TWO DAYSlater, Jasper knocked on the door to Keith’s room, poking his head in when Keith called that it was open. He bit his lip, making sure Keith was alone as he stepped inside. “Can I talk to you?”
Keith turned his chair away from his computer, motioning to the bed. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’swrongexactly.” He sat on the edge of the bed, resting his notebook in his lap. “It’s just….” He picked at the metal spirals. “Vincent….” He wasn’t sure how to broach the subject, even though he knew Keith wouldn’t mind. Probably.
Keith pushed his chair closer. “Did something happen?”
Jasper frowned, fighting his indignation. Keith might not have spoken badly about Vincent, but Matt had made a point to warn him, again, that Vincent was a dick and not worth Jasper’s time. “No. He agreed to a date, but only if I bring a list of limits to discuss. So we can see if I wanttobehispet,” he said in a rush, risking a peek at Keith when he didn’t immediately say that was a stupid idea.
Keith didn’t seem as surprised as Jasper had expected. “Do you want to be his pet?”
Jasper let out a breath and resumed toying with his notebook. “I haven’t hated any of what we’ve done so far.” He could have done without tasting himself, but even that…. “And you and Matt are happy with Reiko, and Terrance with Amber. I want to give it a try. I just—” He shrugged. “—don’t know how this is really supposed to work.”
“Which part?”
Jasper flicked his fingers, a bit desperately. “All of it?”
Keith coughed in a way Jasper was sure hid a laugh. “Okay. So Vincent is definitely a Dom. You’ve been submitting to him?”
“I guess so, yeah. He made me kneel and answer questions, and then ordered me to… do stuff.” Like that wasn’t an understatementat all.
“Stuff you liked?”
“Mostly. I mean, yeah, pretty much,” Jasper replied. His ass was still warm enough to get him aroused if he wasn’t careful. But he wouldn’t mind doing that again. Not in the least.
“And you like submitting? Handing over control?” Keith asked.
“Is that weird?” It seemed weird if he thought about it too much, but that first night, tied up and completely helpless in the chair, he’d finally found a missing piece of himself. And each time after, when he was at Vincent’s mercy, he understood that piece a little more. Except that part of him seemed to get a lot bigger at the same time. “I liked taunting him? Not because I didn’t want to do what he said, but…. It was fun to make him work for it?”
Keith did laugh then, the one Jasper usually only heard when Reiko or Matt were around. “Of course you’re a brat.” He shook his head. “All right. So what is it you need from me?”
“He asked for my limits. I don’t even know what I don’t know about limits.” Jasper hesitated as he gnawed on his lower lip, “I told him he could do anything he wanted to me, and he didn’t like that. He asked if that meant he could cut on me. Who would even want to do that?”
Keith tilted his head with a raised eyebrow, then shrugged. “Lots of people, actually. But I can list some common kinks for you, and some limits you should probably have until you get more experience.”
Jasper sagged in relief. “Thank you,” he said, flipping his notebook open.
BY THEtime they were done, Jasper had two pages of kinks listed, with details or definitions Keith had given for the ones he’d never heard of.
Keith had also pointedly gone over basic safety precautions, general expectations, and guidelines on top of everything else.
Jasper suspected most of what Keith told him was prompted by the mention of cutting, which irked him about as much as he was grateful. He’d been tempted to ask what Matt’s problem was with Vincent, but he didn’t want a biased explanation. Not yet anyway. If the reason was really bad enough that Jasper wasn’t safe with Vincent, he was sure Amber would have said something the first night.
He flopped onto his bed with a sigh. His head was swimming as he tried to process all the information, staring at the notebook pages without seeing them. He was supposed to figure out his limits from this? What if he said no to something he would have enjoyed? Like spanking. As much as he wanted to do the whole sub thing, he’d never really gotten past the “being tied up” fantasy.
He didn’t want to miss out on something because he didn’t know any better. But at the same time, the thought of trying even half of these things made him uneasy.
With another sigh, he grabbed his highlighters and stretched out on his stomach to start marking. Pink for no, yellow for maybe, and green for yes.
No to cutting, knives and needles, and all the different toilet plays, choking, suspension, branding, CBT, and guns.
Yes to restraints, spanking, blowjobs, anal sex, biting, aftercare—Vincent had been doing that already, hadn’t he?—plugs and toys, and edging.
Maybe to blindfolds, whips, orgasm denial, gags, piercings, permanent marking, nipple clamps, cock rings, and collars.
He chewed on the end of his highlighter, looked everything over, and then listed them out in neat columns on a separate sheet. Some of his tension eased at having it done and ready to go, and he turned to his homework instead.
WHEN FRIDAYcame around, Jasper was antsy again, but excited. He knew Matt disapproved, but Amber seemed happy for him. He could tell she was wary, but at least she didn’t keep telling him he was making a mistake.
