“Yes, Mas—Master,” he stammers, his fingers shaking as he pulls the drawer out even more, revealing the next colour.Pear.Then comes bright lilacand, at the very end, an entire palette of pinks. Lace,melon,andpeach.Sea,flamingo, and taffy. I memorised all the names, but don’t ask me which is which because I have no fucking clue.
“So many,” he breathes in awe, tears clinging to his lashes. “Are they all for me?”
“They are,” I say, pulling out a pair of the pink ones, little bunnies adorning the soft cotton fabric. He gasps, sending off an avalanche of tears down his cheeks.
“East. They’re…I don’t…But how?” he blabbers, reaching for the briefs like they’re theJewels of Limaor some shit like that, then pulling back as if he’s afraid they’lldisintegrate at his touch. “There are bunnies,” he says, and I laugh.
“There are pandas, too. And baby giraffes.” I smile, pushing out my chest with pride. Making him happy is fucking addicting.
“There are?!” he squeals, clasping his hands together in front of him. “I love baby giraffes.” He beams.
“I know.” I laugh even harder.I loveyou.
“You don’t know that,” he giggles, finally closing his fingers around the briefs taking them from my hand.
“I do.” He shakes his head at me, murmuring something that sounds like‘silly Master,’before he buries his face in the brand-new briefs, breathing them in.
“There are so many of them,” he muses when he eventually comes back up for air.
“There are just enough of them,” I say. “Now you never have to worry, my sweet darling. Not about anything.”
He nods quietly. I know what’s going through his mind right now. He’s worried I might mean it right now, but that, with time, it will become something that will make me think less of him. Oh, how wrong he is. Doesn’t he know that his vulnerability is one of the things I love the most about him? The fact he needs me, that I get to take care of this precious being I do not deserve, but will keep anyway.
“Nothing,” I say. “Nothing will ever make me change my mind about you, Benjamin.” He smiles softly, his gaze coasting along the rainbow of briefs.
“It’s like we’re…” he hesitates, and I can’t help but wish that he was wearing his bunny ears.Later. Later, I’ll dress him up, and we’ll play.
“What, darling?”
“It’s like we’re pee-pared,” he says with a snort.
“Jesus,” I groan.
“Where did you get them?”
“Oh. Meredith’s place. She only just had them delivered last week. Said they’d be high in demand this spring or something like that.” He nods, dumbfounded at first, then smiles.
“She does have lovely things…shit, I still owe her for the shirt!” He looks mortified, his eyes spilling over with newfound shame.
“The shirt?”
“The green one,” he says. “You know, the one you couldn’t stop staring at, East.” He blinks innocently. “Like you wanted to tear it right off me and stomp on it.” Right. So hedidnotice that. My mortal enemy number one.
“Oh, that one,” I grunt. “We can pay for it next time.” I shrug.
“Next time?”
“Yeah, I ordered you some more stuff,” I say, remembering how I pretty much ordered everything soft, delicate, and pastel-coloured from the spring catalogue that Meredith showed me.
“You did?” he blinks eagerly, dabbing at the tears on his cheeks with the bunny briefs.
“Yeah,” I say, playing it cool like I didn’t just become ‘Customer of the Decade’ down atMeredith’s Modern Men’s Wear.“Now, put those back and open the next one.”
“The next one?” he looks close to bursting, or tearing the bunny briefs to shreds or perhaps both.
“Yeah. The third drawer is yours, too.”
“It is?” he squeals, and I groan, rubbing at my forehead, pushing the second drawer in and pulling the bloody third one out myself because, for fuck’s sake, we don’t have all day. I have plans for him. His eyes grow impossibly wide as he takes in the content. I placed all his bunny stuff neatly inside it. His ears and wristbands.His lingerie and stockings. The plug with the fluffy tail. “Master,” he murmurs. I reach for the very back and pull out the furriest and, frankly, ghastliest piece of clothing I’ve ever seen, but again, this is not about me, and I know Benjamin will faint or squeal or most likely both once he realises what it is.
