“Yes, Master,” I said just to be agreeable. Did I care if my knees were bruised, though? No, I did not. At all. Ever. Not when it was for him.
But instead of pulling his cock out and letting me worship the snake the way I expected-I-mean-craved, Gage turned away and scooped up the shopping bag he’d dropped when he’d first come in.
Ohhhhhhhhh, right!
He had a present for me!
“What is it?” I asked breathlessly. Somehow, I managed to stay down on my knees where he’d wanted me even though I was literallyquiveringwith excitement, because the H in my ADHD diagnosis was spot-on and sometimes (okay, most of the time) it was all I could do not to bounce off the walls,especiallywhen something exciting was happening.
Gage didn’t answer me though, just came back over and rooted around in the bag for a minute before pulling out…
“A collar,” I whispered, my throat trying to close up with tears that were stupid and ridiculous and totally unnecessary, because I was theoppositeof sad. But I couldn’t help it. I’d missed wearing the other one. Like,reallymissed it… even though everything else was pretty much perfect between me and Gage now, of course. But I hadn’t said anything about missing it becausehehadn’t said anything, so I’d sort of thought he’d forgotten about it.
Well, and also because I knew that even if I liked being his “slave” and getting to call him “Master”—and would of course do anything he wanted, any time, forever, no matter what words we used, because #TotalServitudeFTW—we weren’t actually hardcore BDSM types the way you saw on the internet, so wanting to wear an actual collar might be misrepresentation or cultural appropriation or something. And of course I didn’t want to dothat, but still…
Still...
I wanted it.
I wanted it so bad I wasquiveringagain.
Gage spread it out across his hands, and it was… it wasbeautiful. So, so much nicer than that scratchy dog collar had been. This one was the color of a Hershey’s bar and hadfuron the inside, and suddenly I was trying not to cry, because he… healwaystook care of me.
I didn’t care what my parents said, there was no way I could ever stand to be separated from him.
“Touch it, baby.”
My dick twitched, because usually when he said that he meant something else, but for once I ignored my perpetual state of wanting-to-jump-him because I was still too busy feeling overwhelmed by my gift.
“For me?” I whispered, running a finger over the swirly design stamped into the buttery-soft leather. I mean, it had to be for me. He’dsaidit was. But I guess a little part of me was still feeling a bit raw from having had to give up the other one, and I just…
Well, I just wanted to hear him say it again.
Gage chuckled, then tilted the collar a little so the curving pattern caught the light, and—
Oh.
It wasn’t a pattern.
It waswords.
“’Course it’s for you,” he said, his voice sounding a little funny. “You think I’d want anyone else but my boyfriend to wear this?”
My head snapped up.
My heart may have stopped.
His… what?
I caught my breath, my eyes widening as my heart suddenly started right back up again. Startedracing. Felt like it was trying to beat its way right out of my chest.
Gage swallowed. Then—
“You’remine, Noah,” he said, running a finger over the engraved words, just like I had. “Says so right here.”
He’d engraved it withProperty of Gage, and that… that sounded perfect.
But wait. Back up a minute to that other bit. Had he really just called me…
