Out of the Spotlight [Suncoast Society] (Siren Publishing Sensations) Read online

  By then he already knew Leigh had been dabbling in BDSM, and he’d been interested in it, too. It hadn’t taken him long to realize he was a dominant sadist, a perfect complement to her submissive masochist.

  When their first scene together at the club had turned into a really hot forced orgasm scene that ended up with her giving him the best blowjob of his life when they returned home later, that was when they both realized maybe they were onto something. After several weeks of discussions, he ended up collaring her as his slave. Something she’d asked for and he was happy to give to her.

  Tonight was the Suncoast Society munch. They loved going to the dinners, able to totally be themselves without worrying about what others thought.

  It wasn’t lost on him that he felt more at home there than he had with any other group of friends in his life. They might not understand his and Leigh’s weird little dynamic, but they also didn’t disrespect it or put it down.

  Unlike some of his friends, who’d ended up dropping out of his life, or he’d ended up dropping them when they couldn’t accept he had a relationship with Leigh while still being gay.

  Ironically, nearly all of those ex-friends being gay men.

  He considered himself homoflexible. And since it would take quite the guy to make him even think about giving Leigh up, he’d leave it at that.

  Leigh didn’t mind if he topped other guys at the club. She was very picky about which women she signed off on, though. Usually, they had to have a stable relationship already in place, due in no small part to a very clingy single female submissive who’d played with Lucas twice and then decided she would automatically be part of their dynamic, including adding Lucas to her FetLife profile as her boyfriend and Master…without asking Lucas or Leigh about it first.

  And it had taken him removing himself from her profile three times, and then blocking her—and the three alternate accounts she’d tried friending him with—before he’d finally asked Derrick the club owner to intercede and have a talk with the woman.

  Not something Lucas or Leigh wanted to repeat.

  Uh, hell no.

  Since his bond with Leigh was one he refused to damage, he’d since handed over full veto powers to her in that regard.

  A few times, they’d even fooled around with other guys, Leigh usually helping him top them at the club before taking them home and doing more intimate and sexual play with them there.

  But those men were rare, and it seemed they were more interested in a short-term bisexual experience than a long-term dynamic. And it took playing with them a few times before Lucas felt comfortable adding the sexual element.

  Things generally ran far more smoothly in their relationship when it was just the two of them normally, although the occasional third definitely spiced things up for both of them.

  “So did you give any more thought to our discussion last week?” he asked.

  “You can’t even tell your mother the full truth about us. If we have a baby together, it would blow her mind, and my parents’ minds. How do we explain that?”

  “We get married,” he quietly said, looking at her when he reached a stoplight.

  Her eyes widened. “What?”

  “I mean it. Why not? Let’s face it. I think that three years into this, we have a pretty good handle on it. You’re thirty-four. I’m thirty-five. We both want kids. If we want kids, we’d better do it sooner rather than later.” He reached over and laced his fingers through hers. “Do you have a better idea that doesn’t involve expensive IVF and medical bills when I can just tie you down, fuck your beautiful brains out the old-fashioned way, and we both have a lot more fun in the process?”

  She smiled. “Not really.”

  The light turned green. He released her hand to put both of his back on the wheel. “I love you. When I look thirty years into the future, I can still see us together.”

  “You won’t…you know, miss guys?”

  He shrugged. “If we meet a guy like we have in the past, who says we can’t fool around a little with him? And the same goes for you.”

  “You’d be okay with that?”

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be? As long as you and I don’t break what we have. That goes without saying, even if you decided you didn’t want to have any kids after all.”

  He pointed a finger at her, then swept it back and forth between them. “As long as we’re this,” he said, pointing for emphasis, “and this is strong and healthy, we can negotiate other stuff on the side.”

  “I don’t think I’d be okay with you having any other women,” she softly admitted.

  He laughed. “Duh. Kind of got that memo. And if you haven’t noticed, I haven’t wanted to bring any home, either. But would you be jealous of me and other guys?”

  “We’ve been with other guys before.”

  “What if I met a guy who didn’t want to be with you, too?”

  She had to think about that. “I don’t know,” she finally admitted.

  “This isn’t something we have to decide this minute,” he said. “I wanted you to have time to think about it. I’m serious when I say that if you want kids, I want to have them with you.”

  “That would put a crimp in our lifestyle, I guess, huh?”

  He reached over, took her hand, and placed it on his right thigh. “No, we’d just get sneakier about it,” he said. “I’d get you that tattoo I keep threatening you with.” He offered her a playfully evil grin he knew would make her even wetter than she likely already was.

  She was a paralegal to a very conservative attorney in Sarasota who knew nothing about this part of their lives. Everyone at the firm assumed Lucas was her vanilla boyfriend, and neither of them had ever done or said anything to let them think otherwise. For her day collar, she wore a heart-shaped pendant on a delicate gold chain.

  He’d been threatening to get her right ankle tattooed with a design circling it, mimicking an ankle bracelet. A permanent collar.

  An idea that, the first time he’d floated it during one of their scenes, had made her explode in an orgasm the likes of which he’d never witnessed her having before.

  And he’d witnessed her having plenty of them. Was pretty much in charge of her having them, actually.

  It was several minutes before she spoke again. “If…if we do this, it won’t mess up us, will it? Because I don’t want to do anything to screw us up.”

  He laid his hand over hers and squeezed. “No, sweetheart. I’ll make sure we never do anything to screw us up.”

  Chapter Three

  Tony and Shayla greeted Lucas and Leigh when they arrived. “Are Eliza and Rusty coming tonight?” Shayla asked them. “They RSVP’d as maybe.”

  Leigh held her hair up so Lucas could fasten her formal collar around her neck now that they were in the private room where the munch was being held.

  “Not sure,” Leigh said. “I think she said they are. I haven’t talked to her in a couple of days.”

  “We’ve got several newbies who RSVP’d for tonight,” Tony said. “We’d like to get them seated next to some friendly faces, if you guys don’t mind. Loren, Ross, Seth, and Leah are all out of town this weekend.”

  “Oh, sure,” Lucas said. “No problem.”

  Leigh laughed. “Don’t want to toss them Tilly’s way?”

  Tony smiled. “I would, if she was here tonight. They’re flying out first thing in the morning to LA. Going to be gone for a week.”

  “Well, darn,” Leigh said. “I thought she was going to be here.”

  “She was. Cris had to stay behind last-minute for an issue at the office here, so Landry switched the ticket to take Tilly instead.”

  Lucas picked a table where only two places had been claimed, cloth napkins draped over the chair backs indicating their reserved status. “Since when did we become the experienced ones?” he joked.

  She smiled. “I take it as a compliment.”

  “Oh, I do, too,” he said. “I just think it’s funny.”

  “We
ll, you are a teacher, Sir Nerd.”

  He smirked. “The day I run into any of my students’ parents doing this locally is the day we start heading up to the Tampa Munch and other events up there.”

  Her creative, sadistic Sir was, by day, a mild-mannered high school science teacher for Sarasota County.

  Needless to say, they were very careful about what they did in public in terms of BDSM. No face shots on their FetLife profiles, and very little identifying information beyond their locale of Sarasota and their relationship statuses. The only reason they used FetLife to start with was to keep track of their local friends and events they wanted to attend. They didn’t even use Facebook that much, other than for very close friends. Between her very conservative bosses, and Lucas’ job, neither of them wanted to take the risk.

  In another few years, he’d be eligible to retire from the school system, if he wanted to, and draw a pension. Not that he was looking toward that goal already, but it was nice to know he had the security of a pension and a good health care plan.

  Her health benefits were nearly as good, as was her 401k.

  Then again, if we get married, I’d go on his plan and we’d save money. And the income taxes would be less.

  They were already signers on each other’s bank accounts, just in case something ever happened. And long ago, Leigh had added Lucas to the lease and the utilities.

  We’re as good as married now, without the legal benefits.

  As he held out her chair for her, she looked up at him.

  “Yes,” she softly said.

  He frowned a little, apparently confused.

  Then she watched realization strike. He leaned in, cupping the back of her neck, and kissed her. “You sure? Like I said, you don’t have to decide right this minute.”

  “Yes, Sir. I’m sure.”

  She loved his smile, his smoky brown eyes that had melted her from the first moment she met him, everything about him. He’d never betrayed her trust, and he was her best friend.

  Yes, she loved him. Yes, she was in love with him.

  And if he said this would work, well, then by god it would.

  * * * *

  In all honesty, Lucas hadn’t been sure she’d say yes.

  I still owe her a proper proposal.

  And a ring. He already had the ring, he just needed to plan the proposal, do it right, make it memorable.

  Yes, he could legally marry a guy now in the state of Florida.

  But he wasn’t in a relationship with a guy. He was in a relationship with a woman who’d not only come to be his best friend and the love of his life, but his partner in crime in terms of their BDSM play…and someone he could easily envision waking up to every day for the rest of his life.

  Well, even though they didn’t sleep in the same bed every night. He snored like a chainsaw, and she was a restless sleeper who sometimes took up the whole bed. So while there were plenty of nights they fell asleep in the same bed together, it wasn’t uncommon for them to wake up in separate beds. Not even in the right rooms, either. Plenty of times they’d started playing in her bed and he’d awakened the next morning alone in her room, while she’d moved sometime during the night and slept in his bed.

  At least they both had to be up at the same time every morning, so their alarm clocks were set the same. She had the master bedroom, with its larger closet and en suite bathroom. When he’d moved in, he’d taken the larger of the remaining two bedrooms, the third being their guest room and home office.

  There were still several empty seats at their table when a guy walked in that set Lucas’ radar pinging almost immediately. The guy was hiding a pretty decent body under a baggy button-up shirt and jeans. He had short brown hair and wore glasses.

  He looked vaguely familiar, but Lucas couldn’t place him.

  Before Lucas could stand, Shayla had steered the newbie their way.

  Yay!

  It almost made him feel a little guilty how attracted he was to the guy right on the heels of deciding to marry Leigh. But being married to each other didn’t mean they couldn’t fool around, either.

  Hell, if the guy was open to it, they could both fool around with him.

  Wow, that’s getting a little ahead of myself.

  He stood as Shayla brought the guy over. Eliza and Rusty had shown up, taking the seats on the other side of Leigh, the sisters in crime seated next to each other.

  And for all Lucas knew, the new guy could open his mouth and turn out to be as bright as a box of rocks, or even a raging douchecanoe.

  But he was gorgeous eye-candy.

  Shayla made the introductions. “Nicholas Trevorsky, this is Lucas and his girl, Leigh. And Eliza and her husband, Rusty. I’m going to seat you here at their table. They’re experienced, and are always happy to answer questions.”

  The guy looked nervous. “Thanks.”

  Lucas offered his hand. “Lucas. Nice to meet you, Nicholas.”

  “You can call me Nick.” The guy nervously nudged his glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose.

  “Nice to meet you, Nick,” Leigh said. When Lucas gave her a quick nod of his head, she extended her hand to shake with the newcomer. They didn’t have many protocols usually, but when they were at a munch or a fetish event, they had a few.

  Such as she needed permission to shake hands with people she didn’t have express permission to have physical contact with. He didn’t care about being strict, but Leigh loved the boundaries.

  “Thanks,” Nick said.

  Now that Nick was closer to them, Lucas could see the guy had killer blue eyes hidden behind those glasses.

  Once he and Nick were seated again, Lucas asked him, “So, is this your first event?”

  Nick nodded, wearing the usual wide-eyed fear most newbies had when they arrived at their first munch. It was hard to convey to people that of any fetish event, a munch or a coffee time were the best and least threatening ways to dip a toe into the pervert pool. Invariably, by the time the meal ended, the newbies almost always looked more relaxed, smiling, relieved to know they were neither weird nor alone in their desires.

  Taking that first step, however, going public for the first time, so to speak, terrified pretty much everyone on a universal scale.

  “Any idea what your preferences are yet, or are you still trying to figure everything out?” Lucas asked.

  Please be subby…please be subby…

  “I haven’t actually done anything yet. Haven’t had the chance. But I know I’m a submissive.”

  Ookaay, we’re in the ballpark, so let’s step up to the plate…

  Lucas knew he had to open up a little to make sure Nick was comfortable. “Leigh and I have a more complicated situation than most. I’m gay, she’s straight. I’m her Sir, and she’s my collared slave. I top others sometimes for play, women, but a lot of men, too.”

  Nick’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t reply.

  Lucas offered what he hoped was a helpful smile. “Complicated, right? And we live together and have been discussing getting married.”

  “You’re right,” Nick said. “That’s complicated.” He hesitated. “I think I’m bisexual. I haven’t really had a chance to…try anything.”

  In his mind, Lucas was already running the bases in celebration of the home run.

  No, it wasn’t a surefire thing, but it was the first and maybe most important step in that direction. If the guy was straight, Lucas would have backed off and handed the discussion over to Eliza, who regularly topped Rusty.

  “Whoa,” Eliza said. “You guys are talking about getting married? Since when, and why the hell didn’t you tell us? You dang sneaks.” She leaned in and hugged Leigh.

  “Because,” Leigh said before Lucas could, “it was on the way over here and we haven’t really firmed anything up yet.” She looked to Lucas.

  He read the happiness there. A beautiful spark, brighter than before.

  He reached over and tucked a strand of Leigh’s hair behind her ear. “I
t’s a beautiful complication. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Chapter Four

  Complicated didn’t begin to describe Lucas and Leigh’s relationship. But by the time the hosts Tony and Shayla started going around the room and having everyone give introductions of themselves, at least Trevor—Nick, he reminded himself—had relaxed.

  At some point in his life, he’d stopped thinking of himself as Nick and Trevor had taken over completely.

  And Trevor wasn’t even a real person. Not just in name, but the whole Trevor persona was a suit he put on in the morning and took off at night when alone in the sanctuary of his condo.

  Not even the women he’d been with had met Nick.

  He’d been tied to several women over the years, usually for a year or two here and there, but while he’d parted friends with most of them, able to cite career complications and scheduling issues and a lack of time together, he’d made a point of not allowing the tabloids to make a game of his private life. He didn’t party, he didn’t serial date. He didn’t go for PDAs, even when in a relationship.

  What had remained out of the press, but two of his exes had mentioned to him before parting ways, was that they felt there was a wall they couldn’t penetrate with him. Like he was shutting them out in some ways. Not even deliberately.

  And they were right. He’d played Trevor, even with them, and he knew on a cellular level that would not make for a successful long-term committed relationship, much less a marriage.

  Another reason not to tie himself down to what might become a media circus.

  He’d damn sure never sought male companionship over the years. Not that he had anything against any stars who did, and despite sometimes envying those stars who let their “couldn’t give a damn” flag fly high and proud.

  He did give a damn. He wanted his career to stand on its merits and not have the discussion always include salacious bullet points or sidebars about his personal proclivities.