Page 88 of Coiled Tight
I shook my head right away. “It’s fine.”
“Cam…” Kara sighed. She toyed with the end of her braid. “I missed you too, y’know.”
“Um. What about you? How are you doing?”
It was a way out, I knew it. Kara did, too. She lookedhesitant, frozen for a few seconds. I’d half-convinced myself that she was going to end the call before actually letting me into her life. But she didn’t. She just started talking and getting livelier by the minute. She talked about her Domme and how she’d color by her feet instead of worshipping her boots, and about the local kink club where they played, and the Little she went on milkshake dates with, and their group play nights, and…
Fuck.
My eyes stung.
I was going to end up crying again today, wasn’t I?
But what she said sounded perfect.
And there was no one who deserved it more like her. The perfect community she’d been certain didn’t exist after what she went through with her ex and her friends.
“Uh, can I call my Domme?” Kara frowned. “I’m not safewording, but like… I want to introduce you. If you want it, too.”
“Oh.” I blinked. “Okay. If you want?”
It was strange. Guilt gnawed at me regardless, but… but part of it also felt like old times, like no time had passed and Kara was just rambling about her life like she did before she grew more aware of the abuse she was suffering.
The problem was me, the one who had changed, who wasn’t the same.
“Okay!” Kara added more cheer to her voice than it was called for, but I got it. I did the same when she was having bad days, and I didn’t quite know how to raise her spirits without turning completely dismissive. “I’ll be just a moment.”
I gave her a swift nod. She untangled her crossed legs and was off the screen one second later. I didn’t at all count the seconds while she was gone or stare very hard at the time in the upper corner of the screen. Maybe I should grab a Xanax. I didn’t think my heart rate had slowed down a lot, and that wasn’t healthy. If I focused on it, I started to feel pins andneedles all over, and then I started to worry that I wasn’t getting any air, and oh fuck. No, I couldn’t have a panic attack right now.
There was no way.
A door in the background brought my attention back to the screen. Four beats later, Kara’s face was on sight again. She looked a bit more flushed but good flushed. Another face joined in.
Her Domme had dark brown hair slacked back with a buzzed undercut. She looked gentle, but like she meant business.
“Um. Hi.”Oh, fuck.I whipped my face to look at Kara. “Does she speak English? Sorry, I didn’t ask. I’m learning Spanish, actually. I can… I mean, I’m not great at it yet, but?—”
“Why are you learning Spanish?” Kara asked. “But, uh, yeah, Mónica speaks English, it’s fine.”
“It’s—” Wait. Introducing myself to Mónica took priority over explaining anything. “Um. Sorry. Nice to meet you, Ma’am. Sorry it’s, um, like this?”
Mónica cocked her head to the side. “I told Kara already that what’s going on between the two of you stays between the two of you. You don’t have to kiss my ass.”
“She really doesn’t like it when people do that,” Kara mock whispered.
It got her a side eye from her Domme, and I tensed, preparing for a bigger reaction, but nothing came. I didn’t relax right away, but it helped.
“Um. Sorry. No ass kissing. Promise.”
Mónica rolled her eyes. “You’re good.”
I nodded, more to myself than her.
“So, why learning Spanish?” Kara pressed. “You always said you were very bad at languages. I mean, it’s great you’re learning, but there has to be a reason. Right?”
“Yeah.” I blushed, gaze down. I remembered telling herabout sucking at languages. It was back when we were starting to know each other, and she was telling me about her dad and how it was sad that she only learned Spanish but not German because he didn’t have contact with that side of his family. “But Daddy’s family runs the sanctuary. His family’s Chilean, and they hire lots of Latine immigrants, and not all of them speak English great. Daddy told me I had to learn Spanish on my first day here.”
I probably hadn’t done enough to this day. No wonder the hands didn’t like me that much. I hadn’t had any issues, but I should be able to do more than small talk to ask someone about their day and then pretend I’d caught all of it while telling them my day was good, too. I’d gotten one or two odd looks I’d been too ashamed to tell anyone about.
