Francine and I had been married for four years before I realized she had serious fantasies about domination. I certainly can’t say she was deceiving me because she did leave me plenty of clues. Her pet name for me was “Slave,” after all, and she had a habit of leaving her favorite books lying around the house — books with titles in which words like “mistress” and “whip” and “heels” figured prominently.

But I figured those books were a kinkier variety of the standard romance novel. And lots of couples make jokes about the husband being a slave, right? Our friends thought it was the cutest thing when Francine would call me Slave and ask me to get her a drink with the words, “Your goddess wants wine, Slave.”

Most of the time, Francine was soft... Read More