Yung Mi was settled in the tub, Chim snuggled in her arms. Clinging to her, he would not let her leave, even though D was there soaking with them, trying to coax the sub into his lap. He was out of little space but still incredibly vulnerable.
"He called me a slut. Do you..." he took a shaky breath, "Do you think that? That I'm a whore?"
"Jimin," D sighed, his voice full of pain, "of course I don't. You are a generous and giving lover and the sexiest person I know. Some people enjoy those terms, as a way to show they really like sex and are good at it. I think there can be negative connotations of those words, sure. But that's not you, not at all. You're never careless or greedy, hurting yourself or other people in lust." D's eyes were red-rimmed and teary. Seeing his favorite person destroyed had stabbed at his heart, especially because his cowardice had triggered the whole situation.
"Then why don't you want a relationship? Is it because I'm ... because I can be ... a baby? I get that you don't want someone to babysit, like now." Jimin wiped the single tear that tracked down his beautiful face, a picture of quiet desolation after a storm.
"Jimin, I'm shit at relationships. I've never been in one that worked. I've never seen one that worked long term." The dom ran a frustrated hand through his disheveled silver hair. "You're not a baby. I see you as a man, intelligent, sophisticated, capable. Fuck, you run a whole ass company.
You're too good for me. You are a fresh breeze on a hot day. A warm hug on a cold night. You're the melody to my bass line. You're the light to my darkness. I'm gonna fuck this up, but I won't let you get hurt again and I can't be without you. I know I'm gonna fuck it up, but be my boyfriend. Please give me another chance. A chance to say yes this time?" Yoongi held his breath, waiting on Jimin's answer.
The sub unwound himself from Yung Mi and crawled to the other side of the giant tub. He settled into Yoongi's lap and studied him with a serious gaze. "Will you be my boyfriend, Min Yoongi?"
The only answer he got was a fervent nod and a heartbreakingly gummy smile before Yoongi wrapped him in a tender embrace. Yung Mi gave the new couple a bear hug and planted a kiss on each man's temple. "I love you both so much. Take good care of each other."
She left them in a world of their own and tiptoed out to the bedroom. As she was drying off and dressing, she kept thinking of a certain dark haired man with a smoky voice. It was also the first time she could remember feeling a sense of loss over not having a romantic relationship.
The whole thing was futile, though, given her situation. It was already too complicated trying to keep their work relationship separate from these new dynamics of the club. She hoped they would never unintentionally hurt each other, or even worse, hurt each other on purpose. What on earth was she doing?
He was in the club with Yung Mi. She was wearing a skimpy black leather outfit with tall black boots. She led him to a dimly lit room where she took his tie and blindfolded him. She fastened his hands to the wall above his head.
"Why am I chained to the wall? What did I do?"
"You've been a good boy and I want to reward you. I will do all the touching," his boss whispered in his ear, causing a chill to rush down his body, "all the pleasuring." His clothes disappeared.
He jerked as he felt warm lips on his nipple. His cock swelled as her tongue licked and sucked, marking a hot trail down between his pecs. His stomach felt weird when her tongue swirled in his navel. He stifled a moan.
Whack! He felt sharp heat bloom on his outer thigh. "Don't be stingy. I want to hear your sexy cries and your honeyed moans," her voice was in his ear, low and sultry, "your euphoric groans."
He shuddered. "Yes, Madame."
She tormented his ear and neck, nibbling and whispering, sucking and licking. Every sensation went straight to his groin. Her warm hand cupped his balls and he groaned as his cock ached with the need to be touched as well.
"Do that again for me, baby. Your deep voice makes me wet."
That thought made him moan out, "I want you so bad."
"You want my hot mouth on your pretty cock? Defenseless and at my mercy, you are so beautiful like this."
He whined, a mixture of embarrassment and want. He felt delicate kitty licks on his sensitive head as it throbbed and leaked. Her lips engulfed him and wet warmth followed as she took in his whole length. His groan echoed loud in the dark cell.
She pulled off and blew cool air on his throbbing shaft. "You like that? Don't finish until I tell you to. I want to savor my treat."
She brought him to the verge again and again, until tears ran down his cheeks. "Please. Please let me," he whimpered.
She gently kissed away his tears. "My pretty baby has tears in his brown eyes. Don't cry, baby boy. I want to taste every drop of you. Can you fill me up with your sweetness? Can you do that? For me?"
"Yes. Yes, master." Her hot tongue licked a stripe up his cock and pushed into his slit.
"Oh, please." He didn't even know what he was begging for. Her mouth slowly engulfed him in wet warmth. The swirling suction detonated an explosion unlike any he had experienced.
The feeling was so intense, it woke him from sleep. He was amazed, but really relieved, he hadn't cum in his pajamas. The raging boner though, had to be dealt with immediately.
There was no more sleeping after that dream. Taehyung was nervous about "the talk." He hadn't spoken to his boss since yesterday when he left her at the club. When he had texted to check on Chim, she was still with him. She said she'd call later, but she never did.
What if they weren't compatible? What if she liked all the stuff he didn't? He'd never considered himself submissive and the thought of being powerless scared him, honestly. For years, he had avoided being dependent on anyone. He trusted himself, and no one else, to take care of him. Why did he enjoy dreaming about being a whimpering mess for her? Could he give control over to her? Was that the only way she would be with him?
He couldn't understand wanting to get beaten. There was nothing fun or sexy the times his mother got hit. The few times he'd been in restraints in the psych hospital were some of the scariest moments of his life. He had hated being handcuffed. When he was arrested, when the cops had pushed him into the police car, the metal had sliced into his small, bony wrists. All these thoughts and a hundred more played tug of war in his mind with alarmingly scandalous fantasies of his sex goddess boss.
His boss wanted to clean out the fern gardens, the ones on the way up to the cliffs. The walk there was maddeningly quiet. Yung Mi had the smaller dividing spade and a rake, while Taehyung carried the heavy shovel with a large bag of peat moss tossed over his shoulder. The tingling when they brushed against each other's skin seemed amplified. The sexual tension between them was so thick, he sometimes had to remind himself to breathe.
Taehyung worked up an area to broaden the fern bed, breaking the soil and adding peat moss. He didn't know where to start, but he couldn't take the tension another second. He chose a safe question. "How's Chim?"
"He's OK now. D came."
She said it like this D coming had magically cured everything. "Who's D?"
"My mentor, and finally, Chim's boyfriend."
Taehyung decided he'd wait to find out about the mentor later. He began digging out clumps of ferns. "What happened yesterday? I mean to make him like a little kid?"
"That fucking idiot bastard didn't respect Jimin's hard limits. He wasn't in a good place to begin with. Jimin confessed and D rejected him. To make him jealous, Jimin invited this other dom, one he didn't know well and didn't check references on." She took the sharp knife from her belt and began dividing the fern he handed her.
Taehyung knew what hard limits were, but he thought they were like no blood, no feces, stuff that any sane person shouldn't have to say. There was nothing like that yesterday. "Like what hard limits?"
"All of us have things we enjoy and things that are uncomfortable to us. There's no right or wrong list, just a person's preferences. Things we absolutely don't want to happen are our hard limits. For Chim, it was the degrading names and 'baby boy.' He didn't use his safe word immediately. It all pushed him into little space and then he couldn't even say his safe word."
Taehyung was confused. "Wait, so it wasn't because the guy was hurting him? Like, you know, fucking him too hard or something?"
Yung Mi shook her head. "Chim loves it hard. He loves being restrained and edged."
"Edged?" Taehyung looked puzzled.
Yung Mi found his naivety endearing. She wanted to be the first one to show him this world. His blush when she explained it was just plain sexy, because she could tell he was imagining it and wondering if he would like being edged.
"Chim likes praise, but degradation is a hard limit for him, because of some past trauma. Calling him baby boy is a hard limit, too. Because, well, you saw what happened."
Taehyung wrinkled his brow and huffed, "How can someone be ok with being completely at someone else's mercy?"
"It's like one of those driver's ED cars. The dom is driving, but the sub can take back control if needed." Yung Mi wanted him to understand this basic point. "The sub holds the power in the relationship. When the sub cedes that power to the dom in a scene, it's a precious thing. A dom should never abuse their power. Their first responsibility is the safety and pleasure of their sub, then themselves."
Taehyung could tell she took seriously her duties as a dominant. He liked the passion in her voice. He remembered the mother hen comment Kookie made, but then he remembered how Kookie said he liked it rough. Could he ever ...? "How do you know what you like and don't like?"
"Imagine it. Experience it," she shrugged. "What turns you on can definitely change over time. There's no universal right or wrong. Everybody's different. 'Baby boy' did a number on Chim. When I call you baby boy, it makes you roll your eyes at me," she smiled fondly at her gardener.
Taehyung looked up at her through his lashes with a subtle smile. "It might do more than that to me."
Yung Mi sucked in a tiny gasp. His eyes twinkled with mischief and she slapped playfully at his arm. "You can't tease like that when we're at work." Schoolgirl mode activated. Why don't you embarrass yourself, Yung Mi?!
She tried to pull herself together, giving him her best domme face, complete with eyebrow raise and lip licking, "I mean ...without expecting repercussions later." He gulped.
"Yesterday was a shitshow. You'll get a better feel for things next week when you observe Kookie and me," his boss encouraged.
"I don't want to do that," Taehyung said with finality.
"You don't want to go back to the club?" Yung Mi tried to hide her disappointment.
"I don't want to watch you with someone else." I don't want you to be with anyone else, period.
Yung Mi teased, "Come on, now. There may be a time when you scene with somebody else. Watching can be ... inspiring." She bit her lip.
She was trying to make him jealous. Two can play that game, sweetie. He did a slow exhale. "I guess you're right. I'm new to this and I should scene with other people."
"I would trust D to take care of you."
Oh, hell no ... "I'm not doing anything with another man. But a woman is fine."
She smiled sympathetically, his hesitation understandable. "There aren't any other unattached female dominants."
"Nah, Samantha the bartender told me about one." He looked smug. "In fact, I've already met her."
Yung Mi was baffled. "Really, who?"
"Her name is Shiko." He had no intention of doing anything with the old hag. Just baiting the trap ...
"Oh god!" The color drained from her face. "Taehyung, you can't. Promise me," she grabbed his hands, "that you won't go near her."
Now the bargain ... "I guess," he huffed, "if you promise not to scene with Kookie?"
"Taehyung, I'm serious. This is completely different." She was adamant.
Taehyung gave her a steady look. "I think it's only fair."
"Fine, I won't. Just promise me you will stay away from her. How did you even meet her?"
That was easier than he expected. She seemed more scared than jealous, though. He remembered what Jimin had said about avoiding the woman. "I met her in the coffee shop. They accidentally gave my coffee to her." Now he was trying to downplay it, hoping to calm her. "She said she knew you. I can see that you don't like her. What's wrong with her?"
Yung Mi ignored his question. "When did you meet her?"
"Three, four weeks ago maybe? It's been a while," he shrugged. His boss wasn't letting this go.
Yung Mi stood up, pacing. "When did we fall in the pond?"
He tilted his head. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Mr. Park asked me if the second repair company was able to fix the aerator. He said someone came to service it the week before, before it shocked you." Taehyung had never seen her talk so fast. "I thought he was confused, but now ... I think," she looked up at him with concern, "that you're in danger."
What the hell was she talking about? "Who would hurt me? I'm ... nobody."
"Shiko would."
Taehyung gave her a skeptical look. "You're being overdramatic."
Her eyes glued to his with a serious gaze. She glanced around them to make sure they were alone, then shook her head before she whispered, "I'm pretty sure she killed my husband."
Duh duh duh ... Why won't these people quit bothering these two so they can get busy?! Can you believe she gave up our luscious Kookie so easily? She is so whipped for Tae, but honestly, if all he demanded in exchange for being my sex toy was monogamy, he'd be my sex toy in 0.001 seconds flat. Who can refuse him anything?!