10. Salt
TEN
SALT
The workshop door was wide open, letting in a draft of cool air. I crossed the threshold and wasn’t surprised to see Beth tied down to one of the sex benches we’d built on Thursday. Nancy stood to the side with a very evil grin on her face, one that made me chuckle.
“Do I need to come back later?” I asked.
Nancy shook her head. “No. Just making sure the product is well-built.”
“Uh-huh,” I said as I hung my backpack on the hook.
The workshop was a massive three-car garage with everything we’d ever need for furniture construction. A grid wall held every tool imaginable, lumber was neatly stacked, and cans of wood finishes sat on the floor.
Then there was the wall on the opposite side that held every kink tool imaginable. That was Nancy’s side of the garage, where she stored her floggers, whips, riding crops, and whatever else she’d gathered over two decades of putting people on their knees.
Beth’s bright blue eyes were full of smiles as I approached and crossed my arms. She was wearing gray sweats and a black sweater with a rooster— a cock —on it. She was about a foot shorter than me with curves for days, and a neon pink mohawk that was hard to miss.
Nancy, on the other hand, was willowy, tall, and wore her hair in a silver bob. A lot of people looked at her and assumed she was more passive, but that wasn’t true at all.
It was weird to other people maybe, but I really did think of the two of them as my adoptive moms. But in a way that was like—kink-godmothers? Was that even a thing? It was for us. I’d drive them to doctor appointments, do a load of their laundry, but would pretend to gag if they kissed in a romantic way. I’d seen both of them naked at one of the BDSM clubs downtown countless times, but was still completely scandalized from the one time I accidentally walked in on them having sex. That was like three years ago, and my eyes still hadn’t recovered.
A big misunderstanding about the kink community was that everything was sexual. Seeing Beth tied down on a sex bench in the middle of the day was just another work day for us.
“Well, well, well,” Beth drawled, yanking at the restraints around her wrists. “Look who decided to show up well past noon.”
“It’s Saturday,” I protested. “I had a show last night.”
Nancy raised a brow. She was wearing black slacks and a nice blouse with a diamond necklace one of her clients gave her a couple years ago. “How’d it go, Mr. Rockstar?”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. “Good.”
It was a vague answer, and we all knew it. Both of them narrowed their eyes on me.
“Good, huh?” Beth asked. “What’s that on your neck?”
I slapped my hand over the spot Pepper bit me at some point last night. “Nothing.”
“ Uh-huh. ” Nancy shook her head, her silver bob swinging. “Well, Beth made some tortilla soup if you want something before you get to work. This bench has been Beth-verified.”
I grinned. “Oh, good—and thanks. I don’t think I’ve eaten since yesterday.”
Nancy pointed a crimson nail at me. “What are we going to do with you? Why wouldn’t you eat breakfast? Especially after whatever nonsense you were up to last night that got you that mark. Get the fuck inside and feed yourself.”
I fought a smile. “Hey, I am not your sub.”
Beth shook her head. “He’s disrespectful.”
“He is,” Nancy said. “Such a fucking brat. I think having all those little followers online is going to his head.”
“Probably,” Beth said.
“Okay,” I chuckled. I was hungry, so I wasn’t going to wait another minute. Especially when it was something Beth cooked. “I’ll eat real quick and then get to work on the cross.” I glanced over at the piece I’d started Thursday. It was built, but needed a coat of stain and a few other customizations that’d been requested.
I wondered how tall Pepper was… exactly.
I snapped out of my reverie and realized they were both staring at me. Nancy made a face. “Are you high?”
“No,” I sighed. “Just thinking.”
“About?” Nancy pressed.
“None of your business.”
“Alright,” Beth said. “Let me loose, pretty please?”
Nancy smirked. I covered my ears before she said anything and left the garage quickly, a lingering cackle following me down the path to their house.
They lived in a nice, quiet neighborhood outside of Nashville, and had a few acres of land. There was even a barn, which was really just used for storing the van we used to deliver furniture. Or when Nancy had a kidnapping CNC scene to play out.
The back door was unlocked. I slipped inside, kicked off my shoes, and went through the sunroom to the kitchen. A pot simmered on the stove and I inhaled the delicious scent of soup, my stomach grumbling in response.
My heart leaped into my throat at the feeling of my phone rattling against my thigh.I pulled it out immediately.
Not Pepper.
I sighed. It was just an email notification from Tommy. I opened it, quickly looking over the contents. On Friday at ten a.m. I was meeting with him and some guy named Jeff. My brows shot up when I saw that his email was [email protected] .
Did that mean I was meeting with the vice president, too? What the fuck was happening? Wasn’t that skipping a whole lot of other steps?
I ignored the other notifications on my phone and put it back in my pocket. A few minutes later, I settled at the kitchen bar with a heaping bowl of soup and tortilla chips.
I was getting a little obsessed, wasn’t I?
It wasn’t healthy, probably.
Beth came through the kitchen doorway. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please,” I said between bites. “The soup is great.”
“Ya know what else is great?”
Oh god. “I’m afraid to ask.”
“An invite to your show.”
My mouth opened and then closed. I hadn’t expected that. “It’s downtown.”
“And?”
“It’s loud.”
“And?”
“I just didn’t think either of you would want to go out on a Friday night.”
“And why not?” Beth asked as she started the coffee maker. “We go out on Fridays all the time. We may be older, but we’re not dead. I think we have more of a social life than you do.”
“Probably.”
She came to the counter and leaned against it. “Something’s up with you. I’ve known you long enough, Simon. And my kids may be long grown, but it doesn’t mean I don’t know what that look is.”
Oh right, the other kids. I always forgot about them. I shouldn’t have, given that I saw them during the holidays when Nancy guilted me to participate. Beth had a daughter named Jessica who was a few years older than me, a clay artist who lived in Maine and visited at Christmas. Then there was Zach. He was around my age, and more of a mystery than even I was. I knew he worked with computers, and that was really it.
“How are the kids ?” I asked.
“Oh my god,” she sighed. “You’re as bad as Nancy when you’re being stubborn.”
“I got an invite to meet with a record label on Friday,” I said.
Her eyes lit up. “What?! That’s what you’re being weird about?”
Nope. It was Pepper. It was knowing that I’d fucked the CEO for hours last night and wanted more. Like some feral, unchained beast, I thirsted for her in a way that was uprooting all the little dark parts of me I worked hard to actively lock away. It wasn’t just a one night stand. It was a night I wanted to repeat over and over.
“I just don’t want to get my hopes up,” I said.
“Well, if you’d unblock us on social media, maybe we could support you more.”
I groaned. “My god. I just don’t want you to see all the comments. People get weird.”
“Can’t be any weirder than seeing you put a cock cage on a senator last year.”
My laugh came from my very full belly. I sighed, the tension and anxiety melting. There’d been a sex party I’d gone to last year, and I’d ended up playing with a couple who needed a firm hand. I didn’t have intercourse with them, because almost all of the time I didn’t mix that with kink. But I had put a cock cage on him. Then made his wife rim him while I flogged him. Good times.
Apparently he was a senator. I didn’t really care. But Beth had been giggling about it on and off for months now.
“You’re so shy about your music with us,” she chuckled.
I scoffed. “I’m not shy.”
“Yeah, you are. Still just a little boy sometimes.”
“Okay, I’m definitely not that,” I argued. “You should have seen the crowd last night. A den of Dionysus. Revelry .” I didn’t tell her that was the name of one of my songs.
She just smiled. “I’ve heard you sing and play, Simon. You’re special. I told Nancy that years ago. I can’t wait for you to bring me bubble tea on Friday and tell me all about the meeting.”
“ Bubble tea? ”
“Darn it,” Beth sighed as Nancy joined us.
“Are you conspiring with Beth?” Nancy asked. “You know she’s off sugar right now.”
I held up my hands. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. But I will say they have no-sugar options.”
“Simon has a meeting with a record label on Friday,” Beth said with a knowing smirk. I was now certain they’d played me in order to squeeze some more information out of me, but I also knew it was done out of love.
Nancy’s brows raised. “ That’s why you’re being shady. Nervous?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I don’t know if it’s what I want. I mean, I still have to deal with the house, and I don’t know.”
“You could renovate the house,” Nancy said. “Turn it into?—”
“No,” I said firmly. “That place will never be a home to me.”
She pressed her lips, but nodded. “Understood.”
“Let us help you purge the place,” Beth said. “We can have a ‘get rid of everything’ party. I know there are still a couple more spaces that need work.”
I hesitated. It was one thing to hold band practice in the garage. Jack, Tyler, and Eric liked the space, and it made our lives easier. But they were just co-workers.
I wasn’t sure I even wanted people I loved to step foot in there. It was a house of broken bones and pain. My broken bones and pain.
“Just think on it,” Nancy said lightly.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I will.”