I snaked beneath the sheets to wake Epic with a blowjob. It had been a while, but it was like riding a bike. I knew what to do once I got going.
After last night, there was no going back. Epic and I spent the morning—after we ate a healthy breakfast and had a nice dip in the pool—finding new ways to sex each other up. This was how I’d ended up naked with my hands loosely tied to the arms of a padded wicker chaise longue.
At least I was in the shade.
“I can’t believe you brought cuffs.” Epic’s furry restraints had Velcro closures.
“They were still in my duffel bag from the last time I went to Comic Con.”
“Do I even want to know?”
“Probably not.” He grinned like a kid. “I could bind your feet, but I want you to be comfortable. “You’re going to be here a while.”
I didn’t have a clue what time it was. Noon, maybe? One? “Don’t forget, we came here to attend a wedding.”
“Which isn’t until six.”
“We’ll need time to shower and dress.”
“Don’t you worry about a thing.” There were crocodiles who looked less predatory than he did right then. “Just know that whatever happens next, I’m in charge. Is that okay?”
“Will I need a safeword?”
“You can say stop, and I will. Or red if you like to say stop when you don’t really mean it.”
“I’ll use red.” Although I wasn’t certain if there was anything I’d stop him from doing to me. “Yellow means slow.”
“Got it.” He left for a minute and came back with a small nylon sack from which he pulled out rope, a couple of plugs, some microfiber cloths, and toy cleaner. I watched while he cleaned things and laid them out beside the chaise.
“Okay, now you’re just scaring me.”
“How come?” He turned his boyish blue eyes my way. “Are you afraid I might hurt you?”
“No. I’m afraid I don’t know you well enough for this.”
“Then let me introduce myself.” He kissed my cheek. “I’m Epic Alsop, and I like being in charge.”
“Aw, no, really?”
“You can always say no. Or red.”
“How far are you going to take this?”
“I give you my solemn word that I won’t hurt you physically. You said you don’t like that.”
“I don’t.”
“I don’t much like hurting people either. But what if I control your orgasm?” He bit his lip. “Because I thought since we have some time…”
When he didn’t finish, I asked, “How would you do it?” I imagined some kind of cock and ball torture device, given he packed rope in his suitcase for Comic Con.
“Why don’t you give me your permission and find out?”
I hesitated. “You really won’t hurt me?”
“Never.” He crossed his heart. “But I also won’t let you come.”
“That’s…okay, I guess.” At my age, I should save up orgasms anyway.
“You know what to do if you want me to stop?” he asked.
“Say red.”
“Perfect.” He pumped a little lube onto his fingers. “You know you’re absolutely gorgeous like this, don’t you? Bound and helpless for me.”
I glanced away because if last night’s lighting was harsh, hello daylight. Every quirk of my aging ass was probably visible, clear, and in super HD.
At first Epic touched me so gently I barely felt his fingers on my skin. He began with one hand stroking my balls while the other lightly touched the head of my dick. He slid a finger over the slit, circled the crown, rubbed at the sensitive place just beneath. If at any time I gasped, or moved my body, or arched to get more friction, he simply took his hands away and got more lube.
A fresh breeze off the ocean cooled the sweat beading on my skin, making me shiver.
This went on and on. Light, barely there touches, deliciously on target every time, drifted over my most sensitive skin. I don’t know how long I lay there before he moved the hands cupping my balls to my ass, but he went through the same torturous, teasing process with my hole until he loosened me enough to slip a plug inside.
That pressure in my ass drove me to a whole new level of arousal.
Now, his fingers weren’t just teasing my cock. It felt like there was an invisible string tied to my balls and my ass, like a spiderweb of pleasure, and every time he did anything to one part of my anatomy, it alerted the others to his presence and the possibility of more.
One hour went by. Two. Sweat dripped down my face, my chest bloomed fiery red, my skin felt fever hot. He gave me water whenever I asked for it. Slowed the stimulation when I begged him to. But he never entirely stopped, and he didn’t allow me to orgasm, and by midafternoon, I babbled mindlessly, sobbing for release.
He still didn’t stop.
I arched in frustration, and Epic took his hands away again.
He stroked the inside of my thighs, my knees, my calves. He rubbed my feet. He didn’t put his hands where I wanted them—where I needed them—until I’d backed off the precipice.
“Oh God. Come on,” I howled like a beast.
“Look at you,” he said. “So thirsty for my cock.”
“Please. Please, please.” When was I going to get the fucking I needed so badly?
“The sun is changing. Soon we won’t have shade.” He pulled his phone from his jeans pocket and checked the time. “Oh. It’s almost time to get cleaned up and go.”
Finally. Oh God, finally he was going to put me out of my misery.
I sighed with utter relief. “Thank God.”
“You want to go to the wedding that badly?” He started putting things away.
“Not really, no.”
He untied my arms. “I won’t be able to take my eyes off you tonight. I’ll picture you just like this, all hot and soft and ready for me.”
“Okay, well…you can finish me any time now.” Even though I’d been begging for hours, I thought a little hint couldn’t hurt.
“That’s not how it’s going to be.” He shot me a fond smile. “You go shower first. Keep the plug in. If you even touch your cock, I’ll know, and I will be very, very cranky. You don’t want that, do you?”
“Haha. Cut it out,” I said, still going along. “It’s been hours.”
“And you were fuckably gorgeous the entire time.”
“And?”
“And, I changed my mind. Let’s shower together. I want to play with you some more before we leave.”
“No.”
“No?” he asked carefully. “Do you mean red?”
“No, I mean no. You don’t get to tease me for—How long have we been out here?”
He looked at his phone again. “Four hours, thirty-six minutes, and twenty seconds. That’s a new record for me. You’re so hot, Ryan. Oh my god, I can’t believe you’re my fake boyfriend. Squee!”
“Under no circumstances have I given you permission to squee,” I muttered unhappily.
“No? But this is beautiful. Tonight, while we’re watching your asshole ex and his dick fiancé get married, your mind’s going to be on a totally different asshole and dick. I promise. This will be the best wedding you have ever been to.”
When Epic was right, he was right.
There was no way in hell that, under current circumstances, I’d feel anything more than mild annoyance over my ex and his stupid wedding.
“There’s going to be dancing, isn’t there?” he asked.
“There will probably be an orchestra. Maybe a DJ later in the evening after the oldsters fade out.”
“I’m not very good at dancing.”
“Don’t worry. I am.” I tried to stand, but my knees buckled. “Usually.”
“Whoa there.” He caught my arm and wrapped it over his shoulders. “Steady, big fella.”
“Fuck. You.” I let him help me inside because I could barely walk on my rubbery legs. “How am I going to do this?”
“One step at a time, sweetheart.” He helped me into the bathroom and turned on the shower. “I’m going to get you cleaned up and help you dress. By that time, you’ll feel fine.”
“I doubt I’ll be fine for a week.”
“Flatterer.” True to his word, Epic soaped every inch of my body and helped me rinse. I got a scalp massage when he washed my hair. I couldn’t think when I’d last been treated so gently—so carefully—by anyone but my mom.
He left the plug inside me.
I had to give him props. There seemed no better way to say fuck you to Luis than to be wearing Epic’s plug, thinking of Epic’s gentle fingers, dreaming of his sweet mouth on my cock while I suffered through Luis’s nuptials.
The only problem was my constant state of arousal. The cut of my jacket would hide it, but I had no illusions about what it would mean to traverse a receiving line that included European nobility with a boner.
“I am so going to hell for this.”
“I’ll be right beside you.” Epic kissed my neck and ruffled my hair with a towel. “It’s okay if I wear my earrings, right?”
“Of course.”
“You’ll wear your pin?”
“I already put it on my lapel.”
The rest of our preparations passed by in a flurry of warmth and kisses and Epic everywhere. I dressed in a lust-drunk haze.
For the first time in my adult life, I had to rely on someone else for every little thing. Helplessness made me uncomfortable, and yet…this felt bearable. I’d gone long past needing to come and arrived somewhere entirely new—down a rabbit hole of Epic’s making.
I trusted Epic to take care of me at Luis’s wedding.
The rest of my worries simply dropped away.
We shaved side by side. Combined products and styled our hair. I spritzed on cologne, and he used his own scent. We spent ten minutes telling each other how delicious we smelled.
I tied both our ties, having a better command of the Windsor knot.
Epic’s retro tuxedo turned out to be a sixties mod, four-button, black wool jacket with black velvet piping around the collar and lapels. Underneath, he wore a notch-collar waistcoat that came up all the way to the knot of his tie. Impossibly slim trousers stopped above his bare ankles. He completed the look with patent leather oxfords.
“You look like a Beatle.”
“Grandma bought it for me. She says the mod boys used to make her swoon.”
Same, Grandma. Same…
After we fussed and preened and took selfies—which he sent to all his friends and I stored like some demented squirrel hoarding acorns for a long, cold winter—we were ready to leave. At the last minute, he remembered our sunglasses. He set mine on my nose with care.
“Are you still feeling a little spacey?” he asked.
I nodded. “Is that normal?”
“I think I played with you a little too hard for your first time.”
"You think?" His worried frown made me want to reassure him. Kiss him. Smack his ass for putting me in this position.
“I want you to know I’ll be right by your side. I know what you need. Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” Unequivocally. I trusted Epic with a certainty I'd never known before.
He handed me a bottled water. “Drink some on the way.”
"Thank you."
He took my hand as we let ourselves out of the suite. The wedding invitation contained a map leading to the Mariposa Garden where the ceremony would take place. After, there would be dinner and dancing under the stars.
We were halfway there before I remembered to worry about wearing a butt plug. For the first time since I’d received the invitation in the mail, I didn’t dread the wedding itself.
Epic pulled me along with confidence I didn’t feel. His step was jaunty. He wore a dazzling smile. At the venue, the sunset had begun in spectacular style. The moon hung on one side of the wide watercolor sky while the sun seemed to balance it on the other.
It took me a minute to realize the unusual configuration was due to a selenelion—an event where both the sun and moon could be seen above the horizon during a lunar eclipse.
I'd wondered why Luis and William had scheduled their wedding for a Sunday. Only Luis would rope in celestial bodies for a command performance like this.
Luis and William were getting their once-in-a-lifetime wedding.
I wanted to hide the tears stinging my eyes—to pass my weakness off to the bright dazzle of the setting sun. But Epic had torn me open in a hundred physical and emotional ways. All my pent-up emotions surfaced and there was no hiding them anymore, especially not from myself.
The dream of a partnership or marriage with Luis was one I’d held close to my heart for so long. What Luis and I once had, had died out, but I’d never let the dream go.
Now, here was its funeral, under a glorious sky complete with a celestial anomaly.
I could be happy for Luis. I would be.
I simply couldn’t hide the grief of letting it all go.
Epic drew me into the shadows where he cupped my face with both hands.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “It’s okay to feel.”
“I know.” I glanced toward the sky, willing my tears to stay in my eyes but feeling them slide down my cheeks. “I’ve played this same tune for far too long. It’s only an earworm now.”
“Grief is weird.” He kissed my forehead. “Grief is over when it’s over. Are you sure you want to do this? We could go back.”
“I’m fine.” I would not let my emotions dictate to me like this. “And the food is bound to be spectacular.”
He took both my hands in his. “And you promised me dancing.”
“Plus, I’ll get a boner every time I remember I’m wearing your butt plug.”
“I doubt you’ll forget even for a second.”
True that. I felt it with Every. Step. I. Took.
“There will be payback someday.”
“Bring it.” Epic laughed and shifted onto the path again. The wide white wedge of his grin battled the brilliance of the sun. “Come on. Let’s do this thing.”
I’d wanted to avoid Luis’s wedding, but I’d sucked up my courage and done everything I could to mitigate the fallout from it. Now the wedding was upon me, and I only wanted it over with.
Except the parts with Epic.
Epic was worth a lot of fallout.
Smiling, I let him take the lead.