The Pleasure Boy 11

Quite a lot had happened since yesterday. My father had phoned and we had spoken. He had apologized for his initial, thoughtless response about my intended major in history and the university tuition. We had agreed to meet. I'd received permission to take the next day off, to meet my Dad for lunch and visit Mom that evening.

I'd been assigned to a class at Guild School, and informed when it was starting and what my schedule would be.

And Mistress Lotte had formally confirmed my new relationship with Lisa. I would continue to be Lotte's apprentice, with a stipulation that I would also belong to, serve and be trained by her senior apprentice Lisa.

When I'd phoned Dad back, we agreed to meet at one PM at Bartholemew's Place, a ritzy restaurant and watering hole, two short blocks from his office. Having been excused from chores that day, I went on with the introductory readings for most of that morning, then knocked off at eleven, showered, shaved and groomed as I'd been taught, and dressed as best I could for such a fancy place. I needed no one to tell me that if I was going to make a habit of lunching at such establishments, I needed a new wardrobe - a three-piece suit with accessories.

I got to the restaurant promptly at one. At first, the maitre 'd looked askance at me, as if to tell me that I was in the wrong place; but when I asked for Todd Woodruff's table, he called me 'sir' and told me "Right this way, please."

My father was already seated, but when I reached his table he stood up, shook hands and hugged me as the waiter watched. "Two gin and tonics, please," he ordered, and the waiter walked away.

"Well," he said, it's good to see you. "Thanks for agreeing to meet. I'll say again, I'm sorry for the line I took with you that evening, and I'm proud of you for standing up to me. What you've been doing took some courage."

"Let's forget it Dad," I answered. I've accepted your apology, and its water under the bridge. I think a whole lot more of you for being big enough to listen to Mom and admit that you were wrong."

"I think I know where you were coming from. You wanted nothing but the best for me, and were hoping that I would come into your firm and take it over some day. That was never going to happen. It's just not who I am. That much I already knew. Now, with Mom's help, with Mistress Lotte and the Guild, I've found a place where I belong. Where it will lead me, I don't know; whether I'll go on to study history and make an academic career remains to be seen. But I'm happy where I am now, and I'm learning a lot."

The waiter came with our drinks and placed them before us respectfully. "Will you be dining, sir?" he asked. "Do you wish to order now?"

"Not just yet," Dad answered. "Give us some time to settle in."

We picked up our glasses, clinked to toast each other and sipped. I was surprised that he'd ordered an alcoholic drink for me without asking or saying anything. He'd never done that before. In fact, I'd had a few gin-and-tonics before, at friends' parties, but he couldn't have known that. As if reading my mind, he commented, "Don't be too surprised that I ordered a drink for you. I know you do some drinking now. I too was young once, don't forget. And you're 18 now, so it's even legal."

"Where shall we start?" he asked. "I think you need to know - and I need to tell you - about my relationship with your mother, and my own career in BDSM. But that may be too much information at this point. I don't know if you're ready to hear it."

"Dad, I've already figured out that Mom wasn't a virgin when you met her. She was a colleague of my trainer, Mistress Charlotte - a geisha in kinky sex. She'll tell me what she wants to about her career, but just from the fact that you were involved with her enough to propose and marry her - and then live with her all these years - I know you must have had some kinks yourself. I don't know all that much yet, but I do understand and accept that all three of us are sexual animals, much like everyone else on the planet. Why don't we start by putting our cards on the table? I'll tell you my dirty secrets if you tell me yours."

"I'll even start, if you like. I don't know if you know about the test Mom gave me, when we started talking about my becoming a geisho. She had me watch a DVD with a few hours of different porn clips, wearing a collar to monitor and record my body's responses. Based on that record and our conversation, she determined that I shared the family interest in BDSM, and sent me to an old friend and colleague of hers - Mistress Charlotte, Mistress Lotte for short - who interviewed me and took me on as an apprentice. Since I started to train with her, I've gotten more sexual experience in a few weeks than many people get in a lifetime. Before starting with Mistress Lotte, I was a normal teenager with teenager's experience of necking and petting and going all the way, a few times. Since then, having been toyed and tested and played with, it's become obvious to myself and Mistress, and everyone else there, that I'm a natural submissive, happiest when being worked and cared for by a skillful Dominant."

"I'm still digesting that self-knowledge, but it no longer scares me. So I probably won't get too freaked out by anything you tell me about yourself or Mom."

"All right," my father responded. "As you must have guessed by now, I first met your Mom as one of her clients, or customers. As a kid, I discovered my own interest BDSM from the porn that turned me on. Nobody had to test me. I was just reading books and skin mags and wanking. When I got older, and could afford it, I started visiting pro-Dommes to get myself spanked or whipped or edged. I tried to interest a few girlfriends in the Scene, but never had much luck. As an engineer, and later a businessman, I was also too busy to date much. Paying for what I needed and desired was the simplest and most convenient way. Your mother, then known as Mistress Hannah, had a big reputation at the time. When I heard of her, I booked an appointment and got the best scene I'd ever had. I became one of her regulars, and eventually got her to date me and marry me. One big thing we had in common was that we both wanted a family. I wanted a wife and she wanted children. What we got were each other and you. And eighteen years later, here we are."

"I admit that I wanted too much for you to follow in my footsteps, come into the business with me and eventually take it over when I retire or die. You've shown, and your Mom has explained to me that you are now your own man, entitled to your own life and to the love and full support of your parents in building it. You will have it now. I've nothing else to say.

We ordered lunch, and ate, and the conversation died for awhile. Then we came back to it. "Dad, I've already said this, but it's worth repeating. "I accept your apology, and will accept your help when I need it. I promise to come and ask. I love you, and only think the more of you for coming around and opening up with me as you've done. I'm proud of you too: Of the business you've built and the woman you married. You've been a good father - a bit distant and preoccupied - but safe, and stable and interested. It was a good home to grow up in, and you've been its provider. I hope I do as well when my turn comes."

"There are a few more things I'd like to know. First, do you and Mom still play? You can tell me that it's none of my business."

"It's not your business, but I don't mind talking about it. Part of the deal when your Mom agreed to marry me was that she would no longer see clients, and that to me she could be either a wife or a Domme, but not both. As we both wanted a child, this was not in question. At first, we stopped playing completely. Later we resumed a bit when you had a sleep-over with a friend or were away at camp. But we didn't have the opportunity to do much. Now, with you out of the house, the opportunity is back, but things have been a bit chilly between us. They will be warmer now that she's had her way about you, that I've made peace with that fact, and that you and I are friends again; but with you out of the house, she's been at loose ends lately. 'Empty nest syndrome,' they call it. I don't think she's decided what she wants to do now. From some things she's said, I think she wants to start seeing clients again, but she knows I'm not happy with that idea."

"Why not? What's wrong with her seeing clients?"

Dad sighed. "Maybe nothing. Maybe I'm just being rigid again. But if she's seeing clients, I'm going to feel jealous. Despite what they say about BDSM scenes not involving sex - unquestionably, there are sexual feelings involved. She and I are still arguing about this. I'm not sure how it's going to work out."

"Look," he went on, "Mom wants to see you. She made me promise to take you home with me. I could do that. I've cancelled all my appointments for this afternoon. There's nothing more important to me than putting my family back together - now with you as an adult, leading your own life. But you may prefer to see her alone, at least this first time. Maybe I'd just be in the way."

"I'll leave it up to you: Should I come home with you, or let you go alone?"

"I've already promised to come for dinner this evening. I spoke with her on the phone yesterday after I talked to you. Didn't she tell you about it?"

"She did. And didn't say anything about wanting to see you alone. On the contrary, my impression was that she did not want to be seen as developing a one-to-one with you that excludes me. There's already been enough of that."

"I feel the same way, Dad. If you're cool with what I'm doing, there's no reason to keep secrets. Especially since you've been in the Scene as a subbie yourself. I do have a lot to tell Mom, but unless it will make you uncomfortable, or have a reason to stay out of it, you should hear it too."

Dad waved for the cheque, paid it with his debit card and thanked our waiter by name. We left the restaurant and walked back to the building where his company rented space, then took the elevator below ground to its parking facility. We got into his car, a two year old Toyota Lexus; and he drove us up to street level, out of the building and home.

Mom, who'd clearly been waiting for us, looked relieved when she saw that all was well again between us. She hugged and kissed me first, then him. "And here's the prodigal son," she exclaimed.

"Not so prodigal," I replied. "I haven't done anything wrong, and don't regret a thing. Not yet anyway."

"Well," Mom said, "Your father has forgiven you; there will be a feast in your honour; and the fatted calf has been slaughtered. It's wonderful to see you. How is it going?"

"It's too soon to say much, Mom," I answered her. "My Guild Classes haven't started yet, and won't for another week. I just got the notification yesterday, after we spoke on the phone. But I'm getting along well at Mistress Lotte's training house - with the Mistress and Mitch (her husband, and the man who helped me move, if you remember) and the other three apprentices there. The most senior of these (her name is Lisa) is a 19 year-old farm girl from the mid-west who intends to be a pro-Domme. She's in her last two months of apprenticeship and is interning now in Mistress Lotte's dungeon.

"Speaking to me, you can just call her Lotte," my mother cut in. "You don't need to keep saying 'Mistress.' She's an old, old friend of mine, and I know you respect her."

"There is one unusual development," I went on. "At Lotte's suggestion, Lisa invited me wear her collar, and link up with her. I've accepted. The idea is that I will help her practice managing a 24/7 D/s relationship, while she helps train me as a professional submissive, which is where everyone thinks I'm headed. Lisa has heard about you, and knows that I'm your son. She'd like very much to meet you, and I told her I'd try to arrange it."

"That won't be a problem," my mother said. "You can bring her to dinner with us some time. We'll come back to her in a moment. More important, how do you feel about being type-cast so promptly as a submissive?"

"For now, at least, I don't mind at all," I answered. "As I'm the most junior in the group, it feels right. I enjoy obeying and getting pleasure-spanked by people I respect. Mitch, Mistress Lotte's sub is a magnificent specimen, and he's been proposed to me as a role model. Also, from what I understand, professional submissives make great escorts, and are in big demand. I don't want to be labelled and dismissed as a submissive, but I like being trained as one."

"I think you're exactly right," Mom said. "By all means, let them develop you as a sub. But don't neglect the other side of it as well. Learn to project power and to dominate when you need to. Even if it doesn't come naturally at first, it's a teachable skill and a useful one. Dominance and submission are really two sides of the same coin."

"Yes," I answered her. "I can see that in Mitch - and in Dad, for that matter. "Mitch subs to Lotte, but he doms all the apprentices. Dad subs to you at home (though your domination is indirect and subtle), but he dominates his employees and this afternoon in the restaurant. I watched him do it with the staff. Our waiter gave him respect with the service - not just for an extra tip, but as his natural due. Was it a skilfully submissive waiter flattering his customer? Or was the authority of a frequent customer, drawing respect from the restaurant staff? My impression was that it was both."

"When it works, it's always both," Dad said. Authority is different from power, but they should go together. I might fire an employee or decide to terminate his job, and that gives me a certain amount of power. But that power will be resented unless my employees believe that I am running the business better than they would do it themselves - if only because I am working longer hours or taking bigger personal risks than they would want to. Power is merely feared because of some implied threat. Authority has to be earned in some way. If I didn't have some authority, my employees - at least the valuable ones who could easily find work elsewhere - would leave."

"Right," my mother said. "In D/s we talk about 'power exchange,' but authority is really what's at point. Subs submit to a Dom because they want to, because they feel safe and protected and cherished. I said before that as a sub, you also should learn to project power. But power was the wrong word. I should have said that good subs have their own kind of authority - not just to underlings, but even with their masters or mistresses."

The doorbell rang. Mom went to open it and came with a bag containing several boxes of sushi. I helped her lay it out on the table, while Dad opened a bottle of wine. Then we sat down to eat; and for awhile we were silent, just enjoying the good food and being together.

After dinner, sitting around in the living room, I asked Mom to talk about her career. "One thing I've gotten from my training so far," I told her, "I've come to see you in a new way. Meeting Mistress Lotte, being worked by her and getting to know her showed me who you really are. Before I knew you as as my mother, as Dad's wife, as the centre of our little family. Now I realize that you must have trained and practised in much the same way that she did - and like her, must be a master of kinky sex."

"Of course, I realized that much when you tested me with those porn clips; but that was just with my brain. With Lotte now, getting a whole new upbringing from her, I'm feeling with my gut what you must have been."

"What I still am," my mother said. "To you I was a mother. To your father I was his Dominatrix before I became his wife. To some others, I've been a submissive, sexy slut. People play different roles with different people, and often multiple roles with the same person. I'll always be your Mom, but as you train and turn into an adult, I'll be your friend and senior colleague."

She continued, "As you're asking about my career, this is a good time to make an announcement. With you grown up and out of the house now, I intend to go back to being a geisha. All this time, I've been teaching and doing admin work for the Guild; now I'll go back to working with clients."

She turned to my father, "I know you are unhappy about that, Todd, but I will find ways to reassure you and make it up to you. We'll talk about that in bed, when Jim isn't here; but I'll promise now, in front of him, that your interests and our marriage won't suffer."

"I knew this was coming," Dad said. "I told Jim over lunch that with him gone, you were feeling bored and planning to start seeing clients again. I told him I was unhappy about this. Do you think you can change my mind, and get me to like it?"

"I may not get you to like it, but I'll make it up to you. That's a promise. I'll find ways to ease your misgivings and make it worth your while to put up with them."

"How?"

That's between you and me. It's none of Jim's business. He shouldn't have to listen to us negotiate."

I put in, "But it's good for me to hear how a marriage works?"

"Exactly. That's why I waited till you were here to make that announcement and promise. "

"But your current plans don't concern me, Mom. I'm sure you'll make them work somehow. I'd like to know more about how you were trained, and how you met my father."

"I got interested in BDSM when I was teenager, when I found I could use domination on my boyfriends. A little later, I realized that I could make money and have more fun as a geisha than as a secretary."

"I entered training - exactly the same training you're doing now - with an older Domme named 'Mistress Catherine' who is dead now. As a senior apprentice - where your Lisa is today - I interned and then went to work for a different Mistress named 'Eleanor,' who's still very much around. She's one of the Guild's Directors now. You'll probably meet her some day."

"Some times as an assistant Domme sometimes as a professional sub, I studied and worked with Mistress Eleanor for almost nine years before I qualified as an independent Mistress, and continued to work with her as an associate rather than leave New York City and open my own dungeon somewhere else. It was in that period that I met Lotte who was also working for Eleanor.

"I'll stop now, and let your dad tell the next part of the story."

He took up: "I can't remember when or how I first got turned on to BDSM. All I know is that stories and imagery of spanking, whipping and bondage played a big part in my fantasy life from the time I first learned to masturbate. I bought skin mags; I read the BDSM classics; and, as I told you in the restaurant, I tried to interest a few girlfriends in Topping me without much luck. But I was busy studying - learning the trade of electronics engineering. I didn't have time or money to explore the Scene in any depth."

That changed when I was in my late twenties, after I'd sold a few patents for miniature monitoring devices - like the items in the collar that your mother had you wear. I attracted interest from a venture capitalist who gave me the means to open my own business in exchange for a healthy share of its profits. After that I had money, but still not much free time. I started going to pro-Dommes when I felt the need, and then I met your mother."

"As I told you in the restaurant, her scenes were the best I'd ever had. When she worked me, I felt as if something inside me that had been frozen was gradually melting and becoming soft. Also, she had a professional submissive working under her - a sweet girl. Between the two of them, they taught me about sexual power. Or sexual authority, as your Mom just said. I learned to submit as a free choice, an act of service, without becoming needy and dependent. I learned to dominate, not as a tyrant but as a just prince and ruler. I doubt my firm would have taken off and grown as it did, if I had not learned what your mom taught me about being 'the Boss."