Jack and Jessica were in their mid thirties and the baggage that came with having several decades of dating history. They met on Match a few months prior and things had been progressing nicely. They both had busy schedules with work, but still managed to see each other a few times each week. In the bedroom, things were satisfying, although somewhat vanilla and often followed a familiar pattern. Jack assumed that Jessica was pretty vanilla; nothing in their history suggested otherwise. Jack definitely was interested in a bit of a more adventurous turn.
One evening, while out to dinner, Jack was trying to be his usual attentive self, but seemed a little distracted. There was something he wanted to bring up, but wasn't sure where to start. While he had had other partners, it was always a bit awkward to bring up his interests, particularly not knowing what the other party would be ok with. He wanted to be honest, but did not want to scare her away.
Jack tended to fidget a bit when nervous and was doing so now. They were in a quiet section of the restaurant, the waitress not near. Jessica could tell something was up. They were still in the honeymoon stage of the relationship where they hadn't really had a fight; possibly some awkwardness while getting to know each other, but nothing out of the ordinary.
So, she brought it up. "Hey, you seem a little... off. Is everything ok?"
Jack took a deep breath to steady himself. "Definitely. I was wondering if we could, maybe, talk about." He paused, looking around, before continuing, "the bedroom."
Jessica nodded, looking slightly concerned. "Of course. I thought things were good in that department?"
"Absolutely. They definitely are. I just wanted to see if there is anything else that could be brought into what we do?"
"OK. I guess we could. What were you thinking?" She still seemed understandably hesitant.
"Well, is there anything you are really interested in that we aren't doing?"
"Not that I can think of, but you obviously do. Don't think I've ever seen you so nervous, so out with it. What's up? Can't be that bad, right?" She smiled, trying to reassure him a little.
He nodded. She was right. He had a management position at a school district and was generally in a stressful environment 10 days out of 10. He usually was great at masking his emotions and putting on a façade. That wasn't working here.
"Well, no. At least I don't think so. I'm just not sure it's things that are super common or mainstream and I didn't want to scare you off. Still don't, but they are things I think about and I felt that it would be best to be honest with you. I want things to work out and, I think long-term, honesty is the healthiest option."
"I can agree with that, so what freaky, perverted things are you into?" She was mostly joking, but there was certainly a heavy silence that descended as soon as the waitress came over to refill their glasses.
"Please, when you hear me out, don't think of this as a demand or a requirement. My being interested in something doesn't equate to you needing to participate in it.
"I've been thinking about it. There are really at least 4 things that I've mentally kept separate, but they're related. I guess you could say that they all relate to power dynamics." Jack was usually relatively articulate, but Jessica wasn't really catching up with where his thoughts had run to; in fairness, he had just dropped it on her and he had been thinking of it for years.
He could tell that he was on the verge of losing her goodwill. People only have so much patience and he was using much of hers. So, he continued. "Basically, I like giving up control. I really enjoy it when the other person is in charge."
"So, you want me to be in control?" Their current dynamic was very much give-and-take, but in a more traditional environment. She sipped her iced tea, comfortable making him wait. "You said that there are four things. What's number one?"
He turned red. "These aren't necessarily in order; they're just interrelated. The first is probably bondage." His face was almost as red as the marinara on the plate. "I get really turned out being restrained, tied up, not able to resist."
Jack paused and after a moment, realized she hadn't said anything. So he asked what she was thinking.
Jessica gave him a considering look and then said, "I'm reserving judgment until the end. All things considered, I guess being tied up isn't that out there. Number 2?"
"Spanking."
She blinked. "You want to hit me or you want me to hit you."
"Really, either. If it was something you wanted, I could do it. But my main thought was being the recipient. Bonus points if I was tied up while it happened. See? Inter-related."
"I guess. Have you ever had it done?"
"One partner would, but she wasn't really into it. It was more playful. Never felt it or had any marks the next day. Was enough to verify that I'm into it though."
She nodded. Jack felt that she was almost staring through him. "Three?"
"Three would definitely be pegging." Seeing her confused expression made him realize that the lay person might not be familiar with the term. "It's anal. I know that's a no-go for you; I'm not asking you to change that. It would be you using a strap-on to penetrate me."
"Huh. I only tried anal once and it was very unpleasant; it hurt a lot. I've never heard of pegging; actually thought strap-ons were mostly for lesbians. You've done this?"
"Not a lot, but I've explored enough to know that I like it. It feels really good and I get off on the role reversal of it."
"You seem to be going in order from most tame to least. Almost nervous about number four."
Jack was biting his lower lip. She'd figured out the game and he was a little more worried about the last than the previous 3. She'd shown remarkable poise by not leaving the restaurant already. Dared he go further? In for a penny, in for a pound.
"The last is a little less mainstream..."
When Jessica only raised an eyebrow, he said "Here goes nothing. Have you ever heard of chastity?"
"I mean, I know what the definition is, but I'm guessing that there's more to it than that?"
"Yes. It's not about not having sex. I love our sex life. It's more about control. I have a chastity cage at the house. If it's ever something that you think you might want to explore, I wear the cage and you hold onto the only keys. Has nothing to do with cheating; it's really just about trust. It's giving you complete control over not only if I get to get off, but if I even get to get hard. Some people try to convince their partners that they'd be more attentive or always try to make sure that their partner comes first; I think partners should be doing that anyway. It just goes back to trust and control for me."
"Wow. That's a lot of pressure to put on me. I'm guessing you've tried this before?"
Jack nodded.
"What's the longest you've spent in one of these cages?"
Jack didn't need to think. He immediately answered. "23 days. It wasn't completely continuous. There were times I was able to have an erection, even have sex, but I was not allowed to finish and I was put right back in the cage afterwards."
"Well, you certainly gave me a lot to think about. I'd like to think before really committing or rejecting the ideas. I think it likely took some guts to tell me all that. Thank you for telling me."
"Thanks for listening and not running away. If you decide you're not interested in exploring anything, this relationship is more important to me than anything else. I won't bring it up again if you don't."
"I appreciate that. I'd like to understand a little bit more. Maybe we can go back to your place and you can show me where you've been hiding all this stuff? What was that smirk?"
"Well, we definitely can. If you want, I could show you a little bit now?"
"At the restaurant? What can we do here? Nothing illegal right?"
Jack laughed and shook his head. He took out his phone and pressed a few buttons. Then slid it across the table. The app was simple and straightforward. There was a circle at the bottom that you could bring up to control something...
"This is kind of a combination of 1 and 3. 1 because once I give you the phone, I can't stop you. 3 because there is a 1.5 inch remote control vibrating plug in me. You control it with the phone."
"Haha. Really? I never would have guessed before dinner."
At that moment, the waitress returned to take their dessert orders. Ever polite, Jack was looking at the waitress and did not see Jessica pick up the phone. As he was ordering, she turned it to 100% and his voice went up a few octaves. He managed to steady himself and was able to get through placing the dessert order without making too much of a fool of himself, though the waitress did give him a funny look. As soon as the waitress left, Jessica burst out laughing and asked, "What? Too much?"
She turned it down to 20% and he finally allowed himself to breathe. He very much wanted to avoid "topping from the bottom." If she was participating, he just wanted to enjoy it.
"100% is intense. Just caught me off guard."
Jessica turned it back up to 50%, keeping eye contact the whole time. Jack tried to maintain eye contact and resist the urge to close his eyes and moan. Jack felt a foot feeling him up under the table, Jessica had kicked off a sandal to better see whether or not he was getting excited.
"Wow. You're rock hard. You really do enjoy this."
"I wouldn't have made such a production otherwise."
"Why did you wear this? You didn't know how I would react?"
"I guess I figured if you reacted poorly, we likely wouldn't have been intimate tonight and you wouldn't have seen it. If you reacted positively, I figured it might be worth a shot."
"I have a dare for you. You up for it?"
"Of course. At least I think so."
"No backing out afterwards." Seeing him nod, she continued. "I want you to go to the bathroom, take your underwear off, come back, and put it in my purse."
"Yes, ma'am." A shiver went up her spine at ma'am.
Jack tried, and mostly failed, to covertly readjust himself before getting up. The bluetooth eventually lost connection, so it just continued on at 50% power. He was wearing dress slacks with a blazer. Trying to keep himself as private as possible, he went to the furthest stall. While inside, he saw the shoes of another person in the next stall. After a minute, he tried to surreptitiously remove his shoes, then his pants, and his boxers. He got dressed again, carefully tried to hide his raging hard-on, and put his boxers in the arm of his blazer. It might have been all in his head, but he swore he could hear the buzzing of the vibrator.
