Liability (Suncoast Society #33)(17)

She’s an adult.

He couldn’t force her to do it.

As he sat on his own couch that night, he stared at his laptop screen and realized it was a damn good thing he hadn’t found FetLife before the munch.

He did, however, via Mason’s profile, find the profile for the club, Venture, and the club’s group. It would make it easier for him to keep track of events and befriend people online.

But…holy crap.

When he viewed some of the trending pictures on the site, he understood Mason’s cautions. It would be too easy to fall into the trap of thinking things like “those people” and “that’s definitely not me” when looking at what others were up to, when the truth was that a lot of what he was seeing wasn’t even real-life, but produced content by models and photographers, amateur and professional alike. Or, like on Facebook, people who were simply attention hounds and posting whatever would get them the most likes and comments.

He sent Kim a text. Be careful signing up for FetLife. No face pics.

He also sent her the username he’d created.

She called him. “Um, funny you should say that.”

“Why?”

“I…” She sounded like she swallowed hard. He actually heard it over the phone. “I’m on the site now. I’m thinking maybe I shouldn’t be on the site. This is…some of this stuff is kind of scary.”

Relief filled him. “Like Mason warned us, be careful and only give out information to people we trust. What name did you use?”

She told him, and he quickly found her profile. She’d set it up, as Mason had suggested, with the age of ninety-nine, and listing her location as Antarctica, a common ploy for people to avoid being trolled based on age and location.

“Okay. I see you.”

“Oops, Melanie’s calling me. Is it okay if I get off here and talk to her?”

“Of course. Love you.”

“Love you, too.” Her voice changed, subdued. “Thank you for this.”

And then she was gone.

Setting the phone aside, he friended her on FetLife. A moment later when he checked, she’d already added him as her Master and listing that she was collared to him.

The smile filled his face even as he felt…vaguely uncomfortable. He added that he was her Master and she was his slave. He’d also listed himself as being ninety-nine and from Antarctica.

When he found Mason’s profile, he friended him and sent him a private message telling the man it was him.

Mason accepted the friend request and replied to his message.

Just remember, you only have to do what you two want to do.

It was reassuring.

Kim quickly friended Mason as well, and then he didn’t see any other activity from her.

Probably still talking to Melanie.

He liked Kim’s friend, one of the few people who’d stuck by Kim during her divorce from Craige, but Melanie’s personal life was a hot mess. She was likely calling Kim to commiserate about whatever crappy thing Melanie’s boyfriend of the week had done that past weekend. She was nice, and smart, but a total doormat when it came to guys.

Cole spent the rest of the evening perusing FetLife, especially local groups and events. Mason pointed him toward Tony and Shayla’s profiles, as well as Seth and Leah’s, and Tilly, Cris, and Landry’s. Cole was still having trouble reconciling a lot—okay, most—of what he was seeing on the site with real life. He didn’t want to cause Kim pain or hit her any harder than he had with his bare hand. He damn sure didn’t want to make her bleed.

While he’d agree that some of the rope bondage pictures were beautiful and artistic, he personally didn’t have the patience to learn that.

Medical play—nope. Make that a hell nope. Just getting regular blood tests at his doctor every year nearly made him pass out.

Finally, he closed out the site and shut down his computer. Everyone at the munch had warned both of them to go slow, to not get overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed was pretty close to where he was at that moment. And his mind was still spinning when he went to bed. As he was about to drift to sleep, the amusing thought hit him that maybe now he did have a way to order Kim to go get her eyes checked.

Hmm.





Cole and Kim didn’t get to talk much on Tuesday night. Kim had Melanie over to dinner so the woman could pour her heart out to Kim regarding her latest romantic disaster.

Wednesday morning, Cole anticipated staying over at Kim’s later, just in case, and brought what he’d need for in the morning so he wouldn’t have to go back home after dinner.

Part of him was hoping Kim would ask him to stay over so they could talk after. Immediately process whatever they discussed with Mason that night.

If their initial dipping of their toes into the kinky pool Sunday night with the munch and their interlude after was any indication, Cole was hoping for similar results tonight. The few days to digest everything had apparently helped Kim get her head around things, because when he picked her up and she got in his car, he asked her if she had any other thoughts she wanted to talk about before they sat down with Mason.

Boy, did she.

“Forget all the…crazy stuff,” she said to him as he drove. “The blood and stuff. That’s a no for me.”

“Okay.”

She sounded more animated than usual. “And I think the rope stuff is pretty. But I don’t think I’m ready for anything like that. Maybe a little rope on my wrists or on my ankles or something, if you wanted to.”