Chapter 2

“‘Ten Tips to Make Relationships Last’?” Nick’s heart fluttered. “You want this to last?”

Victor smiled sheepishly. “I suppose I’m not being very subtle, am I? I like you a lot, Nick. I didn’t even think I was a relationship kind of guy, but when I sat down with you at that little table I got the feeling that we could have something special.”

Nick melted. “That’s so sweet! I—I felt the same way. And these past couple months have been amazing.” He leaned over and kissed Victor briefly. “I want it to last too.”

“Then do you want to try some of these with me?”

“Sure!”

The first few items on the list were no-brainers, like “Try to see an argument from your partner’s point of view” or “Share the responsibilities equally.” There was one, however, that gave them both pause.

“Share one secret sexual desire every month; you’ll keep things fresh and interesting and you may find a new favorite activity!”

Nick read the sentence over again carefully to make sure he understood it correctly then peered over at Victor. “Did you want to go first?”

“Not really,” Victor admitted with a chuckle.

“Oh, I see how it is,” Nick teased playfully. “You bought this whole magazine just so I would reveal my secret fetishes, right?”

Victor laughed. “Yes, that’s exactly right. Oh no, you saw right through my clever plan.”

Nick grinned and shook his head. “Hmmm…one secret sexual desire…” He sat back in the couch. There was only one he hadn’t told any of his previous boyfriends or one-night stands, mostly because it was silly but partly because he hadn’t been with any of them long enough to trust them with this sort of thing. “You know how it’s almost a rule that action films will have an interrogation scene somewhere?”

“Of course.”

“And some of them are dripping with sexual tension?”

Victor nodded. “Like any scene where the hero gets tied down to something.”

Nick bit his lip. “Yeah, like that.”

It took a few seconds, but then Victor’s eyes lit up with understanding. “Ohhh, let me guess. You want to role play as an action hero while your partner seduces information out of you?”

“Mmhmm. You know, I’d be tied down to a bed, shirt off, let my partner do whatever he wanted and see how long it takes me to—” Nick giggled, “—to spill.”

The following silence made Nick’s stomach squirm. He was about to ask if it was too much when Victor stood up. “My turn,” Victor said. “But mine is more of a show than a tell.” He beckoned Nick to follow. They went to a seemingly ordinary bookshelf up against the wall of the hallway. Victor put his shoulder to the side of it and pushed. The bookshelf slid across the hardwood floor and revealed a hidden door.

Nick’s jaw dropped. “Dear God, if you tell me you’re actually a super villain…”

“No, I’m not. At least, I don’t think so. Haven’t stolen any priceless artifacts or threatened any world leaders yet.” Victor opened the door and flicked on a light inside. Steps led down, and from what Nick could see, the room they led to was very colorful, wallpapered or painted a pale silver and furnished in an otherwise warm red color scheme. Victor made the same gesture he had to invite Nick into the house, only this was more hesitant. Nick proceeded with caution.

The basement room was nearly as large as the whole house above it, with linoleum flooring in a darker silver than the walls. It was not the size that shocked Nick, it was its contents. The motif was a cross between a sultan’s palace and a torture chamber. There were several beds, some on frames and some simple mattresses on the floor, and each appeared to have sheets in a different luxurious fabric. The walls were lined with racks and shelves of sex toys and BDSM equipment, a few of which Nick had never even seen before. There were padded frames and platforms with straps that hinted at how someone could be bound to them, although Nick wasn’t sure which end went where. A leather sex swing hung from the corner near a display of various vibrators. The whole room smelled vaguely musty, almost the way Nick expected a basement would smell, except for the soft scent of silks and satin and the hard musk of leather.

Victor cleared his throat from the stairs. “So…this is my secret.”

“W-What is all this? Why do you have this in your basement? Are you a collector or something? Like a hobby?”

“A little of both.” Victor trudged down the rest of the stairs and sat down on a bed with crimson velvet sheets and matching pillows. “Like I told you, I’ve been a film critic for the past year and a half, but for several years before that, I was a—” He cleared his throat. “I was a sex toy critic for a porn website.” He gestured around the room. “I’ve personally tested each of these. And not just on myself.”

Nick swung his head wildly, taking in the whole assortment, calculating how long one would need to try each toy individually. “So what? That’s your request? You want me to be your new test subject?”

Victor shook his head. “No, I haven’t worked for that site for a couple years. I don’t expect to be making any additions to this collection unless I get something new as a present from a friend.”

Nick furrowed his brow. “Does—Does that happen? Do your friends give you sex toys?”

“Well…” Victor looked down at his hands and played with his fingers. “That’s the other half of the secret. The reason I needed a whole room like this instead of keeping everything tucked away in a closet is…” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I used to host orgies down here. All-male orgies. With guys I’ve known since college. We had actually been meeting before I got my job as a toy-tester. In fact I took the job so I could vary up our sessions more.”

Nick stood frozen. His overwhelmed brain could barely comprehend that Victor owned all of this, let alone that he had used everything himself. The thought of a group of men Nick had never met congregating in Victor’s basement to have wild sex parties nearly broke Nick’s brain altogether. He stammered out some sound of confusion and disbelief, but he didn’t know what he was trying to say.