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“Hmm.” Heidi took another sip. “I suppose I wouldn’t want Frank to be my master diddler, either.”
Clay hadn’t explicitly told Carine the person was a man. She’d made that assumption because she’d never had an alternative. She also hadn’t explicitly excluded anyone who wasn’t a man. Likely, she’d just assumed Clay wouldn’t break her trend.
You should never assume, Carine. Assumptions get subs in trouble.
“I don’t think there’s been all that many successful relationships coming out of Clay’s events,” Carine mused. “Except for Val and Timmy, but that was a fluke that I don’t think any of us expected. To tell you the truth, I don’t even know why I’m thinking about relationships. People don’t go to Clay’s looking for someone to share a Netflix account with.”
“You were thinking you could kill two birds with one stone.”
“Too practical?”
Heidi shrugged and took another sip. “I understand practicality. Practicality and easy access were why I occasionally hopped onto Tim’s cock after we divorced. Not my favorite kind of rest stop, obviously, but to him, I was safe, and maybe I was overprotective at that point. I didn’t think anyone was good enough for him. And perhaps an egotistical part of me was glad that every effort he made to find someone else fell flat.”
“I…think you just told me one of the dark things,” Carine whispered.
“Did I?” Heidi lifted the fish sandwich to Carine’s mouth and waited for her to bite.
Good girl.
She rubbed off the bit of tartar sauce from the corner of Carine’s mouth and licked it off her thumb.
“You’re breaking my brain,” Carine said in an undertone.
“This is my standard operating frequency unless I’m at work. You know that. You tacitly accept any risk when you volunteer to be near me.”
“And somehow, Val can ignore you.”
“Valerie’s a fortress that only Tim can breach. Granted, I haven’t explicitly tried. I liked her for him, and Kevin respects her, so I behaved.”
“If you’ve given anyone else I know a friendly fuck, please don’t tell me,” Carine said. “That includes anyone you rubbed against for more than two minutes in high school.”
“Fine, but don’t worry, I locate most of my prey far from home.” The word “most” was doing a lot of heavy lifting.
“I’m tempted to volunteer as prey for a weekend or two just to get it out of my system.”
Somehow, Heidi did not choke on her swallow of Coke. She kept her gaze steady on Carine, who’d finally begun to eat in earnest. “It?”
“You know, curiosity.”
“Of?”
“The platinum-tier sub treatment. Punish me for being a top-shelf dipshit.”
Heidi had no interest in punishing Carine. Carine complied perfectly well when pleasure was the bait. “Most people expect at least a little sexual gratification,” Heidi said levelly.
“I mean, sure, that’s like, whatever. It’d be nice, but I wouldn’t expect it. Not if it’d make things weird.”
“You think there’s a difference between being naked for pain you’ve volunteered for versus pleasure?”
Carine crinkled her nose. “When you put it like that, I’m reminded of why I’m still single. I really can’t string a coherent thought together, can I?”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. And toss the crab cake if you don’t want it. You spent the money. A mistake was made. Do better next time.”
“But…” Carine grimaced at the quarter-eaten thing on her lap. She turned to Heidi as though looking for repeated validation that she wasallowedto change her mind.
Heidi had already said what she was going to say. The rest was on Carine.
Clearing her throat, she opened the door, leaned toward the oil drum that served as a parking lot trash can, and tossed the sandwich.
