Safeword: Matte (3 page)

“That's important to you, people liking you for you and not your money?”

He nodded.

The bitch of it was she really did feel a strong attraction to him. But after the fiasco with Randy, she wasn’t dating anyone else unless they were already in the scene. “You're a nice guy Ethan, but I'm really and truly not interested in going out with you. Don't take it personally; if I were interested in going out with someone from this part of my life you'd be at the top of my list. So let's agree I'll cut up with you, and I'll be nice to you, but please don't expect more than that. Okay?”

He gave her a sideways glance before looking back at the road. “Okay. Deal. I'll back off for now, but I'm not promising to back off forever.”

True to his word, he was a gentleman during dinner and helped her ignore her friends' attempts at matchmaking. They tried to have him drive her home, but he begged off, saying he needed to go into the office and take care of some paperwork tonight so he could sleep in the next morning because he was sure he would wake up feeling as if he'd been run over by a truck.

* * * *

Sam didn't see Ethan for a week and a half, when he came to the dojo for a late Thursday class. Everyone in the class was a blackbelt in more than one form of martial arts and had been for a while, so there was very little learning involved, just staying in top shape and keeping their reflexes sharp. Tom set them up with a series of fifteen moves and they did those fifteen moves in slow motion for about ten minutes nonstop, one after the other, cycling through them along with Tom. She'd talked to Tom earlier in the week and he followed her wishes, keeping her away from Ethan and not assigning them as sparring partners when the sparring started. When Ethan went into the locker room at the end she grabbed her stuff and left without showering, figuring she could shower at home. The last thing she wanted was for him to have a chance to ask her out for drinks.

Chapter Three

“Viv, you're sure about this?”

“Of course I'm sure. You’re not a third wheel with us. We're an old married couple and it's nice having you around. The setup at this house requires clothing to be worn upstairs because there are these huge picture windows all over the house. Clothing is optional downstairs in the dungeon. The couple hosting the party prefers the upstairs be more of a munch atmosphere, where it's laid back and people can talk, and the downstairs be for scenes and stuff, with minimal conversation. We'll hang out upstairs with you for a while and talk to people. When Tyler takes me down, you can either stay upstairs and talk or come downstairs to watch. Tyler will make sure you feel comfortable talking to the people upstairs before he drags me off to beat me.”

“Ya'll don't have to do that, I'll be fine. I exchanged a few emails with Peggy and she explained the house rules, which seem very well thought out. I was impressed and I think I'm going to like her. I've been driving to Nashville for all things scene related because I was worried it would be detrimental to my career if people found out I was submissive. However, if I'm ever going to find someone to have a long term relationship with, I'm going to have to explore the local scene. I'm still really paranoid I'll run into a client or another attorney, though.”

Tyler chuckled. “No biggie, they won't be there unless they’re into it, too. You'll both have something on each other.”

She shook her head. “No, Tyler, that's not quite the way it works. Think of it this way. You work in security – what if you were a submissive, and someone you work with was there as a Dom. Would it make you uncomfortable for them to see you in a submissive position to someone else? I'm an attorney; we eat each other for sport, and not the fun kind of eating. It's a dominance game. If one of them learns I'm submissive they won't respect me as much.”

“I don't know, I think the attorney
and
the National Kung Fu Champion thing might tend to make them wary. Besides, you're only submissive sexually, and since you won't be having sex with them, you aren't submissive to them. It’ll be okay, Sam. I doubt you'll run into anyone you know here as it will be a party of less than thirty people, but even if you do, things will work out.”

Hmm, she didn't remember volunteering that information to either Viv or Tyler. But she and Viv had been friends a while, maybe it had come up. “I won the title six years ago, I don't think it still gives me street cred.”

“You've earned two black belts since then though, right? In other disciplines? Means you're more of a bad-ass now than you were back then.”

Okay, she knew she hadn't volunteered that, she never talked to anyone about the number of black belts she had. It sounded too much like bragging, which wasn’t her style.

She narrowed her eyes, looking at him through the rearview mirror while he drove. “I don't recall telling you or Viv about my black belts as I’ve acquired them.”

He smiled and shrugged his shoulders, not in the least embarrassed. “I'm trained to identify people who’ve had advanced fight training by watching them walk and move. When my wife makes friends with someone I think looks lethal, I check their background. The good news is you checked out, though. But while we’re on the subject of martial arts, the house word is
red
. If you play with someone you can tell them your safeword is
matte
, but if you want to be sure the dungeon master pays attention, you’ll need to use the house word.”

Vivian looked over her shoulder at Sam and said, “
Matte
? What does it mean?”

“It’s mainly used in Judo, though a few of the other Japanese martial arts forms use it. It’s the Japanese word for
stop
or
wait
. Tyler is pronouncing it right, mah-tay. In the south you hear it pronounced all kinds of ways, so it’s always best to double-check with whoever you’re fighting or sparring ahead of time to be sure you both say it the same way. Our dojo uses it as the house word, so it’s natural for me to use it to stop a scene, too.”

* * * *

When they arrived, Tyler parked on the street, saying he wasn’t parking around back because he didn't want to get blocked in. There were only a few cars out front, so Sam assumed most people had parked in the back. The house was huge, and Sam saw why the instructions were to be clothed in vanilla clothing while upstairs. Looking through the front window she saw more than a dozen people in the front room, some of them around a beautiful grand piano, others seated on sofas, and others standing around talking. Tyler rang the doorbell and they were greeted by a dazzling woman who looked as if she stepped off of a fifties television set – pearls and all.

“Tyler, Vivian! Oh, and you must be Samantha! Please come in and I'll introduce you to the crowd and then leave it up to them to introduce themselves to you.”

They followed her in and Peggy said, “Everyone, for those who don't know them, this is Tyler and Viv. They've brought a friend, just a friend, she's not attached to them, I understand. Her name is Samantha. She's not new to the scene, those of you who spend time in Nashville may already know her. But she is new to the Chattanooga scene, so everyone please introduce yourself to her.”

“Sam. She goes by Sam, not Samantha.”

Sam looked up, startled to hear that voice here. Ethan. Her heart dropped into her feet as she watched him walk across the room and stop when he was standing in front of her, towering over her. In her space.

He touched her cheek, running a single finger gently across her cheek and then pushing her hair back over her shoulder.

Speaking softly, so Tyler and Viv were probably the only others in the room who could hear, he said, “This is why you aren't interested in men from the fight scene anymore? You're only interested in men in the kink scene now. Is that it?”

Sam felt herself nodding before she realized she was going to. Mesmerized by his eyes, his face, his mere presence, a wall of muscle towering above her. And his sexy voice that did something to her deep inside.

He gave a languid half smile. “I’d kiss you now, but Peggy would have my balls for doing it in front of the window where the neighbors might see. Can we go to the den and talk?”

Tyler spoke from her side. “You good with this, Sam?”

Taking a few seconds longer to answer than she should, Sam finally found her voice, speaking quickly to try to cover for being momentarily speechless. “Yes. Tyler, Viv, this is Ethan. Ethan, my friends Tyler and Viv.”

Viv sounded incredulous. “Ethan, from the cage fight thing? That Ethan?”

Tyler extended a hand. “Nice to meet you Ethan. Sam came with me and my wife, so I feel a bit of responsibility towards her, though she’s more than capable of taking care of herself. Still, you should know she's got someone looking after her.”

Ethan shook his hand and said, “Nice to meet you, too. I won't do anything out of line, and I think you just answered my final question. When she first walked in I was terrified she might turn out to be a Domme, but I believe you just confirmed to me that’s not the case.” He turned his head back to look at Sam again. “Will you go to the den with me where we can talk? It's upstairs, not downstairs. It's just been set aside for one-on-one conversation that can include kissing.”

Sam managed to surface back into herself while Ethan and Tyler were talking, so she said, “Let me meet some of the people out here first, so I don't seem rude, and then maybe we can hang out and talk for a while before slinking off to a dark corner?”

He looked at her a second before smiling and saying, “Of course, how rude of me to want to just whisk you off. “

They spent the next thirty minutes or so talking to people and being sociable. Peggy had requested everyone dress vanilla as they would for a casual summer daytime party, and that’s what it looked like, if you couldn’t hear the conversation. Sam had worn khaki crop pants and a clingy black shirt with black strappy flat sandals. Ethan was wearing pleated black twill shorts and a khaki colored button up shirt, so the two of them matched, sort of.

Sam noted Ethan was being a perfect gentleman, keeping his hands to himself for the most part with only an occasional touch to her arm or briefly around her waist to get her attention or aim her in a different direction. She also noted everyone in the room realized he’d claimed her, and no one challenged the claim. She was deciding how she felt about that when he lowered his mouth to her ear. “There are some snack foods in the kitchen, if you'd like to head there next?”

“Sure, I'm not really hungry but some water would be nice.”

He put his hand on her back, between her shoulder blades, and she felt her insides go all tingly again as she walked with him to the kitchen. He pulled two bottles of water out of the ice chest and handed one to her. “There’s a screened in porch with ceiling fans, it doesn't look like anyone’s out there if you'd like to go out there to talk instead of the den?”

Sam smiled. “I'm not afraid to go to the den with you. I just wanted to meet the others while the party’s at the meet and greet point. I've been going to Nashville for scene related stuff because I was worried about my career if people found out I was kinky. But, if I want to find someone local who is also a Dom I need to connect with the local scene. What are you looking for? Do you want twenty-four seven, or just want to top someone during scenes... or do you even know what you want?”

He shook his head. “Okay, I'll answer your question first, but then I have some of my own. I'm not sure how to describe what I want. I don't want a slave, I want someone with a brain, someone who makes decisions about her own life. But I want someone who is mine sexually. So, I guess twenty-four seven is kind of accurate, because I want to be able to demand sex anytime. But in reality I’d never insist on sexual favors when it might jeopardize someone's job, so it's not really twenty-four seven since I wouldn't demand it, even if I was rock hard and needed release in the worst sort of way, if she was about to leave for work, for instance. My turn for a question: where do you work?”

Sam grimaced, she always hated this part. “I'm a divorce attorney.”

Ethan looked at her a few heartbeats, obviously debating with himself internally, before he said, “You deal with the fallout of relationships that didn't work on a daily basis. Has it made you jaded towards having a relationship of your own?”

Wow, no lawyer jokes, and no scorn. Ethan was earning more and more points with her. “Not jaded, no. But it does make me careful to find people emotionally capable of seeing both sides of an argument, whether they agree with both sides or not. I'm also kinda big on talking to people about past relationships they've had, what went right and what went wrong.” She shrugged. “I guess part of me thinks if you've got a good BDSM relationship, with lots of trust and communication, and both partners looking to keep things new and creative in the bedroom or dungeon or whatever, the odds of making it work are probably better than they are with a vanilla couple. I get another question now, right?”

Ethan nodded and she said, “Do you consider yourself a sadist?”

Ethan's eyes clouded over, so it almost looked as if someone else was looking out of them. They went from the shimmery green of the mallard to the deeper green of pine needles. He said only one word.