I shook my head, feeling sad at the question. “I came here to work at this advertising agency; they hired me and I worked really hard for a whole month until they basically folded because someone embezzled.”
Master Luke hissed. “That’s unfortunate. And then you met Carl soon after?”
“Yeah, pretty quickly. We met on an app and had a few meetings, and he seemed… great, really.” But he hadn’t been. “I don’t know what went wrong.”
I turned to him and saw his wince. It seemed like he had some ideas.
“You’re new, he’s not. He’s known in the community for basically not always having the submissive’s best interest at heart. Which is how these relationships should always go, in my opinion. Sure people like to say that the sub holds all the power with safe words being used and such, but that’s not necessarily true and can be a bit naïve way to look at it all.” He got up and pushed his chair closer to the table. “We can talk about this more at some point later, but I think you’ve earned a bath and some time to watch your cartoons.”
I inhaled sharply. I wanted to ask if he was serious, if I was really—“W-was I good?”
He looked so sad when he stepped closer and put his hand on my shoulder. “You’ve been nothing but good, Bear, and you don’t have to worry about it at all. Tomorrow we’ll talk about everything. I think you need guidelines to balance you, so you know what expectations I have.”
I nodded quickly. “I like rules.”
He chuckled and squeezed my shoulder. “Most little subbies do.”
I blushed, and then he ushered me to the bathroom with the tub.
“I don’t normally use this one because I’m a shower guy, but neither of the bathrooms are ensuites either because of how the older, bigger apartments were divided into these smaller ones, so use whichever you want.”
He left me to fill the tub and came back after a few moments, his mouth twitching with a little smile.
“I just remembered I had these. Someone gave them to me as a gag gift in a Secret Santa.”
He held out two medium-sized rubber duckies. One of them had a ball gag in its mouth, and the other had a leather harness and a cap on.
I covered my face and let out a giggle as I held out my hand for them.
“Have a good bath, Bear.”
With that, Master Luke left me to my own devices, and I realized I felt calmer and happier than I had in months.
Luukas
After I heard the first splashes and giggles from the bathroom, I retreated to the kitchen and made myself a stiff drink. Then I turned around and straddled the same chair I’d used during dinner.
I hated Dominants like Carl with vigor. It was one thing to be old guard and high protocol like Allen. He was pretty strict and could seem harsh to the younger generation. What Carl was doing was abuse, but sometimes that line blurred in consensual Master/slave relationships.
It didn’t mean there was anything abusive about responsible BDSM. It just meant that people like Carl could sometimes get away with things they shouldn’t.
I called Allen.
“Luukas, what’s going on?” he asked without saying hi.
“Well, I have a boy in my bathtub playing with rubber duckies and giggling,” I started, then let my head fall forward as I sighed.
“That’s… not what I was expecting.”
I laughed through my nose. “Me neither.”
“You can fill me in later with the details, but when I saw them, I felt like the boy wasn’t heard and that he was very… uncomfortable.”
“You were right. He’s definitely the wrong sub for Carl who had told him it was fine to have a three-month first contract with revision only after the three months were over.”
The barrage of curses from Allen wasn’t completely unexpected.
“I… I’ll make sure the community handles this. Even I know Bear is new to the scene.” He exhaled hard. “Jesus fuck, Luukas.”
