Snippet Saturday – Every Breath You Take
Happy Snippet Saturday from Lori Foster’s Reader/Author Get Together. I am beat. I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired at a Lori Foster event in the 3-4 years I’ve been coming.
Alpha males. We all love them. I don’t really have villians in my books. My character’s emotions and internal wars with themselves are the villians. I war with my own emotions, with my need for clarity and understanding. I’m a thinking. I’m a ponderer of situations and meanings. Those things in and of themselves are villainous. Questioning. Second-guessing. Wondering.
But Alpha males. Oh yes. They have a way of making us step up and take notice of what we’re doing and what we’re thinking and making sure we actually do something… Even if they have to make us.:-)
Thor loaded a plate in the dishwasher he rarely used and looked over at the man standing at the sink. “You’ve gotten quiet. I take your clothes away and you clam up.” Bobby only nodded and handed another plate over. “Verbal answers, boy.”
“Yes sir.”
“It’s not self consciousness about your body or your looks or anything physical, is it?” He already knew the answer, but he had to get Bobby to open up somehow and asking questions was about the only way to do so now that he was naked.
There were two sides of Thor’s reasoning about Bobby stripping down to nothing. He liked looking at him. Bobby had a lean, well toned physique. He wore clothes well. When dressed he exuded confidence and openness. But when he was like this, bare, he pulled in on himself, barely answered with more than a nod or shake of his head and Thor didn’t understand why.
“Are you ashamed?”
“Of what?”
Well, that got a reaction at least. Surprised. Wide eyes. “Are you ashamed of yourself? Of being a gay man?”
“No.”
“Okay. Are you ashamed of being a submissive man?”
Bobby scrunched his brows down. “No.”
There was hesitation there. Slight, but it was there. Perhaps he could work with that. He didn’t know where Bobby’s limits were. He didn’t know where he could take him before he balked. He didn’t know what he could ask before Bobby said no. So far, the only issue he’d found was this, Bobby being naked, being the only one of them naked.
“Are you ashamed to admit you like being spanked? You came to me, asking for a spanking while wearing a mask. Were you ashamed?”
“No.”
A little more strength in his voice. Interesting. “The flogging at the club last weekend, in public. Were you ashamed of that?”
“No.”
Still more strength. “Talking to Aidn? Talking to your parents? Shame?”
“No.”
“What did you feel?”
“Relief. Like a mountain had been lifted from my shoulders.”
“And yet being naked with me is a problem?”
“Yes. Well, no. Not if you’re naked, too.”
“But naked alone, you feel uncomfortable? Vulnerable? What? What is it you feel?”
Thor waited what seemed like an impossible amount of time. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, two or three at the most, but those few minutes ticked by quite slow.
“Exposed.”
“Is that all?” Thor knew it wasn’t. There was something more. However small it actually be, it was big to Bobby and therefore it was big to the situation as a whole. He’d known there would be things he’d have to deal with and help Bobby overcome. The mental and emotional were always more difficult, more delicate to handle and work through than any sexual or physical limits. If a sub said their limits included face slapping, then the dominant needed to find out why, see if it was something that could be worked through or something best left alone. That’s what he needed to do with this. Was what Bobby felt something to be worked through or left alone?
Bobby was struggling with answering. Thor knew if he gave Bobby his clothes back, Bobby would be a fount of information and reasons. He was tempted to do it, too, but he really felt this was the best way.
“Small. Unequal. Out of control.”
“Out of control?”
Bobby nodded. “Like I have no power.”
“And small, unequal?”
“Yes sir.”
Bobby’s voice was soft and Thor wanted to wrap the other man in his arms and hold him close, erase the vulnerability from Bobby’s face, but it wasn’t time for that. Not yet anyway.
“You’re not in control. That’s what this is about. This is about you giving up control. It’s not an easy thing to do. In fact, to truly give up control, it’s difficult. To struggle with it doesn’t mean you’re weak or not really submissive. Not to me at least. You’re trying to find where you belong, how submissive you really are. This is a good way to do that. You’re not my equal in this. As a man, yes and likely superior in some ways, but in this right here, no. You’re here for me, serving me, giving to me, surrendering your will and trusting that I know what to do with it. Given your job, your past, if you didn’t struggle with it, fight against it, feel doubts and uncertainties, I wouldn’t think you’re serious at all.”
Bobby finally looked directly into Thor’s eyes. “So, what do we do now?”
“Does what I said make sense?”
“Yes sir.”
And his voice sounded stronger. Thor smiled. “We continue. When you come into my house, you’re to strip if we’re alone. If there’s company, you’ll know ahead of time so you can stay dressed, but otherwise, you’re to go directly to your room and strip. I need you as comfortable in your own skin as you are in your designer suits. This exposure allows me to get deeper inside your head. You need it and I want it.”
“And if I get cold?”
Thor laughed. “You’re looking for excuses now, boy. Very amusing.”
Bobby blushed and hung his head, but didn’t close his eyes. “Yes sir.”
“Very good. You’ll have issues with things. I know that, but the only way we can handle those issues is if you’re open and honest with me. Outside your clothes, you can’t hide. You have no shield. I hope one day you’ll embrace it.”
“And if I don’t? If I never embrace being naked alone?”
“Then you’ll just have to accept that it’s what I want. As long as your my submissive, I want you naked as often as I can get you that way. I meant what I said earlier. I like looking at you.
“Yes sir.”
“Now, about those spankings. Two infractions, yes?”
“Yes sir.”
“And they are?” Of course Thor knew what they were, but it would become practice for Bobby to list them, to ultimately keep track of them for discipline, punishment. In Thor’s book, there was no time like the present to start.
“Forgetting my place and using your name.”
“That’s one.”
“Getting lost in my head.”
“Very good. In my room, on the far wall are my belts. Go pick one and bring it back to me.”
“Y-yes sir.”
“Why the stutter?”
Bobby shook his head. “My father used to send me out to get my own switches off the trees when he was going to spank me.”
“Did it work?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. Go.”
He only hesitated for a mere second before he turned and walked away. Thor took the time Bobby was in the back of the house to breathe, to think back over their conversation. He’d never been on the submissive end of the stick, but he’d come into contact with enough of them to know the stronger the submissive, the more rewarding the surrender. He’d always preferred those with spunk and fight to those that simply cowed at his or any other dominant’s feet. He’d never want a doormat and while Bobby’s submission so far was easy, was freely given, Thor had no doubt they’d come across things Bobby would fight against. Him being naked wasn’t it. He didn’t like it, but he wasn’t fighting it.
In all honesty, Thor was content to wait for the hard stuff. He didn’t need everything just now. They were still exploring, still finding how things were going to fit with them.
He looked up just in time to see Bobby coming back down the hall with a black belt. He offered it to Thor, who took it and wrapped it around his hand. It wasn’t his thinnest, but it wasn’t his thickest either. “This a good one. I’m proud of you for choosing one that will hurt.”
“Won’t they all hurt, sir?”
Thor winked. “You’ve never been spanked with a belt?”
“No sir.”
“Well, now you’ll be able to add it to your resume. What about over the knee?”
“No sir.”
Thor nodded. “You’ll be able to keep saying no to that for a while.” He let the belt uncoil itself from his hand. “Go bend over the end of the couch.” He grabbed a couple bottles of water from under the counter and followed Bobby into the great room, the tail of the belt dragging against the floor.
Bobby was braced with his arms on the end of the couch. He was bend forward at the waist, but that wasn’t exactly what Thor had meant. “When I said bend over the end of the couch, I meant bend over the end of the couch. Your abs should be resting on the arm, your hands and forearms on the cushions. Completely bent over. You should be able to rest your head on the cushions as well.”
“Y-yes sir.”
Bobby readjusted his position, his cheek pressed to the seat of the couch, his head turned toward Thor. In order to get down as low as he needed to be, Bobby’s knees were bent slightly and his legs spread.
Thor’s couch was custom made, higher off the floor than a standard sofa because he was a tall man and didn’t relish sitting down with his knees up to his chest all the time. Bobby didn’t have to adjust a lot, but he did have to change his position in small ways until he found the most comfortable one. He stretched his legs out behind him a few inches
All during their conversation, Bobby’s cock would start to harden then soften depending on what was being discussed. Punishment didn’t seem to have an ill effect. He liked being spanked, Thor already knew this. The idea turned Bobby on. In the long run, spanking as a punishment was not going to be effective and Thor would have to come up with something else.
However, during moments when they talked about Bobby’s feelings of vulnerability and being exposed, his cock softened. He was never truly unaroused, never a hundred percent soft, but feeling that way affected him sexually.
Some people got off on it and some didn’t. It seemed Bobby didn’t. In time he might change, but for now it was a negative in his mind.
He approached Bobby from the side and walked around behind him. The lean muscles in the back of his thighs and calves, the lean hips and tight butt cheek, the long line of Bobby’s spine curved so nicely. It was a sight to behold for sure and one Thor had imagined more than once in the last couple of weeks since this all began.
He doubled the belt in his hand and held tight to the buckle and tail. He lightly slapped it again his jeans. His hair was in a pony tail and he wore a comfortable T-shirt but his feet were still bare and he wore no underwear. Bobby had wanted him to get dressed, said he couldn’t think straight when Thor was naked and so Thor had indulged him. Normally, Thor might stay naked himself, but he wasn’t above giving in once in a while. It would help balance them out. Besides, there was a very sexy aspect to being dressed while his lover wasn’t that had nothing to do with control dynamics.
“Ten will be your count. Five on each cheek. Five for each infraction. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes sir,” came the muffled reply.
“You all right?”
“Yes sir.”
But his legs were tense, trembling. His feet were shifting against the floor, restless. And his cock… Bobby’s cock was hard.
end Snippet
I have to scoot now. Things to do, people to talk to and gush over… Enjoy snippets from the following authors:
Megan Hart:Read in bed!
Rhian Cahill
Eliza Gayle
Jody Wallace
Mandy M Roth
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
HelenKay Dimon
Shiloh Walker
Shelli Stevens
TJ Michaels
Lauren Dane
~lissa