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Shrugging, I kiss the tip of her nose. “I think so. He was talking about it anyway. Depends on whether or not you’re opening your books to new Sub Club members or not. If not, he’ll need a new catch name or catchphrase, but he seemed to think it would be a good idea.”
She nods slowly, the cogs in her head still turning. “It is. It would be a great way to get word of the club out without paying for advertising. It could be a talking point for people too. If someone stopped me in the street and asked me what Sub Club was, it becomes an opening to normalize talking about kink.”
She’s making connections in her head, seeing a few moves down the board. Her strategic mind coming to life in front of me is a thing of beauty.
“Can we circle back to your business, please?”
She shakes her head, her hair swishing in its ponytail. “Not yet. I’ll need to think on it.”
“So the answer’s not no, it’s maybe?”
She relents with a smile. “Maybe.”
Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I can’t help but grin. “I can work with maybe.”
CHAPTER28
Addison
“What’s all this about?”Butterflies swarm in my stomach as he leads me upstairs to the bedroom.
Matthew is downstairs reading, so he’s not leading me up here for anything fun. At least, I don’t think he is. And while his Mom’s recovery is going well, she’s still not due out here until next week, we still need to be responsible adults.
Thor situates me in the room facing the bed. “Don’t turn around yet.” After a long beat and some shuffling, he speaks again. “Okay.”
When I turn to face him, he’s got the paddle in his hand with a bow around it, holding it out to me. A barb of fear slithers up my spine, but he shakes his head. “I’m giving this to you, kitten. I hurt you with this item, and you can hold it until you’re ready to try again.” He scratches the back of his neck with his free hand. “Or, forever, if you need forever. But I wanted to give you this.”
He shrugs, his face going pink. “It’s symbolic, I guess. You’re taking back control of the item that hurt you.”
It’s an adorable gesture, and he’s right, it feels like I’m taking back control over the piece of wood as I accept it from him. As I turn the paddle over in my hand, my shoulders loosen. “I don’t think it’s forever, Thor, just a little while. I know I should have listened to you when you said we shouldn’t play that night.”
He nods, but doesn’t say anything. That’s just my guy, not wanting to say he was right and I was very, very wrong. “Do Doms ever use safe words?”
“Sometimes. I feel like more of us could do with having them.”
“How about we give you one? So next time, when you think playing isn’t a good idea, you can safe word, and we won’t go any further.” I’ve been thinking about it for a little while, and from the way his face softens and he doesn’t laugh at me, I relax. It doesn’t seem to have been a stupid idea after all.
“That’s a great idea, Kitten. Anything but—”
The word pops out of my mouth right as it pops out of his. It’s the most stereotypical safe word I can think of. “Pineapple!”
* * *
The paddlewith Thor’s note and pink bow sits on a shelf in my closet. It’s only been two weeks since we had our mishap downstairs, but we already feel like we’re on more solid ground than ever.
He has gone out of his way to make sure things didn’t fall apart. It hasn’t been easy. We haven’t been back in the dungeon since that fateful night, we haven’t gone back to the club, and we’ve not done anything kinky. We’ve also only had vanilla sex a couple of times.
Living in a house where Thor parades around with water sluicing down his bare chest after showers, and where he goes running in skin-tight cycling shorts and shirts that seem to be spray painted on his toned body feels like a special kind of torture.
Tonight might be the night, however. His mom gets in this morning from Seattle at long last, and while we’ve chatted a lot over video calls, it’s the first, official, in person meet-the-parent I think I’ve ever faced.
I’m excited. Mostly because she’s in town for two whole weeks, and our goal for that time is to head out to the club with Mackenzie and Austin. Since I started dating Thor it’s been either, or. Either they go to the club while we’re at home with Matthew, or we do while they Matthew-sit. And while I’m eternally grateful to have such an unwavering support system for our little family, I really want to go to the club with both of my friends.
Thor has no idea. He thinks I just want a date night, a night where I get dressed in one of my deliciously daring dresses, and he takes me out for dinner. Which, obviously I want. But I mostly want to rip the Band-Aid off the healing wound, and get back on the horse. The kinky club horse.
There’s a nervous energy that has been racing through my veins for days, I couldn’t place it at first, but after a quick touching base with the Sub Club, Paige suggested it might be because I need a good fucking.
Despite her candor, she’s probably not wrong either.
