That was blunt.
“You weren’t this straightforward five years ago,” I said.
“You didn’t have that much gray in your beard five years ago either. So I guess we’ve both improved.”
My eyebrows went way up there. Did he really just say that?
The flicker of amusement in his eyes vanished as quickly as it’d appeared, and uncertainty was back in full force. “I’m terribly sorry. I was relieved for a moment that you wanted to talk to me in person, and it made me…bubbly. It’s gone now.”
Bubbly.
Why did that make me wanna smile?
I grabbed the water from him. “Sit down on the couch, bubbles.”
“Yes, Sir.” But before he did, he took off his shoes and picked up mine too, placing them neatly by the door. Then he went to the couch and sat down where Corey had sat mere hours ago.
Unlike Corey, who was bouncy and untamed, Archie had a more methodical, poised way about him. I’d noticed that at the carnival too, how he could be equal parts casual and graceful.
“I can’t believe I can say that now.” Archie smiled to himself and shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong—I have zero faith in my pipe dreams, but I’m at that stage where I’ll be happy with whatever I can get, and being in the same room as you and calling you Sir with purpose is…incredible.”
He had to stop fucking with my mind. How could he be so honest?
Was I a…pipe dream of his? Me?
“You called me that back then too.” I sat down on the other end of the couch, much like earlier today, and set my water on the table.
“It wasn’t the same thing,” he replied. “When we met, I’d just started discovering kinky porn and reading about swingers. Today is different. I know who you are. I know who I am.”
Swingers, huh?
“I…I kinda want to kneel on the floor,” he admitted. “Would that be pushing it?”
Fuck yeah, it would. For chrissakes, I didn’t need that image in my head.
“You can sit right where you are,” I said firmly. “We don’t have D/s protocol for members out here. Random subs don’t kneel for Tops they don’t know. Some of my closest friends are submissive—doesn’t mean they treat me like their Dom.”
“No, I get that. I’m sorry,” he replied quickly. He looked a little embarrassed. “Although, every sub who came up to Nathan tonight called him Sir.”
“Big leap between that and kneeling for someone.” Ivy and Kit and Shay and…well, all the subs I called friends—they usually referred to the Tops in our social group as Sir too, but it definitely wasn’t expected of them.
“Of course.” He nodded and stared at his lap. “Where, um…would you like me to start?”
Good question.
Before I dug into the clusterfuck of our initial meeting, I wanted to know about his journey toward tonight. “You must’ve found me on the community website.” After all, we had our own social network, a forum of groups, photo albums, and comment sections. As one of the founding members, my contact information was listed in several places. “You could’ve just sent me a message, couldn’t you?”
“Just like I could’ve called, visited you at work, or…you know. But I didn’t want to.” He lifted his chin and made eye contact briefly. “I saw some photos of you online, hosting demos and so on. I wanted to see you like this, in person.”
He wouldn’t have seen anything sexual. I wasn’t one of those members who uploaded a bunch of intimate photos. I had a single profile picture, of my favorite whip, and whenever one of my demos ended up as a series of photos in our public album, they concealed my face. Of course, to someone who knew me, I was still recognizable.
“You’re into domestic servitude and TPE, aren’t you?” He glanced at me again, and the anticipation was clear in his eyes. So was the timidity when he bit his lip.
“We’re not discussing our kinks.” In fact, I refused to go near that topic. Was he into domestic servitude and TPE? No—fuck! No. Not going down that road. “But let me get this straight. You’ve spent the past year stalking—”
“Researching,” he corrected. “Not day and night, just…when I wasn’t feeling well. When I was too weak to resist. But then my eldest sister got a job in DC a few months ago, and she asked if I wanted to start fresh and move with her. I guess that’s when I really decided that I was gonna reach out to you again.”
Fuck, so he lived in the area now. Fuck, fuck.
“All right.” I swallowed my discomfort and shifted in my seat, pulling up my knee on the cushion and planting my elbow on the back of the couch. “Well…then…” I had no choice but to—
My phone buzzed, and I hauled it out to see if Penelope had answered, and she had.