I wait until he’s left, then snatch the item I want off the shelf and hurry down after him. At the bottom of the stairs, I pause and look at the chained curtain again, then look toward Euan. I can see his head of dark hair over the racks of clothes. If I go to the counter now, he’ll see what I’m buying.
With that excuse firmly held in my mind, I walk down the stairs back into the dungeon.
Chapter Sixteen: Euan
As the goth rings up my items, I peruse the things at the counter. The front of the store is less overtly sexual, the items on display geared more toward the general public: jewelry, key chains, stickers, and dice sets. The sets come in different pride colors and I fiddle with a box colored like the bisexual pride flag.Would Alex like them?
The goth waits to see if I’ll follow my impulses. I set the dice back down. They cater more to my interests than his and I’m not sure he’d appreciate me buying him a gift anyway. Next to the dice are a pile of brochures, advertising various shows and events.
“We hold a kink class in the dungeon once a month,” the goth says. For the first time, they sound engaged with the conversation. They nudge one of the brochures closer to me.
It’s a calendar for the year, each page for a different month. I flip past the ones that have already happened: anal, role play, watersports. Then I arrive at the one for this month: Beginner’s Bondage.
I imagine Alex sitting in a classroom, taking avid notes.Would they tie him up as ademonstration?He never answered which scenario he preferred, but his expression was open enough for me to guess. When he held the cuff against his wrist, he closed his eyes and lost himself in the daydream. Lips parted, cheeks flushed, breath short. I wanted to open up his head, crawl inside, and watch the show.
The teal looked lovely against his pale skin, though the pink would also be nice. Red and black seem too harsh, and the green was too garish.
I glance over my shoulder. Alex still hasn’t come down yet—or if he has, he’s purposefully avoiding me.Maybe I can sneak down to the dungeon …But that would take too much time. I don’t want him to think I’m loitering to spy on what he’s buying.
I look back at the brochure to check the date. It’s for next Sunday. My flight is on Saturday, which means I’ll already have left by then.Unless I stay longer to deal with the annulment.“Do you have to register ahead of time?”
“Yeah, the website is on the brochure. Sign-ups are open until one hour before the start time.”
“Thanks.” I pay for my items and slip the brochure into my bag, then take everything to the car.
Five minutes later, Alex joins me, clutching a large green bag to his chest. It’s folded over itself so I can’t peek inside. He hurriedly stuffs it into the backseat, like he’s afraid of it opening in the middle of the drive.
It’s a little discouraging that he’s not comfortable enough to share what he purchased. I thought we’d started to build a rapport, that some of the things he said inside had been flirtatious hints.Then again, he could just want it to be a surprise.
Actually, he has the right idea, hiding his bag in the back. If he left it out in the open, I’d be distracted the whole drive home, waiting for a single glimpse inside.
“Did you see the brochures on the counter?” I ask.
“You mean for events?”
“Yeah, and the kink classes.”
A pretty pink blush colors his cheeks. “No, I didn’t.”
I wonder what the cashier saw in me that they thought I’d be more interested than Alex. “It sounds like they host a lot of things for beginners if you’re interested. You could explore some new avenues and learn more about what you like outside of the vanilla world.”
“They do sound interesting … as long as I’m not the only novice.”
We drive for a while in silence and then he asks, so quietly it almost gets lost in the sounds of traffic, “Do you want to go to one together?”
It’s not quite an invitation, but his interest is encouraging. I only hesitate to answer because I don’t want to reject him, even though it’s out of my control. “I’m returning home before the next class.”
“Oh.” He leans his head against the window and doesn’t say anything else.
I know I should leave it. That I shouldn’t give myself hope of something more when our marriage—our relationship—has an expiration date. But the longer the silence stretches, the more the pressure builds inside me, until I blurt out, “Maybe we can go together the next time I visit you.”
“Next time?” he asks, and god, he almost sounds hopeful. Excited.
“Well, I’m sure there will be court dates and other things. Annulments are tricky, you know. Richard said it could take up to a year and a half, and I’m sure there are things I’ll need to do in person during that time. So, if everything lines up, the next time I’m in town, we could go to one of those classes together.”
His gaze is so heavy on me that I glance away from the road. His pink lips are parted and the pupils of his eyes are blown wide until they almost engulf the blue. After a second,he looks away first, peering out the window. “It’d be nice not to go alone. Though if I’m honest, I just probably wouldn’t go.”
I didn’t look far enough ahead in the brochure to know what the future classes are. They might not even be anything either of us are interested in. The bondage one would be perfect, but I can’t return that soon.Or I could extend my stay.
