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.Sara refilled their glasses and inquired if Dylan needed anything further, still ignoring Zoë’s black lacy panties resting on the white tablecloth.Dylan tucked into the delicious, perfectly cooked steak with gusto.Zoë, he noticed after a moment, was barely picking at her food.“Is it okay?” he asked solicitously.“If you don’t like it, we can order something else.”“No, it’s delicious,” Zoë said hastily.She smiled shyly.“I don’t know.I just don’t seem to have much of an appetite right now.There’s so much to take in.”Dylan nodded.“So there is.It’s hard to remember that newness—that sense of discovery and awe when you first put your toe in the waters of a BDSM lifestyle.I’m jealous of you in a way—everything is shiny new and filled with potential.”He picked up her panties and brought them to his face, inhaling her sweet, delicate scent as she looked down at the table, obviously embarrassed.He tucked the panties under his thigh and reached across the small table to lift her chin.He looked into her eyes and said gently, “You don’t need to be shy with me, Zoë.And you don’t need to be shy here at The Vault.Everyone here gets it.This isn’t a tourist club for gawkers who think it’s trendy to pay a cover charge to get into some sleazy S&M theme club down in the city.This is a members-only safe place where people come together to explore and share their love of the lifestyle.”They watched in silence a moment as Sara preceded Master Tom, who was followed by his two slave girls, both of whom were completely naked, their legs chained together so they were forced to hobble in tandem behind him.Tom settled at a nearby table, the two women kneeling on the floor side-by-side next to him.Zoë turned back to Dylan.“I have to say, I feel, I don’t know”—she shrugged, her eyes sliding back to the threesome—“intrigued by all this, but kind of out of my ken.Everyone seems so relaxed, so comfortable.” She waved her hand in a vague way around the room.“I don’t know if I could ever get used to being so vulnerable, so exposed, in front of strangers like that.”Dylan stroked her soft cheek with two fingers.“First, let me say this.In the short time we’ve been together, you’ve pleased me tremendously.You should know, there’s no right or wrong here, as long as you do your best and give of yourself with honesty and grace, which I believe you have done, and then some.”Zoë smiled at this praise.“Thank you, Sir,” she said with such simple submissive grace that Dylan’s heart clutched hard in his chest.“Answer me this,” he said, forcing himself to keep his focus.“If on Friday morning someone had told you you’d spend the day in some guy’s BDSM dungeon doing the things we did, and that not only would you handle it, but you’d revel in it, would you have believed them?”Zoë laughed, shaking her head.“No way, José! I can barely believe it myself.”Dylan nodded.“Exactly my point.But here’s the thing—you were open to the experience.You didn’t shut down and close yourself off from your feelings or reactions.You gave it, and me, a chance.That’s what we’re doing tonight.I don’t expect you to strip and walk into that dungeon and climb up on that cross.I don’t plan to force you into anything you’re not one hundred percent ready to do.It will be your call, Zoë.”“But I thought it was the Dom who was in charge?” Zoë queried.“The Dom is in charge, yes, but ultimately it’s the sub who calls the shots.It’s that whole concept of a consensual exchange of power.As soon as you withdraw consent, on whatever level, for whatever reason, that’s a game changer.Now, some folks get into it a little deeper—a Master/slave relationship might remove some of the consent, or rather, it’s agreed upon that the slave gives up his or her right to refuse, but even then, it’s a kind of fiction, if you will.The underlying consent of the basic tenets of the relationship still remains.” He shrugged.“Who knows, you and I might eventually want the added intensity of a Master/slave connection, or we might not.But the bottom line is, it’s about what we want, as a couple, same as in a vanilla relationship.”“Relationship?” A corner of Zoë’s mouth quirked into a half smile.“I agreed to a weekend, but here we are talking about next week, next month…?”Dylan swallowed hard, keenly aware how very much this mattered to him.What had started out as a kind of lark—a bet with himself regarding Zoë’s submissive potential and his ability to expose and nurture it—had turned into something much more, and more quickly than he could have imagined.Several snappy retorts leaped into his brain, but he shook them away.Now wasn’t the time to prove how clever he could be.He would lay it out there, and let the chips fall where they may.He stared into Zoë’s luminous, dark eyes.“I won’t presume to speak for you, but I will tell you this—I’m thirty-three years old, Zoë.I’ve been in several serious relationships, though it’s been a while since I put my heart out there.Like you, I work a lot of hours on the day job, but I’m coming to realize that isn’t the be-all and end-all
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