Prologue
Scott
Wandering into the staff room, I instantly got the feeling I was interrupting something. Sawyer and Adam giggled and hid Sawyers phone from my view, as if I had superhero vision and could see all the way across the room, but whatever.
“What are you two up to?” I asked, because I couldn’t help myself. Adam was my best friend in work and yes, I liked Sawyer, but he tended to keep to himself most of the time. He was also a real hippy, save the planet kind of guy. Once you got him on his soap box you couldn’t get him off. As I wasn’t, it could get a little tense between us.
“We’re just doing some research… for Nathan,” Adam said with a mischievous grin crossing his gorgeous face. His hand waved in the air and the overhead lights caught the ring on his finger.
Responding to the grin, I did my best to ignore the ugly twist of jealousy that stabbed at me. I really was happy for him about his recent engagement, and that he’d found his perfect Daddy. Not that we talked about that with anyone. I was the only waiter who knew about what Adam got up to with the head chef and part-owner of the restaurant I worked for. Well, I knew some of it, Adam didn’t tell me everything. But I could guess, what with the marks Adam couldn’t always hide. Did I mention Carl was a Dom Daddy?
It took a minute to pull my head out of my arse and realise that Adam was talking about the enigmatic Nathan. He was best friends with Carl and owner of a BDSM club called The Playroom. Nathan had been coming for lunch at least once a week for the past month and he’d caused a bit of a stir amongst the single gay men working in the restaurant.
There was something so alluring about the man-mountain, and that’s what he was. Tall, blond, with muscles that would put the Rock to shame. He towered over everyone and made me wish I had taken up mountaineering as a hobby.
The thing was he’d never shown any interest in me, not even a flicker. Which was okay, sort of. I’d done a little digging and what Nathan was into was so not my cup of tea. No, I was looking for a Daddy who was into his boy wearing a little lace and silk. Not that I’d had any luck so far, but I lived in hope there was the perfect Daddy out there for me.
On a sigh I tuned back in when Adam poked me in the ribs.
“What ya thinking about? You got a real dreamy look on your face there,” Adam questioned, his attention focused solely on me. I couldn’t stop squirming when he smirked at the heat now filling my face.
I cursed my pale complexion, it was the bane of my life. No matter what I did to get rid of my milk bottle white skin, nothing worked. Fake tan made me look like a tangerine and can I say, it’s so not my colour. The sun only burnt me, then I’d peel and looked like some creepy extra for a horror movie, before I’d be back to where I started.
With my jet black hair and pale grey eyes, I tended to look like a Goth. Not that I have anything against goths, I just want to look a little more like Adam. Bronzed and healthy, rather than like death warmed up.
The nudge to my ribs went from gentle to a full-on dig. “Hey, why are you trying to break one of my ribs?” I asked as I scooted back, rubbing at the now tender spot Adam was still trying to jab at.
“’Cause you’re being all vacant and weird. What’s up with you today?” Adam asked, his face creased in concern.
Grumbling, I glanced over at Sawyer who was back to looking at his phone, his eyes alight with either excitement or fear, it was a close call as to which.
“There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m not the one who’s keeping secrets,” I nodded towards Sawyer, “and hiding the phone when I walked into the room.”
I waited a beat, but when neither man said anything, I walked over to Sawyer. “What are you looking at?” There, I’d asked outright.
His expression became closed off and the phone was shoved into his trouser pocket with such speed, if you’d have blinked you’d have missed it. Now I was really intrigued and desperate to see what all the fuss was about.
I pretended disinterest and went to sit on one of the leather chairs. Seb, our boss, was generous and bought really comfortable leather seats for us to use for our break time. Sitting, I waited to see what the others would do.
Adam gave Sawyer a wink and then headed back out the door, giving me a wave. I glanced at Sawyer, who stood as if undecided as to what he should do.
“Fucksake man, sit and eat your lunch. I’m not gonna annoy you.” Even as I said it, I knew that I didn’t mean it. They had me intrigued and I really wanted to know what was on Sawyer’s phone.
After five minutes of silence, I gave in. “Please.” I fluttered my eyelashes, giving my best bashful smile. The one my mother said would get the devil to do what I wanted. “Tell me what you were looking at. I promise I won’t say anything.”
There was uncertainty, but I could tell he was teetering on the edge. Giving one little push, I said, “I promise not to say anything to the others. You know me, I can keep a secret.”
Can I just say, that might have been my biggest mistake, but we’ll get to that.
“Alllllright. But I swear if you say anything to anyone I will kick your arse,” Sawyer advised, his face pinched into a scowl.
I knew that the threat was genuine. With Sawyer having several different kinds of black belts in all mixed martial arts, you never messed with him. He was really into that shit, and for someone who was all peace and light, it was a big contradiction.
He pulled the phone back out and swiped at the screen, using his thumbprint to open it up. Nice. I was distracted for a moment, wondering if I could do that with mine, when the phone was shoved under my nose.
I’m sure I blinked but I couldn’t say for certain. My mind was already way ahead at seeing The App that Sawyer opened. It transported me into a world I was all too familiar with: kink.
My pulse, that had been thrumming away normally, decided it was time to canter. My hands trembled as I reached for the phone.
“Is this a kink app?” I was aware I was being a little dense, but hey. I was trying to get my head around there being a kink app that I didn’t know about.
“It is, but it’s fairly new. You have to swear you won’t say anything.” Sawyer clutched at my arm as he spoke. His face pale and his brow pinched so tight he ended up with a monobrow.
With a nod, I offered what I hoped was a sincere smile. “Of course. I would never reveal anyone’s secrets, I promise. Cross my heart, hope to die.”
The childish saying seemed to loosen the tension in Sawyer’s body as he relaxed into me a little.
“What kinks have you heard of?”
The question seemed an odd way to start, but I went with it. “Well, okay. Erm, BDSM of course, which comes in all flavours from vanilla to hardcore. Full submission, to being a slave,” I rubbed at my chin. “Then there’s Daddy Kink, my favourite, I might add.” I offered up that nugget hoping it would show Sawyer I wouldn’t judge whatever he was into. “Puppy play, and any other kind of animal play you can think of. There are people who like to act as children, a form of Daddy Kink but just to a different level. I think that’s age play. I’ve heard of people being called Littles, though I’m not one hundred per cent sure on that. I haven’t explored that side myself, but I’ve heard there are couples that enjoy it. Erm… I’m sure there’s a load more, but I can’t think of any others off the top of my head.”
I wasn’t sure what part of what I’d mentioned caused Sawyer to wriggle against me and look down at the phone. I got the feeling I might have said something wrong, so I gave his leg a squeeze. “Did I say something to upset you? I didn’t mean to.”
“No, it’s… well…” Sawyer got up and left me with his phone as he stomped around the room, pulling on his multicoloured hair, his dark eyes gleaming.
Before I could say anything he stomped back to me. “I’m what you’d call a little. I like acting like a child and having my partner treat me as such.” The breathy confession and small voice got me up off the chair.
Tugging him into my arms, I gave him a hug. The smell of lavender and bergamot wafted up, the familiar scent of Sawyer’s homemade body wash.
“Thank you for confiding in me. I promise on my life I won’t say a word to anyone about this. What you do in your private life is nothing to do with anyone else.” And I meant it. What people did in their private lives was up to them. I don’t judge. How could I when I liked my own little added extra kink?
Sawyer pulled back, his eyes searching my face, and what he must have seen allowed his smile to return. “I was a little scared to tell you, well, tell anyone really. I only told Adam because Nathan mentioned to him that I was trialling The App.” There was excitement in his voice that wasn’t there a few seconds earlier. “It’s pretty cool. With Nathan’s membership sign-up from his club, and his waiting list, there are more men on here than I thought possible. There are loads of choices, too. Heck I didn’t realise there were so many men into what I like.” He shrugged. A pink hue covered his face, making him look adorable.
I handed him back the phone I still held on to. “Here, show me. Maybe I could find a date on here. I’d like a Daddy who likes his boy to wear a little lace and silk.” Slapping a hand over my mouth, I groaned when Sawyer’s eyes sparkled with mirth.
“It’s okay. I overshared as well. Let me show you how to search The App. Then we can see if you can find a match.”
My heart danced against my ribs at the thought of finding someone. We sat back down as I checked my watch, seeing there was twenty minutes of my break left, I got comfy. “When is Seb expecting you back from your break?”
Sawyer glanced at his phone before looking back at me, “I still have about ten minutes.” His lips thinned for a second. “I could download the app to your phone and then quickly show you how to navigate it. That way you can look at it when you have more time. Twenty minutes won’t be nearly long enough.”
I wanted to do a happy dance across the room, but settled for giving Sawyer a big arse grin, before I went to grab my bag and search for my phone. Seb hated the waiters to keep their phones on them while in the restaurant, not that I blamed him. Who wants to see a waiter messing with his phone in a posh restaurant? No one.
The La Trattoria Di Amore was a small chain of restaurants that were classed amongst the top ten in London. Sebastian Smythe and Carl Bentley had created a reputation for an exceptional dining experience that many struggled to rival. The Michelin stars the restaurant held demonstrated how hard both men worked to make it a popular place to dine.
Any hopes that I might find my dream man while at work had never materialised. No, I ended up with dicks being horrible to me, like Luke Mason. He was the biggest pain in my arse, he seemed to take an instant dislike to me. If I was truthful, when I’d first seen him, he’d totally screamed Daddy to me. Not that I got a chance to find out. One, he has a boyfriend and two, he is a right knob.
Maybe my luck was about to change. I handed my phone over to Sawyer and sat and listened to him explain how the app worked. The fact it was called simply ‘The App’ was a little odd, but then Sawyer clarified how it was named to prevent people from accidentally finding it. Nathan had The App created for his clientele and his upcoming plans to renovate a part of his loft.
Sawyer got a dreamy expression on his face when he explained that Nathan was going to create a club specifically geared to kinks like his. Distracted about thoughts of how I could sign up for that, Sawyer nudged me twice to bring my attention back to the phone. He started to demonstrate which part of the screen I needed to type in what kink I liked, then it took you straight to where you needed to be.
“That’s so cool. Look at all those profiles. Shit there must be over five hundred.” I gawked at the never-ending list as Sawyer scrolled and randomly hit on a couple of profiles. There were no face pictures, just body parts, but hey I wasn’t complaining.
“See, if you go into the profile it lists their likes and you can press this button here and it will see if it matches yours. Well it will once you add yourself. There is a fee of a hundred pounds to join—”
“Wow, that’s a little steep,” I said, interrupting his spiel.
“Yes, it is but you’ll find it’s worth it.” With that he carried on, messing with my phone to download the app. Ten minutes later he walked to the door, winking at me as he looked back. “Good luck, let’s hope you find your dream guy.”
