We talked for another hour, laying out the groundwork of what needed to be done. The first step, of course, was to interview the client, so I needed to talk to Taylor’s boss, and to Taylor herself. As I left the Professor’s office, I couldn’t wait to tell Taylor about my idea.
I went ahead and sent her a text, even though I knew she wouldn’t see it until after six.
Aly — Call me when you can. Something exciting to tell you.
I headed back to the house and went up to my room, grabbing an apple and flopping down on my bed. It was just a little after four, and Sadie wouldn’t get back until six, so I’d put off dinner until then. I pulled up my statics homework, trying to get a jump on it, which would make for a far more enjoyable evening. I got about half done before I lost focus and started flitting around the internet.
What I landed on was some BDSM websites. I was amazed how much I loved serving Taylor, feeling owned by her. Thinking back it made perfect sense. I’d always gotten a thrill out of serving the girls on the sports teams I’d been on. I’d do anything they asked me too. So I definitely saw myself in some of the stories I read, but not everything. I was so not into pain. I still cried when I had to get a flu shot. Not as much as I did when I was eight, but yeah. And the public humiliation stuff was not even mildly interesting.
But the idea of being owned, totally submitting to the will of another, that made me all gooey inside. Especially if that person were Taylor. I was casually thumbing through the world of virtual kink, totally lost in my own little universe when the door suddenly opened. It took me a moment to realize what was happening as Sadie walked in, and she got an eyeful before I had the good sense to slam my computer shut.
“What the hell were you looking at?”
“Nothing. So how was Advanced Crazy People? Good class?” My heart was thumping.
“Sure. Don’t change the subject. You were looking at porn.”
“No I wasn’t.” I stared down at my feet. “It was research.”
“Porn research?”
I wasn’t sure what exact shade of scarlet my face was turning, but I could feel the heat rising fast. I wasn’t getting away with anything,
“Aly, I saw the leather. So, is Taylor making you call her mistress and leaving you tied up for hours?”
I tried to look hurt. “How do you know I don’t make her call me mistress?” Sadie just smirked at me for that comment. “Yeah, okay. But I don’t call her mistress.”
“What do you call her?”
The heat in my cheeks kicked up another notch. “My Lady. And she calls me her baby. And, god, when she does I’d do anything for her.”
“Anything?”
“Well, almost. But she’d never ask me to do anything I didn’t want to do. That’s the weird, wonderful thing. I’m completely in her control, and I’ve literally never felt so safe and free. She loves me.” I was hugging my knees to my chest, imagining Taylor’s arms around me.
Sadie jumped onto her bed, legs akimbo and her eyes wide with curiosity. “What does she make you do?”
I couldn’t help the smile pulling across my face. “Stuff. Like washing her in the shower.”
“Wow. That’s sexy.”
“Oh, it’s so amazing.”
“Do you like, go down on her?”
“When she tells me to.” Sadie’s mouth opened, and I knew I’d blown her mind a little. I’d given Taylor oral a bunch of times now, but the ones where she’d told me to, mmm. I mean, I’d enjoyed it every time, but those were just better somehow. “Why? Don’t you do that for Noah?”
“Um, yeah, sure, but not when he tells me too.”
“I like it when she tells me to do things.”
“So you’re like a sub then?”
I nodded. “I think so.”
“Does that mean I can get you to do my laundry?”
We both laughed as I answered in an emphatic negative. Sadie crossed the room and jumped onto my bed and opened my laptop. “So what exactly were you researching?” We spent the next thirty minutes looking at various pictures and reading articles, which is what we were doing when my phone rang.
“Hey, sweetheart. How was your day?” I rolled off the bed and sat in my desk chair as I listened to Taylor’s lovely alto voice. I told her about the meeting with Prof. Del Vecchio. “So you remember that thing we talked about, the nature center slash command post slash community center? That’s what I’m going to do for a senior project. I’m going to design it.”
“That’s great, baby. Really.”
“I mean, it’s not like I’m actually going to get to build it, but still. It’ll be fun. And I want you to help me with it. And I’ll need to talk to Jennifer, so I know what’s needed and stuff.” I was getting more and more excited as I talked about it, and I realized why. I was doing this for her, wanting to make her idea, her vision a reality.
I listened to her tell a funny story about something that had happened at the beach today, and completely lost the fact that Sadie was in the room with me. That is until she hopped up and sat on my desk, trying to hijack my conversation.
“Hi, Taylor!”
“Who’s that?”
“That is my annoying roommate.”
“You should see what I caught Aly looking at on the computer!”
I made a mean face at her. “Would you stop!”
She stuck out her tongue and I went back to my bed.
“Did you tell her about me, about, um …”
“That you’re a she and not a he? Yes I did. I’m sorry I forgot to let you know, but you’re distracting.”
“So what were you looking up on the computer?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“Baby, don’t lie to me.” Her voice was playful, but there was an edge of command in it that made me tingle deep inside.
“I was looking up stuff about BDSM.”
“Really, see anything you like?”
“Yeah, and a few things I didn’t. I’d like to talk about it sometime.”
Unfortunately Rush made the weekend a bust, but Tuesday afternoon was still open for both of us, and we made plans.
– Taylor –
“Hey, Can I talk to you guys tonight?”
I heard Jen asking Vicky before she responded. “Sure, Taylor, we were just finishing dinner. Come down?”
“Yeah, okay.” I’d planned on heading out to the warehouse, but after talking with Aly, well it turned my head around a little. BDSM? What exactly did she mean? I mean, I know what that is, but I’d never done anything like that. I don’t exactly see myself walking around in black leather slapping a riding crop against my palm. What if she wanted me to hurt her? I don’t think I could do that.
But I have to admit, the way she looked at me, the adoration, it felt great. It might be the only part of my life I was in control of, but I liked it. I loved taking care of her, too, giving her pleasure. The way she just cuddled into me, the total surrender in her eyes when we made love, they were beyond intoxicating. And it wasn’t like Aly was some spineless little girl crawling around at my feet. She was tough, and could totally could hold her own, like what she did at that party. I mean, she’d gotten me to try shrimp, and that was saying something.
I couldn’t really imagine her crawling after me on all fours on a leash. Did people even do that? Basically I was freaked out as to what she might want, and if I could do it. Was I really going to talk about all this to Jen and Vicky?
As it turns out, the answer was yes.
“This doesn’t surprise me, really, Taylor.” Jen set her coffee down. “You’re always wanting to take care of people. It’s important to you. And you have an edge of command about you. It’s why you’re such a damn good lifeguard.”
“And that makes me a dominatrix?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“I didn’t say that. And from what you’re telling me, I don’t think that’s what Aly is asking for.”
Vicky leaned forward. “Jen’s right. And think about it. Would you be happy in a relationship where your partner didn’t need you to take care of her? Or didn’t want you to?”
“But it’s a relationship. Shouldn’t we be taking care of each other?”
Jen smirked at me. “Aly doesn’t take care of you?”
I grimaced. Oh, god, she so did. She’d scold me when I lost myself in my art and forgot to eat, or remind me to put on sunblock when we were out.
More than that though, she made me feel like no one ever had. The way she looked at me, it made me feel like I could fly. I wanted to be her everything, protector, lover, friend. I wanted to teach her about art, and let her infect me with that innocent enthusiasm of hers. She makes me smile, and that’s been so rare recently.
“Ok, yeah, but I don’t know how to do this! I don’t know what she wants.”
Vicky gave me a smug smile. “There’s a simple way to fix that, my love.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I made a face back at her. “Besides, I’m not sure she even knows what she wants. It doesn’t strike me that she’s done this before.”
“Well, then you figure it out together.” I really wish Vicky’d stop smiling at me like that. “That’s a lot of the fun.”
She slid her hand into Jen’s and squeezed.
Jen looked back at me. “When do you see her again?”
“Tuesday.”
“Okay, well you have a few days to think about it.”
And I thought about it. A lot. One of the good or bad things about being a lifeguard is that you have a lot of time to think. Aly had rush parties to coordinate, so I doubted I’d hear from her from the next few days, so I headed straight out to the warehouse after work. Aly’s sculpture was coming together quicker than I’d thought possible, probably due to the fact that her face was so etched into my brain that I never had to stop to refer to my sketches.
September was quickly flowing away, and the second Saturday in October was the North Vista Art Fair, which is what I’d been gearing up for all year. Mr. Beville was one of the sponsors, and the work displayed there went a long way to determine to which up and coming artists would get a showing at his gallery. So I had to start spending some time on my smaller sculptures, which is what I made myself do. The weird thing is that now even they were different. I’d stopped referring to my original sketches on several of them; they just felt wrong somehow.