But… “gorgeous”? I definitely didn’t have any of the attributes of the hot girls he always went for, so I must have misheard him.
It was so, so much nicer to just sink into my total servitude and not worry about it for now, though. To do exactly and only what my master had said. To not wonder how soon Gage would revert to his lifelong heterosexuality and make me take the collar off once and for all. To not worry aboutanything, and just let him take charge.
It made me feel floaty and calm and… andcapable, like I never really did in the rest of my life. But if the only thing I had to do to get this slave gig right was whatever Gage told me to, I wastotallycapable of that. It wasn’t just easy; it was heaven, the one thing I actually seemed good at. Natural and right and so utterly, completely perfect for me in every single way that—after he’d cleaned me up and made me get dressed, just like he’d said, because healwaysfollowed through on his promises—I actually left the dorms smiling.
Calm, cool, and collected.
Not anxious about what my parents would have to say in the slightest.
Because this? This was the best morning ever, and nothing could put a damper on how great it was.
Nothing.
5
Gage
A hand clappedonto my shoulder and squeezed as I swiped my debit card at the campus bookstore. “Dude, buying candy when you’re on the way to the gym seems counterproductive.”
It was Joe, one of the guys I’d been on my way to meet so we could make the climbing wall our bitch, just like we did every Saturday morning.
I grinned, shrugging his hand off and elbowing him in the gut for good measure. “This isn’t candy, it’sgum, bro. It’s basically like doing reps for your jaw muscles.”
I’d been addicted to Big Red cinnamon gum since birth—well, okay, since the second day of first grade if we were gonna get technical about it—and I had no interest in a recovery program, thank you very much, because that shit was lit.
Joe snatched the Hershey’s bar I’d picked up for Noah off the counter and waggled it in my face. “This right here iscandy, Gage. As in, empty calories that will make it harder for you to get laid when they all land right here.”
He tagged me in the abs, but I swatted his hand away. He was a fitness major or something like that, so he was always spouting off healthy-eating bullshit even if he didn’t exactly walk the talk. But as active asIwas? Body fat had never been an issue for me, just sayin’.
“But hey, if you don’t want this premium grade chocolate here...” Joe went on, making like he was going to open Noah’s Hershey’s bar and cram it in his mouth.
“Funny,” I said, grabbing it out of Joe’s hand and ignoring the cashier’s attempt to give me a receipt that would only end up in the trash. The guy gave me stink-eye as I turned away with Joe, then wadded up my receipt and dropped it in the garbage next to the register with a huff. Whatever. I had zero fucks to waste on that dude. As far as I was concerned, there were two types of people in this world: those who could suck it up and deal when I was a dick to them, and Noah, who would never have to.
One guess which group I gave the most shits about.
I shoved Noah’s chocolate into my bag, stuck a piece of Big Red in my mouth, then headed for the exit with Joe trailing after me.
“Don’t touch Noah’s candy, bro,” I said when he clowned like he was going for the zipper on my duffel to grab the Hershey’s bar again.
“Or what, you’ll have to hurt me?”
“Damn straight,” I shot back. Kidding, obviously.
Kinda.
He shook his head, making a big show of looking all around. “Whereisyour little sidekick today, anyway?” he asked, trailing along as we headed to my favorite place on campus. “Praying to the porcelain gods? I heard he got hammered last night.”
“Noah’s fine,” I snapped, the words a little sharp because yeah, Noah may not have been a big guy, but he wasn’t mysidekick. “He had shit to do.”
Joe gave me a little stink-eye of his own for biting off his head like that, but come on now, that sidekick crack had been fucking condescending. He must’ve known it, too—or else he was just used to me being a little, uh, what was it I’d overheard Noah’s parentals calling me once?abrasive—because he didn’t call me on it. Or maybe that was just because as soon as we pushed through the gym doors and headed to the locker room, we ran into a couple of the other guys and they all got caught up talking about some drama with a freshman chick who’d apparently been banging the head of the English department.
“Didn’t you fuck her last semester, Gage?” someone asked as I shoved my duffel into a locker.
I slammed the door on it and looked over at him. Peter, from my Marketing 101 class, who was almost as big of a horndog as I was.
“Didn’t I fuck who?” I asked, the question instantly making my mind go to how hard I’d come from rubbing off on Noah just an hour ago. My cock wasstillin a happy daze over that shit. And Jesus fuck, the blissed-out look I’d seen on my boy’s face in the mirror when I’d actually touched his junk for the first time…
Shit. I had to think of something else, fast. Otherwise, I was gonna bone up again.
