Two Steps Back chapter (Patreon)

I have the rights back to this one. A number of people had commented that the ending lacked emotional connection in the sex scene.  I just reread it, and I agreed, so I did some editing.  Now I need to figure out Draft 2 Digital. Anyway, this is what I've been working on: 

Chapter Twenty-Three

Following the advice of Dr. Acosta, couples therapist extraordinaire, Dallin was settled in a chair, trying to have a normal evening with his boyfriend. Dallin needed to find a better word for their relationship. He associated boyfriends with high school football and teen movies. But no matter what they called each other, they had to work on communication. And clearly William was not a great talker, so Dallin mentally flailed as he tried to think of a safe topic.

“So, how was work?” Dallin shifted uncomfortably on the dining room chair. It really was too stiff for him to find a comfortable position.

“Vince quit.”

“The guy who screwed up your software?”

William nodded. He took another bite before frowning at his plate. Dallin was about to ask if there was something wrong with the food when William asked, “Are you as uncomfortable as I am?”

“Hell yes,” Dallin said. Sitting fully dressed at the table with William felt a lot more awkward than kneeling next to him, and clearly he was losing some normal cred for admitting that.

“We could…” William glanced down at the floor to his left.

“Oh no,” Dallin said firmly. “Dr. Acosta said we have to practice healthy communication.”

William wrinkled his nose, but he did go back to poking his scallops. “He also suggested that our sex life might suffer if we continued to engage in domination play every night, and I am fairly sure he is utterly wrong about that.”

“So, you want to ignore his advice?” Dallin asked. William looked at him, but after a second, he sighed heavily.

“No. We are getting better, yes?”

Dallin nodded. “I think we are. Maya is talking to me again.”

“And she is not talking to me,” William said. “Did you take my advice?”

“Yep. I told her how you stuck your nose into my homophobic family and brought them down on my head. She was alternating between giving me reasons for forgiving you and telling stories about a guy named Craig you dated when you were seventeen.”

“Oh good Lord. I’m going to fire that woman one day.” William put his fork down rather forcefully.

“That’s not going to happen.”

William sighed again. “No, it isn’t. However, feel free to avoid her. Just because you insist on taking on the duties of a personal assistant doesn’t mean you need to include her in the correspondence.”

“Yeah, except she knows how to answer all these people who keep writing you. Seriously, does everyone in the state have your address?”

“It seems that way sometimes. I keep telling Maya that people would stop sending invitations and requests for donations if she simply ignored all correspondence that wasn’t related to the business.” William picked his fork up. “Has your brother e-mailed lately?”

“He got in a screaming fight with my dad.”

“Charming.”

“He’s seventeen.”

“In that case, I will go out of my way to avoid all seventeen-year-olds and your father.” William spent some time eating dinner, and Dallin tried to do the same. Dr. Acosta insisted the interaction would begin to feel more natural, but Dallin wanted to skip past all the awkward stages and get back to where they had been. Out of the corner of his eye, Dallin watched William eat with very precise movements.

Then again, their sex life was back to normal. Normal for them, anyway. The suggestion they not engage in the same play every night had led to more experimentation, but they both liked sex. A lot. They liked sex with each other even more, so nightly orgasms were on the menu, and that was when all the barriers came down between them. It was this mandated, fully-dressed communication time that still felt weird.

“Oh, you’re never going to guess who called me, asking me to do a print job for him,” Dallin said. It was strange to have a couple-type conversation with someone. In the past, Dallin had fuck buddies and clients, but William was more like family. Even his parents hadn’t done the whole talking-over-dinner thing, because usually their mother was telling some sibling to get elbows off the table or discussing how to handle the unmitigated horror of having a teacher assign an essay by a Buddhist nun.

William looked at him, clearly waiting for an answer.

“Mr. Stevens.”

“Who?”

“The homophobe who gave me those bruises when I tried to collect my money?”

William narrowed his eyes. “And how did that conversation go?” he asked. Dallin could almost taste William’s need to tell him to turn down any of Stevens’s work, but he had to give William credit. He was showing his aggravation without making any demands.

“He wanted to know if my quote for new menus was still good. Actually, he made it sound like he was considering doing me the favor of throwing me his business if I could give him a bigger discount. I informed him that I have a new policy of three-hundred-percent markups for homophobes, so if he wanted the work done, it would be a little under two thousand.” Dallin grinned as he remembered the man’s spluttering.

William smiled. “Good for you. I like it when karma is unexpectedly efficient.”

“Oh yeah.” Dallin went back to eating. It was nice having someone to share that with. He finished his dinner and noticed that William had already folded his napkin and put it next to his plate for the maid to clean up tomorrow. Dallin no longer felt guilty about leaving dishes to get hard and crusty overnight, because he filled out the check for the cleaning service. They were paid enough to deal with dried fettuccine.

“Would you like to go for a swim?” William asked.

Dallin couldn’t take it anymore. “I think we’ve had as much normal as we can take. Is there any chance we could skip the rest and play?”

“God, please,” William said with obvious relief. “If you get your cuffs and meet me upstairs, I’ve bought a new toy.”

“You and your toys scare me.”

“Good,” William said with a wicked smile, and then he hurried toward the stairs. Whatever he’d bought, he was excited about it. And Dallin’s cock was already responding. They had left Dallin’s area for transitioning into sub mode in the garage. While William had offered to move it inside, Dallin had formed a fetish for standing on the concrete floor as he stripped off his clothes and his worries and let himself sink into his role as William’s submissive.

This was the one part of their life that Dallin completely trusted William to handle well. Dallin locked the cuffs onto his wrists and ankles and headed back into the house. He padded across the hardwood floors and up the wide staircase. He crossed into the bedroom and stared at the tools laid out across the dresser closest to the bed. A black case held instruments that looked like a bizarre mixture of medical equipment and steampunk props.

He recognized a couple of things, including a pinwheel and a short flogger, the sort that people used for sensation play rather than pain. There were also a couple of glass dildos that were hard to mistake, but they were all rather thin, more like probes or plugs than actual dildos.

“Sir?” Dallin asked as he looked at the wires and the weird connectors.

“Lie on the bed, arms out,” William ordered.

Having orders helped settle the tiny butterflies in Dallin’s stomach. He hurried to get into position. William stood at the foot of the bed watching him, and Dallin clenched his fists to fight back the urge to move or maybe even grab himself and jerk off. It was so hard when William stared at him as if Dallin was the most beautiful sight in the world. Besotted. That’s how William looked, and Dallin’s toes curled at the idea that William lost all his logic and stiffness when he looked in Dallin’s direction.

After a time, William chuckled as if he could read Dallin’s thoughts. “Someone is rather excited to explore a new toy,” he commented as he walked to the side of the bed. He knelt down and grabbed the strap that was attached to the bed frame and clipped it to Dallin’s cuff. He paused to run his hand along Dallin’s shin and tingles ran up Dallin’s spine.

“Yes, sir,” Dallin agreed.

William ran his hand up Dallin’s arm to his shoulder. “Do you know anything about violet wands?”

“No, sir.”

William smiled. “Well, then, I hope you’ll enjoy this. It is perfectly safe, and if the intensity is too much, there is a variable control.” His words were all business, but his trailed his fingertips along Dallin’s ribs. He went to the other side of the bed and fastened Dallin’s right arm so Dallin was helpless. Almost. He pulled his knees up, wondering if William would tie his ankles, but William returned to his case of odd toys.

“Ideally, the lights would be lower, but I am in too much of a hurry to wait for the sun to go down,” William said. The bedroom had shades that blocked the view and diffused the sunlight while still letting it in, so it wasn’t dark, but Dallin had no idea what that had to do with their sex life. William hadn’t been shy about sex with the lights on in the past.

William switched something on, and it started to make an odd buzzing noise, like a badly tuned old-fashioned radio or a hundred bees in a glass jar. When he turned around, he had a black-handled thing with a long glass wand on the end. The wand was glowing purple, and as Dallin watched the glow, the buzzing grew more intense. Dallin’s body tensed the way it did as he approached the top of a roller coaster and held his breath as he waited for that first big drop.

“Is that a violet wand?” Dallin pulled against his cuffs. He trusted William, but the instinctive need to retreat was still there. It made the bondage sweeter.

“Yes,” William said. He brought a finger up, and a long arc of electricity jumped from the wand to his finger as the wand gave a high-pitched buzz. Dallin jumped. “It can be set at different levels. This is the highest setting, and as you see, it does me no permanent harm.” He brought his finger back to the wand, and again purple sparks crossed the distance, at least until William jerked his hand away.

Dallin swallowed. He wouldn’t be able to jerk away. The adrenaline flowed through his veins and his breath was loud in the silence.

William fiddled with the bottom of the handle, and the buzzing noise grew softer. “Let’s see how you like this. Legs flat, please.”

The butterflies had returned to Dallin’s stomach, but he lowered his legs to the bed and waited. William moved the wand closer to the bottom of Dallin’s foot, and he tensed as he prepared for the pain. Instead little prickles traveled up the arch of his foot as the wand made that same odd noise again. It was like when Dallin had been a kid and let that crackling candy sit on his tongue, only not really. There was a tingling heat and a need to arch his foot, but also a prickling like little feet running up and down his skin.

“How does it feel?”

Dallin thought about that. “Odd,” he finally said. He didn’t know any other way to describe it. William took the wand away, and Dallin let out a breath. William ran his hand over the spot, soothing away the tingles. Then William turned away. Dallin stopped breathing as he heard the buzzing increase. William brushed the wand over that same spot.

Dallin gasped. More was good. The heat seemed to soak into him, and the tingles danced over his skin. William rested one hand against Dallin and moved the wand up Dallin’s leg. The wand sparked and glowed. The prickles from the electricity contrasted against William’s strong hand where it still rested on Dallin’s lower leg. Dallin twisted as his body tried to process the two different feelings. When William pulled back so only the tip touched Dallin, the spark grew sharper like a pinwheel poking him, but then William slid the wand back so the flat of it was against Dallin’s thigh, and the sparks went back to the sharp, warm prickle.

“Okay, that’s good,” Dallin said breathlessly. William shifted toward Dallin’s inner thigh, and Dallin jerked as the sensitive skin took a little too much electricity. “Shit.”

“Now, profanity is a sure way to earn a spanking,” William commented. For a second Dallin thought William was serious, but then he spotted the small grin. “Not that spankings seem to curb your tendency to swear. Perhaps I should get more creative with my punishments.” William slid the wand to Dallin’s chest, running it over the skin until Dallin was gasping and his sparse chest hair all stood on end.

William turned the wand off, and Dallin trembled. The electricity didn’t hurt, but his body felt taut; his skin needed more. William lightly ran his fingernails over Dallin’s chest, and Dallin arched his back and pressed up into the touch.

“What about placing you in a chastity device for twenty-four hours every time you broke the profanity rule?”

Dallin shivered at the thought of William locking plastic and steel around his cock and balls. Meanwhile, William had gone back to his display of tools. He pulled the glass wand out of the handle and put it back in the case. Then he pulled out another glass tool, this one with a flat glass cap at the end of the tube.

“I love that you see me and never judge me,” William said.

“If I was going to judge you, I’d give you a ten,” Dallin said. “I’m fairly sure most lovers would.”

William’s gaze skittered away. “If that were true, I would not have started to pay men.” He cleared his throat and the ragged edges of emotion vanished under his businesslike manner. Sometimes Dallin wondered if someone had taught William to hide all his feelings or if he’d been born uncomfortable with his own thoughts. “Where are you, Dallin?” William asked.

“Green,” Dallin immediately answered. He hadn’t even started drifting away from his body yet, although the endorphins were kicking in.

“I believe you might like this.” William turned the tube on. That static buzz quickly built to a higher intensity before he brought the wand near Dallin’s nipple. He watched Dallin with rapt attention, his lower lip caught between his teeth as he brought glass closer. Dallin panted. The purple light flashed, and tiny bolts of lightning shot out toward his hard nipple.

Dallin yelped. That hurt, but it was the sort of hurt that focused him, that turned his nerves to fire. His cock was already hard, but now it began to ache.

“Too much?” William quickly asked.

Dallin shook his head. “Green.” He needed a lot more. William moved the wand to Dallin’s other nipple. Just as the electricity arced through the air, William grabbed Dallin’s cock.

Dallin dug his heels into the bed, and he thrust up until his ass was off the bed altogether. The wand grew quieter, and Dallin tried to focus on something other than his overheated body and the near all-consuming need. William had turned the wand down until the purple light was little more than a glow, but he was bringing it closer to Dallin’s cock.

That was enough to make Dallin stop breathing. They’d played with the pinwheel, but Dallin tended to flail. After a small accident that had led to two tiny holes that looked like the world’s smallest vampire had tried to suck his blood out his cock, they had given up on that toy. And that was sad, because the feel of the cool pinprick teeth against his hot cock had been glorious.

But now where were no sharp edges—only the smooth glass and the sting of electricity. Dallin waited. He was nearly light-headed as William closed the distanced until finally sparks jumped from the glass to Dallin’s cock.

“Fuck!” Dallin thrashed and pushed himself up into the wand. It crackled with electricity, and Dallin lost himself inside his body, the way his skin tingled and stung like a million hot pins had touched him all at once. It hurt, but it was a wonderful hurt that made his whole body come alive. It was too much, but it was not enough. Dallin thrust up again, but William pulled the wand back.

“Please,” Dallin begged.

William leaned down and licked the end of Dallin’s cock. That was enough. Dallin’s brain whited out, and every muscle went taut as he came, splattering his stomach. All other thoughts vanished, and even when Dallin’s brain started to slowly come back online like an old and overtaxed computer, he could only lie there and twitch as his body kept sending rippling aftershocks.

“You are like a Pollock painting, something from his drip period.”

That was probably a sarcastic comment about the fact that Dallin had his own cum across his belly and chest. He could feel it drying. However, he felt too good to care about William’s odd sense of humor. He drifted on the endorphins.

“You are very enjoyable to watch when you have this expression.” William ran his fingers over Dallin’s cheek. Dallin turned his head toward the touch. “I know I am difficult to live with. We’ll make this work,” William promised.

Dallin didn’t answer, but he knew William was right about them being alright. Neither of them was perfect, which made them perfect for each other.

William chuckled. “I wonder what it would look like if I added to that mess?”

When Dallin pried his eyes open, William was standing next to the bed, jerking himself off with his very pretty cock pointed right at Dallin. William still had that intensity in his gaze that could almost burn Dallin. He wanted so much that sometimes Dallin ached for William. But right now William looked as happy as a man could get. Dallin closed his eyes again. Yep, this was good. They had to make this work, because William had spoiled him for anyone else. Who else would ever use Dallin this well and look at him with such raw need? Besides, William needed him. Those were good reasons to stay together.

William grunted, and Dallin felt warm cum splatter across him. Some hit the bottom of his chin, and Dallin shivered as the drops tickled the little hairs.

And the fact that he loved the guy was a pretty good reason too.