Safeword: Rainbow (15 page)

Viv had a videoconference later that afternoon with Brookfield Zoo, just outside of Chicago. She had also been made aware of what sounded like the perfect position for her at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, and there were a number of smaller Aquariums and Zoos with possibilities that didn't have her very excited but she still needed to have a phone conversation with them in order to rule them in or out. And of course she had three colleges practically begging her to come join their research staff and teach on the side; they were even offering a plan that would include tenure in a few years. But she was really done with the whole college thing. She figured the politics in the real world would be a pain as well, but she was just sick of the politics that went on at the larger universities. She'd learned to navigate through it all in order to get what she wanted, most of the time, but she hoped she could put that behind her. She had a feeling she wasn't going to be able to give Tyler a list of possibilities when they had their talk, but that she'd just have two candidates’. Or maybe even just have one job that she really wanted to take, so not really a list at all. Secretly she was a little glad for that, because the prospect of life with this man was a little bit terrifying. She'd fallen in love with him, but she was so afraid of losing herself if she spent more than a few months with him. She was just going to enjoy whatever time they had together now, and then prepare to get on with the rest of her life when they had to go their separate ways.

Chapter Thirteen

Tyler walked through the Chattanooga Airport several days later and was less than impressed with it, wondering how such a renowned security agency managed to be headquartered in such a small city. He'd be getting a rental car here instead of using a taxi because from what he could tell there weren't that many taxi services available. Also, Drake Security had contacted him two days ago and requested a two-day interview process for him instead of the half a day plus dinner originally planned. He wasn't sure what had changed, but assumed it was a good thing. He rented a car with a GPS unit on it and punched in the address for his destination.

When he arrived he once again was not impressed. Drake Security had taken over what appeared to be an old school. After interviewing in big new shiny office buildings, this wasn't what he'd expected. But when he went inside he immediately liked the atmosphere. Yes, it was an old school, but the front receptionist was nice. Instead of a visitor badge she gave him a sticker to put on his shirt, and he was almost immediately met by one of the top people, who introduced himself just as Nathan. No pretenses.

Nathan appeared to be a few inches above six feet tall, with sandy blond hair. And he carried himself like he knew how to handle anything that might come up.

"I'll take you back to Aaron's office where we'll talk a little bit, and then I'll walk you around and let you meet some of our other people. We have a shooting range out back and we'll head out there and let you shoot some, and then I believe Aaron would like to see you spar with a few of us as well later today. We understand you've been interviewing at some pretty impressive firms already?"

Tyler was a bit surprised at that. "Yes, I have, but I haven't accepted any offers yet."

* * * *

Later that afternoon he found himself in what had been the old gymnasium of the school. The basketball court was still open, but where the bleachers had once been they had installed a few boxing rings along with several mats marked off for sparring. He sparred with Nathan and it was maddening; he had the feeling that Nathan could easily take him on with one hand tied behind his back. He sparred with someone else who he was much better matched for and then a woman he'd seen when he walked in got up and grabbed two padded half-staffs, tossing one to him.

She grinned at him and said, "My turn."

He didn't argue with her, assuming they must want to make sure he didn't have a problem fighting a woman. He didn't, he'd had plenty of women come close to killing him, and he'd learned the hard way that petite and beautiful could also be very dangerous. But, he hadn't expected this little thing to be able to hold her own while sparring with him, either. Sure, he was stronger than her, but she was fast, and good. He didn't know what kind of martial arts she must have studied, but it wasn't like anything he was familiar with. Sure, he saw elements he recognized, but the way she put the elements together was like a dance. A very lethal dance, but a dance. When they finished he started to compliment her skills but realized he hadn't done that with the guys, so he just picked up small talk with her like he'd done with everyone else.

He knew that next came dinner with a group of them, after which he was free for the evening. And then tomorrow morning he had an appointment with their shrink. Aaron had said that her office door gave her main specialty, that of family and couples counseling, but that she was actually in their line of work as well so she also had the unadvertised specialty of counseling to people who were in their line of work. And then Aaron had said, "One other thing, and this isn't why you are seeing her, but while she's got you she will ask you some questions about your lifestyle. I'm not a part of the BDSM community or I'd ask the questions. She is part of the lifestyle, so I've asked her to handle that part of your interview. I realize that gets into the personal aspects of your life, but if you'll be representing our company there are some things we need to know. We have people who work here who are in that lifestyle, so it's not a problem, but there are some questions. Of course."

Tyler wasn't too sure if he liked that or not. On the one hand, it would be nice to know that if he were ever outed as being a Dom that his job wouldn't be in jeopardy since they would already know about it. But on the other hand, it kind of bothered him that they'd been able to find that out about him and that they wanted to pry into that part of his life. Still, he really liked the people, and once he seen the layout of the building he appreciated that the old school worked much better for them than he figured the other security companies' big new fancy buildings probably worked for them. And the old school had style, there was architecture built into it, details that no one bothered to put into new buildings. He liked it.

When Tyler arrived at the shrink's office the next morning he read the door:
Kirsten O'Shea, Family and Couples Counseling
. Hmm, the chick he'd sparred with yesterday had been named Kirsten. He was a few minutes early so he sat in the waiting room, and was surprised when the door to the inner office opened exactly on time.

But he was more shocked to see Kirsten, the woman he'd sparred with yesterday, telling him to come on in. Once they were in and seated she said, "Aaron told you I'm in your line of work, right?"

"Well, yes. But I didn't realize it was quite so literal."

"But will it be easier for you to talk to me now, knowing that I'm the real deal? Knowing for a fact that I've had training, and figuring that I've probably been out in the field where I've had to kill people? Will that make it easier for you to tell me how you feel about killing people?"

Pretty direct, but she had a point. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Good, then how do you feel about killing people?"

Tyler didn't want to talk about this, so he shrugged and said, "Somebody has to keep the bad guys from killing innocent people. It's easy to sit back and say it's wrong to kill, but sometimes it's wrong to not kill. I mean, if there is someone who is planning to murder fifty people next week, and I can kill him this week, then I've saved fifty people, right?"

The conversation went pretty predictably for a while until suddenly out of left field she hit him with, "I understand you are a Dom. It appears most in the lifestyle know you as Master James instead of Tyler. I've managed to speak with a few people who have seen you in action, and each of them says you are a responsible Top. You should know there are no clubs here, though there are some private play parties in people's homes occasionally. But, to go to a club you'll have to drive to Atlanta or Nashville. Will that work for you? If you are single, it may not. If you are part of a relationship then I'd think you're more likely to be okay with the private parties if you want to socialize within the lifestyle."

"You've talked to people who vouched for me? How, how did you manage to learn all of this about me?"

"Aaron and Nathan are good at what they do. Very good. If they offer you a position, and if you accept that position, you will benefit from their skills as well. They will teach them to you, if you are interested in learning. I can personally tell you they are great to work for. I know it's corny to say that a business is run like family, but once you are in, that's really the way you are treated. But my question right now has to do with whether your personal life will be satisfied living in a small town without much of a lifestyle community to pull from for relationships. There are people to scene with, but not that many people looking for a long-term partner."

"I'm seeing someone now, but... we don't know if it's going to work out. There are some complications. Still, I'm kind of hoping that she and I will find our way through the complications and we'll be an item before much longer."

"Complications? One of you leans more towards 24/7 and the other is more of an only-in-the-bedroom person?"

"What, you're a mind-reader as well?"

"No, I've just been around the scene long enough to know that if the complications were that one of you had hard limits that happened to be something the other needed it wouldn't be called a complication. I get more of the feeling that you're mostly compatible but that one of you wants to be full time with it and the other doesn't."

"Yeah, I lean more towards a 24/7 total power exchange, and she's not.
The thing is, I think I'd be okay with not being 24/7 if it meant she could be in my life. Actually, I'm sure of it. I enjoy our time spent together not in a power exchange, if we were in a power exchange all of the time then I'd miss that part of her. I'm just not sure how to go about incorporating all of this into real life. How we separate ourselves into two different relationships."

"How do you transition now?"

"We've tried it a few ways. Sometimes she just asks me permission to do something, and when I give it, we're in our roles. I have a hard time with when the scene ends when we do that though, so for now it ends during aftercare, after a scene. And the other way is when we negotiate times, so it begins at a certain time and then ends at 10:30 the following morning, or whatever times we agree on."

"Both of those are excellent ways to handle it. If I may make a suggestion, I'm guessing that since you are used to being 24/7, that you are pushing her into areas she hasn't been in before, am I correct? Power exchange in ways that aren't sexual?"

He ran his hands through his hair. "Yeah."

"For a strong woman who feels like she's being pulled farther into things, it can be scary. As a sub, it's easy to catch yourself about to ask permission to do something even when you are not in a scene. She may feel like she's being pulled into 24/7 and may run from the relationship. If you have reached a point where you are no longer interested in a 24/7 relationship with this woman, you should be sure you've made that clear to her. If she thinks you still want a full time power exchange then in her mind she'll be pretty sure that in five years' time she'll lose herself into a 24/7 power exchange. Many women choose to run from the relationship before the man has a chance to make that happen."

"You sound like you are talking from experience."

She smiled. "Lucky for me, we're here to talk about you and not me."

"Thanks for the advice. Aaron said you'd want to ask me some questions about the lifestyle, but there haven't been any questions. What do you need to ask me?"

"Most of my questions have been answered. From our conversation I can tell that your idea of power exchange is only that which is consensual. Safe and sane are pretty relative terms, but from the conversations that I've had from those you play with, it seems you keep it very safe and mostly sane. So I have one question for you – if you had to differentiate between whether you are more Dom or more Sadist, which would you say you are?"

"Wow – you don't mess around, do you? I don't think I can differentiate the two. Part of submission in my world means they give me permission to hurt them, and that feeds the Sadist in me. I couldn't enjoy hurting someone who wasn't into what I was doing, though. So I guess if I had to choose then it would be Dom, because I can kind of enjoy being Dom for short periods of time without Sadism, but could never enjoy the Sadism without being in a Dom/sub setting."

"Thank you for your honesty, Tyler. For the purposes of Drake Security, your sex life shouldn't be a problem. In any event, our time is up and I have what I need from you. Aaron asked that I send you back to his office, and I don't know for sure but I'm guessing he will make you an offer."

Chapter Fourteen

Viv wasn't sure how she felt about Tyler coming back today. They had rented a vacation house a few miles from her dad's place so they could play some, but she was feeling like she should lie and say she had an interview to fly off to and then go somewhere else instead. She had been about to say just that when he'd told her that he wanted to spend the rest of the day at the rental house as themselves and not in scene. He'd told her that he wanted her to start the scene up when she was ready, but not until they had spent several hours together and had dinner first. That had made her feel better, so she didn’t lie and run off.

One thing was certain though; she now knew where she'd be working. She had accepted a job at the Tennessee Aquarium. It was exactly what she had wanted: a smaller program that was well funded, and she would be the managing director of their ecology program. She'd be responsible for keeping track of the darter population in the Tennessee River and its tributaries, and she'd be in charge of the projects that monitored the mountain streams and watched for changes in the various fish and snake and salamander populations. She would also act as liaison to the local university and the county school system. Best of all, she would be allowed to bring species she felt were endangered or at risk into the aquarium to put on exhibit and attempt to breed, as well as have the backing to work towards getting the government to recognize them as endangered. She couldn't have created a better program if she'd written it up herself.