SATED: #3 in the Fit Trilogy (4 page)

✶

Two days later and Daniel’s head was still all fucked up, clouded with different flavors of regret. He regretted not kissing Keira before they parted ways the night of the convention. He’d known a lot of people, fucked a lot of people, but as corny as the thought seemed, he’d never met anyone like Keira. Genuine was the best way to describe her; or maybe honest.

He was proud of JD and the career he’d made for himself. Hollywood was not an easy place for Korean actors to navigate, but his brother was doing it.
Galaxis
was his brother’s livelihood and further proof that their mother had been right, encouraging them both to chase their dreams. But Daniel had only watched the show to support JD. He’d known fans of the material, but he’d never encountered a fan like Keira. He found her enthusiasm for the whole culture of the fictional world to be insanely attractive. He liked that she wasn’t too shy to embrace her inner nerd in front of strangers. He loved that he got to see the real her the first time they met.

He got the feeling Keira wasn’t one to hide any part of herself and he dug that. Problem was, she wasn’t into kink, and that right there made him regret the hell out of taking her up on her invitation to spend more time together. Kink wasn’t just something he was into in his free time, as Keira had suggested. Kink was his life.

He’d been into sadomasochism in some capacity since he was a kid. Along with setting things on fire, he started messing with bondage and pain play around the age of nine. Luckily his mom didn’t discourage either. Scouts, and apprenticeships with some of the stage acts at the Bellagio had handled most of his curiosity, helped him perfect his knots, but it wasn’t until he found Mistress Evelyn that he’d come to understand exactly what was going on in his head. He really only played with or even dated people he’d met through her and her husband, Master Philip.

He’d become so accustomed to his life as a switch, so comfortable with other members of the community, that spending a romantic evening without some element of BD or SM didn’t make a bit of sense.
So why was he even considering seeing this girl again? Why had he asked her out?

Various reasons ran through his head. She’s beautiful. She’s smart. She blurts out exactly what’s she’s thinking and it’s adorable as hell. Even with her dark brown skin, he could tell when she was blushing. He wanted to see that smile again. He wanted to see if he could push her buttons, in a good way. He wanted something different.

He’d drawn up a solution for Blake Carlisle’s stage show, then sent a team out to finish the tour. He’d gotten word that things were going smoothly, but he couldn’t think too much on it. He had other, more important projects coming down the line.

Yeah, he definitely should have kissed her, but something told him he should wait. He wanted her to make the first move or least tell him when she was ready for him to call the shots. She’d told him that he’d hear from her via text, her preferred mode of communication
, b
ut she hadn’t reached out to him yet. He hoped she wasn’t following that stupid three-day rule. He supposed he could text her first…

Daniel rolled his neck and clicked back into his email. The subject lines started to blur together for a moment before he shook his head and forced himself to focus. He had invoices to review before another meeting about the Super Bowl, the last massive event before Fourth of July madness turned the office upside down again.
He glanced at his phone, reminding himself to sync his calendar, when he noticed a missed text from Armando
.

Thanks for meeting up with Keira, man. She’s been smiles all morning.

That news made Daniel’s day. He had no idea what the hell he was doing with Keira, but this weird tightness in chest pulled even tighter at the thought of making her happy. He shot Armando a text back.

Not a problem. She’s a great girl.

Just as he hit send, another text hit his phone, this one from Keira. It must be break time at the gym. Daniel pictured Keira and Armando standing around talking about him.

I Googled “switch”.

That made him smile for sure.

Oh yeah? What did you find?

Naked people.

Is that all?

I got so caught up looking at all the naked people it was time for me to go to bed before I remembered my original plan.

Plan?
Daniel was definitely intrigued. What was Keira up to?

Not telling. You’ll laugh me into next week.

I won’t.
He wouldn’t
.

Well you said a switch does both.
 

I don’t think I’d be good at submitting.
 

I was looking up how to be a good mistress.

I’ll continue my research tonight.

Let me know if you need any assistance.

I will.
 

Also I’m not saying that I’m going to dominate you or anything.
 

I just like to know. I like to know things.

And now he was hard. He could imagine it so clearly, being under her control. It made him wonder though, what had changed, what had Keira suddenly considering domination and submission, any aspect of it, beyond her so-called quest for knowledge? Daniel adjusted the crotch of his jeans then started to text back, but Keira’s next text beat him to it.

Knowledge is power.
Followed by a toothy smiley face.

Daniel snorted with laughter. He’d only known her a few days, but he could imagine Keira saying those exact words, and the smile that came with it. Would she still be smiling when she got to know him though? Daniel wondered what she would think of his video collection. The hours and hours of footage he had of himself engaged in erotica acts. Some he’d uploaded to the internet for educational purposes, sharing them with friends. Hell, Armando had shared a few of his clips with Nailah when she was getting into the game. No, Keira wasn’t ready for that. There was a good chance she never would be.

Daniel had sworn to Keira that he wouldn’t back out of their plans, but now that he was thinking of who he really was and what he really needed, and how things between then would probably end, jumping ship before things got complicated might be for the best.

Wait. You guys are going out again?
The text from Armando appeared at the top of the screen.

“What the fuck?” Daniel said out loud as he clicked over, reading the text again. He was not in the mood for this shit, not when he was this horny and frustrated. He pressed the little phone icon next to his friend’s name. Armando answered right away.

“What’s the problem, man?” Daniel said.

“Nothing. Hold on.” Daniel waited while Armando probably took their conversation out of Keira’s earshot. “I came in and she’s talking to Grant about seeing you again and asking just how committed you are to kink and if she should date you and shit. What happened?”

“Nothing
happened
. We spent the day together and we had a good time. We want to see each other again.”

“I just didn’t think you guys would go out.”

“I get that, but we are going out,” Daniel said, his regret shifting somehow into determination.

“So what are you going to do, ’cause I just—”

“You just what?” Daniel laughed. He’d known Armando for years. He had always been a possessive Dom, but Keira wasn’t his and Daniel wasn’t his to push around either. He was not going to let this shit slide. “You know you have your own girlfriend right?”

“Fuck you. That’s not what I was getting at. She’s just vanilla, man. Extra strength vanilla. She’s not ready for all of
you
.”

“Let me be the judge of that. Shit, let her be the judge of that.”

Daniel’s phone beeped with another text from Keira. “I gotta go. Just be proud of the possible love connection you’ve helped facilitate.”

This time Armando laughed. “Good luck, man. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Yeah, me too, he almost said. How the fuck was this going to end well?

Despite his freezing cold feet, and Armando’s odd, yet completely justified behavior, Daniel managed to nail down a date and time to see Keira again. At first they’d planned to go to the movies and out for some dinner, but she’d texted him that morning begging off for a night in. When she quickly clarified that she wasn’t in fact cancelling, they decided on a movie and pizza at her place. He was buying.

On his way to pick up some beers, he got a text from his buddy, Marcos. Nothing official was planned at The Club that night, but Marcos was always up for something.

You busy tonight? I got some new tails.

After his accident, Daniel had gone through a long recovery period, learning to do a number of things with his left hand while his right arm healed. In the decade since, he’d become perfectly adept at functioning with both arms, with or without his prosthesis. But beyond healing, he’d become obsessed with perfecting his skills with a flogger. With hours spent practicing with Master Phillip, he’d crafted himself into somewhat of a legend in the community. He moved on to other implements; paddles, slappers, cat o’ nine tails, bullwhips, canes. He’d taught classes and seminars, made plenty of videos, performed night after night at the club and in private for his Mistress and her Master. It was only natural for Marcos to reach out to Daniel when he’d acquired a new toy. Daniel was the best person to help him break it in.

Daniel read the backlit words again. Any other night he would have said yes. Had he made plans with any other girl he would have invited them along. But as curious as Keira was, what Marco had in mind would surely scare her off. A girl like Keira would need monogamy, for one. A girl like Keira would definitely need a little warm-up before he introduced her to his sexually fluid friends and their collection of whips and cat o’ nine tails. He texted Marcos back.

Can’t tonight, man. I made plans. Thanks for thinking of me though.

Something else stirred in his chest. First time in years he’d turned down an invite.

Always. Have a good night!

Oddly enough, even though he suspected their date would be vanilla and pretty tame, he had a feeling that spending a few hours just talking to Keira would make for a perfectly good night.

✶

Keira had shown Daniel her nerdy side and clearly it hadn’t scared him off or he wouldn’t have agreed to see her again. Now she had a chance to show him another real side of herself, the lazy bum who hated getting dressed up for anything other than conventions. Her hair was already flat ironed, but that stayed in its ponytail. When she finished in the shower she’d thrown on an oversized Melrose Fitness sweatshirt and a pair of workout shorts that really could have doubled as underwear. She put on underwear too, including a bra, and she’d shaved her legs. She wasn’t a complete heathen.

It was hard not to run for the door when the bell chimed through her apartment. She may have skipped though, and she did nothing to conceal the huge smile that hit her face when she opened the door for Daniel and the two large pizzas he carried.

“A veggie lovers and a meat lovers for the lady who does not like to mix the two.”

Keira laughed as she let him in. “I’m sorry. I just like my meat separate.”

“I’m sure you do. Here take these off my hands.”

“Oh sure.” Daniel had a leather jacket on, but Keira realized that he was wearing a prosthetic arm with a blunted hook he was using to carry a six-pack of amber ales. She took the pizzas then led him to the living room so they could make themselves comfortable in front of her TV. After she put down the pizzas she looked up at him.

“When I see a movie for the first time I demand silence, so I figured we could revisit some classics and let the running commentary flow. Dates should involve conversation, after all.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Daniel put down the beers and shed his leather jacket. “What?” he asked, with a slight grin.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to stare.” Which she totally was. “It’s just nice to see you.”

“It is?”

“Yeah. I haven’t really looked forward to seeing a guy in a while. It’s nice.”

“Well, here I am, in the flesh,” he said with his gorgeous smile. “I hope tonight lives up to pleasant expectations.”

Right then, Keira wanted to kiss him, but five minutes into their first date was all kinds of too soon. When they sat down she figured cuddling was off the table too. Ignoring the fact that cuddling had even entered her mind, she made herself comfortable on the other side of the couch with her feet tucked under her butt. Did a guy like Daniel even cuddle? Or if she wanted to get close to him would she have to get on the floor and play human footstool? Cuddling bondage style.

She really needed to get out of her head.

“How does
Terminator 2
sound?” she asked.

“One of my favorites. Let’s do it.”

Keira found the movie in the queue on her streaming service, then hit play. They dug into the pizza and polished off two beers each, sharing light conversation about work and the upcoming Terminator movie before resting back to actually watch the film. It was hard to take her eyes off Daniel, but as soon as the T-1000 popped on the screen she was back in nerd mode, reliving the excitement of the first time her aunt let her sneak and watch T2 on VHS with her cousins.

“Do you mind if I take this off? I’ve had it on all day.” Keira looked over as Daniel started shrugging out of the straps that secured his prosthesis to his shoulders.

“Sure. Here.” Keira hopped up and cleared a spot off the trunk behind her couch. Daniel stood and took the arm off, and then the white stocking that covered the healed area where his wrist should have been. Keira smiled as he let out a sigh that turned into groan as he rubbed his skin. It was strained relief, but to Keira it was an oddly pleasurable sound.

“Does it hurt? To wear the arm?” she asked when they sat back down.

“It doesn’t hurt, but it likes to remind you that it’s there. All the time. I usually only wear it to work or if I need to around the house. Uhh, that feels better and now I can do this.”