Read Online Divine Solace: 8 by Joey W. Hill - Free Book Online

alpha dog there?”
    “Marguerite,” she said without hesitation.
    “Yeah, no brainer. Okay, how about between you and Chloe?
When push comes to shove, who defers to who? And why?”
    She was about to say neither, but then she gave it some
thought. “I guess…me. I don’t know if that’s an age thing, since I’m older than
she is, and I’m not saying she does everything I say—I’d fall over dead in
shock if that happened—but…”
    “But you have an intuitive sense of authority over her that
you both accept.” He shrugged. “We’re animals, and we organize ourselves in a
pack mentality, whether it’s in a family setting, work setting, even in social
groups.”
    She shifted. This was starting to feel like an academic
discussion, where the verbiage might get above her head, but he defused her
tension about that by bringing it back to specifics. “That’s the day-to-day,
vanilla side of it. High level and general. If you want to understand the way
it happens specifically between people like Lyda and me, or Chloe and Brendan,
you do kind of have to see it in action. But I’m not pushing you to go to a
club or anything.”
    “It’s like being in the ocean versus standing on shore,
looking at it,” she guessed.
    “Exactly.” He looked relieved that she understood, hadn’t
become defensive. “But there are different grades to us. Like Lyda. She’s
pretty much all Domme. Even when she’s interacting in the vanilla world, you
see it, feel it.”
    “I hadn’t noticed,” Gen said dryly.
    He grinned. “Other Dommes are only that way at the club or
in their own bedrooms. In the real world, they might hold what you’d consider
more subservient roles. Secretaries, convenience store clerks, things like
that. Being a Domme in the bedroom balances that with a power shift. You see
that with men as well. It’s why the stereotype exists about the CEOs wanting to
be tied up and spanked. There’s a lot of truth to the idea of powerful men
wanting to be subs in the bedroom. Whereas the guy who picks up your trash
might be a hell of a Dom.
    “But you can’t paint everyone with the same brush,” he
added. “Sometimes what you see on the outside reflects the inside as well. A
powerful CEO might be a powerful Dom, and the garbage guy might like being tied
up.” His lips twisted wryly. “And I obviously fall in the latter category. I
have been a garbage man once or twice.”
    “I bet that can get confusing. Or cause conflict. People
like being able to classify things, keep them neat.”
    “Yeah. Sometimes people have trouble accepting something as
truth, when it’s different from what they expect…or want it to be.” A shadow
crossed his countenance.
    “Like Lyda about Brendan and Chloe.” Gen ventured the
comment when he didn’t say anything else. “You okay?”
    “Yeah.” He shrugged it off and addressed her comment
instead. “Lyda can be pretty black and white on certain things. She knew
Brendan was a hardcore sub, and couldn’t see how Chloe, who’s basically vanilla
adventurous, could make that work. The answer was she couldn’t. Not by herself,
and not under the terms Lyda defines being a Domme. But Brendan and Chloe bring
a lot of things to one another that enhance and define the Dom/sub side, and
that makes it work. Sorry. I’m probably going too deep here.”
    “No. I’m following.” This was really what she’d been
seeking. An in-depth exploration without the self-consciousness of the
spotlight. “It’s like Chloe and me. She loves me and she’s afraid my life is
boring, humdrum. She thinks she needs to save me from it. Her life is so
vibrant, it’s hard for her to realize most of the time I’m happy with mine not
being that way. My experiences…have made me value quietness.”
    She told herself to be honest, despite the worry she was
coming off as colorless as her beige carpet. “I don’t need to travel the world
or jump out of a plane. To me, working in my craft room,