The relationships in this story are not, and are not intended to be, depictions of healthy BDSM relationships.
Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.
A big thank you to Amber_Embers for editing.
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"I had a meeting with the dean today. Did you know there's a rumor going around that I moonlight as a dominatrix? From what he could gather, I'm just finishing up the juniors and will be starting on the sophomores next week."
With interest, I noticed the gentle rise and fall of Annie's chest stop short as she took in my words. "Are you in trouble?" she asked. Her eyes darted around to find me. But I'd already positioned myself behind her kneeling form.
I lay my hands on her shoulders. Her sudden goosebumps tickled at my palms. "No, of course not. It's just a rumor. And besides, what I do with grad students is none of the school's business. As long as it's not on campus, of course."
"You told him about us?" Annie squeaked.
"Of course not! Do you think I'm crazy?" I laughed. Annie sighed in relief. Which was my cue to crouch down behind her and hiss menacingly in her ear, "But I do wonder how the rumor started."
There was that tension again. Annie's shoulders curled back up around her like she thought I was about to take a bite out of her vulnerable neck. But I just hovered patiently.
"It was me," Annie said quietly.
"No shit it was you. But, why? This could threaten my career." In reality, I wasn't very concerned. I wasn't planning on applying for tenure at my current institution, and these kinds of vague and unsubstantiated accusations wouldn't follow me. But I was curious about Annie's motives. Annie quite liked getting in trouble with me and had gone out of her way to raise my ire in the past. But nothing so callous towards my own feelings as this.
Annie let out a long thin breath. "Some friends and I were drinking-"
No surprise there. "Grad students?" I clarified. It might be important.
"Yeah. And we started talking about BDSM. But nobody would listen to me. And it was getting really annoying. Because, you know, I should be the one telling them stuff. But I'm innocent little Annie. What would I know? Anyway, I got carried away and kind of spilled the beans."
I offered Annie a sympathetic little nod. But only because she couldn't see it. "Did they listen to you then?"
"So you're not super mad?"
I slid my hands along Annie's shoulders until they rested lightly around her throat, my fingertips making a little necklace along her clavicle. "No. But answer my question."
"Sorry Professor." Annie apologized automatically. "Yes. They listened to me after that. I don't think everyone believed me though. I wasn't very explicit."
An idea began to form. The kind of idea usually reserved for lonely nights, when Annie was off being a normal kid with her aforementioned friends. I took a hand off Annie's neck to pat the ground behind me. There I found her discarded clothes, and among them her purse. Luckily it had no zipper and I was able to wrangle her phone from it without too much messing about. I passed the phone around to Annie who held it in front of her. The movement sensors brought the screen to life and outlined her modest breasts from below against the room's dim light.
"Show me who you told." I commanded.
Luckily, or maybe just inevitably, Annie and her friends had documented last night's bar crawl with a precision and rigor that would have satisfied even their strictest advisors. Soon, Annie was leaning her bare back comfortably against me as I peered over her shoulder at the seemingly endless slideshow.
Annie seemed to quite enjoy introducing me to her social circle. I worried a little that this might be an erosion of the boundaries around our strictly physical relationship. But I didn't stop her. I was also quite enjoying hearing how each of Annie's friends reacted to learning about her double life. And, of course, I had my own game I was playing.
"You know. You'll need to be punished for this." I told Annie slyly, once I'd been introduced to the entire rogues' gallery at least three times.
"How else will I learn, Professor?" She wriggled her naked back against me. Clearly quite keen to the idea.
I let my fingers trail lazily down from Annie's collar bone. Enjoying the gentle transition from thin vulnerable skin to soft padded breast. But instead of Annie's nipple, which her arching back offered needily to me, I instead poked at the phone she was still clutching. I swiped through the album, looking for a specific photo. There it was. A tanned blond boy with an easy smile and earnest eyes pressed himself against the wall under the dart board, a miniature winged arrow clutched dramatically over his heart.
"This is Jasper, right?" I asked Annie.
"He's just a friend. If that's what you're wondering. We've never even-" She trailed off.
"Good." I said, turning my attention back to the picture.
It would have been OK, of course, if Annie and Jasper had a sexual, or even romantic, history. Annie and my understanding wasn't the sort that set rules around that sort of thing. But I was pleased nonetheless, because I saw something in that picture. Something I wanted.
It was, I think, the way his hand pressed against the dirty paneled wall behind him. Palm flat, fingers splayed, tendons tight like he would clutch if only the surface wasn't so flat. All that juxtaposed by an otherwise easy demeanor, like he felt silly taking the picture, but had the confidence to play along anyway. I couldn't help but feel like I'd unearthed a secret message.
"Annie," I started slowly. Finding the words as I was saying them. "How would you feel about inviting Jasper to watch your punishment tomorrow?"
Silence, and stillness. I began to wonder if I'd gone too far. Annie had never struck me as possessive or jealous, but even young women could have skeletons in their closets. I'd been careful not to pry into her past relationships for fear it might build an improper intimacy between us. But that left me blind if I was walking into an uncomfortable situation. Had she been cheated on in the past? Or maybe used as a pawn in the cruel games young lovers play? It was, in the quiet between us, all too easy to imagine how my idea might raise the specter of old wounds.
But, much to my relief, when Annie spoke her tone was one of confusion, not hurt. "You want to play with him?"
"Maybe." I mused. "I've never dominated a man before. I'm not positive I'll enjoy it. But what I do know I'll enjoy is seeing you blush when I torment you in front of him."
"He might not go for it."
"Are you kidding me? You are the cutest thing that ever lived and I am rapidly becoming a school legend. We're basically what men's fantasies are made of. Of course he'll go for it."
I couldn't see, but I knew Annie was chewing on her lip. Mulling it over. "This is my punishment then, to bring Jasper with me tomorrow night?"
"Part of it, yes." I tried not to sound too excited as Annie worked her way around to acquiescence. It was hard to know if Annie really viewed it as a punishment, or if she was just playing along with the game. But that was normal when dealing with Annie. In her own words, she liked it when she hated it. Which really made things quite easy on me.
"If it's part of my punishment, I guess I have no choice," Annie said dramatically. And I was pleased to note that she couldn't have been too spooked by the idea if she was hamming it up this much.
"Good girl." I kissed her on the head. "Now let's get to bed early. I want you bright and alert for tomorrow."
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Annie and Jasper rang my doorbell at exactly 9:00 pm. This exacting punctuality wasn't really a rule I'd intended for Annie. It has arisen from miscommunication more than anything. But, she'd taken it to heart, and who was I to dissuade her?
Jasper, I was amused to see, had brought a bottle of wine. He clutched it nervously, but managed to meet my eyes and smile as I waved Annie and him inside. Which was more than I might expect from most of his peers. He was wearing a tan button down tucked into his jeans, which I thought quite the sensible choice. Given that the poor boy certainly had no idea what to expect from my strange invitation. I was really looking forward to hearing from Annie exactly how that conversation had gone. But that would have to wait.
Making our way into my kitchen, Annie in a little sundress, me in the sensible slack and blouse I'd worn to work, and Jasper in his aforementioned getup, you wouldn't gather at a glance that anything untoward was about to happen. But when I ordered Annie into the dining room to "get ready," using my best mistress voice, Jasper's stricken face at the prospect of being alone with me would have made you think he was the one lined up for a terrible punishment.
"Would you like a glass of wine?" I asked him. Sparing him the impossible task of finding the right words.
"No thank you. I'm alright," he said. But I could tell it was just a reflex.
"Come on love. You look like you could use one." I was careful to keep the dominant edge I'd used on Annie out of my voice. Even without the sexual undertones, I doubted Jasper would really know how to behave in this situation. And I didn't want to scare him off.