Chapter Five
Ocean
He was here.
The daddy from the fire alarm disaster was here at chained. Duncan. It was such a daddy name.
Suddenly, everything changed. My embarrassment was gone.
One thing about Chained was, if you were here, you understood that everybody had things that they enjoyed, and you sort of accepted that.
For some people, it was sharing. For other people, it was leather or bondage or masochism.
And for others, like me, it was playing with toys and letting your worries go to someone else for a short time.
And while we may not want to live those other ways, there was a brother/sisterhood here.
Duncan was working. He was handling some of the food for the event.
I didn’t know if he owned the restaurant, managed it, or was a server.
Not that it mattered which. What did matter was that more than once, someone addressed him by name.
This meant that even though he was working food service for the charity, he was either a member or a frequent friend of the club.
Was he a daddy? Oh, how I’d love for him to be a daddy.
But a daddy who also liked men and was single and didn’t think I was too weird when I held out my hand for my stuffie.
More than that, a daddy who wouldn’t freak out at having a little who, by day, was very successful, very powerful in certain spheres, and honestly had a lot of money.
For some reason, my job intimidated people outside of work, and that was the last thing I wanted to do.
Because once a potential daddy was intimidated, they no longer took the power that they needed during the times I needed it most. But that was biting off a whole lot of worries, way too soon, because at this point, we weren’t even friends.
He was just a guy who gave me back my octopus and understood how important it was to me. That was that.
I made a trip around the room, looking for anyone I might recognize, and was shocked when Barnes waved at me.
“Hey! I thought you couldn’t come.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think I could either. But when I told Daddy about the event tonight, he told me I should go because this is a charity he cares about and he’s out of town. He also wired in a donation.”
“Sweet. So now I have someone to hang out with. If I’d realized you’d be here, I’d have swung home to get some clothes.”
He shook his head, his eyes hooded—a sign that even if I had clothes, he wasn’t going to be able to play.
“Oh, I forgot. Your daddy likes to be there when you’re little.” Or, more accurately, he demanded it.
“Yeah, and he’s away. But he never said anything about hanging out with my little friends in our suits.”
“Works for me.” Did I have opinions? Of course I did. But he didn’t want or ask for them.
Ms. Lily knew how to throw a fundraiser.
There was tons of food, lots of creative ways to collect money, and, of course, being around like-minded people in a safe space where it didn’t matter that you sometimes sucked on a binky or wore nothing but a cock ring as you walked around. You could just be yourself.
This time, she outdid herself on the silent auction items. They were going to raise a ton of cash.
Today, most of the room was dressed in whatever they wore to work, which gave the place a much different vibe. Which was fine. I wanted to relax and eat and, apparently, stare at Duncan. The man had no right to be that sexy. He screamed daddy.
But also, more than once, I’d met people who assumed because I wanted control at work, that I wanted to maintain that control everywhere. They were wrong.
Over the years, I’d had people ask me multiple times if I was a dom looking for a submissive. I’d never been confused for a daddy, although that might be because in the presence of people who looked for the same thing in their men as I did, the tells were there. Or maybe it was all about the suit.
“Hey, Barnes, do you think… Do you think I’m intimidating?”
He laughed. “It really depends on where you are. At work? Heck yeah, you are. Even the CEO knows better than to try and pull one over on you.”
Which was true, but that was because the CEO inherited the position from his father and was in over his head.
If it weren’t for the managers making him look good, he’d have lost that job a long time ago.
I didn’t mind. He let me do what I needed to do, and he was a nice enough guy.
He just was given far too much authority, far too soon, and it was wearing on him.
“Do you think that’s why it’s hard for me to find a daddy? Being intimidating, I mean?”
He gave my shoulder a squeeze. “No. Any true daddy would see you and know that you’re little. You just haven’t met the right one yet. It’s time to put yourself out there more—and not with that stupid app. Goodness gracious, if it’s free to sign up, then you’re getting the weirdos.”
“I hadn’t considered that. Does this have to do with the hottie near the buffet?” He looked straight at Duncan, not a subtle bone in my friend’s body.
“Do you see everything, Barnes?” I pushed his shoulder playfully, hoping to pull him from his full-on stare at the man I’d been attempting to flirt with.
“I’ll take that as a yes. For what it’s worth, when you were talking before, he didn’t seem intimidated at all. He seemed interested.”
“Asshole. You were watching me and didn’t come say hello.”
“Of course I didn’t. I was getting us these great seats and also enjoying the show.”
“Did I tell you you were an asshole yet today?”
“Yeah, about thirty seconds ago. You’ll probably tell me again.” He was right.
Sadly, Barnes had to leave a little earlier than I wanted.
He was on a strict curfew. I hung back, hoping to catch another couple of minutes with Duncan.
But when I got approached by someone looking for a night of, “fabulous fun you won’t regret,” I decided it was time to leave.
Sitting alone had me looking like I was interested in far more than I was.
I took the long way around, being sure to pass Duncan, and wasn’t disappointed when he called my name.
“Hey, Ocean. I hope this isn’t too forward, being in the club and all, but I was hoping we could go on a date.”
“I’d like that.” I pulled out my wallet and gave him my card, wishing I had another way to give him my contact information. Knowing now that he’d seen my card, it was already too late for an alternative plan.
I understood all of the reasons why there were no phones at Chained, but right now, it would’ve been so nice just to give him my number straight into his phone and call it a day.
Because now he’d know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what I did for work and just how much I was worth with a quick Google search.
Please don’t let him be intimidated.