“Excuse me,” Francis said and maneuvered himself off the chair and walked with his glass to where Mark and Joel were talking.
“Speak of the devil.” Joel grinned, then smoothly bowed out and went to his husband.
Mark had obvious difficulty looking Francis in the eye.
“You talked about submission, didn’t you?” Francis made his tone a low rumble.
A whole-body shudder went through Mark, and he nodded.
Francis cupped Mark’s cheek and made him look at him. “Was it a good conversation?”
Mark licked his lips a bit nervously. “Y-yeah, it was… I feel better about it all now. It’s… just started to take me into that headspace and then you were there and—”
“Ah.” Francis leaned in to kiss Mark and pressed close to him, all the while mindful about not spilling the remnants of his wine. “What a good, gorgeous darling I have,” he rumbled into Mark’s ear after the kiss.
Mark made a choked little sound. “I… please don’t….”
“Don’t what? Don’t talk to you like that when we can’t just leave to be in private?” Francis made an educated guess.
Mark nodded.
“You do know that nobody here would judge you even if they knew that you submit to me?”
Mark’s gaze flitted to his and away. “I know, I know, it’s not that it’s….”
“Hey, sweetheart, this is completely fine. I know it’s a lot.” He tried to quickly think of something that would help Mark to get himself back into the kind of headspace needed for the rest of the evening. “Could you bring me more wine?” he asked, drinking the rest of his glass and then held it out to Mark. “Half a glass only. I’ve had enough already.”
Mark took the glass, obviously relieved. “Sure. Go sit somewhere, I’ll use the bathroom and be right with you.” He leaned in to kiss Francis, and just like that, things were on even keel again.
When Francis took his seat, Rita had vacated hers and Joel soon took her place.
“Is he okay?” Joel asked, looking worried.
“Yeah, he’s fine. It’s just so new to him and I guess your discussion started to take him into that headspace.”
“Ah, and then his Dom walked in and….” Joel sighed and smiled. “To be that new again, you know?”
Francis chuckled. “You miss the trial and error?”
Joel shivered delicately. “No fucking way.”
“And what is it that I just heard?” Aiden asked from behind Joel.
Joel twitched, then looked over his shoulder and Aiden who was smirking. “Uh… fudge?”
“If we weren’t on vacation, boy….” Aiden’s expression was wicked. “But I’ll let it slide. This once.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Joel said, then tilted his head up for a kiss Aiden gladly granted him. He got up and followed Aiden to where Padraig and Kaos were sitting.
Francis smiled. He loved all the people here and he knew they’d all begun to care about Mark in their own way. That was more than Francis could’ve asked. He’d never been one of those people who wouldn’t date a guy if people close to him didn’t like them. Sure, he’d be careful if his friends told him there was something wrong with someone he had feelings for, but he wouldn’t dump anyone based on his friends’ opinion, only his own.
“Here you go,” Mark said, handing over a half-filled glass of wine.
“Thank you, darling. Will you sit with me?” Francis spread his legs to make room for Mark.
He felt utterly pleased when Mark sat down, his back to Francis’s chest. “I should offer to drive Doc, Kaos, Makai, and Emil home soon.”
“Right, you haven’t been drinking tonight.” He pressed a kiss to Mark’s temple. “Smart and gorgeous. I’m so incredibly lucky.”
