Page 23 of Mytho Investigations: Side Stories

“You’re looking very thoughtful. Should I be worried?” Mason asked. His words whispered over Vlash’s lips, they were so close.

“Just wondering what we’re going to have for dinner.” He lied too easily.

“I can cook pasta. Is there anything you can’t eat?”

“No.” But he had enjoyed having his tongue in Mason’s ass not that long ago.

“I’ll put on some pants and go and start dinner. Maybe we should start the movie again afterwards.”

“Do you think we will be more successful watching it?” He ran his hand over Mason’s hip.

“Maybe if I tie your hands behind your back?”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“No, because seriously, you’ll lose, so unless you want to end up with your hands tied behind your back at my mercy.” And that was something Vlash did want to see. “And begging⁠—"

Mason’s fingers swept along the length of Vlash’s cock. “You like that idea.”

Vlash couldn’t deny it. But he didn’t have to act on it.

“I’ve never done anything like that.” Mason glanced away. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“Why don’t you start with dinner? And not making threats you can’t follow through on.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t follow through, just that I’m not sure where to start. There are clubs for that kind of thing.”

“There was on Tariko, too. Here, I doubt they’d let me play.”

“Is that something you’re into?”

Mason hadn’t pulled away yet.

“I don’t know anymore. It was a long time ago before I was married.” And if being married felt as if it had happened to someone else, the life he’d lived before that belonged to yet another man. One who’d been full of life and laughter and keen to experience everything life had to offer. “Do you ever wonder which choice it was that led you down the path to who you are now?”

“I don’t think it’s just one choice. They pile up like a dam forming and redirecting a river.” Mason kissed him and sat up. “And some choices are thrust onto us.”

“But we choose how to respond.” He had retreated into being the soldier because if everything had rules and structure, he didn’t need to think. He was sure that, at times, he’d been more head archer than father to Lekso.

“True…” He glanced over his shoulder at Vlash. “Are you making better choices this year?”

Vlash sat up and considered Mason. He liked the man he was around him. The edges were duller, and he smiled more. “I believe I am.”

The doorbell rang, and Mason frowned. “Good thing I was about to put pants on and start dinner.”

Vlash also got up and pulled on his pants. He added a T-shirt for good measure. It was bright pink with a unicorn on the front and said ‘be careful what you wish for’. Which was very true around unicorns.

Mason padded barefoot down the stairs, and Vlash followed. The doorbell rang again, twice.

“I know you’re in there. I can see your car in the driveway,” the man on the other side of the door called out.

Mason froze. “Fuck. It’s Bud.”

Vlash’s smile thinned. The ex had returned.

Mason’s gaze raked over him, his eyes wide, and then he glanced toward the front door, and Vlash could see the fear forming on Mason’s face.