“A close friend of mine.”
“Is he the one you tie up?”
“No. That’s Rocco. Ivan’s one of the DMs at Gym. Before that, he had a job as a bartender at Ozzy’s. He ended up being fired when his boss found out what he did on his off hours.”
“Um, what’s a DM?”
“Dungeon monitor. They keep track of what’s going on and make sure everyone is being safe and consensual. They keep things from ever getting out of hand during dungeon parties, usually just by their presence.”
“Every party needs one of those.”
“Exactly.” I run my finger over her upper arm and then lean in to kiss her cheek. “You’ll find that kink is often much safer than other relationships because we have so many rules.”
“I can see that. So why did Ivan get fired?”
“The manager was afraid he might be dangerous to their customers. He’d never been in any trouble, but she fired him anyway.”
“That’s kinda shitty. They shouldn’t be able to fire him because of that.”
“Well, he’s not part of a protected class, so she got away with it. The money wasn’t a big deal—Ivan comes from a pretty well-off family—but the principle of it pissed him off. I tend to stay pretty quiet about it for that reason. I can’t afford to lose a job because someone else doesn’t take the time to understand.”
“I have to admit,” Kas says, “it is a bit of a shock at first. I wasn’t sure what to think when you first started talking about the rope. I guess I’ve heard of such things before but more as an abstract ‘things people do in big cities’ kind of way.”
“Oh, there are kinksters everywhere. You’d be surprised where you find them.”
“Where?” She turns her head to look at me.
“Retirement communities are big into the lifestyle. Lots of elderly nudists out there.”
“I’m not sure I want to think about that.” Kas laughs.
“Oh, yes!” I grin at her. “The highest occurrence of STDs is in nursing homes.”
“Are you serious?”
“Look it up.”
“No, thank you. I guess I’ll just take your word for it.”
I yawn and shift my position.
“I’m keeping you awake, aren’t I?”
“It’s okay,” I say, yawning again. “We should try to get some sleep though. Now that the rain has stopped, the phones should start working again by morning, and we’ll get out of here.”
“What if they don’t?” The fear in Kas’s voice is accompanied by a shudder through her body.
“They’ll find us,” I say, tightening my grip on her. “If they don’t come in the morning, I’ll jus have to come up with more w
ays to distract you.”
Kas snickers softly and then goes quiet. She places her head on my shoulder before quickly falling asleep. Once her breathing has regulated, I close my eyes and join her in slumber.
I’m awakened by the loud, rhythmic thumping of helicopter blades. I blink a few times, cock my head to the side, and immediately hear distant sirens.
Daylight floods through the window, casting colorful light on the floor near my feet. I yawn and then stretch a little to relieve the ache in my shoulder from sleeping on the floor. I slide myself out from under Kas and head over to the window.
Though it’s overcast, the daylight offers enough of a view through the clear piece of glass at the bottom of the window to get a good view of our situation. Water surrounds the whole building. What used to be a small duck pond is now a large body of water filling the entire valley all the way to the tree line near the road at the top. Across the water, I notice the flashing lights of emergency vehicles just before the helicopter begins circling overhead.