“I’ll see to the candles and catch up with you,” Tayton decided.
It only took Denny a moment to realize Tayton wasn’t offering a suggestion; he was telling him what was going to happen. “Thank you, sir.”
Tayton watched Denny clear the top of the stairs and turn the corner leading into the master bedroom before he retreated to the dining room and began to extinguish the multitude of candles dotted around the space. Doing the same all the way through the hallway and up the stairs, he finally arrived at the bedroom door.
The sound of splashing water led him toward the en-suite. The big double bath was already full, the bathroom swirling with steam. Denny knelt patiently next to the bath, but he swiftly rose when Tayton came in and reached out to help him remove his clothes.
At any other time, Tayton would have raised an eyebrow and brushed aside that particular service. Tonight, he let Denny do as he pleased. Standing still in the middle of the room, he allowed the younger man to undress him and set his clothes neatly to one side.
Stepping into the bath, Tayton lay back and let the heat from the water sink into his muscles. He closed his eyes for a moment and simply enjoyed the way his body relaxed as any thought of his work as a financial analyst faded from his mind.
He listened with half an ear to fabric rustling on the other side of the room as Denny dealt with his clothes. When the sound stopped and wasn’t immediately replaced with the sound of Denny getting into the bath, Tayton opened his eyes.
Denny was kneeling once again on the folded up towel he’d placed on the floor next to the tub. “May I serve you, sir?”
“Yes. If you’re concerned the plug will electrocute you, you may replace it with another one.”
Denny looked at Tayton then the water. “I—”
“Will be joining me,” Tayton finished for him.
Chapter Two
Denny turned his complete attention back to his master’s face. He knew that tone of voice. There was no arguing with it, and disobedience wasn’t part of his plans for the evening.
Their anniversary was going to be perfect. The very idea that it wouldn’t be was enough to make Denny’s knees shake as he pulled himself to his feet and obediently took a more suitable plug from the shelf next to the basin.
Slicking it, he quickly exchanged it with the one that had been lodged in his arse whirling away on varying speeds for the better part of the day. The simple fact that the replacement wasn’t sending vibrations to his prostate made it easier for Denny to pull himself back from the edge, but he still had to bite his lip as he lifted his leg and stepped into the bath. Right then, he felt he might come just from the wind changing direction.
The bath was big, but so was Tayton. Denny wasn’t at all sure how to arrange himself around the larger man in order to give Tayton as much room in the tub as possible. He should have thought it all through far more carefully, should have better anticipated his master’s desires and worked out how to respond to them in advance.
Wet fingers wrapped around Denny’s wrists, and the decisions stopped being his to make. Tayton guided Denny to kneel down facing him, straddling his body.
Tayton’s erection slid against Denny’s buttocks as he arranged them just as he wanted them. Letting go of his wrists, Tayton turned his attention to the rest of Denny’s body.
The fact Tayton’s fingers were now slicked with bath oils didn’t make the way he toyed with Denny’s nipples any easier to take. Even the mildest touch was enough to make him groan and pray for permission to come. When Tayton wrapped his other hand around Denny’s erection, he was helpless to keep his hips from bucking forward.
Staring down at his master, Denny silently begged him not to push him any closer to a line he didn’t have permission to cross. The idea of letting the other man down, on this day of all days, was more than he could take.
Tayton raised an eyebrow at him.
Denny closed his eyes, desperately fighting back wave after wave of sensations. The darkness behind his eyelids didn’t help. It was almost immediately replaced by the image of Tayton, naked and gorgeous, muscles shining as the bath oils clung to his skin, dark hair slicked back from his face, a five o’clock shadow highlighting his jaw and the desire to tease shining brightly in his eyes.
Denny couldn’t let his master down. He took a deep breath and concentrated on relaxing every muscle in his body, frantically trying to fend off the approaching orgasm in any way he could.
“Your control is coming along very nicely,” Tayton observed as the minutes ticked past, each one feeling more like an hour to Denny.
He blinked open his eyes. “Thank you, sir.” His voice was hoarse, the words nowhere near enough to express his true gratitude for the unexpected praise.
Tayton nodded his head, just once, and let his hands fall away from Denny’s body.
Taking that as his cue, Denny carefully raised himself out of the bath, trying his best not to drip over his lover in the process. As Tayton stood, Denny snatched up one of the huge black bath towels he’d laid out in readiness and began to dry his master’s body.
Tayton made no comment; he merely stood patiently in the middle of the bathroom until Denny had completed the task. Droplets of water clung to the dark hairs over Tayton’s chest. Denny wiped them gently away, taking care not to miss a single inch of Tayton’s form.
That done, Denny hurriedly scrubbed away the dampness that hadn’t already dried from his own skin as he’d worked then tossed the towel into the hamper.
Tayton still stood in that same spot in the middle of the room, his arms now folded across his chest, obviously, waiting for Denny to tell him what he thought should happen next.
There was only one answer to that silent query.
“Whatever you want, sir.”
Tayton stepped forward, until their naked bodies were almost touching. “Are you telling me that you haven’t planned anything past this point?”
Denny glanced up at him. “There are massage oils laid out in the bedroom, sir,” he admitted.
Tayton nodded, just once.
Permission to follow through with the next stage of his plan granted, Denny led Tayton out into the bedroom.
The oils were all neatly lined up on the chest of drawers. Denny already had one in his hands by the time Tayton spoke again.
“If you intend to snuff out the candles at any point, you’d best do it now,” he warned. “Because you’re not leaving the bed once we get comfortable in it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Denny hurried around the room, holding his hand behind each flame he extinguished to ensure he didn’t get any wax on his master’s fine furniture.
“There’s one other thing you’ve forgotten to do today,” Tayton mentioned, almost casually.
Denny froze as he tried to work out how he had failed. “Sir?”
“What are we celebrating the anniversary of?” Tayton prompted.
Relief rushed through Denny. He smiled slightly as he blew out another candle. “It’s not a date you would remember, sir.”
“Oh?”
Denny did his best to remain calm on the outside, even while he mentally cursed himself. He’d known that making too much of a fuss was a bad idea. He’d bloody well known he was playing with the kind of fire that had nothing to do with candles. “It wasn’t really your anniversary, sir.”
Denny risked a glance in Tayton’s direction. There was a slight frown around the older man’s eyes. Denny watched it deepen as if Tayton had suddenly realized something important and it wasn’t at all to his tastes.
“If I’ve been celebrating another man’s anniversary with you, Denny…” he began.
Denny shook his head and turned to face Tayton, but he was entirely unable to bring himself to cross the room and approach the other man without an invitation. “I wouldn’t do that, sir.”
“A year ago this weekend, I was on a business trip to London,” Tayton began.
“No, sir. This was two years ago,” Denny blurted out.
Tayton’s frown didn’t ease. His shoulders tensed as the expression in his eyes turned colder than Denny had ever seen. “Two years ago, we hadn’t even met. Would you like to try another lie? Perhaps one that is more believable this time?”
Denny swallowed rapidly. His stomach turned over at the accusation. His head spun.
“Well?” his master prompted.
Denny took a deep breath, but the action failed to make the right words appear in his head. Even angry shouts would have been preferable to that cold, emotionless tone.
“Denny?”
His master was still on the other side of the room, but he might as well have been miles away.
“Two years ago today, you met up with some friends in a leather bar in the city—it was called The Falcon.”
Tayton nodded curtly. “That sounds about right.”
“You spent the whole evening there with three other dominants. I can’t remember their names, but I think you must have known them for a long time because you were all really relaxed. You didn’t play that evening, sir. You were just catching up with guys you hadn’t seen for a long time.”
“Your point being?” Tayton asked, his impatience clear in every syllable.
Denny stared down at the bottle of massage oil still in his hands. “Two years ago today, I fell in love with you, sir.” Somehow, Denny managed to find the strength to look up and meet the other man’s eyes across the room.
His master just stared at him for a long time. Denny held his breath, waiting for the other man’s verdict. Eventually, Tayton clicked his fingers, calling Denny across to him.
Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, Tayton dropped a pillow on the floor at his feet. Denny knelt on it, glad that he wouldn’t have to worry about his legs giving way beneath him anymore. His knees had barely touched the soft cotton before Tayton reached out and tangled his fingers in his hair, pulling him closer to rest his head against his leg.
The mere fact that Tayton permitted him to have that sort of contact with him allowed Denny to remember how to breathe. His master wasn’t as angry with him as he’d feared he might be. Denny hadn’t screwed up so badly he couldn’t be forgiven. “I’m sorry for all the fuss, sir. I just…”
“If you try to apologize for any part of it again, you’ll find yourself turned over my knee—and it won’t be for the sort of spanking you enjoy receiving or that I enjoy administering.”
A tug on Denny’s hair demanded he look up and meet Tayton’s eyes. Denny had never seen his master appear quite so serious.
“I won’t have you apologizing for falling in love with me or for celebrating that fact.”
Chapter Three
Denny was so shocked, he couldn’t think of a single thing to say. At best, he’d hoped his master would tolerate his soppiness. The possibility that Tayton would actually approve of it had never even occurred to him.
“It’s a far bigger milestone than some of the others we’ve celebrated together,” Tayton observed.
Denny tried to look down, but Tayton’s grip on his hair tightened, refusing him permission to do that.
“Is there something else you want to tell me about all these anniversaries we keep celebrating?”
Denny nibbled at his bottom lip as he tried to work out the least wrong answer.
“Lies by omission are still lies, pet.” Their eyes met. “But if you tell me the whole truth right now, you won’t be punished for anything you failed to mention before today.”
Denny closed his eyes for a moment. Tayton deserved the truth. It was little enough for him to ask for after everything he’d given Denny over the last two years.
“The first few months after I fell in love with you, sir, the ones before you let me belong to you…” Denny whispered, only to find it impossible to go on.
“They weren’t pleasant,” Tayton filled in for him.
Denny nodded, more for the joy of feeling Tayton’s hand maintaining its tight hold on his hair than anything else. “You didn’t even know I was alive, and there were so many other submissives you could have picked. So, I…I promised myself I would always be grateful for
anything
I could have with you, sir.” Opening his eyes, he looked up at Tayton and forced himself to meet the older man’s gaze. “I never expected you to actually offer me a collar, but I can’t stop being grateful for all the little things just because I have the big things now. That would be wrong.”
Tayton said nothing.
“I know it’s silly, sir. And I do try not to get on your nerves with—”
“That’s enough.”
Denny immediately fell quiet. Even his heart silenced its beating.
“Have I ever told you that I dislike your celebrations?”
Denny shook his head.
“They’re not silly; they’re beautiful,” Tayton said. He might have been about to add something else, but he cleared his throat instead, obviously uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking.