Choosing Her Lover

*****

Something catches my eye. I wasn’t looking directly at it and for a moment, as I swing to face it, staring out through the plate glass, I can’t work out what caught my attention….

Then I see it; across the road in the cafe, once more the sandy-haired man is seated at the bar. Quickly I look away, walk across the lobby to rearrange some flowers in a vase, tidy up some leaflets and brochures in the waiting area. Then I return to my desk and angle my laptop towards the cafe.

He’s is still there.

I tap at my keyboard, occasionally making a show of checking against the sign-in clipboard, as though I am updating visitor records. In fact, I am setting the rear-facing camera to take the best shots I can. I capture a couple of stills and message them to James as instructed, then I set the camera to video and let it run.

Within twenty seconds a message window opens on my camera screen….

thnx kirstie, james here. sit tight and do nthng. am taking over your screen

The screen suddenly comes alive, quite independently of anything I am doing with the mouse.

He didn’t mention he could do that…

The camera zooms and focuses, centering on the man, but at the limit of its capacity, the image is blurred, pixilating constantly, before abruptly, the screen splits in two and a series of controls appears. They don’t look remotely familiar to me, but as I watch, utterly fascinated, the cursor dances over the screen, nudging scales and fine-tuning measures.

The image of the stranger tightens, unfocuses, refocuses and then suddenly becomes pinpoint sharp. The message screen reappears.

that’s the man?

yes

the face, but also zooming and refocusing on a ring he wears, a partly revealed tattoo showing above his top shirt buttons, a document file, which I had not noticed before, but which I now see on the

across the screen, capturing imagery, clicking

James knows

I smile wryly to myself. You don’t get to be Technical Director of a

said… there’s a reason he has the

So, what now?

*****

stay in tonight? Just you and me? Get

Ryan. “I’d like to have you

dance to the lovely music washing

pressed close to his chest, I inhale the sweet perfume of my…. my what? My Master? My Dom certainly.

moment feels trapped in time, one of those endless moments where precious seconds

feel it

kisses my cheek, then

“Mmmm…?”

thrill…. and so do I…. of when we

voice is hesitant, as though he is afraid of

no nothing’s wrong. I

“Mmmm…? What? Tell me.”

want to make