They’d set the video to my brother’s current hit song and it was hilarious. As Elena laughed along with the audience, she relaxed against me, so I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

When the video ended, Zuri looked at her. “So what’s it like to be rescued by this hunk of a man?”

Elena smiled coyly. “I was a little distracted at the time, but I might be watching that again a few times when I get home.” She fanned herself the same way Zuri had, giving me a flirty smile. Everyone laughed. “Next time, it might be nice to be the one doing the rescuing, though.”

Zuri took the cue. “So let’s talk about that. You’re used to being the one in charge…can you tell us about your job?”

“I’m a professional dominatrix.” The audience whistled and cheered.

Zuri asked, “So you hurt people for a living?”

It’s funny how just a few weeks earlier, I would’ve automatically associated her job with pain, but I was coming to understand just how small a piece of it the pain really was.

Elena laughed lightly. “Sometimes. It’s mostly playing out fantasies that many people wouldn’t consider normal, giving people a safe space to explore their desires without fear of judgment. Sometimes, that involves pain, but more often than not, it doesn’t.”

“What kinds of things are people into then?”

“Oh gosh, anything from elaborate role-play to bondage to wild stuff you would never think of as someone’s fantasy—dancing in raincoats, standing on blueberries, wiping a chalkboard clean—you name it, someone is probably into it.”

Zuri looked between us with a mischievous smile. “So…how did you two meet?”

I let out a bark of laughter and shook my head while the audience giggled hysterically at what she was implying. If only they knew.

Elena grinned and waved her hands dismissively. “He’s not a client if that’s what you’re getting at…”

Zuri said, “There’s a rumor going around that you may have met because Alex here will be playing Lucas Steel. Any truth to that rumor?”

Elena was a born actress. She looked at me with a naughty grin and said, “Should we tell them?” I would’ve believed she was deciding this spur-of-the-moment. I shrugged and glanced at the audience with my eyebrows raised in question.

Elena patted my thigh. “I’m gonna tell them.” She leaned forward like she was sharing a secret with Zuri, rather than dropping a carefully crafted piece of PR fodder. “You can all keep a secret, right?” She turned back to the audience again and winked. “I can confirm it’s happening and Alex is going to blow your minds as Lucas Steel.”

That little tidbit earned us a standing ovation. This audience didn’t seem to have any complaints about me playing the part, but it would be interesting to see how the internet at large responded now that the news was so closely tied to my BDSM pro girlfriend. Once the audience settled down again, Elena nudged me. “See, I’m great at keeping secrets. I don’t know what you were worried about.”