Page 3 of Finders Keepers
Chapter One
Nate entered the plush room on the fifth floor of the gentrified seven-story building. This suite was a little larger than the one he’d been given on his last visit to this club. Instead of cool blues, elegant greens dressed the decor. Textured pale green paper covered the walls. A light green broke up the dark emerald of the carpet in a honeycomb pattern. The king-sized bed sported a silky duvet with narrow stripes in alternated light and dark sage. Abstract prints provided added color and interest to the room. He found the visual presentation soothing, and some of the disquiet left his shoulders.
He took a seat at the shiny high-end cherrywood table and scrolled through his socials while he waited for the assigned Dom. His knee bounced, and he let it work. Hopefully, the club had chosen one of the two Doms he’d already seen before. NDA or no NDA, yet another person knowing who he was and what he was about was always risky.
The knock on the door stilled his knee, and he straightened. “Yeah, come in.”
The lock clicked, the door opened, and in stepped a familiar man wearing slacks and a white button-down, collar open and sleeves folded up to mid-forearm. Golden-brown forearms sported a light dusting of soft hair.
Nate’s pulse jumped and the last bit of tension left him. Ashton had been his Dom on his first trip, and Nate liked his bedside manner a lot. So much so, he’d requested him for this evening. Ashton had the looks to go with his personality as well. He was shorter than Nate by at least half a foot, but all-American boyishly cute with a slim though muscular build and long limbs. Nate suspected he ran to keep in shape. The low fade of his light brown hair looked recently trimmed.
Ashton’s green eyes twinkled when he spotted Nate. “Hey, cutie. Thanks for the request.”
Nate smiled and put his phone to sleep before standing. “Yeah. Sure. Good to see you.”
The two shook hands and Nate sat back down. Ashton took a seat across the table from him.
Nate had been in Omaha a mere two weeks the first time he’d visited the club, and Ashton had been the first Dom they’d paired him with. In fact, Ashton’s sweet, warm-hearted manner had engendered all sorts of good sentiments that had buoyed Nate’s mood for over a week afterward. Not getting Ashton the last time he’d scheduled a session had been more of a disappointment than he’d care to admit.
Too bad he couldn’t find an Ashton of his own. Doing that would not only jeopardize his career, but he wasn’t sure he could handle being discarded once again.
“Getting settled into your condo?” Ashton asked, poking at the tablet he’d brought in.
“Somewhat...” Nate shrugged and huffed a laugh. “No, not really. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the trade. It came out of the blue and happened less than a month after we won the Cup. If it weren’t for me standing on my head in a couple of those games, there would have been no Stanley Cup.”
“I’m sorry,” Ashton said, his face going soft and his tone sympathetic. “I can’t imagine what a shock that must have been.”
“I got the call from my agent on my Cup Day, so yeah, it was a pretty big shock.”
“Oh my God, that’s horrible.”
“Yeah, and my agent couldn’t not call me. I’d have heard about it on social media or from people blowing up my phone anyway.”
Ashton nodded. “Right.”
“I’m grateful they found a place for me to live, I really am.” Nate fiddled with his phone. “But I really dislike the place. I can’t bring myself to unpack.”
“Maybe there’s more to it than just the condo. Have you thought about counseling?”
“It’s crossed my mind, yeah,” Nate said. It really had. “But I just...it’s just one more thing I have to take charge of doing.” Moving would also require him to take charge.
“Which is part of why you’re here. To relinquish some control.”
Nate nodded. There’d been a bit of pillow talk during that first session—okay, a lot of pillow talk. Nate hadn’t revealed all the details of his fucked-up childhood, but Ashton understood why he sought out submission in the bedroom.
“Well, I think talking to a professional would do you a world of good, and if you need some help finding one, let me know.”
“Aren’t you a professional?”
Ashton rolled his eyes and smiled. “Here, yes; in the realm of mental health, not so much.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Good.” With a nod, Ashton tapped the tablet’s surface with a fingertip. “I looked over the notes I entered into your profile last time we were together, read the notes from Brady. Are you looking for anything new this evening?”
“No.” Nate shook his head. “As per usual, I don’t want to be in charge of you or me or the sex.”
“All right. Is there anything on or off the table tonight that’s not already in your profile or that you want to alter just for tonight?”
