Page 25 of Lisa's Unexpected Valentine's Day

“Yes. Yes, I do.” She didn’t look up when she answered, and there was a weight to the simple reply that gave it more meaning.

Interesting.

He watched her for a few more seconds and then stood up. “Okay, then, let’s put you to work.” He slid the cutting board and all the containers of fruit over to her side of the island. “You can chop up the fruit and set up the toppings. I’ll go ahead and make the batter.”

Years of waffle making made him an expert, and normally he wouldn’t even have bothered to refer to the ingredient chart, except that he was used to cooking for two. Doubling everything ended up being the best way to go. In his experience extra waffles were never a bad thing anyway.

Lisa worked on the cherries he’d started, looking over in his direction from time to time. She was quiet, except for the occasional question. “Is it the same batter as pancakes?”

“Similar, a little sweeter. A little fluffier since you want them to rise more. But the taste is pretty close.”

“I love waffles, but they always seemed complicated to make,” she said. The cherries were finished, and she’d moved on to slice up a banana.

He shook his head. “Nope. Not complicated at all. Easier than pancakes, actually. You just need more equipment. We havetwowaffle irons.”

“Two? Oh, so you can make them faster?”

He laughed, whisking the batter vigorously. “No, that is a nice side-effect, but we have two because Maya likes special ones when she’s feeling a little… younger.” He set the bowl down and reached up to pull a second iron down from the cabinet.

Instead of the professional black and silver waffle maker he was already heating, this one was a bright colorful plastic on the outside. He slid it across the counter to her, so she could look. “I can make you cartoon waffles too if you want.”

She looked at the character on top and laughed. “Right, her Little side.”

He added more milk to thin the batter and went back to whisking as he talked. “Mhm. She mostly identifies as a Middle, more um, teenager, but sometimes her headspace is a bit younger, and she likes the cute kid stuff. So, we have this for when she’s in the mood.”

Lisa knew about Maya being a Little, and Rick being her Daddy, of course. His wife was very open about sharing things with her best friend, and Rick encouraged it. Having someone to talk to, outside of your dynamic, was important. But he was curious how Lisa felt about all of it.

“It must be nice.”

“Character waffles? Eh, they’re okay. Honestly, I don’t think the waffles it makes are as good, but she puts so many toppings on them I doubt she can tell anyway.”

Lisa snorted. “No, I mean it must be nice to… be able to live your fantasies like this. You know, being Little and having you there to take care of her. She’s really lucky.”

Rick caught a vulnerable note in her voice. “It works for us. Finding someone whose kinks and needs are compatible is important, I think. But she’s not the only lucky one. I’m lucky she lets me be her Daddy.”

Lisa started to say something and then stopped. After a second, she said, “I guess.”

He didn’t think that was what she’d originally planned to say. “It’s important that needs are met on both sides, for things like this to work. Maya needs a parental figure sometimes. She needs someone to take care of her, but she also needs someone to rebel against.”

“And what do you get out of it? Aside from extra spice in the bedroom?” The red on her cheeks was back. Referencing the night before was clearly embarrassing, so it had to be an important question in her mind, for her to have brought it up.

It deserved a few seconds of thought, and he used the time to finish off the batter and pour a cupful onto the hot iron. After he closed the lid, he turned back to answer her question. “Being a Daddy isn’t really about the sex. You can have kinky sex without all the work of maintaining a dynamic where you’re in charge all the time. And itiswork, trust me.”

“But you… like it?”

“I love it. More importantly I need it just as much as Maya needs what she gets. Being in charge comes naturally to me. Being Dominant is my normal state of being, and it’s who I am. But Maya gives me someone to care for. She trusts me completely, which is a special gift.” His eyes flicked to the clock, keeping track of the cooking time.

“That’s it? That’s all you get?”

It startled a laugh out of him. “All? You act like that’s a small thing. Finding someone who will put their whole life in your hands is rare, Lisa. The amount of trust she has in me is humbling. But no, that’s not all I get. I’m just not sure how to explain the rest. She fills emotional needs I didn’t even know I had before her.”

The red light came on and he turned to rescue the waffle before it burned. By the time he got the next one started, he had a slightly better answer for her. “All I can say is that D/s is a partnership. She needs what I have, and I need what she has.The sex is amazing, don’t get me wrong. The kinky aspects of our relationship are hot. I can’t imagine any other woman could excite me the way she does, but I’m sure that would still be true even if I wasn’t her Daddy— or was only her Daddy in the bedroom.”

Lisa frowned, her brow furrowing. The knife sat forgotten as she considered what he’d said. “I guess I thought sex was the main part of everything.”

“You haven’t done your research. Sex is a big part ofourrelationship, true. Our sexual appetites align, which is important for a marriage, but there are plenty of relationships where sex doesn’t even come into it. Your Dom doesn’t even need to be your romantic partner.”

She snorted. “Oh, I did my research. I read all the articles. I read about how you shouldn’t reduce a BDSM relationship to a sexual one, because they aren’t the same. About how you can have a kink relationship without involving sex at all. And then I decided to give it a try…” She trailed off with another snort.

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