I needed a support network more than anything right now. Even though it broke my heart, I had to tell Adam, “Not now, babe, we’re going to be late!”
I made sure to giggle a little at the end of that so that he knew I wasn’t mad.
Instead, I interlaced my fingers through his and led him out the door.
It only took half an hour to get to the speakeasy.
We followed the pin on Google Maps and wandered around the building a few times trying to find the entrance.
“There’s a password, right?” I asked.
“Yeah. It was shared in the Facebook group.”
“What is it?”
“Cuck.”
I chuckled, my breath puffing out of my mouth and rising into the night air like cotton balls.
Adam rumbled, his chuckle sounding deeper than mine.
We circled around and around the building, looking for a way inside.
“It’s not the front door?” I asked.
“No, it’s underground. Separate entrance,” Adam insisted.
Feeling the cold bite at my fingertips, I held Adam’s hand as we made a few more circuits around the building.
There was noise, the low drone of a crowd chattering coming from somewhere inside.
“Looks like it’s already started,” I said, my distaste for being late bleeding into my voice.
“This isn’t one of those things where we have to be on time,” Adam soothed.
I relaxed.
We wandered into the alleyway next to the building.
“This place is totally Murder Central,” I mumbled, eyeing the darkness, the narrow walls, the shadowy corners.
I said that about a lot of places in New York.
Adam’s hand twitched in mine, and for some unfathomable reason, my brain latched onto that. I felt my antennae twitch: Was he hiding something from me?
I let the moment pass, not wanting to sour the evening with an interrogation. Adam would tell me what was on his mind eventually; all I had to know was that he was slowly coming out of his shell rather than retreating into it.
Right?
“Password?” the hulking bouncer at the door asked.
“Cuck,” Adam said with a cool confidence, his thick hand in mine.
I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, exactly, but the way he said that to the bouncer made a warm rush of admiration course through me. He sounded so confident; like he was the one in control of the night and that the bouncer was merely an obstacle.
Looking up at my Superman-like fiancee, I couldn’t help but feel myself swoon.
I was so lucky…
Once we were inside, I felt the warmth wash over me.
“It’s nice to be out of the cold,” I said.
Adam merely nodded, the picture of stoicism.
We handed our coats into the coat check and rounded a corner into a glorious underground lair of booze. There were barrels lining one of the walls, a long, classy mahogany bar with glittering whisky bottles behind it. Pillars dotted the room, and the ceiling was made to look like rock as if we’d wandered into a cave. I even saw some decorative stalactites in the corner.
The space was full of people of all different ages, colors, and races. I didn’t know why I was expecting only to see gross older men here.
I could only make out a few of those, and they were usually flanked by twink boys like me. The rest of the space was populated by younger people; some even younger than me. But one variable was common among them, which was the same thing that was a constant for all New Yorkers:
They were all dressed in black.
I looked down at my colorful floral shirt and suddenly felt self-conscious that I would stick out like a sore thumb.
My eyes went up to Adam, and I watched his beard shift shape as he surveyed the crowd.
He was smiling. He was in his element.
I decided right then and there that I would let him do all of the talking. This was a completely new playground for me.
“Drink?” Adam asked.
I nodded.
We wandered to the bar.
Adam leaned against the polished wood, looking like he was immersed in his natural habitat. Everything about him exuded a quiet confidence.
Big Dick Energy for sure.
I beheld him for a moment there, still unable to completely believe that he was mine. He was in a deep red fitted button-down that hugged his muscular torso just right — I’d bought that shirt for him. His legs were in black jeans that bunched ever so slightly near his boots, which I’d also picked out for him.
And his face in this low light couldn’t have been more handsome to me. He looked like the most handsome guy in the world to me under any light, I had to admit, but there was something about tonight that made him downright irresistible.
“You checking me out?” he asked me with a smug smile.
“You know it, daddy,” I said, snaking my hand under the bar to squeeze his ass.
Adam grinned and shifted his weight onto his other leg.
While he ordered me a sweet drink along with his Old Fashioned, I took another look at the crowd and felt the thrill of excitement curl through me.
How was I supposed to even talk to strangers about this kind of thing? What were we supposed to do here?
“Hey, Luke,” said a familiar voice to my right.
I nearly jumped out of my skin and turned to see Lily standing there, her stark white hair almost glowing among all the black.
My eyes immediately combed down her body and lingered on her neck. A thin collar was wrapped around it, meeting in the center of her neck around a shining silver heart.
“What, you’ve never seen one of these before?” Lily asked with a smirk, following my gaze.
“It means she belongs to me,” said a woman to Lily’s right.
She was tall; her hair styled into a platinum blonde high-fade haircut, the long parts of which fell just over her eyes, and was drop-dead gorgeous. She was beautiful in an androgynous, otherworldly way. Like the way she was attractive was beyond what could be possessed by men or women.
“This is Victoria,” Lily said with a loving gaze.
I extended my hand. “Hi Tori—”
“No. Victoria.”
I was taken aback as her hard gaze landed on me. That gaze was just like Adam’s when I was being a disrespectful little Bossy Bottom Boy. “S-sorry, I didn’t—”
Victoria’s face cracked into a wide grin, revealing sparkling white teeth. “I’m just messing with you!”
Lily grinned at me as well, and for a moment, I was stunned by how freaking good they looked together.
I’d lived enough life to know that sometimes, even if you were a stranger, you just got the feeling that two people were soulmates.
I wondered if anyone had ever thought of me and Adam like that…
“Why don’t you have a collar?” Lily asked. “I thought you said you were a sub.”
“Me and my partner don’t do the whole collar thing… though, I’m kind of curious about it,” I admitted.
It felt like even though I’d only known Lily for a few days, I could trust her with that information somehow. A part of me knew that I was desperately trying to accelerate our friendship by revealing that to her, but hell, she seemed like she could be trusted.
“That’s cool. Not everyone does collars; I’m just giving you a hard time,” Lily said. Then she leaned in close and whispered, “At events like these, good-looking subs like you will be singled out by the Doms. They’ll try to chat you up.”
“But I already have a Dom,” I said.
As soon as the words left my lips, a large shadow appeared behind me.
Adam pressed his chest against my back, then reached around and handed me a bright orange drink.
“Thanks, babe,” I said, tilting my head back.
He leaned down to plant his lips on mine, kissing me like Spiderman.
“Wow, you are officially too cute for this,
” Lily said.
“You jelly?” I taunted.
“Not at all. It’s refreshing, that’s all. There’s a lot of prowling that goes around in here,” Lily said with a flick of her platinum hair. “I mean, most of the time it’s pretty low-key. But there are always Doms looking for subs.”
Because my back was to Adam’s chest, I noticed him shift his weight.
He was on high-alert mode.
I scanned the crowd, trying to figure out what he was looking at, but it was impossible.
“I’m going to head to the bathroom, Luke. Hold my drink.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, wrapping my fingers around his amber glass.
Adam’s eyes were hard and dark like a predator’s as he scanned the crowd on his way to the bathroom.
“What’s up with him?” Lily asked.
I sighed. “Adam's just protective of me; that’s all.”
I jingled the ice cube in the glass. “So… I want to know more, I’m pretty new to the scene, but I don’t know what to ask.”
Lily and Victoria exchanged a glance.
“Oh my, where to begin…” Victoria started, running her fingers through her white hair. “Actually, I’ll leave you to it. I’m not a sub, and I don’t want my presence to color Lily’s responses.”
I was secretly thankful that Victoria was leaving me with Lily. It was hard enough to open up to one new friend about this, let alone two. And Victoria, like Adam, carried this overwhelming aura of control with her. It was as though with a single look, she’d be able to make anyone in this room bow to her.
She was a leader: Magnetic, but a little bit scary.
I bet she made a great Dom.
“Sure thing,” Lily said, brushing her lips against her partner’s.
“I’m going to chat with Fenwick about the chandelier.”
I returned my eyes to Lily’s full of questions.
Lily looked me straight in the eye and said, “It’s not a regular chandelier.”
I was curious, but I was too nervous to ask her any more questions about it. So instead, I stammered about her collar.
“Can you tell me more about… about that?” I asked, gesturing to her neck.
“Sure! This is a Training Collar. I’ve had it for about two months now.”
“What’s a Training Collar?” I asked, suddenly insatiably curious. I was familiar with protection collars but had no idea there were other types.
“It is what it says,” she answered, perfect confidence in her voice. “It’s to symbolize that I’m in slave training. Victoria gave it to me as an upgrade from my Collar of Consideration.
“Collar… of… Collar of Consideration?” I asked dumbly, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.
“That’s right. Victoria gave me my Collar of Consideration shortly after we met, and we discussed the types of things we’d both like out of a relationship. Accepting it was symbolic of us trying out our Dom/sub relationship. If something didn’t feel right, either of us could walk away at any time.
“So things worked out, then,” I said, not bothering to hide my fascination.
“Yes, sir.”
I gave her a weird look, and she giggled.
“I’m just playing. But yeah, once we both decided to go forward with the relationship, Victoria gave me this Training Collar.”
“Slave training…?” I asked, feeling the curiosity within me intensify. My mind was suddenly swimming with all kinds of questions for her — questions that I had been too embarrassed to ask Adam.
She nodded, a smile pulling at her lips. Then she splayed her fingers and began ticking them off. “Yep. Slave position training, preference training, play training, skill training, and insight training.”
My mind was buzzing. That sounded like a lot — and totally different than what me and Adam did in the bedroom.
Lily was watching my face carefully. “Not everyone does it the way we do it. It’s just… I’m the type of submissive that needs structure. That’s why I’m a submissive in the first place — that sense of structure gives me a sense of control. I’m an anxious person. Pleasing my Dom and knowing that I’ve done everything the right way makes me happier than I ever thought I could be.”
I felt my heart pulse and wondered if my heartbeat was beating in time with her’s. “I can relate,” I said.
It felt like I had just discovered a treasure chest of answers to questions that I didn’t know I had.
“What do you and your Dom do, if you don’t mind me asking? It’s always good to hear about what other partners are up to.”
I suddenly felt inadequate, like I was so vanilla that I was a vanilla bean. “Well, we haven’t done… all that.” I admitted. “So, what we do will probably seem lame to you.”
“I guarantee it wouldn’t be lame. Whatever works for you is the way you should do it.”
“I guess we do a lot of sensation play,” I started, bringing my finger to the corner of my mouth. “I like blindfolds. I like being bound.”
“Ah, a classic Rope Bunny!” she said with a bright smile.
My mouth twitched upwards as I felt her acceptance course through me. “Adam likes learning different types of knots, ways to tie me up. Right now, he’s looking for someone to talk to about getting a custom bed made.”
“He sounds like a Rigger,” she said.
“A what?”
“A Rigger. Someone in the kink community that does that kind of stuff. Always looking for new ways to build stuff to explore desires.”
“Huh. I guess he does do that.”
“If you’re looking to get a custom bed made, Fenwick would be the person to talk to.”
Having to talk to a new person? Someone who wasn’t Lily? That sounded scary. I’d rather wait until Adam was back and let him do the talking.
“I’ll let Adam know,” I said.
My eyes went back down to her collar. I felt a rush of… of something course through me as I examined it. I was suddenly possessed by the urge of wanting to know how that felt on my skin.
...as long as it didn’t choke me.
“You want to know more about collars?” She asked. “I see you checking mine out.”
I nodded, happy that I didn’t have to ask.
“Well, like I told you about before, there’s the Collar of Consideration. That’s essentially when you’re in the interviewing stage — trying stuff out. It seems like you and your Dom are well past that, though,” she said, eyeing my left hand.
“Oh, yeah, we’re engaged.”
“Wonderful! Did you know some people in the community use a type of collar to symbolize that they’re married? It holds the same weight as a wedding band.”
“Uh… no, I didn’t,” I admitted, feeling stupider and stupider by the second.
“Yes, yes, they’re called Permanent Collars,” she said. “If you look around the room, you might be able to see a few…”
I scanned the crowd.
“You’ll be looking for an unbroken silver ring around the neck. Usually, there’s a smaller ring attached to it at the front.”
Sure enough, I could pick out three or four strangers with that type of collar.
“And that means… they’re married?”
“It means they have a relationship that’s like marriage. You see that a lot with the 24/7’ers.”
“And 24/7’ers are…?”
“Partners that are always in D/s. Day and night, twenty-four seven.”
For a moment, my mind grazed over what it might be like with Adam as a 24/7 Dom. He’d tell me what to do, and I wouldn’t have to think about anything. I’d know how to please Adam, and that would be all I’d have to worry about.
All of the expectations of my life would be laid out, and I’d know exactly what the rules and boundaries of everything were.
The thought was tempting, and I could feel my anxiety shrivel at the idea. Pleasing Adam, cherishing him, treating him like a god made me feel stronger and happier than I ever had.
“I see you thinking about it,” Lily said with a glint in her eye.
“Oh yeah, I thought about it,” I admitted. “But I’m a Bossy Bottom — I can’t ever be a real slave.”
“Bossy Bottom?” she asked, swirling her neat whiskey around in circles. “You seem more mature than that. I bet you’re more of a Power Bottom.”
“Power Bottom?”
She nodded. “They’re kind of the same, with one key difference. It’s like the Dom is the one driving the car, the one giving the commands. A Bossy Bottom would be the backseat driver complaining about everything, shouting directions without knowing where to go or what to do. Bossy Bottoms just want. A Power Bottom is the one in the passenger seat with the navigation, is familiar with the area, telling the Dom where the next turn is, looking out for cops, things like that.”
My eyes went wide, and I took a sip of my sweet orange drink. I felt like my mind had been blown.
“How do you… how do you know all this?” I asked her.
“I read books on it,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.
“What kind of books?” I asked, thinking of my collection of gay kink books. “I think I’ve been reading the wrong ones.”
Before she could answer, Victoria returned, followed by an older man that resembled a younger Burt Reynolds. Like everyone else in here, he was dressed in black. However, I could tell by the material, the cut, and the fitting that the suit he was wearing was a few thousand dollars.
“Oh, hi Fenwick!” Lily greeted brightly. “This is my friend Luke.”
“Luke! I don’t think we’ve been introduced, but I like you already!” he said, turning towards me with a gentlemanly smile.
I expected him to give me the look. The not-so-subtle look that men gave me to indicate their interest.
I was used to it, and it gave my ego a little boost.
But I was surprised when he didn’t give it to me. I didn’t pick up a single vibe from this older guy other than smooth friendliness.
“Nice to meet you,” I said to his smiling face.
“Where’s your Dom?” Lily asked. “Fenwick’s the guy to ask about any and all things rigging.”
I scanned the room, trying to pick out Adam. He was good at blending in when he wanted to, almost to the degree of being invisible. Once when I asked him how he managed to hide in plain sight, he just shrugged his broad shoulders and said simply, “I’m a cop.”
Power Bottom Page 10
