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"I think I'll be happier in service to you than to a contract," Noah said easily.
Tobias nodded and let it go, making a note. "You'll keep your safe words and right to refuse anything; I keep my obligations and duties toward your health. Play with others as situations arise? I take responsibility for the sexual health of any other partners."
Noah nodded. "Thankyou. And so what about money?"
"What about it?" Tobias asked, confused.
Noah raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'll be pulling a paycheck. You want it? You want part of it? Should I pay half the mortgage and utilities or just pay you?"
"I don't want your money," Tobias said evenly. "Save it. Put it in an account somewhere. Buy your bike.
Buy a horse."
Noah looked like he'd swallowed a lemon. "I'm not a kept toy, Tobias, I'm a submissive."
Tobias stared. "A kept... Jesus. I know full well you're not a toy, kept or anything else. But you're my submissive, and it's my job to protect you. To care for you. To--"
"Not to pay for me, Tobias," Noah interrupted. "Not to pay for. You don't pay my rent for me now, and you're not going to pay my way when we move in together, either. Protecting me has nothing to do with money."
"You won't be able to afford half," Tobias said bluntly as he put down his pen.
Noah chewed his lip. His jaw worked and he stared at the table but said nothing. When he finally looked up, Tobias saw the hurt and anger in his eyes. "I know. What exactly is the point of telling me that?"
"The point is that there's no point in offering. I can do this for us. You're fully aware that I have a lot of money. It hasn't been an issue before, and I don't see why it is now. I know you're not after it -- that's why I can give it."
Noah pushed back from the table. "Excuse me a minute? I'm just going to hit the men's room." He didn't wait for an answer, just disappeared toward the back of the restaurant.
Tobias watched him go for all of three seconds before following. He moved carefully, not wanting to attract attention, but he still managed to get there at the same time as Noah. "What's wrong?" he asked as they walked in together. "Noah--"
Noah stopped and looked at him. "I have to pee, Tobias."
"Right. Well, I'll just wait and see if that stick gets out of your ass while you're at it, and then you can tell me what the hell is wrong here. Because until you do, I'm just going to be in the dark and making it worse."
"Stick in my ass? What about the fucking steel rod up yours?"
Tobias growled. "Once more. What the hell is wrong here? What's wrong with me paying the rent? It's
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not like I'm renting you."
"No, it's worse. It's like you're buying me." Noah sighed and stepped farther into the men's room. "I really do have to pee," he said, pulling down his fly.
Tobias' jaw dropped and he stared for far longer than normal. "I am not!" he protested loudly, drawing a strange look from a man washing his hands. "Noah. That's not what I'm doing, and you know it." He took a deep breath and pushed his hand through his hair. "Don't you?" Doubt crept into his voice.
"Look, I know that's not your intention. You don't think that way, I know that. You think that you're taking care of me, that it's all part of your responsibility toward me. But, Tobias, it's not." Noah peed, put his dick away, and went over to the sinks. "Nowhere in that contract does it state that you have to pay for everything." He sighed as he washed his hands. "I'm sure that to you whatever I can pay you will be insignificant pennies, but to me, it's hard-earned money. It's important to me that I contribute. Otherwise, I become indebted to you; I'm no longer self-sufficient. I don't want to move in with you. I want to move in together. If you pay for everything, then it will always be your home that I live in. It will never be ours."
Noah grabbed a towel and dried his hands. "Can we go sit down now, please?"
"Fine," Tobias said faintly. He stood where he was until Noah walked past him, trying to understand what Noah was saying. He finally followed Noah back to their table, noting the irony of following and not leading for once.
"Look," he said as he sat down. "I'm not trying to take anything away from you. I simply have no idea what on earth I'll do with your money. I don't need it, is all I was trying to say, but you obviously don't see any kindness in me paying for your housing. So give me what you're paying for rent now and I'll... do something with it." He had no idea what, exactly, he'd do with it, but there was always a bank account waiting to be opened. It was the best offer he could manage under the circumstances.
Bradford hadn't said anything about money. Phantom hadn't had any, and then he was a slave -- even if he'd had money, it would have gone to Tobias. Noah was nobody's slave.
Noah reached across the table and took Tobias' hands in his. "I do see kindness in you wanting to take care of the rent, the bills, of me. I do. I see plenty of kindness in everything you want to do for me. I'm sorry that I can't make you understand what this means to me. I'm obviously not explaining it well enough. You're usually so intuitive when it comes to me, I suppose I just assumed you'd see this, too."
He pulled one of Tobias' hands up to his lips and kissed his fingers. "I'm sorry I got upset with you. If I can figure out a better way to explain it to you I will, but for now I'd appreciate it if you could just accept that I need to do this. I don't care what you do with the money; it's yours once I give it to you."
He could do this. A nice little investment portfolio, some stock somewhere... Noah would have a retirement plan, if nothing else. He nodded, his gaze not leaving Noah's eyes. "I'm sorry I don't understand. But if this the way you want it, that's fine."
"It's what I need. Thankyou." He let go of Tobias' hands and picked up his coffee. "So... what's next on the list?"
Tobias shook his head, feeling more than a little foggy. He picked his pen up and looked over the contract and his notes. "Play. Scenes. Others." He looked up and shrugged. "Tell me your thoughts."
"We already discussed this, didn't we? I'd prefer to discuss other partners as they come up. We both
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like the fantasy stuff. And we discussed that we'd like more scenes, um... 'outside our comfort zone' I think is how you put it." Noah was speaking slowly. "Right? Was there more to it than that?" He hesitated, watching Tobias and fiddling with his cup. "I really threw you with that money discussion, didn't I? I'm really sorry."
"You have nothing to apologize for," Tobias said immediately. "I just never thought about it, and certainly not from your point of view. It's my error, and for me to apologize. I do. I'm sorry I made assumptions and didn't think it through. The last thing I want to do is... is... restrict you in ways we haven't agreed to.
Thankyou for speaking up."
He rolled his eyes at himself and put the pen down again. "I'm really sorry, Noah," he said sincerely.
"And you're right, all that stuff is in there. Look it over, see if there's anything else you want to add in --
I'll just drink my coffee and try to find my dignity."
Noah looked down at the table and put his hand on the contract. He ran his fingers over it and glanced up at Tobias a couple of times before picking it up and turning pages.
"If it helps, I don't really think you have a rod up your ass." Noah gave him a hint of a grin over the top of the contract.
Tobias snorted. "Might help if I did, but I don't suspect I'll get the hot tub treat anytime soon." He raised an eyebrow and tried not to smile. "Special occasions only, yes?"
"Well, hmm." Noah pretended to study the contract critically. "I don't see anything about restricting it to special occasions in here." He glanced back at Tobias and winked.
"Oh, did I forget to put that in?" Tobias said lightly. He shook his head and leaned forward to pick up his coffee cup. "Thankyou," he said softly. "Does it look okay to you?"
"It looks fine; we just haven't talked much about the logistics of me working. I know you'll respect what I think I need in terms of time before work and such." Noah sighed. "Since I'm not even sure what those things will be yet... well, what do you think about just adding something about how you'll respect my needs with regard to work and leave it at that?"
Tobias nodded, not really needing to think about that. "Sounds fine to me. We can talk about that again at the three month mark, as well, see if we need adjusting."
Noah put the contract down. "Then I guess I'm yours. Indefinitely." He grinned. "Maybe you should take me back to the hotel and tie me up to celebrate."
Tobias thought he should be used to the way his body continually betrayed him, but he wasn't. He shifted in his chair and pushed the pen at Noah. "Sign it. I'll tie you down and flog you until you beg."
Noah picked up Tobias' copy with all the handwritten notes about what was to be added and signed it.
He set the pen down and stood, moving to Tobias. As shamelessly as he did everything else, and with no apparent concerns about who might be looking on, Noah knelt on the floor beside Tobias' chair.
Tobias was almost winded by the gesture, his left hand going to stroke his boy's hair, the right reaching for the pen. With a flourish he signed his name and then slipped a finger under Noah's collar and tugged gently. "Mine," he whispered. "Come, pet. I believe there are some very expensive silk ties waiting for us at the hotel."
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Noah was asleep, or should have been. Tobias had ruined at least one tie on him, broken in the new crop rather well, and nearly rendered Noah back into the state he'd been in after the dry fuck.
They both should have been asleep, really.
Instead, Tobias was in the sitting room, wrapped in a thick robe and looking over their contract one more time. Almost absently he noted the time and made the adjustment to home, then picked up the phone. After the switchboard had given him an outside line to the international operator, hedialed Bradford's home number, hoping the man wasn't yet in bed.
"Hello?" Bradford sounded a little tired, but he didn't sound like he'd been pulled from sleep by the phone.
"Bonjour," Tobias said with a grin. "I hope I didn't wake you."
"Oh, it's the Frenchman!" Bradford sounded pleased. "What the hell time is it over there? Four A.M.?
Why are you calling me? Uh-oh. Is everything all right?"
Tobias laughed. "Everything is fine. I just didn't fall asleep after. No, just wanted to touch base, see how things are... let you know you've a new contract to put in your collection..."
"Oh, congratulations!" Bradford sounded honestly pleased. "That's excellent news, glad to hear it. So will you be living together? You must be; you sound too sated and happy not to have gotten everything you wanted. Excellent."
"Not quite everything -- there was a minor sticking point, but we got past it." Tobias grimaced at himself and quickly went on. "Yes, we'll be living together, but we're both moving downtown. I have some house hunting to do."
"I'm glad you managed to work it out, whatever it was. And house hunting sounds like fun." Tobias heard the sound of a closing door. "You'll be returning soon? A couple of days, right?"
"Yes, day after tomorrow. Miss us?" he teased
"Yes. I was hoping you might have an evening free for dinner this week. I need to talk to you about, well, about Phantom."
Tobias closed his eyes and sighed. A feeling not unlike dread knotted in his gut. "What's wrong?" he asked after a moment. "Is he having nightmares again?"
"He's all right." Bradford said quickly. "I know he'll be thrilled to hear about your new contract. I'd rather not worry you needlessly while you're away, I just wanted to get on your radar for next week.
When are you available?"
"You're sure he's okay?" Tobias asked, suddenly struck by the knowledge that if he had to, he'd drag Noah out of the bed and head to the airport. "Ah, shit," he whispered to himself, sinking into the couch.
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"Um. I'll have to check with Dee. If nothing else, we can have dinner on Wednesday; Noah's busy both then and Thursday."
"He's not at his best, but he doesn't need you this minute, either. Don't you dare drag your boy away from his vacation early; I am taking good care of Phan, I promise." Bradford clucked his tongue. "Why don't we say Wednesday; that will be fine."
Tobias stared at the far wall. "You'd tell me if he did need me, right?"
"Of course I would." There was a momentary halt in their conversation. "Tobias, I would."
"Yeah, okay." Tobias conceded the point, pushing his worry away. "All right, then. Wednesday, dinner.
At the club, or do you want to go somewhere?"
"My place. Then you can see him for yourself, too."
"Do I need to?" Tobias shook his head. "That's not what I mean. I want to see him; I miss him, aside from the fact that I have to talk to him about the condo. Does he need to see me?"
"Didn't we already have this discussion?" Bradford sighed. "Let it go. See you Wednesday. Go back to your boy."
Tobias rolled his eyes. "You brought it up," he bitched. "But, yes. I will go back to my boy, in the nice warm bed, and get some sleep. You go... flog Nikki or something."
"I meant that I knew you would want to see him, you grump," Bradford teased. "And Nikki is due for his evening punishment, isn't he? Great idea. Goodnight. Have a safe flight home."
"Thanks, and I'm not a grump. Goodnight, Bradford; give Nikki an extra stroke for me, if he's good." He hung up the phone to the sound of Bradford laughing at him, and sat awhile, waiting for thoughts of Phan to fade a little before he went in to Noah.