A Thousand Yesses

 
“You guys have
no
idea how
hard
it is to find a decent Dom these days.
No. Idea.
” Celia threw back her
gin and tonic in one fell swoop. She waved down the waitress as she clashed her
glass on the table. “Get me another,” she said.

Maverick
frowned at her. If ever a girl
needed
a Dom, it was Celia. She was a
firecracker, that one, five foot two inches of pure fire, with flaming red hair
to match her temper, and brown eyes that warmed and heated before one could
finish taking a breath. She was rocking a kickass body she’d honed to
perfection in the gym, and had just earned her double masters in business
administration. The girl had her shit together.

She
also swore like a truck driver, drove recklessly, drank too much when she was
pissed, and was known to hit the carbs hard when she was moody. She was like a
sister to Maverick and Rodney, who’d known her since they were teens. Still, it
pained Maverick to see her so desperately in need of being taken in hand.

“Easy
on that liquor, sweetheart,” Rodney murmured. “I can’t take you home tonight.
And I think you’ve worn out your ‘free rides from Maverick’ card.”

Rodney,
Maverick’s best friend, tall and lithe, put together but in a classy “boy next
door” kind of way, was waiting for his fiancée Louanne, and wouldn’t be in the
position of taking Celia home if she had too much to drink. Celia was normally
careful with how she drank, but Maverick suspected this was one of those
nights.

She
hadn’t worn out her free ride card. She never would, Maverick knew, anymore
than he’d stop holding the door in the supermarket for little old ladies, or
stop shoveling his mom’s walkway when it snowed. Maverick would take Celia home
come hell or high water. Still, he was in no mood to deal with her sass tonight
either.

He
wanted to hear her latest story, so he sat quietly, nursing his Guinness,
enjoying the bitter, bold taste as he trained his eyes on Celia. Sitting back,
Celia fingered the condensation on the outside of her glass.

“I
met the latest one at a coffee shop in town,” she said. Maverick saw Celia’s
eyes go to his before he realized he was growling low. He
hated
when
she’d have a meet-up with Doms she met online, even if she did it in a public
place, so she’d stopped telling Maverick until
after
the event. But she
was a big girl, and he couldn’t control how she behaved.

“Down,
boy.” She frowned. “It was a public place and we talked on the phone before we
met.”

“You
have no idea who half these bastards are,” Rodney countered. “Jesus, Celia.”

“Let
her tell her story,” Maverick ordered. Rodney nodded and sat back.

Celia
sighed with a grateful nod to Maverick.

“First,
it was freezing cold. Like fah-
reezing
out.” Wintertime in upper state
New York was no joke, and Maverick well knew how cold it was. He waited
patiently for her to continue.

“And
this dipshit meets me outside. In the
cold,”
she said again for
emphasis. “I was coming home from work, so it was a long drive, and I’d taken
my coat off and left it in the car. I came out, and he’s there, driving this
beat-up hunk o’ junk, and he practically pounces on me. I tell him hi, and he
takes my hand – I wasn’t even ready for him to touch me – and then
I tell him, ‘I’m cold; I want to get my coat,’ and he gets all impatient and
says, ‘Whatever. Fine, get your coat then.’” She took another sip from her
glass. Maverick felt his hackles rise. On the one hand, he wanted Celia to tell
him these stories, because he didn’t want her to hide from him. On the other,
he wished she wouldn’t, as it inevitably left him with a desire to beat the
losers to a pulp, and he rarely had the opportunity to satisfy his desires.

“Go
on,” he encouraged.

She
shook her head. “And it was all downhill from there. Before I’d even gotten my
eggs, he practically had his tongue down my throat, and by the time my pancakes
came, he was trying to get me back to his place. You guys tell me. Don’t you
think a real Dom needs to establish trust first, before he jumps into bed?”

“Hell
yeah,” Rodney said, his eyes narrowing. “Really, Celia, why do you even meet up
with these losers?”

“And
who told you to eat pancakes?” Maverick said. Celia was sensitive to wheat, and
wasn’t supposed to eat that shit.

Her
eyes flashed at him as she put her hands flat on the table.

“See?
I. Want. A. Dom.”
She leaned forward, her lips pursed together. “I’ve
tasted vanilla, and to me? It’s bland. Blah. I don’t like it. I want someone
strong enough to take me in hand, and put me in my place, and shit, Rodney,
with all due respect to those who play at it in bed, I want a man who means
what he says and backs it up. You guys have
no
idea,” she said, and to
Maverick’s surprise, her voice caught at the end. “I fantasize about a man
strong enough to take me on. When I lose my shit, he’d take me over his knee
and set me to rights. When I get wrapped up in a client and I’m up ‘til the
crack of dawn, I want him to come in and tell me to go to bed. I want to be
stopped when I eat the entire carton of rocky road because I’ve got PMS. And I
need a guy who will tell me no,
don’t
order the pancakes
, just
because they look good, because you know you’ll be sick all weekend over it!
This isn’t about fucking kink or
goddamned sex
. I want
the real
deal.”

Maverick
understood. She didn’t even need to explain to him. Still, he dropped his voice
when he spoke to her. She was spiraling out of control.

“You
do,” he said softly, but firmly. She watched him, as he continued. “You need
someone to tell you you’re not having anymore to drink tonight, to watch your
language and act like a lady.” There was steel in his words, and he knew she
felt it. She merely nodded.

“Did
you hear me, Cel?” he said. “You’ve had enough to drink tonight, and watch your
language.”

“I
know, I know,” she sighed wearily. She didn’t even protest as he took her
nearly empty glass and pulled it away.

“But
Maverick,” she said. “If they’re out there, I can’t
find
them. I’ve
tried and tried, and it’s like finding a fu— a freaking needle in a
haystack.”

Rodney’s hand waved as Louanne entered the room.
Louanne was pleasantly plump, freckled,
and sweet. She liked Celia, but the girls were like night and day. Whereas
Celia liked dancing, and drinking, Louanne was quieter and domestic. Celia was
all flash and glitter, but Louanne was cute and wholesome.

“Hi,
guys,” she said in her soft voice. “What’s going on?”

Celia
waved dismissively. “Oh, I’m just having my typical Monday Meltdown about my
inability to find a Dom worth his salt,” she said.

Louanne
giggled. Although she wasn’t interested in being a submissive, she well knew
her friends’ proclivities, and happily played with Rodney on occasion.

“Did
you meet another loser?” she asked sympathetically. When Celia nodded, Louanne
reached out and squeezed her hand. “Aw, honey, I’m sorry,” she said. “I
know
the right guy’s out there for you.”

“Well,
if you find him, point him my way.” Celia sighed. “I don’t think I have it in
me to navigate the single sub waters anymore.”

“Good,”
Maverick and Rodney said in unison.

Celia
looked at them warily.

“Well,
you don’t have to gang up on me,” she muttered. She reached for her glass to
take another sip, but Maverick shook his head at her.

“No
more.”

“You’re
not the boss of me,” she grumbled. He sat up straighter and narrowed his eyes
at her. She might not be his submissive, but she well knew he wouldn’t tolerate
her lip.

“Nope,”
he said. “I’m not. If I were, you’d have been over my knee three times already.”

Louanne
blushed. “Really, Maverick!” she hissed. “People will hear.”

He
looked at her incredulously. “Like I care?” he said. He turned back to Celia.
“Keep it up, and you’ll walk home,” he said, “even if I
won’t
spank
you.”

She
frowned, though she knew she was defeated.

“Fine,”
she sighed, mumbling under her breath. “No fair you guys know how to do this
but nobody else does.” She crumpled into her chair and her shoulders drooped.
Suddenly, she sat straight up and her eyes widened.

“You
guys!” she said. Maverick grew wary. He could tell already she was getting one
of her ideas.

“Yes?”
he asked.

“I
just had a brilliant idea!” she said. Her hands went flat out on the table in
front of her and her eyes were glowing. “Brilliant!”

Rodney
nodded. “Spill,” he said.

“You
two can start a business!” she said. “You can
teach
guys how to be
Doms!”

Rodney
was already shaking his head. “Celia, I don’t think—”

“Hear
me out!” she interrupted. He sighed, and nodded, but Maverick just listened. He
was curious.

“You
start with podcasts, a YouTube channel, stuff online,” she said. “I’m telling
you guys, these losers think it’s all about
smack, smack, smack
and
getting off. They don’t really know how to do it. It’s like there’s this gap
between what girls want and what these guys are willing to do.” She paused and
looked at Rodney. “Do you have any idea how much money you could make?”

His
eyes gleamed. With a wedding to save for, he was
very
interested in
knowing how much money he could make.