The Commitment (Unrestrained 2)

"Hiya, Kate. Drake asked me to call you."

"He already spoke to you about this?"

"You bet he did. He's concerned that you'll get the wrong idea about Sunita."

"My friend Dawn—"

"How can you call her a friend? She tried her best to break you two up and almost succeeded."

"We go back a long way. I owe her a lot."

"Well, whatever. I think you're far too forgiving." She sighed on the other end of the connection. "So, what do you need to know about Sunita…"

"I told Drake I didn't need to call you."

"He wanted me to call. Hold for a moment. I have to close my door."

I waited and heard rustling of papers before she came back on the line.

"So, when I first met Drake, we took a course on abnormal psychology together. We studied sexual deviance that semester and read up on BDSM, debating whether it was a sign of deviance or just a normal human sexual variant. He was fascinated by sadism and masochism. I thought it was because he was into it, either as a masochist or sadist. Sometimes really high-achieving men like to submit in the bedroom. It's a stress release."

She paused for a moment and I heard her take a sip of a drink. "I was already active in the lifestyle, but he was this bright-eyed junior and had no familiarity with kink outside of porn with a bit of spanking or hair pulling. You know, the usual vanilla stuff. So I thought he was really into it. I didn’t realize at the time that it was the scientist in him. The future-physician, the hopeful psychoanalyst. He was curious, but more because he was interested in the mind. Not because it was a kink."

I tried to imagine Drake in a classroom, sitting beside the impeccably dressed Lara and a stab of jealousy went through me.

"When I realized Drake wasn’t a sub," she said, continuing. "I thought Drake was like me – a Dom with a bit of sadism in him, so after his marriage broke up, he contacted me and told me what happened. I told him he was a Dom and that he had to learn how to top a submissive. He became my submissive so I could teach him."

"So you tied him up and spanked him?"

"Oh, yes. And a lot more."

"What do you mean, a lot more?"

"Exactly what I said. Everything that Drake does to you? I've done to him. Bondage. Discipline."

I screwed up my face, thinking of his desire for anal. "Did you use a…" I hesitated.

"A strap on?" Lara said, amusement in her voice. "I did. He had to learn how to do anal properly. He and I have done everything, Kate. So you don't have to worry. I know Drake Morgan and he is not a sadist."

I felt white hot jealousy fill me to think of Lara with Drake, but I tried to squelch that by repeating to myself that they were both Dominants and so could never satisfy each other.

"Did you ever do," I said, biting my bottom lip. "Vanilla sex?"

"We had a go when we were first taking classes together but didn't mesh," she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. "Don't be jealous. I don't do Vanilla as a rule, although Drake does. He's very mild, which was why I paired you with him. Don't get me wrong – there was a part of me that wished he was a sub, because if so, I would have grabbed onto him and not let go. But I knew he was Dominant. I just wasn't sure where he fell in the S&M spectrum."

"You exposed him to pain to see if he liked it? Did you hurt him?"

"Yes, but it did nothing for him sexually. I also tried him out with a few women who liked pain to see if he liked to give it. Sunita was one of the ones I fixed him up with. It didn’t end well."

I swallowed, a sense of darkness settling over me. "Tell me what happened."

"She wanted Drake. He didn’t want her. It's that simple." She took a slurp of her coffee. "He didn’t get off on what she needed. She was jealous when he moved on and she raised a stink, stalking him a bit. He tried really hard to humor her but he met a sub that he clicked with and Sunita was not happy. I did my best to find her a new Dom and finally, she gave up, but she was always angry with him for not trying to make it work. She thought he could do it. Or, she convinced herself that he was denying his inner sadist."

"So he tried with her? He did do some painful things?"

"Yes. Floggers. Canes. Riding crops. Nipple clamps. That kind of thing. She has pictures of her bruises and video of them playing together, but you can't tell for sure it's him. Drake was very careful about that, given his position. She wanted to get into knife play and edge play, but for Drake as a surgeon, that would be betraying his oath. If he had done anything like that, she could have really fucked him up with the College of Physicians and Surgeons if she wanted. But it would have exposed her as well and so, thankfully, she didn't do anything. I found her someone who was more in sync with her needs, but I think she felt embarrassed that he found her too kinky."

I tried to imagine Drake using a cane with Sunita. Flogging her until she was bruised. I tried to understand why someone would want to be cut and to have a knife as part of their sex play. I didn't understand it, but I did understand how the forbidden and slightly dangerous was appealing sexually. Edge play was just taking it to the extreme.