Page 21 of Little Did We Know
“Yeah, he’s great.Way better at icebreakers than my brother, that’s for sure.”He nodded at River.
I chuckled.“Maybe Lucian can prove he’s not a vampire.I’m sure they serve somethin’ with garlic in this joint.”I nudged River with my elbow.“What else is there?A vampire can’t enter your home without an invitation, right?”
River sucked his teeth.
“Perhaps you’d rather see my crypt,” Lucian said.“It has a poker table.”
What a fantastic segue.
“I vote for that,” I said.“We actually talked about this earlier.Instead of wasting our money at a bar all evening, are you boys up for a night in?Frankly, I’m reaching my limit of loud places for one week.”
The twins looked at each other and shrugged.
“Sounds great to me,” Reese said.“I like poker.”
“And I’ve reached my limit of loud places for all eternity,” River added.“I’m in.”
Thank fuck.I was suddenly looking forward to this evening even more.It’d been a long week, and socializing was starting to feel like a chore when all you did was introduce yourself to new people and hope you had something in common with them, all while struggling to hear them over the music and a mild case of tinnitus.
* * *
Around the time our food arrived, Lucian and the twin brothers had covered the basics.Profession, which side of the river they lived on, small talk about current events, and whether they were part of any community here.
None of us was.
“Yeah, West tried to recruit us to his new community, but…” Reese shook his head and bit into a sauce-drenched wing.“We met precisely two people there that we liked—who just attended as guests, by the way.Plus, there’s very little sadism going on.”
“You mean Max and Reid?”River asked, seemingly to make sure.
Reese nodded in confirmation and reached for the wing sauce.He evidently wanted more.
I was ready to get a hotel room with my steak.An actual hotel room, like three or four stars.Even the butter-soaked, roasted green beans were incredible.
“So, is M/s your whole thing, or do you have other core kinks?”Reese asked Lucian.
Lucian had ordered the same steak, but he’d opted for the baked potato, and I was trying to keep my envy to myself.
He didn’t have water quals and a combat diving course to dread.I did.
“That’s pretty much it,” he replied.“I love sensation play too, though.Particularly temperature play and wax play.”
Reese looked interested.“I saw a wax play demo once.Beautiful as fuck—but who has the patience?Those wax melts didn’t get very hot either.I held one in my hand, and that almost did the trick.”
“Well, there are different kinds,” Lucian reasoned.“I’ll have to add that I do possess that patience.”He smirked a little.“I’ll happily start with melts that only require body temperature—and then work my way up to the candles that sting and burn when you pour the wax.”
I chewed and swallowed.“That’s how I feel about bondage.The artsy kind.Yeah, it’s stunning to see the final result, but I once wasted four hours watching a couple tie up their sub, who fucking fell asleep onstage.”
I’d seen other kinds too, of course.Most of them were an impressive workout, especially for the rope bottom.
Lucian smiled and reached for his beer.“What do you have patience for, then?”
“Torture,” River responded, almost as if he had no control of his answer.Like it just fell out.“All kinds of mental torture.Mental sadism, mindfucks, behavioral conditioning, fear play…”
The guy spoke my language.
“What River said,” I replied, cutting another piece of my steak.“I reckon what it boils down to for me is… I want my partner to be my toy.I don’t care much for playrooms filled with implements and kink furniture.With some exceptions, of course.They offer a nice extra spice every now and then.”
Lucian nodded slowly, pensive.“I suppose that’s how I separate the lifestyle from specific playtime.It’s my hope to enter a twenty-four-seven kind of dynamic one day, and it’s not as if I’m interested in using toys every hour of the day.They’d be like extra hobbies.”
