Page 35 of Stabby Little
"Whyalien?"
"One of the owner's boys is obsessed with aliens. He even had an alien bouncy house at his wedding in the Hamptons."
Arlo. I don't say this out loud, even though that's definitely who this boy is. I'm not supposed to know who Arlo is because I'm not Ollie tonight, I'm Kobe Bailey. The Columbia animal science student who needed to be more careful when he was drinking.
"I'll remember that." I crack my neck. "Alien."
"When you say alien, your scene should stop. If anyone pushes you past your limits or makes you uncomfortable, press this button to alert me."
My jaw drops. "You actually respect the club safe word?"
"Yes. All members must abide by it to stay in compliance with the Little Bunny Club's rules."
I scratch my left wrist. "And the members know this?"
"Of course." Valentin nods. "None of our members have ever ignored the club safe word. They know we'd blacklist them and tell every kink club in Manhattan to ban them."
It takes me a moment to process this. Not once in the past seven years of my life did I have a genuine safe word. My captors blamed me if I raised my voice.
The fact that Valentin forces the members to respect the safe word gives me hope.
Yet I can't let my guard down. Many of my warehouse clients claimed to respect me only to fuck me over even worse in the end. In fact, the ones who said they desired to treat me best, the ones who promised to get me out of the basement, abused me the worst.
"So when I'm having sex with my client, I can sayalienand he'll stop," I say.
"Or if you're not having sex," Valentin replies.
"What do you mean?"
"We don't require you to have sex with clients. If you do, that's your choice."
My jaw tumbles to my feet. "You're messing with me."
"No." He shakes his head. "That's the first rule. You're expected to entertain, but you don't need to do anything you don't want to. Most of the members here tonight have been here for years so they understand that."
"This is a playful environment." Valentin adjusts my cat ears. "Lots of clubs tolerate abuse, but we don't. The kink play we engage in is fun, not hurtful. The safe word also goes two ways—if your partner asks you to stop, he can sayalienand you must cease the action. He also has a special button in his private room to alert us."
I can hardly believe this. I have rights. It's pathetic as fuck to say this, but this is the first time I've ever encountered this in my life.
Sex isn't even required and I'm not expected to be a prostitute.
"Thank you." I clench my fists to prevent any emotion from bubbling to the surface. "I appreciate this."
“We’ll also provide you with a three-month prescription of PrEP. You can start taking it tonight. It won’t reach its maximum effectiveness for seven days, so you can’t bottom for your client tonight if that’s what he desires unless he wears protection.”
“Did my client get tested, too?”
“Yes. We require every member of our club to get tested regularly. He took new tests earlier this week and they came back negative.”
“Is he also on PrEP?”
“He started taking it again this past week.”
“That makes me feel better.”
“This can be a regular thing if you're talented. We'll play it by ear and see how it goes tonight."
Valentin leads me out of the back office and into the club space. All around me, boys chat up Daddies as far as the eye can see. There are boys in pink, blue, leather, feminine clothes, extra-masculine wear, and even thongs. They run their fingers over their Daddies' chests and kiss their bodies.