“Go easy on that,” Diesel’s voice rumbled from the doorway, bringing his head up.
He smiled across the room at the older man.
“Oh shoo!” Carla laughed. “It’s his first one.”
“I will,” he promised Diesel, his smile growing.
Diesel cleared his throat, rubbed at the back of his neck, and turned back into the living room.
Silence fell over the room, and even Miles lifted his head to stop drawing the flower next to his name.
“What?” Triton said, mouth open, hand suspended in the middle of taking a drink.
“Oh, my god. Did you see his face?” Rachael hissed.
“I sure did,” Carla cackled.
“Saw it this afternoon,” Patty chimed in smugly.
“Saw what? What about his face?” Triton asked, lowering the drink before grabbing another cookie.
“Nothing, darling. Now you just sit still and look pretty,” Miles huffed, throwing the group an annoyed look. “They just need to mind their own business.”
“Oh, to be that young and innocent,” Sally said, jumping up to sit on the counter with a cup of punch. “I know this is personal, so you can just say veto, but how old are you, Triton?”
“Twenty-two.”
The girls sighed all dreamy-like and smiled.
“So much cuter and nicer than that rat bastard,” he heard Carla whisper to Patty.
“What rat bastard?” Triton whispered to Miles.
Miles smiled with a half smirk. “This is not the place to talk about that.” He threw the girls another dark look. “So, knock it off, will you, or I’ll ban you from the kitchen. And the cookies and punch.” The girls broke out in laughter, and Triton found himself joining in.
“I heard you stopped by Vince’s,” Miles whispered.
Triton nodded with a smile. “I really like him.”
“He’s helped me so much,” Miles said.
“I think he’s going to help me a lot.” It had been such a relief to share with Vince what Clay and Auto had done to him. They’d just touched on his parents’ abuse when Vince said Triton needed a break. Sharing a little about such deep things went a long way. He had another appointment to see Vince in four days, and he was looking forward to it. That meant four more days with Diesel.
An hour later found him pleasantly buzzed with a colorful cast along with Miles and Sally in the upstairs master bathroom.
“Here, try this,” Miles said and came closer to apply the cover up to the bruise on his face.
He held still beneath Miles’ touch. That was when he caught sight of Sally’s throat. She also wore a collar, only it wasn’t leather with studs like the one Miles wore, but rather a silver chain that was secured with a tiny lock.
“Why the collars?” he blurted, and then blushed.
“Why do you think they’re collars?” Sally asked after exchanging a look with Miles.
“Because I went to a party once, and I saw them on submissives.”
“A party?”
“Yeah. It was a BDSM club.”
“Did you like it?” Miles asked, dabbing the makeup beneath his eye.
“Some of it.” He glanced away.
“Hang tight, I have something that will make your eyes pop.” Sally dashed from the room.
“What parts of it?”
“I liked the big Doms, but I didn’t want anybody hitting me.”
“Oh, honey, the scene is much more than that. It’s not about hitting. It’s about giving over control and trusting another human being who can make you fly.”
“My boyfriend found out I went and beat me,” he whispered with shame.
“Boyfriend?” Miles stammered.
“Ex-boyfriend, I mean. Yeah, he said since I went there, I must want to be beat.”
“Well, let me tell you something,” Miles hissed, holding his gaze. “Your ex-boyfriend is a stupid jackass and deserves to have charges pressed. And if he tried that shit at any of our parties? Well, let’s just say that our Doms would beat his ass out the freaking door.”
Triton laughed through his tears. “I was so green. I went looking for something.” Someone like Diesel.
“A Dom?”
“Yeah,” he blushed.
“Well, you found one now.”
“What?” He blinked confusedly at Miles.
“Honey, Diesel is a Dom. He’s not a traditional one, though, he’s mellower.” Miles cocked his head and grinned. “You’ve got the best of both worlds.”
He blinked, stunned in a way, yet not really surprised. His gut had told him Diesel was a Dom. He hadn’t asked Diesel because he’d been hesitant about the whole scene.
“Does he go to the parties?” he blurted.
“Only to mingle. He’s more of…” Miles thought for a moment. “I want to say caretaker, but that might not be the right word. Domineering, control freak?” Miles giggled.
Suddenly, a deep voice from the doorway interrupted their gossip. “Miles.”
Miles’ gorgeous eyes went large. “Yes, sir?”
“What have I told you about talking about other people’s business?” Ted asked.
“I asked,” Triton blurted, suddenly terrified for Miles.
Miles gave him a cheeky grin and a wink.
“Are you going to spank me, sir?”
Triton’s mouth gaped when Miles spun and jumped into Ted’s arms. The small man wrapped both arms and legs around Ted and giggled.
Ted tried, Triton would give him that. The man tried to remain stern, but ended up chuckling before smacking Miles’ bottom and untangling the submissive from his body.
“I think you’d like that too much. I’ll use the guest bathroom,” Ted grumbled and then winked at him before the big man left the room.
Miles giggled and danced back over to start with the makeup again.
“You’re both in the scene?” Of course they were, he silently groaned at his stupid question, but Miles only smiled.
“Yep. We’ve been in the scene for years. If you ever want to go again, you can go with us.”
“Oh, I think Diesel would have something to say about that,” Sally said, returning to the room with a small container of glitter.
She proceeded to place metallic green glitter around his eyes, clear lip gloss on his lips, and a dusting of multi-colored glitter on his cheeks.
“It’s so nice to see your face healing.” Sally pointed to the bruise Miles had covered up on Triton’s face.
“Ah yes, the miracles of makeup.” Miles giggled.
“Tell me more about the scene,” Triton begged. He envied both Miles and Sally for having a Dom.
“My Dom is also my daddy bear,” Sally said, and launched into detail about her relationship with her master.
“Sir and I put on a show when people are around,” Miles said when Sally finished. “We do parties, but we don’t practice twenty-four seven. I have my own Dom tendencies, and Sir loves that. It works for us.”
“It sounds awesome and complicated.”
“It’s not really complicated when you find the right person,” Sally told him with a smile. “There are different levels of what people like or want. The good thing is that whatever you want or don’t want, it’s not wrong. You have a voice and a choice in what you’ll do or won’t do. And anyone who tells you differently really isn’t in the scene.”