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Chapter One

Morris

“You’re questioning whether this is a good idea too, right? It’s not just me?” I was really hoping it wasn’t just me since I was technically the Dom in our still slightly new relationship… and even in our slightly screwed-up society, alphas weren’t supposed to be this unsure of things.

Collin snickered, nodding as he set his phone on his lap and leaned back in the passenger seat. “Oh yeah. That’s kind of why I haven’t been able to get out of the car.”

Well, at least I hadn’t been reading the signals wrong.

“You mean you haven’t needed to tie your shoes three times and you really didn’t need to complete those last two levels in your game?” He was kind of passionate about the game, probably because of his love of everything online, but it’d seemed excessive, even for him.

Yep, there was definitely a bit of guilt on his face.

“Um, well, technically there was that bonus thing where I got the extra levels, so that wasn’t a lie. It was just rude and probably ridiculous?” He shrugged like he wasn’t sure how much he was supposed to apologize.

But it was a familiar enough expression that it had me trying not to smile.

Collin was the cutest omega I’d ever met but also the most easily distracted by online searches and games.

He was some kind of computer genius which probably explained a lot…

but his vague explanations about what he actually did for a living had not filled in nearly enough gaps.

Dating someone new was always hard, though, so I’d given myself six more months to figure out if he was some kind of white-hat hacker or weird impulsive genius who day traded stocks and didn’t want to admit it.

“Not rude. I like watching you play and ridiculously happy is how I would explain it.” He was really cute when he got into one of his games.

Mashing buttons on his phone screen and getting so engrossed he missed everything going on around him.

He was the live action version of the meme where someone playing on their phone walked into a pole.

“So yeah, we’re both on the same page with actually leaving the car as something we’re trying to avoid. ”

We’d have to do that if we wanted to complete our goal of walking into the BDSM club in the old industrial warehouse district.

It’d seemed like a very reasonable goal when we’d been discussing it, but since neither of us had much real-life experience with BDSM, it was turning out to be a bigger deal than I’d realized.

“You’re cute when you’re working your way through a problem.

” Blushing slightly, Collin crashed into me and rested his head on my shoulder, making him feel even smaller as he snuggled against me.

“Thank you for letting me have an extra few minutes before you started, though. I finished that level and my stomach isn’t as nuts as it was earlier. ”

Trying not to chuckle, because he was honestly being serious about the game level thing, I nodded and kissed the top of his head. “Should I remind you that you actually know people in there?”

He groaned, scrunching up his face as he turned to hide it against me. “I don’t think that’s going to help… because I know them.”

As crazy as that sentence sounded, it made sense. “Okay, but you also know they’re kinky and curious and in similar relationships, so they’re not going to think we’re weird.”

They might find us weird for other bits and pieces of our relationship, but not because of the interest in BDSM or that I was still learning to be his Dom.

Or a better way to explain it might’ve been that I was unlearning how to suppress my dominant instincts I thought I wasn’t supposed to have to begin with.

When most of society kept saying alphas needed to keep their baser instincts on a tight leash and be more beta-like, it felt like they were telling us to basically learn to be more submissive.

So it hadn’t really set me up for a lot of confidence when it came to wanting to dominate a submissive partner.

Yep, not screwed up about that part at all.

“It should make it better.” His tone said it didn’t, though. “I understand that. And I even understand that they pushed me toward the right corners of the internet to help me find you, but it’s not helping as much as it should.”

Collin had been even more in denial and confused about what he wanted in a relationship than I’d been, so I could understand why he’d needed the push, but work colleagues weren’t usually the ones who told people where to find the online spanking forums.

“I think because there’s a difference between talking online about interesting things and doing it online with role-playing… and then shifting all that to in person takes it to a whole other level.” Yeah, it was the seeing in person thing that was throwing me off.

I’d managed to start talking to people online easily enough and had even done a pretty good job learning to role-play it in fun ways in the different groups I’d found, but real life was another story. “Austin said it was okay that we didn’t know much about the culture and rules part of all this.”

It was one thing finding reading material on the hidden parts of the internet on how to spank someone without injuring them, but how to behave in a BDSM club had not been as easy to find.

I was actually going to mention that to Austin when I could work it into the conversation at some point.

The carefully hidden bits of the club’s website gave a lot of information… but not about social norms.

People always forgot about those.

I could find everything else about manners online…

how to behave at the opera… what fork to use at any dinner…

who to talk to first at State dinners… but nothing to do with BDSM.

That was taboo and considered too naughty for the internet.

Which was stupid for a thousand different reasons, but also because I really didn’t want to look rude or like an idiot.

The main traits all Doms were supposed to have were confidence and competence.

Thankfully, Collin didn’t have those expectations outside of a scene, but I was working on them. It was easy to fake them when we were exploring a scene idea, but I felt lacking when it came to real-world interactions.

“He’s very convinced everyone will be nice to us and we won’t stand out.” Collin didn’t sound like he believed that, but I thought it was because he was living in an alternate reality where Austin wasn’t one of the scariest people on the planet.

He’d disappear anyone he thought was mean to another sub, and since I’d been the one to help facilitate him meeting the right people, I knew how seriously he took that promise.

No one ever explained all the insane requests hotel concierges got until a new hire was part of that world and were already expected to do the insane tasks.

Job requirements shouldn’t surprise people like that, but I’d been raised in the hotel business, so nothing shocked me anymore when it came to that kind of stuff.

Okay.

I could use that.

They were all just weird guests.

People were strange when they went on vacation, so I’d just expect to see that level of nonsense.

The difference was that if someone was walking around in their pajamas, I didn’t have to tell them to put on clothes before going to find coffee and a pastry. In our current situation, they could wear whatever they wanted to and probably still get coffee too.

“We’ve decided to be mostly clothed. We’re not into anything confusing yet.

We’re not loud people in general or attention whores.

I am confident that we will not be the most interesting people in there.

” I shrugged as he giggled. “Now, give us a few more months of research and we might find other things that make us stand out.”

Austin had mentioned a few when he’d been explaining some of the fun new things he’d figured out over the past year. We weren’t at that level yet, though.

Collin nodded, sounding more relaxed. “We don’t want to wear those costumes he showed us, and I don’t want a tail, so yeah, we’re probably pretty boring.”

His explanation of why we were boring made me chuckle. “We’re not as interesting as some people he seems to know.”

That crazy-rich omega was good at keeping secrets, but a few times when he mentioned some specific kinks, he’d grin and there was something wickedly knowing in his eyes. Being mated to a slightly insane Dom who owned an adult novelty store probably helped too.

“He likes us even though we’re boring.” Probably because we were boring, actually. Weird people always seemed to need slightly dull sidekicks. “And he’s helping us figure out the BDSM thing, so we’re going to be polite and grateful and he’ll quickly move on to talking to someone more interesting.”

Hopefully.

From what I’d seen, Austin fixated fairly easy and we were not going to end up as his current obsession.

Oh, there was where my dominant side had wandered off to… I’d just needed to scare it out of the closet a little.

“Come on.” Kissing his head, I smiled as he let out a long sigh. “I want to see you in those cute shorts and I’m ready to stretch. This car is getting smaller and smaller.”

It was the last time I let some yappy salesman talk me into something sporty with great gas mileage. I didn’t fit and it was like climbing out of a clown car.

Collin snickered. “I’m going with you next time you buy a car. That salesman must’ve been some kind of hot for you to get stuck with this car.”

I managed to keep how much I loved his assumption that we’d do it together in the future off my face, but it was hard.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Playing dumb seemed like the best decision even if Collin didn’t have a jealous bone in his entire body. “Ready or are you going to safeword?”

“Those shouldn’t be my only two options.” Straightening, he aimed a disgruntled expression in my direction. “Dawdling and wasting more time should be on that list too.”

We’d already done that part.