“An ad agency in town recruited me, and Emma was able to secure a dance teacher position at a dance school right away. She’d been having a hard time finding one in Chicago. It made sense to us, and it’s worked out very well. We like the laid-back vibe of Madison, and it’s close enough to Chicago for us to visit whenever we’d like.”
Caroline moved beside him, straightening her posture. Jace knew she was trying to gear herself up to join the conversation. He slid his hand down and rubbed her lower back, hoping to give her some encouragement. After a second, she said, “So is that how you met Piper?” Caroline asked Pete, clasping and unclasping her hands in her lap. “You both work in advertising?”
“Actually,” Emma interjected, smiling brightly. “Our dance school is a client of Piper’s firm. It was one of those freebie parties they throw for the holidays. We saw them across the room, and they were so cute together—”
The waiter interrupted the conversation as he set the drinks down. Once he was done, he asked, “Are you guys all set to order?”
Jace and Caroline hadn’t even opened their menus yet.
“If it’s okay with you guys, we’ll order some starters for the table,” Pete said. “Emma and I come here all the time.”
“Sure,” Jace replied, knowing Caroline likely didn’t have much of an appetite anyway. He double-checked with her, and she nodded. “That sounds great.”
Pete took care of it, and once the waiter left, Emma leaned forward. “So what do you guys both do for a living?”
Caroline cleared her throat, but managed, “I run a stationery business out of our home, and Jason works with his father, buying and selling farm equipment.”
“Oh, a stationery business sounds so creative! How did you decide on that?” Emma asked, sounding genuinely interested.
Jace glanced over and saw his wife blush as she took a sip of her drink. She was always modest about her talent. The truth was, Caroline was an amazing artist. But this was a perfect topic to start her talking. “I have a degree in Fine Arts,” she answered, setting her glass down, “and, really, it just made the most sense. I’d always dreamed of going into business for myself ever since I was young. My goal in the beginning was to open a boutique here in town, focusing on upscale art décor, but I found I loved the designing aspect too much. I’ve been very lucky. The business has taken off, and now I spend half my time doing corporate stuff and half my time creating the art for the cards. It’s a great meld of both worlds.”
“Do you paint?” Pete asked.
“Yes,” Caroline replied. “I actually use a lot of mediums, but charcoal has been my go-to recently, along with oil pastels. They make up most of the design formats for the cards. It’s been really fun. My office doubles as an art studio. I sort of took over the den.” She beamed at Jace.
“Her art is ridiculously good,” Jace said, pride swelling. “She has most of her designs made into prints as well.”
“Can’t wait to see them. I love art in all its forms.” Emma smiled. “I guess that makes us quite a diverse bunch.” She laughed good-naturedly as she reached out and caressed her husband’s arm.
Caroline’s hand immediately found Jace’s thigh and squeezed.
He knew his wife was worried the Slaters were going to put on a show. Caroline wanted them to take it slow. But Jace had a different idea. He wanted it all on the table. Then they could figure out sooner, rather than later, if they wanted to stay and keep talking or not. So instead of continuing on the topic about jobs, he asked, “So how did you get in the business of having sex with strangers?”
9
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Caroline uttered a small gasp at her husband’s blatant question about sex, but to mask her surprise, she picked up her gin and tonic and took a long draw, trying not to cough as it rushed down her throat.
The Slaters were stunning.
Perfect in every way.
They could’ve been at home in Hollywood or quite possibly in a castle somewhere. They seemed very comfortable in their own skin, and that was the only thing currently making this dinner bearable.
Before the meet, Caroline and Jace had strategized about possible ways to steer the conversation if it got awkward. Asking them straight up about their sex life hadn’t been in any one of the plans. They’d both agreed to tread carefully, and questioning them about their sexual practices wasn’t under the radar.
It was the radar.
Pete chuckled, his arms crossed in front of him. “I suppose that’s why we’re here tonight, right? To talk about sex. Well, it’s both a complicated answer and a very simple one. The easy answer is, we both love sex. We always have. And we both share the same negative viewpoint about societal norms in the bedroom, and have since the day we met, but that’s a discussion for another night. The better answer is, we’re hooked on the exploration of sex and where it takes us. There’s a great high to be had when something is new and exciting. It’s extremely satisfying.” He leaned in. “If there wasn’t, we wouldn’t be here, believe me.”
Luckily, right at that moment, the waiter came to drop off their food.
He set down a beautifully arrayed plate of bruschetta, along with a variety of olives, meats, and cheeses, and something white spread on crackers with prosciutto on top, secured with a fancy toothpick.
Emma gestured at the prosciutto dish. “These are delicious,” she said. “That’s garlic ricotta on the crackers.”
Caroline snorted and immediately brought her hand up to cover her mouth, completely embarrassed. All eyes at the table landed on her, waiting to see what had made her giggle. “I’m so sorry,” she half-laughed, half-apologized. “My brain immediately went from garlic to…kissing…then wandered to other things. I apologize. I think I just need to have a bite or two of the food and lay off the drinks for a while.” The tequila shots had solidly kicked in—and with a gin and tonic on top of that, and no food since lunch—she was set to make a huge fool of herself.
At least she wasn’t an angry drunk.
She just tended to giggle a lot.
Emma laughed along with her. “I hear you. I always carry mints in my purse for that very reason. One, you never know when you’re going to get a kiss, and two, I always think I have garlic breath even if I haven’t eaten it for days.”
“That’s probably because your favorite food is garlic,” Pete joked. “Paired with just about anything.”
Caroline helped herself to some food and was completely relieved Emma and Pete were making it so easy on them. She began to relax by a few degrees. She glanced over at Jace, who kept sneaking her are-you-okay looks, and gave him a reassuring nod. He acknowledged her slightly as he reached for the food, letting her know he noted the improvement in her nerves.
Jace piled up his plate. “So, getting back to the earlier topic we were just discussing,” he interjected smoothly. “My wife and I are new to even thinking about this lifestyle. It’s been a bit of a stretch for us to make this date. In fact, it’s safe to say we’re both a little shocked that we’re sitting here right now.”
Her darling husband had brought it around to sex again!
Right as she was beginning to relax.
Now the Slaters knew they were freaked out. Caroline slid a foot over and kicked him in the leg. In response, he lowered his hand under the table and patted her thigh, letting her know he had it under control.
“That’s to be totally expected,” Pete started. “We didn’t just one day decide to live this lifestyle either. It was an evolution, as most things are. We’ve had our days where we’ve gone, ‘Can you believe this is happening?’ We’re normal people, same as you guys. We felt unease at our first meet, too.”