While the hockey boys were in their off season and on vacation now, we weren’t. Kellan had us studying harder than ever. We talked to the coach on the phone and other trainers as well. We had to be ready for when the hockey season started again, and that meant being completely prepared in the training and exercise regimen the players would be facing. It was hard work, but I fucking loved it.
“Nothing. I’m naked,” he whispered in a deep voice that had a shiver running up my spine.
“Lose the apron. Stay that way. I’ll be home soon.” I ended the call and shoved my phone in the pocket of my shorts.
I reached the floor underneath the penthouse—technically two floors below because Eli’s condo had a second level only accessible from inside, very low-key chic—and stepped out of the elevator, walking to Eli’s door. I knocked once and the door opened shortly after, revealing my ex-client and friend wearing an apron very similar to Ross’s. Unlike Ross, though, he had on a pair of jeans underneath with no shirt, but I suspected he’d dressed only because he was being polite. His apron was light pink with red dots across the material and he wore a pair of solid pink cleaning gloves. His brown hair was cut a lot shorter than I remembered, but otherwise, Eli looked exactly the same as when I’d last seen him. He was tall with bulging muscles—not the kind of man people expected to wear an apron. But Eli never cared what people thought about him. He could afford not to care, though.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Eli said in greeting. He waved at me to follow him. “Come in. I was just scrubbing the floors. I have a new roommate moving in, so don’t mind the boxes.”
I stepped into his fancy apartment and took in the neat yet also messy appearance. The only reason it wasn’t as clean as normal was because of the boxes strewn across the floor and stacked halfway up the walls. Otherwise it was an apartment similar to mine, with gray speckled tiles to the open-plan kitchen and deep blue carpets to the living room. The island that split up the rooms had a stone countertop, with the rest of the cabinetry white, clean, and crisp. Unlike my own home, however, Eli had a set of steel spiral stairs that led up to the bathroom and bedrooms.
Eli tugged off his gloves and threw them beside a bucket of water and soap on the floor before he went straight to the kitchen. I followed him, sitting my ass down on one of the chrome black stools at the island. I wasn’t surprised to see him stand at one of the counters and grab some ingredients before bringing them to the island and placing them there so we could talk. Of course he was cooking while I was here; that’s what Eli did. It wasn’t just about sex to him, he lived the domestic discipline life. He’d also made a ton of money with a YouTube cooking show and was now a social-media foodie celebutante. Cooking was his raison d’être.
“So what did you want to talk about?” he asked as he set out the ingredients a certain way, as though testing what it would look like in front of a camera.
“You.” I tapped my finger on the counter, and grinned when he gave me a suspicious glance from beneath long blond eyelashes.
“I’m a very interesting topic.” He winked and sat on the stool on his side, which I knew he kept there for recording, and crossed his legs in a very flowing way. That’s what I liked about Eli—he was masculine but also had a softer side he wasn’t afraid to show off. “What can I help you with?”
I cleared my throat and reached over to pinch a piece of cheese from an open package. He didn’t stop me, just stared as I shoved the morsel into my mouth and moaned. I hadn’t eaten all day and I was starving. “So I have this guy—”
“Boyfriend,” Eli said bluntly, raising his brows at me, daring me to argue.
“It could be a client,” I argued, but his smug smirk told me he knew more than I thought.
“I called the Courtesan to book an appointment with you a couple of months ago, but the Ice Prince told me you weren’t working at the hotel right now.”
I shook my head and went to steal another piece of cheese, but he slapped me on the hand, and I glared at him. “I wouldn’t let Darcy hear you call him that. The Courtesans only say that behind his back.”
“Anyway, I did some snooping and figured out you were the one caught with the mayor—who’s no longer the mayor—three months or whatever it was ago. Though according tothe Courtesan I spent a night with, the madam offered you your position back recently and you turned her down. Said you had a straightlaced job now. Romeo thinks you waited for the mayor to get out of prison.”
“Fucking Romeo,” I muttered with a roll of my eyes. He was popular with the clients, but like a lot of the other professionals, he had a big mouth that liked to gossip. I liked him as a person—most of the time—but he had a head the size of Europe on his shoulders.
Eli grinned. “Are you hooked up with the mayor, Stormy?”
I snorted and leaned on the island with my elbows. Shrugging, I said, “Maybe.”
“Does he know you turned down the madam for your position back?” The thing about Eli was that he was inquisitive and smart. He was a real househusband, too, and I honestly couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t find a Dom who wanted to play with him full-time.
“No, it hasn’t come up.” I pointed my finger at him, and he went to bite it, but I moved out of the way before he could.
“So, why are you here if you’ve got a boyfriend, then, hmm?” He grabbed a tomato and a knife and started slicing, and I couldn’t look away from how fast and precise his cuts were. He moved his fingers with ease, too, and his actions were graceful.
“I have questions about your lifestyle.”
He stopped what he was doing and placed the knife back on the cutting board, crossing his arms over his massive chest. “Cooking or DD?”
“Your domestic discipline lifestyle.” I smiled and shrugged again. “I think Ross and I are…. We started something completely by accident, and we enjoy it.”
He cocked his head and squinted at me. “Explain.”
So, I did. I told him everything, from the moment we were caught by the cops to now, leaving nothing out. I explained our sex life and how enjoyable it was to see Ross in nothing but an apron. “He gets off on it, too. He’s hard, even when I’ve got him bent over cleaning the floors.”
“Sounds like domestic discipline to me,” Eli said, a wisp of longing in his tone. His eyes glossed over and he sighed. “What do you want to know?”
“Why.” I continued when he frowned at me. “Why do you do this? What do you like about being a househusband and hole for your Mister?”
“That’s not what this is about.” He laughed and patted my hand. Grabbing a piece of cheese, he held it to my lips, and I shook my head, taking it from him instead and popping it into my mouth. His smile told me he approved. “I’ve always been a submissive person, Stormy. I never wanted control, but I loved taking care of people. I loved being in the service of someone. Growing up, I was always cleaning my house to get my parents’ praises. Mom always told me what a good job I was doing. Not much different from your ex-mayor and the newspapers. Whenever they had something bad to say about him, he always did something to make them praise him again, say what a good mayor he was.”
