Discipline

by Chris Owen

  Noah was asleep almost before the car pulled away, taking them back to the hotel.

  Chapter 20

  They'd slept hard, and Tobias was unsurprised to find Noah still dead to the world when he woke the next morning. He got up and ordered breakfast, taking a quick shower before it was delivered. He signed for the meal still dressed in his bathrobe, and after pouring himself a cup of strong coffee he took the flowers from the cart and slipped back into bed.

  "Noah," he said softly. "Time to wake up, sweetheart." He teased at his lover's cheek with a carnation, urging him to wake.

  "Thought I smelled coffee..." Noah mumbled, his eyes still closed. He turned his nose right into the flower and inhaled deeply. "Mmm. That's not coffee." He smiled and opened his eyes, blinking the sleep away. "Good morning, sir."

  Tobias clicked his tongue and waved the flower a moment to make his point, and then kissed Noah on the tip of his nose. "Good morning. How do you feel? Need a hot bath?"

  "Oh, right, flowers." Noah smiled but then his brow furrowed as he rolled over. "Oh, my, quite sore," he said with an embarrassed grin. "Mostly in the good way."

  "But not entirely, I'll bet. All right, then, let me take a look at you." Tobias urged Noah to lie on his stomach and took a hard look at all the welts and red marks, finally deciding that he was fine, if achy. "Spread your legs, Noah," he said softly. "I want to make sure you didn't tear when I fucked you. Which, by the way, was a major highlight of the night. You were tighter than hell that way."

  "I suppose you'll be upset if I tell you that most anything after the bullwhip was a blur? I mean I remember thinking that I was going to pass out if that ring didn't come off, and I remember you feeling incredibly huge, and the rest is kind of... ah." Noah hissed softly. "Ow. That's pretty damn sore. Feels bruised."

  Tobias nodded to himself. "Yeah, you're out of commission for a bit. Sorry, love. No tears, but you're pretty red." He stretched out next to Noah, mostly on top of him, and hugged Noah to his chest. "Sorry. And seeing as how you don't remember, you tore off the ring yourself and came all over poor Martin. He was just trying to help, and you made a mess of him." He tried very hard not to laugh.

  "What? Oh, my God. Martin was helping? All I remember is you. What kind of a slut am I?" Noah laughed softly. "I should send the poor guy flowers." Noah tangled his fingers with the hand that was curled around his chest.

  "It was beautiful," Tobias said softly. "You were beyond anything." He took a deep breath and snuggled Noah a little tighter to him. "So, up until you left your brain behind, you had a good time? It worked?"

  "Well, I got over being nervous quickly enough, and then I rather liked the place. The music was good, and I felt very in my space, you know? And those chaps turned heads and everyone thought you were such a stud, and I was so... yours." Noah grinned. "It was good, except for the fact that I couldn't speak to you. I get not being allowed to talk to anyone else, or other subs or whatever, but I really didn't like not being able to answer you, or react to you in a way we both enjoy, you know? With words. It was frustrating, not being able to communicate the way we're used to."

  Tobias nodded. "I agree with you, really. It's an old, old rule, though, and when in Paris... Oh, and you got over that after your brain landed in your cock, by the way. There will be a spanking at some point, when it occurs to me. I'm insanely proud of you, sweetheart." He rubbed a circle on Noah's belly and purred a little, utterly content.

  "Oops." Noah grinned, but he didn't seem at all contrite. "Well, if anyone asks, you can just tell them you have that effect on me. Did you have a good time? Your friends seemed like good guys."

  "I had a wonderful time, thanks to you. And, yes, they're good people. They were very curious about us, you know. Gregory just about had a fit when he watched me take you bare, and Jean-Pierre seemed curious about our contract."

  "Damn, I really did miss a lot, didn't I? Well, I have two things to say to that. I'm incredibly smug that we trust each other enough to fuck bare, and I am also curious about our contract." Noah turned his head and looked Tobias in the eyes, Tobias' flowers relieving him of his submissive duties for now. "Tell me more about this moving in together idea of yours."

  "I want you to live with me," Tobias said simply. He tried very hard to sound calm and relaxed about it, but a frisson of hopeful tension settled at the base of his spine. "I want you there each night. If I could figure a way to work it, I'd move us to the farm, but we can't do that. What do you think? Generally, I mean."

  Noah looked thoughtful, and maybe a little worried. Something was eating at him about it, but Tobias thought he knew what it was. He was just hoping he was right.

  "Generally? Generally speaking, I really wish we could do it. I think we could live well together... but," Noah reached up and slid a finger over Tobias' jaw. "I'm concerned about what you're actually asking me. I can't be a 24/7 sub, Tobias. I have a career that's important to me. I have friends, and other commitments that I don't want to give up."

  "I don't want you to," Tobias assured him. "And I don't think 24/7 would work for us, anyway. We'd have to discuss downtime, and what we do expect -- which is where I can see the negotiations getting complicated. For example, I want your weekends. Even if you agree to move in, I want them; I need that kind of dedicated time, the length and breadth of it."

  "Weekends aren't the complicated part, Tobias," Noah reassured him. "That's our time regardless, unless I ask you for one here and there for a family thing or if I just need a rest. I wouldn't want that to change, I really need that time too. It's the rest of the week, with working and all, that might be the hard part to work out." Tobias noted that Noah was still speaking noncommittally. He was being very careful not to agree to anything yet. "What about Phan owning half of the condo? I mean, if I moved in... well, it's kind of uptown for me, but if I did, I don't think I'd want that."

  Tobias nodded. "I've been thinking about that. I want him to have a safe place, someplace to go, you know? I can sign it over to him. I'm sure I can find something downtown... maybe a building." He tried very hard not to hold his breath at that as he let it sit there, between them.

  Noah looked at him a little confused. "Downtown?"

  "Well, yes. Downtown. Where you work," Tobias said slowly, not sure why he was explaining.

  Noah smiled and Tobias felt his posture change as he relaxed a little. "You'd really move downtown? Wait, a building? Are you serious?"

  Tobias blinked and let himself smile. "Yes. And yes."

  "Oh. Well, that," Noah plucked the carnation out of Tobias' fingers and stuck it behind Tobias' ear. "That would... make this a much easier decision for me."

  "Oh, really?" Tobias wasn't sure if he should tease or not, but couldn't resist. "I knew you liked real estate."

  "Mmm... real estate. So hot," Noah's voice was deadpan, but he punched Tobias lightly in the arm. "So... since you seem to have given this a lot of thought, Dr. Vincent, which I have to tell you I appreciate, suppose we did move into a place downtown? What were you thinking for logistics? Any other bombshells I should mull over?"

  Tobias shrugged. "About living together? Depends on the building, I suppose. Play area in town, you can have some space if you want it, whatever. If you want things to think about, we're going to have set out rules for playing with others, and we have to decide on the length of the contract." This time, he did hold his breath.

  "I've been thinking about the length," Noah said, nodding. "I mean, not that I want to scare you off or anything, but I was thinking we've maybe moved beyond a term contract. That maybe we could call it open-ended and just put in a provision to either touch base at regular intervals, or build in some way to talk as things come up? Especially if I'm moving in, you know? That's a long-term decision in my mind, and I wouldn't agree to it if I didn't see us together in a year or two, or... a lot longer." He glanced up at Tobias and searched in his eyes. "Is that... am I completely off base with this?"

  Tobias grinned, the last bi
t of tension leaving his body and making him as relaxed as Noah. "That's perfect," he said, his hand sliding over Noah's skin. "And exactly what Bradford suggested when I told him I didn't want to lock the time frame down."

  Noah laughed. "Oh, I should have known you'd have discussed it with that old busybody," Noah joked. "He's a meddler, though. A sneaky meddler. I called him about it, too."

  "You didn't!" Tobias stared at him and finally rolled onto his back, laughing. "That bastard. I bet he's got it all written up for us. So, what advice did he offer, aside from that? Don't tell me he didn't, because I won't believe you."

  Noah was still laughing as he sat up and slid carefully out of bed. He made his way over to the breakfast tray and looked it over. "Well, the conversation started with me asking if he thought it was outrageous to suggest that we live together, and if he had any ideas on how it might work out. You know where that goes. You want some more coffee?"

  Noah poured himself a cup, the sun coming in the window reflecting off his cock ring. "The next thing that he suggested was that I think about our personal relationship as a separate thing from our Dom/sub arrangement and find a way to be sure that it's protected now that I'm wearing your collar."

  Tobias nodded. "And did you come up with anything? Because aside from making sure we have set, specific times when you're in your sub role, or some sort of signal for when one of us needs a scene, I'm not really sure where to take that. Your own space... downtime each evening after work..." He sat up and leaned back against the headboard. "I mean, we could make a huge long list of what we will or will not do, but that makes things rigid and inflexible. A relationship shouldn't feel like it needs a rule book."

  "I definitely don't want a rule book," Noah said as he crossed around the bed to refill Tobias' cup. "And I'm not sure I'll need downtime every night after work. I mean, I can certainly see the merits of you having plans for me the minute I walk in the door." He grinned. "I like the idea of having my own space, and I think as far as downtime after work, if I've had a rough day and I think I need it, I would hope that a phone call to let you know on my way home would take care of that. I'm not concerned about being able to ask you for what I need, I know you'll hear me, and I know if you disagree with me that we'll discuss it. I think Bradford just wanted me to evaluate those things before we sat down at the table, you know?"

  "That makes sense," Tobias said easily. He smiled his thanks for the coffee and shifted farther up on the bed, worried mostly about slopping coffee on the sheets. "I'm really not concerned about communication; I think we're pretty good about that. We should talk about play, though. We've been getting into some more intense things, spontaneously."

  "Like the other night." Noah nodded and went back to the tray to put a plate together.

  "Like the other night," Tobias agreed. He looked down at his coffee mug and gave it a quarter turn in his hand. "I almost hit you," he said finally. "I didn't -- hadn't -- intended things to get that intense when we started. I've never really cared for rape fantasies, it seemed like a cop-out. But that was..." He didn't know what it was, aside from stunningly hot.

  "Hot," Noah finished his thought for him. "It was hot. So apparently you get off on it more than you knew. I don't think it's a cop-out, I think it's more of a physical expression of an intellectual power-exchange, if that makes any sense. Does it bother you that you wanted to hit me?"

  "I hit you all the time," Tobias pointed out with a slight smile. "No, it bothers me that I sank so deeply into the scene, that I wanted to overpower you, that I fed off your struggles that way. Every time you said no I got harder, and that bothers me."

  "It was a scene. I mean, it wasn't one we'd discussed, but I knew what you wanted and I went with it. Are you afraid you wouldn't have stopped if I'd used a safe word? That would be something to worry about. Getting turned on by me saying 'no' when, in this particular case, you knew damn well I was enjoying myself? That's not something to lose sleep over."

  Tobias sipped his coffee and thought honestly about that, trying to remember the event clearly. He knew he'd been lost in a fog of arousal, needing so much to get Noah off that it almost caused physical pain. He knew he'd been desperate for his own release. Could he have stopped, really?

  Finally he put the coffee cup down and scrubbed at his face. "I would have stopped," he said. "But I really would have hit you, if it would have made you come." His palm itched and he rubbed at it, the urge to hit Noah while pounding into him a mocking memory. "If we're going to do it again you have to know that."

  Noah brought a plate over and set it in Tobias' lap. "Thank you," he said leaning in farther to kiss him. "I'm not entirely sure what it says about me that it very well might have, but I'd like to do it again." He sat beside Tobias with a plate of his own.

  Tobias nodded, trying to look noncommittal. Something like that either took a lot of planning, like the scene in the parking lot, or happened spontaneously. He picked up a strawberry and bit into it, thinking about the other things they had to work out. "Phantom," he finally said. "Or Martin, or whatever. We should talk about playing with others. You have standing orders about Phan, and Martin wasn't playing so much as an accident, but we should talk about thirds anyway."

  "Would it be terribly transparent of me to request that we talk about each instance as it comes up? Or at least as we see it has the potential for something to come up? For me it really does depend not just on who it is, but the circumstances around each scene." Noah looked over at Tobias and then back at his plate. "That is transparent, isn't it?" He sighed. "Okay, so I like Phan, and there will be times when I might be really into a scene involving him, but I know there will be times when it just doesn't feel right to me. I'm not even sure I can tell you what those times might be, it's just... a reservation that I have."

  "That's fair," Tobias said. "Not really easy to navigate, but fair. It's my job to be in tune with what's going on, Noah, so I'll do my best. You always have your words, and I'll never take them away -- and you can always refuse. You know that." He leaned over and brushed his lips over Noah's cheek. "Would it be a huge shock to know that I like you and Phan together?" he asked with a smile.

  "Hardly," Noah said, chuckling. "And don't get me wrong, I like Phan and me together, too. Honestly, I'd say most of the time I'll be up for it. You know I'm attracted to him, but I just don't know that I can agree to a hard and fast rule there. If you want to set one, if you want something in writing, then I need an out written in for me as well."

  Tobias snorted. "I'm hardly going to make a rule that you have to have sex with Phan whenever I want you to." He grinned. "For one, Phan would have to sign off on it, too."

  "Oh, please, Tobias, can you imagine Phan ever saying no?"

  "Ego!" Tobias laughed and kissed Noah again. "He'd be an idiot to say no."

  "Well, perhaps." Noah laughed, too. "But I meant that he's such a sensual person and I don't see him turning down an opportunity to play in your stables." Noah took a bite of Danish. "Oh, this is really yummy." He held it out for Tobias to take a taste. "So what else, besides third parties and living arrangements, is on your mind?"

  Tobias bit into the Danish and shrugged. "Nothing, really. Oh, that is good, thank you. I'm wondering about limits -- we've gotten through your cage, where should we go next? What would you like to try? More suspension? Sensory work?"

  "Best birthday present ever," Noah said with a huge smile. "Seriously, that was a priceless gift. Can I say thank you again?"

  "You can always say thank you. I like your thank yous. A lot. Stop avoiding the sensory questions." Tobias grinned and took another bite of Noah's Danish.

  Noah glanced at Tobias. "Excuse me, I think you've had enough of my yummy Danish." He winked and took a bite.

  "You offered!" Tobias tried to look highly insulted, but couldn't really keep back his grin. "That's not part of the thank you, then? And don't think you're getting away with avoiding this, Noah."

  "I'm not avoiding it, I'm procrastina
ting."

  "Ah, I see. So it's our next project then. That could be fun." Tobias raised an eyebrow at him.

  Noah snorted. "For you."

  "Well, yes." Tobias nudged him with his elbow and began to eat another strawberry. "Tell me about it. Is it something you want to get past, or do you want to leave it? Be honest with yourself."

  Noah sighed. "You know I don't like obstacles. Part of the point for me is to get past them. I want to be broader, gain more experience, so yeah, I guess it's the next project." He ate the rest of his Danish in one bite.

  "Okay. We can do that. Anything else you want to do? Try? I'd like to play out of our comfort zone once in a while. Step up the fantasy play."

  Noah looked at Tobias sidelong, grinning. "I love the fantasy stuff. Do you?"

  Tobias grinned and nodded. "Oh, yeah. I have some ideas..."

  "Yeah? Want to share or surprise me?" Noah stole one of Tobias' berries.

  Tobias just grinned and picked up the last berry.

  Noah laughed. "Tease. Okay, so out of our comfort zone... what do you mean by that exactly?"

  "I mean not the stables, and not our home. Possibly not even the club." He considered the berry for a moment and finally took a bite. "I'm not saying public sex, but maybe going to other clubs. Play acting -- I could pick you up somewhere, or something. A discreet tour of the underground clubs. Just... getting out."

  Noah almost wiggled. Actually, he did wiggle. "I love it."

  "I thought you might," Tobias said with a pleased smile. Always ready to play, his boy. "And you? Anything you want to try? Hell, any rules you want made? It's your negotiation, too. Tell me. Am I too hard on you, not hard enough? What do you need, baby?"

  "More deep days," Noah said easily. It seemed that he'd given this some thought. "I need to work a little harder once in a while. Even fail occasionally, you know? You're indulgent, maybe too indulgent sometimes." He looked at Tobias squarely. "I have loved every minute of getting to know each other, Tobias, it's been quite possibly the best six months in my memory. So don't get me wrong, I want to keep some of what we have now. A lot of it. But I need to keep working. I'm a good sub, I'm confident in that, but everyone can grow. I need you to be tougher with me sometimes. Maybe a weekend a month, or something? I'm sure it would benefit you, too."