The Safe Word is Cherry (TABOO, Interracial, Forbidden) by Tuesday Taboo

“ Your word will be “cherry”,” my step-father Dean said to me. He was a black, muscular man in a tight shirt and jeans, and when he put his hand on my elbow and guided me through the door and into the home he shared with my Mom, I could feel an almost elemental strength flowing through him. I’d always thought he was a nine or a ten, and standing next to him made me feel like a chubby six that was really out of her league.
    The inside of their house was dark, but well-furnished. The scent of his cologne, a spicy, somewhat exotic blend I couldn ’t place, filled my lungs, adding a flavor to the encounter that would haunt me forever.
    “ Did your Mother tell you what to expect?” he asked.
    It was an excellent question. I ’d been asking that very thing of myself all weekend, ever since Mom had convinced me that my lack of sexual experience and my “prudish” inhibitions were getting in the way of life on the dating scene. She’d urged me on, telling me that her new husband was ‘very good at what he does’, but now I wasn’t so sure about this.
    “ A little,” I said.
    “ We’ll spend some time together, you and I. Your Mother assures me that you’re clean. A virgin in fact, and you can’t be cleaner than that, isn’t that right?”
    I nodded, ashamed.
    “Excellent. For the rest of the evening you are mine. If at any time you don’t like where things are going, you have only to say the word ‘cherry’, and I’ll stop. Whatever made you uncomfortable will be halted, changed or adjusted, and we’ll continue. Does that make sense?”
    I nodded. I was still scared out of my mind, but I knew that Kelly wouldn’t have recommended him to me if he was some crazy person, or something. “Okay,” I said.
    “ Your Mother is certain that you are too inhibited. Is that the issue you’d like to focus on during this session?”
    “ Yes, please.”
    “ And are you ready to begin?” He smiled, strong white teeth flashing confidently at me. “It’s okay, Jess. I do this for a living, and I’ve been looking forward to breaking you in. I’m sure you’ll find it very useful, when you hit the dating scene again.”
    I opened my mouth, so nervous that I almost just got up and fled the house. “When do we start?” I asked instead, al too aware of his black skin and the big bulge in his pants.
    “ Jess, do you need to eat or drink anything?”
    “ No.”
    “ Do you need to use the toilet?”
    “ No thank you.”
    He smiled again. “And do you remember your word?”
    I nodded. “Yes.”
    “ Please don’t be too embarrassed to use it. Not everyone likes the same things, you see, and the best and quickest way I have of finding your walls is if I push to them and you are honest with me when I reach them. Challenging new fears and confronting old hang-ups can be very rewarding, but not if you are in a great deal of pain, either physical or emotional. Do you understand?”
    I let his words sink in. I could feel myself shaking, just a l ittle, but the nerves were there. Every indrawn breath and subtle shift of my weight from one foot to the other was laced with a series of trembles and chills.
    “ I understand,” I said, once I thought that I did.
    Dean took a step toward me and pointed at the floor. “Now get on your fucking knees.”
    I just stood there, mute. Was that all the preamble there was going to be? My legs locked and my heart jumped around in my chest as I realized I was very much not ready for this. Every relationship I ’d ever been in had fallen apart, yes, but nobody had ever ordered me to do anything sexually.
    Maybe that ’s part of the problem, a voice in my head piped up. They didn’t know how to ask and you didn’t know what they needed, so things just faded away.
    My step-father was wa tching me, dark eyes glittering in the last of the sunlight slipping through the windows. The door to the house was at my back. I could still leave, could still either beg out of this or just run