by Fabian Black
“Of course not. It’ll be my taxi.”
“Taxi! To where, where are you going to meet him?”
“Neither of us is keen on noisy pubs or clubs, they’ll all be packed with it being the weekend.”
“Where are you meeting him, Dee-Dee?”
“His place.” He spoke in a rush. “He gave me his address. He volunteered it. He didn’t even ask for mine, not like James.”
“Fucking hell, Dee-Dee.” I ran hands of despair through my hair. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this.”
“It’s just a meeting, face to face, to get to know each other.”
The intercom buzzed again, more urgently and he made a move towards it. I got to it before him. Pressing the button I spoke into it. “Hello?”
“Taxi for Mr Walters.”
“I’m afraid Mr Walters has taken leave of his senses and is unfit to travel. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”
“Simon! What the hell are you doing?”
Good question. What the hell was I doing? Everyone kept telling me to take a risk on love. Maybe it was time to do it. The stakes were high. I’d be risking losing something good in the hope of gaining something better. I didn’t want to lose Dee-Dee in any capacity, and certainly not to another man. I wanted him.
“I can’t believe you did that, Simon. I’m going to be late now. It’s rude to be late.” He strode towards the kitchen. “I’m phoning another taxi.”
I hurried after him, taking the receiver from his hand and firmly replacing it in the holder.
“What is wrong with you tonight?” He frowned, his brown eyes puzzled, and a little scared.
“We need to talk.”
“I’m supposed to be somewhere. I haven’t got time to talk.”
“Email the man. Tell him something has come up and you can’t make it tonight. In fact tell him you can’t make it ever.”
“No, I won’t, Simon. You’re being unfair. He might be the man for me, the one.”
“And he might be another fucking psychopath looking for a victim.”
“Sometimes you have to take a risk and trust everything will be okay. You have to have faith in people. Not everyone is out to hurt you or let you down.”
“You don’t know enough about this man to calculate whether he’s a good risk or a bad one. So much for your promise to be sensible.” I shocked the hell out of both of us by landing a slap to the seat of his jeans.
“Simon!” My name came out as a gasp. His eyes widened and colour flooded his face. “What are you doing?”
“Taking charge.” Screwing up my courage I grasped his hand and towed him towards the kitchen dining area. Quicksilver thoughts flashed through my mind. If our relationship was to stand a chance of leaving the dockside and moving into deeper waters then I had to break the existing status quo between us. If spanking Dee-Dee was the way to do it, then so be it. I was ready. “We’re going to have a talk whether you like it or not. I’m not happy with the way you’ve behaved.”
He pulled his hand free. “You’re scaring me.”
“Good.” I landed another sharp smack to his backside, eliciting a yelp from him. I grabbed his hand again. “How dare you arrange to meet someone without telling me, without giving me a name or address. It’s beyond madness.”
“It was a last minute thing,” he wailed. “I thought you’d still be at work. I didn’t want to disturb you. I’ve got my mobile with me. I was going to call you when I arrived at Mick’s, before I went in.”
“Just in time for me to be able to do nothing if things turned nasty. Brilliant idea, Dee-Dee.” I dragged a chair out from under the kitchen table. The chair leg caught the table leg making the table judder, upsetting a bowl and its contents, sending them clattering to the floor. It was a collection of the spoons he used to mix his art concoctions. He must have been washing them.
Pulling the chair well clear of the table I sat down on it. “You haven’t thought any of this through.”
“Simon, let go of my hand!” He rocked his weight back on his heels to try and prevent me bending him over my knee.
I walloped my hand across his backside, propelling him forward onto his toes, making it easier to haul him over my lap. When he was belly down I wrapped my left arm around his waist to anchor him. “I don’t suppose you’ve considered the idea Mick is actually James and the reason he didn’t ask for your address is because he already fucking knows it. What if he saw your new ad and decided it was the perfect chance for revenge? He baits a hook and throws it. If it is him he must have creamed his pants when you took it.”
“It never occurred to me for a second it might be him pretending to be someone else, but I’m sure it isn’t. Mick doesn’t sound…Si!” He cried out as I cracked my hand down on his bottom.
“You can’t be sure of anything. Regardless of it being him or not, you know the common sense rules about meeting someone for the first time.” I slapped his arse in tune with my words. “You do it in a public place. You tell someone where you’re going. You don’t jump in a taxi and head off for a private rendezvous.”
“I’m sorry, okay, I’m sorry.” He shouted the apology, squirming over my lap. “I was overeager. I didn’t think.”
“No, you certainly didn’t. If I hadn’t finished work early I would have missed you. You’d have headed off into the wild blue yonder. God knows what you would have found waiting for you.” I stilled my hand, but not because I’d finished. My reservations about spanking him had vanished. He deserved it. “I told you I’d be bloody mean if you put yourself in danger again. I meant it.”
Raising his body a little, I reached under him and located the metal button on his jeans. It was awkward, especially with him struggling against me, but I managed to undo it along with the zip. Gripping the waistbands of both jeans and underpants I yanked them down far enough to bare his blotchy pink bottom.
He gave a panicked yell, flailing his right hand back to try and protect his rump. Grasping his wrist, I held it against his back and resumed spanking. The feel of skin on skin was altogether different to the feel of skin on denim. For a start the sound of my hand striking bare flesh was rather shocking, as were the scarlet prints my hand left as it rose and fell.
He squirmed, gasped and grunted as a crimson blaze spread across his buttocks. I could feel the burn, but it wasn’t just from his bottom. My palm hummed with heat. Gritting my teeth I kept up a rapid steady rhythm, determined to make the spanking count. It became untenable and not only because my palm and fingers were throbbing with pain. He kept kicking up his heels to try and block my hand. No sooner did I push his legs down than they were back up. He almost kicked me in the face at one point. I was beginning to understand the reasoning behind bondage.
I rearranged him over my left thigh, trapping his legs with my right leg, gripping his wrist tighter to hold him in place. It was clear I knew little about spanking technique. My hand was now hurting too much to be an efficient tool of punishment. What I needed was an implement, and there it was on the floor at my feet, one of the wooden spoons I’d knocked off the table. Bending down I picked it up, took a deep breath and walloped it down.
“SIMON!” He shrieked my name at the top of his voice and tried to buck as the wood paddle made contact with his already tender skin. “Shit! It hurts. I don’t like this. I don’t like it. It stings too much!”
“It’s discipline. You’re not meant to like it, that’s what you’ve always told me.” I applied the spoon with vigour to his entire backside, before concentrating it on the underside of both cheeks, paddling his sit spot like fury. “No more, Dee-Dee. No more contact sites. No more trysts with men you know nothing about. I don’t want to be called to identify you on some fucking coroner’s slab. You hear me?”
“I hear you, Simon. I hear you.” He burst into tears, sobs wracking his body.
It was too much. I started crying too. I flung down the spoon and somehow got us both in a standing position, quickly pulling his pants up over
his punished backside. We locked our arms around each other and clung together. We were both trembling.
“I’m sorry, Dee-Dee.” I wept into his hair. “You deserved a spanking, but I’d much rather kiss you than hurt you. I love you.”
“I thought I dreamed you saying that.” He sobbed into my chest. “Now I know I didn’t. I love you too. I’ve loved you for so long.”
“You said I wasn’t your one.”
“You were so damn adamant you didn’t want a relationship. I said what I thought would make you feel comfortable, because I didn’t want to scare you away and lose your friendship. The thought of not having you in my life in any way was unbearable.”
“I think we’ve been giving each other confused stop go messages almost from the moment we met. Let’s drop all our preconceptions about what we want, Dee.” I brought my hand up to stroke his hair. “I made myself believe I didn’t want a relationship because it was easier and safer than risking being hurt again. When the penny dropped I was in love with you, I didn’t say anything because I thought you were holding out for an alpha man. I’m not built like the men in your favourite stories. I’m not an alpha hero in any respect.”
“But you are, Simon. Maybe not quite in the way I imagined, but in ways that count. You’re my hero. You’ve always been there for me, lending support and encouragement, caring for me.” He gave a tearful laugh. “You’re bossy in your own quiet way. You’ve just proved without doubt you’re able to take charge and dish out discipline when you feel the situation calls for it. That’s alpha enough for me. I can’t say I want to be spanked again, which shows discipline really can be a deterrent. I’m shocked by how much it hurt. I’m sore as hell.”
“Tell your bum to talk to my hand about sore. If I’d thought ahead I would have made a big wooden paddle at work, and saved my hand a bit of grief.”
He gave a shaky laugh, hugging me tighter. “I’m glad you didn’t. The spoon stung badly enough.”
I kissed the top of his head. “I won’t ever spank you without your consent again.”
“Not even if I invite James round for tea while you’re out at work?”
I rubbed his hot bottom. “I suppose there are exceptions. I really would make a paddle if I thought you’d do such a thing. Joking aside, Dee-Dee. I’ll be your alpha man insofar as I can be, should the situation call for it, but I don’t want to be a dictator who lays down petty laws all the time. I won’t tell you how to think or what to do, well not often and you’ll always be welcome to tell me to go jump if you disagree.”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
“Good.” I laughed. “Don’t change. I adore you as you are. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want pain or the threat of pain to be a constant aspect of our relationship. I want to love you not rule over you like some despot. If you feel in need of a spanking then ask for one. If you feel in need of a penance and a spanking is the only thing that will make you feel better then I’ll oblige, but you have to ask first and explain why. Hell, I’ll even spank you for fun, if it’s what you want.”
He raised his head from my chest, tilting it to look at me. “All I want is you. No conditions. Just you.”
“You’ve got me.”
I closed my eyes as our lips met, tasting salt from our combined tears. Even so it was the sweetest kiss I’d ever experienced. Something clicked into place. I was in love and it was wonderful. At last I understood why two people would choose to spend a lifetime together. Dee was the man I wanted to grow old with.
When the kiss broke I gave a sigh of utter contentment and issued a statement. “I’ve got the most beautiful boyfriend in the world.”
“No you haven’t. I have.”
“We’ll argue about it later.” I grinned and kissed the tip of his nose. “Come on. I’m starving.” I pulled his jeans up properly and refastened them, smoothing his shirt before looping my arms around his waist. “Let’s go up to my place and have something to eat.”
“Shouldn’t I email Mick and tell him I won’t be coming? It seems rude to leave him waiting, especially if he isn’t James.”
“If it makes you feel better then do it. What will you tell him?”
“The truth. My boyfriend doesn’t approve of me visiting strange men.”
“You bet he doesn’t.” I pulled him hard against me, biting a kiss onto his neck before releasing him and sending him on his way with a mock smack.
While he emailed I picked up the spilled spoons and set the chair back under the table. Everything looked as it had before, but nothing was the same. Being a maths teacher I felt qualified to deal with large numbers. It was a million times better.
After locking up his apartment we kissed and then walked hand in hand down the corridor. We kissed again in front of the safety doors and again when we got through them into the lobby. The bottom stair seemed a perfect place to enjoy a longer kiss, until we got an audience.
We sprang apart, almost plunging off the stair, as a cold draught was followed by an even colder exclamation.
“Well really! This is too much!”
“Mrs Royston, Sue, Bob.” I tried to regain my composure, as well as my balance. “We didn’t hear you come in.”
“You were rather busy.” Sue’s eyes sparkled. “We’ve just got back from bingo. We didn’t win anything, but it looks like you two have won each other’s hearts, at long last.”
“Don’t encourage them, Susan. It’s unnatural.” Shoving open the safety doors a rosy-cheeked Mrs Royston disappeared from view. We could hear her heels tapping staccato indignation down the corridor beyond.
“I can guess what will be on the agenda at the next residents meeting.” Dee-Dee gave a sigh. “Banning gays from snogging on the stairs.”
“Don’t worry about Edna, lads, she has to have her little bark.” Bob winked and grinned. “We’ll stop her nipping your ankles, won’t we, my love?” He turned to his wife.
She beamed a smile at him, then at us. “I always said you two would make a handsome couple. I was right. Ignore those with closed minds. Love is love and a thing of beauty. I hope you’ll be as happy together as we are.” She reached for Bob’s hand.
“Thank you.” I smiled at them. “I hope so too. Goodnight.” Taking Dee-Dee’s hand I led him upstairs.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Taking a leaf from Dee-Dee’s book of entertaining I switched the oven on to heat up, ready to slam in a frozen pizza. I decanted a bag of salad into a bowl and cracked open a bottle of red wine, slopping a generous measure into two glasses. I handed him one and proposed a toast. “To us, and a lifetime of happiness together.”
“A lifetime together? It sounds beautiful, like a marriage proposal.” His face flooded with colour and he dropped his gaze. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound pushy. I mean I’d love it to be a proposal, I’d say yes, but I know it is early days and you’ll probably get tired of me and…”
I took the glass of red wine from his hand and set it down on the coffee table along with mine. Drawing him into my arms, I crooned comforting gibberish. When his tears stopped I kissed his wet cheek. “Remind me to put in a bulk order for tissues. It was a proposal, Dee-Dee. It isn’t early days for us. We’ve been more than friends for a long time. Let’s stop pissing about in the wings and take centre stage. I want everyone to know how much I love you.”
“I’m going to like having you for a husband, Simon Putney.”
“Ditto, Desmond Walters.”
“Si,” he swallowed, his eyes tearing again, “do you mind if I go back to my apartment for a little while?”
“Have I upset you?”
“You’ve made me the happiest I’ve ever been. I need to sit in my uncle’s study for a few minutes and feel close to him. I want to tell him about us.”
“Then go ahead. Shall I phone you when dinner is ready or shall I leave you to come up in your own time.”
“Call me.”
“Will you tell your mother about us?”
�
�Anne?” He shrugged. “I doubt she’ll be interested to be honest. I never showed up much on her maternal radar. After the money business I reckon I’m off it altogether, not so much as a blip.”
“It’s her loss, honey, a deep loss. I feel sorry for her.”
“I love it when you call me honey.” He gave his husky laugh, hunching his shoulders in a display of pleasure. “Promise to call me honey at least once a week.”
“I promise. Once a week and twice on Sundays.” I walked him to the door. “Give the old man my best. Tell him I’ll look after you.”
“I will.” He kissed me on the lips. “See you in a bit, Si.” I watched him walk down the corridor and then descend the stairs on his way to commune with the spirit of his uncle and guardian.
I made dinner and set it on the table before giving him a call. When he came up his face bore evidence of fresh tears. I guessed the chat with uncle Desmond had been an emotional mix. I gave him a hug of comfort and then we sat down to dinner.
The evening was like so many we’d spent together, we ate, we washed up, we talked, we watched television, and yet it was altogether different. There was no parting of the ways at the close of the evening. He didn’t leave to go home, or into the guestroom. He came into my room. He undressed and climbed into bed. It felt as natural as breathing. Lying down with a sigh, he said. “I do like your bed, Simon.”
“Our bed.” I corrected in a teacherish manner, as I climbed in beside him.
“Yeah, our bed. I like it even better now.” He snuggled into my arms.
We didn’t have sex. Neither of us pressed for it. There would be plenty of time for sex. It was a night for romance, for long kisses and pleasurable petting, for gentle sighs and murmured endearments. It was a night for confirming we’d found each other.
He fell asleep first, curled against me, his head on my chest. Just before dropping off he sleepily whispered, “Si, can I tell you something?”
“Tell away.”
“The way you took charge of me tonight was so sexy, scary, but sexy, when I think back on it anyway. I was terrified at the time. When I read uncle Desmond’s books from now on I’ll always picture you as the dominant hero.”