it either,” I said.
“Oh thank God.” Kelly laughed, putting a hand to his chest. “I swear it’s been my dumb luck that every time I find a masochist who likes some serious pain, they want to be humiliated too, and I just…” Grimacing, he shook his head.
Aaron relaxed a little, and I did too.
“Yeah, we’re not into that,” I said. “Power and submission, yes. But humiliation has never been my thing.”
“Or mine,” Aaron said with a nod.
“Okay, cool.” Kelly exhaled. “And I mean, I know pain play and humiliation go together for a lot of people. They just don’t for me. I’m not wired to be a Dom, and humiliation makes my skin crawl. I just…enjoy causing someone pain if they want it, you know?”
We both nodded.
“Even better,” he said, “is when I’ve got someone ordering me to do it. I can’t explain it—it’s just a million times hotter when someone is ordering me to inflict pain than when they’re begging me. So this whole thing about you making me beg to give him pain?” He made a sound like he was holding back a whimper. “Yes, please.”
It was my turn to struggle to sit still. “Explains why you’re a sub instead of a Dom.”
Nodding, Kelly studied us, brow creased. “So you don’t think that’s weird? That I’m a sadist, but not a Dom?”
“No, of course not.” Aaron smiled. “We know it’s rare—that’s why our ad said we were looking for a unicorn—but we wouldn’t have gone looking for someone like you if we thought it was weird.”
“Oh. Oh, right.” Kelly’s shoulders relaxed a bit. “That makes…” He laughed self-consciously, rubbing his neck. “That was a dumb question, wasn’t it?”
“Not at all,” I said. “And yes, it is unusual. Have you played with other couples like us before?”
“No, but I played with a Dom for a while who was a masochist. Which was fun, and it was ridiculously hot, but it was hard for him to stay clear-headed and give me orders when he was in that much pain.”
“Hmm, yeah.” I nodded. “I could see that. I have a tough enough time when Aaron is topping me.”
“Topping—” Kelly blinked. “Wait, you guys switch?”
“Not in the Dom/sub sense,” Aaron said. “He’s a Dom. I’m a sub. Full stop. But Will likes to bottom sometimes, and I’m happy to top him.”
Kelly’s eyes widened. “Ooh, that must be hot as hell to watch.”
Aaron and I glanced at each other, and we both nodded.
“So we’ve been told.” I squeezed my husband’s knee. “We’ve fucked like that at a few play parties, and the people around us seemed to think it was hot.”
Aaron squirmed again. Kelly did too.
Jesus. He really was what we’d been looking for. It remained to be seen how things went once we actually played—I knew all too well that some people could talk a good game—but so far? No complaints here.
“What about safe words?” I gestured at Aaron. “We use red and yellow.”
“Red and yellow work for me.”
“Okay,” I said. “And to be clear, because we’ve met some people who worry about safe words fucking things up for future play, using one isn’t a deal-breaker for us. Even if it’s red and we need to stop the scene altogether, we can talk about what happened, but unless it’s something like a consent issue or disrespecting a hard limit, don’t assume that we’re slamming the door shut on future play.”
Swallowing, Kelly nodded. “That’s… That’s good to know, actually. I used a safe word once because I got a cramp in my back, and that Dom pretty much cold-shouldered me after that.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I growled, rolling my eyes. “That sounds like a giant red flag of someone you shouldn’t be playing with anyway.”
“I know right? I’m actually glad that happened, because he started dating one of my friends later and turned out to be colossal dickweed.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Aaron muttered. “I hope your friend got away from him?”
“Oh yeah.” Kelly waved his hand. “She dumped his ass and never looked back. And we both made sure people in the kink community knew about it, because this dude was just not safe for anyone.” He met my gaze. “Anyway, after what happened with him, that’s good to know. That a safe word isn’t a deal breaker.”
“It’s definitely not.” Aaron gestured at me. “Hell, we’ve used safe words with each other plenty of times.”
“You have?”
“Mmhmm,” I said. “He got a muscle cramp in his hip once. I tripped over something and turned my ankle.”
Aaron