Terrorfest to me is *chefs kiss* it's only been 3 chapters so far but I'm really enjoying it. Between the horror, mystery, flirting (with more than 1 character!!), the asshole cops/detective, MC smartass/dumbest responses I feel like this book has a little bit of everything. Did I mention we get to flirt with more than one character?! Sorry I feel like it's been forever since we had book with multiple LI. Finally MC gets to flirt like a hoe.
A/N: I'm through trying to predict how long this is going to be. I think just one more chapter, two at most. But your guess is as good as mine at this point!🤷♀️
My other stuff: Master List.
She woke up to the smell of bacon wafting through the cabin. Her stomach growled and she realized she was ravenous. Dinner had been hours before the coronation fiasco, and she hadn’t eaten since.
She needed her luggage to get dressed. Drake had been going to get them the last time she’d seen him. She opened the bedroom door and found her suitcases stacked neatly in the hall.
She got dressed quickly and made her way downstairs. The living room opened into a long, narrow kitchen. Drake stood at the stove, shirtless, stirring eggs in a skillet. She paused at the bottom of the stairs, drinking in the sight. She hadn’t seen him shirtless since the beach party and the image of Drake in a speedo was burned into her memory.
He turned slightly, reaching for a cup of coffee on the counter next to him, and caught sight of her out of his peripheral vision. His eyes had already started to track back to the pan so he did a double take as his head jerked back toward her, “Hey! Good morning! Want some breakfast?”
“Uh…sure,” spurred into motion, she left the foot of the staircase and traversed the living room.
His brows pulled together in confusion, “What were you doing just standing at the bottom of the stairs?”
Her cheeks pinkened as she made it to the kitchen, “Nothing, just…nothing!”
“Okay…”
“Can I do anything to help?”
“You could get the plates out,” he reached over and flipped open one of the cabinet doors.
“It smells delicious!” She chirped as she slid two plates out of the cupboard, discreetly cutting her eyes to the side to admire his shirtless form up close. Her eyes ran over his bare chest, shoulders, arms, and back, paying rapt attention to the way the muscles flexed and coiled as he moved.
“It’s just bacon, eggs, and toast, the basics,” he told her, “And I have coffee if you want it. I also have orange juice if you’d rather.”
“Coffee is fine,” she sat the plates down on the counter next to the stove, “Where’s the silverware?”
He pointed and she opened a drawer, pulling out two forks and two butter knives before letting her eyes wander back to him. This time they continued past the bare skin, taking in the curve of the denim that hugged his ass. Her eyes lingered there for a moment then made their way slowly upward again.
She flushed a deep crimson when her eyes met his amused gaze, “Are you checking me out, Brooks?”
“N-No!”
“Then what were you doing? Because I’m pretty sure you were just looking at my ass.”
“I….you know what? Fuck you! You check me out all the damn time! You think I haven’t noticed?”
The grin on his face broadened into a full-fledged smile, “You’re paying attention to what I do?”
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
He pushed the skillet to a cool burner and turned off the stovetop then he stepped into her personal space, leaned down, and whispered in her ear, “If you want me, all you have to do is say so.”
She felt a little lightheaded as heat flooded her body, threatening to wipe out all of her common sense. Her mouth went dry as she croaked out, “I don’t….” Even to her ears, it sounded like a lie.
“Okay,” he moved away with a shrug, “but the offer stands.”
He handed her a plate and she mentally shook herself as she took it, “Can we talk about something else?”
“Sure,” he loaded food onto this plate and moved to the back of the kitchen where a small table sat in an alcove surrounded on three sides by windows, “How did you sleep last night?”
“Like a baby!” she said as she scooped scrambled eggs onto her plate.
“I can light a fire in there tonight if you want it.” He offered as he returned to the counter to fill two cups of coffee.
“That would be nice,” she buttered a piece of toast and added it to the bacon and eggs already on her plate.
“It’s nice outside today, I could take you fishing,” he told her as he placed the cups on the table and took his seat.
“I prefer to eat the fish,” she said as she joined him at the table, “I’ll leave the catching them up to you.”
“All right, I get it… city girl.”
“More like small-town girl,” she corrected him, “I didn’t grow up in New York.”
“I remember. California, right?”
“Right. How was the couch?”
“It was a couch.”
“Uncomfortable?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
“I still feel bad about putting you out of your own room.”
He looked at her across the table as he tore his toast in half, “Did you really think it was necessary to lock the bedroom door last night?”
She paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. Setting it back onto the plate she lifted her eyebrows, “Considering you know that I locked it, yes.”
Considering that he had just offered to have sex with her and she’d almost taken him up on it, double yes.
“I just wanted to grab some clean clothes; it is my room you know.”
Her eyes flicked down to take in the fact that he was still wearing yesterday’s pants, but that was a mistake as all it did was remind her that he was still wearing only half his clothes. “Ah….sorry. I just fell asleep after my bath.”
“It’s okay, I’ll grab a shower after breakfast. Did you find everything okay? Is there anything else you need?”
“No, I found everything I needed, even a brand-new toothbrush.”
“Good.” He took a long drink of his coffee, watching her over the edge of the cup as he did so.
The predatory way his eyes tracked her every movement left her unsettled. She liked it and she hated the fact that she liked it.
It was time to do what she always did when her unmet need for him threatened to overwhelm her.
Pick a fight.
“So how long am I going to be stuck here?”
He raised his eyebrows, “I thought you liked it here.”
“That’s not the point!”
He picked up on the shift in her demeanor, “Why are you mad?”
“Because you brought me here against my will and threw my phone out the window!”
He pushed his plate away, “I told you why I had to throw your phone away and you got in my car of your own volition!”
“Did I though? It was the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere! Where else was I going to go? And might I remind you that I never consented to get in the back of that SUV!” She may have manufactured the fight to distract herself from the feelings he inspired in her, but as she reviewed the previous evening’s proceedings, she found herself getting actually angry.
He drained the last of his coffee before responding, “It was the SUV or the limo to the airport.”
“Exactly! I didn’t consent to any of it!”
“Welcome to Cordonia, an absolute monarchy. You have no rights here.”
“That…that’s fucked up!”
“That’s Liam’s world, the one you want so badly to be a part of.” He reminded her.
“You have no idea what I want, Drake!”
“Yeah? Why don’t you tell me then?”
“Maybe I would if I weren’t being held prisoner!”
“You’re not a prisoner!”
“No?”
“No!”
“So, I can just get up and leave if I want to?”
“Yes! I’m not stopping you from leaving!” he threw his hands up in the air, “Go!”
“Fine! I will!” She pushed away from the table, stomped through the house, jerked the door open, and stepped out onto the porch. Glancing up and down the property, she saw nothing but wilderness.
There was a lake in front of her and woods to the right and back of the clearing. To her left, a dirt road stretched and curved through the tree line, disappearing from view over a rise in the road, with no other houses or buildings in sight.
She backed into the cabin to find him standing in the living room watching her, “I need the car keys.”
“I’m not giving you my car,” he laughed.
“Then how am I supposed to leave?”
“That’s your problem,” he shrugged, “I said I wasn’t holding you here against your will, I didn’t say I would help you leave.”
“But I don’t even know where I am or how far the nearest town is!”
“That sounds a like a you problem, Brooks,” he replied evenly.
“How am I not a prisoner if I’m not allowed to leave?” She yelled at him.
“You’re allowed to leave!” He shouted back at her, “I’m not stopping you!”
“But you’re not helping me?”
“Fuck no I’m not!”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I think it’s a mistake!” he exploded, “Your best bet is to stay here until we know exactly who set you up and why! Why won’t you just let me help you?”
“I don’t need your help, Drake! Liam has the entirety of the Cordonian government at his disposal! He can get to the bottom of everything, I know he can!”
“Yeah? Maybe, but where is he?”
“How would I know? You took my phone!” she slammed back out the door.
“Good luck in the woods!” he yelled after her.
“Don’t need it!” She yelled back, “I was a girl scout!”
All she needed was to get back to civilization.
She decided that following the driveway out to the main road made the most sense. The problem was that the driveway was more of a path than a road and not a very good path at that. She tried to follow the ruts and patches of beaten-down grass, but they weren’t always easy to find. She somehow managed to end up in the middle of the woods. She was quite sure she had strayed from the path.
She blundered around in the woods refusing to admit she was lost until she passed a fallen tree she was certain she had passed at least twice already. “Well, shit!” she kicked at the rotted trunk like it was the dead tree’s fault.
There was a rattling behind her, the sound of twigs snapping sounded close by and she jumped, then dropped into a karate stance she remembered from her junior high self-defense class, ready to fight whatever wild animal threatened her.
Drake appeared beside her, “Always ready with the violence, Brooks. And you judge me for it.”
“Drake!” Her body sagged with relief but she didn’t want to admit it. She tried to sound annoyed as she asked, “How did you find me?”
“Well, first of all,” he shook his head, “You’re not hard to find, you leave a trail like a fucking tornado came through the woods and second, I’ve been following you the whole time.”
“What?” she was genuinely shocked. She hadn’t known he was there.
“It wasn’t hard. You’re about as quiet as a herd of thundering elephants.”
“Oh.” She stood awkwardly looking at him, unsure what to say.
“Can we go back to the cabin now? It’s almost lunchtime and I still haven’t had a shower.”
“Sure.” She followed along behind him, her mind spinning furiously looking for a way to salvage her injured pride.
He glanced behind him, “You know I’m just trying to help you, right?”
“Well, I don’t like feeling like a prisoner!”
“You’re not a prisoner, Riley, you’re a guest! What do you want? An engraved invitation?”
“It would have been nice to have been asked if I wanted to come here!”
“Oh, sweet Jesus give me strength,” he muttered under his breath.
“What was that?”
“I said, Lady Riley Brooks, would you do me the great honor of accompanying me back to my humble abode and temporarily residing there with me until such a time we are able to ascertain who is behind the plot against you and ensure it is safe for you to return to the palace, should you choose to do so?”
“You’re a real asshole, you know that, right?”
“I just gave you exactly what you said you wanted, how am I an asshole?”
“It’s the way you said it!”
“Oh, my God! You’re impossible!”
“I’m impossible? I’m not the one running around kidnaping people!”
“For the last time,” he threw his hands up in the air, “I did not kidnap you! I rescued you!”
“From what?”
“From being deported! Or did you want to go back to New York?”
“I don’t know…maybe!”
“Maybe? Wait…really?” He stopped walking and turned to face her, “You wanted to leave?”
“I don’t know, Drake! I never got a chance to think about it! I was drug out of the coronation by one set of soldiers who were going to put me on a plane whether I liked it or not then I was taken by another set of soldiers who made sure I came here, again, whether I liked it or not! At no point did anyone consult me about anything!”
“I’m sorry. You’re right.”
“No, Drake! You just- oh! What? I am?”
“Yes,” he said quietly, “I didn’t consult you. There were reasons for that, but I can see how it felt heavy-handed and authoritarian from your perspective.”
“I…yes. Well…thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he turned back and continued walking.
She stumbled over an exposed root but caught herself.
“You okay?” he asked in concern.
“I’m fine, just tired and a little clumsy.”
“You’re tired? Here, let me help you,” he reached for her.
She shoved his hands away, “No, I’m fine, I can make it.”
“Don’t be a stubborn ass, just let me help you!”
“I don’t want your help, Drake! I wanted to get away from you, remember?”
“I remember,” He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, carrying her the rest of the way back to the cabin.
“Goddamn it, Drake!” Her fists pounded on his back to no avail. She was acutely aware of his arms wrapped around her body.
He sat her down on the porch, “Why do you have to be so fucking difficult?”
“Maybe because you continue to disregard my choice in all matters pertaining to my fucking life!”
“Disregard your- I just wanted to make it back home before next week!”
“I hate you!” she slammed into the cabin.
He followed behind her, “You don’t mean that.”
“I do, I really fucking do!”
“In Lythikos, I got the distinct impression that you liked me. A lot.”
“Well, your impression was wrong!”
“Was it?”
“If you want me to like you, Drake, get me a fucking phone!”
“I’m not trying to keep you from the outside world! I just couldn’t have your phone tracked! Here!” he pulled his phone from his pocket and thrust it at her, “Call your mom, call your sister, call Hana if you want to! Let your friends and family know you’re okay.”
“What if I want to call Max?”
A frustrated sigh escaped him, “I mean…I guess but you can’t tell him-“
“What if I want to call Liam?”
He snatched the phone out of her hand with an aggravated growl, “No!”
“What’s your problem with Liam? I thought he was your best friend!”
“He was! He is! I…it’s complicated!”
“Seems pretty simple to me. You want to get to the bottom of who set me up? Who better to do that than Liam?”
“You know he’s engaged to someone else now, right?”
“So? He’s also king now! He could help us! Liam could-“
“Liam, Liam, Liam!” Drake sent everything from the mantle crashing to the floor. He kicked out and sent the drink cart careening into a wall then he grabbed a lamp from an end table and threw it with all his might, shattering it against the stone of the fireplace. ”When are you going to notice me, Riley?”
She stared at him with wide eyes, “What?”
“You heard me!” He stalked closer to her and took her by the arm, yanking her to him, “After everything that’s happened, how do you still not see me?”
“Drake, I see you just fine,” she said softly, struggling to convince herself that his outburst was not turning her on.
It shouldn’t be, right?
“Do you? Because all I ever hear you talk about is fucking Liam! Liam isn’t here right now, is he, Riley? I am!” his hand thumped his chest, “I’m the one who figured out you were being set up! I’m the one that kept you from being put on a plane back to America that night and I’m the one standing in front of you offering you everything that I have! Why won’t you take it?”
“Drake,” she croaked out, “I didn’t know-“
He pulled her closer, so close she could feel his body heat as he stared down into her eyes, anger, pain, and desire burning in his, “That’s a lie! You know exactly what you do to me!”
This was it, the moment she’d been fighting against for months. He was going to kiss her, and she was going to let him, then the pressure cooker of emotions she’d been holding in was going to explode. “I-“
His lips crashed into hers, cutting off her reply.
“I thought you said we couldn't....” She breathed when the kiss broke.
“I don’t care anymore,” he murmured as he slid the straps of her spaghetti top blouse down so his fingers could stroke softly across her shoulders, “I’m willing to sacrifice everything for you!”
The intensity of his words burned across her skin, “Drake…”
“You have no idea what I’ve already risked for you…” he continued, his breath hot against her skin as his lips ghosted down the side of her neck.
“I don’t…know…what that means…” she gasped out as her head fell back and her fingers twisted in his hair.
“I did what I had to do to protect you,” he gathered the fabric of her silky top in his hands and yanked it upward, pulling it from her body and tossing it to the side, “I want to protect you, Riley,” his lips found the hollow of her neck, “I want to do other things too.”
His tongue glided across her skin; his lips laid demanding kisses along her breastbone as his hands found and cupped her breasts. His head dipped down to join his hands, sucking and pulling at her puckered nipples.
Her back arched, as one hand ran across the smooth expanse of his back, the other tightening in his hair.
His mouth continued its downward trek, stopping at the waistband of her denim shorts. He stood back upright and captured her gaze with his own, “Can we get you out of those?”
She licked her lips and nodded, not trusting her voice to work correctly. Her body was aflame, she was breathing hard, and her heart felt like it was trying to escape her chest.
She was on fire.
His gaze stayed locked on hers as he tugged her zipper down then slipped his hand inside her shorts. His fingers stroked her gently through the soft cotton fabric of her panties and she almost came undone right then.
Pushing the fabric to the side, he plunged a finger into her and she pitched forward with a gasp, clutching both of his shoulders for support. He withdrew the finger and brought it to his mouth. Eyes still locked on hers, he stuck it in his mouth and slowly withdrew it. “Fucking delicious!”
She made a mewling sound as she fought to keep her knees from buckling. He shoved her shorts down and she stepped out of them.
“You feel it too, don’t you? I’m not just making it all up in my head, am I? Or am I crazy? Irrationally obsessed with you like Liam and Bas think?” He yanked her off her feet and lifted her into his arms.
Her arms and legs wrapped around him as he walked from the living room into the attached kitchen. He lowered her onto the counter and sank to his knees. Shoving her thighs apart, he brought his face close to her core and paused to inhale deeply, “I never thought this moment would be anything but a fantasy,” he told her before drawing a straight line up her center with his tongue.
“Ungh!” she nearly twisted off the counter.
“Hold still, baby,” his hands pressed her thighs, holding her body in place as he resumed his ministrations.
Riley’s hands scrambled for purchase on the cabinets behind her, on the countertop under her, and on his back and shoulders as her body writhed and undulated in response to the magical touch of his tongue.
She felt herself creep closer and closer to the edge of the abyss as his tongue moved faster and pushed harder against her throbbing clit. Darkness coalesced around the edges of her vision as her entire body arched off the kitchen counter. Exquisite ecstasy burst over her in waves so intense she felt no pain when she slammed her head back into the cabinet.
“Fuck! Drake!” Her body went limp and she started to slide forward off the counter.
“If you don’t want this, you’d better tell me to stop right now,” he pulled her off the counter and spun her around. He pressed her body forward, her cheek laid against the cool marble of the countertop as he forced her legs apart and pushed himself inside her.
Her body tensed up for a fraction of a second as he entered her then relaxed as she felt another wave of pleasure building inside her.
One hand held her at the hip while the other tangled in her hair. He pounded into her at an impossible pace. Her fingers grappled fruitlessly with the smooth countertop, unable to make purchase.
His girth filled her perfectly and every stroke brushed against her sweet spot. Unintentional gasps and moans spilled out of her as she struggled to stay on her feet.
She had never been fucked with such divine brutality before.
A tidal wave of euphoria broke over her. Her knees buckled, tears clouded her eyes, and her soul left her body for a moment.
Her incoherent screams in his ears coupled with the squirt of hot liquid as she tightened around him finished him. He slammed into her as he exploded.
His body dropped forward onto hers, pinning her to the counter, the only thing keeping her from sliding right off it and onto the floor.
His lips trailed down the back of her neck. “I love you,” he whispered so softly she wasn’t sure she heard it.
They lay draped across the counter for several long moments, panting, regaining their breath, luxuriating in the afterglow.
Then he pulled away, anguish coloring his voice, “I’m sorry, Riley. We shouldn’t have done this; I shouldn’t have done this!”
She turned around, leaning her back into the counter because her legs still felt like jelly, “What are you talking about? Why not?”
“Because we can’t take it back and you don’t know what you want.”
“So, after delivering the most amazing sexual experience of my life, you’re telling me that it can never happen again?”
“I’m telling you that-“ he froze in the middle of zipping his pants up. His eyes lifted to meet hers, “It was the most amazing sexual experience of your life?”
“I mean it was pretty damn good, is all I’m saying…”
“Yeah, for me too, that’s the problem.” He tracked back to the living room to retrieve her clothes.
“How is that a problem?” She asked as he handed her clothes to her.
He looked the other way while she got dressed, not trusting himself not to take her again right there on the counter. “Because I know exactly what I want, Riley! And this just reinforces that, but you don’t know what the hell you want, and if you haven’t noticed, watching you trying to figure out if Liam is what you want has just about destroyed my sanity and my reputation!”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, Liam ordered me to stay away from you and Bas thinks I’ve lost my mind!”
“Why?”
“They think I’m acting irrationally over a woman I barely know.”
“You know me better than anyone else here!”
“Thought I did.”
“You do!” She insisted, “All those nights we spent in Olivia’s wine cellar…I told you things I’ve never told another person!”
“I know. Those were the best three weeks of my life.”
“So…Lythikos meant something to you?”
“It meant everything to me, Riley!”
“Then why didn’t you say so?”
“You asked me to give you space, and that’s what I did!”
Not gonna lie, my blood is still boiling, what a fucking mess. My expectations were low but holy shit…
Pixelberry has a history of not handling sensitive topics with the greatest care, but the callous disregard for the very foundation on which the entire BDSM community is built upon is truly a new low and quite frankly terrifyingly irresponsible and dangerous.
For those of you who are new to the subject, let me explain something. The first thing you learn when it comes to BDSM dynamics is that consent is the single most important thing. Consent can only be given when all involved parties feel safe, sane and sober and are informed and enthusiastic about whatever is about to happen. Consent can be withdrawn at any given moment and is dependent on constant, open and honest communication and a strong foundation of trust.
Reading this, you should now have an understanding of why I am so appalled by Pixelberry’s latest release. But how do we fix this? Honestly, this one should have stayed in the drafts. Scrap it, research, try again later. Do better.
But since I’m a glutton for punishment, filled with gleaming spite and very passionate about this: he we go!
Step one: Stop gender-locking books that are not dependent on a female MC (e.g. historical fiction that relies on very fixed gender roles, pregnancy stories etc.) Kink spaces are queer spaces. If you are bigoted, you are not welcome in a community that is based on mutual respect. Period. Also: Straight men can be submissive, if you don’t think so, please check your beliefs in toxic masculinity at the door.
Step two: Give the MC a more solid foundation in life. If you just found out your partner cheated on you, started the process of divorcing them, don’t have a steady income and are currently living in a hotel, believe me, you are in no way, shape or form fit to begin exploring a BDSM relationship. You are emotionally and financially vulnerable and sadly, there are people who can and will exploit that.
A compromise could be that the MC is in the late process of divorcing their spouse, after they’ve caught them cheating with the dominatrix. They had time to process, time to grief and now they want to move forward. They temporarily moved in with a colleague from work, who’s genuinely rooting for them to get back out there and build up their confidence. A work colleague, you ask? Yes, MC has a career, that’s non-negotiable. It doesn’t have to be a dream job, but she has to have a steady income.
A storyline that could genuinely work is, that MC has been very complacent in life and has a tendency of taking the safe choice. They married and inoffensive partner, they took a low-profile job, they have bland friends and mundane hobbies. They crave excitement but are too afraid of taking a leap of faith.
BDSM gives them the confidence they needed. Submission, as some of you might not know, has a lot to do with confidence in yourself, your boundaries and your ability to enforce them. Dominants only get to take control because the submissive lets them, it’s not just a community in-joke that a sub has more power than their dom, a dom simply cannot take more than they’re allowed to have. Period. A good sub is aware of their wants and needs and knows how to communicate them. That requires confidence, an open mind, mutual trust and knowledge on the subject. With the MC becoming more competent and open in this dynamic, it will start to show in their regular and professional life as well.
Step three: Even out the playing field with Reagan.
Here’s the thing: You never start playing with a stranger. You never restrain a person who isn’t aware of what it all entails. You don’t start suggestive conversations with an uninformed person, who hasn’t explicitly consented to them. AND YOU DON’T ENTER A D/S DYNAMIC WHEN THERE’S AN EXISTING POWER IMBALANCE (boss/employee, teacher/student, professional/client)
If someone does that, they are a bad dom. They are predatory, exploitative, have a lack of self-control and a disregard for safety. The community is very vocal about proper dom etiquette, because it is a very very big deal to take control over someone else’s pleasure. If you can’t wait to establish trust and boundaries with your sub, you’re not a dom, you’re toxic at best and a rapist at worst.
An easy way to fix their dynamic is to establish a pre-existing relationship. Reagan apparently moves in the same circles as MC’s ex, so it wouldn’t be farfetched to say that they’ve met before. Let’s say that they’ve crossed paths a few times before and were at least acquainted before they offered to represent MC in their divorce.
The double perspective could work well in combination with flashbacks about their first encounters. Maybe there was mutual intrigue, a little flirtation, common interests and when they find out that MC is married, they regret their forwardness. Reagan’s arc would be about trust. They’ve been floating through life and while they convinced everyone, including themselves, that they prefer it that way, they really need stability.
Now that MC’s divorce is wrapping up, Reagan feels that they care a lot about them and allow themselves to think about what a future (platonic) relationship with them could entail. Working overtime in preparation for a final hearing MC opens up about how they can’t stop thinking about their ex-partner’s sexual preferences. They’ve done some research but got a bit overwhelmed. They say they want to understand, but Reagan picks up on the implication that they want to experience it as well. Reagen carefully let’s them know that they have experience with the lifestyle and could help them with their questions, if they are comfortable with that. That’s it. “You have questions? I might have answers.”
We get MC’s perspective and they can’t quite help but imagine themselves and Reagan in various sexual scenarios. They’ve always found them attractive; the chemistry was there but neither of them had ever acted on it. Duh, it would have been inappropriate. This scene will then serve as a bit of an infodump, but I’m positive, that the mutual attraction between our leads will give it a bit of an edge. Here Reagan explains about the importance of consent, how it can be given and taken, that there’s safe and slow words for quick communication with your partner (A tension clearing moment could be, MC asking “So, ‘Stop’?” Reagan, smirking, telling them, that that wouldn’t be the best safe word in some situations and asking MC to think of a word, fill in the blank choice, and this will stay the safe word for the story. Idk about you, but in my mind it’d feel very affection, if Reagan asked the MC if she remembers their safe word and they remembered that first innocent moment.) They also tell the MC that the terms under which a d/s dynamic works are never set in stone, contracts can be made as guidelines but are always up for re-negotiation as a partnership develops. Lastly they touch on aftercare and how it’s crucial for a dominant to take care of their submissive after a session, because if it doesn’t happen, it can lead to various negative emotional and physical damages for both parties. This is where it all begins.
Step four: Healthy(-ish) conflict
No good story with out conflict, am I right? Conflicts happen all the time, they’re neither good nor bad, they just are. What can be categorised under these labels however is our reaction to them and how we handle the consequences.
A good starting point for conflict could be that Reagan usually doesn’t play with newcomers and prefers to not be romantically involved with their subs. Not every dom is a passionate teacher and that’s perfectly fine.
The divorce will finalise in one of the earliest chapters, think two or three, and MC gathers all her courage and asks Reagan to introduce them to the lifestyle (This is an early hint at MCs development in confidence and her ability to finally vocalise what she really wants in life). Against their first instinct to refuse, they’d rather know MC’s safe with someone they know and trust than to go about town, finding god knows who. They agree on basic discipline training with soft punishments, light sensory play, restraints and to answer questions about everything MC’s curious about. BUT, no sex allowed. Reagan tells MC that they have good connections in the local scene and should be able to introduce them to a good partner eventually. MC is disappointed, but accepts.
The dual perspective works well, because we can focus on internal over external struggles. Reagan tries to ignore their growing feelings for MC and try to keep up their detached dom persona. They know MC isn’t ready for the dynamic they usually practice but their affection grows stronger every second they spend with MC. To drown their feelings out, Reagan tells themselves that this is just a rebound for MC, a celebration of their newfound freedom and nothing serious.
MC, obviously our main perspective, starts to reconsider their choices in life. They think about a change in career, allowing themselves to have dreams and ambitions and to go after them, the more they learn about themselves in their new role. It’s empowering, they feel desirable and naughty in the best way possible. One deep insecurity remains however. They feel that they are not good enough for Reagan. They notice how much Reagan is holding back and their agreement doesn’t suggest that Reagen sees them as a potential partner, but MC yearns for their approval and maybe even more.
I think this is an acceptable set up for a story, which’s moral is to communicate clear and open and honest with a partner. This is a starting point, and there’s still room for improvement, I’m in no means an expert, but I’m simply tired of blatantly toxic relationships being portrayed as BDSM, that I’m literally begging for crumbs by now.
This is way too long, sorry. Thank you for your time and never stop dragging Pixelberry for not doing the bare minimum.
