by Lucian Bane
“And spiritual,” he gasped, hopping up to pace again. “I know that’s part of it and I don’t have a real grasp on how or why, and yet I’m supposed to teach it?” He froze in his tracks. “Preacher! I need to call Preacher, he’ll fucking have the answers for that!”
Lucian hurried to the dresser and snatched up his phone and scrolled for his name. “God I hope he isn’t in some jungle. No, I lie, I so hope he’s stuck in some jungle getting his ass eaten up by mosquitoes.” Lucian paced while the phone rang, still very pissed over the fact that Preacher didn’t have to do anything to get their money. A donation. The owner of the company called it a donation! How benevolent of the geezer fucking bastard. Nothing but a tax break is what it was. “God takes care of his own Bane,” were Preacher’s holier than thou words. Well He sure took care of Lucian and Tara. Took real good care of them. They’d likely never see all of that money with the way things were going.
A voice mail came on and he rolled his eyes through the automated recording. “Preacher, hey, it’s me Lucian. I uh, was needing your help with something. Just something personal, nothing real serious. Give me a ring as soon as you can.” Lucian returned to pacing.
“I’m sure he’ll call back the second he gets it,” Tara said from the bed.
“Yeah if he’s not off in the rainforest. Which I hope he is, I hope he’s someplace miserable and impossible. Like the spot we’re in. Can you believe that old bastard let him off of the requirement?” Lucian held both arms wide open, incredulous.
“I know, it’s so unfair,” Tara said, indulging him for the twentieth time on the matter he’d already beat to death.
“Preacher calling to congratulate us on our nuptials,” Lucian muttered back to pacing. “Yeah right!” He could still hear that deep slow laughter when Lucian asked about how he was taking the Dom Wars fine print. Lucian paused to imitate him. “Heh heh heh heh heh heh… we don’t have to. I got a pass.” He stared incredulously at Tara. “A pass! And how did he get a pass?” Lucian deepened his voice and propped a fist on his hip. “Heh, heh, heh. I. Just. Asked. Damn bastard! He just asked! How about that!”
The cell phone rang in Lucian’s hand and he jerked it up. “That’s him!” He hurried from the room and into the bathroom to talk privately. He hated to sound so clueless in front of Tara. He was already trying hard not to tell her just how lost he felt with all this dominance submission shit! He wasn’t a fucking specialist! They’d won the Dom Wars but that meant nothing in all actuality. Lucian could dominate Tara any day in any way but that was him and her, not others. Who the fuck was he to tell others how to do that? Jesus Christ.
“Bane, that you?” The deep voice rumbled like a storm at rest.
“Preacher,” he gasped, forgetting all his anger in that second, glad to hear his voice. “Man, I got problems.”
“What’s up my brother?”
The knowing and caring in the deep voice came through and Lucian sat on the edge of the tub, not sure what to ask. “As you know, I have to teach five couples about the art of dominance and submission.”
“Yes, I do,” he said, sounding like he knew everything already, even what he was having a problem with.
“Well, when it comes down to it, I don’t’ know what the hell, how the hell, why when who, any kind of hell about this!”
His deep slow laughter actually reassured Lucian rather than annoy him. It meant all was okay whether Lucian knew or realized it or not. “Listen up,” he said.
“I’m all ears.”
“You know more than you give yourself credit for. You have all the answers in you. God chose you for this Bane. This is your calling.”
Lucian couldn’t believe he was saying that. Not that. Not now. “This? Teaching people how to dominate and submit? Are you kidding me?”
“Nope. Sure not,” he said, laughter in his tone.
“This?” Lucian stood up, freaking out. He’d wondered all this time about the mysterious calling and this had never entered his mind. “Why me? I’m not a-a counselor or priest!”
“Who the fuck said counselors and priests have to teach that? You’re the man.”
“I don’t even know what to teach!” he hissed.
“You teach what you know, Bane.”
“What is that, exactly!? I need exacts for this.”
“You got a Bible, my brother?”
Lucian rolled his eyes in pain. Lord help him. “I’m sure I can find one.”
“Just do a Google search on it. The Bible’s definition of marriage. New Testament. When you read it, you’ll see what I mean. God’s the Master of D/s. So how’s married life?” He moved on, oh so confident.
Lucian grimaced with the need to hang up and Google it in that instant. “Great. It’s great. And you? When are you coming for a visit?”
“Aww you miss me?”
Lucian couldn’t help but grin at the deep chuckle. “Oh yes. Miss all the good times.”
“How’s our new momma?”
“She’s beautiful. We’re still pinching ourselves.”
He chuckled, sounding very pleased. “God is too good my man.”
“Did I tell you she’s due July 28th?”
“Really,” he said impressed. “Two days before my birthday.”
“Are you kidding?”
“Nope.”
Lucian decided now was a good a time as ever to ask him. “Tara and I were hoping you guys would… be like their godparents?”
“I’m not Catholic my brother. But I’d take a vow to ensure your boy is properly taken care of should anything happen.”
“Boy?”
“What I’m seeing, yep.”
“Seeing where?”
“Just dreams.”
“Just dreams.” Lucian was pacing in the small spot, needing to vomit over the idea of having a son. And having Preacher say it made it all too real. So far, nothing the man had ever said hadn’t come to pass. But he was still afraid to hope and be disappointed. He’d love either, but a son… wow.
“I’ll be glad for either.”
“Indeed you would. Seth is going to change your life.”
“Seth?”
“That’s the name I heard.”
“We haven’t settled on names but that one hasn’t come up.”
He only chuckled deeply. “Just telling you what I heard, that’s all. No need to take my word for it. It’ll be what it’ll be. And God knows what ears to whisper in, I’m sure.”
Lucian felt a tinge of jealousy. Would be nice if He whispered some things in his ear.
“Just be listening,” Preacher said, as though reading his thoughts. But Lucian realized he was merely finishing his own sentence. And then again, it felt like a direct answer to his own.
“If He can create the universe and your knucklehead, he can surely make the deaf hear.”
Deaf? Was he implying Lucian was hard of hearing with God? “I miss you man but I gotta go Google that stuff.”
“Fine,” he said, chuckling. “We may surprise visit you guys sooner than you think. Waiting to hear from the Man upstairs on it.”
“Tara would love that.” As would Lucian. “Can I call you if I have questions?”
“Indeed you can.”
“Thanks man.”
“Take a breath my brother. You got this.”
Lucian nodded. “Right. I’ll be calling.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
Lucian hung up, went back into the room, and found Tara sitting on the bed, bent over their scrapbook. She looked up at him and stole his breath, making him smile over it. He sat on the bed and reached over for a hug.
“What?” she asked, a smile in her voice. “Preacher say something good, I hope?”
“He told me to Google Bible marriages in the New Testament and I’d figure it out. And that he and Becca might be visiting soon.”
“Really? They are?”
He sighed. “Yes.” He wasn’t going to mention the sex of the baby and name for severa
l reasons. He didn’t want to jinx anything and if that name was to be picked, his wife would have to do it. He wasn’t going to imply it or force it just because Preacher heard.
“I’ll get the laptop.” She hurried off the bed, clearly as eager as he. Did she want to know how the hell the Bible was anywhere close to the D/s lifestyle? That alone sure had him nosy.
Ten minutes later, they sat hip to hip in the bed. “Try that one,” he said pointing at the screen. Tara clicked the link and he read right off, “Oh look, wives and husbands.” Lucian read through it quickly. ‘“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.’” Lucian paused for a moment, a little stunned at realizing something. He actually knew at some level what he’d just read but never connected it to D/s lifestyle. The two concepts just didn’t/don’t seem to mesh. Lucian went on. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word…’” Lucian quirked his lip in confusion with that bit, “‘and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.’ Lucian paused again, considering that in connection to the D/s. “Okay,” Lucian said. “I don’t understand all of that but, this?” He pointed to the Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church who he died for. “That I get. That to me is exactly what it’s all about. And I never considered the religious submission in the same light but in principal, it does fit.”
“Dying for me?” she asked, smiling up at him.
“Definitely baby,” he said, serious as could be. He looked for more. “‘After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--for we are members of his body.’ Ah, see, that would be the oneness thing with marriage right there. And in the lifestyle, it’s known as the complete power-exchange.”
“Okay,” she said, sounding interested. “Tracking you.”
Lucian was getting more excited and wasn’t sure exactly why. Maybe just to finally know something. “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ BOOM on that.”
He mumbled through a few more sentences and slowed at, “‘However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.’” He looked at her. “This is where shit gets fucked up in the lifestyle. It’s too one-sided. People are using the lifestyle to serve their selfishness, not their partners. So much of it is based on pleasure only, rather than love.”
“Really,” she muttered. “Well, respect, I can do. Hey,” she looked at him. “We might actually be holy people.”
He knew she joked but actually Lucian found himself a little interested in that remote possibility. To think that he could have all his kink with his wife and be cool with God was… more than a little appealing. “Oh look at this one. ‘Haven't you read that at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?’ Boom again. Straight from the horse’s mouth, that one. ‘So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.’ I like that. Once you’re one, there is no undoing that, should be no undoing it. I knew that much but it’s nice to actually see it. What else?” He scanned the next set.
“‘It is good for a man not to marry.’ What the fuck? ‘But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.’” He looked at Tara, “Boom again. ONE man, ONE woman. Not one man, five women or one woman five men. And here I thought the Bible was all pro multiple wives and shit.”
“I think it was at one time,” Tara said.
“Yeah,” Lucian said. “Long enough for them to learn how fucked up that was? Fuck if I would share; can’t imagine asking a woman to. This is New Testament, which means current curriculum. What it was back then, isn’t what it is now. And something tells me that there was a good reason for it. You can be sure I’m asking Preacher.” He went on, taking Tara’s hand in his. “‘The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife’ —marital duty? You think that’s code for fucking, babe?”
She snickered and laid her head on his arm. “Lucian, you’re a naughty mess.”
He grinned and returned to reading. ‘“and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband.’ Damn right it does.”
“Oh look,” she cut in. “‘In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.’ Damn straight. Highlight that.”
Lucian laughed. “And look here baby, says ‘do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a short time,’ no longer than an hour so that you may devote yourselves to foreplay.”
She kicked her legs in laughter. “That is blasphemy Lucian. Foreplay?”
“Fine I’ll devote myself to prayer while doing foreplay. Dear God, please let my wife not orgasm in the first five minutes.”
She cackled and slapped his arm. “You are awful. God’s gonna bust you in the head.”
“Oh look, look,” he whispered. ‘“Then come together’! Even God wants us coming simultaneously.”
“That is not what it’s saying! Oh my God,” she said, reading. “‘…so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control!’” She jerked back with wide eyes. “He is so talking about you here Mr. No Control!”
“Oh but look,” he said. ‘“I say this as a concession, not as a command.’ Dammit!” Lucian whispered. ‘“I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.’” He reached and fluttered his index finger over her nipple. “I clearly got the best gift of all.”
She shoved his hand away grinning and shaking her head.
‘“Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am.’” Lucian raised his brows. “Dude was a masochist or what!? ‘But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.’ K, marriage is how we handle burning passion. Got it. ‘To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.’ That’s one big duh dude. ‘But if she does, she must remain unmarried’ or else her husband will tie her ass up and kill the motherfucker who looks at her.”
She howled in laughter. “So glad you weren’t in charge of writing this. ‘And a husband must not divorce his wife.’ I like that, definitely,” she said. “Highlight it.”
“Yeah, me too. ‘To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.’ Blah blah,” he read on, skimming for pertinent stuff.
‘“Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.’ Ohhhh heavy.” He looked at her and she looked up at him. “You know I love only you, right? I would never, could never want or dream of defiling what we have with any sexually immoral shit, you know what I mean?”
“I think?”
“I mean there will never ever be any other person coming between us. It’s me and you. Only and ever. You feel what I’m saying? A lot of people in the lifestyle like to share but you know that’s not me. I’ll kill somebody for touching what’s mine, looking at it, thinking about it, dreaming about it. And me? I’m all yours one hundred percent, every bit of me. Not part of me, every bit. You see what I’m saying?”
By the smile she wore, yes, she did.
“Good, don’t ever forg
et that.” Lucian turned back to the computer looking for more. “‘Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.’ Check. ‘For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.’ Ohhhhhh boom baby, that’s powerful shit, ties the D/s in right there. Only thing I’m seeing different is the man and woman stipulation. But I guess if I’m living to serve your sweet ass, I would definitely give the okay that you’re free to Domme me.” He laughed and shook his head at the screen. “I mean wow, I’m digging this.”
“I can see though why men start treating women like slaves and property. How they would misuse what you just read,” she said.
“What?” He shut the computer. “How can you say that? What about the other thing it says. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church who died for it? And if God is my head and He gave himself up to die for us, and I’m supposed to be like Him with my wife—die for you—then submitting to me should be a piece of cake since I’m commanded to love you above myself? Baby if some dude tries to convolute that to be selfish, then they’re just evil. It’s too plain and in your face, right there,” he pointed at the computer.
“You would think.”
“Preacher was right,” Lucian said amazed. “The bible does embrace the D/s lifestyle, only difference is the husband has a Dom over him too. Which is God, and He takes care of both the husband and the wife who are fucking one! Wow.”
She raised brows at him.
“I’m shocked yes! I mean think about this. What we just read details the D/s relationship and if it came in there,” he pointed toward the computer, “then what does that tell you?”
