Page 9 of Pain Play

Phil snorted, but then his eyes widened a bit. “I have a thought. What if you don’t touch without permission during the week, but on weekends you’re free to fondle away?” Phil winked.

Terry’s jaw went slack. “Really? You’d do that?”

Phil released Terry’s hand then went back to caressing his cheek. “Absolutely. It sounds very reasonable. And that also helps me out with another dilemma.”

“Yeah? What dilemma?”

A mischievous gleam lit up Phil’s eyes. “Another form of punishment that will work on you since the threat of a spanking is pointless.”

“Uh-oh. I’m afraid to ask.”

“Never be afraid, baby.” Phil slipped his thumb into the side of Terry’s mouth and Terry latched onto it, rasping it with his tongue. Fuck, if he wasn’t always horny for the man. Phil let out a low groan then pulled his thumb out, wiping the spit along Terry’s scruff. “My thought is if you willfully break a rule, an excellent way to reprimand you would be the loss of one of your touching days.”

Terry gasped then frowned. He hated to admit it, but Phil’s idea would be an effective method to make him want to behave. “I guess I’d agree to that.”

“Guess?”

Terry let out a sigh. “Okay, I’d agree to that.”

Phil chuckled. “I wish you could see your face, but that was a perfect compromise. I still hold to the assertion that you’re very brave and am so proud of you for taking such a big step in our relationship.” A crease formed between Phil’s eyebrows. “Another thing we’ll have to figure out now that we’re 24/7 is how we handle being in public.”

The same thing had already occurred to Terry, and he was very curious what Phil’s opinion would be. Even though they’d been inadvertently outed as kinksters in the media after thenear-kidnapping, Terry wasn’t sure what either of their comfort levels would be about expressing their lifestyle in public settings such as a business function or a restaurant.With me kneeling next to Phil, being spoon-fed by him. Terry couldn’t hold back a snorting chuckle at the visual in his head.

“I take it you pictured something extreme in your mind?” Phil grinned.

Terry nodded, laughing. “Totally. But how do you suggest we handle a scenario like you mentioned?”

“I say we experiment, but the first thought that came to me is something Eric would do while I was being trained by him.”

Terry’s gut clenched at the reminder. He understood logically that Eric had only been Phil’s instructor, that he was never his sub, that he and Eric had never had sex… Terry cringed.That me and Phil weren’t even together at the time.However, it didn’t make him any less cranky at the thought.Get over yourself, you big baby.

Phil squeezed his arm. “Nothing to worry about, remember?”

Terry nodded. “I know. Just being an idiot.”

Phil squeezed him harder. “Knock that off. You’ve been touching at will since we woke up and I’ve been enjoying it, so don’t make me take it away.”

Oops.“Gotcha.”

“Gotcha?”

Terry controlled the eye-roll, but not the sigh.This ‘round the clock sub thing is intense. “Gotcha, Master.”

Phil pursed his lips as if holding in a chuckle. “That’s my good baby.” Phil let out his own sigh. “Let’s see. Now, where were we? Ah, yes. The idea I had for our public selves. When I was out with Eric, he would say ‘pause’, and while the less obvious aspects of protocol remained, I was permitted to referto him as Eric instead of ‘Sir’, and so on. How do you feel about that?”

“It’s pretty much the same as me saying ‘matches’, though, isn’t it?”

“No, not at all. BecauseI’dbe the one making the decision, not you.”

Terry inclined his head. “Huh. Yeah, that sounds good. Then how would you indicate we were back to normal?”

Phil beamed, his smile wide. Terry couldn’t imagine what was so incredible about his question to have elicited such a strong reaction.

“That was amazing.” Phil hadn’t stopped grinning. “You referred to our Master/sub dynamic as ‘normal’.”

Terry’s jaw dropped. “Wow. I did.” He grinned back at Phil. “That’s a pretty good sign, right?”

“Helluva sign. And to answer your question, it’d be the same way we handled it before. I’d say ‘scene’. Are we in agreement?”