Clark shut his eyes, red blooming behind closed lids. He let his head fall back, and he lost track of time and movement. He grunted with the steady dull pain that built on itself, and he relaxed his grip around the chain. He stopped wishing for more or different or less and started living in the space between impacts. Eventually the pause before another slap was too long, and Clark watched Daniel wrap a fist around the flogger’s handle.
Daniel ran cool fingers over Clark’s chest before gently cradling Clark’s jaw. “Nicely done, Clark. What are your safewords?”
“Yellow to pause, red to stop,” Clark answered on autopilot, the words taking sincere effort to form. He couldn’t stop staring at Daniel’s mouth with a longing like a separate entity residing within him. It was beyond his reach, un
