Disclaimer: No recognizable characters are mine.
Hannibal loved the power of women.
He was cunning and strong and tough and handled most sticky situations with a cool hand and cooler head. He wanted to be in the thick of the action, and his men gave 100% because they knew he'd never make them do anything he wouldn't do himself.
So it would surprise them to know he was docile in the sack. When he got into bed with a woman, he was happy to be under her control.
No S&M or heavy-duty bondage, however. He wouldn't turn down a playful tying up, but he'd never gone to a dominatrix or anything that extreme. He figured if he hadn't taken that step so far in his life, he was old enough to not ever start.
But to have a woman dominate, tell him exactly what she wanted and how she wanted it—that turned him on like nothing else.
Not that he never took the reins in the bedroom. Good sex was about mutual give and take, and he wasn't so blind as to know that women enjoyed a take-charge kind of man between the sheets too.
Finding the balance between laying back and letting her have her way with him versus having her submit to his wants for an evening could be tricky. It was trickier with one-night stands, which is why he was skittish about that sort of hook up. Again, not that he'd shy away completely from that sort of thing; it was just not his preference.
Of course, a long-term relationship with a woman or two while being hunted wasn't incredibly easy either.
But he was John Hannibal Smith. Top or bottom with women, hounded or revered by his government—he'd take what came and make the best of it.