Aaron nuzzled my neck. “I’m pretty sure I was stressed about something earlier.” He sighed happily. “But I can’t remember what it was. So…win.”
I laughed and kissed his forehead, tightening my arm around his shoulders. I vaguely remembered the day being a stressful one as well. A lot of work to do and not enough concentration to go around. Now, that all seemed like something we’d left in the living room along with our shirts. It would still be waiting for us when we stumbled back out to rejoin polite society, but for now, it was about as relevant as the clothes rumpled on the couch and floor. Fine by me.
“We should eat,” Aaron murmured, his voice slurred and sleepy.
“We should.” I ran my fingers through his hair. “What sounds good?”
“Mmm, I don’t know. Something easy. Because I feel fucking lazy too.”
I laughed. “Well, there’s always delivery.”
“Oh, good idea. Can you order? I can barely keep my eyes open.”
As part of his role as my submissive, Aaron usually handled ordering or making food, but there were times when I took the reins. I’d bring dinner to his office if he had to work late, and at home, I’d handle things if his head was fuzzy from sex or subspace.
“Of course.” I kissed his forehead. “Just let me get my phone.”
He lifted himself off my shoulder long enough for me to grab my phone off the nightstand. When I settled back on the pillow, he settled back against me and sighed happily. He’d probably fall asleep like this, but that was all right—I knew what he liked, and anyway, he’d had one of those hair-pulling days at work that left him mentally drained. That was why he’d texted me from the office to ask if we could fuck as soon as he got home. Sometimes he was flirty about it, but when he cut right to the chase and asked for it, that meant he needed it. Naturally, I’d made damn sure he stopped thinking about work for a while.
With my arm still comfortably around him, I held up my phone in the other hand, fully intending to pull up one of the food delivery apps.
But there was a push notification that caught my eye. I was about to dismiss it and look at it later. After all, it was probably my business email, which I didn’t check after working hours—Aaron and I had long ago agreed that the end of the day was the end of the day unless something urgent came up (which was more likely to happen with his job than mine).
On second glance, though, the notification hadn’t come from my business or personal email.
It was from Kinkbook.
Aaron was drifting off on my shoulder, so if I took a minute to check the message before I ordered us food, I doubted he’d notice. I tapped the app.
In our inbox, there was a message from someone named Kelly, and the subject line had me wide awake:
I might be your unicorn.
Of course I knew damn well it could be a bot or a scam artist, or someone trying to sell nudes. Still, I was intrigued, and I tapped the message.
I’m a sub and a sadist. Would love to meet, see if there’s chemistry, and talk details. – Kelly
Holy shit. And the fact that he wanted to meet and discuss details instead of jumping right into playing was a good sign. I always preferred to feel people out in a casual setting before they ever touched my submissive. Establish compatibility, then rules and limits, then play.
I glanced down at Aaron. He was definitely asleep.
I quickly put in an order on GrubHub. The estimated delivery time was an hour. No rush to get out of bed. With Aaron still resting on my shoulder, I thumbed through Kelly’s profile. Like Aaron and me, he hadn’t included any face pics. Possibly a professional of some kind, then. Or just someone who wisely guarded his privacy.
And holy hell, from what I could see of him, he was hot.
He was on the leaner side, and no one maintained a physique like that without religious gym attendance. No six-pack or anything, but he was cut in such a way that made me want to ask if he’d volunteer to model for my life drawing class. Partly so I could stare at him, and partly because he was a gorgeous study in powerful musculature.
I moved from his pictures to his bio.
I’ve recently returned to Laurelsburg (spent a lot of time here while I was growing up), and am getting my toes wet in the dating and kink scenes. Personal and professional life is kind of in flux right now, so not looking for anything serious, long term, committed, etc. But definitely down with playing.
From his answers, he was gay, loved giving and receiving oral, was experienced with all kinds of whips and floggers, knew his way around caning, and enjoyed hot wax play. His hard limits included fluid play, asphyxiation, and giving or receiving anal. He was thirty-two, so nine years younger than me and fourteen younger than Aaron. An age gap, but probably one we could work with, especially since he was just a play partner. From the way he’d written his profile, he was articulate, and he sounded like he had his shit together enough to know that he didn’t have his shit together enough for anything long term.
And he was a submissive.
And a sadist.
Maybe he was our unicorn.
I gently nudged my husband. “Hey, Aaron?”
“Hmm?” He stirred on my shoulder and murmured sleepily, “Ordering food?”
“It’s on its way. But someone replied to our ad.”
He was instantly alert, and he lifted his head. “They did?”
I handed him the phone.
Brow furrowed, Aaron read the screen. Then he looked at me with wide eyes as he handed it back. “Whoa.”
“Right?” I put my phone on the nightstand. “What do you think?”
Aaron’s lips quirked, gaze fixed on the dormant phone. “Well, he just moved to town and his personal and professional lives are ‘in flux’.” His brow pinched as he met my gaze. “That sounds an awful lot like someone who just lost a job and a partner. If he’s one of those sadists who uses it to work out some frustration, that might be a bit much even for me.”
“Agreed. And if we get that vibe off him…” I shook my head. “No way.”
Aaron gazed at the phone again for a moment. “I am curious about him, though.”
“Do you want to reach out to him?”
He seemed to think about it, then nodded. “We’d just be meeting him and talking, so that’s safe enough. I won’t dive into bed with him or get on my knees the instant I meet him, but he’s interesting enough that I’m game to give him a chance to sell us the whole package.”
“All right.” I studied him. “Are you sure about this?”
“About him? Or about bringing in a third?”
“Yes.”
He chewed his lip. We’d had that conversation a million times over the past few months, checking in over and over to be sure we were both really onboard with this. We’d even paused the ad a couple of times while we’d regrouped. Now that someone had replied, though… Now that the rubber might be meeting the road—or the leather might be meeting the skin—it was a bit more real than the hypotheticals we’d discussed.
“We’re not committing to anything just by meeting him,” Aaron said finally. “We’ll talk to him, see how we feel about him, and see if we’re still into this whole idea. It isn’t like we’ve committed to anything.” He put his hand over my knee. “We’ll still be fine even if it doesn’t work out with him. Or anyone else.” He was obviously trying to sound reassuring, but the uncertainty in his eyes told me he was the one who needed reassurance.