It was a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon in Seattle. The weather was typical for April, cool rain instead of cold rain. Cole and Monica had played heavily the night before and it felt good to just sit around the house and talk. Their conversation turned to Cole's experiences in the scene and his previous play partners. Monica believed that she could get to know him better by finding out more about his past. She delicately maneuvered him into discussing how he came to have so many kinky friends.

"Tell me about the women you've played with Howard, were they all gorgeous?"

"Not all of them, by any means. You don't need to be beautiful to be submissive. People in the scene come in all shapes and sizes." he paused for a thoughtful moment, "Maybe it would be easier to show you."

Cole got up from the sofa where they were chatting and went into his office for a moment. He took what appeared to be a large professional sized photo album from a locked cabinet and brought it back to the living room.

"I didn't know you had that," she exclaimed. As they looked through the photo album, Monica asked just the right questions to draw out the story of his kinky explorations. She watched his eyes intently and listened to him explain how it all started.

"When I first understood that I was turned on by SM, it was still considered a form of mental illness." he began. "Then, when I found the Seattle SM scene, I guess I went through all the usual stages."

Cole's first club meeting was a revelation. Realizing that there really were other people in his city who had the same forbidden desires was a major discovery. The fact that they felt good about it was stunning.

"I was very impressed with the constant emphasis on safety and personal responsibility, since it matched my own philosophy. I went to a few monthly meetings before I felt comfortable enough to start talking with other people and discussing my own preferences."

"My primary kinky interest at the time was photography. I had always enjoyed looking at well produced bondage magazines and videos." He was also an excellent semi-professional photographer and had recently moved into a custom built house with a basement photo studio.

"My first attempt at sharing my kink with others was an offer to take high quality pictures of anyone who wished to pose for SM photos. I didn't really expect any responses, but it made me feel like I was participating in the social activities of the club."

To his surprise a woman came up to him after the meeting and wanted to discuss her interest in being photographed in various bondage positions. Her name was Donna and she was a classic California blonde with large firm breasts on a tall, skinny frame and very long, straight blonde hair. Donna had discovered the scene a few months before Cole. She was a single mother, around thirty, and was looking for chances to explore the secrets that she had kept inside herself.

They agreed to a time for the first photo session and she politely refused his offer to have her bring a friend to act as chaperone. Using the soft portrait lights, they arranged various bondage poses. She was attached to the ceiling, spread-eagled on the floor and tied to a chair in classic bondage magazine style. When he printed the photos, the results were surprising. They both agreed that their favorite shot was a simple pose that showed Donna kneeling with her wrists bound by a bright red satin scarf. It wasn't just the fact that her blonde hair and tanned breasts were so sexy. The one vital element was the appearance of submission.

The other poses turned out well too and Donna was happy to share them with others at the club meetings. She and Cole became good friends. They attended some private play parties together and tried to find what they were looking for in each other. It didn't take long for them to realize that they weren't sufficiently compatible to create a serious relationship, but he would always remember her fondly as his first playmate. It took more than a shared interest in bondage to make a viable couple.

As a result of those first photographs, other scene people approached him to photograph them engaged in their particular types of fetish activity. Although he personally preferred female submissive themes, he learned to create attractive photos of many types of kinky scenes. The photo studies of tattoos and piercings were particularly artistic.

Shooting the Femdoms with their submissive male partners was more difficult, but turned out well after a little practice. His favorite sessions involved maledom/femsub couples, who would sometimes engage in hot play while he looked on through the viewfinder waiting for just the right second to capture the energy and erotic joy of the moment. Cole would often leave them alone for a while when he was done shooting. He enjoyed seeing them come up the stairs later with big satisfied smiles.

As Monica leafed through the large portfolio, she pointed to one picture and asked, "Who's this woman with the long hair? Is she one of the pro-Dommes?"

"Yes, that's Mistress Kitty. Very nice woman on the surface. Unfortunately she likes to collect men. She has a perfectly good submissive husband, but the poor bastard has to live with the fact that his wife prefers the company of her various lovers and slaves.

There is something about becoming a pro-Domme that has a bad effect on many of the women who do it. I suppose it has something to do with being worshipped by too many men who are willing to pay for the privilege."

"I can see how that might bring out the dark side of someone's personality," Monica said.

Cole went on to explain that he created an extensive collection of bondage and fetish photography. When he photographed his scene friends, the agreement was that he would retain one or two nice prints of the session. The negatives and all the remaining prints were given to the person or couple who posed. It seemed like a mutually rewarding arrangement and it helped Cole meet a large number of people who shared at least some of his feelings about sexuality.

He looked over her shoulder as she continued to scan the kinky images. The people in the photos were not all beautiful. Some were thin, some fat. Some were very attractive, although he knew that his artistic skills were partly responsible. He told her a little about each of the people and the circumstances surrounding their photo session. Monica could see that some of the couples were having a very intense erotic experience. She was impressed with the quality of the photos, but a little jealous when she realized that all these people had shared her master's life before she appeared.

"Master, how do I compare to all these women in the pictures? Am I attractive enough for you?"

"Don't worry, Little One. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

"Thank you Master," the subby tone in her voice was obvious.

"I've thought about photographing you like that and I'm sure you're very photogenic, but there's something that keeps me from doing it. It's taken me a while to figure it out. I think that I took many of those pictures so that I could have something to hold onto after those people were gone. It's different with you. I know that you'll always be here for me to pose any way I want, to tie up, to fuck, to spank, to snuggle with. Rather than reach for a photo, I just reach for you. See what I mean?"

"Yes Master." Her irregular breathing signaled her arousal.

"I hear that, Little One. Looking at these pictures makes me horny too. Do you want to go into the dungeon?"

With scented candles and good music to create the proper atmosphere in the dungeon, Cole announced that he would be giving Monica a lesson on proper felatio technique. He had noticed that she was a bit inexperienced and that was not acceptable. They used the low futon bed that was covered with a black linen sheet.

Lying nude on his back, he instructed her to begin softly stroking his half erect organ with her fingertips. He guided her to the most sensitive spots and told her how she would be punished if she gripped him too hard or allowed her teeth to touch him while she was giving him pleasure.

When he was almost fully erect, he told her to take his penis entirely into her mouth and apply as much suction as she could. This immediately made him completely hard and he had to turn his thoughts elsewhere for a moment to prevent himself from becoming too aroused.

She performed the licking and kissing tasks perfectly, running her tongue along the underside and gently kissing the head. He showed her how to grab his balls with just the right amount of force to pull the skin tighter on the penis and enhance the sensations. She only hurt him a little in her enthusiasm to perform well.

When he reached the limit of his willpower, he announced, "You have done reasonably well, Little One. I'd say you've moved up to Felatrix Second Class. You only let your teeth touch me twice and you pulled too hard on your Master's balls once. Bring me the cane so that you can receive three strokes. You will kneel on the bed with your ass up."

She seemed to prance across the wood floor with the cane held before her in both hands. After presenting the instrument to her master, she knelt on the edge of the low bed and bent forward so that her head was touching the mattress. Her ass was offered up in the perfect position to receive a caning.

"Arch your back more. Let your nipples touch the bed as lightly as possible."

Standing to her left, Cole sliced her buttocks three times with the rattan cane and listened to her inhale sharply and moan sweetly with each stroke. "Hold that position," he ordered.

Moving directly behind her, he trapped her ankles between his knees and reached down to finger her cunt. He was not surprised when his fingers felt like they were sucked into the wet opening.

Damn, she's tight, he thought. He did not understand how she could be so tight and so wet at the same time. Most women loosened up when they were wet and aroused, but not Monica. He used his hand to guide his virile organ into her and began the slow in and out movement that would bring him to orgasm. He could tell that she was going to climax before he did, but when he was feeling this dominant, he didn't care about anything except using her for his own pleasure. Of course, that was just the way Monica liked it.

To increase his own arousal, he reached around to pinch her hard nipples, which had the unintended result of putting her over the orgasmic edge. He had to hold onto her hips desperately with both hands to keep his overheated weapon from being dislodged. When her wild pelvic motions partially subsided, he was able to remove his right hand from her hip and brought it down with great force on her ass. "Stop moving slut! I'm going to come in you and I want you to hold still for me. Give me your hands"

"Yes, Master."

Keeping her head down, she placed her hands together behind her back and he grabbed her wrists as if they were reins. With a flurry of quick thrusts, he allowed the hot sensation in his cock to spread farther into his balls and then throughout his body. When he came, he felt like the end of his erupting phallus was disintegrating in a fireball of lust.

Lying in bed together later, Monica brought up something that she had been thinking about for some time. "Howard, do you know what I miss?"

"What's that, my dear?"

"Your pro-dom career. It was one of the things that I found most attractive about you and you haven't seen any customers since we got together."

"We've been pretty busy with each other," Cole said, "but maybe it's time to get back in business. I haven't posted any ads in months, but I'm still getting email from women who are interested. Apparently, they're hearing about me from previous customers. I've been telling them about you and they don't seem to mind that I have a partner now. In fact, they seem to prefer it that way."

Monica sat up and started massaging his back. "Master, do you think I could be your assistant, like we talked about a few months ago?"

Face down on the bed, Cole answered, "I'd love it and I think our customers would too. Oooh, rub that area some more."

After a minute of contemplation, Cole said, "I did have a request from someone new recently, but I've been putting her off. She's very interesting, let me tell you about her."