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“Okay.” She smiled and nodded. Sam was her rock. Her safe place. If anyone would know what to do, it would be him. They sat in a companionable silence until she heard Sam chuckle.
“What’s funny?” she asked.
He lifted his chin indicating she should look out the window. An adorable redheaded woman was attempting to carry way too many bags up the steps of the Ranch’s porch. One kept slipping down her shoulder and another looked to weigh a whole lot more than she should be carrying. Even with the distance between them, the little frown was evident on her face as she tried to make it up the steps. Where was Moses or Dax?
“If that isn’t a Little about to throw a major tantrum, I don’t know what is.”
“Why isn’t anyone helping her?” Frustrated that no one was coming to her aid, Catherine stood up.
“Where are you going?” he asked with a laugh.
Just then she saw Dax hurry out the door to relieve the woman of her bags. She still wanted to go out and check on her. Maybe give someone at the desk a hard time for not making sure someone was out there to help her. Sam got up and blocked her path.
“Calm down, mama bear. She’s being taken care of.” He pulled her into him and kissed her. “You know what it does to me when that fierce protective side comes out.”
“Yeah, well, they’re just lucky you stopped me from going out there and giving them all a verbal spanking. Derek would have been livid if he saw a guest struggling like that.” She deflected a little bit to make it more about a Ranch issue and less about the fact that there was something about the girl that called to her. Even from far away she felt drawn to her.
“You can tell him later. Let’s get back to our offices. Julie, can you make us some ‘to-go’ coffees please?”
“Two coffees coming up,” Julie announced.
Catherine couldn’t get her mind off the redhead though. She just wanted to meet her. Unfortunately, if she didn’t head back to her office right then, she’d be late and that was not how she liked to treat her patients. If she expected them to be on time, which she absolutely did, then she needed to lead by example. So, coffee in one hand and the other clasped in the strong capable hand of her husband, she put the struggling little redhead out of her mind and went to work.
* * *
Piper couldn’t believe the cab driver had basically shoved her out the door and left her bags on the ground before speeding away from the Ranch like something was going to come out and attack him. She’d tried her hardest to get all of her things up the steep stairs by herself but as per usual, she had overpacked and made it impossible to handle on her own. When the cowboy bellhop came out with his instant apologies that no one had been out to meet her and took the physical load from her, she almost cried in relief.
Overwhelmed. Scared. Anxious. Excited. Disbelief. Those were all the feelings she’d been dealing with since she made the decision to spend her birthday at Rawhide Ranch. Sure Kay had urged her to do it, but it hadn’t taken much arm twisting from her bestie for her to take the plunge. The first night she’d heard about the Ranch she’d stayed up all night combing the website and then went in search of any other information she could possibly find, which in the era of the internet, was surprisingly little outside of the website. She found a couple of message boards where it had been mentioned by submissives and Dominants who had been to the Ranch, but even that was cryptic and not as descriptive as she would have liked.
The thing that had surprised her the most was learning about the Littles. She hadn’t spent enough time immersed in the world of BDSM for long enough to learn about all of the different types of Dominants and submissives there were out there. She’d never heard of Littles or Middles or ageplay at all and it was absolutely fascinating. The idea that adults could regress to a younger headspace and allow their partners to take care of them was a fantasy she never even recognized she had. Piper had been the oldest of six rambunctious kids and while she wasn’t expected to raise her brothers and sisters, she’d definitely grown up a little faster than the others in order to help her parents out. She didn’t have a bad childhood, it was just a little bit short lived.
She definitely wouldn’t mind going back to a time where all she had to do was worry about herself and let everyone else take care of the hard things. The only issue would be trusting someone enough to be able to let go and feel that childlike freedom. Yeah, right. She’d be lucky if she played at all during the visit let alone making herself vulnerable like that. Then there was the other issue she needed to face. Piper was asexual. She’d learned that term during her many conversations with Kay since she had finally admitted to being a submissive. Asexuality was a huge spectrum and she wasn’t one hundred percent sure where she fell, but it was the most sense anything had ever made.
She didn’t want or need sex from anyone else. She could get herself off with no frills or anything when she needed help falling asleep or required a bit of stress relief, but other than that, she didn’t want it. When she listened to people talk about their partners or even when they talked about strangers they were sexually attracted to, she’d never been able to understand. She loved the idea of a deep intimate connection with someone, and she could engage in sex to fill a need of that someone, but that was it for her.
“What am I even doing here?” she asked her reflection in the mirror of her suite. No one would want someone with so many quirks and needs. Maybe she would skip the Dungeon and just go try out the Littles’ Wing. At least there she wouldn’t have the expectations of sex hanging over her head.
Her phone buzzed with a text from Kay.
Stop overthinking. I can hear your brain from here. Relax. Have fun. Be yourself.
“Easy for you to say,” Piper grumbled. “You’re not the asexual brat at a sex resort.”
Ya ya ya, she texted back.
Lord, I hope you get your ass beat soon. Sassy brat. Love you.
Love you too, Piper responded and then put her phone back in her purse. No one else would call. She’d told them all that she would be out of cell range. If the girls needed something, they would call their dad, and if he needed something, well… he had George.
Okay, what did she want to do first? She knew herself; if she didn’t make a plan, she would end up staying in her room the entire trip and she would kick herself for spending all the money she did just to piss it away in a hotel room. She flipped open the amenities booklet to the table of contents. Closing her eyes she pointed at a random spot on the page. The Cafeteria.
Well, it was lunch time and she had been too nervous to eat breakfast so maybe that was a good choice. She looked at the map and thanked her lucky stars that the layout of the Ranch was so simple. She easily got turned around and basically would never get anywhere without the GPS in her car.
Leaving the safety of her room, she made her way to the elevator that would take her to the main floor. There were people all over the place—a lot of people. Yet nothing about the Ranch seemed crowded. Maybe it was the high ceilings or all of the natural light, she wasn’t sure, but it helped since she didn’t have that closed-in feeling she often got in crowds.
The cafeteria was a different story altogether. It was total sensory overload. It was loud with voices mingling with the sounds of utensils, and all of the different smells melding together made her head spin.
“Ew, this milk is green!” A man dressed in clothes you would see on a toddler boy screamed at the top of his lungs. The whole volume of the room seemed to amplify after that and she covered her ears. Nope, this was a bad choice. She backed out and attempted to retreat back to her room only her head was so jumbled she didn’t know which way to turn.
