Chapter 22
Freddie
“You were a pastry chef? Are you having me on?” Simmons playfully asks with a mouthful of orange Jello.
“I swear on my Ma’s life. I moved to Edinburgh to go to catering college and ended up back home after only a couple of years qualified when the pandemic hit,” I tell him.
It’s been two days since I saw Simmons lying in the hospital, vulnerable and hurt.
After speaking with Craig and Kody, whom I had adopted as a new friend when we caught sight of each other at the after-party event, I’d decided that maybe I could still have my cake and eat it too, metaphorically, of course.
I was excited about the possibility of further engagement with Simmons after we hooked up months ago.
Being a virgin in almost every sense, I had tried hookup apps in the past to just get it over with.
It’s not like I thought it was some precious thing I had to give to a dearly beloved.
But I focused on my pastry career, which involved long hours and little social life, and I put off every offer to hook up because I was usually like a burst couch at the end of a 16-hour shift on my feet all day.
I also didn’t get offered much on the dating profile as I had rules on my profile of them never giving me release or touching my cock in return.
It had me wondering why I had let Simmons touch me and bring me to orgasm.
Maybe it was because we had a mutual kink for latex, and I was giddy at the prospect of meeting someone alike.
Or maybe it was because we were in the moment and I couldn’t think of anyone I wanted to have touch me more than the hairy bear that had been on top of me, the smell of arousal and lust mad eyes looking down at me.
My body effervescent with the need to be touched, skin on skin with another, I had let it happen and hadn’t regretted it even for a moment.
I knew Simmons was a Dom; it was clear in how he exuded confidence. His tone, body language and size, all of it was a headline sign for ‘I am a Dom’. If that were the case, maybe once he was better, he would want to explore a D/s relationship of sorts with me.
I still wasn’t sure if there was anyone in his life, Chloe had told me about a guy around Simmons age that had been back and forth visiting so it was possible that the reason the texts never really went anywhere was because he had met someone since the expo and it had gotten serious.
There were moments since yesterday though when we chatted where I could have sworn he was checking me out, so I did a little flirting and he hadn’t seemed to mind.
“That’s when you started your blog?”
“Yeah, my best mate Benji is a sex worker and had offered to help me get work that way when the world closed down. I wasn’t sure if it was for me, but I definitely liked the idea of sex education or reviewing toys, so I did some research, and my parents invested, and the rest is history.”
“Your parents invested? Do they know the type of blog you have?” I could tell he wasn’t judging, but I got it. It was odd for parents, especially in the Western world, to be so sex-positive and unashamed about it.
“Yeah, they have been super supportive. It might seem odd to some, but I’ve never known them to be any different,” I tell him honestly.
He stares at me, questions forming that I can see in his eyes, but eventually he just huffs a laugh and finishes eating.
“What about you? You’re a Dom, right? No way you came representing Nyctra if you weren’t.
I mean, if you were someone’s sub, I mean, if you were mine and I’m not a Dom by the way, I would have you chained up in a little cage all naked and not allowed out.
” Okay, sue me. I was flirting and pushing for more information.
“I am a Dom, you’re right there. And I’m sensing a little projection, maybe? That chain and cage something you want, Freddie? Something no one has offered you before?” He looks at me, one brow raised in question. Oh, he’s taunting me back.
Okay, I was fine when I was pushing him, but I’m not sure how I can contain myself and my answers when that’s the kind of questions he’s coming out with. I fold my arms and huff with a pout, but that just makes him laugh.
“I plead the Fifth. That’s something you guys say here, is it not?” I answer with my eyes narrowed in feigned agitation. He laughs at me again, shaking his gorgeous head of hair. He has small streaks of silver in it that my fingers ache to touch.
“I’m a professor by day. And unlike the fantasy, it’s actually a very boring job with lots of paperwork. The time off is good though, never missed a summer vacation. Burt taught me to be a Dom, but my nights at Nyctra have been… limited recently.”
His admission about his limited visits to his club makes me curious, but I try not to overthink why that is.
“Oh, a professor. Any subs that make you act out student-teacher scenes with a cane? Sub with a little tartan school skirt on and a caned red arse?” I’m teasing.
I actively pursue and taunt as my cock, which has been caged for 19 days, pushes its luck and attempts to get hard.
I shift my crossed legs so that both legs are together, side on to curb the arousal.
If Simmons senses anything, he hasn’t let on.
“Tell you what, why don’t I get you a night pass to the club when I’m healed up and you can find out for yourself what I do with a sub there,” he growls low like he only wants those words to reach my ears.
I lick my dry lips as we stare at each other; my chest heaves, and so does his. I swallow, then reach over and take his right hand, squeezing it hard.
“Well, if I was unsure if you were seeing someone, I know my answer now,” I admit with a touch of vulnerability that I rarely like people to witness. He squeezes back.
"No one… but you,” he whispers back, his voice leaden with lust.
The air around us charges, and I want to grab his stubbled face and take his mouth in mine.
I want to leap onto the bed and grind against his cock until we are both spilling.
I want… fucking everything with this man.
Just as I sit up on the seat on my knees, ready to lean over, my phone rings. It’s the one telling me it’s my Ma.
Fuck.
Simmons must sense it as he takes his hand out from mine and smiles a little sheepishly at me.
“You'd better take that kid.” I nod, getting off the seat and grabbing my phone from my bag.
The kid comment should irritate me as I am a man, but I actually squeal internally at it as a term of endearment instead.
“It’s my Ma. She’ll draw me up by the baws if I don’t answer. I’ll be back in a minute though, and we are finishing what I know we were both about to do,” I tell him with a wink as I blow him a kiss.
I push past the blue curtain and walk out the door into the ward. It’s not busy with visiting hours about to end and a shift change coming up, the hallway lies deserted so I answer the call there so that I can get back to my honey bear as soon as my Ma’s done chatting.
“Hi Ma,” I answer.
“Hello, it’s late here, but I was just checking in that your flight is still coming into Glasgow and not Edinburgh on the second?”
“Yeah, Glasgow, but I can get a taxi back to the house. It’ll be late when I arrive back. I thought I sent it all in a text to Da?”
“You did, but he bloody deleted it by accident. I don’t know how that man is so bad with technology; he’s not that ancient!”
I bite back a laugh as she goes on a rant about my Da and his other misgivings.
“I miss you all so much. I’m gutted it’s only a short time I’ll be back for.”
“Well, you work from home, Freddie, can’t you just move back for a while? Unless you’ve met a man? Oh my god, have you met a man and you haven’t told me?”
“No, Ma. There’s no man. I actually don’t know why I’m still here. You’re right, I could just come home. I miss being there so much, and I haven’t heard from Benji much and miss him like mad too.”
“Well, we support you with whatever you do, but being home would make me a very happy Mammy.”
“Oh, I know. Don’t the girls keep your motherly duties busy enough though?”
“Don’t get me started on those sisters of yours.
They are all mental, Freddie, all of them!
” I laugh as we say our goodbyes, and I’m still smiling as I go back to see Simmons.
He’s facing the other way, book in hand.
He looks so handsome, so rugged, but yet so put together at the same time.
Wishing to finally kiss him again and knowing I can, I’m by his bedside in three large steps.
He looks over to me, his demeanour completely different to how it was before I left. The vibe in the room feels sketchy and nothing like the charged, sexy hospital room it was merely 10 minutes ago.
“Are you okay? Are you in pain?” He shakes his head, not meeting my eyes.
“Tired is all. Don’t you have a shift starting soon? Don’t want you to be late.”
Oookay, maybe his meds have made him out of sorts.
I leave him, telling him I’ll come back tomorrow before my shift and that I’ll bring something better than fruit and gummy bears for him.
He smiles at me almost sadly, and I can’t help but wonder what the hell happened in the time I left to talk to my Ma to returning and seeing him look…
defeated is the only word that comes to mind.
Looking at my phone, I realise he wasn’t wrong. I’m gonna be late, so I haul arse, promising to ask him tomorrow where it went wrong.