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“No.” He lifts his eyes to Carter. “Sorry, Carter.”
“Oh. Um. It’s… okay.”
Hunter steps closer, tilting his head to the side. “Would you like to get a drink with me, Carter?”
“Okay. Sure.” Carter eyes Wells and his pet, suddenly afraid to leave them.
Wells nods like he understands. “We’ll be here for a while. I’ll find you before we leave, in case you’d like us to walk you out. Is that okay?”
“Yes,” Carter says in relief. “Thank you, Wells. And - um - pet?”
“Jax,” he says with a smile. “Maybe one day we can be friends!”
Wells strokes Jax's cheek fondly. It makes Carter's chest ache.
A hand settles on his back, and for just a second, he thinks it’s his sir. Travis. Then he remembers his sir is nowhere to be found. He doesn’t even know Carter is there.
Because Carter isn't his anymore.
And he’s not Carter's.
“Come,” Hunter says softly, using his hand on Carter's back to guide him toward the bar. “Were you hoping to play tonight, Carter?”
Carter frowns, looking around the area. It’s spacious, with booths along the edges for people to relax and chat, and equipment placed strategically around the room to allow for play while also keeping open walkways through the whole set-up. “I don’t know if I’d want to do anything in public, so… probably not?”
“I’d invite you home, but if you’re smart, you wouldn’t come.”
Carter laughs softly. “Yeah, probably not.”
“Good. That’s good.” He nods at the bar. “If you’re not going to play though, you can drink anything. What would you like?”
“Tequila,” Carter says immediately. He needs all of the liquid courage he can get tonight, playing or not.
Hunter nods, then turns to the bartender and asks for his best tequila and the blue label scotch. As they wait, Hunter leans an elbow on the bar and turns his body so he's partly facing Carter and partly facing the room. "Wells mentioned you’re new. Is this your first time?"
"Sort of?" Carter decides to look around the room too, mostly to calm his nerves. Also because he's really fucking curious. "I was in a relationship that had a sort of BDSM dynamic, I guess? We weren't very official or anything. But when it ended, I thought maybe I'd try this. Normal sex wasn't cutting it."
"Was the relationship safe?" he asks gently. Carter can feel his eyes on him. He really wishes he'd look out at the room again instead.
"It was… complicated."
"Fair enough."
The bartender returns with their drinks. Hunter hands Carter his tequila, then takes a sip of his scotch.
Carter watches as a man is led to a spanking bench and draped over it. The dom with him secures the cuffs on his wrists and ankles, then steps back to enjoy the view. Carter bites down on his lip, not sure if he's turned on or afraid. Both, maybe?
"Would you like to get closer?" Hunter asks.
"T-to what?"
Hunter chuckles. "The scene you can't take your eyes off of. We can go closer. They want to be watched. It's not wrong."
"Okay."
Hand on his back again, Hunter leads Carter over to the bench. They stop just a few feet away. Close enough for Carter to see the steady rise and fall of the sub's upper body as he breathes. He's not afraid. Not upset. He's… calm.
Carter remembers that calm - the one that comes when nothing else matters but what his dom wants from him.
