At Kapara (the Hebrew word for atonement from sin), he has dialled up the party vibes in a large two-floor space, heavy on millennial pink and biophilia, with a semi-open kitchen on the clubbier lower level, and house music suggesting that the point is to stay and dance ’til the 1am close, even on a Monday night.

Even the pink sign on the door, imploring visitors to ‘Push it hard’, suggests a certain level of nudge-wink debauchery at this self-styled ‘Tel Aviv Fantasy’, by the Israeli chef-owner Eran Tibi – who got a start under Yottam Ottolenghi and made his name in London with the slightly more understated and obviously Israeli Bala Baya, in a Southwark railway arch. There will be a happy ever after.Tucked away in the genteel James Court off Soho’s Greek Street, the location might be the most subtle thing about Kapara. Two very different men, two very different reasons to be where they are, but The Outreach will bring them together and help them see themselves and each other.Ĭan You See Me? is the first book in the Outreach Series, set in the same universe as Romilly King's Delphic Agency Series of gay romance novels - It brings back favourite characters from Delphic and is a slow burn romance with realistic kink exploration, themes of hurt and comfort, a dom who thought he knew it all, and a damaged sub who is too ashamed to kneel. I might be too old and too damaged to ever truly experience my desires, but I want to know, just for myself, just for the record, which way I am tilted.

I don't know if this Outreach thing can help me, but with their science and their skills they can tell me the kind of man I could have been, the kind of love I could have had, and there is some comfort in that. There is this need inside me that I never explored and then the trauma denied me the freedom to even consider it. It's easy to blame it on my service, to be that PTSD veteran, but it's more than that. I've not been doing great for a long time. I'm revising this story, and I'm going to learn everything The Outreach has to offer. It's making me feel all kinds of stupid about how I've played in the past, and all kinds of fascinated for how to scene in the future. It seems these guys actually know what they are talking about, and what they are saying is resonating inside me on a primal level. When my boss sent me on this assignment I thought I was writing a fluff piece, a sly little dig at the newest psychobabble trend to hitch itself to the 'discover yourself' gravy train. Some see it as a green light for deviancy, for others it's their last chance to understand why they want the things they want. It's brand new and causing waves, politically and socially. This is The Outreach, where the kink curious can have their desires analysed, their cravings explained, and if they are lucky, find the right kind of someone to meet their needs.

Can You See Me? by Romilly King