Sara whistled. “Well, normally you know what I’d say about sentimental couples tattoos and all that, but in this case, Jamie will be blown away.”
“Yeah, takes a certain kind of idiot having this big of a tattoo done, hide it from their partner for two months and then get it colored inbeforehe asks if said partner wants to marry him,” Mal grumped.
Sara made eye contact with me and vanished again. They knew when to give someone space when it mattered.
“Buddy, there’s no universe where that boy would say no. Besides, if you don’t tell him you called yourself a bad name, I will.” Mal shot me an evil glare, but I raised my hands and smirked. “Them’s the rules.”
I’d gotten a message from Bear that he’d finished work and was going to make a quick grocery run. He’d be baking something too, not just cooking for us, which sounded lovely. Going home that wasn’t emptyandwould have food and baked goods? Heaven.
I had time to kill, so I helped Zain out with some designs, talked with Sara about inventory, and called it a night relatively early.
“Night, boss!” Sara smirked at me.
“Oh, shut up.”
Sure, I was leaving early because I had someone waiting for me at home. BecauseBearwas waiting for me there. I couldn’t help it.
On the walk home, I thought of everything I talked about with Mal. I dug out my phone and texted him.
“Thank you for everything. Sometimes the hard truths and advice from a friend are all I need to screw my head back on right.”
A couple of minutes later, his reply came through: “I wouldn’t go that far.” Then, a beat later, “Anytime, man.”
I smiled for the rest of the way, and then realized I hadn’t done that in ages.
I opened the door to a scent of cinnamon and tomatoes and something else mouthwatering as fuck.
“Oh, hi, you’re home,” Bear said, whirling into my view.
“That I am. You’ve been busy.” I took off my shoes and jacket and walked after him to the kitchen.
“I made tomato soup from scratch and there’s mac and cheese.” Then he glanced at something on the counter and added more quietly. “And there’s snickerdoodles for your dessert and to take to work tomorrow.”
I peered around him and saw a container of cookies next to one lone lollipop.
“Ah.” He’d been mean to himself, then. “Well done, Bear.”
He looked surprised. “W-what?”
“You’re making sure to correct yourself.” I ruffled his hair, which made him flush and pout. “Wanna hear something fun while we eat?”
We ate and I told him about Mal’s tattoo and the upcoming proposal and that Mal, too, could be mean to himself.
It made Bear giggle like crazy, but something wistful had passed over his features at the mention of the engagement.
“Mal made a good point today,” I said after we’d finished the meal. “We need to have a proper conversation about what you want from BDSM. Clean slate after Carl.”
He frowned a little and shrugged. “I don’t really know….”
“Which is exactly why we’re going to work on that.” Then I took a deep breath, let it out and said, “And I think you can help me figure out what I want, too.”
Bear
As soon as Luke said it, I knew I didn’t have any idea about what I wanted anymore. I’d thought I’d known, once. With my college boyfriend I’d figured out I liked things to be a bit rough, I liked to be submissive. I’d known I didn’t like demeaning things or much pain, but I liked to serve my partner. It brought me peace.
I snapped into full attention when Luke said I could help him out too.
“Uh, what do you mean, Sir?” The honorific felt only right in this situation. I’d been trying not to think about Luke asmy Sir, but he was still a Dominant and I was going to give up on trying to deny that.
