Ever since I was a young teen, I’ve been in love with leather. There are even times that I went into department stores just to find their leather jackets and savor the smell. I would try them on and feel safe underneath the leather’s weight.

My love for leather even prompted me to flirt with men just because they were wearing leather. It didn’t matter how old they were, I just longed to feel their leather against my skin.

Later in life, after I became a stripper, my love for leather quickly faded away. Instead of being something made me feel safe, now leather was used by my ex-husband/pimp to punish me. Not only was it used to spank me when I stepped out of line, it was also his favorite thing to torture me with. There were many times that I was bound to the boiler with his leather straps and left without food or water for days at a time. Unfortunately, this wasn’t all. I’ll never forget his leather spiked gauntlets. Not intended to look cool, these were his weapons. If I didn’t work hard enough or make enough money for the night, he would hit me forcing the spikes deep inside of my skin. Never in the face though. His favorite place to hit me with them was between my legs or in the kidneys. Needless to say, when I left him I had a deep fear of leather.

Years later, when Hubby and I started our journey into kink, I had to face this fear and let it go. It wasn’t easy falling back in love with the leather that used to bring me such comfort. The first time Hubby pulled out a set of leather cuffs, I curled up in a ball shaking and crying. My poor husband had no idea about the deep fear that I had of leather; I’d never shared that part of my past with him.

The next day, I had a bit of explaining to do. It wasn’t easy to relive some of the worst experiences while I explained my actions from the night before. Of course, my Hubby was very understanding and even offered to throw them away. I’ll never forget the tenderness in his voice as he held me that morning and apologized for upsetting me.

Soon after, it became apparent that if we were going to continue our path into BDSM, I was going to have to get over these feelings. I knew Hubby loved me and would never hurt me, so it was time to deal with these demons inside my head.

Facing your fears in never an easy task and it doesn’t happen overnight. After many long talks we decided to start out slow. A nice sexy leather like outfit for the bedroom seemed like a good place to start. After the first night wearing it, I was beginning to feel slightly comfortable. Hubby did all he could to reassure me and made sure I knew how hot and sexy he thought I looked. Things went well and we decided to take it a bit further.

Next Hubby ordered the Spartacus Divinity Wrist Cuffs. I was a little nervous, but they didn’t look like the leather straps that were used to trap me in the boiler room. Instead, they were soft and rather cute with the white leather, light blue gems and furry lining. After debating whether or not to actually put them on, I gave in and let Hubby put them on me.

He was gentle, kissed my wrists and did everything that he could to make me feel comfortable. I wish that night would have been magical. Unfortunately, half way through our fun I had to get them off of me. But we didn’t give up; I wanted to rid my mind of these old demons.

Slowly over time, I could wear the cuffs longer and longer. Until one night a breakthrough came and I let Hubby cuff me and tether me to the bed. It was amazing. Not only had I realized with every part of my mind that he would never hurt me, I also found great pleasure in being bound and dominated.

I thought all was well, until the day our new flogger arrived. Unlike the cuffs, the flogger had a strong leather smell. When I first touched it, the smell brought my mind right back to my ex’s drawer with his leather gauntlets and other gear. Immediately, I began to freak out. I threw the flogger back in its box and marched it out side. I didn’t want that in my house. No way. When Hubby realized what had happened, I saw the shock on his face. “Are we not past this?” he asked. “No!” I replied firmly.

Throughout that night, I couldn’t get the flogger out of my mind. It looked so pretty and I loved the way our latex whip felt on my bottom. Why couldn’t I feel the same about the flogger? I found myself going to sleep and dreaming about it.

The next day, I was determined to let my baggage go and embrace our new toy. At first I just sat there on our porch and stared at the box. I kept telling myself, it’s just leather. It’s not alive; it can’t jump out and hurt you. That really struck me. I think that was when I first time that I realized, the leather couldn’t hurt me. It was only the person controlling the leather that could do me harm. I knew down deep inside that Hubby would never do a thing to hurt me, he loved and cherished me. Sitting there on my porch, I opened the box and just stared at the flogger. “You can’t hurt me.”, I told the inanimate object crumpled up in the bottom of the cardboard box. When Hubby came back from fishing, he sat there with me quite. Finally I reached down, picked up the flogger and ran my fingers through the falls. I kept thinking, you can’t hurt me, can you. Hubby sat there quietly with me, letting me work this out myself but still there for support.

I asked him if we tried this could he be easy and go slow. Of course, I knew he would. But, I wanted to hear him say it. After a while, we went inside and the flogger came along.

That night, Hubby must have been surprised to walk in the room to find the flogger lying across the bed. “Are you sure?” he asked. I just smiled and bent over. Going slow, he stared out just running the falls over my back lightly. To my surprise, the falls felt amazing gliding across me. Before I knew it, my mind was in a completely different place. I started remembering how leather use to make me feel safe. How the smell use to arouse me. Not thinking, I was begging him to spank me. Hubby was probably more than happy to oblige and the rest of the night was sheer ecstasy.

No longer do I carry this baggage from my past. Now I have a love for leather that runs deeper than it did during my youth. Now leather is something that brings me pleasure, makes me feel safe and is used because Hubby loves me.

Letting go of my past demons is liberating. It’s taking back the parts of my life that were stolen from me and allows me to regain control. Today the smell of leather brings erotic thoughts to my mind, instead of making me want to run for my life. Even when Hubby uses leather to do all sorts of kinky BDSM things to me, I feel loved and safe with our leather. Totally liberated, I once again adore the smell and feel of leather and it’s a treasured part of our tool box.

I’m sure this isn’t the type of post you expected from reading the title. Written with great reservation, I hope that sharing my experience will help others who stay clear of sexual activity because of past abuse of pain. We don’t have to live with the demons of our past. We don’t have to let those who harmed us continue to have control over our lives. Find your own path to freedom and take back control of those areas of your life. Believe me, it may be painful, but it’s worth each tear you shed to reclaim yourself and be in control again.