Forever After (Another Way Book 4) Read online

  “Fuck me, it’s gorgeous out here,” Will said, taking a deep breath of cool air as he climbed out of the car and grabbed our bag from the back seat of the car. “Good choice, baby.”

  “Thanks. It looked pretty in the pictures.”

  At the reception desk in the lodge there was another couple ahead of us checking in, so we hung back and I felt Will’s hand come to lightly rest on my ass as we looked around. It was a gorgeous building, high and airy, the wood providing a soft warmth and charm.

  When we were called forward, Will hung back, letting me deal with things.

  “Anderson-Ross,” I said as the girl asked for my name.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  Will looked over sharply.

  “Nothing to worry about. I actually had a call a week or so ago from a friend of yours, asking to upgrade your reservation to the honeymoon suite.”

  I’d just booked a regular room for our stay, knowing we’d only be there for a couple of nights. There wasn’t much point in splashing out on something elaborate. I frowned, wondering who had barged in on our plans.

  “Unfortunately,” the girl continued, “we have another wedding in this weekend so the honeymoon suite has already been taken. So your friend upgraded you to the…” she looked between us and blushed, then cleared her throat. “The babymaker package.”

  “The what?” Will asked as I snorted with laughter.

  “It’s a fun thing we do for couples,” she explained. “You get a couples’ massage and a special suite, breakfast in bed, and it’s sort of set up for people who are trying for a baby. I—uh—she didn’t mention that you were a same sex couple.”

  “Isn’t that nice, dear?” I said, grinning maniacally at Will, who was desperately trying to hide his amusement.

  “Babymaker package,” he repeated. “That sounds nice and all… but we’re more of a hiking trip type couple than a couples’ massage type couple.”

  “I’ve heard that before,” she said. “Our masseuses are some of the best in the state, though. I’d say give them a chance.”

  “We will,” I assured her as she finished tapping away at the computer and pushed a room key card toward us over the counter.

  “There’s one last thing. A parcel was delivered for you yesterday morning. It’s been delivered to your room ready for you.”

  “Thanks,” I said and picked up the key.

  “Enjoy your stay.”

  Our room was on the second floor, a corner suite with fantastic views out over the forest and waterfall. Will dumped our bag on the floor then went straight to the windows that led out onto a wide balcony. He pushed the door open, kicked off his shoes, and walked barefoot out onto the deck, leaning his elbows on the wooden railing.

  I followed him out there and draped myself over his back, kissing his shoulder and planting my hands either side of his. Will sighed heavily, a happy sigh.

  “Babymaker package,” I murmured against his neck, and he laughed sharply.

  “Who the hell did that?” he asked.

  “Who do you think?”

  “Laura?”

  “Yeah. My bet’s on Laura.”

  Laura was still Will’s mentor in the BDSM community, even though he’d been in the lifestyle for years now. She’d been the one to introduce us, years ago, when I was her sub and Will just a friend. Upgrading us to a babymaker package was exactly the sort of thing she would do.

  I ducked back into the room and found the promised cardboard box on the dresser. It was still sealed, so I dug into my backpack for the little Swiss army knife I kept on my keyring to open it, and was immediately glad the hotel hadn’t opened the box for us. It contained a blackout eye mask, a glass dildo, three different types of lube, a spanking paddle, and long lengths of forest green ribbon—the same kind that had been used to decorate the restaurant at our wedding reception. How romantic.

  “Nice,” Will said with a grin, coming back into the room behind me. “You want to put this to good use?”

  “Definitely. Got any ideas?”

  “I’m sure we can come up with a few.”

  We had lunch in the lodge’s restaurant, which was as amazing as the reviews had promised, then headed out into the forest wearing our sturdy hiking boots. I loved doing this. Technically we both had desk jobs, though my job at the museum forced me to get up and interact with the general public more than Will’s job did. So getting outside and into nature was important to us both. In the winter, we liked to go snowboarding up in the mountains in Canada, but now, in the springtime, with the whole world blooming around us? I couldn’t imagine anywhere more perfect.

  I always thought we were lucky to live in one of the most beautiful corners of the United States. I laced my fingers with Will’s as we stomped up through the forest, talking about everything and nothing. It was moments like this that I felt most settled in my relationship—there was no one else around us, just me and him, and the rest of the world just fell away.

  It was raining again by the time we reached the end of the trail that looked out over a deep ravine in the middle of the forest, a light drizzle that stuck to the hairs on my arms and my eyelashes. We paused for a few minutes to drink some water, take a selfie, kiss for a while, then turned back again. On the trail there was enough cover from the trees to keep us mostly dry, apart from the occasional cold drop that inevitably fell down the back of my shirt.

  “Jesus,” I shivered as the water rolled down my spine. Will laughed, then kissed my cheek.

  The round trip only took a couple of hours, far less than we’d normally spend on a weekend hike, but we both had other activities in mind. Top of my list was that massage.

  Back in the room, we changed into clean clothes then I called down to reception to book in at the spa. Apparently they’d had a cancellation and could fit us in within the next hour, and we were welcome to go down at any time for tea. Will rolled his eyes at me and huffed, and told me he was not exactly thrilled about the thought of someone else’s oiled hands all over his husband.

  Because Will dragged his feet, we got to the spa only a few minutes before our appointment, leaving no time for tea. We changed into fluffy white robes, then went through to a very white room with a beach soundtrack playing quietly in the background. Will snorted, and I hit him on the arm.

  Less than a minute into the massage he changed his tone completely.

  For our couples’ massage the two tables had been set up side by side, not touching but close enough that we could reach across the gap and hold hands, if we wanted to.

  “Holy shit,” Will groaned as the very beautiful, tanned masseuse dug his thumbs into the back of Will’s thighs. I wasn’t allowed beautiful man for my massage. I was stuck with Julia, who was nice, but who’s ass was nowhere near as nice as her male colleague’s.

  Will’s sex noises were getting me hard and I shifted on my belly when Julia disappeared to get something else. She was using some kind of natural scented massage oils that smelled woodsy and vaguely medicinal; after our hike it felt good to have all of my leg muscles relieved of the knots they’d gathered.

  By the time they were done with us, Will and I had been stretched, rubbed, and pummeled into submission, and not in the way either of us were used to. I asked if they had space for someone to do two pedicures, just to take advantage of Will’s slightly euphoric post-massage state, and to tease him a little more that it turned out we were, after all, a couples-massage couple.

  Julia gave me a sly grin as Will rolled his eyes at me half-heartedly, and I knew she had picked up on what I was up to. Before Will had chance to protest, we were whisked into another room where a group of women—I guessed from the wedding that was being held at the resort—were all chattering away while having their toenails painted.

  “Good afternoon, ladies,” I said, turning on the charm and securing the white robe more securely around my waist.

  “Jesse,” Will hissed.

  It was endlessly amusing to me that I was more in touch with my feminine side than he was these days—I’d grown up a lot. When we first met I was only just getting used to labeling myself as anything other than straight and Will was pretty much all the way out of the closet to everyone except his parents. If asked, I’d still label myself as bisexual, rather than gay, but there could be little doubt that being with Will was the catalyst for the change in me. I was sure enough in myself to do things like pedicures these days. I really didn’t give a shit what anyone else thought of me.

  I could tell Will was sulking as we took the last two seats on the line of pedicure chairs, Will right on the end, me the next seat in.

  I found myself next to the mother of the bride.

  “Janet,” she said, offering her hand for me to shake.

  “Jesse. And this is my husband, Will.”

  Just saying that out loud was the biggest thrill. I hoped it never went away.

  By the time we got back to the room there was only time for us to change and rush back downstairs to make the reservation for dinner at the hotel’s very fancy restaurant. This was the sort of thing I loved: spending time just the two of us, without the pressures of life and work and everything else as a distraction. Plus, the food here was amazing and the whole atmosphere of the room—dark paneled walls, elegant chandeliers, soft candlelight—made it even more special.

  “To our honeymoon,” Will said, holding up his glass of wine to clink against mine. “The first one, anyway.”

  “To us,” I agreed and tucked my ankle around his under the table.

  “I want to ask you something,” he said as I dug into my seafood pasta. Which was incredible. But I could still give Will a small percentage of my attention.

  “Go on.”

  “Since we found ourselves with the babymaker package.”

  I paused in my effort to shovel as much pasta and shrimp into my mouth as I could in one go, and washed it all down with crisp chardonnay.

  “You want to talk about kids?”

  He shrugged and refused to meet my eye, a sure sign that this was something very important that he also didn’t want to talk about. Probably for fear of rejection.

  I knew him quite well.

  We’d talked about kids before, mostly in the abstract sense. I knew it was something we both wanted, to be parents, but our lives were so crazy busy, I wasn’t sure how it would work out.

  “Tell me,” I said quietly.

  Will shrugged again and took a bite of his chicken. “I want kids,” he said.

  “Do you want to go talk to some adoption agencies? We can at least start to get an idea of what the process is like.”

  He nodded, seemingly relieved that I was on board with the idea. “That could be good.”

  “I honestly don’t know much about what we need to do. But I can do the research and set up the meetings.”

  “You don’t want to look for a surrogate?”

  “Do you?” I challenged him.

  “I want to keep that option on the table,” Will said diplomatically. “But I want to talk to the adoption agencies too.”

  “You’re going to laugh at me now.” He raised an eyebrow at me and I twirled more pasta around my fork. “I kind of like the idea of adopting siblings and just getting the whole thing over and done with in one go. Not a surrogate now, then finding another surrogate in a couple of years when we decide we want another kid, and then what if we decide we want a third? And it takes so long. Pregnancy, I mean.”

  He did laugh then, and rocked our feet together under the table. “I do like that idea. There’s a lot of siblings in the foster care system that are looking for a family together.”

  “If we could keep a family together that would be awesome.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ll make some calls,” I promised him, and he smiled at me, sweet and sure.

  After dinner, back in our room, I took the opportunity to undress him. We’d been in and out of clothes all day, and I’d seen plenty of his gorgeous, creamy pale skin to keep me on edge. Undressing him was different, though; there was something incredibly intimate about removing his clothing.

  He kissed my neck and laughed as I tickled his ribs, then we fell onto the bed and rolled together, him flipping me onto my back so we could kiss deeply, me pushing him back until I was straddling his waist.

  “You want to play with our new toys?” he asked, running his fingers up and down my belly. We’d both stripped to our underwear and despite being aroused—very aroused, in my case—we were leaving the boxers on for some reason and grinding against each other through the layers of fabric.

  “Oh, yeah.”

  I’d forgotten about that. Feeling inelegant, I rolled off him and off the bed, walking over to the desk (adjusting myself as I went) and retrieving the box. When I was sitting back on the bed, cross-legged and grinning, Will rummaged through the handful of toys and made an approving noise.

  He left everything except the satiny green ribbon in the box and let the coils unfurl as he pulled it out. I laughed and leaned in to kiss him; then, with a palm flat against his chest, I pressed him back into the bed and straddled his waist once more.

  He raised his eyebrow as I pulled on the ribbon and it slithered free from his fingers, then maneuvered both of his hands above his head.

  “Do you trust me?” I asked.

  “In theory.”

  I huffed with laughter and carefully tied his wrists together, then looped the ribbon around one of the posts of the bed, leaving him lying diagonally across the soft comforter. With him loosely bound I reached into the box and pulled out the blindfold and held it out for his approval. When he nodded, I tucked it over his head and secured it over his eyes.

  This was new territory. We didn’t switch roles. I fucked him, but that was part of our romantic relationship, not the D/s interaction that we’d shared for even longer than our romance. Having my husband laid out before me like this was one hell of a rush.

  I kissed his chest, wanting to take advantage of this treat. His nipples were sensitive and I spent some quality time with them, licking and sucking, teasing with teeth and tongue while my fingers pinched at the other. Will squirmed and bucked his hips and silently made it very clear he wanted me to suck his cock. I’d get there in my own time.

  These days, I was in love with his chest, his belly, his strong shoulders and back. Will worked out his upper body a lot, giving him definition in his arms and chest that I certainly lacked. There was a reddish-gold fuzz over his chest that ran in a line down his belly, the hairs scattering either side of the happy trail that led down to his cock. I rubbed my cheek over his chest and hummed in contentment, breathing in his scent for a moment.

  “Jesse,” he said on a long groan.

  “Uh-uh,” I chided him and squeezed his balls in warning. “Try again.”

  There was a long pause. “Sir?”

  “That’s better.”

  I had no idea where this was coming from. With nothing but my own experience guiding me, I tugged Will’s boxers off and settled between his legs, determined to make this experience amazing for us both.

  I dragged my fingernails over his inner thighs and he hissed, spreading his legs wider. That made me smile, and I kissed up the sweet red marks I’d just left.

  “Just let me take care of you,” I murmured. “Let me make you feel good.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  In our playroom at home there would be dozens of different toys at my disposal, different things to make him ache or tease and turn him on. But maybe it was a good thing I didn’t have all those toys with me. All I had was my hands, and the intimate knowledge of how he liked to be touched.

  Will was already twitching his hips up toward me. I grabbed the lube and poured a generous amount into my hand, then added a bit more.

  I’d already played around with edging Will before, especially when I was jerking him off, and he liked to pretend he didn’t like it when actually, it drove him crazy. Having him tied up and blindfolded was the best possible way to do it, too.

  I stroked his cock slowly, smearing the lube everywhere, and when he started thrusting up into my hand, I stopped. It wasn’t particularly cold in the room, but the air would feel cool on his wet cock, and he moaned at the feeling.

  Starting with my fingertips, I slowly stroked him again, eventually taking his cock into my hand and pumping it a few times.

  It was easy to build him up like this, an irregular rhythm of fast and slow, hard and gentle, light fingertips and a tight grip that tore the most incredible noises from his throat. I wasn’t used to seeing Will vulnerable like this, and he wasn’t vulnerable, not really. I could tell that he trusted me, and even though this was an intense combination of pleasure and denial, he liked it.

  “Jesse… Sir, please,” he squirmed and gasped. “I’m gonna come.”

  “You’re going to come for me,” I corrected him, and he did, arching his back off the bed and shooting come up over his stomach.

  I stroked him through it, then a few more times when it was likely to feel overwhelming, before letting him go and cleaning off my hand.

  “Close your eyes,” I murmured, knowing that even a little bit of light can be too bright after a blindfold has been on for a while. I worked his wrists free first, pleased to note that the ribbon hadn’t left hardly any marks at all, then pulled the blindfold off and gently pulled him into my arms.

  “Jesus,” he said on a laugh and kissed my neck.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m good.”

  I didn’t press after that, just held him and stroked his hair quietly, reverently. We kissed for a little while, then he pulled away, giving me a wry smile.

  “I’m just going to get some fresh air, okay?” he said, finding his boxers and quickly pulling them on. “I won’t be long, baby.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “I just want a moment. I’m okay.”

  “No,” I said, sitting up quickly. “No way. You’re not running out after that.”

  Will gave me an exasperated look. “I’m fine, Jesse. I just need some time on my own to put my head back together again. You sort of blew my mind back there.”