I had never been stood up by a date. The feeling sucked. I had just ended a six-year relationship, and I was beginning to enjoy my single life. But that night, I was hating it. I sat there with my cup of wine and the empty chair across from me; the restaurant was full of people, and the waiter kept coming over, asking if I still wanted to wait. Frustrated, I downed my entire cup of wine, and it kind of went to my head, im...

I purse my lips and grit my teeth in an attempt to keep quiet. I’m under orders given by the velvety, low voice of the man holding a whip, both a promise and a threat in his half-smirk, and the way he wields the tool with assuredness that can only come from experience. I can’t help but squirm against my bindings, inexorable in their power to hold me in place, helpless. Most people would call me crazy for doing this, allow...