Sort of, kind of badly.
“I do know you better than that,” Diva purred, holding my chin between her finger and thumb as she smoothed my eternal cowlick back from my forehead, then straightened my glasses. “And that’s why I told your new Daddy—Roman is his name, by the way, which is sexy, right?—all about our open relationship.” She tsked, then bopped my nose. “You don’t think I’d actually just turn you over to some stranger and hope for the best, do you?”
“N-no,” I stuttered, which was true… but I wasn’t quite relieved, because she still had that look in her eyes.
“Sweetie, I’m going to be there with you!” she said, giving me a megawatt smile. “I’m going to make sure Daddy Roman takes care of you the way you deserve. Now shut up and kiss me, so we can go talk to him before he changes his mind.”
None of that calmed my nerves. Not even a little. But then Diva’s perfect, pouty lips were coming right at me.Juleslips, which could have had an OnlyFans channel all of their own. The lips I’d dreamt about sinceforever. And then it was really happening. My best friend was kissing me, exactly the way I'd always dreamt about.
Well, maybe notexactlythe way I’d dreamt about.
I hadn't ever imagined the slick, heavy coat of lipstick I could taste on his plush lips… or the way his heated breath instantly became addictive as I helplessly opened my mouth at his insistence… or the way Mel B. and Mel C.—Jules’ names for the Double-D-sized fake boobs Diva always wore—kept a good dozen centimeters of space between our bodies… or the way those sequined talons of Diva’s dug into my scalp and shot fire down to my groin as she pulled me closer and plundered my mouth like she’d suddenly turned into one of the swashbuckling pirates I used to steal my Nan’s smutty, tattered paperback romances to read about.
But none of that mattered. It wasbetterthan what I’d dreamt of. It was Jules, and even though he was only kissing me to make a stranger want me, kissing him waseverything.
Well, everything except real.
2
Roman
When I'd acceptedmy friend Santiago’s offer to attend the Cuffd Daddy-kink weekend event here in London--the bribe, really, since I'd been turning down his attempts to woo me away from New York to join him at Royal Westing Financial Group for years--I'd expected some eye candy, a bit of naughty fun if I was lucky, and the bittersweet bonus of hearing an eager twink call me Daddy for a couple of days. I'd never expected the visceral tug of longing in my gut as I’d watched the sweet boy who could only be Isaac stare at his boyfriend on stage, or the burning urge to tame all the sass Diva D. Light oozed as she swung her hips and eye-fucked him into an indecent state throughout her number.
This... could be a problem.
Santiago laughed, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “See something you like?” he asked, sounding smug.
He and I had connected professionally on LinkedIn years before we’d realized we were also both members of the kinky, inclusive dating app, Cuffd, both swung a certain way—not just toward men, but toward boys who needed a firm hand and loving care—and both shared an unspoken but inescapable desire to have our cake and eat it, too… in every walk of life.
“I do,” I answered, sipping my scotch slowly but refusing to make eye contact with Santi and give him the satisfaction of crowing about the success of his bribe.
No, not success. I loved my life in New York. Or I was content with it, at least. I wasn’t going to accept his firm’s increasingly generous offers to entice me across the pond, as Santi would say, just because a couple of British twinks had caught my eye.
I licked my lips, watching Diva take her little boyfriend apart with those obscenely plush lips of hers as she put on an entirely different kind of show over at the table he’d been watching her from. Santi said something, but I couldn’t take my eyes off them.
Jules’ Cuffd profile was full of stunning shots, but in person? It wasn’t just the glitz and glamour of his drag persona, it was something else.Him.
I’d always been drawn toward men who needed taming. Who were always on, always in-your-face, in order to protect themselves from being overlooked. Who made it impossible to ignore them, hiding in plain sight. But as much as I craved a permanent relationship, I was also irresistibly attracted to the opposite. The shy, uncertain, needy ones who needed nurturing and care to blossom into the men they could be, once they knew they were loved.
Like Isaac, Diva’s little boyfriend.
I was fucked. Even his name was sexy.
He didn’t have a Cuffd profile, and Jules had refused to show me his picture, insisting that I trust him while he vetted me. I bit back a grin, watching his long, elegant fingers muss Isaac’s hair as a deep red flush crept down the back of Isaac’s neck, attesting to his arousal.
As ifthathadn’t been evident by the tent he’d been sporting in his pants ever since Diva took the stage.
“Which one?” Santiago asked, nudging me. “The queen?”
I shrugged, not ready to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how invested I already was. Not that that shut him up, of course.
“Knowing you, it could go either way,” he said in his crisp British accent, proving that hedidknow me. “The boy is adorable.”
“He is,” I agreed, since it was true.
I’d been watching Isaac since the moment he’d walked into the crowded ballroom, sure even before he’d lit up upon Diva’s splashy entrance that he was the shy twink Jules had described so vividly. Quiet, sweet, and shy. Clumsy, but adorable. Loyal to a fault and completely oblivious to his own appeal. Precious.
“Too bad he’s taken,” Santiago said, signaling to a passing server for another drink as he dismissed Isaac with a glance. “Now,thoseboys?” He gestured toward a group of fresh-faced athletic types who looked like they belonged on a rugby field. “They could be a fun way to spend the next few days. It’s always the ones with a few muscles who find themselves ass-up over your knee the fastest.”
