Lane

by Shaw Montgomery

  Letting some guy jerk him off or go down on him in the back of a bar wasn’t the same thing as making out with a date. Wilder seemed to take everything in stride, but I knew that a lot of guys would’ve panicked at that point, and I hadn’t wanted to push him.

  Yes, I’d imagined for days what it would’ve been like to undress him and touch him, but I’d wait until he was ready, or until he gave me permission. God, that was hot enough that my cock started to thicken. Trying to mentally change the subject, because the thought of Wilder dominating me was just too perfect, I turned my focus back to Eli. “How are things with you and Roman?”

  I was mostly interested in how things were with his family, but I wasn’t sure if Eli was ready to talk about that yet. Eli grinned. “Fabulous. Oh, I wanted to talk to you about that photo shoot idea.”

  He was like a dog obsessing over his favorite toy. I was going to end up doing that photo shoot just to get him to focus on something else.

  Eli didn’t seem to realize he was driving me crazy, though. He could just see it so clearly in his head and was so excited that he charged right in again. “I was talking with Roman, and we had the best idea. What do you think about asking Wilder to do it with you?”

  What?

  I just stood there staring at him.

  Eli seemed to realize I was shocked because he sat up again, gesturing excitedly. “You can’t say no yet. You haven’t heard the whole idea. Wilder has all those fabulous tattoos, and they have to keep going across his body, you know they do. You have that sweetness that shows up in the photos, it would be such a cool BDSM shoot. The contrast would be amazing.”

  He was too excited and too convinced he was right to understand the word no at that point. The fact that he was probably right didn’t help either. Even I had to admit the scene would be fabulous. I just couldn’t see Wilder doing it or even asking him to consider it. Just imagining the conversation was almost impossible.

  “We’ll see. I’m not promising anything, Eli.” That was as close as I could get to bursting his bubble. I just had to wait until Roman brought it up and then I could find a way to get out of it. Roman could be difficult sometimes, but he knew when to back off.

  Unlike Eli.

  Eli just smiled. If he heard any reluctance in my voice, he ignored it—which didn’t surprise me at all. “You’ll see. It’ll be fabulous.”

  The new conversation was just as difficult as the old one. Sometimes, I wasn’t even sure why I tried with him. “What are you guys doing this weekend?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. Roman has a shoot Saturday afternoon that I’m going to help with, and I’ve got some other paperwork I have to do. It should be a fairly lazy weekend, though.”

  “No crazy shoots planned for just the two of you?”

  Eli grinned. “I said lazy, not boring.”

  “Just remember what Preston said.” I laughed as Eli rolled his eyes. We’d all heard what Preston had to say about Eli and Roman in the studio alone. But Preston had just about given up trying to remind Eli not to get too crazy in the studio.

  The lectures weren’t working.

  Sometimes I had a feeling Eli was doing it just to push Preston’s buttons. He seemed to think that Preston was under too much stress, and I had to agree with him. But getting Preston to lecture and rant about Eli’s behavior wasn’t the best way for Eli to help. Not that he agreed with me.

  “Preston needs more excitement in his life. He’s working more hours than he needs to and I’ve caught him sleeping in the upstairs apartments way too often lately.” Eli’s tone had moved from ready to tease to honestly worried.

  “Are you just concerned for Preston, or are you frustrated that he’s stopping your fun?” I knew how close he and Preston were, which was why I was just teasing.

  Eli merely grinned and shrugged. “What can I say? He needs a hobby. Or someone to obsess over. Why can’t we find a stalker for him?”

  Preston might not have a stalker, but he did have someone who was very curious about everything he did.

  “I’m not sure that’s the healthiest option. And I’m speaking from experience, remember?” Just because I’d gotten lucky didn’t mean we needed to wish an obsessive stalker on Preston.

  Eli huffed. “You’re getting too boring. We need more excitement around here. We need to get everybody together and go out. It’s been too long since we did anything fun.”

  “Whose fault is that? You’ve been the one who’s been obsessing over your man.” But having quiet evenings at home to get work done hadn’t been terrible.

  Eli grinned. “Reese has been just as bad.”

  Rolling my eyes, I went over to the closet and pulled out a small gym bag to pack everything in. “I was left alone so often I turned into a stalker. If I’d gotten in trouble, it would’ve been all your fault.”

  Eli laughed. “Because I’m a terrible influence. Isn’t it fabulous?”

  “I’m not sure I’d call it fabulous.”

  Heading back over to the dresser, I started putting in the nightgowns and things that Wilder had mentioned. Just thinking of what could happen had my knees going weak. Maybe heels weren’t such a good idea.

  Eli must have sensed my growing nerves, because he jumped off the bed and bounded across the room. Throwing his arms around me, he gave me a kiss on the cheek. “You are going to have a wonderful night and show off how sexy you are to your big tattooed hunk.“

  I just hoped Eli was right.

  Chapter 11

  Wilder

  He’d been nervous since he’d walked in the door. Lane was giving off mixed signals, but the one thing I was sure about was that I was excited to see what he was going to wear. And not just because it meant I was seeing him almost naked.

  He was finally going to let me see the real Lane.

  As we’d gotten to know each other, I’d come to understand how careful he’d been. Some things I’d already realized, like letting me take the lead to initiate the physical side of our relationship. Other things had taken longer to figure out. Like the fact that until he’d shown up at my house, I’d never seen him in anything remotely feminine.

  That still didn’t feel like an accurate way to describe it, but Lane had said it was fine. It was starting to feel like he was ready to open up—or maybe just test the waters. When I opened the door, the flowing white shirt was the first thing that drew my eye. It made me want to slide my hands over it and see how it would feel against his skin.

  The jeans made his legs look even longer and almost curvy as they led down to the heels. I couldn’t remember ever seeing a man wearing shoes like that, but I loved the way they made women look, and it was easy to see that the same thing was true with men.

  Evidently, everybody’s legs looked better and ass looked rounder in heels.

  Lane looked relieved to see my clear appreciation of his clothes, but his nerves hadn’t stayed calm for long. Even as we sat on the floor, eating Chinese around my coffee table and laughing over a bad movie, I could still see some hesitation in his eyes. But I had a feeling words wouldn’t make a difference. Lane needed to see that it wasn’t going to scare me off.

  I’d done enough research online, even just browsing through his site, to know that the clothes didn’t bother me in an abstract way. Lane’s photos, in particular, looked incredible. I was a little bit nervous and curious, but not especially worried. He was going to look beautiful, and we were both going to have fun as I stripped them off him.

  Since he was already nervous, I figured I might as well ask some of the questions that had been on my mind. Texting them or asking them over the phone might’ve been easier, but I wanted to see his face. Voices could lie and text messages could obscure the details, but most people couldn’t hide the truth in person.

  “You liked when I took control the other night, didn’t you? It was more than just something casual. Wasn’t it?” Lane hadn’t been expecting the question because he choked on his bite of beef and broccoli an
d it took him a moment to catch his breath.

  “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to startle you.” Choking him to death hadn’t been my goal.

  He shook his head as he finished taking a drink of his soda. “No, it’s fine. I just wasn’t expecting it.”

  That was an understatement. “Yeah, I’m not trying to kill you before we get to the good part of the date.” The humor was a little bit inappropriate, but Lane didn’t seem to mind.

  “So now you’re turning into a serial killer, but you’re going to let me die happy?” Lane smirked.

  “Of course, I’m looking forward to the rest of our date.” We both knew what I was thinking about.

  Lane blushed faintly but didn’t seem upset with the direction the conversation had taken. He just started poking at his food and seemed to be gathering his thoughts. When he finally spoke, he still didn’t look at me, but his voice was firm. “I like that, yes. I also like mild pain, like what you did the other night. I’ve never been in an actual relationship with BDSM, but I’ve fooled around with it a little bit. The formal side of things doesn’t really appeal to me. But things like nipple play and spankings are stuff I enjoy.”

  I appreciated the way he laid it out, not making me dig for answers, or even worse, guess. “I’ve never done anything formal with that either. Have you ever been to a club or anything like that?”

  “Eli dragged me a few times. It’s not really my thing. I know it sounds odd with the pictures and all, but being watched me nervous.” Lane was starting to grow more confident with the discussion, because he glanced up at me.

  He cocked his head and just seemed to be analyzing my reactions. “Is it something you ever wanted to explore?”

  I shrugged. “I like what we did and I like being in control, but it’s not something I ever felt the need to explore seriously. Maybe if it was something that my partner needed it would be different.”

  I rolled the idea around in my head, trying to figure out how I felt about it. “Aside from taking control in bed or something like a scene, I don’t think I would need to be in control of the rest of the relationship. What about you?”

  Lane finished chewing and took another sip before answering. “I have a lot of friends who are in the lifestyle in different ways. I can see why some of it appeals to them, but I’ve never needed that much of it in my life. Having a serious relationship doesn’t make me uncomfortable, but I don’t need someone who wants that much control over the rest of my life. It feels like it would be hovering, and I like my space.”

  “I can understand that. I feel the same way.” Then I gave him a teasing grin. “Not that I mind spanking you if you’ve been naughty.”

  Lane laughed. “I’ll remember that.”

  That definitely wasn’t a no.

  I filed the information away for later. “I know there’s the stoplight system and safewords in the BDSM lifestyle, but what have you used?”

  Lane seemed to find the question easier than the others because he answered right away. “I’ve done both, depending on the situation. The stoplight method is probably the best just in case, but what do you think?”

  “I think red, yellow, and green are the safest. But unless I knew someone really well, and it was strictly a role-play scenario, no would mean no for me.” I’d seen enough of the lifestyle and had enough interesting conversations with people when they’d come in for tattoos and piercings that I understood why no didn’t always mean no, and maybe I was too cautious, but it made me uncomfortable.

  “I understand.” Lane went back to eating, but his eyes kept glancing over toward the front door. With another date, I would’ve thought they were ready to leave, but I knew he was looking at his bag, not an escape route.

  Finally, I decided to address the elephant in the room.

  I knew he would bring it up eventually, but I figured there was no reason to wait. I also didn’t want him to think that I wasn’t excited for it or the idea made me uncomfortable. “I’m assuming the gym bag has the stuff you’re going to model for me?”

  His blush flared back to his face and his eyes darted between me and the bag. “Yes, I grabbed the stuff that you liked and a few other pieces for you to see.”

  He said it very matter-of-factly, but he was clearly nervous. Maybe too nervous. There was a fine line between showing him I was okay with who he was and pushing him. I might have reached that line. “If this makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to.”

  He shrugged, and his shoulders went down like the stress was slowly easing out of him. “I like the clothes. I guess I just worried about…” His voice lowered and he glanced down at his plate again. “I’m enjoying getting to know you, and the idea of scaring you off makes me…uneasy.”

  It felt a little bit like we were back in school, trying to work out how the other person felt. It was almost like I should be passing him a note and asking him to check yes or no if he liked me. But as crazy as it would probably sound, I was enjoying every step of our relationship.

  It’d been a long time since anyone had made me feel like Lane did. “I’m enjoying getting to know you too. But I want to get to know all of you. Eventually, I’d like to see you at work, and I want to know the whole person, not just the part of Lane who doesn’t want to surprise people.”

  He looked up, a cautious smile on his face, and nodded. “I’d like to see your work too. I’ve never seen anyone get a tattoo or even inside the shop. I looked at some of the sketches you have in the window, but that’s about it.”

  “What? Stalking prevents you from coming into the business?” I grinned as he laughed. “You’re not a very thorough stalker.”

  He shook his head in mock remorse. “I’ll have to practice more on you, then, so I can get better.”

  I liked the sound of that. “Practice all you want. I’m going to start paying better attention, though.”

  He snorted. “I’m not sure it would be possible to pay less attention.”

  Laughing, I shrugged. “Okay, that might be true. But I noticed when you came into the coffee shop the other day.”

  Lane grinned. “Eli is kind of hard to miss when he’s in drama queen mode.”

  “Okay, you might have a point there. But I still noticed. I’m going to count that as a win.” There’d been no way I could’ve missed Eli. “Why was he screaming about the UPS man?”

  The guy was quiet and slightly mousy. I couldn’t imagine him doing anything that would upset someone.

  Lane’s laugh was almost a giggle and was the cutest sound I’d ever heard. “The guy is really curious about what happens at the company. At least, that’s what we figure. But he won’t come out and ask about the clothes or the models or whatever has caught his attention. He just finds reasons to wander too far back into the studio. Eli wasn’t really upset about it; most of the time he finds it funny. He was just frustrated about something else and was taking it out on the UPS guy. This time he kind of had a point, though.”

  The look on his face said there was more to the story than he’d let on. “I really can’t see him doing anything. He’s so quiet.”

  Lane nodded. “He is quiet and cute, but the other day he came in to drop a package off and most of the office staff were in a meeting so he came upstairs. We were all in the middle of a shoot and he got an eyeful. Eli didn’t appreciate being interrupted, especially since he was shooting something with Roman at that moment. Those two are nearly combustible, they’re so hot.”

  “I can’t believe we're talking about the same person. The short guy with the brown hair that’s on the longer side?” I could see why Lane described him as cute, but he was so reserved I might never have noticed if I hadn’t seen him so often.

  “Yeah, that’s him. We can’t decide if he wants to be a model or has a crush on someone who works with us. Roman fussed at Eli for scaring the guy, though. At least he didn’t make the guy cry like the pizza boy.”

  I wasn’t sure asking about the pizza guy was a good idea. “It sounds like
you work with insane people. You know that, right?”

  Lane nodded, grinning widely. “Absolutely. It’s one of the reasons I love it.”

  We both seemed to be finished with dinner, so I leaned back on my hands and cocked my head. “Are you ready to show me some of the other reasons you love it?”

  If he wasn’t, I’d understand. But I wasn’t going to back down until he told me he wasn’t ready. I had a feeling that if I let it go he’d take it the wrong way. I wouldn't give him any reason to think I wasn’t interested in seeing every part of my sweet stalker.

  Lane seemed to take a moment to make a decision or maybe just to gather his courage before he spoke. “Yes. Is there a room I can use to change?”

  I probably shouldn’t have teased him, but I couldn’t help it. He was too cute. “What? I distinctly remember hearing Eli say something about a striptease the other day.”

  Lane blushed and shook his head. “He likes to make me insane. He’s going to get us kicked out of that coffee shop one day.”

  “It wasn’t that loud, so I was probably the only one who heard.” Well, besides the barista; she’d been standing close enough to hear but hadn’t seemed to take offense. She was probably used to Eli by that point.

  “You can use my bedroom or the bathroom. The bathroom might be easier, though.”

  I loved the views and the open feeling of my apartment, but the bedroom wasn’t really designed for privacy. The staircase leading up to the sleeping area loft was beautifully done and looked like the stairs were simply coming out of the wall. The bedroom area was a good size and had plenty of storage, but the half wall that blocked it from the living room wouldn’t hide much.

  Lane glanced up before shaking his head. “I’m not going to try to do those stairs in heels. Bathroom it is.”

  Laughing, I nodded. “I agree. I wasn’t sure if you were going to put the heels back on.”

  Lane grinned as he stood up and started walking toward the door. “Heels make everything sexier.” He leaned down and grabbed his bag before heading back over toward the living room. “Any requests first?”