A pull in my gut had me closing the distance between us but before I could lean down and kiss her, she was up on her tiptoes kissing me.
 
 Cupping her face in my hands, I deepened it, and she moaned into my mouth. My tongue swept over hers and my right hand left her face so I could wrap my arm around her and tug her tightly against me.
 
 My cock was hard and throbbing by the time I set her back onto flattened feet. And she looked well kissed and a little dizzy when I released her.
 
 “Hmm, that wasn’t very submissive of you, girlie. I might’ve decided to punish you for it, if it wasn’t such a great kiss.” I looked at my watch, a Rolex my parents gave me when I graduated med school, and then cupped her chin. “From here on out, we’re assuming our roles, got me?”
 
 She swallowed hard as if she were nervous, but her nipples tightened, and heat filled her gaze.
 
 “Okay, Mira, let’s start in the Dungeon. I’m gonna warm you up out there so everyone sees who you belong to this weekend.” I pointed to the door, and she moved toward it without question. “Such a good girl, Mira.”
 
 I brought her to a semipublic area off to the side with a spanking bench, a straight-backed chair, a restraint wall and an armoire full of delicious toys.
 
 “Where do you want me, Sir?” she said on a breathy sigh that instantly hardened my cock.
 
 I made a tsking sound, looking down at the clear bulge in my jeans. “See this? You’ve already done this just with that sexy little sigh.”
 
 Her little smile had me cocking my head and giving her a stern look. It was all part of the scene though, because that smile was quickly becoming an addiction.
 
 Tugging my jeans up at the knee, I sat on the hard-backed chair. “Fetch me the large flogger out of the armoire, girlie. I’m gonna warm your whole body up. Then we’re gonna see what you’re made of.”
 
 “Yes, Sir.”
 
 I’d never been someone’s Daddy before. Hadn’t even thought much of the honorific before now. But Mira brought the word right to the forefront of my thoughts. I didn’t want to be Sir to her. It wasn’t intimate enough. It didn’t fit the connection we had. And I wasn’t assuming anything when I said that. She’d told me herself that there was something different, and special between us. Something akin to a magnetic field that made the push and pull between us feel deeper, as if the universe wanted us together.
 
 I’d have laughed if someone told me that before now, but with Mira I wasn’t laughing. Not even a snicker. I felt our connection too deeply. D/s relationships were already on a more intimate level than most regular relationships. They required a different kind of intimacy and trust, but with us, that was heightened even further than I’d ever felt.
 
 Mira held the flogger in one hand and the leather falls lay across the palm of her other. Her face was turned down so she didn’t look me in the eye.
 
 “Look at me,” I requested, and used my hand to tip her chin up. “Safe word?”
 
 “Octopus.”
 
 I bit back my smile as I had to every time she told me the cute safe word she had. “Good girl.” We’d talked about how being completely naked in the Dungeon made her anxious, so when I told her to remove her clothing she knew I meant just the top and skirt. I reiterated anyway. When it came to giving up control, clarity of instruction was always best. “Leave the bra and panties on, Mira.”
 
 When she stood before me in nothing but some pink lace panties and matching bra, I motioned, using the flogger handle, toward the spanking bench. “Get into position, please.”
 
 With a quiet “yes, Sir”she obeyed, draping herself across the leather bench and placing her wrists and ankles in place so I could strap her down.
 
 I took my time with that, running gentle fingers over her skin as I went from one buckle to the next. Each shuddering breath she released secretly sent thrills through me.
 
 “Are you ready?” I asked, this time smoothing the flattened palm of my hand down the small of her back and over her round ass cheeks.
 
 “Yes, Sir.”
 
 It was too quiet, so I moved up the bench to her side. Wrapping her ponytail around my hand, I gave her head a little tug, knowing it would ease her nerves if I put her in her place.
 
 “I couldn’t hear that.”
 
 “Yes, Sir,” she replied louder.
 
 “Better,” I said and released the rope of hair only to land a loud smack on her ass. She lurched. “Don’t make me have to ask again, yeah?”
 
 “Yes, Sir.”
 
 I smiled at the volume of her reply and tugged her panties down to see a pink handprint blossoming on her buttock. “You pink up nicely. There’s a lovely cotton candy colored handprint on your pretty bottom, Mira.”
 
 “Thank you, Sir.”