Darren gave a hum of understanding. "Home base. Let people come to us."
"Yeah, exactly."
Darren twirled a length of pesto-drenched fettucini around his fork, chewing on it thoughtfully. "There are a couple of options I could look into. There's usually a couple of performance stages. We could do a suspension, though that might not be the most social of activities. I know May and a couple of the staff volunteer at a charity spanking booth. I've joined them a couple of times. The charity's great, it works with at-risk and unhoused youth with a focus on LGBT. I could see if they still need doms? Teach you to give out beginner paddlings?"
"I could try? I kind of like the idea of Shibari, but you're right. It's not exactly social."
Darren nodded, taking another bite, mind working. Then he smiled with a sudden intake of breath; clearly, a lightbulb had turned on. "Mmm. I'll have to make some calls about the logistics, but how about Shibari for charity? Not full bondage,but I could easily teach you how to tie some decorative rope harnesses. That could be super popular." He ran his fingers up Miles's spine. "Are you ready to be a dom with me for a day, husband?"
"I think so," Miles agreed. "I like the idea of being a rope top. I'll never be as good as you, of course, but since I know how good it feels, it would be nice to do it to someone else, I think. It's just hard to know sometimes where serving someone as a sub ends and serving someone as a dom starts?"
Darren nodded. "I think it'll always be especially difficult for us, but that's okay. I like how we are. When we find the right play partners, it'll be easier because you'll be starting in that role from the beginning."
"Okay. I trust you."
"I know." Darren stroked the back of his neck, warm and comforting. "Don't worry, my love. I'll help you discover what kind of a dom you want to be. We have all the time in the world. And Folsom is a really good place to start."
Miles leaned into his touch with a pleased hum. "I'm really looking forward to it now."
"We might get hit on a lot, though. Will you be okay with that?"
Considering it carefully, Miles nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, if I can wear my collar, I'll be fine. I can let them down gently. Or..." His heart started beating faster, thinking about their long-term plans. "Maybe there'll be a couple we can go for coffee with after?"
Darren smiled, eyes dark with promise. "That would be amazing."
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∞ 10 ∞
The Folsom East Street Festival
Miles Bennet
Miles was amazed at how quickly Darren managed to get a plan set into place. The festival was only three months away, but with a couple of phone calls, they had the festival and the charity on board, along with a local BDSM supply shop. They'd have a festival tent in between the charity and the rope shop, which was bringing in some inexpensive cotton rope specifically for the charity initiative.
"I'll teach you to tie harnesses with the cotton. It's better for beginners who are just looking for something decorative, which is probably what we're going to mostly get," Darren explained when he showed him the ropes. "If anyone actually buys some jute, I'll take them, maybe even try to upsell them on something more advanced. Sarah's going to help out as well, so we've got a good gender mix."
After several training sessions, they spent two nights at Mallorie's parties, tying practice harnesses on a seemingly unending line of eager volunteers. Darren had picked up a giant spool of the cotton rope, and the donations their fellow party-goers insisted on giving them more than paid for it. "We'll pass it on to the charity," Darren assured all of them.
"Careful, Red," Mallorie said with a smirk as he finished a harness around her naked body. She'd brought her own, red-dyed jute, and squirmed shamelessly against the length that Darren had tied down her midline to press between her pussy lips. Miles imagined he'd probably added a couple of speciallyplaced knots for extra fun. "We're going to want you to do this all the time."
Darren, laughing, kissed her temple. "Ask me again for your birthday, and we'll see what we can do."
"What if I host an after-party after Folsom?" She batted her eyelashes and pouted. "I work so hard all day enabling so many kinky fantasies."
Darren looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. "What do you think, love? Should we leave the portable rig here? Wrap up the day with a bit of a suspension for our hostess?"
Knowing how good it was himself - and how much Mal put into making things like this happen - he smiled. "I'm sure we could handle it."
That night, Miles wore a cotton harness himself, along with a pair of brand new leather pants Darren had insisted they have tailored for the occasion. He'd borrowed Darren's chaps in the past, but borrowing pants was out of the question. "Gotta have something special to show off that Thicc ass," Darren had purred at the specialty shop.
Wearing more clothes did make him feel a bit more of a dom, even still in his collar. The cotton rope was very different from when Darren tied him up in jute, with a lot of give that would make it unsuitable for most suspensions. It felt nice on the body, though. He found himself enjoying the process of connecting with someone as he went through the slow and repetitive process of looping and knotting the rope around their naked chest or over clothes.
"I'm starting to understand why you like it so much," he admitted to Darren on their way home. "I'm really looking forward to the festival."
"You're going to have lineups around the block, my love," Darren purred, the pride in his voice warming Miles to the tips of his toes.
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