She reached over and laid her hand over his, stilling it. “Ditto. I want honesty and trustworthiness. I’m allergic to cheating—I break out in divorce attorneys.”
He laughed. “Ditto.”
They had a great dinner. Ironically, as he talked to her more, about a variety of subjects that included BDSM, he felt more sure of his choice to take a chance and to let Skye be Skye.
If they were going to possibly build something between them, it had to start on a foundation of trust. If she proved him wrong, then live and learn.
But he wanted to trust.
Despite what Linda had done to him, he didn’t want to project his fears and hurts on someone else. There was a lot of shit that maybe he needed to work through still about his divorce, but Skye didn’t deserve to carry any of that baggage for him.
Just like he hoped he wouldn’t have to carry any of her emotional baggage for her.
If she wanted to hide stuff from him, she easily could have not gone down that path with him, kept it a secret for now.
But she’d opted to take the hard road, not the easy one.
She’d already trusted him not to reject her when she revealed that part of herself.
That was huge.
He wouldn’t throw his hands in the air and give up before something got started between them over a subject he didn’t even know much about.
When he drove her home, he felt good about his decision to take things slow and not arbitrarily slam rules onto the table.
Walking her to her door, he was reluctant to let her go. As they’d found a comfortable rhythm, the conversation had easily flowed between them. For the first time in years, he had felt…light.
It reminded him of years ago.
Another reason he was willing to take this slow. He didn’t want to rush into something simply because of a teenager’s feelings still residing in a man’s body.
Whatever happened between them had to be built on who they were now.
Maybe it was time he shook his life up a little. He knew there was a chance he might like it.
All he could do was try.
When he gave her a long, strong hug at the front door, he didn’t want to let go. She felt right in his arms. “Thank you for tonight.”
“Hey, thank you. This was great, I had a wonderful time. And thank you for dinner.” She stared up into his eyes. “So what’s our next step?”
“Feel like going out to dinner on Sunday? My treat.”
Her smile lit the darkest bowels of his dormant heart. “I’d love that. Thank you.”
* * * *
Thursday night’s date had gone better than Skye thought it might. She wondered if Axel was now doing lots of research on BDSM. She’d volunteered her FetLife name to him if he wanted to join the site, but she’d also warned him that a lot of what he’d see on the site was more porn than reality.
They’d texted off and on all day Friday, and before she left the house to head to the club, she texted him she was going. He responded a moment later.
Would you mind texting me when you get home tonight?
She pondered his text for a moment before replying.
I don’t mind, but why, out of curiosity?
Because I’ll probably be up, and I won’t worry you had car trouble or something that late at night.
Nothing he’d done so far felt controlling, and he hadn’t freaked out about her playing with someone at Cali’s party. I want a Dom. Maybe he can be that.
She replied.
Sure, I’ll text you. And after I get home Saturday. But it’ll probably be 3-ish or so.
He replied with a smiley face. Another text quickly followed.
I’m not trying to be controlling. I don’t expect you to always text me where you are. But that’s the middle of the night. Sorry. Does this even make sense or do you hate me now?
She’d nearly started crying. Dammit, his soul had been as badly scorched as hers had been.
Her fingers trembled as she responded, knowing maybe this was the wrong thing to say, but wanting it out there now.
I don’t mind. I like little rituals, Sir.
She waited, hoping he grokked how big that was for her.
He texted back.
I don’t want to screw this up.
Thank god she hadn’t worn makeup.
You’re doing great, seriously.
I’m open to suggestions.
She really had to get moving, but this was more important.
Would you mind if I texted you good morning every morning, Sir?
He must have been waiting for her response.
I’d love that.
Her soul cried out to cancel going to the club so she could drive over to Axel’s and talk with him.
Except she knew that was exactly why she couldn’t. This had to be built slowly, and she couldn’t risk dropping into some sort of subfrenzy all because she felt lonely and unfulfilled.
If this was to work, she had to take her time.
Thank you, Sir. I have to get moving to the club.
Drive safe, sweetie. :)
Skye headed to Venture, her mind rolling and replaying that series of texts. This felt…right. She could teach him the Dom stuff, or find other Doms and Tops to teach him.
It was the control, the Dominant personality that had to be his and come from him. She couldn’t push him.
Except…he seemed to be naturally slipping into that.
She hoped.
Cali had assured Skye that volunteers were fine wearing jeans and comfortable shoes. Especially since they frequently did everything from manning the front desk, to taking out the garbage, to mopping the floors, to scrubbing the bathrooms.
Bet the romance books don’t talk about that stuff.
She’d opted for jeans, Hello Kitty sneakers, and a T-shirt from a fetish convention she’d attended eight years ago. It was black, mostly, so she figured it’d fit right in.
Cali was unlocking the office door when Skye pulled into the parking lot and parked next to her. By the time Skye reached the office door, Cali was already inside and turning on the lights.
“Hey,” Skye called out as she stuck her head through the door leading to the dungeon. It was dark. Damned dark. “What do you want me to do?”
“I’m going to have you shadow me in the office tonight,” she called over her shoulder from where she was using the flashlight on her phone to see. “Hang on.”
She reached the breaker panel and lights flooded to life, as did the air-conditioning. “That’s better. Sean and Max aren’t far behind me. They distracted each other and I didn’t want anyone hanging around outside waiting on us because those two couldn’t keep it in their pants.”
“They sound like a handful.”
“They are.” She smiled. “But I love them.”
Back in the office, Cali showed her the opening checklist in a procedures manual and walked her through where everything was. Definitely was far easier than what she did at work, although at work she didn’t have to handle cash very often.
“I didn’t want to say this in front of the others on Monday,” Cali said, “and I’d prefer you keep it to yourself, but you’re the only volunteer out of this new batch I want working the front desk right now.”
This couldn’t be good. “Why’s that?”
“When I found out what you do for a living. You’re used to keeping confidentiality with patient records. I don’t have to train it into you.”
Relief filled Skye that she hadn’t just jumped into some massive internal volunteer personality battle or something. “Ah. Yeah.”
“You wouldn’t believe what people don’t stop to think about sometimes. As a volunteer, you cannot say, ‘Oh, yeah, when so-and-so was here last week.’ Or if someone calls here during the night looking for a particular member, you can’t say oh, sure, they’re here. Uh, no. Anything like that. We can’t do it. People not used to that accidentally let information out without realizing what they’re do
ing.”
“I can see where that would be a problem.”
“Big problem. Fortunately with no ramifications yet, but Marcia, June, and I talked and yeah, we’re going to really start hammering on that with the office volunteers.”
The procedure manual was simple and easy to follow, and set up in such a way that a person would have to be really dumb not to be able to follow it. Less than ten minutes later, they had the office set up and ready to go.
Two more new volunteers arrived while they were doing that. With the office squared away, Cali took Skye and the other newbies into the dungeon and showed them around, how to set up the kitchen area, where the supplies were kept to make sure the bathrooms were clean and well-stocked.
It was run like an efficient business, Skye was happy to see. She’d played in clubs and in private “clubs” and in homes, and she’d seen everything from this level all the way down to places she wouldn’t go barefoot in, much less want to use the play equipment. Here, the floors were clean, the equipment both safe and sanitary, and Cali had already told her they both had a business license as well as liability insurance. They weren’t flying by the seat of their pants—they were totally legit.
I think I’m home.
And that was a great feeling.
* * * *
Tony and Shayla showed up while they were going through the opening checklist for the dungeon.
“So she hooked you in, huh?” Tony grinned. “You realize once you have one of these name badges, you sort of aren’t allowed to bail.” He flapped his own name badge. “We hunt you down and drag you back if you try to leave. Trust me, we know effective restraints.”
She liked the guy. “Yeah, that’s okay. It’ll be nice feeling like I belong for a change.”
“Tell me more about your play experience…”
Five minutes later, Tony was playfully arguing with Cali that he was going to steal Skye for the DM staff, and Cali was threatening to sic June on him.
She hadn’t met June yet, but apparently her reputation preceded her, because Tony held up his hands in defeat. “Okay, all right. But I call dibs if you have enough office staff. Someone who’s an experienced player and has some medical knowledge? That’s the gold standard, thank you very much.”
“Damn Doms,” Cali groused. “Don’t go sniping my pet her first night here.”
Skye laughed. “Pet?”
“Eh, metaphorically speaking. Not kinkily speaking.”
Sean and Max, Cali’s other halves, arrived a few minutes later. Tonight was predicted to be a less busy night than the average Saturday, especially with the focus mostly on rope. A short rope 101 was being held by Ross and Loren, who’d been at the munch Sunday night.
As people filtered in, Cali patiently walked Skye through the procedures to check someone in and run their payment option through a tablet with a Square reader on it. It wasn’t difficult, just repetitive.
“Tomorrow night will be easy,” Cali said. “Marcia and Derick are taking the weekend off. They really need it. This is the slow weekend, apparently.”
“Cool.”
By the time she left the club at the end of the night, Skye had almost forgotten about her promise to text Axel when she got home.
As soon as she parked in her parents’ driveway, she texted him.
Just got home safely.
He replied as she was unlocking the front door.
Thank you. :)
She didn’t get the bad kind of controlling vibe from him. This definitely felt more like genuine concern.
Good night, Sir.
She’d closed and locked the door behind her when he replied.
Good night, sweetie.
She smiled even after climbing into bed ten minutes later, Barksley curling up with her.
* * * *
Skye texted Axel when she woke up the next morning after ten. It was nearly an hour later before he responded.
Sorry. Was mowing. :)
She spent the morning helping out around the house, tackling a few chores she could see needed doing. She wasn’t interested in mooching off her parents, and since they’d refused to let her pay for staying there, this was the only option she had. Even chipping in for groceries was refused, because after leaving five twenties on the kitchen counter, she’d gone to bed that night to find five twenties stashed under her pillow.
She’d tried again the next morning, and they reappeared that night in her underwear drawer.
On her third and final attempt, they’d reappeared in the medicine cabinet in her bathroom.
Skye could take a hint. Her parents hadn’t said anything, but she knew damn well they wouldn’t take her money.
The least she could do was take care of chores.
Before she headed to the club that night, Skye texted Axel one last time.
Going to the club, Sir. I’ll text you when I get home.
:) I like the Sir thing, sweetie. Have fun.
Me, too. And thanks.
Baby steps. It was about baby steps. Some guys who were vanilla, once the stigma of “abuse” was deprogrammed from them and they took to heart the fact that it wasn’t abuse if it was consensual, really could step into a Dominant role. She’d seen Axel DM. He was not a submissive man, even if he was a very laid-back kind of guy.
Even better, she preferred subtle to hard-core leather dude. It was sexier, to her.
She barely had time to think about that, though. Before it was time to open the club, they had a line stacked up outside.
“Holy cow,” Cali said as she went to let people in. “This is nuts.”
Apparently, she wasn’t kidding. Skye and Cali frantically processed people and called Max into the office to handle newbie talks for all the new members they were taking in.
Then, a large man with a very tiny woman even shorter than Skye walked in.
“Hey!” Cali rounded the counter to hug them. “You here for fun tonight, she asks hopefully with an ulterior motive?”
The guy smiled. “Tilly told us you were looking to pad the volunteer roster.”
“Yeeesss!” Cali walked behind the counter and found their name badge lanyards, where they hung on a hook with the others. “Here you go. Scrye and June. Oh, and this is Skye. She’s a new volunteer. I’m starting her out here because until you showed up, I was the only other person I had here tonight who could run the computer and front desk. And I already have twenty people inside and we haven’t even been open fifteen minutes yet. Plus, Max is giving a newbie orientation to five of them in there, meaning Sean’s by himself on the floor.”
In fact, the outer office door opened, and four more people walked in.
Scrye and June put their badges on and June signed them in on the clipboard. “Daddy, if you promise not to lift anything and to sit down while you DM, I’ll stay out here and help Cali at the counter.”
He kissed her. “Good girl.”
As he headed inside, Cali called out, “Thanks, Scrye! I love you!”
He stuck his head back inside. “Love you, too—”
“Still not doin’ you,” June finished for him with a grin.
“That cracks me up every time,” Cali said.
Skye’s eyes widened. “Wait…Scrye and Little July? From the books?”
June smiled. “Guilty. That would be us.”
“Holy…I mean, wow. I love your books.”
But that was all the talking they got to do on that topic for…a while. It turned out a monthly play party south of them had been canceled, so a lot of those people were coming up to Venture tonight to check it out as an alternative.
Once they’d got the door locked at the end of the night and all the patrons left, Cali shook her head. “Sorry about that, Skye. Didn’t mean to toss you into a battle on your first Saturday. I thought tonight would be easy.”
“That’s okay. Glad I could help.”
It was fun getting to see the other side of the curtain and helping keep things running smoothly. There
were no paid employees at the club. Everything made was put back into operating expenses, improvements, and repairs. They paid some of the presenters, although local ones like Scrye, Ross, and Tony usually refused to take any money. And since all the volunteers were also active in the lifestyle, they had a vested interest in making sure people had a good time and that the place was kept open and in great shape.
Skye had parked in her usual spot at home and was on her way to the front door when she remembered her promise.
Home safe, Sir. Crazy busy night. Heading to sleep.
She’d made it into her bedroom when he replied.
I’ll pick you up tonight at 6. Sleep tight, sweetheart.
Skye couldn’t help it, it felt right with him. Maybe she was setting herself up for heartache with a guy she didn’t know for sure could really be a Dominant and not just throw words around, but she didn’t care.
Thank you, Sir. See you then.
She wouldn’t even start slashy speak with him. Calling him Sir this soon was probably pushing it, but…
Fuck it. It felt right.
And that’s what she chose to focus on.
Chapter Nine
Skye desperately tried to shake off her nerves the next Saturday night as she drove to the address Cali e-mailed her for the party. There would be several Doms there tonight, according to Cali, who she and her guys would personally vouch for, who might be interested in playing with her.