Page 8

A few weeks later

River Tenley

“W est is seeing someone.”

“All right.” I yawned and put out my smoke.

Why did people host kink events so fucking late? I was tired. I’d been on my feet all goddamn day, and I wanted to take it easy. Instead, we were heading into a fucking nightclub. At some point. The line was long.

“It’s a girl .”

What? I furrowed my brow. Lucas was dating a woman?

Reese lifted his eyebrows. “Yeah.”

“I thought he was…”

“He is. He says it’s nonsexual.”

Huh.

I scratched my forehead. A nonsexual dynamic with a woman.

I mean…I guessed it made sense, presuming they had a kink they wanted to explore together that didn’t require intimacy on that level.

Which, I supposed, included most lifestyle kinks at the end of the day.

To me, sex was an afterthought when Reese and I explored.

We were so focused on sadism that we exclusively looked for masochists, whether we were attracted to them or not.

As long as we clicked with the part that needed pain for whatever reason.

“Is it a Daddykink thing?” I wondered.

“Yeah.”

The line started moving again, and we got three steps closer to the entrance.

“Whatever works for him,” I said. “I guess it’s a good kink for a nonsexual route. It’d be harder to base a dynamic in sadomasochism.”

You could only beat someone for so long, or administer some other brand of pain, before the playtime ended. But with a Daddy/Little relationship, or D/s, the dynamic could bleed into one’s everyday life until there were no more hours left.

“I don’t know. Sounds kinda weird to me,” Reese said.

I side-eyed him.

He met my gaze. “What?”

Seriously?

“Well, I’m glad you only stick to normal dynamics,” I replied.

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. We’ll meet the perfectly normal duo inside.”

I scratched my nose, reckoning it was a decent moment to ask about another new buddy of ours.

“Did Lucas invite Greer too?”

“I doubt it.” Reese peered up the line, presumably estimating when it would be our turn to head in. “Last time I messaged with Greer, he was getting ready for another deployment.”

Ah. That sucked. I wanted to get to know him better. My first impression of him had kinda reeled me in. He was steadfast, experienced, funny, hotter than hell, and his sadistic brain was something else. He wanted pushback from his masos, which I’d never really considered the way he’d described it.

“Why?” Reese cocked his head and eyed me. “You asked about him the other week too.”

I shrugged. “I wanna know more about him. He’s the first Sadist we’ve come across I like.”

I also had a new fantasy that included him.

Reese pursed his lips and nodded once. “Yeah, he’s cool. I’ll shoot him a message and ask when he’ll visit next time.”

If he was being deployed, it sure as fuck wouldn’t be anytime soon. But he was stationed in North Carolina now, so if he had a weekend off, it was a quick trip.

“Good Christ, is this line even moving?” someone asked behind us.

Reese and I looked over our shoulders to find a guy our age, or thereabouts, getting increasingly impatient.

“We’ll be lucky if we get in at this point,” Reese responded. “You here for the demo too?”

He could strike up a conversation with just about anyone.

The guy inclined his head.

He looked like he’d come straight here from a fancy-ass office.

While he and Reese bonded over hating lines and the cold, I brought out my phone and sent Lucas a message.

Hey. How packed is it in there? We have about ten people ahead of us in the line.

I could be at home now. Resting. Reading. Preparing for tomorrow’s briefing. Eating. But nope. This was my Friday. Just standing outside, in a line that wouldn’t move, half listening to Reese chat up some guy who introduced himself as Lucian Leroux .

Was he a vampire?

Did he only come out at night?

It should be investigated.

“We’re at capacity! Sorry, folks!”

Oh, what the fuck?

A collective groan and a string of complaints rang out along the line, and Reese cursed and craned his neck to see the front. I only saw someone ducking back inside, and then people started dispersing while bitching about their evening being ruined.

It wasn’t ruined. I was going home.

“We gave it a try. I’m hungry,” I told Reese, side-eyeing Lucian Leroux. “Let’s get somethin’ garlicky.”

My brother sighed, annoyed. “Uh, all right. You don’t wanna hit up that other event where?—”

“I wanna go home,” I stated. “Tonight wasn’t meant to be. Let it go.”

Lucian chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “Evidently not for me either. Enjoy your weekend, guys.” With that, he nodded and took off, and Reese offered an absent goodbye while he pulled out his phone.

“Lemme shoot West a message. Then we can go.”

Thank fuck.