Selene stood in Arthur's living room, waiting for him to return.
She'd been in this room many times before, but never under these circumstances. It took years for her fantasies to become a possible reality. Years ago, she learned that Arthur shared some of her inclinations through his now ex-girlfriend Lori, though she hadn't mentioned it to him until today.
It was months ago that the idea of trying this with Arthur first worked its way into her mind. Now she was minutes away from experiencing everything that enticed and excited her. Her friendship with Arthur was something she didn't want to lose if this went badly, which was perhaps why she wanted to try it as friends with benefits rather than as romantic lovers. That, or she would have to admit that her last relationship left her with more baggage than she was willing to acknowledge.
She stood, more or less, in the center of the living room and looked toward the front door of the apartment as Arthur instructed. It was a solid door, though she couldn't tell if the wood was solid or paneled. Likely paneled. Her eyes slid along the ripples of the walnut stained grains as she waited, moving along each line as her nerves had no other outlet. The rest of her body was as still as she could make it despite her racing heart.
Arthur was knee-deep in the bedroom closet. He'd let things get a little cluttered in here since Lori moved out, but now that he had someone who might see his bedroom eventually, he knew he was going to have to clean it soon. He displaced an old sweatshirt and found what he was looking for: the trunk. He lugged the old-school traveler's trunk out of the closet with a grunt.
The noise caused Selene to turn her head toward the bedroom door and then back to the front door as she berated herself for disobeying so simple a command so soon. It wasn't easy to stand there, looking at the front door, when she heard the apartment's little noises around her. She was a dancer, someone to whom movement came naturally. She felt like bobbing where she stood but did her best to stay still, even as she caved and turned her head to look around her.
The bedroom door was shut. Arthur would never know.
The room's furniture surrounded her, with the sofa to the front door's right. The large television was on the wall behind her with a shelf of movies beneath it. There was a small coffee table directly on her right. It was closer to the couch to leave room for a wide walkway to the dining room area and pull double-duty as an ottoman when Arthur sat on the far couch corner to watch a movie.
On the other side of the television, on the wall behind her, the bathroom door was also closed. To her right, the table where they'd eaten the pizza was now empty. Its contents cleared with the dishes in the sink and the pizza in the fridge. The smell of it still hung in the air, but the flurry in her stomach was butterflies, not hunger.
To her left, two doors stood on the far wall. One was open and led to the 'office,' where Arthur kept his desktop, which sat on a folding table, and shelves upon shelves of books that lined every wall. She could see the music stand that Arthur used for practice out of the corner of her eye, just beyond the desk chair and facing the window.
Selene tried to stare through the closed door while she waited. Eager to know what he was gathering on the other side. She could not see it, but she knew that he must be preparing something or changing his clothes. Arthur was preparing for their first session together as Dom and sub, or Master and slave. She wasn't sure which terminology was more appropriate for what they were about to do.
She bit her bottom lip, and her right foot went to its toes as she moved her leg side to side in a gentle, twisting motion. She'd run out of things to look at while she waited.
On the other side of the door, Arthur was moving as quickly as he could. He hadn't been expecting this, and he swore that next time he would be more prepared.
He'd packed all of the gear away after Lori left, assuming that he wouldn't need it and that the drawer space would be more convenient. He would have gotten rid of it, but there was no resale value in this kind of gear despite his rigorous cleaning habits. So he'd kept it, just in case, and now he was thankful that he did.
Arthur kept the rooms in his apartment well cleaned. There was a place for everything, and everything was in its place. The closets, however, were another story entirely.
He kept a chore schedule, and though he had no roommate to share the burden, it also meant he had no roommate to contribute to the mess. So it evened out in the end. A roommate would undoubtedly be helpful, and he might have one next semester. He could only afford the rent on this place for so long without dipping into his savings, but then again: a roommate wouldn't permit him an opportunity like this one either, and he'd have no reason to dig out the trunk from beneath a pile of clothes, pull it out of the closet, and then move the pile of clothes back in again.
He thought for a moment about wheeling the trunk out into the living room, but he thought better of it. He didn't want to show Selene everything that he had tonight. It was essential to save some items for later. And there had to be some anticipation toward the unknown, some mystery.
He flipped the latches on the old-fashioned traveler's trunk and flipped the lid open. He'd cleaned and packed the gear when he'd put it all away, so it was fresh and ready to use. He'd taken the batteries out of a few toys, and those that needed charging were dead in the water. There would be no using them tonight, though he had some spare batteries in the nightstand.
He pulled his briefcase out from under his bed and opened it up. It's contents went back under the bed, for now. Then he carefully selected each item he wanted to use for tonight, pulled it out of the trunk, and placed it in the briefcase.
He did his best to slow his breathing through his nose as he did so. The conversation he'd just had with Selene in the kitchen was still causing his heart to hammer. He wanted to exude a sense of calm command, but this was the first time in a while he'd been called upon to act this way, and it was exciting.
He'd never considered Selene in the list of women to date. He assumed her tastes were far more conservative, and she wasn't his typical type. Arthur was six-foot and four inches tall, a full foot, and one inch taller than Selene. She was tiny compared to him, with slender limbs and a skinny waist. He had thick arms and broad shoulders. She was athletic from her dance training and experience. He was muscular from the gym and the sports he'd played in high school.
Besides all that, they'd both been dating other people when they'd met. Their friendship had developed naturally, and it was easy. It never occurred to him to think of her sexually until she came to him tonight, asking him to. Now, he couldn't get the idea out of his head.
He had ideas. Perhaps too many. There were competing thoughts on what would be the best scene to start her off. He'd done this once before with his ex, Lori, but their first scene had been more romantic. Lovemaking gave way to raw passion and a little play, which brought them to discussion afterward, and any attempt to roleplay into what they were doing. This situation was different. He and Selene weren't lovers; they were friends. Friends with Bondage?
He wasn't sure there was a term for it yet, but he wasn't too worried about the label. He was more concerned about his upcoming performance as her Master, and whether it would be everything she'd been anticipating, or if he would disappoint her, and bring an end to their friendship and the brief return of this beautiful thrill in his life.
He closed the briefcase and took a deep breath. He closed the trunk and tightened the latches back down on it.
He picked up the briefcase and walked out of the bedroom, back into the main room of the apartment, and failed to hold back a smirk as the sound of the door had caused Selene to snap to attention. She hadn't been facing the front door when the bedroom door opened. Her body went stiff and faced the front door as she stood in the center of the room, trying to appear as though she'd obeyed. He said nothing but walked steadily behind her as if he were going to the dining room table.
He stopped at the coffee table and set the briefcase down on it. He saw her turn her head slightly toward it, but then she righted herself again, staring at the door. He told her to face the front door before he'd left the room, but he hadn't meant it as an 'or else' order. They hadn't started yet, but he appreciated the attempt to please him. He took it as a sign that she was eager to begin, even if things weren't quite ready yet. Still, if she were feeling guilty about it, it would make as good an excuse as any to punish her.
"Still a few minutes yet. I have to get things ready." Arthur assured her.
His voice cut through the silence with more electricity than he'd intended, but its effect on her was immediate. He saw her shoulders loosen, and her height drop as she went from the balls of her feet to her soles.
He left her for a moment as he went into the dining room, turned right into the kitchen for a brief moment as he reached around the wall corner to turn off the kitchen light. Then he walked past the open divider between the kitchen and the dining area to the windows along the wall and closed the blinds. The parking lot three floors below was empty, and there wasn't much danger of someone accidentally looking in, but privacy was paramount.
He turned off the dining room light on his way back. They wouldn't be using those rooms tonight.
The living room lights dimmed when he turned the dimmer switch a quarter turn back from its full brightness. It gave them both enough light to see by but softened the room considerably. After a brief stop at the thermostat to adjust for impending clothing cover changes, he stood in front of Selene.
"Are you ready?" Arthur asked.
Selene looked up to his eyes when he spoke, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she answered. "Yes, sir."
"Good," Arthur said as he returned her smile. "Would you mind kneeling? And face the coffee table."
She looked at him for a moment and then knelt. She had to move her skirt slightly out of the way. It was wavy and ankle-length, a faded brown that matched her favorite old sweater. She'd paired it with an old black t-shirt he'd seen her in many times before. Though, he'd never noticed the way it clung to her sides before.
"We haven't started yet." Arthur clarified as he walked past her.
Selene looked up to watch him as he moved. Her eyebrow hitched up a step to show her curiosity at what he was doing. Her knees faced the door, and her head faced him as he moved to her left.
He walked past her and into the office for a moment. He picked something up, closed the office door behind him, and walked past her once more, going behind her. Her head swiveled to follow him as he set a scented candle down, fetched the lighter from the kitchen, lit the candle, and came back into the living room.
"Is that for what I think it's for?" Selene asked.
Arthur looked at her and smiled as he shook his head. "No. We'll get to wax play eventually, but for tonight this is simply because pizza grease doesn't smell sexy." He turned the label toward her, though she couldn't read it from where she was sitting. The singed smell of a wick flickered through the air and swept away the smell of the pizza, and replaced it with a woody smell mingled with vanilla.
With the candlelit, Arthur came closer and stopped at the far side of the coffee table. He bent down to open the briefcase and opened it with its back toward her so that she couldn't see inside of it. One at a time, he pulled the pieces for tonight out of the briefcase and laid them on the coffee table in plain sight as she watched.
