The Primal's Kitten

Chapter Eighteen

I woke bright and early, unable to sleep any longer out of sheer excitement and nervousness and took a shower, taking the extra time to shave and scrub since I had the time. By the time I was done in the bathroom, it smelled like vanilla cupcakes and spiced honey from my various hair and body soaps and the lotion I had put on once I’d patted myself dry with a warm towel. I could hear Lish and Gavin starting to stir down the hall, so I ran my fingers through my hair to dispense the curl product and called it good, putting the tube in my bathroom bag along with everything else I might need to shower over the weekend. I brushed my teeth and put on eyeliner and mascara, tucking everything back in their bags and into my luggage. I finally had everything, so I grabbed up my bag and carried it downstairs to the front door. Gavin was outside loading his Jeep up already, so I pulled my boots on and grabbed my purse, locking the door behind Lish, who still seemed half asleep. 

Thankfully Gavin thought of everything, and we hit the drive-through of the local bakery, getting a dozen to share between the three of us and three latte’s since it was cold as hell outside. I settled comfortably in the back seat with my share of the doughnuts and my latte and zoned out while I ate. Thankfully my anxiety wasn’t too bad, so I actually managed to enjoy the ride, even if we had to stop half a dozen extra times for various tourist traps because Lish said so. Half the stops were corny as heck, though there were a few I was glad to take if only to stretch my legs and find a bathroom. While Gavin drove the whole way through, we all took turns in shifts to play music over the Bluetooth, giving us all ample time to make our own playlist just for the trip. When we weren’t listening to music or eating, we chattered back and forth about ideas and plans, and maybe things that had changed in the schedule since we signed up. I was glad that it seemed my schedule was staying mostly the same, with only two minor changes to times for events, but I had set myself up with plenty of buffer time between most events to give myself a chance to breathe, eat, and do anything else I needed, like take a nap. 

When we finally arrived, my nerves had shot up to ten and I thought I might be sick when we pulled into an empty parking space outside the hotel. Gavin went to find a trolley for the luggage and check us in while Lish stayed behind with me, giving me a much-needed pep talk about how well the weekend was going to go. I had just stepped out of the car when Gavin returned with room keys and wristbands for the various pools, each of us taking one and putting them right on so we wouldn’t forget. Clara and her Daddy walked up as we were making our way into the hotel, and I couldn’t help the squeal of delight that left my lips as I hugged her tightly. “You made it! I’m so excited to see you! Did you get your room keys, which room are you in?” Her poor Daddy was huffing and rolling his eyes behind her which made me laugh my butt off, I couldn’t help it, he was probably one step away from making her take a nap, she was so wound up and excited. “Umm, we’re in five-oh-two I think, yeah. I’m excited to see you too Clara, I’ve missed your silly sense of humour.” I grinned and hugged her again just before she looked at her own hotel key and squealed again, making me wince because she was far too close to my ear to be making sounds like that. “You’re right next to us! There’s a door between our rooms and we can create a special knock and sing through the door like in Frozen!” The girl was literally bouncing up and down by the end of her high pitched tired of joy and all I could do was shout, “Supermassive blanket fooooort!” Oh our poor dominants, both shaking their heads at our outbursts before laughing themselves. 

Silliness accomplished, we made our way through the hotel and to the elevator, cramming in so we could all zip up to the fifth floor together. Our rooms were easy enough to find and once inside, I claimed the bed closer to the window and the air conditioner, since I had a tendency to get too warm no matter what the heat in a place was set to. I left the bed made and laid my thick, down mattress pad on top of it, changing the pillows out for my own as well, and then laying my two favourite blankets over all that. I was a bit of a princess, but I have the worst luck in hotels whenever we travel so I learned to pack all my own comfort items just in case. I hung up my dress for the ball on Saturday and set out my toothbrush and toothpaste near the sink, leaving my makeup and other things in my bathroom bag, for now, not wanting to take up too much space. Lish and Gavin were busy unpacking some of their own things, hanging up what needed to be kept free of wrinkles and adding their own toothbrushes next to mine on the sink. We had a small table, so we put all the snacks out on it, packing the mini-fridge with water and Powerade, though we had a whole case of each sitting on top of the dresser. 

Once we were all unpacked and settled in, we headed down to the meeting room off the lobby where we had sign-in for the event itself. The line took a good twenty minutes to get through, but it went fast since everyone and their brother, it seemed, was coming to say hello to Lish and Gavin. They introduced me to everyone, though I am awful with names, so I was thankful that a lot of people wore some type of name badge. Maybe it was just those presenting or something? Either way, it was helpful as hell since the stream of people seemed never-ending until we reached the table to check in. Lish offered her phone out and our confirmation codes were scanned before we were each handed a small bag of goodies and a badge for the convention. With that settled, we decided to walk around, there were a lot of people already,  and it was still early, from what Gavin told me, so I was careful to stay close to the pair of them. Lish was a very thorough tour guide as she showed me where each of the classes was held, the play parties, discussions, and some of the bigger parties as well. I wasn’t going to remember this when everything really kicked off tomorrow, so I hoped I wouldn’t get too lost. We left the conventions main space after an hour or so, and they showed me the rest of the hotel, pointing out which of the pools were nude friendly since the whole hotel was ours for the weekend. I wasn’t sure I was brave enough to go swimming minus a bathing suit but I wasn’t counting it out, trying to leave myself open to all the good experiences I could have this weekend. 

The three of us met back up with Clara as she was picking up dinner for herself and her Daddy in the hotel’s restaurant, so we ordered as well, thinking it would be nice to have a fun dinner and then maybe wander around again. Knowing that none of us would be playing tonight, we opened two bottles of wine with dinner, all five of us sitting on the floor of our room. I was already more than glad that I had come, the atmosphere was a level of excitement and rawness that I had never experienced, and it made me only want to see and experience more. We sat around talking until the wine ran out, then cleaned up the boxes and such from our food before heading out into the hotel again. I spent only about half an hour with Lish and Gavin before I excused myself back to the room to change and go sit in the hot tub, or maybe go swimming. Being on my own wasn’t so bad, and I found my way to the pool with the water slides easily enough and waded around in the water to get used to it. There weren’t a ton of people around, but the atmosphere was loud with laughter and the chatter of several conversations, not to mention the music that was coming through the speakers. It was definitely not the usual thing you’d hear in a hotel, so I had a sneaking suspicion there was someone controlling the playlist. Almost every song sounded entirely too hot to be played in an open family environment, not that the hotel was such a thing this weekend, so maybe it was fitting. 

I was a little tipsy when I finally started swimming around in the pool, chattering now and again with someone I knew from home, or someone who Lish had introduced me to earlier in the day. There was a really good looking guy who kept coming around when I had been alone for a while and I was glad for the company, though I was still tipsy enough to find myself getting lost in his grey eyes as we chatted. His name was Logan and oddly enough he only lived three hours away from us on the coast of Lake Michigan, so that was something. I wasn’t letting myself get too lost in the moment, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying his company, so when he asked if I wanted to go down the slide with him, I agreed. We got out of the pool and I was surprised to find him towering over my mere five foot three height. “Jesus I’m short.” He laughed, and I was instantly taken with the way the expression lit up his face and the way his lips framed perfectly straight white teeth. The man could have been an ancient god, the way he was built, a thick body with muscles born of hard work and effort, enclosed in skin the colour of cinnamon. I couldn’t stop looking at him as we headed up the steps to the top of the slide, he even carried the double tube so I wouldn’t have to. Near the top, he caught me staring as he ran his hand through shaggy hair that fell almost to his shoulder blades and I blushed and tried to pretend I wasn’t watching him. Lord, this was embarrassing. He rolled with it though and grinned before helping me get into the tube, it was our turn. 

I was smaller so I had to sit in the front, my fingers tightly wrapped around the handles on either side of my hips, until he put his legs through to settle into his own seat and then I couldn’t reach the handles anymore. “What am I supposed to hang on to now?” I huffed at him, pouting, and he laughed. “Me.” He barely got the word out before he shoved off and we were rocketing down an incline and around a corner. By the time I had screeched in terror, we had been spit out into a bowl with glowing paint and black lights, going round and round three times before we dropped into the bottom half of the slide. I screeched again and clung to his legs until we were finally spit out into a pool at the bottom. Logan dragged me and the tube over to the stairs to get out and before I was even off the tube, I was squealing. “Again!” I laughed and bit my lip, blushing up at him. “I mean, I’m game if you are?” We ended up trudging up those steps three more times to ride that stupid slide and every time I screeched in glee, unable to help myself. Every time I looked back at Logan he was laughing, amused with my shenanigans. When we were finally done, he put the tube back and we both wrapped ourselves up in towels while he looked at me. “So, you’re a little, right?” I gave him a funny look since I had never really considered it. “I mean, I...yeah I guess so.” He laughed and offered to walk me back to my room, but since he was all the way on the other side of the hotel, I told him no, but hoped to catch him tomorrow. 

I got back to the room before Lish and Gavin, no surprise there, and took a nice hot shower to wash all the chlorine off myself. When I was done, I covered myself in lotion again to combat any dry skin I might get from the pool and then grabbed a book and got into bed. I read for almost an hour before Lish and Gavin came back to the room, laughing but tired, and asked about my night. We chattered for a bit, but we were all yawning and barely awake, so the three of us turned out the lights and snuggled into sleep. I was still thinking about what Logan had said, calling me a Little, and as I fell asleep, I grinned to myself that it seemed another puzzle piece was falling into place.