20. Rio
An hour later, Detective Sarah Parker knocked on the motel room door and was let in by Officer Vallejo. “Mr. Torrez, Mr. Durand,” she greeted us, shaking both our hands. The short black woman gave the room a quick, thorough look-over, then clasped her hands in front of her and pinned Saint and I with an intense gaze. “I was briefed, but please tell me in your own words what is happening.”
Saint heaved a deep breath and launched into the story again, while Detective Parker nodded attentively. She pulled out a notebook of her own and began to take notes after a few sentences, stopping Saint here and there for clarification but otherwise letting him tell the story.
When Saint finished, I nodded in agreement. “I have files that I can give you on all of this, as well. Lee Roberts, Alden Security’s information specialist, has compiled everything his searches have yielded, as well as copies of police reports and other records. I emailed them to Officer Vallejo, as he requested, but I’m not sure if you’ve been able to access them.” I indicated my phone, which had a list of files open.
“I have not,” Detective Parker said. “May I?”
I handed her my phone, and she looked at several of the files, scanning them quickly. Her brows went up sharply at one of them, and I wondered which it was. Finally, she nodded and handed it back. “If you could send those all to me,” she said, handing me a card with her phone number and email address on it.
I nodded and got to work with that, while she pulled her phone out and made a quick phone call. “Okay, crime scene investigation will be here any minute to collect the food and to fingerprint the room. You will need to find another place to stay, unfortunately…”
I nodded. I had assumed that was what would happen, but I didn’t think Saint had thought about that, because he looked somewhat distressed. “I already have another room booked,” I said, offering Saint what I hoped was a reassuring look. “Our bags were packed anyway, so we could just grab them…”
Detective Parker clapped her hands once. “Excellent! I’ll be in touch once we get some results back.” We took our bags and were ushered down the hall by a uniformed police officer who watched me let Saint and I into the room. I nodded politely to him, received a quick dip of his chin in return, and closed and locked the door.
Saint pulled in a deep, deep breath when I turned around, held it, and then let it out slowly through his nose. “Well. And we didn’t even get to eat dinner,” he said and tossed his backpack onto the desk chair.
“I know,” I said, dropping my duffle onto the floor. I approached him, took the suitcase from Saint’s hand, and sat it lightly on the floor. I took his hands, twined both of them together with our fingers interlocked, and pulled him into my space to kiss him. “I’m sorry the last two days have been extra shitty,” I said, kissed him again, and hugged him.
Saint’s body melted into mine as his arms came up to hold me, and I cupped the back of his skull, scratching my nails lightly against his scalp. He hummed into the kiss and I tilted my head a little to get a better angle. “Later on I could take care of you again, Saint,” I offered quietly. “Once everything has died down… That police presence is going to keep things quiet tonight, I think. We could sleep in the bed together and I could…” I bit his neck lightly and tugged his hair.
“Fuck…” Saint breathed. “You really think so?” He pulled back enough to look into my face, blue eyes wide.
“I think so…” I said. “It’ll take them a while to finish with the room, and the tails aren’t going to want to try something in front of witnesses. They’re professionals.”
“They are…” Saint agreed. He thought about it for another minute, warring with himself. He clearly wanted to, but I didn’t blame him for his hesitation. “Yes,” he said then, lowered his head and looked at me through his lashes. “What do you– Sir?”
I smiled heatedly. “Sí,” I said, dropping my voice as low as I could, pleased with the shiver I could see go through him. “Are you hoping to be very good for me and get another reward?”
Another shiver raced down his spine, evidenced by the way he arched ever so slightly.
“Good,” I said. “Is there anything off the table tonight?”
Saint thought about it, which also pleased me. I hadn’t forgotten his ‘you’re the Dom, nothing is off limits from you’ surprise when we talked about it and played the first time. After a moment of consideration, he shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said.
I eyed him hungrily, and for a minute I considered topping him tonight, but then I decided against it. I found that I wanted that to be special, in a big, comfortable bed without an escaped cyanide poisoning having been our dinner entertainment. He watched me look at him, head still slightly bowed, and I wondered what he was thinking. Did he know that when I dominated him, I did it because I loved to watch my Submissive lose themselves to their enjoyment? Did he know that whatever physical release I enjoyed, in whatever way I used his body, was secondary to the emotional pleasure of being trusted and allowed to do what I pleased? I doubted it, but someday he would. I would make sure of it.
No matter what I decided to do with him tonight, it was too early to begin. I wasn’t certain the police were quite finished with us, and I certainly didn’t want to have our scene interrupted with a knock on the door to answer more questions.
“You should go shower,” I told him. “I’ll take one when you’re finished.”
Saint nodded, collected his shower bag, and padded off. While he was in there, I called John and filled him in on how the evening had gone with the police. He was glad that a detective had been assigned, and I gave him her information in case there was any reason for him to contact her. I had, of course, given Detective Parker John’s information when I was speaking to her.
Saint came out of the bathroom after a while, and I looked up from my phone. I had been scrolling social media and I found a video that my mentor, Rafael, had posted on Shibari. I wasn’t fond of rope work, it made me nervous, but a sub in an intricate rope was very pretty to look at. Saint came to me and glanced at my phone as I invited him down into my lap. “What’s that?”
“My friend Rafael posted a video I was watching. I don’t like rope work but it does look pretty.” I held the phone up for him to watch the video. Rafael’s sub here was a young Asian man who was very, very into what was happening, and Rafael was enjoying it too, though he seemed very outwardly stern.
Saint watched the video, a little frown wrinkle between his eyes, and I watched him watch the video. He was concentrating hard, and I was thinking about the statements he had made in the past about the Doms he had played with. I wished that I could see what was happening in his mind right then.
Rafael’s video was mostly about the ties he had used, but towards the end he touched on aftercare for a rope bunny. The video was edited to skip ahead to after his sub was freed, and he showed the marks on the young man’s chest and arms, emphasizing the need to take very good care of a rope bunny’s skin, then gathered him into his chest and ran his fingers through his hair. The sub visibly melted into his chest with a soft sigh and Rafael ran his hands over him gently, murmuring in his ear now and again as he finished up the video.
I let the video play through because Saint was watching it avidly, then laid my phone aside when it was over. “How do you feel?” I asked.
“Good,” Saint said, addressing my mouth instead of my eyes. “Your friend?”
I smiled. “Yes. That’s Rafael. He was my Dom for a while, and when I realized I was more dominant than switchy, he became my mentor. He’s a full-time Dom, he has an exclusive club in San Francisco, and does a lot of work for the community.”
Saint nodded. “He seems…” I could see him struggling to find the words to voice his thoughts.
“He’s the best Dom I’ve ever met, and that’s not loyalty talking,” I said. “I’d like to introduce the two of you someday, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Saint nodded, that wrinkle still between his eyes. I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him. “You’re thinking very hard,” I said.
Saint sucked in a quick breath and shook his head. “No, no, it’s nothing.” He shifted around to straddle my lap and kissed me. “Are you having a shower too?”
I nodded. “I should.” I used his hair to tilt his head and spent a minute playing with his mouth while he held onto my shoulders. “I’ll leave my phone here, you can watch some of his other videos if you want to,” I added once I was on my feet and heading toward the bathroom.
When I finished my shower and went back out to the bedroom, Saint was sitting on the edge of the bed with my phone in his hand. I could hear Rafael’s voice coming through the speakers and I recognized the video as a rant he had posted. There had been a dust-up in the community regarding the importance of aftercare after what Rafael liked to call a ‘dollar store Dom’ had caused a bad case of sub drop at his club. Rafael viewed the BDSM community as his family, and he took care of his own. The video was about Doms who do not understand what it is to be a Dominant, condemning them with some very choice words and phrases.
When I realized what Saint was watching, I slowed, letting the video play out as I walked toward him. When it ended he looked up, face thoughtful. “So he’s the one who taught you, huh?”
I nodded. “I met him when I was eighteen, newly out, and trying out just about everything there was to try that wouldn’t land me in jail. He’s a few years older than you, and I was like a moth. I was his sub for about four months. Nothing exclusive, you understand, but that was part of the fun. I knew then that I was a switch, but I was young and pretty and being a sub was far easier. After a while I began to realize that I was more dominant than submissive. He knew before I did, but he let me come to him, and once we had the talk he told me that he’d teach me how to do it right. He did it very well so I agreed. For a while, as he trained me, we shared subs although I also subbed for him sometimes too.”
Saint had dressed in pajama pants and a T-shirt after his shower, and I wore almost the same, though I tend to favor white sleeveless undershirts rather than T-shirts. I went around the bed, propped myself against the headboard, and held my arm out for Saint to come cuddle. He responded immediately and I began to play with his hair the way I knew he enjoyed. I could feel him processing all of that, and based on past statements I wondered if he was now assigning his past play partners the designation ‘dollar store Dom’ too.
I petted him for a while, a slow rhythm that he eventually began to breathe along with. I wasn’t keen to break his train of thought. After a while, he pulled in a couple of bigger breaths and shifted a little. “I love you,” he said very quietly.
I hadn’t been expecting him to say that and I smiled without even thinking about it. “I love you too,” I murmured.