Take Me Down The Rabbit Hole (BDSM | 18+)

XLI

Leo smiled. "You should come sit at the desk to do this," he added, pulling one of the chairs out from the massive table.
Aspen grabbed his glass and obeyed, settling into it.
"Slightly unrelated," he started, accepting the pen Leo offered him, "but what's with all the books on that shelf?"
Leo turned, his eyes scanning the shelf. "It's sort of a library. For erotica. I like to read a lot of it and encourage my clients to do the same. So, they can borrow these books or buy them from my collection. If they make a purchase, I will make a donation to the author or a cause of the author's choice and buy a new copy. Most of these are independently published and I've found that it not only gets the word out to the people, but my clients have also been approaching me about things they read about."
He turned back to Aspen. "I happen to know you read erotica against your will. Thea told me about your ... little book club with Spencer."
Aspen flushed. "Ah— Yeah. On occasion. I trust Spencer's taste and I think it's ... a nice thing for us to do together. We've had a bit of a rocky start but the books... They give us something to talk about."
Leo looked deep in thought for a moment before he nodded. "Alan's methods seem to be as unconventional as mine were," he noted, and then, his eyes dropped to his desk. "Well, I have an hour before my first client will show up, so why don't you fill out your ... little quiz there while I clean up this mess?"

Aspen worked through the stack of papers in silence, surprised at how in-depth the questions went. Half of them didn't even seem to be about kink, but about physical and mental health, relationships, personal life...
Occasionally, Aspen would look up to watch Leo, who was busy clearing off his desk, putting manilla folders away, and sorting through a bin of random sex toy packaging.
"PR gifts," Leo offered in explanation and then gave Aspen another once over. "You could take some of these home for your Master. If you wanted."
"You don't need them anymore?"
"Oh, no. I can't be bought, and I don't want to advertise things I didn't buy out of personal interest."
Again, his phone rang. "Sorry about that," Leo offered and then accepted the call.
His brows immediately furrowed, but he stayed silent for a good minute before he sighed. "That's because Dorothea," at the name, the tone of his voice softened, "is booked out— ¡No! ¡Escúchame!"
At that point, Alan's limited knowledge of Spanish failed him. He went back to his papers, watching from the corner of his eyes as Leo began pacing back and forth in front of the bookshelf wall while having a heated discussion about something.
The occasional English sentence made it into the mix, giving Aspen a vague idea of what was going on.
"Dorothea isn't a fairy that can just pack up an entire kitchen, come to México to bake a cake, and then take the kitchen back."
A moment of silence.
Then, Leo slammed his fist down on his desk.
"¡Escúchame!" he repeated, exasperated. "Their answering machine keeps going in Spanish, and you would know this if you'd stayed on the line long enough!"
More Spanish.
Aspen found it increasingly difficult to focus on the questionnaire. But this was private.
And if Thea had taught him one thing, it was that Aspen should never put his nose in business that wasn't his — unless he got paid for it.
Leo hung up."Sorry," he repeated. "It's quinceañera time for our extended family in México. They want Thea to come and make cakes."
Aspen only nodded. "Big parties?"
"The biggest for Mexican teenage girls. Big dresses, dances, and all of that."
Again, Aspen only nodded and gestured to the papers he was working on. "This is a big stack."
"Yes."
Leo sat back in his office chair and moved the box of sex toys out of the way before he peeked at Aspen's answers.
"This... quiz is where I draw the line between amateur and professional."
Leo reached for the quiz. "It's always been important to me to get a good idea of what I'm working with. Of course, any information given in this is voluntary, but the more info I have, the better I can cater to their needs. It's logical."
"It is."
Leo shook his sleeve back. "I have 20 minutes before my first client gets here. Any questions about the questions?"
"What if a client puts sadism down as a hard limit?"
"That has never happened to me. But if it did, Thea and I have a number of other employees that the client could be matched with instead. I can't force someone who doesn't have any masochistic tendencies into putting up with a sadist. That's counter-productive. Anything else?"
"No. Except, I would have a look at your ... library."
"Oh, please, be my guest. Any you take Thea can return here even if I'm out of state."
"Great," Aspen said, getting out of his seat. He strolled over to the shelf wall and, at first glance, discovered many books Spencer had bought them to read. The books were immaculately sorted in alphabetical order and by series, and Leo had used a label maker to add info on tropes and kinks to the shelf. An entire shelf board was dedicated to an author by the name of Luna Luther. Aspen randomly pulled one of her books from the shelf. It looked considerably battered. The spine had been broken in multiple places, pages were dog-eared, and tabs were stuck to others. The cover was warped and torn on the front. "You really like this one."
"Luna is great," Leo said immediately, though he hadn't turned to look at the book Aspen was holding. "I've been trying to get ahold of her for interviewing purposes for years, but she manages to evade me."
"That's because you're scary."
"Manners, pet. Bring that copy back in one piece, I don't have time to buy a new one and transfer my annotations."
Aspen mock-saluted to the dominant at the desk. "Yes, Sir."
Leo nodded. "Take the rest of that series, too. Trust me."