{Personal Note: It’s my birthday! Yes, I’m totally saying that so you’ll tell me Happy Birthday in the comments. I am shameless that way. And this is a landmark birthday – I am officially old. No, that’s not bad! I’m embracing the moment. Now back to my story…}

Seated at the table in her breakfast nook, he looked totally comfortable. He’d turned down her offer of sugar or cream or even sugar-free vanilla flavoring for his coffee, but appeared happy with the fresh-ground Mexican medium roast he was drinking. “Thank you,” he said. “I’ll start. I’m Joshua. Joshua Davis, some people call me Josh, but it’s always Sir Joshua when I’m in full Dom mode. And you are?”

Fully aware of the absurdity of introducing herself to a stranger in her own house, she said, “I’m Selena. Selena Thompson. But what are you doing here – how did you get here? And why are you here?”

He grinned, “Impatient, aren’t you? But I don’t blame you. This seems a bit crazy to me too. It started one day about a month ago. I was reading a blog post by some submissive girl and wishing that I were still involved in the BDSM scene, wishing I had a submissive woman partner. All of a sudden, this woman appeared. Right there, big as life. Just about scared me to death. But she was gorgeous, and I got over being surprised pretty quick and just wanted to know why she was there.” Selena listened, fascinated by this story.

He went on, “She said my wish had brought her there. I know – it’s ridiculous, isn’t it? But apparently, there’s actually some power to wishing that pops up randomly, when people least expect it. Not manifesting, mind you, that’s not it at all, it’s actual magic. So there she was. Seemed like she knew all about me, at least she knew about how my last relationship ended and that I’d decided there wasn’t any point in trying again.” He paused, a far away look in his eyes, like he was reliving that experience. Selena waited.

Then, “She said she was a wish-matcher. I know, I never heard of that, doesn’t even seem possible. But she said that when somebody makes a wish – a specific kind of wish, then she can show up and make them an offer. Well, she got that far, and I thought it was crazy, I was about to throw her out of my house. But there was something about her – I decided to hear her out.

She said that there were people out here who were – like the answer to my wish. They were just what I wished for, if you know what I mean. And she said if any of them were to wish for me, that she could put us together. She said it wasn’t just romantic matches this wish thing worked on, she could do it with jobs – matching a job opening to a person needing that exact job – and some friendships too. Anyhow, she told me there were lots of ways she could make it happen – like, we could have bumped into each other at the grocery. But after she gave me all the options, I decided I wanted to go this way with it – direct.”

He paused then, and Selena just looked at him for a minute, trying to take this in. Then she laughed, “So you’re like the answer to a maiden’s prayer?”

He snorted -yes, that was the only word for it. A snort. “I don’t think I’d go that far!” he said. “But yeah, I’m here because in some way, you must have wished for me. Is that right? Did you?”

Selena felt herself blushing, and knowing her cheeks were red made her blush even more. Joshua watched her, his gaze steady, just waiting. “Well, ok, yes, I guess I did, in a way,” she admitted. “Ok, so let’s say this is all true, and not just some elaborate fantasy I’m making up for my blog. What happens next?”

“You have a blog?”

“Yes, I do. But that’s beside the point – what happens now? What are we supposed to do? I mean, you can’t just suddenly start being my Dom or anything like that.”

“No, of course not,” he said. “I’ll put my blog questions on hold for the moment.”

{And Selena had a sudden flash of what it might be like with him. Like he was steady and sure, willing to bend, but without losing track of his own goals. And she felt herself soften, just a bit.}

She nodded and he went on, “So the woman – she said her name was Desiree, which is entirely too corny, but that’s what she said – she explained that whoever she matched me with and I would have a week to get to know each other. At the end of the week, we’d have to decide what we wanted to do. We could continue getting to know each other or, at any point in the week, we could decide not to continue. We could also choose whether or not we would remember that the time together even happened.”

Selena sighed, “I feel like Alice in Wonderland. This is too – too strange. I can’t even…”

He nodded. “I get it. It’s a lot to take in. I would offer to leave, but then you might convince yourself you imagined the whole thing.”

“Ok,” she said, “let me see if I’ve got this straight. You showed up because I wished for you. Or something like that. Because there’s a wish matcher and you had wished for someone like me?”

He nodded, “Yep, that’s right. And I did, you know. I mean, I don’t know if you’re “the one” exactly, I don’t think I quite believe in that. But there is something about you” {and his gaze rested on her like velvet, she caught her breath} “something about you that calls to me. I would like to get to know you better.”

Selena felt herself soften again, and shook her head a bit, reminding herself this was crazy. “But over this next week, we can decide that we don’t want to go on, and we can even choose to – forget this ever happened?”

He nodded. “Yes. That’s it. In a nutshell.” He paused, took another drink of his coffee.

Selena looked at him. She had been playing with her coffee cup, glancing at him as he talked, but now she stopped and just looked at him, studying him. She liked his face. He looked like he had lived a lot, his face was lined, but he looked kind. That was so important to her these days. She looked at his hands, one of them resting on the table, the other on his cup. They were well-shaped, with long fingers. She could imagine being touched by them. She looked up, looked into his green eyes..

…and suddenly she tumbled into a fantasy. In the fantasy, she was naked, her hands fastened behind her back. He was standing very close to her, fully clothed, close enough to put one hand on her cheek, slide his thumb into her mouth. His other hand caressed a nipple. ‘There will be spankings,’ he said. ‘And fucking.’ She felt heat between her thighs and wanted him. Wanted to kneel, to suck him, to…”

And she came back to the present. He was still looking at her, and she realized her lips were parted and she had leaned forward a bit. Her nipples were tingling. He smiled.

“We might be amazing,” he said. “But first, tell me about your blog.”