into space. “You should be with a younger guy anyhow,” he said, after downing nearly half of his second drink. “I’m probably old enough to be your dad. What are you, twenty-five? Twenty-six?”
“Thirty last week,” Allie said, still a little stunned to realize she’d hit thirty and was still alone.
“And you’re here with a guy who scenes with other women?” Bob queried, his bushy eyebrows raised.
“A girl,” Allie admitted. “My friend, Lauren. She needed a ride.”
“Ah, I see,” Bob said. “That makes more sense, then. Though I can’t for the life of me understand why someone so beautiful is unattached.”
Allie smiled. “Well, thanks. I guess I just haven’t found the right guy.”
“The right Master,” Bob said.
Allie nodded. “Yeah, that too.”
“Hard to meet folks at these parties and those lame munches, am I right? You end up getting hit on by old dudes like me.” Bob laughed.
Allie smiled ruefully. “It is hard. Boston’s a huge city, but the BDSM community is pretty small. Pretty insular.”
“Agreed. Hey, you know what you should do?” Bob turned toward her once more, his face animated.
“What’s that?” Was he going to try another come-on line? God, she hoped not.
“You should try the internet.”
Allie laughed. “The internet? That’s the worst place to meet guys. They’re all liars and scammers. Players.”
“I hear ya. But I’m not talking about the free sites. I’m talking about a particular site I think would meet your needs. It’s a hundred dollars for the first month, and then thirty dollars a month after that. I admit, kind of steep, but ultimately that’s a good thing, because it weeds out the riff-raff, the players, you know?”
Allie opened her mouth to dismiss Bob’s idea out of hand, but he stopped her with a hand over hers. “No, wait. Hear me out. It’s a relatively new site, and, I don’t mind admitting, it’s one of my pet projects. I hired the best tech guys to make it a reality, and there’s a full-time moderator to keep the place real. The site has really taken off since it went live three months ago. A young woman like you would have her pick of Doms from all over the country, I guarantee.”
He pulled a small card out of his back pocket and placed it on the bar in front of Allie. It read BDSMConnections – a discreet site for discerning individuals serious about the scene and listed a website address. Allie glanced from the card to Bob. Had his whole spiel to this point been nothing more than a sales pitch? Still, she had to admit, the idea of a legit BDSM site appealed to her.
Allie was silent as she thought about what a hundred dollars would buy her—groceries for two weeks, part of a car payment, part of her credit card bill, which had somehow gotten away from her over the past few months. As much as she hated to admit it, a hundred bucks—maybe nothing to a guy like Bob—was a lot of money to someone like her.
She pushed the card back toward Bob. “That’s a lot of money for something like that.”
“Yeah, I know. I don’t envy you young people, trying to make it in this world. Things were a lot easier back in my day.” He reached down and pulled something out of his bag. Allie saw it was a pen, heavy and fine, like his watch. He put his hand over the card and brought it toward him. Flipping it over, he scrawled something on the other side. He pushed the card back in her direction.
“I just gave you a free access code. You’ll see where to enter the information when you sign up. It will allow you to use the site free for a month, and decide if it’s for you or not. No strings. You don’t like it, you just let it expire. There’s no automatic renewal or any of that bullshit other sites try to pull.”
He swiveled his stool away from the bar and stood, pulling his too-small vest down over his belly. He turned to Allie with a smile and extended his hand, which she took automatically.
“It was nice to meet you, Allie. I wish you all the luck in the world. My sign-on at the site is Master underscore Bob.” He grinned, dropping her hand. “Yeah, I know. Real original, right? But it gets the message across. Keep it simple, I always say. I hope I’ll see you at BDSMConnections. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I see a