Safeword: Matte Read online

  Tom answered with, “Well, sure. We can do that. I've already got plans to eat with friends, but we hadn't decided where yet, so we can all head there.”

  Ethan looked right at Sam and then back at Tom. “Glad to hear it, the more the merrier.”

  Son-of-a-bitch. The jerk wasn't going to take no for an answer, was he? But, come to think of it, she hadn't given him an actual “no” yet, she'd just beat around the bush. Well then, she'd have to fix that, and dinner sounded like as good a time as any.

  She started to give Tom a hug but saw the dried blood on him and changed her mind, saying, “It looks like Ethan got a shower while you had your picture taken –why don't you grab a shower and then let Francisco check you over, since I'm sure you wouldn't let the event people do anything.”

  Tom grinned. “You know me too well. Okay, see you in a few minutes.”

  When he was gone Randy, who had been backstage the whole time, said, “Sam, did you drive?”

  “Cassie picked me up at home and we picked Francisco up at the dojo. You drove Tom, right?”

  “Yeah, my girlfriend will be meeting us when we eat.” He shifted his view to look at Cassie. “Are you okay to take Tom home after we eat?”

  Cassie glanced at Sam then looked at Randy. “Sure, what's her name?”

  “Her name’s Kate, and don't worry, Sam and I have talked and we're good.”

  “Yes, Sam is always good, but that doesn’t mean I don't still feel the need to check on her. If she did decide you were an asshole and you needed to pay, we'd all be visiting you in the hospital.”

  Francisco laughed. “You got that right. Tom's the only one of us who can kick her ass on a regular basis.”

  Sam really wished Ethan weren't standing there hearing this conversation. “I'll have you know, Randy actually did manage to win when we sparred Thursday night. I'd have owed him drinks if he hadn't had a hot date. Like he said, we're good. You got a date coming too, Francisco? How come we never meet any of your girlfriends?”

  Francisco gave his famous Romeo smile, the one that let you know he was a player and wasn't ashamed of it. “My girls know me as a lover, not a fighter.”

  Cassie spoke up. “He just doesn't let them get close to him, they only know what he wants them to know, which isn't much. But we aren't here to psychoanalyze poor Francisco. What about you Ethan, you got a girlfriend?”

  Ethan smiled. “Nope, I was kind of hoping I might talk Sam into being my date for the evening, but with this cut over my eye and what I'm sure is destined to be a black eye, I'm not hopeful of my chances.”

  Sam narrowed her eyes at him, then changed her mind and decided to be pleasant. “I'm not really up for the dating thing at the moment, but it was sweet of you to ask. You're good in the ring. Where do you work out? I haven't seen you around.”

  “I've only been in Chattanooga a few months; haven't found a place to call home yet.” He named a few places he'd tried and Tom came out behind him, clean and in street clothes, saying, “I own a dojo out near Hamilton Place, though it's a bit off the beaten path, not in the midst of the chaos of the mall. You're welcome to come try us out, see what you think. You want someone to spar with, talk to Sam, she's the one who told me how to beat you.”

  Ethan's face grew into a slow grin as he took his time turning his head back to look at her. “Did she now? Give me a week to heal and I'll have to set up a time to come in and check things out. I drove myself, if anyone needs a ride.”

  Sam glared at Cassie, but she knew what Cassie the matchmaker was going to say before she opened her mouth. “Sam rode with me, but we've got three people so she may as well ride with you.”

  Sure, no problem, it would give her a chance to tell him to back off without an audience and allow him to keep his dignity.

  * * * *

  By the time they walked out of the building most of the spectators were gone, so they walked out pretty much by themselves since the rest of the group had parked on the other side of the building.

  “I know your friends kind of cornered you into this, and I'm sorry about that. I'd rather you were here because you want to be. Anything I can do to make this easier for you?”

  Sam took a breath and then worked to let it out without sounding exasperated. “Look, you seem like a really nice guy, but I meant what I said – I'm not looking for a boyfriend, not looking for a guy to have fun with, I've taken myself off the market.”

  “Can I ask what’s made you reach this decision?”

  She glanced at him then looked back in the direction they were walking. “You're in sales, right?”

  “No, and I'm sorry if I've done anything to give you that opinion of me. I thought it was an acceptable question. You're an attractive woman who seems to have a nice head on her shoulders, and you’re apparently disciplined enough of a fighter to have the respect of someone who kicked my ass. I'm just wondering what would make you reach a decision to stay unattached.”

  Well, when he put it that way... but her decision wasn't to remain unattached, she just wasn't going to shop from the general public anymore. But how in the hell could she tell him that? And did she owe him an explanation? He was being nice, and generally speaking she believed in treating nice with nice. So yeah, she probably did owe him some kind of explanation, something at least in the realm of truthful.

  “It's kind of hard to explain. It isn’t so much I've decided I'm not looking for a boyfriend at all, but I'm not going to date guys in the fight scene anymore, and since that's pretty much the only place I meet men right now… Crap. Yeah, I guess it does mean I'm planning to stay unattached. Gee, thanks for pointing that out, perhaps I need to find a Plan B at some point. But not today, and not this week. Randy is a good friend, and we almost screwed our friendship up by dating. We're good now, but he's still a bit weird about some things and I don't like him feeling uncomfortable around me.”

  “So did I mess up my chance with you by saying I'd try out your dojo? If you just don't want to date guys at the dojo I can stay away.”

  She shook her head and watched where she was walking, not looking at him.

  He looked at her thoughtfully as he walked. “No, that's not it. There's more you aren't telling me, isn't there?”

  She was mesmerized by his voice, such gentle strength in such a deep baritone. She couldn’t quite figure out his ethnicity and didn't want to be rude and ask as it wasn't any of her business. He had the most beautiful skin — it looked like he had a deep golden tan, but she'd bet money it was his natural skin tone without a tan.

  “Yes, there's more. And no, I don't want to talk about it. What brought you to Chattanooga?”

  “Here's my truck, let me get the door for you.”

  It was a nice truck, as trucks tend to go. Black and shiny and clean with a lockbox in the back. The interior wasn't the luxury model but wasn't the base model either. She let him get the door and waited for him to get in before saying, “My turn to ask something twice –what brought you to Chattanooga?”

  He started the truck and put it into drive. “Work. You've lived here your whole life?”

  “Whoa, why don't you want to tell me why you’re here? I told you more than I thought was your business to know, your turn to share.”

  He was quiet a moment and said, “Okay, I'll tell you. Most of the time I tell people I work for a moving company and the company opened up a new branch here. Sometimes I let them believe I'm just the muscle, someone who moves the furniture around, sometimes I let them believe I'm some sort of manager. Fact is, I own the company. Five locations in the Atlanta area and I wanted to expand and decided Chattanooga was the right market. So here I am, getting it up and running and, on the days I don't need to run the place, I can still go out and be the muscle. Helps me stay in shape. I rarely tell people I'm the owner though, it's better if they just think I'm brainless muscle.”

  “And you told me the truth because...”

  “Because I like you, and because you don't seem like the kin
d of woman who’d date someone for his money. And because I want to be honest with you from the get-go.”

  “That's important to you, people liking you for you and not your money?”

  He nodded.

  The bitch of it was she really did feel a strong attraction to him. But after the fiasco with Randy, she wasn’t dating anyone else unless they were already in the scene. “You're a nice guy Ethan, but I'm really and truly not interested in going out with you. Don't take it personally; if I were interested in going out with someone from this part of my life you'd be at the top of my list. So let's agree I'll cut up with you, and I'll be nice to you, but please don't expect more than that. Okay?”

  He gave her a sideways glance before looking back at the road. “Okay. Deal. I'll back off for now, but I'm not promising to back off forever.”

  True to his word, he was a gentleman during dinner and helped her ignore her friends' attempts at matchmaking. They tried to have him drive her home, but he begged off, saying he needed to go into the office and take care of some paperwork tonight so he could sleep in the next morning because he was sure he would wake up feeling as if he'd been run over by a truck.

  * * * *

  Sam didn't see Ethan for a week and a half, when he came to the dojo for a late Thursday class. Everyone in the class was a blackbelt in more than one form of martial arts and had been for a while, so there was very little learning involved, just staying in top shape and keeping their reflexes sharp. Tom set them up with a series of fifteen moves and they did those fifteen moves in slow motion for about ten minutes nonstop, one after the other, cycling through them along with Tom. She'd talked to Tom earlier in the week and he followed her wishes, keeping her away from Ethan and not assigning them as sparring partners when the sparring started. When Ethan went into the locker room at the end she grabbed her stuff and left without showering, figuring she could shower at home. The last thing she wanted was for him to have a chance to ask her out for drinks.

  Chapter Three

  “Viv, you're sure about this?”

  “Of course I'm sure. You’re not a third wheel with us. We're an old married couple and it's nice having you around. The setup at this house requires clothing to be worn upstairs because there are these huge picture windows all over the house. Clothing is optional downstairs in the dungeon. The couple hosting the party prefers the upstairs be more of a munch atmosphere, where it's laid back and people can talk, and the downstairs be for scenes and stuff, with minimal conversation. We'll hang out upstairs with you for a while and talk to people. When Tyler takes me down, you can either stay upstairs and talk or come downstairs to watch. Tyler will make sure you feel comfortable talking to the people upstairs before he drags me off to beat me.”

  “Ya'll don't have to do that, I'll be fine. I exchanged a few emails with Peggy and she explained the house rules, which seem very well thought out. I was impressed and I think I'm going to like her. I've been driving to Nashville for all things scene related because I was worried it would be detrimental to my career if people found out I was submissive. However, if I'm ever going to find someone to have a long term relationship with, I'm going to have to explore the local scene. I'm still really paranoid I'll run into a client or another attorney, though.”

  Tyler chuckled. “No biggie, they won't be there unless they’re into it, too. You'll both have something on each other.”

  She shook her head. “No, Tyler, that's not quite the way it works. Think of it this way. You work in security – what if you were a submissive, and someone you work with was there as a Dom. Would it make you uncomfortable for them to see you in a submissive position to someone else? I'm an attorney; we eat each other for sport, and not the fun kind of eating. It's a dominance game. If one of them learns I'm submissive they won't respect me as much.”

  “I don't know, I think the attorney and the National Kung Fu Champion thing might tend to make them wary. Besides, you're only submissive sexually, and since you won't be having sex with them, you aren't submissive to them. It’ll be okay, Sam. I doubt you'll run into anyone you know here as it will be a party of less than thirty people, but even if you do, things will work out.”

  Hmm, she didn't remember volunteering that information to either Viv or Tyler. But she and Viv had been friends a while, maybe it had come up. “I won the title six years ago, I don't think it still gives me street cred.”

  “You've earned two black belts since then though, right? In other disciplines? Means you're more of a bad-ass now than you were back then.”

  Okay, she knew she hadn't volunteered that, she never talked to anyone about the number of black belts she had. It sounded too much like bragging, which wasn’t her style.

  She narrowed her eyes, looking at him through the rearview mirror while he drove. “I don't recall telling you or Viv about my black belts as I’ve acquired them.”

  He smiled and shrugged his shoulders, not in the least embarrassed. “I'm trained to identify people who’ve had advanced fight training by watching them walk and move. When my wife makes friends with someone I think looks lethal, I check their background. The good news is you checked out, though. But while we’re on the subject of martial arts, the house word is red. If you play with someone you can tell them your safeword is matte, but if you want to be sure the dungeon master pays attention, you’ll need to use the house word.”

  Vivian looked over her shoulder at Sam and said, “Matte? What does it mean?”

  “It’s mainly used in Judo, though a few of the other Japanese martial arts forms use it. It’s the Japanese word for stop or wait. Tyler is pronouncing it right, mah-tay. In the south you hear it pronounced all kinds of ways, so it’s always best to double-check with whoever you’re fighting or sparring ahead of time to be sure you both say it the same way. Our dojo uses it as the house word, so it’s natural for me to use it to stop a scene, too.”

  * * * *

  When they arrived, Tyler parked on the street, saying he wasn’t parking around back because he didn't want to get blocked in. There were only a few cars out front, so Sam assumed most people had parked in the back. The house was huge, and Sam saw why the instructions were to be clothed in vanilla clothing while upstairs. Looking through the front window she saw more than a dozen people in the front room, some of them around a beautiful grand piano, others seated on sofas, and others standing around talking. Tyler rang the doorbell and they were greeted by a dazzling woman who looked as if she stepped off of a fifties television set – pearls and all.

  “Tyler, Vivian! Oh, and you must be Samantha! Please come in and I'll introduce you to the crowd and then leave it up to them to introduce themselves to you.”

  They followed her in and Peggy said, “Everyone, for those who don't know them, this is Tyler and Viv. They've brought a friend, just a friend, she's not attached to them, I understand. Her name is Samantha. She's not new to the scene, those of you who spend time in Nashville may already know her. But she is new to the Chattanooga scene, so everyone please introduce yourself to her.”

  “Sam. She goes by Sam, not Samantha.”

  Sam looked up, startled to hear that voice here. Ethan. Her heart dropped into her feet as she watched him walk across the room and stop when he was standing in front of her, towering over her. In her space.

  He touched her cheek, running a single finger gently across her cheek and then pushing her hair back over her shoulder.

  Speaking softly, so Tyler and Viv were probably the only others in the room who could hear, he said, “This is why you aren't interested in men from the fight scene anymore? You're only interested in men in the kink scene now. Is that it?”

  Sam felt herself nodding before she realized she was going to. Mesmerized by his eyes, his face, his mere presence, a wall of muscle towering above her. And his sexy voice that did something to her deep inside.

  He gave a languid half smile. “I’d kiss you now, but Peggy would have my balls for doing it in front of the window where th
e neighbors might see. Can we go to the den and talk?”

  Tyler spoke from her side. “You good with this, Sam?”

  Taking a few seconds longer to answer than she should, Sam finally found her voice, speaking quickly to try to cover for being momentarily speechless. “Yes. Tyler, Viv, this is Ethan. Ethan, my friends Tyler and Viv.”

  Viv sounded incredulous. “Ethan, from the cage fight thing? That Ethan?”

  Tyler extended a hand. “Nice to meet you Ethan. Sam came with me and my wife, so I feel a bit of responsibility towards her, though she’s more than capable of taking care of herself. Still, you should know she's got someone looking after her.”

  Ethan shook his hand and said, “Nice to meet you, too. I won't do anything out of line, and I think you just answered my final question. When she first walked in I was terrified she might turn out to be a Domme, but I believe you just confirmed to me that’s not the case.” He turned his head back to look at Sam again. “Will you go to the den with me where we can talk? It's upstairs, not downstairs. It's just been set aside for one-on-one conversation that can include kissing.”

  Sam managed to surface back into herself while Ethan and Tyler were talking, so she said, “Let me meet some of the people out here first, so I don't seem rude, and then maybe we can hang out and talk for a while before slinking off to a dark corner?”

  He looked at her a second before smiling and saying, “Of course, how rude of me to want to just whisk you off. “

  They spent the next thirty minutes or so talking to people and being sociable. Peggy had requested everyone dress vanilla as they would for a casual summer daytime party, and that’s what it looked like, if you couldn’t hear the conversation. Sam had worn khaki crop pants and a clingy black shirt with black strappy flat sandals. Ethan was wearing pleated black twill shorts and a khaki colored button up shirt, so the two of them matched, sort of.