Page 104 of Masters of Pleasure
“It’s been pretty good.I think it might have just gotten even better,” she said flirtatiously, handing over her list of limits.His smile changed from half to a full as he took it from her, glancing at it.Avery had already shown it to him, but they hadn’t really talked about it.Not the way she had discussed her limits with the other Doms tonight.
She wasn’t sure what to expect.
Clearing his throat, Nick straightened in his seat.
“For the most part, we have a lot of our limits in common, but I want to make sure I understand why you have the limits you have so I don’t accidentally trigger anything.”He glanced up at her to check to see what she thought, and Avery agreed, silently impressed.She was pretty sure before tonight’s class, he wouldn’t have brought it up.
“You have verbal humiliation marked as a hard limit—what does that mean to you?”
“Oh… uh…” Avery blinked.That was something the others hadn’t asked.They’d verified she didn’t want to do name-calling, but they hadn’t asked what she meant by it.“No name-calling.Um, things like that.”
“Can you be more specific?”Nick’s dark eyebrows raised slightly.“‘Things like that’ isn’t very specific.When I talked to some of the other submissives, the examples they gave me weren’t only name-calling.Would you object to being publicly called a naughty girl?Or a bad girl?”
“That’s fine.”Heat flushed through her from top to bottom.“I guess it’s more like… anything designed to make me feel bad… well, except…” She stumbled over her words, realizing that wasn’t specific enough either.Crap.She hadn’t realized until this moment that she’d never tried to explain it to anyone.“I know that ‘naughty girl’ and ‘bad girl’ seem like they might be that way but… anything that’s truly insulting.Like telling me, I’m naughty or bad in a scene doesn’t feel like an insult.It feels like part of the scene.Telling me I’m bad for liking what I like or anything like that…”
She stared down at her hands, her fingers twisting in her lap.Everything inside her felt tight and unhappy at even saying it out loud.The voice in her head sounded exactly like Shannon when Avery had tried to talk to her friend about kink.It cramped her stomach and made her feel like crying and running.Ugh.She hadn’t even realized the reason she didn’t like verbal humiliation was it was too close to the things Shannon had actually said to her.
A large, warm hand covered hers and squeezed.
“It’s okay, Avery.I think I understand the difference now.If I’m not sure about something I want to say in a scene, I’ll check with you first.”
“Thank you.”She shook off the heavy emotions pushing at her and refocused on Nick.
“We’ll talk about why you had that reaction eventually, though.”
“It’s because of some things a friend said to me when I told her about being into kink,” Avery said hurriedly.She did not want him to think it was something bigger than it was.Not liking verbal humiliation wasn’t uncommon, though she was aware she was a little more sensitive than some subs.“There’s no big secret.”
Nick eyed her for a moment, trying to decide whether or not she was telling the truth, then nodded.
“Okay, let’s continue.”
Later that night, Avery curled up against Nick’s solid body, half-asleep but wanting to be as close to him as possible.He seemed to have the same thought, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close.Sleeping, she nuzzled his chest.
After the first class at Marquis, they’d both been turned on, barely making it through her door before they’d torn each other’s clothes off and headed for the bedroom.
It had been vanilla sex, but she knew they’d both been thinking about all the things they’d talked through, all those ‘yes’ checked boxes on their limits list.A lot of her fears about Nick not actually being kinky had been soothed tonight.He might not be hands-on yet, but he was definitely into it, and she couldn’t wait until they started actuallydoing.
ChapterTwelve
Avery
“I’m soglad you could come out tonight!”Domi bounced in the driver’s seat as Avery slid into the car seat behind her, laughing at Domi’s antics.Rae was in the passenger seat, looking just as excited.Both of them were dressed to go out, but not to Stronghold or Marquis.
They’d decided to have a kink-free night.It was the second Monday of Nick’s Dom class, but she didn’t have to partner with him tonight.Avery didn’t have to work, so they were going to a local meadery.There had been a lot of breweries and wineries popping up in the area over the past few years, but meaderies were a little harder to find.
Avery loved the sweet alcohol made from honey and had heard Orchid Cellar’s was good.Rae and Domi had been interested enough to join her—she thought they were indulging her rather than going for themselves and was really touched.
She hoped they’d find it worthwhile.
“I’m glad you two were willing to go try something new.”Grinning at them, she smoothed the skirt of her little black dress down over her thighs.It wasn’t a sexy little black dress, but it hugged her curves and made her feel good when she wore it.
“Honey, alcohol…” Rae shrugged.“Sounds like a fun combination to me.”Half-turning in her seat, so she could look back at Avery as Domi pulled out to the street, following the GPS directions, she tilted her head questioningly.“Do you know what Nick’s class is doing tonight?I’m glad we get to hang out, but I was hoping you’d have juicy details about what the class is like.”
“Since we only get to know about the submissives class,” Domi said, sounding only a little grumpy.
“We could always say we’re switches like Sam.”Rae looked thoughtful as if she might really consider it.
“You can, but I’m pretty sure Mitch would have something to say about that for me.”Domi shook her head, her curls bouncing with the movement.Then she gave a little laugh.“Although, that could be fun, too.”
