Chapter Eight
Mouse and Rhys were sitting at our usual booth at the café when I walked in. Mouse looked like he was still flying high from the flogging his Daddy had given him, and Rhys was giving his best friend a bemused smile.
“Oh, here he comes. Looks like Doc and Perry reached a détente last night.” Mouse mock whispered to Rhys as I approached.
“When did you learn the word détente? Can you even spell it?” I sniped back as I slid into the booth seat across from them. I winced slightly, my arse still feeling the effects of the previous night’s spanking.
“Yup, it's spelled f-u-c-k y-o-u.” Mouse responded with a devilish smile crossing his face.
“Oh, look at you spelling out your words, such a clever lad.” I picked up the menu and ignored Mouse’s shocked gasp.
“Oh, you are not hiding behind that menu.” This time, Rhys’s voice was the one raised slightly with the tone he used when I ate the last Hobnob or forgot to fill the kettle.
For such a sweet angelic-looking man, he could be rather scary. It was hard to think that he thought I was the scary one when we’d first met.
Both my friends had gone through a lot in the last year and a half, and I was proud of them, proud of how they had not let others' hatefulness change them.
“Not hiding. I'm trying to decide what I want for breakfast.” I dropped the menu and looked at them. “I take it you have both ordered.”
“Pancake extravaganza,” Rhys answered, looking pleased with himself.
“Full English with black pudding.” Mouse cackled at Rhys's pained expression.
“Why are we friends?” Rhys shook his head, then focused back on me, his bright blue eyes inquisitive. “So, you and Perry huh?”
“There’s no me and Perry. I did the man a favour.”
Mouse leant forward, smirking. “Was getting your arse spanked a favour then?”
Before I could answer, one of the waitresses was at our table ready to take my order. “Can I grab a waffle stack with butter and honey and a few slices of bacon?” She smiled while jotting down my order.
“Coffee?”
“Yes, please. In a mug. What about you two?” Mouse and Rhys both gave their drink orders since their breakfast order had already been placed.
The café’s waffle stacks were a thing of beauty.
I would eat them every day if I could, but sadly, the fear of my belly becoming more than a slight pot kept me at least limiting it to once… okay, maybe three times a week.
With our orders done, Rhys zeroed his attention back on me. “Okay, spill. How was it with Master Peregrine?”
“It was good.” I stopped when our coffees and Rhys’s hot chocolate were laid out on the table.
“Good as in you want to spend more time on your knees for Master P?” Mouse asked, blunt as ever.
He clapped his hands as our plates were slid in front of us.
How either of them could eat as much as they did astounded me, but then I looked at my own plate of buttery waffle goodness.
At least Mouse and Rhys still had years before they had to worry about middle age spread.
Oh, fuck it. I was not worrying about my waist right then.
I wanted to enjoy my brunch with my best friends.
I let out a happy moan when I tasted the first forkful of waffle and bacon. I was pretty sure there was butter dripping down my chin, but I didn’t care, I was close to a foodgasm.
“Are you ignoring me, Cullen?” Rhys pouted while Mouse, on the other hand, cackled like an evil chipmunk.
“You know the only thing he’s thinking about right now is that food. Let him have his breakfast, then we can grill him about Perry.” Mouse shot me a grin, then started to devour his own breakfast.
I was given a reprieve, but as soon as their plates were empty, I was going to be bombarded with questions. My phone made a sound, Perry’s name lit up with a text under it.
Perry:
Morning kitten, hope you slept well. Six-thirty at La’ Masson too early for dinner?
Me:
Did we say dinner? I thought we were just having coffee.
I kept my eyes on my phone, ignoring the looks from Mouse and Rhys.
I smiled at Perry’s answering text.
Perry:
We did, but I feel like taking you somewhere special.
Me:
You don’t have to go to much trouble for me. I’d be more than happy with fish & chips at the beach.
Perry:
That can be our next date.
I grinned like a fool at Perry’s response. It was ridiculous that he was making me react like this, but I couldn’t help it.
I had an idea, and it was something I hadn’t done in a long time. I continued to ignore the two across the table because this was important.
Me:
How about I cook dinner for us?
I sent the text before I could back out and waited to see how Perry would reply.
Perry:
Okay. Six-thirty work?
Me:
I have Rhys and Mouse watching so I will text you in a bit.
Perry sent back a thumbs up and laughing emoji, and I tried not to laugh.
A loud throat clearing made me look up from my phone, and my battle to not laugh was lost when I looked at the two men sitting in front of me.
“That was him, wasn’t it?” Mouse asked, as blunt as ever.
“If you mean Perry, then yes it was.” I cut another mouthful of waffle and watched Rhys and Mouse exchange looks.
“Okay, you have to tell us what’s going on with you and Mr Fancy pants,” Mouse blurted out.
Rhys gave a long sigh and rolled his eyes at his best friend.
“I wouldn’t have been as blunt as that, but yeah, how have you gone from growling and claws bared on sight to you smirking at text messages he sends?
” Rhys picked up his hot chocolate and gave me a firm look over the marshmallows and cream of his drink.
Mouse and Rhys were the closest people in my life. If I couldn’t share my strange new feelings about Perry with them, who could I talk to? I mean, both had gone through hurdles to get their relationships. Maybe they might be able to help me not make a complete fool out of myself.
“Perry spanked me last night.” Welp, it looked like I was just going to blurt that out.
Mouse leant forward his dark eyes narrowed. “And?”
“I came so hard I nearly passed out,” I answered, watching Mouse and Rhys’s jaw drop.
“Holy shit, just from getting your arse spanked?”
“I think it was everything. Perry is…” I shook my head trying to put into words how Perry had made me feel.
How did I explain the feeling of calmness that came over me when Perry had me go to my knees?
“He got me. When I suggested it might be smart to put me on speech restrictions at the beginning, he didn’t get annoyed at me suggesting it, he got why it would be good for me. ”
Rhys wrinkled his nose. “I really don’t understand how you can enjoy that. I’d hate it if Daddy put me on speech restrictions.”
“Your Daddy doesn’t use that on you though, does he?” I asked Rhys.
“No, we talked about it, and I talked to Dec in therapy about it, and we think it might be a trigger because of the punishments my sperm donor gave me.” Mouse slung an arm around Rhys’s shoulder and smacking a loud kiss to the side of his head.
“I don’t mind it when Daddy puts me on them. Usually it’s when my brat switch has been turned to eleven, and he wants me to think about what I’m doing. I hate to admit it, but he’s right about it, it makes my brain go quieter,” Mouse answered.
Nodding, I picked up my mug of coffee and savoured the bittersweet taste. “It’s the same for me. My brain powers down, something I’ve had a hard time with the last few months.” It was longer than a few months. Truth be told, more like years.
“So, Perry made you feel good? That’s what you’re saying?” Rhys sat forward as he spoke, his hands clasped in front of him mimicking how his Daddy would sit when he asked Rhys questions. He would probably find the comparison hilarious if I pointed it out to him.
“He did. Nobody was more surprised than I was and, to be honest, I earned the spanking.” The café was starting to fill up, but at least our corner was still relatively private, so nobody would overhear our conversations.
“What did you do?” Mouse asked.
“I lied about how my knees were feeling. I told him I was fine, but they were bloody hurting. It’s been months since I knelt like that, and my knees started to ache badly, but I didn’t want to let Perry down.”
Mouse made a sound sucking air through his teeth and shook his head. “I always got the feeling Perry is like Cal, pretty laid back until I push too far or do something that might hurt myself.”
I thought about the way Perry had looked at me, how he saw straight though my lies, but let me dig myself in deeper.
“I have a terrible feeling I wouldn’t be able to get much over him.” I smiled, not feeling bad about it at all. I liked a challenge, and I also loved assertive, bossy men. Why had I not realised my animosity towards Perry was a crush?
“So, what were the texts about? Not me being nosey, but I’m kind of invested now,” Rhys said as he sat forward. To make matters worse, he laid on the puppy eyes and with those dazzling blue eyes of his, I could no more say no to him than I could a cute puppy or kitten.
So, I told them everything that had happened the previous night, including the drive home and the goodnight kiss.
I didn’t tell them how I kept touching my lips or replaying the kiss in my head as I drifted off to sleep, or how I dreamed of kneeling at Perry’s feet his as I worshiped his cock.
I hadn’t had a chance to see it the previous night, but my dream image was pretty spectacular.
I wanted to know about the ink I saw when his shirt sleeves rode up.
I wanted to see if those thighs were as muscular as they felt when I had laid myself over them.
Mouse cleared his throat loudly and brought me out of my daydream. “Do I even want to know what you were thinking about?”
“Perry’s dick.” Mouse’s shocked face made my morning. Rhys cackling and nearly falling out of the booth came close second.
Between peals of laughter, Rhys managed to speak, “Well, I didn’t expect that answer.”
“I need to keep the both of you on your toes don’t I?”