Page 10 of Entertaining Distraction
Mike’s stomach quivered, and he tried to remind himself nothing was going to happen between them here. The doors to the party room were open and anyone could look in and see them. “Ah, sure.” He grabbed a menu and a list of specials. “Why don’t you let me know what you want to eat first, and I’ll put in the order. Someone will bring it in to us.”
“Are you joining me? I hate to eat alone when I’m with someone.”
Trying to ignore how jealous it made him feel thinking about this gorgeous woman having dinner with another guy, Mike took a sip of his drink before answering her. “I haven’t had dinner yet, so, yes, I’ll join you.”
“Good.” She quickly perused the specials. “The salmon looks delicious, but instead of rice, I’ll take a double helping of the vegetables if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. Soup or salad with it?”
“No, thank you.”
Taking the menus back, he jotted down her order on a pad and added his before handing it to one of the waitresses. Since Mike wasn’t going to charge Charlotte for the dinner, it would only screw up the night’s receipts if he entered it into the computer. Picking up his and Charlotte’s drinks, he canted his head in the direction of the unoccupied room. “Shall we?”
She gave him a broad smile that caused butterflies to take flight in his stomach and his cock to twitch again. Retrieving her purse, she stood and led the way with Mike’s gaze glued to her shapely ass. He wasn’t surprised when she sat at a table toward the back of the room facing the door to the bar. The only other door in the room was an emergency exit that had no handle on the outside. With her career as a state parole officer, Charlotte clearly had the same instincts that Mike had observed in Jake and his co-workers. None of them liked to sit with their backs to a room or door.
Setting the drinks on the table, Mike took the seat across from Charlotte. Now that they were alone, he had no idea what to say. Thankfully, she didn’t have the same problem. “I usually don’t mix business with pleasure, but I can’t avoid it this time. I understand you recently hired an ex-felon, Jose Perez, to work in your kitchen.”
Mike’s eyes narrowed in alarm. “I did. Is he trouble?”
“No, not at all. I actually don’t think he’ll be a repeat offender. I just want you to know I’m his parole officer, and I’ll be doing an occasional drop-in to see how he’s doing. Most of my visits are to the parolees’ homes, but I will do one or two at their job sites. I wasn’t sure if you were aware of that and thought you should know before I do my first one. I haven’t told Jose you and I are acquainted, but it’s inevitable he’ll see me here, off duty, at some point.”
His shoulders relaxed again. “Thanks for the warning, but Jose isn’t the first guy I’ve hired out of the career program. There were two others—one worked out, the other didn’t. For what it’s worth, he’s been doing great this past week. He learned a lot in the prison kitchen and is picking up the routine here quickly. He hasn’t given me or the staff any problems. In fact, my evening chef, Tommy, said Jose is ten times better than the last guy. In this business, it’s wise to keep your chef happy.”
“I’m sure.” She leaned back in her chair, and rested her hands on her lap. “Now that business is out of the way, let’s focus on pleasure. Have you come to a decision about exploring the lifestyle with me, Michael?”
Her confident expression told Mike she already knew what his answer would be, but it didn’t make it any easier to say it. He shifted on the chair, more from her scrutiny than the seat itself being uncomfortable. “I ... uh ... yes ... I did. But I have a bunch of questions first.”
“Okay. Shoot.”
“Um ... all right. The first question is about a contract. Jake said we’d have a contract between us with ... um ... an end date.”
She raised an eyebrow in curiosity, not annoyance like he’d expected. “You and Jake talked about you and me?”
“Yeah. He told me he went to see you and stuck his nose where it didn’t belong. But he didn’t try to talk me out of it, if that’s what you’re asking. He just wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting into, then promised to stay out of it.”
“What you’re getting into ... so that means your answer is yes.”
It took him a moment to realize he hadn’t actually said yes to her, yet, and that she needed to hear it. “Uh ... yes, I’ll admit, I’m curious and interested, but like I said, I have questions.”
“I’d worry if you didn’t. So, the answer to question number one is yes, we’ll have a contract. It will spell out exactly what I expect from you, what you can expect from me, what our hard limits are, and, yes, there will be an end date, one month from the day we sign the contract. On the end date,if, by mutual agreement, we want to renew the contract, with or without any amendments, we will.”
“Okay, I can deal with that.” After talking to Jake and Nick and researching more, that was the answer he’d expected to hear from her, which is why he’d started off with that question. Now for the harder ones. “Um ... I guess the next question is ... um ... are you going to want to degrade and humiliate me? I read some Dominants get off on that ... the subs too. I’m not too keen on that.”
“Which is why we’ll negotiate your hard and soft limits.” Reaching into her purse, she pulled out several folded pages and opened them. “This is a limit list, and most items on it are negotiable with me, Michael. You’ll know full well which ones aren’t before we both sign the bottom of the contract. If public humiliation is not your thing, then I’m willing to abide by that—it’s not one of my favorite parts of the lifestyle anyway, but some subs crave it. However, that being said, there are some acts you might think are humiliating, while I believe they’re a sign of your respect and submission.”
He leaned on his forearms crossed atop the table. “Such as?”
“Such as, I would expect you to kneel in a presenting position when instructed. That would be with your knees shoulder-width apart, head bowed, and hands clasped around your forearms behind your lower back. Mind you, it wouldn’t be all the time—only during play—and it’s something Nick does with Jake, in case you’re wondering. In other words, it’s not unusual in the lifestyle.” She paused. “Do you have a problem with that?”
He took a moment to consider it and think of it from her point of view. “No, I don’t think it’ll be a problem—as long as it’s done in private.”
The corners of Charlotte’s mouth ticked upward. “I would expect it more than just in private, Michael. It would also be in public at the club.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Th-The club? We’d be going to The Covenant?”
“Not at first, but yes, at some point I’ll want to take you to the club.”
Okay, he hadn’t expected she’d want him to go to the BDSM club with her. In fact, he’d never been inside it even though he’d been to the Trident Security compound many times.
