Page 27 of Shattered Dreams
“Shhh, okay. You can float for a bit longer.”
“Mmmmm.” Raine rubbed his cheek against Storm’s thigh.
“He’s in sub-space? Like that.” It boggled Elliot.
“Yeah.” Storm smiled down at his boy. “He’s floating right now, riding high on the endorphins from the flogging and the pressure of the chastity belt. He usually slips into subspace after I punish him like this. So, it’s normal.”
“Wow.” Another tidbit of information to file away later to examine. This BDSM stuff was as varied as an all-you-can-eat buffet. It had him wondering about Max’s version of it.
“Her calling you Daddy was a surprise, wasn’t it?” Storm brought up the subject he’d been hoping to avoid. “You did a good job by the way, rolling with it. It was what she needed at the moment. A good dom gives his sub what they need.”
Elliot gathered his thoughts for a moment, before finally answering Storm. “It was. But after the shock of it, I found I didn’t mind. I don’t know if I ever want someone to call me Master. I just can’t…” He wrinkled his nose, “…see myself as a Master. I figured when I found my bottoms, I would ask them to call me Sir. But Daddy…it fits.”
Storm chuckled. “Of course, it does. You’re a textbook definition of a Daddy Dom, man. Stern but caring. Raine mentioned to me that you had a head of the household role with your wife?”
“Yeah. As much as she would let me.” Surprisingly, the ache that usually came from talking about Deborah didn’t come now. “She was a handful. Very independent. She had to be with her job in the Army but at home, she allowed me to be in charge as much as her feminist pride would allow.” He chuckled. “We had a few doozies of fights when I refused to quit opening doors and putting on her coat. And don’t get me started on the fight we had about maintaining her vehicle. She was a mechanic’s daughter and knew more about cars than I did. But when she saw how much it mattered to me, she let me take over the oil changes on her baby.”
Storm chuckled. “I imagine it’s hard in today’s society to let a man take a more old-fashioned role.”
“Yeah. But we made it work.” He tugged the blanket up further on Lizzie when she turned more into his arms, her nose nestling into his arm pit. Good thing he wasn’t ticklish, he thought as the first puff of breath teased him through his thin t-shirt. Almost like a kitten or pup looking for closeness, he thought. “So, does she call Maxwell Daddy? I could’ve sworn I heard her call him Master.”
Storm shook his head. “No. It’s always been Master. Because that’s what he is to her. To Raine as well. Don’t let appearances deceive you. Max may look like the poster boy for a dominant - but there’s more to him than meets the eye.”
His curiosity tugged at him. “Really?”
“Yeah.” Storm looked thoughtful for a moment. “Ever heard of a switch?”
“Switch?” Immediately the image of a light switch came to mind, but he was pretty sure Storm wasn’t talking about that kind of switch. In the beginner’s class, Master Lucas had gone over the basic roles in power exchange and had briefly touched on switches. “A person that can either be a top or a bottom, right?”
“Exactly.” Storm nodded. “My best friend is a dominant with Lizzie and Raine because that’s what they need him to be. Don’t get me wrong, he does have a part of him that’s dominant, but he also has a part of him that is submissive as well.”
“Really?” A small seed of hope bloomed inside of him. He’d been willing to be whatever Max had needed if the man agreed to allow him into his life with Lizzie, but the idea that he might welcome Elliot’s budding dominance was a game changer.
“Yeah. Don’t go all giddy on me, man. It’s been years since he’s submitted to anyone that I know of. It will take a special man to bring that side forward.”
“Man?” If Storm wasn’t trying to get his hopes up, he was failing miserably.
“Yeah.” Storm grinned. “Max is bisexual, but he’ll never submit to a woman again. He had a bad experience in college with a local dominatrix. But that’s his story to tell.”
Elliot fell silent for a moment. “I get ’cha, but tell me - did having him watch earlier hurt or help my chances with him?”
Storm, the bastard, actually winked at him. “The verdict is still out on that. But if I were a betting man, I’d say that it opened his eyes to what could be, if he puts his fear aside of what Lizzie will think.”
Elliot frowned. “Why, won’t she accept him being with another man?”
“Oh, she knows he likes both sexes. But that darling woman has no idea that her husband is a switch.”
Fuck.
* * *
If Max could’ve paced, he would’ve worn a hole in the carpet. Instead, he was stuck in this damned bed, waiting for a call that he swore was never going to come. It’d been almost two hours since Elliot had punished Lizzie, and he realized that aftercare took time, especially the way that his wife had broken. But he needed to talk to someone about what had happened, even that bastard friend of his.
As if aware of his thoughts, his cell finally rang. He snatched it off the rolling tray and brought it to his ear.
“Yeah,” his tone came out brisk, his frustration at an all-time high. “It’s about damned time you called.”
“Hello to you too,” Elliot’s southern accent washed over him.
