Flipping the Switch

"I have a surprise for you, Jules." His voice kept cutting out on the cell phone, and Julia swore softly as she tried to adjust the volume.

"I'm sorry, Sir...what? I keep losing you..."

His tone was patient and amused. "I said, angel, that I have a surprise for you. We're going out tonight."

Grimacing a bit, Julia tried for cheery gratitude. "Um, really, Sir? That's wonderful."

His rich laughter filled her ear, and she relaxed a little, no small thing in rush-hour traffic.

"Don't overwhelm me with enthusiasm, girl! Trust me, you'll want to go on this little outing. We've been invited to a party."

Hmm...now, this could get interesting. Frank hadn't been interested in public play for some time now. She spasmed a bit at the idea of her ass bare, her back arched, her hair in his fist as he struck...

But still...

Julia sighed, rubbing her forehead as yet another driver thought it was his God-given right to blaze past the rest of the traffic on the shoulder, then cut her off. She gave him the hairy eyeball, then wearily waved him over. Fuck it.

It wasn't really the traffic that was bothering her, although that was certainly annoying enough. She was just feeling edgy, restless these days. They'd talked about it a bit, usually in bed on a Saturday morning. There was something welling up in her, a muscle that needed to be flexed, a fist that ached to clench. It gave her a different walk, a different voice, a different set to her mouth and eyes. It had always been part of her, and Frank knew enough to leave her alone at those times, give her a chance to work it out on her own.

And work it out she did, with men, with women, with ropes and floggers and clamps. Although he knew about her extra-curriculars, she'd always kept the details away from him, not because he'd asked her to, but because she thought that it was respectful. He was her Master, the core of her said he was. And he trusted her enough to know that she would exercise the control she needed to feel balanced and whole, then return to him ready for devoted submission.

He was showered and dressed to go out by the time she got home. That was unusual too. Typically if they were going out for the evening, she would serve him by helping him to bathe and dress.

"I wanted to give you free run of the bathroom. I figured you'd need to decompress."

She gave him a weary but grateful smile. "You're awfully sweet, Sir. Somebody should marry you."

She slipped to her knees in front of his shoes, planting a kiss on each of his upturned palms. His fingers found their way over her scalp, down her nape, and then he lifted her chin, dark eyes twinkling.

"Thank you, angel. Now get going." He smacked her ass as she passed him, flinging off her work clothes with a giggle.

Then she saw the outfit. Leather. Lots of it. Pants, halter, boots, all in sleek black leather. She landed on him in a flurry of kisses and "thank you"s.

About forty-five minutes later, her dark hair was pulled back into a sleek chignon at the nape of her neck, but with a few loose strands framing her face. The leather outfit was equally sleek and controlled. Yet she deferred to him, as she always did, for approval of how she looked.

"Deadly, baby." He swatted her ass once more as he helped her into the car.

Once at the party, she accepted the proffered mineral water and began to glance around the room. The rhythm, sounds, smells...mmmm...combined in a heady brew that tantalized her.

She was drawn deeper and deeper into the mini-scenes that played out around her. A dark-haired man was splayed across his Mistress' lap, his ass glowing bright pink as she smacked him with her cupped palm...

A woman servicing two men orally, first one, then the other...switching with each smack of her nipples by her Master's crop...

Loving long-term couples watching the goings-on entwined in each other's limbs, chatting quietly among themselves...

A pale, slender woman with hair and eyes the color of buttery caramel kneeling quietly at the side of a man who stroked her hair often...

Julia exhaled a bit sharply and looked away.

Precisely the sort of woman that Julia would be having a little flog-n-fuck with, if the circumstances were right.

Frank caught her wandering eye, and with a knowing smile, took Julia by the elbow...more guiding than directing, she thought in retrospect...and led her aside.

"Good eye, Jules. She's a beauty, yes?"

"Mmm-hmm." Julia kept her tone deliberately light and noncommittal.

"Well, I'm glad you think so, angel. I've arranged for you to borrow her for the evening."

"Whaaat?!?" Her eyes cut to the girl, then back to him. "You did what?" She winced at her tone, trying to modify it. "I'm sorry, Sir...I'm just a little taken aback."

"Is there a problem, Jules?"

"Umm, look." She paused, searching for the right way to articulate this. Finally it just came out in a rush.

"Sir, I don't know that I can do this with you here. I'm used to this part of me being separate from us...do you understand what I mean? I'm here as your submissive. I don't think I'm in the right headspace to do this. I didn't even think to bring my bag..." She looked over his shoulder and realized that he'd brought her bag as well as his own. How had she missed that earlier?

He listened quietly for long moments, waiting for her to get to the core of what was troubling her. He knew her too well.

"Sir, may I be frank?"

"No, I'm Frank."

"Dammit!"

"You know you don't need to ask that, Julia."

"This kind of strikes me as...well...almost a head game. "You can pretend to be in charge, little girl, but only because I let you...it seems to strip the power from me, which is the whole point of my doing this...to take some of that power back for myself."

His eyes narrowed a little. "A head game? Don't you think we're past all that, Jules?"

He paused, deliberating, then took her hand. "It hadn't occurred to me that you might have bad feelings about this. Here, come with me. "

He led her into another room, pulled a couple of chairs close together so they could talk. "I wanted this to be a surprise, but obviously, I should have prepared you better. I don't want you to top somebody if some undercurrent is going to get in the way of things. So why don't we do this? Let's talk about it for a little while. If you still don't feel comfortable, you can set it up with them for another time, without me around."

Her expression softened, and her hand relaxed in his as she drew her chair even closer. "I'm sorry, Sir. Of course you weren't messing with my head. It was silly of me to say that. You know I love to top, and I know you wouldn't do anything to disturb that."

He held her hand up to his lips, kissed her knuckles.

"Julia, I love you. I love what we have. I know you know that."

His eyes grew a little wistful. "But there's a piece of you...the piece of you that wants to go in and take that woman down...that I don't have access to. And I want to know that part of you. I know it's there...I can feel it starting to rise up in you. I want to be able to see it and experience it with you.

"Sure, I could tell you to top me, but I think we both know that wouldn't work very well."

"You can count on me to stay out of the scene, to not interfere or second-guess. I won't even be visible unless you choose to turn and look at me. I just want to see you in that light. I have a feeling you look gorgeous in it."

Wide, emotion-filled eyes met his. He was giving her the space she needed to do what she loved, and he was proud of her...proud of her strength...proud of her ability...and even prouder at the moment when she surrendered it to him.

He patted the chignon at the nape of her neck. "Do what you love, angel. Flip the switch. And have fun."

When they returned to the main room, he moved to arrange his long, lanky frame in a folding chair, well away from the scene area, but close enough that he could observe. Julia could feel his eyes on her, but when she turned to look at him, he studiously looked away, engaging himself in quiet conversation with someone nearby. But she heard his voice in her ear nonetheless.

Do it. Now. Flip the switch.

She turned back to the girl, who was beginning to tremble, wondering, no doubt, if she'd done something wrong.

Julia forced thoughts of Frank out of her mind. She had a responsibility here, in this delicate dove of a girl who needed something from her that she ached to provide. The girl needed to be led down the dark hallway to the locked door that Julia could help her open...

After talking with the girl and her Master for a little while, stopping every now and again to stroke her hair or tilt her chin up to look down into her face, Julia learned a little about the girl's likes and dislikes, established some ground rules.

Julia uncuffed the girl's wrists and led her away from her smiling Master, to the St. Andrew's cross.

"Raise your arms, baby," Julia murmured, and was gratified at the girl's shivery compliance. The girl's arms were overhead, her legs spread, her midsection tethered to the cross, a blindfold shutting out the onlookers.

Julia stroked and patted, then lightly smacked, the girl's shoulders, back, buttocks, thighs, before picking up a light flogger and beginning to dust the girl with mild blows. Julia's arm loosened, Her mind focused, as she found her rhythm in her own heartbeat and the girl's quivering cries.

When diffuse pink blushes spread over the girl's shoulder blades, with darker, rounder blotches of color on her buttocks and thighs, it was time to shift. The leather on the next tool was a bit stiffer, the tails longer, Julia's throws more intense. The girl's cries became lower in pitch, rather than higher, as she got more aroused. That was intoxicating.

As she moved to grab a soft deerskin short flogger, she found herself searching the crowd for Frank's eyes, half-afraid she might find them and deflate herself. There he was, watching with a peculiar mix of awe, pride, and secure knowledge that she was his. They shared a long moment of quiet kinship, Dominant to Dominant, as she felt his energy and her own flow through her. Her very skin seemed to glow, as she smiled and turned back to her charge.

She flicked her wrist in a wicked uppercut, the tails of the short flogger licking between the girl's legs...the tails connecting...between cheeks, between lips...and the girl's head was lolling back...her cries unchecked...

Julia stepped in, shielding the girl with her own warm body, rubbing, soothing, reaching around to squeeze the girl's nipples, her voice low in the girl's ear.

"More?"

"Please, Ma'am...yes...more...yesssss..."

Something hardened in Julia's jaw as she took the riding bat, short and sturdy, with a wide tip made of stiff leather. The first blow, a glancing one across the back of the upper thigh, caused the girl to white-knuckle against the ropes which held her up, and buckled her knees. Julia slipped a smooth thigh between the girl's legs, bracing her with her body weight, simultaneously holding her up and stimulating her starved little mound. When the girl regained her footing, she stepped back.

The blows came harder, faster, as Julia's hunger for red skin and abandoned cries grew, surged. Electricity seemed to shoot through her arms, out her fingers, down her legs, pinging her clit and nipples. But the core of her was deadly calm, an electric euphoria mixed with Zen-like peace. Not to mention a little touch of sadism, as she took the girl's right nipple firmly, pinching her nails into the base as the girl howled.

"PLEASE MA'AM I NEED TO CUM PLEASE..."

She stepped to one side of the girl, sliding the riding bat between her legs, the shaft rubbing between her reddened asscheeks, between hungry slick folds, the wide tip tapping her swollen clit.

Julia growled low in the girl's ear. "Ride it. Ride it and cum."

The girl was screaming in less than ten strokes, coming hard as Julia braced the girl around the waist with her arm, trembling a little from the workout and from the adrenaline.

When the girl's cries began to dim, the girl's Master approached and untied her, his long arms easily reaching the top of the cross, while Julia braced the girl with her body, and sank to the floor with her. She stroked that gleaming caramel hair, crooning softly to her, rocking the girl in her arms. Aftercare was her specialty. She knew what she needed as a submissive, and the mothering part of aftercare appealed to her.

She waited until the girl was quiet and calm, then nodded toward the girl's Master, who came back to retrieve her, pulling her into his lap.

She returned to Frank, triumphant with the flush of a Dominant's high, as he repeated his words from earlier, lifting her up against him in a bone-crushing hug.

"Deadly, baby. I'm so proud of you. God, what a rush to see you like that."

"Thank you, Sir. Thank you." Kiss after kiss, crushed against him.

They remained at the party for another hour or so, as the conversation turned to lighter subjects. Julia kept a special eye on the girl, and Frank kept a special eye on his girl. Julia smiled to herself, and gradually the high receded, replaced with warmth that suffused her body. So damned grateful. So amazed at the confidence of this man. Go ahead, he said. Take the power. Embrace it, let it live in you. Because I know when it is time, you will surrender it to me once again.

The play between them began from the first slam of the car doors to head home. And they'd barely reached the front door before his fingers were already twisting the chignon loose and digging into her hair. She fell against him, greedy, ravenous, whimpering with need. He tossed his jacket on the arm of the sofa, kicking the door shut with his foot, and forced her to her knees.

Yes...from a Dominant's high to a submissive's frenzied need...I've had the control...my body is singing with it...take it...take it back, Master...let it feed you.

Frank was hoarse. "I was so proud of you. You were magnificent. DO YOU HAVE ANY FUCKING IDEA what it does to me, knowing the power of you under me, really knowing it?" His hands were brutal in her hair. "I feel like a jockey, or a fucking racecar driver."

"You took her there, gave her what she needed. Did for her. Now, I will do for you. Ready for the ride?"

Her lips closed gratefully around his cock with a moan as he flipped the light switch with his elbow.