‘I’ve dabbled,’ he said with his charming smile. ‘A bit of messing about with girlfriends. I’ve never taken it seriously, though, until now. No equipment or anything like that – just straightforward slap and tickle.’
‘Well, there’s nothing wrong with that,’ purred Maria. ‘Nothing at all. How did you come to hear of us?’
‘I saw your ad on the noticeboard at Safeword,’ he said, to my relief, because I hadn’t realised the group wasn’t invitation-only. ‘Thought I’d quench my curiosity, along with my thirst.’
‘Oh, very good. Here’s to quenching,’ said Maria, lifting her tall glass of gin and tonic.
The conversation moved on and ranged enormously, from kinky club nights to a new moisturising cream that worked wonders on sore bottoms to Joel’s run-in with the university’s vice chancellor. It maintained that kind of ratio – two thirds kink to a third vanilla – until I decided I had to raise the Mia issue.
My opening came during a grumble from Tanya about a puritanical new policy by one of the hosting platforms.
‘If I post anything full frontal, they’ll ban me,’ she complained. ‘But I want to show off these tits. I paid enough for them!’
‘So, do any more of you have blogs?’ I asked, looking around the table.
There was shrugging and muttering.
‘I have a website,’ said Maria. ‘For professional reasons. I don’t post anything too personal though.’
‘I have a little blog as part of my Safeword profile,’ offered Louise. ‘Just ramblings, though. No pictures. I’m just as likely to put a recipe or book review on there as talk about my latest scene.’
‘Do any of you…did any of you…know the Mia Culpa blog?’
‘You’re a bit obsessed with that,’ observed Katie, while the others gave uniform blank looks.
‘Oh! The one with the illustrations!’ exclaimed Tom, helping me out. ‘Is that it? Really good drawings?’
‘Yeah, that’s the one,’ I said gratefully. ‘I think she’s local? Just wondered if anyone…might…know her?’
I trailed off. It seemed increasingly unlikely, from the array of downturned mouths and creased foreheads.
Or did they, and they didn’t want me to know?
Was it a conspiracy of silence?
I looked directly at Joel, whose initial and professional job hadn’t escaped me, and said, ‘She seems to have vanished off the face of the earth lately though.’
‘That reminds me,’ he said, cool as mint. ‘I need to update my academic blog.’
No, it couldn’t be him. And he was married anyway.
‘So,’ said Maria, with a definite ‘let’s change the subject’ tone, ‘it’s occurred to me that we have one new submissive girl and one new toppy boy.’ She gave Tom and me a look at once sharp and conspiratorial. ‘What a coincidence.’
My heart sped up. Were we discovered?
We waited for her to elaborate.
‘I take it you’re both straight?’ she continued.
‘I am,’ I said, and she tutted softly.
Tom nodded.
‘You’d make an attractive couple,’ she said.
I stared at my knees, waiting for my cheeks to cool.
‘I’m sorry.’ She patted my arm. ‘I don’t mean to embarrass you. But why don’t you let me help you along a little? Two newbies, with the same but opposite desires, both looking for new experiences. What if I were to offer you a free session?’