[Author's note: this story loosely follows on from
Closed System
, if you'd like the background.]
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ADAM'S DEFINITION OF DATE NIGHT
I do the rounds of the club. The crowd is pretty quiet, since it's still early. Tonight, there are no new faces who had wandered in fresh from the street with that curious bug-eyed look and the adrenaline kicking in from having finally, finally got up the nerve to go to a kink club. Kiko's here, with her husband in tow, booked into the playrooms upstairs later. We'd exchanged words as they arrived and then Kiko had led her husband over to a booth, wiggling in a tight little black leather dress in front of him, showing off her bottom. That bottom is going to be a lot more circumspect after the visit upstairs. She won't be sitting down for the rest of the night.
I slide into Adam's booth.
"Done with your perimeter sweep?" he asks.
He's watching me with a little smile; it lights up his otherwise unremarkable features. Adam is fairly nondescript from that point of view: rangy and lean, but pleasantly well-built underneath his shirt, still way taller than me even in my highest heels. There's something about Adam, something I haven't yet cracked, which is an admission from a person who reads people for a living. In my line of work, you need to get a bead on your target pretty quickly or shit is liable to go sideways, and instead of employing the interview skills you're having to reach for the combat training. It's a hard job, but I wouldn't switch it for the world. It also means I need the downtime of coming to the Lost and Found on a night and just putting some distance between the person I am here and the woman who carries the badge.
Adam is a curious case. I've sometimes seen him possessed of a strange, feral energy, or lost in concentration, even in the middle of a scene, but just now he's relaxed and smiling. I like the way that his eyes dart down to my knees as I cross my legs in my little black dress. Despite his reputation for control, he can't help himself. But that's my intention. If you've got it, flaunt it: a girl needs all her options.
"Perimeter secured, all good," I reply.
"Never off duty, Eve?"
"No such thing as off duty. Perps everywhere, gotta stay sharp."
"Not armed tonight, though."
I lean forward, cupping my chin in my hand. "Oh Adam, how do you know?"
His eyes crinkle into a smile. "That dress is way too tight to conceal."
"I've still got a deadly weapon."
Adam's gaze holds mine for a moment, then he rocks back in his seat, laughing.
"Oh, yeah, let me guess. Geez, Eve. Too corny, way too corny."
I laugh too, then hold my finger up. "Okay, scratch that line. How about this?"
I lean forward again, giving him my best lingering look, and say, "You'll find out soon enough, when you're on your knees, begging for mercy."
Adam shakes his head.
"Yeah," I acknowledge, "Bit forced, off the cuff."
"But what do you really say?"
I shrug. "Uh, I tell them their rights. Because I'm dealing with actual criminals, and I'm not in a tiny dress."
"But admit it, it still gives you a bit of a thrill when you slide the handcuffs on."
"You really think I'm like that? At work?"
"I don't know. I only know what you're like out of work."
"Recreational restraining is a whole lot different."
"You've worked yourself up, though, haven't you?"
"A bit. Maybe."
"There's some in the box under the bar."
"For you or for me?"
"Lady's choice."
I look at him for a moment, then pick up my drink, taking a sip. Adam's smiling at me now, and I can tell he's ready to play.
"Maybe just sit here and have a drink, for a bit," I reply, "Wind down some more."
"Bad day?"
"Yeah, pretty heavy. Glad to be out of it and sitting here."
"In general, or with me, specifically?"
I can't tell if Adam's baiting me. Like I said, he's excruciatingly difficult to read. I mean, I've been on the body language courses, and I've dealt with a lot of characters in my day job, but Adam's always been that enigma. Unless he does what he's doing now, opening up a crack, it's often impossible to know what he's thinking, where the playing stops and the real feelings begin. I'm the polar opposite, but I suspect he knows that and he's compensating. Right now, it's the look in his eyes that tells me something, and despite the banter, I feel a little flutter in my chest.
"With you, specifically," I reply, watching for his reaction, seeing if he's going to let anything slip.
Adam interlaces his fingers on the table. "Me too," he says, as if it's a confession.
I'm curious as to what he's going to do, so I hold back, letting him fill the silence. There's something on his mind. His fingers begin to fidget nervously with his drink; he looks directly at me.
"I was thinking," he begins, tentatively, "Whether you might want to do date night?"
I can see it's a big deal to him, and I'm shocked. Adam's famously robust composure has cracked, just a little.
"Are you asking me on a date?" I ask.
Adam looks startled, suddenly unsure of how to take my reaction. I know it's cruel, but I leave him dangling as I wait for him to continue. The ensuing silence is excruciating. He shuffles in his seat.
"Yes."
I can't explain why, but there's a quivering sensation in my stomach. I want to play it straight with him, but bantering is our thing. Reflexively, I fall back to it. I can't help myself.
"So, after tying me up, stripping me naked, delivering me multiple orgasms, some of which were in public with an audience, letting me stew on a rack in front of strangers, asking me to cuff you and then do, uh, that thing?"
My eyes go wide.
"Now you want to actually date me?"
Adam looks mortified. I'm really trying to hold it back now, the tiniest slip would explode it all.
"I don't even know your real name," I finish.
I'm proud that I deliver the line without breaking into a grin, but to my shock, his head slumps and I realise I've crossed a line somehow. It's true, I don't know Adam's real name. He knows I'm Ava Choudhry, he knows where in India my parents emigrated from, he knows I have a deaf father for whom I've become fluent in sign language. He knows I have a badge and a really fucking serious job. He knows a lot about me because I've told him.