With one last happy sigh, I roll off the bed and head for the living room where I’d ditched my suitcase, and pulled it back into the bedroom. Looking around the apartment with a critical eye, I can’t help mentally patting myself on the back for thinking ahead. I had just known that he’d think that glass and chrome were some sort of decorating style. What is up with bachelors thinking that “black” is a color you can decorate with? Hadn’t they heard that pink was the new black?

Well, no fear – I am here. I can get this apartment in shape in no time. 

Victor, who had been lounging in bed, watching my every move from his spot on the bed, starts to watch a little closer when he sees me pulling out my wares – large swathes of pink gauze with tiny sparkles in it that catches the light and makes the room light up with sunlight and warmth. It can warm up any space, even this tribute to black and chrome that Victor has going on.

“Wait – what are you doing?” he asks, jackknifing into a sitting position. “What is all of that shit?”

“The new decor here,” I say, pulling armfuls of the stuff out of my suitcase. I wander over to the window that overlooks the city and look down at the street below. Very New York…very industrial. Very not-me-at-all.

I start spiraling the gauzy fabric over everything – over the window, down the side, over the awful industrial-style desk in the corner, and up the side of the dresser.

“Vivian, you can’t—”

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I think you should call me Kitten,” I interrupt, standing back to judge the effect better. I adjust some folds in the gauze. “In all of the naughty books out there, the dom always has a nickname for their slave that is better than ‘slave.’ I’ve been thinking about it and decided that Kitten was a good name.”

I wait for him to congratulate me on spending the time and energy to research this kind of thing, but instead, he just makes these strange sputtering noises. 

Huh. 

I ignore that for a minute to dive back into my bag and pull out my pièce de résistance – a purple and pink fairy with gold-tipped wings. I put that on the corner of the desk, moving it so it’s facing in towards the center. “Now it can watch over everything that you do, and make sure that you’re doing it right,” I explain. That fairy was how I passed statistics in college. It is a good luck charm that I don’t share lightly.

He should feel very lucky that I brought it over here. I wait impatiently for him to say thank you, but he doesn’t say anything at all, so I head to my suitcase to see what else I need to unpack. Oh, right! Toiletries. I carry armloads into the bathroom and begin arranging it on the counter.

My stomach rumbles as I work, and I realize I haven’t eaten in hours.

“So as your sex kitten, what do you have to feed me?” I ask, pulling my clothes and shoes out of my bag and putting them into the closet. I had to rearrange his clothes a bit to fit it all in, but I know he doesn’t mind. A sex kitten needs to have space to put all of her lingerie, you know.

I have done so much research on BDSM relationships in the last day, I feel like I could practically give a class on it at this point. Something Victor hasn’t thanked me for yet, but soon, I’m sure.

“Food? I usually just go to the club to eat dinner.”

I send him A Look and say, “Yes, that’s fine, but what about on nights when you don’t want to go out?”

He does this really adorable impersonation of a fish, but nothing comes out. I sigh.

“Listen, as your sex kitten, I do need food. I’m wanting Chinese. Let me write it all down for you so you can make sure to get it right. Over time, I’m sure you’ll get my needs memorized, but right now, I’ll help you along.” I search through his horrendous industrial style desk for a pad of paper and a pen and then scribble my order down. I add a little heart in the lower right-hand corner with an arrow through it for extra “oomph.” He’s going to love that part.

“Here you go. See you soon?” I ask sweetly, crawling over the bed and planting a kiss on his lips. I roll off the edge of the bed quickly and head to the living room. It is exhausting to become someone’s sex kitten; I need a little downtime to relax. I flick the TV on. I’m sure TMZ has something fun to watch.