by M. A. Innes
Choking back a laugh, I cleared my throat. “I’m glad they’re staying busy. I’ll speak to somebody about the movie selections and make sure there are other options playing.”
I wasn’t going to address the dirty comments about what was probably Dungeons & Dragons, but the library on the second floor was supposed to play a variety of movies during the day. I was just hoping we weren’t going to have a repeat of the bribery scandal from two years ago. Getting fired from a job for bribery should involve more money than taking fifty bucks under the table every week so that one crazy old man could control the television.
That had the women smiling and nodding before they headed back inside. Taking a deep breath, I looked around the grounds, enjoying the last few minutes of quiet before I had to go back in. With schedules to check and endless piles of paperwork, there was always something to do, but I loved my job. It wasn’t how I envisioned using my business degree, but it had worked out perfectly.
I just hoped Valentine’s Day would end up the same way...perfect but a little unexpected.
****
Red.
Blue.
Red.
Oh, the green one.
Picking out a mask was harder than it should’ve been. I knew which ones I liked, but I couldn’t decide if it was something Tobias and I should do together. Then there was the whole different issue of whether or not I should wait to buy anything until I talked to him about it.
However, if I waited, I wouldn’t have anything but a conversation to give him on Valentine’s Day, and that just seemed wrong. Making him dessert and then sitting down on the couch for a long conversation would not be romantic or erotic.
And Valentine’s Day should be at least one of those.
“Okay, as long as I can order today there’s still time to get it in before Valentine’s Day.” But that meant that there was absolutely no more time to put things off. Scrolling through the website that was filled with pups in hoods and with tails, my finger stopped the page when I came to a pretty blue one.
It was beautiful. I’d seen fancier ones, and I’d seen ones that were very basic, but this hood was mostly black with accents of blue around the muzzle and on the ears. It would look perfect with a collar the same shade of blue and a cute little tail. But what would Tobias think?
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, setting my computer down on the bed for a moment. “Think through it logically.”
Tobias never thought anything I wanted was weird. Even when he shoved his head in the sand and refused to acknowledge the less-than-vanilla things we’d incorporated into our sex life, he never told me no when there was something I wanted to explore.
This wouldn’t be any different.
Even if I’d read him wrong, and it was something that he would find unappealing, he would appreciate my intentions. But I wouldn’t really know what he thought until I brought it up, and I wanted to be able to show him what I was thinking and not just talk about it in an abstract way.
Opening my eyes, feeling a little more centered, I reached for my computer again. Placing the order was easy, and I even remembered to use my credit card instead of our debit card so he wouldn’t see what I’d bought. In what felt like seconds, I had an email popping up on my phone confirming my order for a complete set of basic starter puppy gear.
A hood, mitts, kneepads, collar, and tail would be showing up at the door in less than a week, and they’d promised discreet packaging. Since I always got home before Tobias, hiding the box away wouldn’t be something I had to worry about, but that wasn’t much of a relief considering how big the list of other things I did have to worry about was.
I just had to find a way to explain it to him. I was hoping somewhere on the site would have the answer for me.
Leashes and Lace, the website that sold the puppy gear, also sold lingerie for men and had an extensive section of blogs. The lingerie didn’t really interest me, but I found the blogs fascinating. It didn’t matter if the blog was about the models who wore lingerie or if it was about puppy play; it gave me an incredible glimpse into their lives.
Some of the models who wore the interesting feminine clothing were funny, and some were serious, but it was usually the pups who had me reading their posts over and over, trying to catch a glimpse of Tobias and myself in them. But it wasn’t that easy.
Most of the time, I could predict his reaction. Sure, sometimes things like the waterpark went wrong, but that was the exception, not the rule. This was harder, though. Sometimes I could see it working out perfectly and other times I saw the idea falling flat.
It would all come down to Tobias. Would he be open to the idea or would it make him nervous? It had taken a long time for me to understand why he was so adamant that we weren’t kinky. When we’d first started exploring things, I thought he was just delusional, but one night while out drinking, we’d run into a guy he dated in college.
The bar had been packed, and the guy hadn’t even noticed us as he was leaving, but Tobias had reacted almost like he’d been hit. After a few beers and, surprisingly, a couple of shots, Tobias had confessed that the relationship hadn’t ended on a good note.
Evidently after a few weeks of dating and what Tobias described as good sex, the guy had said he wanted to try something different. From the hinting that the guy had done, Tobias thought that meant he was into BDSM, so he started looking it up online. Well, one night after they’d had a few drinks at a party, they stumbled back to the guy’s apartment.
With liquid courage flowing through him, Tobias had started talking about the things he’d seen online and told his then boyfriend which parts of the lifestyle interested him. Tobias’s boyfriend hadn’t reacted well to that at all.
Evidently, the guy had gone ape shit and had started screaming that Tobias was a deviant and that he had to get out of his house. It turned out that the guy had only wanted to try topping Tobias. Instead of just laughing over a misunderstanding, the guy had shoved Tobias out of his apartment, screaming that he never wanted to hear from him again.
I thought with that kind of overreaction there had to be something in the guy’s background, but all Tobias had seen was someone he thought might love him calling him a deviant for things that he’d admitted. By the time I’d started dating Tobias, he’d moved past a lot of his issues and was comfortable with things like restraining me, but we always had to tiptoe around the actual topic of BDSM or he would freeze up and immediately pull back. There’d been several points in our early relationship where I’d almost walked away, not knowing what I’d done to upset him and feeling lost.
I just hoped this wouldn’t be one of those times.
He’d grown so much over the past couple of years that I thought he might be ready for the conversation again. The last time we’d gone online to look at sex toys, he’d even played around with the idea of getting nipple clamps, and I’d found a page bookmarked that had different kinds of paddles and floggers.
No matter how anyone phrased it, looking at things like floggers meant BDSM. He couldn’t dance around the topic and say we were just having fun or goofing off if he was taking a flogger to my ass. Once we reached the point where safewords would be necessary, that left vanilla completely behind.
Could he see that? Or maybe the better question would be, was he ready to admit that?
Chapter 4
Tobias
Sometimes the drive home seemed more stressful than my actual job. I kept telling myself I should be grateful I didn’t have to live in DC or New York like some people I knew, but it wasn’t much of a consolation when I was trapped in interstate hell.
Flipping through the radio stations again, I paused on a talk channel, but then quickly changed it again. I wasn’t in the mood for more politics or for anyone to tell me that they knew how I should live my life. As I flicked through the others, I realized that the music wasn’t helping my stress level either, so I just turned it off altogether.
I forced myself to take a
deep breath and remember that it was Friday. I knew I was in a spectacularly terrible mood because I still hadn’t managed to find the fifty million dollars that had magically disappeared, but I was starting to get frustrated with myself.
Forcing myself to push away the thoughts of work, I took several more deep breaths and thought about the weekend with Noah.
Valentine’s Day.
It wasn’t a holiday I was obsessed with, but it was one I actually enjoyed. I liked being able to do something sweet for him. He appreciated thoughtful gestures, and it was fun to watch him smile and see his reactions.
I was pretty confident he would enjoy my gift even though it was a little bit of an unconventional present, but I wouldn’t feel better overall until I knew why he was acting so strangely. Every day for the past week, I’d come home to find him huddled over his computer obsessively studying something, and my curiosity was reaching its limit.
He never said what he was looking at, and I hadn’t caught him playing with himself again, but it was clear that whatever it was, he was fixated on it. I’d always loved surprises in the past, but this one was so distracting that I thought I might have to change my opinion on surprises. I was just grateful I only had to wait one more day. Having Valentine’s Day fall on a Saturday was convenient, but the last week had felt incredibly long.
As I inched farther down the interstate, I did my best to put the thoughts about what he was getting me for Valentine’s Day out of my head. That had the wonderful side effect of putting my present to him at the front of my mind.
It would be more of an experience than gift, but I had a feeling he would appreciate it. Even as I’d started second-guessing myself, I hadn’t been able to think of anything more perfect or more representative of who he was. I just hoped he saw it that way as well.
There was a small part of me that was worried he’d want something more traditional, but I knew that was ridiculous. Noah was anything but traditional, even if he didn’t see it that way. He always thought of gifts that were a little outside the box and unique for everything from birthdays to Christmas, so I knew this wouldn’t be any different.
However, it didn’t bother him when my gifts usually ended up on the more traditional side of things. When I’d gotten him a watch for our first Valentine’s Day with our initials etched on the inside, he’d smiled lovingly as he’d traced his finger over the letters.
He’d worn it every day since then. It had become such a part of him that most of the time I didn’t even notice he was wearing it. But sometimes, I would look at it and flash back to the smile on his face and the way he’d first looked at our entwined initials.
Finally getting off the interstate, I reminded myself that an experience could be better than a gift. It would be something we could look back on and smile about years after something like the watch would break down.
“It’s Valentine’s Day, not the end of the world. Stop obsessing.” Weaving my way through the side streets, it felt like heaven when I finally pulled into the driveway.
As I parked the car, I turned off the engine and slumped back in the seat, closing my eyes. Taking several deep breaths, I tried to let the stress of work and everything that came with it fall away. Some days it was harder to do that than others, but I hated bringing that anxiety home.
Noah was good about understanding the pressure of my work even though it sounded incredibly boring, but I hated bringing that energy into the house. I wanted to be a loving, happy husband for him, but sometimes the stress of everything had my skin crawling and my head pounding.
My mood hadn’t improved much in the few moments of quiet, but I forced myself to function and climb out of the car. As I made my way up to the door, I had to smile when I heard music pouring from the house. Noah had absolutely terrible taste in music, but he was passionate.
He loved everything from obscure sixties groups to the big hair bands of the eighties, but nothing after that. It had made going on car trips with him a struggle until we’d realized we both enjoyed audiobooks and the occasional talk radio station, so we’d found a way to compromise.
We’d listened to everything from action-adventure and spy thrillers to young adult dystopian novels. But that was better than trying to decide who got to pick the radio stations. My mother had just laughed and said we would end up more educated in the long run. But when she’d tried to force us to listen to self-help books and classic novels, we’d both put our foot down. I wasn’t sure I would’ve been willing to compromise that much.
Opening the door unleashed a screaming drum solo so loud it made me wince. As I shut the door behind me and locked it, the volume dropped to a more manageable level as the singer started screaming something about cheap women.
Chuckling to myself, I made my way through the house until I found him in the kitchen. Leaning against the doorway, I watched as my normally quiet husband rocked out on an air guitar to the terrible song.
As he finished up what was probably a spectacular solo, he turned and dropped his air guitar when he realized he had an audience. Blushing and giving me a sheepish grin, he walked over to the counter and turned off the music. The blissful silence was wonderful, but his utter delight and the image of him dancing around the room had erased my stress in a way nothing else could have.
“I think we need to enter you in the Air Guitar Olympics.” Then I paused. “Was it Olympics or was it called something else? I don’t remember. That one in Europe that was on TV.”
Noah shook his head, scoffing. “Oh no.”
Walking over to the doorway, he pulled me into his arms and gave me a quick kiss. “You’re the only person I perform for.”
Snickering, because sometimes I had the humor of a thirteen-year-old, I tried to ignore how dirty that sounded. “Well, the rest of the world will miss out on your talent, but I appreciate your saving yourself for me.”
Yeah, it wasn’t really funny, but Noah smiled and shook his head anyway. “I’m glad you appreciate how...untouched I am.”
Letting my head rest on his chest, I giggled like a kid.
I had the best husband ever. His arms tightened around me, and I could hear a smile in his voice as he spoke. “I started making us dinner, but then...I got slightly distracted.”
I felt his chest move as he shrugged. “I have chicken thawed out, but that’s as far as I got. I don’t know where the time went, because I had every intention of making that curry stuff that you like.”
While that sounded good, I quickly decided I’d rather curl up with him and eat pizza than watch him cook. Lifting my head, I gave him a kiss and smiled. “How about we order pizza and pick out a movie? We’ll cook the chicken for lunch tomorrow, or we’ll wait until Sunday and do something with it then. It should still be good in a few days.”
The frustration on Noah’s face fled as he tightened his arms around me. “That sounds perfect. How about you go grab a shower while I order?”
I nodded but gave him a counteroffer. “How about you order quickly and then come join me in the shower? You can help me wash my back.”
Noah’s fingers stroked up and down my back. “I think that’s a perfect suggestion.” He trailed them lower toward my ass and stopped right at the top of my crack, making me want to squirm. “There are a lot of places that are...difficult to wash. I wouldn’t want you to be...dirty if I could help.”
His tone was sincere, but the look on his face and the little pauses said our minds were on the same track. “You’re probably right.”
I rocked my hips and started grinding my cock against him. “You might want to hurry up with that call because I might get distracted...washing myself if you take too long.”
Noah groaned as I shifted to rub my dick against his before stepping back. He trailed his fingers over me as I winked and turned to head for the bedroom. Calling over my shoulder, I smiled wickedly. “Remember not to take too long.”
I had a feeling it would be the fastest order in pizza history.
I
was right.
Before the water had even heated up or I’d had a chance to get naked, Noah was in the bathroom stripping off his clothes. Laughing, I let my pants drop to the floor. “What did you do, scream into the phone that they could send us anything they wanted before hanging up?”
Noah grinned sheepishly, shaking his head. “No, I just ordered on the app and told it we wanted the same thing we got last time. I have no idea what that is, but it will be here in about forty-five minutes.”
Shoving my boxer briefs down and stepping out of the pile of clothes, I reached out and ran my hands over his muscular chest. “I’m not sure it matters what we get. This is all I really need.”
Skimming my fingers around his nipples, I scraped my nails over the sensitive skin and watched as he shivered. His fingers seemed to lose coordination as I played, but he didn’t complain. His slightly unsteady digits just worked harder as I pinched his nubs and gave them the barest of twists. “You’re taking so long. My water’s going to be cold by the time you get naked.”
He grumbled under his breath, but his hands moved quicker and soon his clothes were in a pile beside mine on the floor. When he was beautifully naked, I let my hands wander over his chest and down his abs to stroke his erection that was arching out from his body. “That’s much better.”
He shivered and I couldn’t decide if it was from my words or my touch, but as he gave me a hungry look, I decided it didn’t matter. Using his cock almost as a handle, I gave it a tug and pulled him toward the shower. He groaned and his cock jerked in my hand, making it clear he liked the borderline rough treatment.
Releasing his cock reluctantly, I opened the door of the shower and stepped into the steam and heat. I loved our shower. We’d even ended up buying a more expensive house than we really needed because it was so incredible. With a rainfall and regular showerhead that would go from pelting to a gentle caress of water, we could have almost everything we could want.
