By the Scruff of His Neck

This is a kinky story about a submissive man and a dominant woman and the night they spend together, finding themselves experiencing a wide range of tones as their evening builds...silly, serious, cute, intense, primal, playful, tender, harsh...two people rushing into kinky fun just a bit too fast together, but also finding some human intimacy through the clashing of their imperfections.

In a nutshell I would say it's (just barely long enough to be) a Gentle Femdom Romance Novella, but as the heroine of our story is a bit of a sadist in spite of her nurturing tendencies, it's not a COMPLETELY gentle ride...

So you have the eager and cute--but nervous and inexperienced--young-at-heart subby male, our primary character since the story is told from his perspective, and then the smirking lioness Femme Domme, who plucks him up in her jaws and proceeds to maul him, lick his wounds, dominate him, and love him.

Our hero is a late-blooming neurotic subby guy with mommy issues, who, after a life of repressing and not understanding his desire to be sexually submissive to women, has finally seen, scrutinized, accepted, and embraced the feelings he's always had deep down. However, he has yet to have a real encounter with a Domina, and has been fantasizing about it for months now, and so the desire and eagerness within him have reached an utter breaking point and are driving him insane. When he finally musters up the courage to go to a kinky event and runs into the heroine of our story--a confident, playful, feminine, strong, sadistic--but ultimately tender and loving--Domina who takes what she wants, he unexpectedly experiences the best night of his life.

P.S. I don't discuss the age of the characters in the story because I think they could be adults of any age, and actually of a relatively wide possibility of age relation to each other as well, and I encourage you to project the adult ages you like onto the characters. Similarly, you will note that ethnicity is not mentioned. All of the physical descriptors of the characters can be applied to any ethnicity.

P.P.S. The story starts a bit silly during the initial courtship but quickly ramps up into a night of increasingly adventurous kink after the first couple of chapters. Feel free to skim or skip ahead if you aren't enjoying some of the weird metaphorical conventions I hesitantly experimented with in the earlier sections, but that I mostly leave off with after the story picks up speed.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this story to my future (hopefully gentle!) Mistress, may she sniff me out and lay claim to me!

CHAPTER 1 -- APPROACH

Exhaling the last puff of smoke, I stamped out my J in the little makeshift ashtray in my car's cupholder. Then three more breaths in, three more breaths out, just for good measure. Ok. We were as relaxed as we were going to get. It was time to go in to the restaurant.

On the inside of me, Brain and Mouth sat side-by-side in the central control room of my being:

"Sigh. I love these precious, peaceful moments where it's just us, Mouth. Me sitting here doing my thing, planning and scheming, and you not getting us into any trouble, simply because there are no other humans to talk to, ya know?" Mouth just yawned in response to this. "Unfortunately, you're about to be up to bat. Are you ready for this? I'm gonna help you out as best I can, so try to listen to ME and not that trio of knuckleheads that are sure to make an appearance..." Mouth gave a silent thumbs up to Brain. "Ok, good," Brain confirmed.

Back in reality, I got out of my car and walked towards the restaurant, looking around the parking lot to see if there might be others like me heading inside.

The host greeted me with a smile, "just you, or?"

"Actually, I'm here for the uh..."

"The Munch group?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"Of course! Right this way; I'll take you back." We walked back to the large room at the back of the restaurant. "Anywhere back here is where you all have reserved, so just sit wherever you like."

I thanked him and he left, and I stepped past the threshold and into the room. I quickly scanned my eyes to the right...hmm...there's what looks like a couple having a pretty spirited conversation, maybe I shouldn't bug them? Or should I? Isn't making friends sort of the point of this?

...Brain was furiously typing away at his keyboard trying to assess our options, all six of his monitors displaying a variety of information, both new and old. Suddenly, back in reality, we were interrupted by a voice both strong and feminine:

"Well, aren't you cute as a button."

My head swiveled towards the voice in an instant. I paused briefly, slightly shocked, the utter perfection of her beauty certainly hit my eyes, though I hadn't yet really had time to process it given the immediacy of this suddenly very real, very terrifying social moment that we knew might be impending but were never-the-less not prepared for.

I looked behind my right shoulder, followed by my left.

"Yes, I'm talking about you sweetheart," she giggled at me.

"Oh." My eyes immediately dropped to the floor instinctively, my hands fleeing behind my back. I could feel myself blushing. "Thanks," I stammered, looking back up at her. In my defense, I WAS pretty cute. I'm very short, big-eyed, petite but with a little bit of muscle, with a handsome, boyish face and a nice little haircut that suits me. Best of all, the very spankable bubble butt that looked great on my little body. I was wearing black jeans, like her apparently, with my black t-shirt with the bunny and the lioness on it.

Her, on the other hand:

Whoa. Holy shit. She was gorgeous. A goddess. Everything I wanted in a woman.

She was tall enough that you could easily tell she was, even though she was sitting down. Certainly, she had at least several inches on little ol' me. Big, almond-shaped, dark brown penetrating eyes. Healthy eyebrows. Overall, her face was feminine in shape, size, and...angularity? even without much makeup. Straight dark hair that she wore down, reaching the middle of her back, and a tight black tank top with some sort of cute looking skull design on it, not to mention her sizeable breasts pushing and stretching the fabric into those lovely horizontal lines.

...But her shoulders and arms. She wasn't built like the short and stocky 'muscle mommy' that had grinned hungrily at me in the sex shop last week (which had utterly turned me on, not that I ever would have had the courage to approach her in a trillion years in that setting), but more like Wonder Woman with just a little more body fat; she was an amazon. Oh God, I could have died.

Suddenly on the inside of me, Heart, Self-Loathing, and Penis-Butt--the other three internal drivers that informed my every action in this life--came bounding into the control room where Brain and Mouth sat, running at top speed:

"ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!" Self-Loathing was screaming in an utter panic.

"NO, NO, DESTINY IS AT HAND!" Screamed Heart in a half-crazed refutation, like the desperate poet that he was.

...Penis-Butt was just running around the room in circles at top speed, like the helpless dog that he was.

"CALM THE FUCK DOWN YOU MORONS!" Brain shouted back, backhanding Self-Loathing like the little bitch--and not the good kind--that he obviously was. He furiously swiveled back to his keyboard, typing out words for Mouth to be prepared to say.

Her voice, the utterly perfect blend of tenderness and authority, teasing but affirming, cut through the madness:

"Are you just going to stand there? Or do you want to sit down?"

Silence in the control room inside of me, while my internal drivers processed the ramifications and possible ramifications of this question. "Hmmm..." Brain said. "What should we do?"

A pause. Then Self-Loathing offered:

"RUN AWAY SCREAMING!!!!" Heart, Penis-Butt and Self-Loathing again began running around the control room like lunatics. Heart quick enough ended up on his knees next to Brain: "Maybe he's right, Brain! Run away screaming, it's the only path forward that we have! The only path we have, damn you!"

Mouth grabbed the controls:

"We would love to sit down! I mean, I would."

"YOU FOOL!" Brain screamed at him. "Why didn't you wait for me to type it out for you!"

Muting his IRL-microphone, Mouth shouted back at him "There's no time damn you! And I can't process your instructions properly with these three spazzoids going ape shit!!"

"Sure, all of you are welcome to sit down," she giggled at me. "Do you have multiple personality disorder or something? I mean, it's ok if you do, I have a lot of, ya know, neurodivergent friends..." she giggled again. It was the best sound I had ever heard!!

I quickly responded: "No! I'm just...a bit anxious, I'm sorry, I just moved here."

"That's ok...and take a seat already! I'm Donna."

Heart tugged on brain's sleeve vigorously "Write this down, write this down! 'Oh nice, I've been LOOKING for my Donna!'" Brain gave Mouth the death stare: "Do NOT say that."

Mouth to reality: "Oh nice, I've been looking for my Donna!"

Donna rolled her eyes at me. "I hope you can do better than that. Also, noobie, be careful that you don't cross the line between plausibly deniable flirting and hitting on someone, you know the difference between a Munch and an orgy I hope."

"Sorry. I'm really sorry. I do."

"It's ok. It was a cute line..."

I started to smile, until she finished--

"...the first time I heard it, which was about a thousand times ago."

"Right, that makes sense," I said. Mouth looked at the rest of the crew with grimace emoji and shrugged, while Heart face-palmed. Penis-Butt, who had been standing so close to the view-screen he was almost touching it, suddenly turned around and grabbed Brain by the ears-- "BRAIN! I NEED THIS WOMAN! ALL WE'RE DOING IS BORING AND OFFENDING HER, FIGURE SOMETHING OUT, MAN!"

"We're not good enough for her," Self-Loathing offered matter-of-factly.

"WE HAVE TO BE!!!!!" Screamed Penis-Butt, dropping to his knees and screaming upwards dramatically.

She kept looking at me, letting it be more and more visible on her face that she was sizing me up, considering me. Then, she sort of cocked her head to the side.

"Anyhow...since you still haven't bothered to sit down yet, and you appear to need a trip to the bar yourself anyways, want to make it up to me and buy me a drink?"

"WE'RE SAVED!!!" Penis-Butt shouted, as Heart concurred with "YES! YES!! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!!" and started shaking Brain by the shoulders so hard he couldn't think straight.

"Get off me you idiot!" Fortunately, well-timed backhand number two from Brain snapped him out of it.

And so, gathering their composure mutually for once, liberated from the chaos of their simultaneous desire and lack of confidence, or at least, perhaps, their general social ineptitude, by the clear and easy-to-follow suggestion of this amazon queen, Heart, Brain, Penis-Butt and Self-Loathing said in totally converged harmony with Mouth:

"Yes, Donna, I would love to buy you a drink."

CHAPTER 2 - COURTSHIP

A couple drinks later, I was feeling a bit tipsy, definitely very horny, utterly eager to offer my total submission, and still generally giddy from my recent loss at arm wrestling with this amazon beauty, a suggestion she had made after giggling about my "cute little arms." Of course, I reminded myself to keep my expectations in check. This was a Munch (not an orgy), and it was meant to be a socially platonic space for connecting with other kinksters, which made sense as a tacit rule to be honored in a strict way. Hell, the way I understood it, one might even worry that it'd be frowned upon to sexualize a Munch in the context of say, one's own erotic literature, let alone IRL.

"Did you get to talk to enough other people?" she offered, lowering her chin and smirking ever so barely perceptibly at me. The question caught me off-guard.

"I..." I stammered, trying to figure out the 'right' answer. "I said hi to this dominant guy at the bar, and I, I met a couple of people. But. I, do you, I can go if, or if--"

"You're so adorable. You know that? And also, I don't know if I've ever met ANYONE as desperate as you are in my LIFE."

My entire body stiffened at this brutal call-out. What the hell was I supposed to say?!

"I...I..." I stammered like an idiot, but she cut me off:

"But you're in luck, because unlike most women I like desperate boys..."

"I...you do? Isn't it gross?" I asked in surprise.

"Oh, utterly, it's disgusting." She said matter-of-factly. Then she just sat there, staring at me intently.

I had no idea what to say, but she remedied that for me by suddenly narrowing her eyes and sneering at me:

"Actually, ya know what? Why don't you just leave me alone." Her words hit me like a Mack truck.

"I...," I half wanted to cry, half wanted to die. "But I thought you said you like--"

"Well, I changed my mind," she hissed. "BYEEE!" she waved at me exaggeratedly like I was an idiot. What the hell just happened?

I was overcome with sudden embarrassment, and I was utterly confused.

"Ok. Sorry. Thanks," I stammered out sheepishly as I quickly stood up. Again, what the fuck just happened??? I shoved my chair in and turned around, half stumbling when the chair leg hit my foot, turning quickly to get away. I couldn't remember which way the exit was. I could feel my anxiety starting to quickly crawl out from where it had surprisingly remained so quietly dormant for most of the night. I took a step in a direction, then stopped, unsure, looking around wildly.

Then I heard her giggling.

I whirled around, wondering what was going on.

"You goose, I'm just messing with you." She laughed as I just stared at her wide-eyed, my mind in a total spin.

"You are??" I asked.

"Yes, duh...why do you think I've been talking to you all night if not because I've been enjoying it."

My heart skipped a beat.

"You are enjoying it??" I asked stupidly.

"Is it that hard to believe?" she laughed. "Are you really lacking self-confidence that badly?"

I broke eye contact with her, contemplating her question...but she interrupted me:

"Anyways we can talk about it later slash never...I'm ready to get out of here. We've been here far too long. If you want...you can come back with me to my place," she said, standing up and walking over to me. "No expectations or uh, strings attached of course," she smiled at me playfully and reached down, tugging lightly on my ear lobe. Another wham kind of moment, and this one was the most exciting, tantalizing, and terrifying in terms of 'I might fuck it up' yet.

I was literally frozen with desire and fear, feeling like I was at the precipice of everything I had been obsessively fantasizing about to no result but the loss of my sanity for FAR too long now.

"But...but," I stammered--and for God and the Devil know what reason--said: "aren't you supposed to not say that to me because we're at a Munch?"

Silence.

She just stared down at me. Then she blinked twice deliberately, clearly not pleased. What had I done?! Oh lord God in HEAVEN what the flaming actual FUCK had I DONE!? She could have been sexually abducting me from my dear mother's FUNERAL and I would have wished for the grace to not question it!

I thought I was doomed, but then:

"Oh sweetie," she said, looking right through my eyes and into my delicate little soul, "the Munch ended 45 minutes ago. You're all alone with me now, out in the wild. Look around you." She stared at me while I did. It was true, I was just now realizing that there was literally nobody in the entire back room but us, not even a waiter at the moment. I suddenly felt strangely vulnerable; it scared me and turned me on at the same time.

"I, I, we're the only ones here?" I dumbly stated the obvious, having no idea what else to say.

She stared into me and smiled playfully, just a bit coyly, cat-like: "I don't think you could run away from me if your life depended on it." Then her smile turned hungry, challenging me, and she lowered her voice: "But you're welcome to try, with those little legs of yours..."

I just stared at her, wide-eyed. I had nothing. At this point I couldn't even stammer out a word. So, she continued, leaning down a little, getting closer to my face and lowering her voice again, and she gently placed her hand on my cheek as she continued, a wave of mostly pleasure but also fear coursing through my body:

"At this point, sweetie, you're just a cute little bunny who's wandered into the den of a hungry lioness. And right now you have to decide, do you want to go home...with me... or not?" She emphasized those words, tenderly, knowing what I so badly needed. Then she increased the intensity of her gaze, which I managed not to break from. I knew I had to say something, but what?

"I...I...I..." I couldn't find another word. She released me by cutting in:

"I know you're feeling a bit helpless, pet." My brain melted that much further at all of the implications of the word 'pet,' as she took her hand off my face.

"I've got you absolutely in my jaws, don't I?" it seemed like she was fully realizing the truth of the fact at the same time I was. And then she reached over and, sating my overwhelming starvation for touch once again, put her hand on the side of my neck and gave it a gentle rub. She sure did have me. I closed my eyes, unable to offer any other reaction to the feel of her hand, which felt like some radiant light piercing the cloud of a profound loneliness that had been obscuring my zest for life for years. For me it was immense, anyway for her it may have just been a giggle. Oh, how I loved that giggle.

Raising her voice again a bit and now stroking my cheek she said, "Do you want me to release you, baby boy? Or do you want to come with me? All I need is for you to muster up the courage to give your verbal consent for me to take you, cutie, and I'll take care of the rest."

My insides were on fire at hearing her words! How did she have the balls to be hitting on me so flagrantly, saying such wild stuff to me? Wasn't she worried about someone hearing her? I was as aroused and excited as I was terrified. How confidently, sexily, predatorially she had control of our interaction! Pouncing on me after hours of restrained courtship, reading me the whole time like an open book, teasing my insecurities with her well-calibrated words, coaxing me to accept her subtle dominations with her irresistible tenderness, toying with me in every way, all possible because of her utter and accurate confidence in my already tacitly given submission!

I gathered myself. I wanted this. This was happening. Time to own it:

"Yeah, I will. I...consent." It sounded ridiculous, and saying it out loud freaked me out a bit. "To go home with you at least!" I cried out desperately as an addendum to my signature, suddenly wondering what the hell she might have in store for me.

"Good boy." She said, instantly and rapidly releasing her hand from me, as at the same time the waiter walked into the room and towards us, breaking the spell she had cast.

To my surprise he continued right past us and our table, but she said loudly "Check please," and literally stopped him with an arm grab, much to his obvious startlement.

After a second of looking back at her, surprised, he smiled and said: "Yes ma'am. Right away."

...I think he liked it.

CHAPTER 3 - FAILURE

She closed the apartment door behind us and threw her purse and sweatshirt on the couch. She turned around and stretched her arms up, exhaling, her hairy armpits fully on display for me to melt over. Her powerful but feminine, thick looking thighs, wide hips and perfect ass filling out her black jeans to perfection. She lowered her arms and then sent them outwards, gesturing to her abode: