How to Train Your Dom in Five Easy Steps

by Josephine Myles

  “Mmm, you’re keen. That means either you’re really desperate and making up for lost time, or I’m the most fantastic shag ever.”

  Jeff snorted. “Stop fishing for compliments.” But when Eddie didn’t say anything else for a while, he added “You were great.” It didn’t go anywhere towards explaining how incredible the whole experience had been, but it seemed to satisfy Eddie, who made one of his happy cat noises again and started combing his fingers through Jeff’s chest hair.

  “Wish I could do tomorrow, but I’ve got a busy week ahead. Might be best to save it for the weekend. When I come round to yours for naked sunbathing.”

  “Yeah. All right.” Jeff pretended an acceptance he didn’t really feel. A week felt like an awfully long time to have to wait to see Eddie again.

  They lay there for some time, Jeff wanting to kiss Eddie again but not really knowing how to ask. Maybe Eddie only kissed as foreplay. Was kissing the kind of thing gay blokes did just as an end in itself? He could have just grabbed Eddie’s head and forced himself on him again, but the energy had changed. Now it felt more like they were equals than Dom and sub, and he didn’t want to screw with that balance.

  He’d just have to wait. He’d stuck things out with Sarah for thirteen years, so he must be patient enough to manage without Eddie for a few days.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “So, how’s your Dom training going?” Maddy asked, planting her feet on Eddie’s coffee table. “Got him fully converted to cock yet?”

  “Not exactly, but I think we’re getting there.” Eddie lounged back in the armchair and remembered the feel of Jeff’s hand wrapped around him, calluses rubbing just right. It had only been a few days ago, but already he was craving Jeff’s touch. And not just on his cock.

  “Ooh, you’re doing one of those smiles. Come on, what are you remembering? Did he give you a blowjob?”

  If only! “Excuse me, but I don’t ask you for the gory details of your sex life.”

  “You don’t have to, because you know I’ll quite happily give them to you anyway.” Maddy pouted. “Not that there’re any to give right now. I’m getting bloody sick of vanilla sex. How do people put up with it all the time?”

  “Vanilla? You? Why?”

  Maddy folded her hands over her still very flat stomach. “Niall doesn’t want to risk doing anything to harm the baby. And apparently that includes hurting me. I mean, I can understand why suspension, fisting and breath play are out of the picture for a while, but he’s taking things way too far.”

  “Maybe he’s worried you’ll get too, I don’t know, excited?”

  “I could do with a bit of excitement. Honestly, he won’t let me wear my corsets or even have a glass of wine with dinner. Is a light spanking over the bench too much to ask for? He’s treating me like I’m made out of china or something.”

  “At least he cares.”

  “Oh yeah.” Maddy got a smile that bordered on soppy. “He’s being ridiculously overattentive. And he’s treating me to a spa break in the Cayman Islands next month. Apparently the best way to spend my pregnancy is flat on my back having my nails manicured. Even wants me to give up work.”

  “And will you?”

  Maddy snorted. “Not bloody likely. I’d go doolally if I couldn’t work. And besides, you can’t take time out in the fashion industry. Got to keep up with every last trend, or you’re hopelessly out of date.”

  “Sounds a bit like graphic design.” Eddie frowned at the latest set of designs he’d sketched out for a client, pinned up over his workstation. Were the faux-retro stylings too passé now? But it was what they’d said they were after, so he’d gone for a vintage take on their current logo. “Knowing when a trend has passed is a tough call sometimes.”

  “Darling, if you’re even asking yourself that question, it’s over.”

  “For the fashionistas, maybe, but for the rest of us mortals, trends stick around for a bit longer.”

  “As evidenced by the fact you’re still dressing exactly as you did at college. You do know the rave scene is well and truly over, don’t you?” It would have sounded bitchy from anyone else, but since Maddy was like this with everyone, it didn’t really mean anything.

  “I like this look. It’s me.”

  “You look like the least gay gay man ever. Honestly, you could at least do me the favour of being obsessed with clothes so I could take you shopping. Worst GBF ever.”

  Eddie grinned and planted his naked feet next to hers. “What if I tell you all about my relationship issues. Will that earn me gay points?”

  “It might do. They’d better be juicy ones, though. With plenty of emotional drama. Extra points if you get all weepy.”

  “I don’t know if I’d go that far, but they’re kind of juicy.” Although using that word just reminded him of Jeff’s copious love juices and what it felt like to be covered in them. That probably wasn’t the kind of juicy Maddy was after. “I don’t know. What does it mean when a man fucks you and then asks to see you the next day? Is that just a sex thing, or does it mean more?”

  Maddy leaned forward. “So he has fucked you at last. About bloody time.”

  “Hey, I’m not surprised it’s taken a while. He does still think he’s straight. Or at least, I think he does. I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

  “You could try asking him. That’s what I do when I want to find out what someone thinks.”

  “Yes, thank you, Ms. Stating-the-Bloody-Obvious. It’s not that simple, though, is it? Not with Jeff. He gets this terrified look whenever I mention anything too gay in conversation. I really don’t want to push him and scare him off. Coming out is a really big step.”

  “Not for you it wasn’t.”

  “Hey, I had my share of angsting over my sexuality.”

  “Yeah, but not about being gay. You said it was easy for you. Family support, being in some unconventional private school where no one batted an eyelid. You certainly didn’t seem to have any issues with liking cock when we were at uni, anyway.”

  “No, true.” And there had been plenty of available cock to like. Happy memories…for the most part. “But I did have issues with liking pain and humiliation. Took me a while to be okay with that one. And think about it, it must be worse for the sadists. I mean, if it’s frowned upon for people to enjoy pain, think how much worse it looks if you enjoy dishing it out.”

  Maddy harrumphed. “Bullshit. We live in a society surrounded by media glorifying violence towards women. Did you know in the States, they rate films showing women experiencing sexual pleasure as adults-only, whereas scenes of violence towards them only merit an R?”

  “What’s an R when it’s at home?”

  “Means teenagers can go with their parents, I think.”

  “Really?” For once, Maddy had stumped him. “Okay, that’s pretty terrible. And not just the whole scenario of going to the cinema with your folks. I’ll join you waving a placard to protest against that one. But it isn’t violence towards women in this case, is it? It’s towards men. One man in particular. Me.”

  “Yeah, and you love it.”

  Eddie couldn’t help grinning. “Okay, guilty as charged. But I still think it must be tricky for some blokes. You know, they must start questioning whether they’re a psychopath or something.”

  “Do you think Jeff thinks that deeply? He doesn’t seem the sort.”

  “Hey! Just because he’s working class doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on between his ears. He’s an intelligent man. Not educated, perhaps, but he’s not thick.”

  Maddy gave him a way too knowing smile. “You really do love him, don’t you?”

  “Love is just a short-term hormone-driven infatuation, evolved to reinforce the pair bond so that children have the best chance of survival.”

  “Right. You just keep telling yourself that. And
how does science explain the fact homosexuality hasn’t gone the way of the dodo, then?”

  “You really want to argue about this again?” They’d hashed this one out many a time over the years, with Eddie taking the staunchly empirical position and Maddy giving the new-age spiritual mumbo jumbo. And even if secretly he agreed with some of her arguments, he’d never let her know.

  Maddy yawned. “Nah, you’re right. I’m not really in the mood for that one.” She brightened visibly. “But I did have an idea while we were chatting. If you want to help the feminist cause, would you mind posing for a little photo?”

  “What kind of photo?” Eddie had learnt the hard way to be wary when Maddy got that look on her face.

  “Nothing too risqué. You remember that photo of that bloke holding up a sign saying ‘This is what a feminist looks like’. You know, I tagged you in it on Facebook.”

  “You tag me and poke me every day. How am I meant to remember every single last lolcat?”

  Maddy rolled her eyes at him. “This wasn’t a lolcat. It was a beardy bloke in a Regency dress.”

  “Oh. That one.” Yep, how could he have forgotten.

  “Right. So me and the girls were thinking we should add our pictures to the meme. I mean, fair play to everyone getting involved, but an awful lot of them fit the whole lentil-munching, butch-lesbian stereotypes the world already has of feminists. And I’m not entirely sure beardy dress man was helping matters. What they need is a bit of glam.”

  Eddie caught the gleam in Maddy’s eyes. “Oh no, I’m not having a makeover. No way.”

  “Darling, would I? Far be it from me to bestow my expertise on someone for free. No, I just thought maybe you could pose for one in some of your bondage gear. Not in a submissive pose, though. In a way that makes you look tough. Maybe even a little dominant.”

  “I’m not sure a leather harness and arseless chaps will make me look all that dominant.”

  “The gear doesn’t matter. It’s the look in your eyes that will. You’ll just need to look happy and confident. You can do that with your eyes shut.”

  “But then how will they see the look in my eyes?”

  Maddy threw a cushion at him. “You know what I mean.”

  “Okay. And this will go online, will it?”

  “That’s right. Might even go viral, you never know. So what do you say?”

  Eddie sighed. “Yeah. I’ll do it. So long as you don’t tag the picture with my real name. Wouldn’t want clients to see it.”

  Maddy waggled her fingers dismissively. “Don’t worry, as if I would.”

  “You tagged those drunken pictures of me as a student.”

  “Well, if you’re that embarrassed, you should get yourself a professional profile as well as a personal one.”

  “Yeah, I know. It’s just a hassle I could do without. Having to remember what I’m logged in as.” He caught a mischievous look in Maddy’s eyes he knew spelt trouble. “What? What have you done now?”

  “Nothing, darling. I was just wondering, you think Jeff would want to take part?”

  “Don’t you dare ask him.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because…” Because Eddie really didn’t want to find out just how unreconstructed a man Jeff was. What if he thought women should “know their place” like they did in the old days? He was pretty old-fashioned in other ways. And if Jeff turned out to be a total chauvinist arsehole, Eddie was pretty sure all those mushy feelings inside him would congeal to a lump of lead.

  “Just, erm, let me ask him. I’ll be able to put it in a way he’ll understand.”

  “Darling, I do know how to talk to men.”

  “You know how to seduce them. That’s different.”

  “Hardly.” Maddy pouted but soon cheered up when Eddie brought through a selection of bondage gear for her to choose from. “Oh, these are fabulous! And I just had a marvellous idea. We could style you wearing black tie over the top, you know, with the bow tie and shirt all sexy and undone. You’ve got a dinner jacket somewhere, haven’t you?”

  “This isn’t a fashion shoot, you know,” Eddie grumbled, but he went to do her bidding.

  In less than half an hour, Eddie watched as she sent the picture of him from her iPad through the ether, to be shared with who knew who? Eddie adjusted his harness and idly played with his nipple through the metal ring. He hoped this wouldn’t come back to bite him on the bum. Maddy’s schemes had a way of doing that.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Friday seemed to take forever to come round. While Jeff knew that objectively it had taken exactly the same time as it did every week, the four days of slogging away building a raised pond for some overpaid carp-fancier had really dragged.

  Friday was now even more appealing than ever. And not just because he’d clock off for the weekend and the fact it brought him one day closer to seeing Eddie, but because it was now his regular day in Niall’s garden, doing proper gardening. He picked his tools up out of the back of the truck with enthusiasm. Today he’d work on tackling the overgrown pond that had really been bothering him. The overhanging plum tree needed branches cutting right back so they didn’t shade the water, and there was a bunch of vegetation that had all but obscured the water. But it would be nice and cool down there, and he’d be doing something useful involving plants rather than bricks and mortar.

  And of course, there was always the knowledge he’d be seeing Eddie tomorrow. As he made his way down the side of Niall’s house, he contemplated all the things he wanted to do to Eddie. He’d tie him down—faceup this time—and play with him. Maybe he could ask Eddie to bring that wicked little pinwheel again. And he’d run it over Eddie’s body, all the time watching his face and drinking up those desperate, turned-on sounds he made when he was being tortured.

  Fuck. If Jeff wasn’t careful, he’d end up having to work with a boner in his shorts. That really wasn’t going to help with all the bending down he’d have to be doing.

  Bending down… He could untie Eddie’s legs, bend him in half and fuck him like that, Eddie’s legs up over Jeff’s shoulders. He could lean down for a kiss then too.

  Bloody hell. He had to stop imagining kissing Eddie. Trouble was, he couldn’t think about much else.

  Fortunately, distraction presented itself in the form of Niall, out sunning himself on his back patio. He was wearing a pair of micro shorts that didn’t leave much to the imagination, and Jeff found himself surreptitiously checking out Niall’s body. Was he really gay if it was only Eddie who turned him on? Niall certainly didn’t do much for him. A bit too paunchy, and the chest hair really wasn’t Jeff’s thing. God only knew what Eddie saw in Jeff’s monkey body.

  Niall tilted his head in Jeff’s direction and yawned. “You know, it’s kind of creepy when someone just stares at you while you’re sunbathing.”

  Fuck. Had Niall been able to tell he’d been checking him out? Even if he hadn’t particularly been into what he was looking at, it still counted as checking out, didn’t it?

  Jesus Christ. He really was gay.

  The realisation he’d been holding at bay all week slammed him between the eyes.

  His fingers went limp.

  His tools clattered to the ground.

  “Hey, are you all right, mate? You look like you need to take the weight off your feet for a minute.”

  Jeff staggered over and collapsed into the other sun lounger.

  “You’re not sick or something, are you? I know you self-employed types don’t usually get sick pay, but I’d be happy to pay you something if you’re really unwell. I don’t want you working here if you’ve got something infectious.”

  “Nah, it’s nothing like that. I just didn’t sleep all that well last night. And I skipped breakfast.” It was only a partial untruth. He’d only had a plain piece of toast that morning, and he’d spent the night drifting in
and out of fevered erotic dreams of Eddie and him and—oh God, there’d been other men too, hadn’t there? In some kind of sauna. And the gym, and on the football field. All those hard, masculine bodies around him, under him, on top of him…

  “I think I might be gay,” he blurted out, then immediately really did feel sick. Nauseous to the pit of his stomach. What if Niall was disgusted by him? Jeff stared down at his clasped hands, unable to meet Niall’s gaze.

  He’d been expecting Niall to sound disapproving or, at best, carefully neutral, when he began speaking again. What he wasn’t prepared for, however, was a chuckle.

  “Oh yes? Is this young Eddie who’s got you feeling that way? Well, not so young Eddie, really. He’s older than you, isn’t he?”

  “He is? He doesn’t look it.”

  Niall shrugged. “I think he’s Maddy’s age, and she’s thirty-three.”

  “Seriously? She’s looking good for it.”

  “It’s really not that old, you know. Being an old fogey like me gives you a different perspective.”

  “You’re not that old,” Jeff said, despite his judgement about the greying chest hair and paunch.

  “Well, I’m certainly starting to feel it. You realise that by the time this baby is born, I’ll be fifty-two? That means I’ll be seventy when he or she goes off to university. Seventy, I ask you! It hardly seems possible.”

  “Baby?” Jeff floundered. What did any of this have to do with him being gay, and why on earth wasn’t Niall more shocked by his revelation? A man could feel miffed, having his soul-baring shoved aside like that.

  But Niall was yammering on again, and it wasn’t anything to do with Jeff. “Yes, a baby. Maddy’s pregnant. That’s why I’m not at work today. Going to be taking her to her first scan later on. It’s so exciting!”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “Sorry, I just assumed you would, what with you being thick as thieves with Eddie these days. Maddy tells me he’s taken quite a shine to you. So, it’s all going well? I knew you two would get along. You’re the kind of man Eddie needs in his life. Steady and stubborn. One he can’t wind around his little finger like he has with every other boyfriend he’s ever had.”