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Marius had seen TV shows where the characters rode on private planes. The cabin area was smaller than Hollywood made it look, of course, but the space was still pretty impressive. The private plane had a conference room with all the modern technology to conduct whatever business could be conducted from an office. There was also a separate, comfortable sitting area with a well-stocked wet bar and a refrigerator full of snacks. Peter showed them into that area and let the pilot know they were ready to go.
Regina had gestured him into a window seat, taking the seat next to him. Since that seemed to be her preference, he didn
't dispute it, and was glad he'd get a prime view of takeoff. As the plane rumbled onto the runway and then accelerated, he was nearly glued to the glass. Or whatever they used to make a plane window. He realized he had a grin all over his face, watching the world race by. Fucking awesome.
He couldn't pull his attention away until they'd leveled out. When he did, he found his Mistress had broken off her chatting with Dana. She was studying him with amusement. "First time in a plane, hmm?"
He nodded, trying to look a little cooler about it, but seeing her pleasure in his reaction, he decided not to put too much effort into it.
"This is the ultimate in flying," she said. "Flying economy to and from conferences is a lot less of a pleasurable experience, especially these days. But that's why I'm glad I have kind friends."
"We had selfish motives," Dana said, unfastening her seat belt and curling up on the cushion, her now bare feet tucked under her. Her shoulder pressed into Peter's side, because he had the arm rest pushed up from between them. "I wanted to catch up and see how you were doing. Last time we talked you had just started at the community college. How are you adjusting from corporate consulting to playing teacher in an academic setting?"
Regina chuckled. "Fortunately, the course I teach is geared toward people looking to upgrade their existing skill sets, so it's not much of a shift."
"What do you do to make ends meet, Marius?" Peter asked.
"A little bit of everything," he said, his standard answer. "Manual labor jobs, mostly. I work through a temp agency." It wasn't a lie. He just made better money at fights, and so did it more often than the other to pay the bills. He was aware of Regina's look but didn't make eye contact.
"Hey, do I smell chocolate?" Dana lifted her head, nostrils flaring. Marius was glad for the distraction.
Peter chuckled and opened the package of TimTams, shaking them onto a plate. "You're better than a bloodhound, sweetheart."
More general conversation revealed Dana was now a minister at a church in New Orleans, one smack in the middle of urban vice. She seemed suited for that, since the air she emanated said fear wasn't something she'd let get the upper hand on her. While Marius didn't expect she had any trouble standing on her own two feet, her Master's dedication and support seemed a key brick in that foundation. The guy was obviously devoted to her. He kept his hands on her pretty much all the time, one palm curled loosely over her folded feet, or on the curve of her hip when he sat back again and let her cuddle her barely five-feet-tall body against his bulk.
It was intimacy, comfortable knowledge of one another. The vibes were probably from being married, as well as committed Master and sub. It wasn't something Marius had ever let himself think about having, but he realized not thinking about it didn't mean not wanting. He was with a Mistress who had introduced him to the word want in a way he hadn't experienced before he met her.
His elbow brushed hers as she sat in the cushioned seat next to him, her legs crossed, opposite arm lying loose and relaxed. She looked exactly like what she was. She wasn't a planet needing to orbit around another. Just as she'd said that night not too long ago, she was a star, a sun, who gave or took away warmth according to her own schedule.
Almost as if she'd picked up on his thoughts, and was reminding him of the truth of them, she rested her other hand on his thigh, stroking as she spoke with her friends. He wanted to move to the floor at her feet again. However, though Peter and Dana were Dom and sub, he wasn't sure if a vanilla protocol was in place right now.
Regina answered that question. Her hand shifted to his shoulder. A quick flick of her lashes told him what she wanted, and he slid to the floor at her knee, bracing his bent legs by tucking his shoe tips under Dana's seat, since she had her limbs folded up underneath her. Regina's touch moved to that favored spot on the back of his neck, her fingers threading through his short hair.
After some additional casual conversation and catching up between her and Regina, mostly girl talk, Dana began to sit up. When Marius would have moved his legs out of the way, Peter shook his head at him, telling him it wasn't necessary. Finding him there, Dana propped one bare foot on each of Marius's knees and smiled.
"I like this kind of foot rest. You okay with that?"
"I am," Regina answered when his lips parted. Okay, they were in Dom/sub mode. He subsided, feeling an unexpected comfort settle over him, particularly as Regina continued the slow stroke of his hair. "Lay your head back on the seat, sweet boy."
Though she could be ruthless, there wasn't anything arbitrary or cruel about her. She was kind and loving, tough and fair.
She deserved way better than him. He didn't want the thought to intrude on this moment, but there it was, always waiting. He shrugged it off, twitching under her touch. The truth of that rankled, but it didn't matter, did it? This was all great, but when he got back into The Zone with her help--if he did--where did they go from there?
She was all class, style and money, with a fancy education. He was...him. She might keep him as a sub at The Zone, because she seemed to prefer to pursue her interests in that environment. He expected it was only his circumstances and her willingness to help him that had caused their interactions to happen outside of that.
He could live with being hers just at The Zone, right? Maybe that would keep him more manageable.
He ignored the instant yeah right total bullshit call that went through his brain. And pushed away the thought that the club itself, all the stimulation and choices, might have sometimes helped set him off. He was trying to protect himself, he knew it. He could see himself laying the bricks, each negative thought the slap of the mortar.
He needed to stop thinking, fast. Yet as he thought of life going forward without her in the near future--or as just one of her subs at The Zone--he had a sinking feeling it wouldn't take him long to revert to what he'd been. He'd be back to where he started within a few months.
He needed her to keep him on the straight and narrow. Which sucked, because he'd always refused to be dependent on anyone. And she didn't deserve a man who couldn't be a man on his own two feet.
Something had happened to him all those months ago, when he learned his father would be executed. A vital coping mechanism had snapped, and he couldn't seem to pull the cables back together again. It didn't seem possible to go forward the way he had been, even if he could go back to being just an advanced-level sub, rather than a destructive one. She'd said it herself. Locked down wasn't a healthy long term solution.
"So Marius is thinking about adopting a pet while we're in New Orleans," Regina said. "We're going to visit Dale's place."
"That's great," Peter said, as Dana made a noise of approval. "We adopted a pair of Jack Russell terrier mixes last year. They're terrors. Scared the bejesus out of me the first week I had them. I thought they'd be fine running around the property without much supervision while I was working on my boat engine. They cornered a fifteen-foot alligator. Tough little bastards. Stayed just out of range, running around him like a pair of ants bugging a bumble bee. Totally ignoring me when I was shouting at them and trying to figure out what to do to distract the alligator. Fortunately, he wasn't hungry enough to go on the attack. He just got annoyed and went back into the marsh."
