"You are all wondrously made, girls. Remember that: wondrously made, and you should carry your sex proudly, a badge of honor."
--Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
CHAPTER 17
Since I had gotten home in the early morning hours after my night with Miss M, and because of all the activity that had occurred, the next day for me was a blur. I remember waking up sometime in the early afternoon, taking another warm bath, and falling asleep in the tub. I was so spent and exhausted, I didn't do much that day other than relax around the house and mindlessly do normal chores. It wasn't until the next day that I returned to my normal self and had time to think on the events and experience from the previous night.
To begin, I'll reiterate that it was an incredible experience and one that I was glad to have had. Miss M is an incredible woman and really knew how to bring things out of me, and had me do and experience things no one else had yet done.
I wondered if I could do it again, be there with her or for her, or any other woman, for that matter. I began to feel a bit guilty that I liked it. It was different than when I was with Ms. Oeaux. With her, I was solely on the receiving end, more of a passive participant. With Miss M however, I was more active, even seeking her out and doing things to her like a lover would do to her partner. I wondered if I was a lesbian now? Another pang of guilt came over me as I thought about that. I didn't want to be a lesbian. It was against everything that I was taught growing up. I let that thought sink in for a few minutes as I rolled it over in my mind before coming to a strong conclusion: to hell with what everyone else thought! If this is what I truly wanted, what I would become, then they would just have to accept it. Remembering my lost time and life with Jonathan, I came to the firm stance that I would do for me what was best for me, and if I found and fell in love with another woman, then that's what I would do and I would not let anything hold me back.
And yet, that's not what held my mind. As I mulled it over and over, though being with another woman was fun and different, it still didn't have the same connection for me as being with men. It was nowhere close to how it felt that night with Aaron. Men just had a different feel, a different approach. Even a dominant woman, like Miss M or Miss Oeaux, couldn't be as dominant to me as a man could. A woman, no matter how mean or stern or dominant she acts, still has to open her legs, open herself up to someone else giving her pleasure, or forego that part of sex entirely. Conversely, a man comes from a natural position of strength, and he asserts his dominance by pushing into a woman, exerting his control. At least, this is how I envisioned the normal dynamic between a man and a woman.
Even in a pure romantic, loving relationship without any regard to BDSM, it's a natural thing for a man to be the dominant, even. As I reflected on this, I realized not only how both sexes act and react naturally based on their physical differences, but also how our mental and emotional aspects are also subsumed in those physical differences. No, though my night with Miss M and even the night with Ms. Oeaux were both fun and exciting, and maybe I would do it again in the future, it was not the same thing as being with a man, whether he was into BDSM dominance or not.
I'm sure many lesbian women would see it differently, and that is what makes them who they are. However, no matter how enjoyable, it made me realize that is not what I really was or wanted for the rest of my life. I was certainly open now if I met someone, another woman, who really captivated me, but it wasn't something I was going to seek out.
That brought my thoughts back to the Society. Did it really hold what I was longing for? Would it be worth doing anything else, or did I want to just let go of that world and move on? Would I even be able to move on and not wonder what I had left behind, what I might have missed out on?
I knew that something was still missing from my submissive experience, something I had come so close to achieving, but so far had eluded me. What was it, I thought? I fixated on everything I had done, with everyone, rolling it over again and again in my mind until I came to one simple revelation: I still craved that level of pain and desire that I saw in Brooke's eyes that very first night, the night Mr. V was whipping her. Miss M had come close to giving that to me, when she had me focus on pain and pleasure simultaneously, and was giving me both at the same time. However, even that part fell short, as the pain level was still so low, not nearly what Brooke experienced.
I still wondered about that, what Brooke and Mr. V did, and whether that is what I wanted to experience, and still longed to experience it myself. I realized I couldn't leave the Society without giving it one more chance.
I knew that this wasn't all, though. I knew that in my life, I needed someone to connect with, to do so on a more intimate and emotional level. My experiences with Ms. Oeaux, Miss M, and even Ossie were fun, each in their own different ways, but I still needed that missing piece, the emotional connection and desire that casual encounters, no matter how fun in the moment, simply can't duplicate.
Of course, this created the question: was I missing the full BDSM experience more, or the emotional connection? I thought about that and almost instantly knew the answer. The full BDSM experience, at least for me, was the adventure. It was like someone who wanted to climb Mount Everest or skydive or visit the Louvre. It was a longing and desire for that experience, but once achieved, it didn't *have* to be experienced again and again. Of course, it would be nice to do again and again, but that wasn't the main drive. The drive was to experience it once, then be able to remember it for years to come.