Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Going on the run together was starting to seem like the only option. If my brother wouldn’t budge, and if Art’s associates tracked Marcus here, San Francisco would become too dangerous for him. As much as I hated running the risk of alienating my family, I cared about Marcus way too much to let him face all of this alone.
It wasn’t all sneaking around and stress, though. I also managed to do some perfectly normal things that month, like continuing my pole dancing classes, exploring San Francisco, and spending time with my new friend Timothy.
He was the only person I’d been able to confide in about my secret relationship, and I was grateful to have him to talk to about it. Everyone else I knew, including my friend Pete, was close with my family and would have felt bad keeping secrets from them. But Timothy was on my side, one hundred percent.
On the last Thursday in February, we went out for iced coffee after class. As we took a seat in the crowded coffee house, he asked, “So, have you and your man re-christened your relationship yet?”
“Are you asking if we’ve had sex since we’ve been back together?”
“Of course I am! You know I’ve been waiting on the juicy details.”
“No, we haven’t. Not yet.”
He shot me a look as he took a long drink from his straw. Then he said, “Explain this whole born again virgin thing to me. I mean, you already slept together, and then you decided to rescind the invitation to your ass after you found out he was a lying liar who lied. I guess that makes sense. But it’s been weeks, and I know you’re all team Marcus again. So, what’re you waiting for?”
“When we spent that week alone in San Diego, the sex was just really intense.”
Timothy raised a brow and dead-panned, “That sounds terrible. I could see why you’d want to avoid that.”
“I just want to keep a clear head this time around, instead of letting sex cloud my judgement.”
Timothy still looked skeptical. “You know what clouds my judgement? A raging case of blue balls. But you do you, boo.”
I grinned and asked, “You get what I’m saying though, don’t you?”
“In theory. But I’m still struggling with the notion that you have hot dick on tap and are choosing not to indulge. Aren’t you really just punishing yourself?”
“Actually, I’ve been ready to sleep with him for a while now,” I admitted, “but we haven’t really had the chance. Whenever I see him, it’s just for a couple of hours. That way, I don’t have huge blocks of time to account for with my brother.”
“Okay, I get it. You don’t want a quickie.”
“No. I want it to be special.” I tried to find a way to explain it and ended up with, “The first time, we fell into bed right away, with the thought that maybe it was just going to be a casual fling. Now that we’re a couple, it’s going to mean a lot more.”
“It’ll be like wedding night sex—finally consummating your relationship.”
“In a way, yeah.” I took a drink of iced coffee before saying, “You know, we talk about my love life a lot, but you never want to talk about yours. Why is that?”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Really?”
“Oh, believe me,” he said, “if there was something happening you’d be getting an earful. But my sex life is just…complicated.”
“In what way?”
“Let’s say I spot a sexy silver fox at the supermarket. He thinks I’m cute because he’s not a dumb-ass, and I’m quite taken by his big zucchini—because we met in the produce section, obviously.” He grinned at me and continued, “That mutual attraction isn’t enough. Not by a long shot.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not vanilla. I’ve tried to make conventional sex—and relationships for that matter—work in the past, but no. I need someone whose kinks align with mine, and the chances of finding that in some random guy on aisle four are pretty freaking slim.”
“Okay, I get it. So, where would you normally go to meet someone, a BDSM club?”
“No, although I actually gave the whole BDSM thing a whirl for a while. It wasn’t the right fit, either.”
“What are you looking for?”
He thought about it before saying, “I want an older guy who’s in charge, but I don’t want a Dom or a daddy. It’s hard to describe exactly what I need from him, but I’ll know it when I see it.”
“Well, I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
He raised his drink in a toast and said, “You and me both, my friend.”
I had plans to meet Marcus at our usual spot that afternoon, so after my coffee break with Timothy, I took a cab to Golden Gate Park. I’d gotten in the habit of getting dropped off on the main road, then taking a nice stroll past the boathouse to the Chinese pavilion, where he’d be waiting for me.