I grin at Sam and Ari, who are sitting on the low rock wall that rings Fettered’s yard and waving at me. Sam’s dressed in something that only three people in Seattle would be brave enough to wear outside in daylight. I scan it with a professional eye as I approach. He might be a scantily clad harem boy, but whoever made his outfit does quality work.

I kiss his cheek, because it only took ten seconds last night to know he’s one of my people. “Nice costume. Who made it?”

Ari laughs. “Hold that thought and let’s go around back. Harlan and Emily are waiting, and they’ll be mad if we don’t share you.”

She leads the way to a small side garden, set up with a beautiful wrought-iron table that looks like Emily’s had her way with it. I smile at the wedding planner who has sent more referrals my way than I can count. She’s currently sitting at the table sipping tea in a bright sundress, looking like the last person I’d expect to find at a sex club.

One of last night’s happiest surprises. I smile and take the vacant chair beside Harlan. Emily pours me a cup of tea.

The big Dom scowls and picks up a cookie. “I don’t know why I’m here.”

I lean over and kiss his cheek too. “Because you’re my best customer and I want to keep it that way.”

He turns bright red, to the delight of everyone else at the table.

Sam snickers and winks at me. “I knew I liked you.” He breaks a cookie and hands me half. “So what do you need to know to make us pretty, sexy things, sugar?”

I’ve done a lot of thinking about that. Insomnia is good for business planning. “I’d like to work on a list of basic design principles—elements that you think are essential to everything, and options you’d like to have. In particular, I’d like to know where vanilla lingerie is letting you down.”

Harlan scowls. “It doesn’t come off.”

Emily pats his arm. “It does if you take it off before you tie your sub up, sweetie.”

He growls at a tea cup that doesn’t look at all scared of him. “I like her tied up.”

A clear and obvious need, and one he’s never said a word about in all his trips to my store. I relax. This is just like theater costumes. They know what they need—I just have to ask the right questions. I pull several simple pairs of lacy underwear out of my bag and lay them out on the table. “Let’s say we’re trying to modify something simple like this. Ties on the side? Hooks?”

Harlan’s scowl vanishes, replaced with interest instead. “Ties can be dangerous. Dangly bits don’t play nicely with impact toys.”

Emily leans forward, fingering the lace. “Ties could be uncomfortable, too. What about a bra fastener, but on the sides?” She grins at Harlan. “Doms are good at undoing those one-handed.”

He rolls his eyes, but doesn’t disagree.

I jot down ideas on my tablet and pull out a lace-up corset and lay that on the table. “Sticking with the theme of a restrained sub for a minute, what would you want to be able to undo on this?” I put my wrists together. “I saw a couple of restraint positions last night, so I’m already thinking about how to make the straps detachable.”

Sam picks up the corset, holds it up in front of his chest, and tosses it to Ari. “Not my size. Why don’t you put it on and we can show her some of the positions we end up in?”

Ari promptly peels off her top and bra, talking as she goes. “It would be great if the straps could detach front or back. There are lots of restraint options where one or the other isn’t easy to reach.”

I’m managing to wrap my head around a serious business conversation with half-dressed people. Almost. Even theater people aren’t quite this casual about their naked bits. “Can you show me a couple of tangible examples?”

Harlan reaches out, grabs Ari’s wrists, and pulls her over his lap. Which, even corset half on, nicely demonstrates the strap-access issues they were just talking about.

Ari laughs and wiggles her ass in the air.

Emily’s cheeks turn pink as she smiles at me. “That would be the one I’m usually in.”

I’ve known Emily for over ten years, mostly in a casual professional sense. In one sentence, she’s just invited me to join something deeper and a lot more fun. “Do you want me to make your underwear easier or harder to take off?”

She laughs. “I’m the sub. I don’t get a vote.”

I may not know her that well, but she has an impeccable reputation, and you don’t get one of those in wedding circles in this town if you let anyone push you around. Which means she’s choosing this.

“Mmm.” Sam’s hum is low and fascinated, and it’s me he’s looking at. “There’s a question running around in that head of yours, sugar. Out with it.”

There is, and the very self-confident people at this table would be the right ones to ask. “I’m not sure it’s relevant to designing lingerie.”

He just snorts and takes a sip of his neon-pink drink.

Ari grins. “It’s pretty hard for a newbie to cross lines in this place just by asking questions.” She runs her hands down the corset she’s wearing. “And we want you to get really comfortable and stay, because this is the nicest thing I’ve ever worn and I want more of them.”

I smile at her, because she’s irresistible. “You can keep that one. I’ll want all of you to test-drive samples for me, so if I could leave here with some measurements, that will keep my designers from beating on me.”

Sam laughs and winks. “Maybe you should let them—you might like it.”

I roll my eyes at him and try not to let my cheeks turn as pink as Emily’s.

Harlan is watching me with eyes that have zero sexual intent but are peering into my soul anyhow. “You want to know why Emily’s a sub. Why she’s okay with not getting a vote.”

I can feel my eyes popping.

Sam pats my arm. “The best Doms like us to think they’re psychic, but really, Harlan’s just good at watching and listening. And we were all there last night when you made Eli fumble his notes. You have history with a man who’s a Dom now. Of course you’re curious.”

Harlan growls. “You’re supposed to ask before you strip somebody naked, Sam.”

I give the big Dom a stern look, the one I keep on reserve for mothers who step too far out of line. “I’m more than capable of handling a friend saying what we all know is true.”

His eyebrows fly up.

Ari snickers. “I do like you, Chloe.”

Sam cuddles into my side. “Are you going to save me from the big, bad Dom, sweetie?”

I can feel my abrupt stillness. I’m suddenly in a play with lines I don’t know, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Emily shakes her head. “Stop messing with her, you guys.” She looks at me, her eyes full of empathy. “It’s hard to be new here. They’re doing a terrible job of communicating, but they’re doing what they do with all new people and giving you some easy, tangible ways to see if various aspects of kink appeal to you.”

Someone is finally making sense. I flash her a grateful smile.

She smiles back. “You don’t have an obvious submissive vibe, but some people don’t.”

I raise an eyebrow at Sam and Ari. They’re the least obviously submissive people I can imagine.

Emily laughs. “Exactly.”

I nod. “So I don’t look like a submissive, but Harlan growled at me to see what would happen?”

“Growled at you and chastised Sam.” Ari leans forward. “And you calmly told him to quit interfering. Which is what a Domme would do—a female top. Or a switch like me when we’re choosing to play that role.”

I’m a little annoyed at being a rat in a maze without them asking first, but I’m also fascinated. “What would a submissive have done?”

Harlan growls again and Ari’s entire body language shifts. She orients to face him, eyes down, every line of her body expressing concern and compliance.

I can feel my body reacting. No. Just no.

Harlan growls again, this time at Emily. I can see her surprise. She doesn’t change her posture like Ari did, but her entire attention focuses on the big man with the tats.

He smiles and touches her cheek. “Sorry, Em. Sometimes I forget how new you are.”

Then he growls at Sam, and this time I can feel it, low and heavy, all the way down my spine.

Sam grins, scoots over, and plunks down in his lap, curling up like a sexy kitten. “I’m sorry, Sir. I think I need to be punished.”

Harlan rolls his eyes. “Off my lap, Sam.”

Sam cuddles in tighter. “But it’s my warm, happy place, Sir.”

“Off, or I’ll tell Leo to lock up all your costumes for a decade.”

I put the pieces together as Sam nonchalantly hops off and takes a seat back on his chair. I know theater when I see it. Other than Emily, who got surprised into being mostly herself, I just watched a very nice performance put on for my benefit. “You’re telling me that submission doesn’t look the same for everybody.”

Ari beams at me. “Exactly.”

“Eli already tried this with you.” Harlan doesn’t frame it as a question.

I nod. “I asked him to, but I don’t think we got any answers.”

He looks unconcerned. “Sometimes it takes a while to know. You might be a sub, or a Domme, or a switch like Ari here, or none of the above.”

Not all of those possibilities fit with who Eli has become.

Emily leans forward, her eyes full of sympathy. “Give it time. You’re doing a really good thing by being curious. You don’t need to rush it.”

I wish I agreed with her, but I can hear the low, haunting notes of a cello flowing out the open window behind her. It’s calling to me—and the music is already building its crescendo.