Adam curled his fingers around the top of the plates and stood, bringing himself taller than Cooper.
“Really?” he asked.
“You’ve been doing so well,” Cooper praised him again, the words acting like as much of a balm as they had before. “I want to reward you for your work.”
Cooper walked away without another word.
Adam studied the falls and the way they fell down Cooper’s back until he disappeared down the hallway. He carried the plates to the sink and washed them as quickly as he could, washing the pots and pans from dinner for good measure as well before joining Cooper in the guest room at the end of the hall.
The guest room was a room Adam was familiar with.
Far from unassuming, Cooper had a St. Andrew’s cross in the far corner and a wall full of floggers, paddles, restraints, and other impact toys, most of which Cooper had made himself. Adam’s stare quickly found Cooper in front of the cross, swinging the flogger with some test strokes. Adam cleared his throat and Cooper swung a handful more times before turning to face him.
“All clean?” Cooper asked.
“I washed the pots and pans, too.”
“I didn’t mean the dishes.” Cooper arched a brow and twisted his mouth into a teasing grin. “I meant that delightful hole of yours.”
Adam swallowed, his earlier embarrassment backsliding toward shame. “I didn’t have time. I hadn’t planned on this.”
“That’s fine.” Cooper shrugged. “It’s just one more way you can serve me tonight.”
“Oh?” he rasped.
“Mmmhm. With that delicious dick of yours.”
“Are we fucking?”
“You could use that word if you wanted.”
“What would you use?” Adam’s cock swelled from half hard to fully erect in the short time he’d been in the doorway. His dick pressed at his fly with an urgent need.
Cooper licked his lips far too suggestively. “Considering you’re here to serve, you can let me get you hard, and then you can put your dick inside of me and use it to make me come. Those are the words I would use.”
“How would I get you hard?”
Cooper crooked a finger, beckoning Adam into the room.
“You would start by getting naked,” Cooper suggested.
Adam stripped out of his clothes in under a minute, kicking them into the hallway and facing Cooper head on.
“And then what?” he asked.
“You would stand against the cross with your hands up in the corners.” Cooper glanced over his shoulder at the cross. “Unrestrained, though, so I can be sure you wanted to be there. That would definitely make me hard.”
Adam went to the cross as Cooper asked. His cock pressed against his stomach as he leaned against the leather, stretching his fingers up toward the O-rings where the cuff clips would have gone.
“Are you okay with this?” Cooper came to him and touched him softly against his spine, dancing his fingers from Adam’s neck to the top of his ass crack. “I want to push you, but not over the edge.”
The question made Adam aware of the weight of his limbs, the staccato beat of his heart, the way his shoulders displaced when he sucked in each and every desperate breath. “I’m okay.”
“I just finished this flogger.” Cooper pressed the falls against Adam’s back, fanning them out across his shoulder blades and letting them fall down toward his waist. The leather was heavy and cool, but it warmed quickly, which only made Adam shiver. He dropped his head against the side of the cross and closed his eyes, the muscle memory of submission taking over quicker than he expected.
These games, these expectations, they weren’t new. He and Cooper had played these games before, and Adam knew how easy it was to slip into the headspace that made submission an enjoyable role for him. Dinner had been a new thing, and he hadn’t found the same mental peace with it, although he’d clearly found arousal.
“It’s heavy,” he commented.
