My table of contents for not just the chapters of this story, but all the stories I have available and where to get them, updated daily.

The E-books of this novel are available on my website. Three different books - Lily's POV only, Russell's POV only, or a massive combined version.

What is a duet story? The story is told twice – once from the perspective of the male sub written by Reluctant Man, and once from the perspective of the Domme written by Logan Love.

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Chapter 2 (Lily)

Russell watched me the entire time he made his way to the stage, which gave me all sorts of bizarre feelings. Was I reading this guy wrong? Why on earth did I have such a fascination with him at all? The intense look he was giving me screamed the very opposite of the men I was used to dealing with, and yet still I found myself fiercely interested.

He reached me on the stage, his blue eyes wider than they had been from across the room. I sized him up for a minute, admiring him towering over me a bit with his broad and muscular frame. I wasn’t incredibly short, average for a woman, with a petite but somewhat muscular frame. He swallowed me up as he approached, but not in an intimidating way—it was, alluring, if anything.

“I’m going to need you to remove your shirt, shoes and jeans,” I explained, still maintaining eye contact with him. While it wasn’t permissible to be completely nude in these establishments due to local laws and regulations, oftentimes Shibari was practiced at least in undergarments for better sensations with the rope against the skin.

Russell, who had already been skeptical, shot his eyebrows up at me. “What?” It was all he could manage to say, but he didn’t look away from me when he’d asked.

I decided to explain, since it was obvious he was unfamiliar with the club or these types of acts, which made it all the more interesting to give him the experience.

“Generally, you’ll have a better time with bondage with as much skin-to-skin contact with the rope as possible. We don’t allow full nudity here, but I think you’ll enjoy the whole act better if you remove most of your clothing. Trust me.”

It had been one of the reasons I’d wanted him to do it, for certain. The man was definitely not bad to look at, as evident by one of the whistles a woman let out at the front of the stage when I’d asked him to remove his clothes.

Russell blushed then, and his eyes diverted to the floor for a moment, lost in thought. He took a deep breath of air, brought his attention back to me, and then removed his shirt in one swift motion, followed by kicking off his shoes and shuffling out of his form-fitting jeans.

As I watched him undress, it felt like the entire room vanished and it was just him and me. He kept his focus straight on me, and I nervously felt myself tucking strands of my dark brown hair behind my ear, and wondered if I was staring intently with my hazel eyes into his very attractive blue ones. Neither of us looked away, however.

“Okay, where do you want me?” Russell asked, once he was left in his underwear. I tried not to focus on the fact that there was definitely a very distracting and prominent bulge there that wasn’t helping me focus. My eyes flitted back to his abruptly and I nodded in front of me.

“Stand in front of me, facing the audience,” I instructed, and he moved swiftly, following my instructions.

I spoke to him, and to the audience again, but kept my voice a little softer so it was more for Russell than the rest of the room.

“The tie I’ll be constructing on my volunteer tonight is one of my favorites. It’s called the Hishi Karada, or a full chest tie, and looks beautiful on a masculine body like this. It also is a great introductory tie to let the submissive feel the ropes in a very intimate way, across much of the body. I’ll be binding your arms to the tie, so your upper torso will be completely restricted. Are you okay with this?”

Again, I waited on Russell to reply, and he turned his attention to me. He paused yet again, thinking for a few seconds, and then nodded. “I’m okay with that.” While his eyes looked slightly unsure, there was a confidence in his tone I wasn’t prepared for, and he still stared at me steadily.

I nodded in reply, rotating around his entire body, looking him over, before settling in front of him, my back to the audience. We met eyes again, and I drew in closer to him, the rope unraveling and falling down at our feet. I gently looped it in my hands, draping it around his neck.

“I’m going to start now,” I said softly, looking up at him. It took standing on my tiptoes to be able to drape the rope appropriately around his neck, but I managed. I wobbled a little bit getting back to flat feet, and I could have sworn Russell smirked at me a little. He nodded, and I continued.

For the next fifteen minutes, I wove the red jute around the strangers beautiful body, etched with little scars here and there, tanned from hours and hours in the sun, calloused hands that looked like they’d seen a lot of hard work, and a body that looked built from manual labor over spending hours and hours in a gym with protein shakes.

He was so distractingly handsome, I had to divert my entire attention to what I was doing with the ropes so as not to continue to admire all the little details about his body. And he smelled… Well, he certainly smelled better than a lot of other people I’d tied up in recent memory, so much so that I kept a little closer to him while working, let my hands graze against his skin a little more than I normally would, making sure the ropes were aligned perfectly.

Before I knew it, I was finished. “And, done,” I said softly, glancing back up at him. The Hishi Karada, as I’d predicted, looked gorgeous on him. It was wrapped tightly against his body. And I’d woven his arms to the tie at the last second, as I’d warned him.

Once I’d taken a step back, I realized there was a little bit of a panicked look in his eyes. I knew exactly what was happening when I saw it. He was fighting the bondage a little, having anxiety he was trying to overcome without making a scene of it.

My instincts took over, both hands falling on either side of his face. I forced him to look straight at me. Forced him to shut everything else out, except for me at that moment.

“What’s your name?” I asked softly, the minute I had his attention.

He stared at me hard, and I watched him panting, trying to catch his breath and stay steady. After a couple seconds, he managed to formulate words. “..My…my name is Russ…Russell…” He continued panting, and I felt my hands firming against his face.

“Nice to meet you, Russell,” I offered him a soft smile, my fingers wanting to stroke across his surprisingly soft skin on his cheeks, but refraining. I held steady, speaking calmly and trying to maintain his attention.

“I’m Lily. You’re okay. I know this feels very strange, I know you have an instinct to want to fight it right now, but I’m telling you… you’re okay. You’re safe. I’ve got you right now. I just need you to take a few deep breaths and let yourself sink into it, okay? Can you breathe with me?” He nodded, and I took some deep breaths, and he followed my lead.

As he did, I felt his body start to relax, even with my hands just on his face. His shoulders sunk, his chest grew less rigid and his breathing evened out. Suddenly, when there was panic, the expression changed dramatically. All at once it looked almost glazed over and serene. I knew he’d succumbed to it then, let it take hold of him without fearing it.

And I knew in that moment, with every fiber of my being, that this man had to be submissive. There was no way in hell he wasn’t.

“Good boy,” I said softly, giving in to the urge to stroke his cheek for just a second before pulling away. I turned toward the audience then, explaining about the tie and finishing up the presentation.

Once the crowd had started to disperse, I went back to Russell, weaving around him to find where I had tied all of my knots together so I could undo them. “Are you ready to be unbound?” I asked him softly.

Surprisingly, Russell chuckled a little at my question, glancing over his shoulder a little to find me, and I studied him curiously.

“Is it weird if I say I actually kind of like this? I don’t know…” He trailed off, looking out into the room and away from me briefly.

“Not at all,” I replied gently, starting to undo the knots on his body, assuming he’d given me permission to despite his comment. He relaxed as I did, body softening, and every time I looked back at him, he was smiling softly to himself, looking lost in thought. “Are you doing okay?”

“That was weirdly the calmest I’ve felt in a very long time,” he admitted back almost immediately. “I mean… It scared the shit out of me at first…but… Damn, that was something else.” When I’d released his arms, he reached up, scratching at his face, lost in thought again.

“Sometimes bondage can be really relaxing and cathartic, especially for someone with more… submissive tendencies,” I said casually, continuing to unbind him gently, and occasionally looking at him as I worked. Every time my fingers would touch his bare skin, I felt a little buzzy, wanting nothing more than to keep my hands on him for a very long time.

Russell let out another chuckle, and when I came around in front of him, he met eyes with me again, so intensely I stopped in my tracks. “You think I’m submissive?”

This time, it was me who studied him, unsure of how to answer that question. Again, he felt like such an enigma. I wasn’t quite sure what he was, but after this little act and how he responded, it certainly seemed more likely than not.

“I think you’re the only one who can really answer that,” I replied simply, continuing to move at that point to unravel the final few pieces around his body.

When I’d finished and resumed standing in front of him again, Russell said the last thing I ever expected him to say. “Maybe I’m just feeling submissive towards you?”

I blinked, nearly dropping the rope in my hands. My breath caught in my throat. A wave of heat rippled through me from top to bottom. I could have sworn I saw another faint smile trickle across the man’s lips.

And I couldn’t fucking help myself. “Would you wanna get out of here?”

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Chapter 2 (Russell)

Why had I agreed to this in the end? I wasn’t sure, but there were several things at work for sure. The first was being called out like that. Despite my introvertedness, I also had a pretty strong stubborn streak that when combined with my masculine tendencies made it impossible for me to back down from a challenge once I found my courage.

The onlookers disappeared from my view, despite my embarrassment, and my field of vision narrowed down to only Lily as I walked to the stage. I was almost looking at her in defiance. But the second thing was the woman herself. I still had not identified what was different about her, what was different about the way that she looked at me, and I needed to get closer to her to try to figure it out. Those eyes seemed to stare into my soul.

I finally reached the stage, and I knew my eyes were a little wide as I stared down at this woman that was about to wrap all of that rope around me. I keenly felt my fear, felt my heart racing at being put on display like this, but I couldn’t back down, especially as I saw her eyes take in my body and she wasn’t subtle about it. I honed in on that, trying to use it to strengthen my resolve and looked down at her. She was even prettier up close and I could see signs of how fit she was that I hadn’t been able to see from across the room.

“I’m going to need you to remove your shirt, shoes and jeans,” she said as she looked up at me directly into my eyes. I hadn’t been expecting this, and I balked at it at first. The notion seemed almost ridiculous. In front of all of these people?

“What?” I said dumbly, not really sure what else to say. Maybe it was a joke at my expense? She would burst out laughing at embarrassing me further in front of all of these people.

Her voice took on a softer tone and it was apparent she was quite serious. “Generally, you’ll have a better time with bondage with as much skin-to-skin contact with the rope as possible. We don’t allow full nudity here, but I think you’ll enjoy the whole act better if you remove most of your clothing. Trust me.”

Trust her? I had only just met her, how could she ask me to just blindly trust her? It was then that I heard a whistle from the audience. The kind of whistle that a construction worker would give a hot chick that was walking by. I felt my face burning on hearing that. It was the first time in my life that I had ever felt like that and I now understood more fully what women were talking about when they complained about being objectified.

I looked down at the floor trying to gather my resolve once again. Could I really do this? I wasn’t really ashamed of my body or anything like that. It was what it was. I was muscular, but I wasn’t the gym rat that many went for and had a solid layer of fat over most of those muscles. It was a working man’s frame and I didn’t apologize for it.

Fine. I wasn’t going to back down. I wasn’t going to further embarrass myself and back out of this now. The people wanted a show. I was going to fucking kill Julie for this. I looked back up and into Lily’s eyes then, feeling the defiance well up in me at her request.

Staring into her eyes, I took a deep breath and quickly grabbed the bottom of my shirt and whipped it up over my head and let it fall to the floor without any fanfare or complaint. Never looking away from Lily, I kicked off my boots and then unbuttoned and unzipped my jeans.

Well, it was a good thing I was wearing underwear at least. It only took a few seconds to peel them off as well and then I was only in that underwear, my large frame and muscular legs exposed to everyone. I felt the HVAC then blowing cooler air over my skin.

I tuned out the audience and only looked at Lily the entire time. I had stripped in front of many women and I was determined to boil this down in my head to only her and me. Her eyes never broke contact with mine and I was further taken in by them. She tucked her hair behind one ear and I had to wonder if I was gaining a little equilibrium with the way I looked at her, nearly nude.

“Okay, where do you want me?” I asked, my deep voice a little deeper and rougher than normal. I saw her eyes briefly look at my crotch and I had to fight the urge to smirk and a shot of arousal at the same time. No, it would not do to get an erection in front of her and all of these people. I wasn’t exactly small and the underwear would do nothing to hide it. It was probably already showing more than I had been anticipating. Her eyes didn’t linger though and quickly returned to my eyes.

“Stand in front of me, facing the audience,” she said and I quickly followed the instruction, keeping my eyes on her.

Once I was in position she continued, her voice a little softer, but also clearly talking to the audience. My eyes stayed locked on her. “The tie I’ll be constructing on my volunteer tonight is one of my favorites. It’s called the Hishi Karada, or a full chest tie, and looks beautiful on a masculine body like this. It also is a great introductory tie to let the submissive feel the ropes in a very intimate way, across much of the body. I’ll be binding your arms to the tie, so your upper torso will be completely restricted. Are you okay with this?”

I hadn’t been expecting it, but in for a penny, in for a pound. I did feel a spike of fear too, but I tried to ruthlessly crush it. I took a moment before speaking so that I didn’t expose the emotions I was feeling. “I’m okay with that,” trying to sound far more confident than I felt.

She nodded at me and then circled me and I could feel her eyes on my body once again. I stood rigidly, but tried to also appear like I was standing at ease, despite the feel of her taking me in. She returned in front of me and stood much closer than before looking up at me as the rope in her hands pooled around our feet. She started to coil it in her hands before looping it around my neck. The audience retreated from my awareness even further.

“I’m going to start now,” she said softly as she stood on her tiptoes to reach around my neck. She wobbled a little and that made me smirk. In this nearly mortifying situation, I would take any little win I could get. I nodded at her, still trying to appear confident.

She continued on with the rope for a good fifteen minutes but it felt longer. I would occasionally feel her fingers travel over my skin with what seemed like a lingering touch. The rope was bright red and I imagined it must have contrasted nicely with my tanned skin. I knew there were a lot of little scars on my body and I wasn’t ashamed of them. They were badges of honor and were a testament to the hard work I did. Men should have scars.It was an interesting sensation to feel ever more rope tighten around my body and neatly frame my large pectorals. I knew the audience was still there watching and a part of me was a little self-conscious of that, but it paled in comparison to this woman in front of me, touching me so softly and intimately and smelling so nice. She smelled feminine while not overly flowery. It was a heady combination as I felt the soft rope digging into my skin.

Before I knew it, she said “And, done,” softly, glancing back up at me after tying the rope around my arms and securing them to my body. At first I had been confident though a touch nervous about this part. But I figured the rope didn’t look very strong and surely I could just flex and free myself from it if I wanted to. I gave an experimental flex and the rope flexed with me but held me firm. Quite firm. My eyes widened and I felt a huge spike of fear run up my spine.

I couldn’t free my arms. I had just let this stranger make me helpless and nearly nude in front of a large group of people I didn’t know. I felt panic rise up within me, a sensation I was not accustomed to one bit, and the more it rose, the more helpless I felt, and the more I panicked.

I felt all the eyes on me then and they all looked predatory. I flexed my arms with as much strength as I could muster and the rope was just as unforgiving. What had I done?! I felt my muscles trying to break free while I also was trying to hide my panic from the onlookers.

I suddenly felt Lily’s hands on my cheeks, making me look at her. I couldn’t even stop this tiny woman from doing anything she wanted.

“What’s your name?” she asked softly, making me look down into her eyes. Her damn pretty and intense eyes. .

I stared at her, not understanding the question at first. My name? What the fuck did that have to do with anything? My fucking name?! I tried to get control of my breathing and slowly the question registered in my brain and then it took me a few more moments to gather myself enough to speak.

“..My…my name is Russ…Russell…” I finally managed to say through my rapid breathing. Her hands gripped my face more firmly.

“Nice to meet you, Russell,” she said with a soft and friendly smile. Her eyes captured mine and the rest of the room started to retreat slowly again. “I’m Lily. You’re okay. I know this feels very strange, I know you have an instinct to want to fight it right now, but I’m telling you… you’re okay. You’re safe. I’ve got you right now. I just need you to take a few deep breaths and let yourself sink into it, okay? Can you breathe with me?”

Her voice was so soft and reassuring. When she told me that I was okay, I found myself believing her for some reason. Was there some hypnotism shit involved here too? She seemed to know exactly what I was feeling, but I felt no judgment from that knowledge, only understanding and compassion. She had me? Well, I suppose she did. The room was now completely narrowed to just her and me. Her and me. Those eyes holding mine, full of empathy and her soft hands on my face.

I slowly nodded and saw her take deep breaths almost like they were instructional. I tried it as well and we took several long deep breaths together and I felt my panic retreating and my body relaxing more. I started to lose myself in her eyes and they became my world as my body relaxed.

I trusted her. I didn’t know why, but I did. I felt a sense of peace suddenly wash over me and my entire body relaxed. I still couldn’t move my arms, but it no longer bothered me. In fact, as I felt that bit of helplessness wash over me I felt a contentment that I had never felt before. I was trusting this enchanting woman to take care of me and protect me in my helplessness and it was….

Freeing.

“Good boy,” she said softly, noticing the change that had come over me and she stroked my cheek. I almost let out a soft moan. The unexpected and seemingly absurd term of endearment caught me completely off guard and on the surface I felt like I should be offended by it, but the opposite happened. It made me trust her more and filled me with a desire I had also never felt much before. I wanted her approval. My breathing was deep and easy now and I looked at Lily through half lidded eyes ready for whatever came next.

She turned and spoke to the crowd then, but I had no idea what she said. I was lost in my helplessness and in her filling my vision. And I still felt that same contentment. I felt like I could stay like this for hours.

“Are you ready to be unbound?” I heard her softly say behind me. When had she gone there? I looked up and the room was empty now but for the two of us. I felt even more desire and happiness wash over me, but I chuckled as my senses started to return.

I glanced over my shoulder at her and said, “Is it weird if I say I actually kind of like this? I don’t know…” It wasn’t an easy thing to admit, and I lost my train of thought as I looked around the empty room.

“Not at all,” she said, and there was still such a comforting tone in her voice as she started to untie the knots. I relaxed even more with the confirmation that I could trust her. I smiled at realizing that in the end, I had truly enjoyed this experience. Perhaps I wouldn’t kill Julie after all.

“Are you doing okay?”she asked.

“That was weirdly the calmest I’ve felt in a very long time,” I admitted, surprising myself a little.. “I mean… It scared the shit out of me at first…but… Damn, that was something else.” And then my arms were free. I absentmindedly scratched my face trying to examine why it had calmed me so much, but coming up empty.

“Sometimes bondage can be really relaxing and cathartic, especially for someone with more… submissive tendencies,” she said as she continued to untie the rope around me, complete with some lingering fingers along my skin, but I wasn’t sure exactly what she meant. I mean, I understood the words, but they seemed kind of absurd.

I chuckled at the implication as she came around in front of me and I stared into her eyes to try to judge if she was joking or not. “You think I’m submissive?” I seriously asked, wondering what she really meant.

She had paused in front of me, not speaking for a few moments as she studied my face.

“I think you’re the only one who can really answer that,” she replied simply, and resumed untying the final few knots. She was serious. I still didn’t really know what she meant by the submissive comment, but there had definitely been some sort of change in me tonight with the bondage.

As the last of the rope fell away and I was free and she was standing in front of me once again, I decided to follow down the path that she had started despite not knowing what she was really getting at.

“Maybe I’m just feeling submissive towards you?” I said in the form of a question, unsure if it was true or not. I saw her breath catch as if I had said something completely unexpected and suppressed a smile at her reaction.

And then she followed up with a question, making my inward smile become even deeper.

“Would you wanna get out of here?”

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