In the Middle Read Online Free Page B

in the hotel room or anywhere else, that you don’t consent to. You remember your safe word?”
    He’d given her one, months ago. She’d never used it, nor had she expected to. Online, you could always log off or even say someone was at the door or that you had an important phone call to take. She’d never had to use either of those dodges with Rob, although she’d done quite a lot of that in the weeks before she met him to ward off unwanted attention. Now he expected her to remember her safe word. At any other moment, she probably would have, but right now it seemed impossibly difficult. “No. No, I don’t.” She tried to keep the panic out of her voice.
    “It’s Colorado.”
    She took a breath. He was perfectly casual about it. When she’d been small, she’d had a Labrador puppy named Colorado. They’d had to give the dog away when they moved, so she had never seen it grow up, but holding that little puppy had been a fond memory that would never go away. No other dog could ever replace him. He’d asked her for a word that had good memories for her, and she’d volunteered Colorado’s name. From that one conversation, he remembered.
    “All you have to do is say your puppy’s name, and you’ll be freed if you’re tied up, let go if I’m restraining you, and I will do everything I possibly can to make sure that you are all right. Your safety is my first priority, and that means physical safety and emotional safety. You have the final say, and I’m only in charge as long as you want me to be. There’s nothing to fear.”
    The submissive is the one with the real control . It was something she’d read when she first started learning about BDSM three years ago before she ventured online. But I don’t want to be the one with the control. I just want it to be safe to give it up . She felt some of her shoulder tension go away with his words, though. She wasn’t so relaxed that navigating DC’s traffic circles didn’t stress her, but at least she could worry about that rather than what would happen once they reached the hotel.
    She steered the conversation to a safer direction. “So what do you do exactly, anyway?”
    “Ah. I make electronic widgets, custom stuff, made-to-order. Sometimes it involves modifying something the customer already has. Someone wants their security system to incorporate a new feature without buying a whole new system, I can do that. Or maybe someone wants a door in their house to unlock when they use the garage door opener. Or they want their smoke alarm to play ‘Light My Fire.’”
    “Is that a real example?”
    “Sadly, yes.”
    “And what brings you to Washington?”
    “There’s a convention here, and there are some business opportunities I’m looking into. Government contracting and subcontracting is big, potentially. I can invent something, and then a contractor can produce as many as the government needs.”
    She had to ask the question, in spite of her desire to keep the conversation neutral. “Do you ever make anything kinky?”
    He grinned. “Now would I do a thing like that?”
    He might be a stranger in some ways, but she knew him well enough from their online interactions to know the answer to that was yes. She kept her mouth closed and her eyes on the road. The idea of electronic sex toys intrigued her. Maybe something remote control. She shivered. They were almost to the hotel anyway. A few moments of silence wouldn’t kill her.
    “Do you feel comfortable coming up with me?” he asked when they were in the lobby.
    She blinked. “I have a choice?”
    “Of course you have a choice. There’s an element of risk in going into a room with a man you’ve just met. I feel I know you quite well, but I don’t think the risk is quite the same for me as it is for you. If you like, you could call a friend. Daniel, maybe? And let him or her know where you are.”
    The thought of Daniel coming to rescue her made her smile. She didn’t doubt he would, if need be,