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She was so important. But it was more than that. She and Chris . . . he wasn't sure what he would be without them. That was the part he couldn't talk about with Logan, that kept eating at him when he got close to what Sam wanted, to what they both wanted. What if he screwed up and lost her? Chris loved Sam with all his heart and soul. Geoff would lose them both.
"So don't," Logan said placidly. His shrewd gaze was watching Geoff's face in a way that told Geoff he might be picking up on some of those deeper issues. "You seem like a careful guy to me. You'll find the balance together. You're going to be fine, son."
Logan picked up his stain brush once more. "I'm here every day except Monday, and the occasional weekend day off when I trust Troy to run the place. Call the store if you need a quick question answered or if you want to drop by for a face-to-face. If it's urgent and I'm not here, Troy will give you my cell."
"You should charge for this."
Logan shook his head, smiled. "It's a pay-it-forward thing. Someone did it for me, so I do it for others. When you gain experience, you'll run into someone who needs guidance, too. It's how the Wheel works. That's what Alice used to say, the woman who ran Naughty Bits before Madison. Capital W for Wheel. She was one of those new age, crunchy-granola hippie types." Logan winked. "I teased her about that, but she was a smart woman. A lot like her sister."
"Sam's smart, too. Smarter than me, when it comes to emotions and things like that. Maybe that's why I keep hesitating."
"Her being smarter than you is actually a pretty good thing. Trust me on that." Logan offered him another grin, a look of man-to-man wisdom. "The fascinating thing about women, especially submissives, is how they'll make themselves vulnerable in a manner that opens us up the same way. It lets us see a little clearer the things we want and truly need."
Geoff had other questions and thoughts, but he had more than enough to digest for now. "Thanks," he said, and meant it. "I'm going to pick up a few things in your store before I go."
Normally he'd buy from the lower-priced stock in a Lowe's or Home Depot, but he doubted he'd have gotten this kind of Dom-to-Dom advice there. Though it might have been interesting to see how they'd page someone for that. Attention, Dom advice needed in Electrical, aisle 11. Customer waiting.
Amusement crossed Logan's face. "Appreciate that, sir. I know you've got to get back to work, so ask Troy to show you some of the more popular items for our Dom visitors. He's a submissive with a very demanding Mistress, so he's fully informed on the lifestyle."
Geoff had been thinking about functional household items, like a four-foot aluminum stepladder for the kitchen. Sam had a harrowing habit of clambering from a chair onto the granite countertop to reach the cookbooks they kept over the cabinets. They also needed some lightbulbs and a switch plate to replace the cracked one in the garage, but Logan's comment had intrigued him. He'd looked at the possibilities in hardware stores before and imagined, but never bought for that purpose.
As he stepped out of the back room, he emerged on the fastener and rope aisle, which he could on
ly interpret as the hand of fate. He texted Sarah that he'd be about a half hour longer, his gaze coursing over the different types of rope. Nylon, twine, cotton. D-hooks, connectors.
"Can I help you find anything, sir?"
Troy had reappeared at his elbow. Along with the compelling physique, he had hair like golden beach sand and direct Carolina sky-blue eyes. Geoff expected Logan had straight women and gay men who stopped by just for the pleasure of looking at him. Geoff appreciated such features. He certainly appreciated Chris's physique often enough, even though he kept that tamped down almost as well as he'd restrained himself from pursuing Sam's submissive nature. Until now.
Maybe both of those things were about to change, though he had no idea how Chris would react to the Dom/sub stuff. He'd definitely seen Chris checking out his ass on occasion, but that was a far cry from wanting to be topped. As far as he knew, Chris had never sought out male company for sex, so even that was a bit of an unknown.
His lips tugged up ruefully. Maybe Sam was right, that it was best to deal with one person at a time and work from there. Still, Geoff took a second, harder look at Troy. He was a submissive who belonged to a Mistress, but it wasn't obvious, was it? Of course, he of all people shouldn't be making assumptions about what a male sub did and didn't act like.
Chris was in no way as obviously submissive as Sam, but that Make me challenge had sent a charge to Geoff's Dom-dar. Maybe women were easier to recognize as submissives, because so often it was more acceptable for them to take a submissive role with a man. But Geoff had seen men at the private parties or in clubs who wanted the full subjugation treatment, following their high-heeled Mistresses around on hands and knees with a collar and leash attached to their dicks. Humiliation could be a fetish, and he didn't pass judgment on it. But he couldn't see Chris doing that and, when he thought of doing it to Sam or Chris, he knew it wasn't his thing, either.
But there were as many types of submissive inclinations out there as there were Dom preferences, weren't there? When Logan had talked about him tying Sam up, flogging her until she cried, until her pussy wept, Geoff's breath had caught. He wanted her to call him Master in such a moment. He wanted to put a collar around her throat, a brand on her ass. Jesus. What would Chris think of that?
Realizing that Troy was waiting for some kind of indication he wasn't talking to a zombie, Geoff shoved himself out of his head. "Your boss said you might be able to show me some of the more popular items for . . . Doms." He'd said it aloud. Jesus.
"Absolutely, sir." Troy straightened. "You'll pay less for it at a hardware store. Plus, when you DIY it, it's usually better-quality materials, unless you're dealing with a craftsman like Logan. You're already looking at the rope. I typically recommend the cottons because they don't slip and they don't chafe, but it depends on how you're going to use it. You have any sense of that yet? Are you interested in doing suspension stuff?"
"Not yet. I'm figuring this stuff out."
Troy's expression warmed even further. "That's cool, man. I've dealt with new Doms who try to pretend they know it all, and don't ask the questions they really want and need to ask. I want to punch them in the head, because they aren't doing themselves or their subs any favors."
Geoff blinked. "Not very submissive behavior."
"If you have someone in mind for this rope, I'm guessing you already know subs aren't doormats. A lot of us can be giant pains in the ass." Troy flashed a grin at him. "So cotton would be a good start, though if you go for aesthetics, like different colors, you might look at a couple of online sites for Japanese rope bondage I can recommend. In a hardware store, typically your colored ropes are the more slippery nylon. Now, when it comes to fasteners . . ."
Geoff found himself listening intently. Intuiting that Geoff was learning as much as seeking shopping direction, Troy kept offering insights as they moved through the aisles and looked at hooks and chain, and rectangles of flexible rubber that could be cut into paddles to the size and shape preferred. When they stopped at the stepladders, Troy put his hand on one of the four-foot ones Geoff wanted to keep Sam off the counters.
"A lot of people prefer to have things in their home that can't be readily identified as BDSM toys or equipment. A ladder can take the place of a St. Andrew's cross or other type of frame in a heartbeat. You just embed a few hooks into the wall of your garage to mount it, and then tie someone up against it in a variety of ways. If you choose one of these heavier, eight-foot folding stepladders, it gives you even more options."
Troy directed his attention to it. "My Mistress has me thread my arms between two of the steps and hold the cross piece on the opposite side. Then she ties my ankles to the bottom part. It won't be as stable as one that's mounted to the wall, but a way to deal with that is to command the sub to stay perfectly still no matter what, though you still want to stay close enough to make sure they don't topple it, especially if you're doing things that are making it hard for them not to move." Another grin. "Which is usually the case with you sadistic types. This one weighs quite a bit more than an aluminum ladder, and makes the sub feel more stable and secure."
And so on and so forth. Once or twice, other customers came into the store, but their needs were quickly met. Geoff browsed while Troy took care of them, letting his mind wander through the possibilities until Troy returned to him. When the store was empty, Troy's descriptions were far more visual, planting all sorts of images of what he could do to Sam . . . or to Chris.
When his do-it-yourself bondage tour was over, Geoff had narrowed down his purchase options. Chris already had a heavy ten-foot stepladder, so Geoff bought the four-foot one, a couple of lengths of cotton rope, strong mounting hooks, and that switch plate.
