Page 8

CHAPTER 8

Victor

I knew about Rawhide Ranch—the resort’s name—thanks to my brother. I had stayed with him and his wife at their home but I’d never taken them up on their invitation to spend a few days at the resort on their dime.

Mostly because while they’d said it wasn’t uncommon for people to meet and form relationships at the Ranch, I hadn’t wanted to go if I didn’t already have a trusted romantic partner with me. That was for multiple reasons, the first being my job and the security clearances I hold. No way in hell would I jeopardize that.

My original plans for this vacation had consisted of Kay and me spending the first couple of days fucking our brains out until we exhausted each other, then diving into deep relationship conversations regarding our long-term future, which we’d deftly danced around these past three years.

At my age I finally felt ready to have a full-time partner. Someone living with me, not on the other side of the country.

I also knew it wasn’t fair to ask Kayley to uproot her life and give up her career to be with me. In fact, I suspected demanding that of her would be the fastest way to end our relationship.

I might be a Dominant but I’m also not an asshole. At least, I try not to be.

Which was another point we needed to hammer out. I didn’t want a doormat or a mindless slave. But thanks to lots of trial and a whole fuckton of error in past relationships, I knew I needed a submissive partner, and not just in bed.

Being submissive in bed and being a submissive outside of it were two different things. I didn’t want our relationship to morph into a battle of wills from us bumping heads.

I’d been able to let go of the submissive requirement because Kayley and I didn’t live together. We maximized our brief interludes by not worrying about a daily routine between us because we didn’t need to.

Yet to make a long-term relationship of that kind work, it first needed to be discussed and negotiated at great length.

Rawhide Ranch was well known for catering to and caring for Littles and their Bigs, protecting and nurturing unpartnered Littles and submissives, and providing a safe place for kinky folks to openly live out their fantasies or explore new aspects of their relationships. Sometimes the resort even unofficially played the role of matchmaker, facilitating the meeting of compatible and like-minded individuals, overseeing them spending time together in a controlled, safe environment.

I was smart enough to keep my nose out of my brother’s business when it came to intimate details about his marriage. His wife Terrie was a lovely woman, beloved by our family, and that’s all that mattered.

After Cedro’s time in the military, he spent a few years in the high-end private security sector before landing out here. All he revealed about his current job to our family and friends who weren’t in the lifestyle was that he dealt with logistics and security for an exclusive, high-end private resort.

Yes, that generalization provided a lot of real estate for wiggle room on his part and gave him a genius-level excuse for not providing more details, much as my Secret Service career excuse did for me.

He’d confided more to me—not private deets about visitors and employees, of course—because he knew my relationship dynamic interests aligned more with his than with our vanilla siblings.

I had hoped to one day bring Kayley out here once Elliot left office and after we’d better defined the kinky part of our relationship.

Guess that would happen sooner than I’d intended.

“So what, exactly, am I going to see?” she asked while I drove.

“People being their authentic selves,” I said. “You need to keep Dr. Kayley Cruz locked in a box during our stay, all right? Once we get a good night’s sleep and can regroup, we might end up doing nothing but swimming, riding horses, or hiking. Or, we might delve into the kinky end of things that we haven’t been able to really explore before.”

“Ahh, there it is,” she said, looking at me. “Why do you seem afraid to discuss that?”

“Not afraid, exactly. Wary.”

“Again, why?”

I thought about it. “Because I know we’re approaching an invisible deadline, Kay. I don’t want to lose what we have, but I know we have reached the point where we need to figure out if we can move forward together or need to go our separate ways.”

She squeezed my hand. “Have a little faith in me, huh?”

“I have a lot of faith in you, sweetheart. But I’m also a realist and have seen too many of my colleagues’ relationships crash and burn. This isn’t an easy job and it makes for an even rockier relationship. Especially when it’s long-distance. We swore never to lie to each other, so there it is.”

We rode in silence for a moment. “I am absolutely willing to keep an open mind,” she said. “Because yes, I love you. Still, that doesn’t change how I feel about my career.”

“I know.” I stifled my disappointment. Lately, every time we said goodbye it hit me harder. “And I love you, too. This time away from everyone and everything, it’ll give us the space we need to figure that out. Right?”

“Agreed.”

We stopped at a large, wrought-iron gate where Derek rolled down his window and spoke to a man staffing the guard shack. Derek hooked his thumb back in our direction, and the guard looked, then nodded. When the gate swung open, we were waved through and followed Derek up the drive.

It was a couple of miles long, and in the darkness I knew pastures and land stretched beyond the reach of our headlights. Kayley went quiet, staring out the window as we drove.

I sensed her apprehension was as much about the day’s events as it was the deeper, personal ramifications of our vacation.

During our relationship we’d stayed closer to the shallower, vanilla end of the kinky pool. She loved me restraining her in bed with my hands, or simple rope work that loosely tied her hands to the headboard. A sleep mask as a blindfold. Light, playful swats on her ass. Biting. I suspected I’d dropped her into light subspace more than once.

What did I truly hope for us to progress to?

Years ago I discovered I had a love for shibari, bondage, and impact play to supplement sexual fun. Not a heavy sadist despite my joking about that, but closer to the nurturing, yet playful bastard end of the spectrum of kink. Needing more in my relationship than a mere kinky weekend or two sprinkled on the calendar here and there, but I was most definitely not someone who only got off on his partner’s physical pain.

What I also realized was that I needed a partner who submitted to me outside the bedroom as well as in it. Not to micromanage their existence, but some rituals and protocols. A territorial protector of his woman, who within the confines of our personal relationship wouldn’t mind giving over control to me outside of the bedroom.

Why had it taken me so long to reach this point with Kayley? Because with a long-distance relationship I hadn’t wanted to layer a ton of requirements on her that would frustrate both of us if she couldn’t or wouldn’t comply. I hadn’t wanted to set us up for failure, in other words. We’d used our times together to have fun, to fuck each other silly, and while she’d playfully called me Sir several times it wasn’t something I ever required of her inside or outside the bedroom.

My original plans called for this time together to be used to discuss our future and—hopefully—define and develop the beginnings of a sustainable formal D/s dynamic between us. To give her a taste of what living with me might be like and see if she even wanted that.

I didn’t own much in the way of toys because, despite my ability to sail through TSA checks due to my law enforcement status, I didn’t want gossip of my personal pursuits making it to other agents I worked The Shift with.

Okay, so we’re doing this.

When I pulled up to the front of the building and parked behind Derek, awaiting us on the steps stood a large man with long, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. He started toward us but Derek waved to him. As I got out and walked around to help Kayley, I couldn’t help the way my gaze repeatedly swept the area, alert for threats.

That would be a difficult habit to break during our stay. This wasn’t Camp David, or the private residence inside the White House, where I could force my instincts and training to take a break during our personal time together. It wasn’t even the private resort that was our original destination.

Still, Cedro and Derek assured me the resort was safe, our privacy guaranteed. Also, that since I had taken great pains to make sure no one knew where Kayley was, other than her brother—and now them—there was almost no chance of someone discovering her whereabouts. Their NDAs would handle the rest.

Derek, with the man following him, walked over to us. “Daphine, Vic, this is Moses. He’ll take your bags to your room and park your SUV.”

I quickly recognized Derek used ASL to communicate with him, but I was downright shocked when Kayley immediately started signing to the man.

I had no clue. Her brother was well-known among our teams for being fluent in multiple languages, and I speak Spanish and French well enough to be conversationally fluent in them, as well as some basic Russian and Mandarin.

But this was the first time I’d seen Kayley sign.

She looked up, smirking and arching an eyebrow at me even as she signed at the same time. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “My brother isn’t the only polyglot in our family, you know.”

Moses smiled, nodding, and signed to her, which made Derek and Kayley laugh.

“He said this might be an interesting stay for you,” she said, signing as she translated to me.

I only knew a few basic signs and could finger spell, but so slowly and clumsily it was usually easier to type into my phone and show the other person. I’d never been assigned duty requiring I be fluent in it.

“How have we been together three years and I had no clue you know ASL?”

Kayley shrugged, signing, “You never asked.”

Derek and Moses both laughed.

“I guess I deserve that.”

She signed without translating, and Derek and Moses laughed even harder.

Derek took pity on me. “She said you’re right, you did deserve it.”

Fuck me, maybe Leo wasn’t the only ball-busting Cruz sibling after all.

“Oh,” Kayley added, “just so you know, Derek told me that Moses is an excellent lip-reader so don’t feel you have to sign to communicate with him.”

“Thanks for the info.”

“You’re welcome.” Kayley playfully stuck her tongue out at me and I couldn’t help but laugh with them.

After the shit-sandwich the day had turned into, it felt good to have something to laugh about. Even if it was at my expense.

I didn’t even mind.