An embarrassingly needy little whine escaped me, and my brain started to melt from all the conflicting data. Gage was naked and he wasn’t mad andIwas naked and he obviously remembered everything, or at leastsomethings, and he’d still… he’d still called himself mymaster.
The nuclear-level freak-out I’d just been in the middle of was suddenly and completely eclipsed by something that felt almost… almostmagical.
Hope?
“Master?” I repeated breathlessly as the flutters inside me revived and multiplied, filling my stomach completely. They simultaneously crowded all the air out of my lungs and drowned out the pounding hangover-bass in my head, and when Gage’s eyes flashed with something dark and dangerous and utterly delicious, the hangover scurried away in terror, leaving me filled with a scary-good euphoria instead.
It almost made me want to pinch myself. Maybe thiswasall just a super-hot, soon-to-be-wet, deliciously dirty dream...? One that I hadn’t woken up from yet?
“Total servitude until I let you take it off, wasn’t that the bet?” Gage asked, his voice dropping to a low, predatory purr that I could probably live on forever… if, you know, other necessities like food and water and air were ever in short supply.
I cautiously nodded, not wanting to move too fast, in case I suddenly woke up. Also? Those actuallyhadn’tbeen the terms of the bet, I didn’t think. Granted, my memory was a little bit hazy, but I sort of thought we’d all agreed that the total servitude would just be for one night.
Not that I was complaining, of course. I definitely liked Gage’s version better.
He smiled. “In that case, I’m not letting you take it off yet, slave.” But then he immediately frowned, pushing me away a little and tilting my head back. He stared hard at my neck for a moment. “Unless it’s bothering you, Noe?”
He ran a finger over my—okay, admittedly slightly chafed-feeling—throat, and oh God. Oh myGod. There was no chafing in dreams, right?
Right???
I was suddenly smiling so hard my face hurt, but then I realized what Gage was probably getting at with all that concerned frowning he was doing and quickly yanked his finger away, tucking my chin down so he couldn’t grab the collar again and take it away now that we’d agreed on his terms (and I’d mostly established that this was probably-at-least-hopefully not a dream).
“No,” I lied. “It doesn’t bother me at all. It’s fine. All good.Perfectlygood. It feels amazing.”
“Hm,” Gage said, still frowning. “It looks a little irritated, though.” But then, finally, “But I guess we can put some lotion on it and see if that helps, baby.”
My insides suddenly went all soft and gooey and every other candy-like adjective in existence.
Baby.
Yes, please.
“Okay,” I breathed out. Then, every part of mequivering, I licked my lips and asked, “And what, um, what do you want me to do for you today, Master?”
Omigod. That was both insanely hot togetto ask, and also probably better than me melting into a puddle of warm, worshipfully adoring goo at Gage’s feet. Especially since—while I was totally and one thousand percent thrilled with the completely unexpected way this morning was turning out so far—I didn’t actually know what it all meant for us… or why he was suddenly treating me like all my secret fantasies had just come true… or how long he might let me keep this (slightly itchy, if I was being totally honest) collar on before he got bored and went back to… to the other version of our relationship. The friends-only version, where I revolved around him like he was the sun and he treated me like a princess—er, prince, I mean—but was also constantly trying to hook up with hot girls who would let him do all the dirty things to them that straight best friends absolutely for sure were not supposed to want to do to each other.
Hot girls who would never,everappreciate and adore him the way I did… but best not to think about that right now, or I’d ruin whatever time I had left in this collar.
“The first thing I want you to do for me is take some more aspirin,” Gage said, still frowning down at me as he smoothed my hair back from my forehead. “I should’ve made you drink some water last night. I can tell you’re hungover, Noe.”
“I’m fine,” I said, since I really and truly mostly was. I mean, yes, the hangover wasthere—it had snuck back, dug in, and now seemed to be camped out for the duration—but I had way more important things to focus on right now. I mean, the aspirin suggestion was sweet of him and all, but since my beer-induced headache wasn’t that bad anyway—more of a dull throb than a hug-the-toilet issue—I really couldn’t be fussed to give it the time of day when I wasnaked and in the arms of my also-naked bestie.
Oh my God. I was naked. In Gage’s arms. And he was naked, too.
“No aspirin,” I repeated dreamily, definitely not needing it when I was already high on all the nakedy naked nakedness happening right now.
But then Gage smacked my bare ass, hard enough to sting, andholyheavenlychoirs, I made a truly embarrassing sound and almost jizzed on his leg.
“No back talk, slave,” he said sternly. “Be good.”
Annnnnnnnnd that wasn’t helping if the goal was me not embarrassing myself any further by coming all over my… my master.
Oshit… mymaster.
Also not helping.
“I need to jerk off,” I blurted, since really, it was the only solution.
