“Oh yes, entering into the lifestyle is something that causes a lot of people to question themselves, who they are as a person. Male, female, dominant, submissive, switch. Dominants and sadists struggle with the idea that they aren’t supposed to enjoy bossing someone around or hurting them. Submissives struggle with giving up their autonomy, their self-control, to someone else. Honestly, I’m not sure which gender has it harder. Men are taught to be in control most of their lives or they’re not a man, but for women they’re taught that if they give up control to a man they’re supporting the patriarchy and a lot of them worry they’re betraying all women by doing so.”

Luke blinked.

He honestly hadn’t really thought about it that way. In fact, he’d kind of assumed the female subs in the class had it a little easier. No one would see them as less feminine for wanting to be spanked or having their asses played with. Granted, there would be the prudes who would judge them for other reasons, but he hadn’t thought their struggle would really be similar to his.

It sounded like their own anxieties about submitting might be not quite the same, but close. Just sitting here talking to Olivia he could feel his own anxieties easing. Or maybe that was just his attraction to her talking.

“If you have any questions, there are several male submissives at Stronghold who would be happy to talk to you,” Olivia said. The smile on her face was purely professional, rather than intimate, which Luke wasn’t a fan of but some part of him still kind of liked it... this was the mother hen side of her that came out when she was dealing with any of the submissives in Stronghold. He’d seen it. Which meant she now considered him one of hers too. Just maybe not in the special way he was aiming for.

“I’ve already talked with some of them.” Which was true. He just hadn’t talked to them about this, because he hadn’t known at the time... But that didn’t mean he couldn’t now.

“Good. I’ve also got a list of good websites you can visit,” she said, standing and walking over to the filing cabinet along the wall. Luke stood as well, too well-mannered to continue sitting while a lady was standing, enjoying the way her gray slacks outlined the curve of her ass as she moved. “I printed out some lists a few days ago, just to have on hand.”

“Smart,” he said, smiling at her as she turned around. “Ma’am.”

Her mouth twisted in the way it did around him, hiding the smile she didn’t want him to see. Her eyes swept down his body and then back up to his face.