Liability (Suncoast Society #33)(20)

“No, don’t get me wrong,” Mason told him. “You can label yourself anything you want. But I didn’t want the two of you to start getting confused or thinking you ‘had’ to do things a certain way because other people who called themselves those labels did things those ways. You can call yourselves whatever you want and do whatever you want.”

“What do you consider yourself?” Kim asked him.

“Right now? I consider myself a Dominant, a Top, and definitely a sadist. How much of one I am depends on who I’m playing with. In the past I’ve been an Owner and a Master with partners both romantic and just for play.”

Cole seemed to be studying him. “You can own someone you’re not in a relationship with?”

“If I own them, I’m in a relationship with them. What kind of relationship is the question.” Mason took a bite of his pork chop. “A romantic relationship and a play relationship can be mutually exclusive things. Remember what I said Sunday night about people having play partners outside of their romantic relationships?”

“Would you consider playing with me?” Kim asked.

Fortunately, Mason hadn’t been taking a bite of food or a sip of water when she asked that.

He glanced at Cole, trying to gauge the man’s reaction to her question. Cole almost seemed as eager to hear the answer as she did.

“I wouldn’t discount it,” Mason said, hedging his bets. “I would definitely be willing to help you and Cole experiment with things to try things out. Demonstrate. But that’s a big difference, I think, between what you’re asking me and the point we’d have to reach together to do that.”

They both looked confused. Adorably so.

“In other words,” Mason clarified, “Let’s take things slow and see what happens. I’ve seen guys go from not wanting to do anything to becoming pretty damn good Tops. And if that’s not you, Cole, and you decide okay, she wants to do things, I absolutely would be willing to talk more about it at that time.”

That seemed to make her happy.

Even more interestingly, Mason’s answer appeared to relieve Cole, from the way the other man visibly relaxed.

As if glad to know this wasn’t a burden he’d have to shoulder alone.

It was nearly two hours later when they left the restaurant. And still they stood outside at their cars for another thirty minutes and talked until Mason glanced at his phone and realized he had three missed texts from Freddie. Still, he used it as an excuse.

“Not trying to cut you off, but I didn’t realize how late it was and I have an early day tomorrow. See you Saturday at four at Venture?”

“Absolutely,” Cole said, his gaze boring into Mason’s.

Mason was glad Cole opted for another hug. He paid close attention to when the other man ended it so he didn’t let it get creepy.

Although Mason easily could have stood there all night hugging the man. Cole was six one to his own five eleven, and it’d been a long while since he’d been with a guy taller than him.

Hugging Kim felt easy as well. She was a sweetheart, and he had enjoyed seeing how much more open and talkative she was tonight compared to the munch Sunday night.

“And, seriously, either of you, feel free to call or text or e-mail or whatever between now and then.”

“We’re not bugging you, are we?” Kim asked.

“I’ll tell you if you are,” Mason said, pointing a finger at his face and circling it. “Dominant, remember?” He smiled. “I’m perfectly capable of setting a boundary.”

After one last good-bye, he got in his car and waited until he saw that Cole had got his car started to pull out of the space and head home.

Not only had that been a fun evening, it’d been productive.

Absolutely, he’d probably play with Kim, if they asked. He wouldn’t give them a definitive yes yet, of course, because he wanted to encourage Cole to stretch his wings a little. And he wanted more time to make sure Kim wasn’t…

Well, crazy.

The unread text messages awaiting him on his phone from Freddie were plenty enough reminder of that.

But all things considered…

Yeah, he’d play with her.

Part of him kind of hoped Cole discovered an inner submissive during the process, too.

Because I’d damn sure play with him.





Chapter Nine


Thursday morning, Mason was finding it hard to keep his mind on his work. His dinner with Cole and Kim the evening before, and their conversation, kept running through his thoughts, distracting him.

Sure, he’d played with women before. Plenty of times. Both to help teach someone a technique, or as a demonstration, and as a long-term play partner. He wasn’t really a service Top, though. Yet he suspected he’d be getting to know the couple a lot better over the next weeks and months.

But he was gay.

Still…

He liked both of them as people. Given enough time, he sensed they could easily become good friends, both of them. The kind of people he would gladly associate with not just in the kinky world, but in the vanilla one as well. He could see going out to dinner with them, to the movies, having them over for dinner with other friends, the whole nine yards.

Barrier one, passed.

He knew it wasn’t like he was now intimately familiar with them and they might not still turn out to be douchey in some way, but usually he was a pretty good judge of people.