Page 83 of Naughty November

“It started as a personal challenge. I enjoyed it, so I carried on. It helped that I picked it up faster than I was expecting.”

“You’re self-taught?”

“Partially. I had to work with tutors to get beyond the basics, and I had friends at uni who were fluent in both languages. They helped me with conversation practice.”

“I’m in awe.”

He clears his throat and plucks a tall glass of coke off the coffee table. “Enough about me. I want to know how you got into kink and why you decided to become a pro-Dom. Is that what you were doing in Amsterdam? Training?”

“No. I was exploring kink equipment for personal use. This is my first job as a pro-Dom.”

“What did you do before that?”

“Aside from living with my parents into my twenties?”

Jools laughs. “Hey, there’s no shame in that. Getting your own place is expensive.”

I whistle. “Tell me about it. It would have been cheaper if I’d stayed up north, but The Library is a great club. I couldn’t pass up the chance to work there. I left school at eighteen and got a job in a bar. After that, I stacked shelves in a supermarket and then did factory work. I even did deliveries by bike for a bit. Eventually, I got an office job for a removal firm.”

“That’s quite the variety.”

“According to Mum, I was finding myself.”

“Did it work?”

I purse my lips. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do.”

“Until you found kink?”

“Yes.”

“So—how did you get into it?”

“Via a past boyfriend.” I fidget. Does he want to hear about my love life while we’ve been apart?

He waves his hand. “No need to look so uncomfortable. It’s been nine years, Devin. We’re allowed to have had lives in between. We paused, remember? Go on.”

“Graham was into breathplay. He enjoyed having his breath cut off during sex. He said the rush of air into his lungs gave him a stronger orgasm.”

Jools frowns. “That sounds dangerous.”

“It is if you don’t know what you’re doing. Even when you do, there are still risks.”

“Please tell me you learnt how to do it safely before—what? Strangling him during sex.”

“Yes, of course. It was my gateway into the kink world. I learnt how to do that one thing. It made me feel—alive. Powerful. In command. I enjoyed it and got a kick out of it. After Graham and I broke up, I kept delving deeper so I could understand my own likes and limits.”

“And decided you wanted to be kinky for a living?”

I smile. “Yes. I want to use kink to empower submissives and help them feel good about themselves.”

Jools puts his glass on the coffee table and hugs his knees to his chest like he did that day on his garage roof. His expression is thoughtful and a little distant.

I lean forward and brush my fingertips over his forearm. “Are you okay?”

He half-smiles. “Just thinking.”

“About?”