Safeword: Mayday by Candace Blevins
Chapter 14
Heather lined up with the runway of the New Orleans airport in the pouring rain. Her body was always calm and on alert during takeoffs and landings, and today was no different. Visibility sucked so she was landing purely by instruments, and it was only in the final few seconds she took in the rush of the ground coming up to meet the plane. The wheels touched at the perfect angle, and she brought them in for a beautiful landing on an ugly, stormy day.
The contractors offered to let her come with them and tour the jobsite to see what they were building, but she declined, telling them she had some reading to get caught up on.
She was flying their company plane today — a nice cushy ride she loved piloting, and the recliners in the passenger compartment would be the perfect spot to curl up with a good book while mother nature stormed all around her.
Once they were all off the plane, Heather sent a quick text to Kyle letting him know she was on the ground safely, she went through the refueling process, parked, grabbed her snacks and something to drink, walked back to one of the passenger recliners, and settled in with one of the fiction books.
Marcus had given her three books. Actual paper books. He’d said one was Fem Domme and male sub, one was Male Dom and fem sub, and one was a gay couple consisting of Male Dom and male sub. He felt she might better be able to define the emotions of a D/s relationship without confusing gender by reading the one with the gay couple. Still, she decided to read the Fem Domme one first, because she wanted to learn how to give Kyle what he needed.
She finished the first book in just under two hours and sat to think about the characters. The man hadn’t been a weakling, and had actually been kind of a protector. The book had given her a sense of what motivated a submissive, and she felt she had a good idea of what Kyle needed.
No, that wasn’t right. Marcus had said each submissive has different needs, so maybe she just had an idea of what this particular fictional submissive wanted. Needed. Whatever. She got up to stretch her legs, and grabbed her sandwich.
After some deliberation, Heather reached for the fem sub book next. She had a harder time reading this one, since her mind wanted her to identify with the woman in the story, but she couldn’t relate. Something she’d noted in both books though, was that the Dom had spent time submitting, so they’d be a better Dom. The first book, the woman had subbed under a man as kind of an apprentice program. In the second book the man had bottomed under a woman, but hadn’t submitted to her.
When she finished the second book she went straight to the third, and immediately became so engrossed in the story she didn’t note the passage of time. This novel was an emotional love story, with two people who had to make sacrifices in order to be with the person they loved. One person happened to be Dom, the other happened to be sub. In the end, the Dom had to trust in the sub just as much as the other way around. This book also had a theme of the Dom having to submit to someone, in this case he wanted to join an exclusive club and he had to submit to three men and be approved by them, as well as show knowledge of various safety issues, before he could be eligible to be a Master at this club.
Heather put all three books back into the bag and stowed it up front. It was creeping up on three o’clock and her passengers might call or text her any minute to let her know they were on the way back, but she wanted to talk to someone. She couldn’t talk to Marcus or Kyle because they’d be with patients.
But she could talk to Eric, couldn’t she? He’d make an excellent sounding board. She decided against calling him right then, since she didn’t know for sure she had enough time for a full conversation, but she’d call him later. She’d emailed him the info to send to his uncle the night before, and perhaps his reply would give her an excuse to call him.
Her phone rang while she was wondering if she needed to submit to Marcus to learn how to dominate Kyle. It was her passengers, letting her know they were running later than expected but would be leaving for the airport soon.
She sent a text message to Kyle while she was thinking of it, letting him know she was still on the ground in New Orleans and it may be thirty minutes to an hour later than planned before they got away from the airport. She had to remember how worried he could get when she arrived at the airport later than expected — it was his most annoying personality quirk, but since it also meant he cared about her, she was willing to indulge him.
* * * *
It was nearly six o’clock before Heather dealt with handing the plane back to the Chattanooga hangar staff and filed the necessary forms. She’d texted Kyle once she was safe on the ground so he wouldn’t worry, and he’d texted her back that he’d meet her somewhere for dinner, but she wasn’t up to seeing anyone.
She called him when she was finally pulling out of the hangar’s parking area. “Would it be okay if I got a rain check on dinner? I’d really like to just go home, take a hot bath, and crash. I haven’t done much of anything today — flew to New Orleans, read some books, flew back — but I’m wiped.”
He was quiet long enough the silence was a little uncomfortable, but finally said, “Of course. I had three surgeries this morning and then spent the afternoon doing in-office procedures, so I could probably use an evening of vegging out, too. If you want to talk later, you know how to reach me.”
“What’s your schedule like tomorrow?”
“No surgeries tomorrow, just office visits, and my last appointment is at four thirty, so I should be out of there by six. Would you like to come for dinner and stay the night tomorrow night?”
“That sounds nice. We’ll both have to be up early Wednesday, so we’ll need to make it an early night.”
“I love you, Babe. Get lots of rest tonight so you’ll feel better tomorrow.”
“I love you, too. See you tomorrow evening.”
She used the steering wheel button to end the call, and turned the music to something faster for the rest of the drive home.
Could she submit to Marcus? She didn’t feel anything like the submissives in the books. She didn’t want to get on her knees for him.
* * * *
Heather was in bed eating potato chips and dip, checking her email, when her phone rang. The caller ID showed Marcus. He’d texted her several times while they were planning the tandem hang-glide, but had never called her.
“Hello?”
“You blew Kyle off tonight.”
Shit, was she going to have to answer to two people now? She tried hard not to sigh out loud, or to sound defensive, “I was tired.”
“Are you eating comfort food right now?”
Great, and one of them was a shrink. “What do you want, Marcus?”
“I want to know if you’re eating comfort food right now.”
“I don’t need therapy just this moment, okay? I just need some time to process everything, and I need a good night’s sleep. I’m going to Kyle’s place tomorrow night, this should not be a big deal. He’s never called you before when I begged off dinner so I could go home and veg.”
“We had quite a weekend, and you probably did a good bit of reading today. Would you like to talk about the things you read?”
She resisted the urge to snap at him, and took a deep breath before calmly saying, “Yes, but not tonight. I need to process what I’ve read and decide how I feel about some of it, and talking right now will just further confuse the issue. I’m going to sit here and munch on my potato chips and dip, check my email, look a few things up on the internet, and then I’m going to crash. Thank you for being concerned. Really. I appreciate it. Goodbye.”
He laughed. “I never have to wonder what you’re thinking — I like that about you. I’m here when you’re ready to talk, and I’m probably going to bug you every other day or so until you’re ready. Sweet dreams, my sexy little Spitfire.”
“Thanks Marcus. Good night.”