The basement room was nearly as large as the whole house above it, with linoleum flooring in a darker silver than the walls. It was not the size that shocked Nick, it was its contents. The motif was a cross between a sultan’s palace and a torture chamber. There were several beds, some on frames and some simple mattresses on the floor, and each appeared to have sheets in a different luxurious fabric. The walls were lined with racks and shelves of sex toys and BDSM equipment, a few of which Nick had never even seen before. There were padded frames and platforms with straps that hinted at how someone could be bound to them, although Nick wasn’t sure which end went where. A leather sex swing hung from the corner near a display of various vibrators. The whole room smelled vaguely musty, almost the way Nick expected a basement would smell, except for the soft scent of silks and satin and the hard musk of leather.

Victor cleared his throat from the stairs. “So ... this is my secret.”

“W-What is all this? Why do you have this in your basement? Are you a collector or something? Like a hobby?”

“A little of both.” Victor trudged down the rest of the stairs and sat down on a bed with crimson velvet sheets and matching pillows. “Like I told you, I’ve been a film critic for the past year and a half, but for several years before that, I was a --” He cleared his throat. “I was a sex toy critic for a porn website.” He gestured around the room. “I’ve personally tested each of these. And not just on myself.”

Nick swung his head wildly, taking in the whole assortment, calculating how long one would need to try each toy individually. “So what? That’s your request? You want me to be your new test subject?”

Victor shook his head. “No, I haven’t worked for that site for a couple years. I don’t expect to be making any additions to this collection unless I get something new as a present from a friend.”

Nick furrowed his brow. “Does -- does that happen? Do your friends give you sexy toys?”

“Well ...” Victor looked down at his hands and played with his fingers. “That’s the other half of the secret. The reason I needed a whole room like this instead of keeping everything tucked away in a closet is ...” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I used to host orgies down here. All-male orgies. With guys I’ve known since college. We had actually been meeting before I got my job as a toy-tester. In fact I took the job so I could vary up our sessions more.”

Nick stood frozen. His overwhelmed brain could barely comprehend that Victor owned all of this, let alone that he had used everything himself. The thought of some group of men Nick had never met congregating in Victor’s basement to have wild sex parties nearly broken Nick’s brain altogether. He stammered out some sound of confusion and disbelief, but he didn’t know what he was trying to say.

Victor put his head in his hands. “Oh God, I knew this was a stupid idea. I should have eased you into this better. We were getting along so well and the sex was ... well ... I thought maybe you would like to spend some time with me down here ...” He bit down on his knuckle anxiously. “I completely understand if you want to run back upstairs and drive away and never speak to me again. This was way too much.”

“Do you still do it?” Nick managed to ask. “Do you still have ... orgies down here?”

“Not for months, no,” Victor said, rising to his feet, a trace of hope in his voice. “I come down here alone sometimes, but otherwise this room has been closed since before I met you. After years of hedonistic group sessions, I started to yearn for something ... something more intimate. I told the guys that I wouldn’t be part of the group for a while and that I’d prefer they not use my house anymore. The problem was, I was so out of practice that I didn’t know where to find someone I could truly connect with.

“I tried bars and clubs and even a few blind dates, but it wasn’t until that speed dating event, my last ditch effort, that I felt anything more than a glimmer of interest for any of the guys I had met. After my five minutes with you were up, I knew my search was over. Then when you called me and asked me out, I was over the moon. The only problem was that I didn’t know how to tell you about this, about my past. I’ve been stressing over it for weeks and I finally decided you should know. And -- and now that you do know, um, maybe I should stop talking and let you say something.”

Everything was still whirling in Nick’s head. He had been looking for fun and excitement, but this was like wanting to curl up by a warm fire and accidentally falling into the sun. Victor didn’t seem like the Fifty Shades type, in fact he had stated bluntly that he would never watch the film adaptation, let alone review it. Nick had assumed it was because Victor wasn’t into that sort of thing, hence Nick’s hesitation to tell him about his interrogation fantasy. Now Victor was looking at him with his sweet sapphire stare, waiting for an answer.

“I ... I need time to think about this. I’m sorry.” Nick didn’t exactly run, but he did get back up the stairs and out to his car before he could change his mind. Even when he was halfway home, he could picture Victor clearly, sitting on the velvet bed with a look of devastation in his eyes.