Romance in a Master-slave Relationship…
My Valentines Day Gift To You All :)

Valentines Day is a day to Celebrate Romance no matter where it is found. For some, we will celebrate with one special person, for others we will celebrate with good friends, and for still others it can be a private and uplifting acknowledgment of the power of Romance. I smile as I sit here, drifting back through truly countless experiences of the deepest Romance with submissives from my past. No matter the misperception that BDSM and Fetish is something harsh – I rest easy with a mountain of beautiful memories of Romance co-created with the submissive souls who have blessed my life thus far. I swim through a sea of Romantic experiences in such abundance as to seem Shakespearean in scope. It is true that I have an enormously strong Romantic streak, always have, always will, and it is equally a fact that my Romantic nature has been privy to moments of beauty in this life so profound that to many they would seem like something out of a fiction novel. I am here to tell you that all my experiences of Romance within BDSM and D/s are quite real, to share with you the magnitude of just how deeply a Dom and sub, a Master and slave, can share the very real and living experience of the most intense Romance, and to encourage you to embrace as much Romance as you can within your own BDSM and D/s experiences.
Some moments from my world (and perhaps your own)….

The sweet smell of perfume and pheromones as a single bead of sweat runs down her back while she grasps the chains that hold her cuffs to the St Andrews, exhausted, ecstatic, floating, feeling me and my energy, my protection, my love standing there behind her…

The infinite moment as I gently draw a silk scarf across her eyes, she inhales sharply in anticipation of things to come, and I tie the scarf behind her head…

The grasp of my hand in her hair, pulling her backwards to expose her throat which I kiss as her eyes roll back in exquisite release….

The music of her inspired moans of delight through the gag parting her lips, each sound a symphony and a story telling of her bliss….

A shiver that runs up her spine as I drag my fingernails up the back of her leg, and an ecstatic gasp as, blindfolded, she has no idea what will titillate her senses next…

A cup of coffee brought to me in bed as I open my groggy yet enormously pleased eyes, and the heartfelt brightness that spreads into our world as our eyes meet….

The look of peace and fulfillment on her face as she kneels in perfect position, her shoulders relaxed, her bearing graceful, a smile on the corner of her mouth….

Uncontrollable passion, like animals in heat, wanting to tear at each other’s flesh, to devour each other the desire so strong, the only way to consummate that desire being to literally ingest each other in our minds as this heat weaves and convulses throughout our embrace….

Her playful eyes looking at me over the long-stem rose I’d given her earlier which she now holds between her teeth to serve as the surrogate and symbolic gag running through her grin…

Deviously fun adventures together in the “vanilla” world where W/we know that we are Master and slave, Dom and sub, no matter what the world out there perceives, watching my slave squirm and squeak in delight as I trigger the remote control in my pocket while we shop for groceries…. or enjoy a dinner at a fine restaurant…. or dance at the club….

A simple moment of perfect submission when she presents her hands behind her for me to bind her wrists with the rope….

Endless creative games, reasons to take the object of my desire, scenarios planned out at length, others sprung into action without notice, and every one a moment of heaven for both of us….

Her eyes, as she lays there immobilized and unable to speak, the eyes of the love looking up and meeting mine, eyes that speak all the words imaginable from her heart but which cannot escape from her sealed mouth…

The pure focus she feels from me hour after hour together in the Play Room, the rest of the world faded into the background as we share hours in eternity….

The small shift in O/our universe as the collar closes around her neck and we know, we FEEL, in that moment that elated knowledge of O/our existence apart from the mundane, apart from the normal….

The look in both our eyes when I smile at her and tell her from my heart, “good girl”….

Her rapture knowing the gag is my deepest kiss, knowing the ropes are my arms embracing her, holding her tightly….

Pure Elysium in the most ridiculous moments at the end of the day when we fall into each other’s arms laughing….

The ritual and elegance of the sleeping restraints, and the poetry spoken as each fur-lined cuff closes and is locked into place….

Curled up together as we fall asleep smiling, our bond as strong and alive as ever no matter what O/our state….

Welcome to the world of Romance within D/s.
Perhaps this is the one element of knowledge most lacking in the Vanilla world’s perception of who we are and what our fringe culture is about. Hollywood loves to portray only the most superficial fictions about our community (save for the once-in-a-blue-moon decent film like SECRETARY) and as such very little is offered for people to absorb the unbelievable levels of Passion and Connection that occur every single day in thousands of D/s couples around the globe.

Yet ours is a culture, a community, with such regularly occurring depth of passion that it has repeatedly been likened to an all-natural high upon which we float. Ours is a world of endorphins, of tuning-in to each other at levels of intensity that most vanilla people will never experience. Ours is a world of communication so real, so poignant that the very idea of leaving things unsaid is anathema to the very nature of who we are as Dom and sub, as Master and slave. We thrive, we breathe the reality of honesty every single day because of the plain fact that we push the envelope farther than our vanilla cousins. There is no room for the self-defeating games the vanillas perpetrate due to their own sad lack of understanding how much richer a life of candidly uncensoring oneself with a perfect counterpart can be.

Ours is a reality that is a gift. We are the lycanthropes, the animal-people, who know fires in our veins that rest only after we are mutually consumed with our compliment in the luxuriously epicurean dance that only a Dom and sub can know. The sensation, the play, the thresholds achieved…. the knowing smiles as every nerve is alight and glowing equally in both Dom and sub. The Master in his trance of hyper-focus upon the slave, every cell of his body holding a singular purpose of eliciting, of communicating to the soul of his slave, of creating art in the moment, painting upon the canvas of her body, igniting her spirit. The slave swimming through the moment, each impulse to reach out and touch the Master of her dreams resisted and rechanneled by her bondage back into her own body doubling… tripling the original impulse within her and sending her deeper into the warm and luxurious ocean of bliss that envelopes her.

Ours is a Tantric reality, where we exalt in the multitude of senses and sensations possible. The smell of leather, the feel of rope or hand-cufffs, the sting of a whip, the massage of the flogger, the sound of muffled moans, the taste of the strawberry held between the teeth while not permitted to bite down, the look of bondage…. all intertwine to take the experience of the Dom and sub up into a world of tangible fantasy made real. No mere game of doctor, we dive in deep and explore the shared dreams and realities of every sense.

In our daily lives, within the world of the 24/7, we are the ones who feel that velvet electricity that flows across the ether, across any distance between ourselves and our mate, an electricity that speaks of the deepest connection, of a pact of selfhood, of a shared knowledge of the exceptional bond between Master and slave. It is a subtle knowledge contained in every moment, whether at work, at play, shopping, dancing, commuting, creating, curled up on the couch, reading, writing, sleeping or otherwise. It is this invisible bond that contains the greatest power for the Master and the slave.

We do not traipse through the world on constant collar and leash, nor do we use the honorifics amongst our vanilla peers. We do not keep eyes downcast when shopping, and we laugh equally in the movie theater. The truth is, in fact, that we abound in moments where to the outside world we appear to live and breathe exactly as our vanilla cousins, the same normal situations in life equally shared and experienced for the same value as the vanilla world will know. What differs in our world is that we embrace a layer beneath the surface of our daily life – that perfect electricity. We know that in a given moment the Dom can express in the most secretive way and the sub will thrill at the expression, even if the outside world cannot tell what is happening. We are asked often by our vanilla peers, “what is it that you two have?” They cannot help but see some obscure connection that they know is profound, yet they cannot figure out what it is. Often are the comments about how the Dom and the sub, the Master and slave, “seem made for each other,” as that is the highest assessment a vanilla peer can make without understanding how finely tuned and how unique the lock-and-key compliment of Dom and sub, of Master and slave, can really be.

We have a gift, a rare magic that travels backwards throughout time and history through a legacy of those of our kind who have shared this bond with their own compliment. Do not think for a moment that the power and passion you now experience as Dom or sub is something new to this century or the last. For thousands of years and throughout civilization the knowledge of the bonding power of our unique tastes has been lived, breathed, and experienced by the flesh of myriad ancestors who walked in our shoes, cultivated the experiences we share, and added their own flavors to the feast from which we dine. The modern world of Fetish and BDSM is woven from a rich tapestry of colors rooted in the far distant past and an abundance of cultures. It is an organic and expanding heritage where each of us adds to the collective knowledge through our own experiences. Upon the shoulders of our Fetish ancestors do we grow in the present, expanding this magnificent universe of silken ecstasy and exquisitely unrelenting passion.

And what of the novice Dom and sub? You who do not yet know the pure ecstasy of the 24/7 nor have been infused by the invisible magic that flows therein, take heart. In your brief explorations and forays into this brilliant world of the spectral hues of sexuality and sensuality, you will taste the flavor of what is possible. It is there, it exists. Lightly at first perhaps, you will experience a new spark within yourself, a chime within that sings a variation to the standard tune of daily living. Listen to the sound and find the music inside yourselves, your own song, your own variation. Borrow and build upon the knowledge of others and interweave your own experiences. When you find that certain someone with whom your dance is a smooth back and forth of mutual and shared revelation as you embrace your respective roles of Dom and sub, seize the opportunity. Respect that the magic has found you both, brought you together with another of our kind, and embrace the living fantasy you will create together.

Lest we forget the roots of Romance, know that no matter how deep your roles as Dom or sub, as Master and slave may get, there is still much to be said for even the most simple vanilla tribute to the magic of a powerfully deep connection between any two people. Just because we explore far deeper into worlds of intensity than our vanilla cousins, we are not immune to the perfect joy of as small a gesture as a flower given from the heart, nor a warm night by the bonfire on a beach. A candlelit dinner sings just as loudly with romance no matter who creates it. And a simple, perfect kiss upon the lips of the one you love will always be a moment of magic that will never fade nor grow old for as long as the universe will exist.

As Shakespeare said, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Happy Valentine’s Day to all. 🙂
— Arcane