Chapter 23 – Richard #2
“He knew about us.” I start “What was I supposed to do, call you up and say hi Vin, I’m dating David, and I just decided to get married?”
“Yes,” Vin replies, but some of the anger from his voice has gone.
“Look, you are my best friend” I tell him "and you should’ve been right there with me, but I couldn’t figure out how to tell you about me and David. The marriage was a spur of the moment. Jasper was there as the next best thing to my best friend.”
“Fine.” But then Vincent pauses for a second, his eyes wide, “The marks on your chest...” he stops for a second, “does David mind?”
“What do you mean, does David mind?” I ask.
“That you get marked like that. Is it Jasper that does it?”
So, this is going to be interesting. “No, it's not Jasper. He’s never marked me, but I have given up control to him in the past.” I let that piece of information sink in before I continue. “I told you that the marks I showed you were done by the man I love.”
“But that means...” Vincent says, quietly, as he looks over his shoulder, like he could somehow see Dave.
“Yes, those were done by him, and he is the only man that has ever done that.” I almost want to get Vincent a chair to sit down on, he looks so pale. I think this piece of information has shocked him more than finding out that we are married.
“I’m going to get the drinks ready.” Deciding to stop this conversation for the moment.
I busy myself with making the hot drinks, but keep a close eye on Vincent. He hasn’t made any attempt to talk to me, and I’m not going to push him. I’m letting him digest all the information that he’s learned in the last few minutes.
“Vin, do you want anything?” I ask over to him.
“What?”
“Do you want anything?”
“No.”
“Are you sure? You look like you need something?” I ask.
“Whiskey?” Vin asks.
“Might be a little early for that,” I say, considering that it was only late morning.
“In that case, I’m good.” But I think he’s disappointed that I didn’t get him one.
“Okay, can you carry this in for Lars, then?”
Vincent picks up the cup and walks out of the kitchen, and I follow behind with Dave and Jasper’s drinks. I hand the cup over to Jasper before handing a bottle of water to Dave, and retake my seat next to him.
“What did you say to Vincent?” Jasper asks as I sit down, “He’s not said a word.”
“He asked a question, and I answered it truthfully. I just think he was surprised at the answer.”
“You mark him,” Vincent suddenly announces as he looks over to Dave.
“Vincent, what the hell are you going on about?” Lars says. “Sorry, I have….”
But before Lars is able to finish, Dave pipes up. “Yeah, I did, and still do.”
“That’s just….” Vincent starts.
“I would watch your words there, Vin. We have gone over this. Everyone loves differently, and this is how I like it.”
Vincent looks up to me and gives me a subtle nod of the head, I know that the matter has been dropped. But I don’t think he will ever fully understand, but that’s okay. I know that we’ll move past it, and our friendship will stay the same.
“I think we need to change the subject,” I start.
“No, I want to know,” Lars whines. “Is it, like, a huge secret? You all seem to know, so why can’t I?”
“Lars,” Dave starts, but I see a twinkle in his eye. “My sex life with Richard is a little different. Richard, I like to dominate, and he, well, likes to let me.”
“Oh, cool. So, are you full-on dominant and submissive? Safe words etc? Do you visit any of the clubs?” Lars replies, and I think poor Vincent’s heart is about to give out, and Dave, who had decided to take a sip of water, spits it out.
“What? How the hell do you know about stuff like that? You aren’t?” Dave asks.
“Oh, God no. I had some friends who were, and they just told me about it. I found a mark on his wrist, and I was concerned that he was being abused. If I remember correctly, I was going to call the police. It led to a very interesting conversation.”
“You know about this stuff?” Vincent asks, shifting to look over at Lars.
“Yeah. Oh, Jesus. What have you been saying? Please tell me you haven’t been your normal self?”
“Normal self,” I confirm.
“Vin, you need to come into the twenty-first century. You are such an old prude at times. Richard and David’s sex life happens between two consenting adults, they just take pleasure in one person having more control than the other,” Lars replies.
“Rich, we should’ve told Lars first,” Dave replies.
“Hang on,” Lars suddenly adds, and when he looks over to us, he’s smirking, and I’m suddenly worried about what he’s going to say, “you said that you slept with Jasper. Was that just sex, or did he help you, you know, get what you needed?”
“Dominant here,” Jasper tells him, in answer.
“But….” Lars adds, looking over to Dave, and I know where his train of thought is going.
“I was dominant with David, too. He switched teams, so to speak,” Jasper replies, and I think this makes Lars’s smile get bigger.
“Okay, enough,” I say. “We need to get this conversation back on track about David and I.”
“Yes,” Vincent agrees. “We’re going to need to do this right. After his crash, he’s already making headline news.”
“I’m never going to get over seeing you drive into those barriers,” Lars says.
“It’s not an experience that I would recommend,” Dave replies.
“Thank fuck the halo was there,” I add. “I know that when it first arrived there were some drivers that were against it. But now,” I say, thinking how it had to have saved Dave’s life.
“It did save me, but then, it also stopped me from getting out of the car. I was prepared to die,” he voices, and all the eyes in the room turn to him.
“What?” Not sure I heard him right.
“When I first hit the barriers, I couldn’t get out. I tried. So, I sat back in my seat. Waited for the fire to take me.”
“What made you try again? Lars asks.
“Him,” Dave replies, pointing to me, “and our future. We had just started our lives together and I needed to fight for it.”
Dave had accepted his death. Those were hard words to hear. Especially from someone I love, but the fact that our future together is what saved him, or gave him the strength to get out of the car, will be something I will never forget. I’m going to make damn sure that he knows what he means to me.
“Dave,” I say, pulling him over to me. “I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
“If you are quite done with the love fest. Let’s get back to coming up with a plan,” Vincent adds.
I’m not sure how long we spend discussing what we want to do, but we never seem to be able to come up with a plan of how to tell the world. Vincent advises that, before we do anything, relationship wise, that we need to tell the FIA. This isn’t something that they should find out from the papers.
We decide that, due to the nature of the crash, that a press conference, sooner, rather than later, will be needed, but we all agree that this needs to be done with Nicky, too.
Only an ex-F1 driver will truly understand what Dave went through.
Vincent agreed to talk to Charmaine the next day, and try to get something organised in a few days, but only after Jasper recommended that Dave get some rest.
I hear Lars call Jasper over to him, but don’t really pay that much attention, my concern is with Dave. He’s starting to look tired, and I’m thinking that I should have organised for everyone to come over tomorrow, that doing this after a long flight wasn’t the best idea.
“You want me to get rid of everyone?” I whisper over to him.
“No, I’m liking the company. It’s all our friends,” he replies back.
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” he confirms.
When I look up next, Lars and Jasper are looking over at me and Dave, but both of them are smirking before turning away again. Oh, they’re up to something, but I still turn my attention back to Dave, ignoring them. Which was a mistake.
“David, Richard,” Jasper’s voice suddenly, commands.
“Yes, sir,” we both reply on instinct.
When I look up, both Lars and Jasper are laughing, and I realise that Lars got Jasper to do this. To use his voice on us, to get us to do this, and I get a feeling that I’m going to regret Lars knowing that both Dave and I were submissives.
“Bastards, the pair of you,” I say over to them, which only makes them laugh harder.