Raising the Limit-Book 1 - 1. Chapter 1

David took care of the check for the lunch that he had just finished with some prospective clients. He exchanged pleasantries with the two men that he had just wined and dined in the name of business. He had already secured an appointment with them to sign a contract the following week. The two gentlemen took their leave after thanking David for the lunch and reiterating the date for the meeting. David had just spent the better part of two hours going over details of his company’s proposal. He watched them leave as he waited for the waitress to return with his credit card. He added a nice tip and signed the merchant copy, keeping the customer copy for his expense report. Grabbing his phone he headed toward the exit of the hotel’s restaurant.

David was halfway across the lobby when he heard a voice that he hadn’t heard for nearly twenty years call out from behind him “David?”

David stopped and turned and saw an old familiar face. “Top Cat?”

The face smiled broadly and laughed. “I’ll be damned. It IS you!”

David suddenly found himself enfolded in a warm bear hug. He returned the hug and when they broke apart he returned the man’s grin with a bright smile of his own.

“TC Panatopoulos! How the hell are you and what the hell are you doing here?” David inquired.

TC replied “David Callaghan! I’m good. I’m doing a presentation for the convention going on here. Maritime salvage, pretty riveting stuff.” he chuckled. “I just finished up a session and was going to grab a bite to eat. Care to join me?”

David’s smile slipped and he replied, “I’d love to, but I just finished a lunch meeting and I’ve got another appointment to get to. How long are you in town for? I’d love to do lunch or dinner and catch up.”

TC answered, “Actually I just moved to Sarasota last month, so name a time and place.”

David opened his phone and tapped on his contacts and handed the device to TC. “Here, put your number in. I’m flying up to Detroit tomorrow for business but I’ll be back by the end of the week. Why don’t I call you when I get back? I should have a better handle on my schedule by then. Maybe this weekend?”

TC tapped his numbers into David’s phone and handed it back. David smiled when he saw that he had added the name Top Cat to the information. He quickly sent a smiley emoji to TC and pulled him in for another hug, catching a whiff of a nostalgic scent.

“I’m sorry I gotta run, but I promise I’ll call you when I get back.” David said.

“It’s good to see you David. I’m looking forward to it.” was the response.

David smiled and turned back to the exit. He could feel TC’s eyes follow him out the door. David found his car in the parking garage and as he made his way through traffic he reminisced about his days with TC. They had gone to Florida State together and were roommates in the dorm freshman year. They ended up sharing an apartment with two other guys for the remaining three years. TC’s real name was Triton Christos Panatopoulos, a.k.a TC or Top Cat to his friends in college. Tall, dark and handsome back in the day, and not much had changed other than the addition of a short, neatly trimmed beard. David had a lot of great memories from those days and looked forward to catching up with his old friend. He smiled at the thought.

The next morning found David awake way before dawn. His flight was at six-fifteen. He consoled himself with the fact that it was out of SRQ, Sarasota-Bradenton Airport. At least he didn’t have to drive up to Tampa. David was a structural engineer specializing in building demolition. He was going up to Detroit to do some preliminary inspections on a fifteen story office building that was scheduled to come down. There was a lot involved with bringing down a building of that size. He was meeting with his munitions expert to start the planning stage of the implosion. If all went well the building would come down sometime in late September. It was late February now and there was much work to be done.

Luckily Sarasota’s airport was on the smaller side so he knew he could get there forty-five minutes to an hour before his flight and still slide through security easily. He wasn’t checking any bags as it was only a three day trip. Two nights and he was due to fly back late Friday afternoon.

His trip to Detroit was busy, but productive. His explosive expert Daniel Watson had met him at the site. Dan was ex-military. He had been a first lieutenant in the Marines having served twenty-five years before retiring to civilian life. He lived and breathed explosives. His knowledge was superior to anyone else that David had come across. Lieutenant Dan, as everyone called him, was well respected in the field and David knew his company was lucky to use his services. He didn’t want to trust the safety and lives of his crew to anyone else.

He and Dan had gone over the blueprints of the building with a fine tooth comb. They went to the site and inspected each floor to make sure the plans matched. They outlined the stages that needed to take place before any work was actually started. David met with the CEO of the company who owned the building and gave him a rundown of what the next steps would be. He also met with the foreman of the local construction company that they had hired to strip the building down. All in all he accomplished a helluva lot in three days.

It was Friday before he knew it and now he was watching the Florida shoreline slide by beneath them as they descended toward the airport. It was after six and the sun had already kissed the horizon and left behind its streaks of red and orange which were quickly fading into violet as the wheels hit the runway. David was able to deplane and head straight to his car. He drove south on US41 and swung into the parking lot of the Chipotle across from the hospital. After getting his burrito to go, it took him another ten minutes to make it home.

Once inside he tossed his carry on bag into his laundry room to be dealt with later. Grabbing a beer from his fridge he sat on a bar stool at his kitchen counter and sorted through three days of mail while he ate his burrito. Most of the mail was junk and went into the recycle basket next to the trash can.

After cleaning up what little mess he had created, he took the rest of his beer and flopped on his couch. He pulled his phone out and shut off the airplane mode which he had forgotten to do. His phone vibrated several times with missed texts and email notifications. Scrolling through, he smiled when he saw a text from TC. He tapped on it to open it up and read, ‘Dinner tomorrow?’ It had been sent about an hour ago.

David tapped out a reply ‘Definitely, Ale House on Bee Ridge? What time’s good for you?’

Thirty seconds later his phone rang. David was chuckling as he answered the call. “Still impatient I see.”

On the other end TC laughed, “Yeah, well I can’t type on these little screens very fast. Anytime is good for me. If I remember correctly it’s really busy this time of year, right?”

David replied, “Let’s shoot for seven. If we go at six we’ll end up waiting an hour anyway. Damn snowbirds clog up every restaurant in the entire state on the weekends during season.”

TC chuckled on the other end, “I’m starting to figure that out. If snowbirds are in season why can’t we shoot them?” TC chuckled. “Seven it is. How was your trip?”

“Busy.” David replied. “I just got home a little while ago. I forgot to take my phone off airplane mode, otherwise I would’ve texted you earlier. I’m beat though. I never sleep very well when I’m away and it catches up to me pretty quickly.”

“I know what you mean.” TC agreed. “Hey, I’ll let you go. I’m sure you have unpacking and shit to take care of. I’ll meet you tomorrow at seven. G’night David.”

“Goodnight TC, see you tomorrow.” said David. He had a silly grin on his face at the thought of seeing his old friend again.

He grabbed his now empty beer bottle and rinsed it out before adding it to the recycle basket. Sighing, he made his way to his laundry room and grabbed the plastic trash bag from his duffle that had his dirty clothes. He started the washer, added detergent and went back to his room to grab the laundry hamper with the rest of his dirty stuff which he added to the machine as he sorted it. Two loads. He could get away with just doing two loads if he added his towels in with his whites. Doable.

The rest of the house was clean. He lived by himself so no one else had created a mess while he was gone. He watched a few podcasts while his laundry ran through the cycles. It was almost ten o’clock when his second load went into the dryer. He decided to fold everything tomorrow. The past few days, plus the travelling had caught up to him and he was tired. Packing it in for the night David got ready for bed. It didn’t take long for sleep to claim him after sliding under the covers.

Saturday morning after a quick breakfast, David took stock of what he needed to take care of today. He folded his laundry from the night before and then decided to tackle the lawn. During the hotter months David had a lawn care company take care of his yard. From May through October the yard needed to be cut every week, especially during the rainy season. But in the dry, winter months, if it didn’t rain he could get away with mowing and trimming every two to three weeks. It was a monotonous task that he didn’t mind, as long as it wasn’t humid. He loved the year round sunshine that Florida provided, but hated the stifling humidity that they had to endure in the summer in exchange for beautiful winter temperatures and low humidity.

Once the yard was done and everything cleaned and put away David showered, then made a run to Publix. He stocked up on groceries for the week and treated himself to a Pub sub for lunch. Publix’s sub sandwiches kicked ass. Knowing that he was going out for dinner he just ordered a half sub, not wanting to overstuff himself.

At home he put away the groceries while eating his sub and then sequestered himself in his home office for a few hours, working on several tasks that needed to be taken care of for the upcoming week.

He managed to wrap everything up by six o’clock and then stood in front of his closet for ten minutes trying to decide what to wear. He hadn’t been this indecisive in years. David was thirty-nine and still in pretty good shape. He worked out three or four days a week and other than the occasional splurge eating out, he tried to eat mostly healthy stuff. Could he stand to drop ten or fifteen pounds? Probably. Was he going to? Probably not. He finally settled on a pair of black jeans that hugged his ass pretty well and a fitted burgundy t-shirt. The burgundy went well with his sandy blond hair. He put a steel gray Chambray shirt on over the t-shirt to hide the small love handles, leaving the buttons undone. He shoved his feet into black loafers and decided it would do.

It was a fifteen minute ride to the restaurant and he left at six-thirty, knowing that parking sucked on Saturday nights. The Ale House was a popular restaurant among the locals and being located right off the exit for I-75, it saw its fair share of travellers as well. It shared real estate with a pizza place, bank and a hotel, so yeah, parking could be a nightmare.

David pulled into the parking lot and drove around the building twice, all spots full. Even the parking lot of the adjacent bank which was closed was full. He decided to make one more pass and lucked out and managed to swing into a spot that was being vacated. It was on the backside of the restaurant and was better than he expected. Before getting out of the car he shot off a quick text to TC letting him know he was here. He was a few minutes early and knew they would probably have to wait.

He headed inside to add their name to the waiting list and was pleasantly surprised to see TC already there, waiting outside the main door. He hugged his friend and enjoyed the warmth that he received in return. TC looked good in faded blue jeans and a white Henley. His beard was neatly trimmed short, outlining his handsome face. TC had classic handsome Greek looks. He was 6’2”, with wavy, jet black hair that curled if not kept cut short, dark chocolate brown eyes framed by thick lashes that women would kill for. Perfectly shaped eyebrows further highlighted his beautiful eyes. He wasn’t as lean as he had been in his twenties, instead having filled out a bit. At thirty-nine he was still trim, but had lost the gangliness that accompanied youth. He used to have a runner’s build, lean and lank, but now his broad shoulders and trim waist gave him more of a swimmer’s build. Whatever he was doing was working. The man looked fantastic, not to mention smelled fantastic too.

“How long have you been here?” David asked.

“Not long. I put my name on the list and saw you loop around twice, so not even ten minutes. They said the wait would be about fifteen to twenty minutes. Wanna see if we can get a drink at the bar while we wait?” TC held up the buzzer thing that restaurants handed out and waggled it.

“Let’s go.” David replied and led the way through the throng that was crowded around the entrance. They lucked out and snagged two seats at the bar when a couple got up to leave just as they got there. The Ale House had a great selection of local brews and David ordered a seasonal porter from one of the breweries here in town. He normally didn’t go for the darker beers, but this particular porter had a dose of vanilla and spice in it that seemed to cut the usual bitterness of darker beers. TC ordered a local IPA that had a nice hint of grapefruit flavor to it.

Not long after the bartender gave them their beers the buzzer vibrated on the polished wood of the bar top. They grabbed their glasses and TC returned the buzzer to the hostess. They were led to a table on the outdoor patio which was currently enclosed in deference to the cool temperatures. In the warm weather the canvas and plastic panels were removed. TC looked over the menu he was handed and commented when David didn’t even glance at his own, “Been here much?”

David laughed. “What can I say? When you find something good, you stick with it. I usually come here once or twice a month with friends. My kids love it when they come to visit too.”

TC raised an eyebrow, “Kids? Wow, I guess we do have some catching up to do.”

They were interrupted when their waiter came to get their orders. David ordered the Zinger Mountain Melt. It was a pile of crispy fries covered with chicken tenders that were tossed in your choice of sauce. Sweet Thai chili was David’s go-to, then smothered with melted cheese. Topped off with a good size dollop of sour cream and he liked his with blue cheese dressing on the side. TC ordered the same, but chose the honey barbeque sauce instead of sweet Thai chili and substituted ranch for bleu cheese.

Once the waiter left TC resumed the conversation. “So, kids huh?”

David smiled brightly. “Yup, fifteen year old twins. Owen Jacob, older by three minutes, and never fails to remind his sister of the fact. And Alyssa Kathryn, better known as Alleycat to me and her Mom, Lyssa to her friends. They live with their mother in Portland, Maine. I get them during the summer, Christmas break and their winter vacation, which was last week. I’ve been divorced for ten years, it was an amicable split. We both realized it wasn’t going to work when I finally figured out for sure that I liked guys more than I liked girls. Not that there’s anything wrong with girls.”

“Did she know you were already into guys?” TC asked.

“Yeah. I was honest with her when we started dating. I told her I was bisexual and honestly, I did love her. Still do. She’s the mother of my kids. I’m just not in love with her and we both knew it. I didn’t want her to have to live a lie, we actually have a much better relationship now as friends and co-parents than we ever had or could have had as husband and wife. Renee deserves to be happy and she found that up north. She’s been remarried for six, uh, seven-ish years and he’s a good guy. My kids like him and he treats them well. And yes, they know I’m gay, I gave up on the bisexual ideation, it never did really feel right. I don’t believe in hiding who I am from my kids. Besides, it’s not like I’ve been celibate for the past ten years. My kids are OK with it. I’ve only had a couple of relationships that warranted introducing them to someone, nothing recently. What about you TC? What have you been up to?”

“TC. You do realize that I haven’t heard that nickname since our college days?” he replied.

“What do you go by now?” David asked.

“My friends and colleagues call me Chris. The parental units still insist on calling me Triton.” he replied.

David laughed, “Shit. You must love that!”

TC continued “Yeah, well I gave up that battle a long time ago. They mean well, but they are just a bit too uppity for their own good. Such a pretentious sounding name don’t you think?” David nodded. “So, getting back to what I’ve been up to. Well, where to start? After FSU I went to law school at Northwestern and got my degree in Maritime law like the old man wanted. Worked for his firm for a couple of years and finally told him to shove it. I hated being a lawyer, it drove me up the freaking wall. Pops was not happy, still isn’t, but he’s come to grips with it. I started doing salvage work for a company that I had worked with through the law firm. Spent a year on a salvage boat learning some of the ropes of the business. Spent another year wearing two hats, doing some salvaging and legal stuff for the owner of the company. After a couple of more years he decided to retire. He had been grooming his son to take over the business, but his son had gotten married and started a family. He didn’t want to take on such a huge commitment, so he approached me about starting a partnership to help him run the company. I convinced my old man to invest and voila! I own half of Triton-Wells Maritime Salvage Co. Tom Wells is my business partner and he’s happy that he can have a hand in running the business and not have to sacrifice his time with his family. His wife and kids are happy too. Her parents live down here and now that they’re getting up there in age she wanted to be closer to them. So Tom and I decided to move our operation here. We were up in Virginia, near Richmond.”

“It sounds like a win-win for everyone.” remarked David.

“It is. So what about you? You majored in structural engineering or something, didn’t you?” TC asked.

“Yup, I got a job in Tampa with an architectural firm after graduation. Got a few years under my belt. Then I got an offer from an outfit in Portland and that’s where I met my ex-wife. After we split, I threw my name out there and ended up back here in Florida with the company I work for now. It’s worked out so far.” David answered.

Their conversation was interrupted briefly as their food was brought out. After ordering another round of beers they tucked into their food. TC rolled his eyes back after his first bite.

“Pretty good, huh?” remarked David.

“You were right, these are amazing.” replied TC.

There were a couple of moments of easy silence before David asked, “So Chris, how’s your love life? Have you found your Mr. Right?”

TC’s eyes blinked slowly and his easy grin slipped as he answered, “First of all, you can still call me TC. And as for the rest, yeah, I found him. And then I lost him. Lung cancer. It was two months from diagnosis to his funeral. It happened three years ago, he was only thirty-two. He never smoked, not even the occasional joint. His parents were both heavy smokers and he was exposed to secondhand smoke the entire time he spent with them growing up. Even though he moved out when he turned eighteen it was already too late. The oncologist pretty much said that it was probably the cause of the cancer. It was really aggressive too. Both of his parents quit cold turkey the day they realized their son was going to die. His dad committed suicide six months after he died. His mom is a shell of the person she used to be. I’ll never understand why people choose to inhale toxic chemicals.”

David reached across the table and grabbed TC’s hand. He could see the pain that still lingered in TC’s eyes. “I’m so sorry TC. I can see it still hurts.”

“Thanks David, he was a really special guy.” TC commented.

David gave TC’s hand a squeeze and said, “He was a Good Boy, wasn’t he?”

TC smiled then, and answered, “Twenty-four seven he was. Do you still play?”

David chuckled and admitted “Occasionally. Not as often as I would like. Most of the subs I run into are looking for more of a commitment than I can give them. Other guys I’ve tried to date just aren’t into it at all. That was an issue with my ex-wife. She was OK with some light stuff, but didn’t want to delve any further. But anyway, if you ever want to talk about your boy, I’ll listen.”

TC’s eyes glistened and he blinked. “Thank you, David. That means a lot to me. Most of the people who knew Elliott avoid mentioning him because they don’t want to remind me of his loss. I feel his loss every day. It’s getting easier to remember all the good things without getting sad. Most of the time when I think of him now I smile. I promise I’ll tell you all about him one of these days. But not tonight. Tonight is for you and I to catch up.” TC gave David’s hand a squeeze before letting go so they could continue enjoying their meals.

David and TC spent the remainder of their meal together remembering some of their antics from their college days. David found out that TC still kept in touch occasionally with both of their old roommates. One of them had a son who was currently enrolled at FSU and his daughter was planning to go after she graduated next year. Their other roommate was married as well with three younger kids, the oldest not quite in high school yet. David was happy to hear that they were doing well. He realized that he probably should have made an effort to reconnect with them when social media became so prevalent. Like so many people he knew of that were around his age, he just didn’t have time. He had a Facebook profile but hadn’t even looked at it in over a year, nevermind Instagram, Twitter and the like. That was the extent of his presence in the age of instant communication. The company he worked for had its own social media account manager who took care of getting the company name out there to the various outlets available.

When they had finished eating TC insisted on taking care of the check. Once done, they moved over to the patio bar so they wouldn’t monopolize a table. They often broke out into laughter and by the end of the night David had felt like no time at all had passed since he and TC had been thick as thieves.

Before they knew it, the restaurant had nearly cleared out and it was after eleven o’clock. Because TC had insisted on paying for dinner, David took care of the tab they had run up while sitting at the bar. They each had only had a couple of beers and spread out over two and half hours and both of them were still sober. They walked out together and TC indicated that he was parked around back too.

David approached his car and hit the button to unlock the doors. As the lights on his Nissan Altima flashed, TC laughed as he hit his own key fob and the lights on the Audi parked next to David flashed.

David stood in front of TC and looked up at him with a smile. David was 5’10” and it was easy for TC to wrap his arms around David’s shoulders and pull him in for a hug. They broke apart and TC leaned down to kiss David lightly on the lips.

“I’m so glad I ran into you. I feel like I have my best friend back again.” TC told him.

“Me too, and let’s not let almost twenty years go by before we get together again. Promise?” said David.

“Promise. Now that I have you back, my friend, just try to get rid of me.” TC laughed.

David gave TC another hug and inhaled the musky, spicy scent that hovered around him. Finally letting go, the two friends bade each other good-bye and got in their respective cars. TC waited until David pulled out and then followed him out of the parking lot. They both headed west on Bee Ridge Rd until David flicked on his blinker and turned left onto MacIntosh, while TC kept going.

After David pulled into his garage and shut the door, he let his mind wander back over the evening’s conversations. Spending time with TC felt so familiar and comfortable. Back in college they had enjoyed each other’s company nearly everyday. TC was the one who introduced David to the BDSM world. David discovered a whole new world with TC. They were both Doms and had trained together at a club in Tallahassee that catered to the younger college crowd. David enjoyed being a Dom, but he didn’t feel an insistent pull to be in a 24/7 relationship with a sub. TC, however, felt that need. That’s why David knew that the loss of Elliott must have hit TC pretty hard.

David had told TC the truth when he said his ex-wife wasn’t into kink. He realized now that he had sacrificed a big part of himself when he had made the decision to marry a woman who, in hindsight, was not a good match for him. Since his divorce, he had played at a club in Ybor City occasionally and he had a few friends who would host private parties every once in a while. Other than that his life had been pretty mundane when it came to sex. Now that it looked like TC was going to be a regular presence in his life, he just may have to re-evaluate making some more time to play. It was something that certainly needed thinking about.

As David got ready for bed he recalled a conversation that he and TC had when they were going through their training. TC had told David about growing up with a father who expected nothing but the best from his kids. TC and his sister were expected to get straight A’s, participate in extracurricular activities, as well as do volunteer work. TC was allowed to make choices himself, such as what college he could attend, provided he chose the college from the list his father provided. TC loved his parents, but admitted they were rather overbearing. His mom usually went along with what her husband decided. The only time she put her foot down was when TC’s father had expressed disappointment when TC had come out to them. She told him point blank that if he had a problem with who her son loved then he better walk out the door and not let it hit him in the ass on the way out. TC said he gained respect for his mom that day for sticking up for him. His father had kept his opinions to himself from that point on when it came to TC’s personal relationships.

TC had figured out that the reason he needed such total control as a Dom was because he never really had control over anything in his life up until then. It made perfect sense to both of them at the time. David on the other hand got the most enjoyment out of controlling his sub’s pleasure. It was easy for him to draw the line between his sexual side and the rest of his life, but TC always had a desire to be in a twenty-four seven Master/slave relationship. It was the main reason they both knew there could never be a relationship between them. It just wouldn’t work.