Chapter 25 – There Are Limits

The Valley City Armory, a massive brick building from the late 1800s, was larger than anything she had ever filmed in before, even larger than Sinful Studios.

As she approached the entrance, she reminded herself of everything she knew about Ethan Cooper. Last night she had tried to find out more about him, but the internet revealed surprisingly little.

A few credits as a cameraman for two mediocre Hollywood films fifteen years ago. A grotesquely self-indulgent personal homepage featuring “erotic video art projects” that looked very arthouse and gave the impression that he thought of himself as some kind of Kubrick of porn. But otherwise, nothing. He didn’t seem to use social media, almost as if he were deliberately staying under the radar.

That only made her more curious.

She was twenty minutes early. To have time to observe and get her bearings before the whole circus started.

She pressed the doorbell, it buzzed, and then she pulled open the heavy front door with a loud groan.

“Hi, you must be Chloe!”

A young woman approached her, maybe in her early twenties, with chin-length brown hair and a warm, friendly smile. She was wearing jeans and a Bound.com T-shirt, with a clipboard in her hand.

“I’m Melissa, PA for Bound.com, and I’m here for you today.” She held out her hand. “It’s great that you’re here so early, that gives us time to go through everything without a hurry.”

Chloe shook her hand and put on her best Chloe Heart smile. “Hi! I’m so excited to be here!”

“Your first time at Bound.com, right?” Melissa led her down a long hallway, past photos documenting the history of the building, from the old military exercises to today’s less martial productions. “Come on, I’ll show you around first.”

The tour was impressive. Multiple sets for Bound.com’s various brands, professional lighting rigs hanging from the ceiling, crews everywhere working on the sets, and she saw even someone systematically disinfecting all the props.

“This is our main area for today,” Melissa said, leading them into a large room with high ceilings. In the middle stood an impressive and perhaps even slightly disturbing bondage rig on heavy metal poles. “Buck is already getting ready.”

Buck Wheaton stood by a collection of impact toys, laying them all out. He looked up as they approached, and Chloe was surprised. She had seen videos of him before but didn’t know what he looked like because he always wore a leather mask in the videos.

To her surprise, she saw a man in his fifties with gray hair and a face that looked like he could be the nice uncle who tells the best jokes at family gatherings.

“Ah, you must be Chloe.” His voice was warm and reassuring. He came over and shook her hand with a firm but gentle grip. “I’m Buck. Or, as they call me on camera, the Cardinal.” He laughed. “Sounds more dramatic with the leather mask.”

She smiled, perhaps a little more uncertain than she had intended.

“Before we do anything,” Buck continued, “we’ll have a detailed conversation to clarify your limits, the safe words, and all other safety issues.”

Chloe nodded, and together they went with him and Melissa to a corner where there was a small table with a few comfortable chairs.

Buck sat down and pointed to the chair opposite him, which Chloe took.

“It really reassures me how professionally you’re handling this,” she said.

And I mean that.

After Randy’s “sign here and get naked” approach, this felt almost surreal.

“Sure!” Buck took a multi-page form from Melissa’s clipboard and placed it in front of Chloe.

“Every performer fills this out before every shoot. Even if they’ve been here a hundred times.” He leaned back, his arms loosely crossed. “Bodies change and comfort zones may shift over time. What was okay last week can totally be a no-go today and that’s fine.”

Melissa nodded in agreement. “I’ll also be there throughout the entire shoot to keep an eye on you. In addition to Buck.”

“That’s…” Chloe searched for the right words for her Chloe Heart performance. “Wow, you guys really take safety seriously!”

“Safe, sane, and consensual,” Buck said seriously. “That’s the foundation of everything we do. BDSM doesn’t work without trust.”

He pushed the form closer to her. “Just check everything you DON’T want to do. And just because you don’t check something doesn’t mean it will definitely happen. But everything you check will definitely not happen.”

Chloe took the pen and began to read. Sexual acts, general activities, humiliation, corporal punishment… The list was frighteningly comprehensive.

“Take your time,” Buck said. “We’re in no rush.”

She worked her way through it systematically. Anal fisting? Definitely check. Anal penetration? Also. Hair bondage? No idea what that is exactly, but I don’t feel like my hair being wrapped around something, so check. Hoods and sensory deprivation? No thanks.

She paused at “water play”. “What exactly does that mean?”

“It can be different things,” Buck explained. “From water from a spray bottle to a bucket over your head. Nothing dangerous, but some people just don’t like it.”

She checked it off. Not today.

The humiliation section was also quite interesting. Foot worship? No way. Spitting? Yuck. Animal roleplay? She imagined having to bark or meow and frowned. Checked.

“Choking?” she read aloud.

“Hand pressure on the throat,” Buck said. “Controlled, of course. Some people find it really hot, others don’t like it at all or find it triggering.”

Check. Hair pulling? Definitely check. Hitting the asshole? Who thinks of stuff like that? Check.

In the marking section, she wrote “MARKS ARE OK” in the column. She had no shoots planned for the next few days.

Do I have enough boundaries? Does it seem weird if I don’t check enough boxes? Did I check too many?

“Everything okay?” asked Buck, who had noticed her uncertainty.

“Yes, I… I just don’t know if I’m checking too many or too few?”

He smiled warmly. “There’s no such thing as too much or too little. There are only your boundaries. They are always right.”

She nodded and signed the form. Buck took it, read it carefully, and signed it as well.

“Now for the safewords,” he said, his voice becoming even more serious. “We work with a traffic light system. Yellow means ‘slow down’ or ‘check in’. Red means stop immediately.”

“Understood.”

“It’s important,” he leaned forward, “to talk about, that this means when you say ‘no’ or ‘please stop,’ I won’t stop. That’s part of the game. Only ‘red’ stops everything.”

Chloe nodded. “That makes sense. Otherwise, the whole fantasy wouldn’t work.”

“Exactly. And if you’re gagged…” He raised his hand to his mouth and shook his head while making “Uh-uh-uh” noises. “That’s your signal. Head shaking plus noises through the gag means red. And don’t worry, when you’re gagged, your head always has enough room to move.”

“Do it again yourself,” Melissa asked.

Chloe mimicked the movement, feeling a little silly as she did so.

“Perfect,” Buck said. “And remember, using a safeword is not a failure. It’s communication. This is professional work, and your safety is more important to us than the take.”

“I’ll be keeping an eye on you the whole time,” Melissa added. “In addition to Buck. You’re never alone in there.”

“Any questions?” Buck looked at her intently. “Any concerns?”

Chloe took a deep breath. How vulnerable should she show herself to be? “It’s my first BDSM shoot. Actually, my first real BDSM experience ever. I’m a little nervous.”

“That’s completely normal,” Buck said reassuringly. “We’ll start slowly and build up. I’ll be constantly reading your reactions. My goal is for you to enjoy it and have fun, not just endure it.”

He cleared his throat slightly. “You know, when BDSM is done right, it can be incredibly liberating, sometimes even cathartic. You can let go, release all the stress and tension, and you always have the safeword as a safety net if it gets too much.”

Let go. When was the last time I did that?

“So,” Buck stood up and clapped his hands lightly, and the serious mood evaporated. “The boring paperwork is done. Now we can have some fun.”

Chloe felt something lift in her chest. She felt… safe? Maybe even a little bit excited about what was coming next? After weeks of mistrust and constant vigilance, the feeling was so unexpected that it almost knocked her off balance.

Elena was right. They really take this seriously.

Melissa led Chloe down another hallway, past black-and-white photographs of bound bodies, artfully lit.

“This is where we do the pre-interview,” Melissa said, opening a door to a smaller room. The furnishings were quite spartan. Just a black bar stool in front of a neutral dark gray background, two softboxes casting soft light, and a camera on a sturdy tripod. Next to it stood a guy in worn jeans and a T-shirt from a band apparently called “Vanix Divelizis”, who was adjusting the height of the tripod.

“It’s pretty standard,” Melissa explained as she led Chloe to the stool. “You introduce yourself, talk a little bit about your experience, what brings you here. Just be your natural self, okay?”

Chloe nodded. It couldn’t be worse than the pre-interview at Casting Couch Cuties.

“Oh, and our cameraman today is Ethan,” Melissa added casually.