“I just… I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine it. I can’t imagine you, taking what you like to give.”
“Well, I’d say I’m eighty per cent dominant, but there is a part of me that likes to submit from time to time.”
“Only to another man? Or could you let a woman top you?”
“The right woman, of course.”
“Not me?”
“I don’t think you have much domme in you, my dear.”
“No. No, you’re probably right. So, what did Hans do to you?”
“I’m sure you can imagine. But he took off his belt and whipped me with it. Tied me up and used me.”
“Did you ever do it the other way round?”
“The sex, yes. But he didn’t like to be whipped. He liked to be pandered to, treated like a king,” said Karl-Heinz.
“And is he your only gay lover?” Lydia thought she could question Karl-Heinz on this fascinating subject forever.
“He is the only man I have loved. I have occasionally had casual sex with other men, in play party situations. It’s been a while though. I tend to focus more on my dom side these days. Especially now I have you.”
Lydia was quiet for a while, processing all this unexpected new information.
“You’re a puzzle,” she said. “I sometimes think I don’t know you at all.”
“Every man has a past.”
“Do you think you still love Hans? He’s the love of your life? And that’s why you can’t…”
“That’s quite a serious question, Lydia. I’ll try to think of an answer. And while I do…”
He dropped to his knees in front of the chair and grasped Lydia’s helpless inner thighs in both hands. Before she could make a move, she felt hot breath on her pussy, then the warmth of his tongue.
She melted into the long, slow build-up, appreciating his subtlety and his gentleness. She needed more time to get where he wanted to take her, having come so shortly before, but when she arrived, the destination was worth reaching. It was a place of near-oblivion, clouding her vision and wiping all other thoughts from her head.
Once she came to herself, still breathing out tiny sighs, flanks trembling, skin sheened with perspiration, she heard his voice from afar.
“You know, Lydia, I think you might have a point. I think I might need some help. I’m going to get counselling.”
Chapter Nine
“You can’t go. I, I…forbid it!”
Lydia laughed in Milan’s face. “You don’t forbid things, Milan. You’re the most permissive man in the world. It’s not the sex, is it? It’s because of Julius Hackmeyer.”
Milan sat up, rumpling his hair crossly, and leaned against the headboard of his bed.
“That bastard,” he muttered. “I know his game. He wants to take you from me, just for spite. It’s time he fucked back off to Paris.”
“He won’t,” said Lydia. “Karl-Heinz says he’s just bagged a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music. He’s staying in London.”
Milan buried his face in his hands.
“He has come here to torture me,” he said.
Lydia laughed again. “Of course he hasn’t. He came for a job, and his girlfriend. Why must you always assume you’re at the centre of everyone’s life?”