stayed on her knees, for the first time unsure of whether she'd be welcome to touch him.

"You've been in the cage because I needed to decide what to do with you. I was looking forward to using your ass as I came up the stairs, but then I discovered you hadn't touched the boxes in the bedroom as I told you,
and
you were lying in bed with clothes on."