Chapter 1
NOW
LEXI
“I’ll have the flounder instead please,” Lexi said, and effectively cut off conversation at their table. “Baked, with the asparagus.”
Her date Byron froze with an intense look on his face, hand halfway up to his mouth with some pretentious IPA. Since he’d already ordered for her, the waitress hesitated before writing her order, but with a small shrug she asked if the table wanted any appetizers, smiled and moved on.
Byron attempted a chuckle.
“I hate asparagus. How am I supposed to kiss you if you have asparagus?”
Lexi never blinked as she stared at her date and took a sip of water. The tension at the table was thick enough to taste by the time she broke it.
“I guess you won’t.”
Byron smiled, but she could tell it was forced as he squeezed her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. She let him, not really caring either way.
“You didn’t tell me your friend was quite so headstrong,” he said to their dinner companions.
Lexi knew she’d seen Dave and Shayla before, but couldn’t place from where.
They had agreed to meet at the restaurant, Lexi coming straight from work, Dave and Shayla coming from the city where they both worked in finance, and Byron had been driven by his chauffeur, who waited outside in a Bentley.
For the hundredth time in the last hour, from dressing up and driving out to being seated at this lovely restaurant, Lexi wondered what the hell she was doing there.
“We didn’t know By, we’ve only met once or twice.” Dave answered.
Lexi considered Dave; compared to Byron, he was downright charming, although the deep purple suit he was wearing was just awful.
Lexi met Shayla’s eyes, glanced at her choker necklace, and he almost dropped her water glass when it hit her.
That wasn’t a choker. That was a collar.
LifeS Club. They were members. The last time she’d seen them was…
her mind cast back. That summer? At the luau themed party?
Shayla smiled at her for real and Lexi smiled back.
“You’re friends with Tasia, right?” Lexi asked.
Shayla nodded, and Dave answered.
“I was her parents’ financial advisor,” he said, before leaning back and wrapping an arm around Shayla.
“She didn’t say how you guys met,” she directed at Byron.
He was busy checking out one waitress as she walked away, and she raised an eyebrow.
“Sorry, I missed that. Got sidetracked. Where were we?” he asked, and smiled wide.
Lexi imagined he thought he looked charming, but all she could think of was a piranha.
“Your nickname is By? Does that mean you are?” she asked with a sickly sweet smile of her own.
Dave choked on his beer and Byron flushed a deep red as he leaned into the table.
“No. And you, my little pet, will call me Byron. Lord in the bedroom.”
He added a wink, and Lexi couldn’t help herself. She rolled her eyes and glanced at Dave and Shayla. They were sitting back from the table, and Shayla looked ready to burst. With wide eyes she was staring between Lexi and Byron.
“If you’ll excuse me,” she said with that same smile, and rose.
“Where are you off to?” Byron asked.
With his chin sticking out just so she almost wanted to clip him on it. But she was already there, she was hungry, and he was buying.
“The ladies’ room, where else?”
She noticed Dave give Shayla a pointed look and she stood up, grabbing her little clutch purse to follow.
As they walked in silence to the bathroom, Lexi was mentally berating Tasia for setting her up with friends-of-aquaintances, and herself for going through with it.
She should have known it was going to be awful when she looked up the restaurant to begin with; their dinner was going to cost about her month’s rent.
They finished up in their stalls and Lexi dawdled long enough she hoped Shayla would be gone.
But there she was, leaning back against a sink, smoking a vape pen in wait.
Her deep skin tone looked luminous in the brighter lights of the bathroom, and Lexi took in the braids going halfway down her back and how pretty she was.
She figured they were in their late thirties, and it seemed like she and Dave had been together a long time.
“Are you even a sub, pet?” Shayla asked, blowing out a stream of… whatever that was.
It smelled like cotton candy. It was delicious, and Lexi could taste it on her tongue. She thought about the question as she washed her hands. Even the soap here smelled good enough to eat. Her stomach growled.
“I am,” she answered, mirroring Shayla’s position against the row of rinks. She was pretty sure, anyway.
This close, she could examine the collar more closely. It was an intricate braid of several leather bands, and at the center there was a diamond chip on a black pearlescent surface.
“Does it ever bother you?” Lexi asked
She was thinking of her own claustrophobia.
It was well-known within the lifestyle that wearing a collar -especially out in public- was a sign of a more serious D/s relationship, but she couldn’t imagine wearing one.
Her own dress had a boatneck, showing off her shoulders and leaving her neck bare aside from her thin chain necklace. Shayla smiled.
“No. It’s a comfort, more than anything. I think of it like a big wedding ring really. I’ve been Dave’s for a few years. You’re new to the lifestyle then?”
Lexi wasn’t sure how to answer. Considering that she’d met Shayla and Dave at a kink-life lifestyle club, what was she supposed to say?
That she’d only attempted one (very short) Dom/submissive relationship and it had gone horribly?
That she wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but felt certain somehow that she was a sub?
Instead of getting into all of that, she decided to conquer the present.
“I just don’t think Byron’s for me,” she said. Shayla laughed.
“Of course he’s not.”
Lexi blinked in surprise. Shayla shrugged and puffed again.
“You two are completely incompatible. He’s disrespectful, and you’re smarter than he is.”
Again, Lexi didn’t know how to answer. Shayla leaned towards her, speaking lower.
“I can’t stand the idiot, but he and Dave have been tight since college. I think Dave was his mentor or something in finance, before Dave switched over into cybersecurity.”
Lexi nodded, a little relieved to have someone in her corner. The connection made sense now, explaining the several-year age gap between Byron and Dave.
Shayla continued, “I stay quiet just so I don’t embarrass Dave.”
Lexi looked at her again, comparing the relaxed, confident woman in front of her to the blank-faced mute she’d been at their table.
“Are you supposed to change your personality to become a sub?” Lexi blurted out.
Too late she hoped it didn’t sound disrespectful.
She said what she thought, and people mistook it for rudeness all the time.
But Shayla was taking her question seriously.
With a long, quiet inhale, she offered the pen to Lexi, who shook her head, and then Shayla turned around to face the mirror.
For a moment it seemed she was only talking to herself.
“It’s not… changing your personality, pet. It’s more like putting yourself, your own ego aside and going along for the ride. Whatever that looks like.”
Shayla straightened out a few of her braids and took out a lipstick.
“It can actually be thrilling. It’s very freeing.”
Lexi looked at the floor. That was the feeling she wanted. Just not with an asshole. But Shayla wasn’t done.
“And I didn’t become a submissive, pet. It’s who I am.
Now,” she said, meeting Lexi’s eyes in the mirror.
“Just because you’re not dating By is no reason we can’t have fun tonight.
Dave and I were thinking we would head to LifeS after dinner.
I’m sure By will assume you’d want to go, but I wanted to ask beforehand? ”
And just like that, Lexi thought, there was someone at their dinner table she liked.
The rest of their dinner remained uneventful, with Lexi and Shayla talking more amongst themselves and sharing looks. After a dessert split with Shayla and the men had a scotch, it was clear that Byron assumed she would not only go wherever he said, but that she would ride with him.
“Why on Earth would you drive yourself?” he asked, flashing that wide smile again. “I can bring you back to get your car in the morning.”
“Well I have work early in the morning, and I wasn’t planning on spending the night anywhere.”
She chose to find it amusing that he assumed she’d be spending the night with him. The guy was such an idiot. His face flashed a quick look of anger before it was replaced with false chagrin.
“I’m alright with that. So you’ll meet us at the club then?” he asked.
It was the first legitimate question he’d asked her without being insulting all night; she nodded.
“Would you be willing to wear this?”
He slid a small fabric pouch across the table, and she was acutely aware of Dave and Shayla watching them.
Inside was a thin black choker- studded.
Despite its simple appearance it looked to be very expensive.
The clasp had a small padlock on it, which she assumed was an accessory until Byron held the pouch upside down and a miniature key fell onto the table.
“I don’t wear chokers,” was all she said, and watched as his face flushed again.
He leaned forward until she could smell the scotch on his breath as he took one of her hands.
“Look,” he said quietly, “I know we haven’t gotten off to a great start. Tonight has been awkward as hell for me. But I feel like it could get better. Please just wear it for tonight?”
The sincerity in his voice made her rethink, just for a second… she shook her head.
“It doesn’t even have to do with a bad date,” she said. “I’m claustrophobic, I don’t wear chokers.”
He leaned back and seemed to see her for the first time; the wide neckline, the thin necklace, and he nodded.
“Bracelet?” he asked, holding it out below her arm. What the hell, she figured, it seemed important to him and she wanted to hang out with Shayla.
“Bracelet,” she agreed. “And I keep the key.”