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“You should eat, hmm?” He drank his coffee.

“We both should.” Another strawberry was fed to him.

He chuckled, nibbled, forked up a bite of pancake and offered it over. Smiling, Matt opened up, let him feed his Master. Better. Much better. A piece of pancake was offered in return, a berry sitting on top of it.

He opened up, hummed. “It’s good.”

“Yeah, best midnight pancakes in town.” Matt offered him another bite.

He shook his head. “They’re yours.”

“So feed me yours.” Matt pressed the fork against his lips.

He opened, hummed, ate the bite, then offered Matt a huge bite of his.

Matt laughed and shook his head. “I can’t get my mouth around that, lovely.”

“No?” He chuckled, cut the bite in half. “Better?”

“Much. I’ll have it if you’ll eat the other half.”

He chuckled and popped the bite in Matt’s lips. “Eat.”

Matt ate, nodding toward his plate. “You, too.”

He nodded, nibbled, sipped his coffee.

Matt devoured most of his pancakes, sharing the larger part of his strawberries in one bite after another. “I thought you were starving.”

“I was. I ate.”

“You nibbled.” Matt smiled, though, and didn’t push the matter.

“I did. I conquered.”

Matt chuckled. “You feel like dessert?”

“God, no. I’m full. You go ahead, though.”

“No, I just like watching you eat the things you like. It’s very... sensual.”

That surprised a chuckle out of him. “Really?”

“Yes Everything you do is graceful, beautiful.” Matt smiled. “Lovely.”

“Lovely.” That made him smile.

“You are. My lovely.”

That made him lick his lips, duck his head.

Matt made a sound, a hum, a moan. “Very lovely.”

“I. Thank you, Master.”

“It’s the truth, and you’re welcome.”

He nodded, teeth sinking into his bottom lip.

“I want to take you home and make love to you.” Matt sounded very sure.

“Is now good for you?”

“Yeah, now would be very good.” Matt waved to their waitress, make a ‘check please’ sign.

Adam grabbed his wallet, pulled out a twenty.

“I have it, lovely.”

“Are you sure?” He had money.

“Yes, lovely, I am.” Matt paid for their dinner and held out a hand to him.

“Thank you, Master.”

“You’re welcome.” His hand slid into Matt’s, his Master leading him back out to the car.

Lovely. Someone thought he was lovely.

How cool.

Chapter Six

The alarm went off and Matt groaned. He looked over at Adam’s little alarm clock and groaned again. Four fucking a.m. That was just too damn early.

Adam slipped out of bed, almost silently, dressing and gathering running shoes.

“Give me a minute and I’ll join you.” He wanted to see what all the fuss was for himself.

“You want to come to yoga and run?”

“Yes.” Okay, not particularly, but he wasn’t going to judge it without having taken part.

“Okay. Yoga is first, then running. I usually go five K. Do you have running shoes?”

“Yeah, I brought them to go do the yoga with, is that okay?”

“Yes. Of course. I’ll make some water for us.”

“Make some water?” What did that mean?

“Bottles of water for hydration? I put vinegar in mine.”

“Ah, see -- it was the ‘make’ that had me wondering, but if you doctor it, then it makes more sense.”

Adam nodded and headed to the kitchenette, seeming to be running mostly on autopilot.

Shaking his head, Matt quickly got dressed and joined Adam. “Are we having breakfast first?”

“I don’t eat before working out. Would you like something?”

“No, no. I want to follow your routine this morning. Get an idea of how everything works.” No food before two hours of yoga... he supposed he maybe could see the value in that.

“Let’s go. Dan gets mad if you’re late.”

“I’m ready. Is this my vinegar water?” He picked up one of the reusable bottles.

“It is.” Adam smiled at him and they headed out, walking quickly through the dark streets to a dimly lit place in a strip mall.

There were five people with mats, and they all turned when the door opened. A huge, bearded man in the front of class smiled hugely. “Oh, thank the Goddess. I was worried about you, Adam. I’m so glad to see you.”

The huge bear grabbed Adam up in a hug, then turned that smile on Matt. “Hey, there. Welcome. Please sign in and grab a mat. Are you new to yoga?”

“Matt, this is Dan. Dan, this is my Master, Matt.”

Dan’s eyes widened. “Like in not a job?”

Adam nodded. “Like in not a job.”

“Wow. Welcome. This is Cara, Lesley, Hank, and Robin.”

Matt smiled and nodded at everyone. “Hi.” Man, there were five other people crazy enough to be up at four a.m. for two hours of yoga. Who knew?

Adam grabbed two mats while he signed in, and then they got started. Up. Down. In. Out. Bending. Jesus.

By half an hour in, he was sweating, breathing hard, and Adam looked like a pretzel. At the end of the two hours, he was utterly exhausted. Utterly. And Adam usually went running now? Was the man insane?

Adam looked at him, frowned. “Dan, can you drop Matt off at my place? He looks tired, and I have my cardio to get in.”

Matt shook his head. “I don’t think that’s necessary. I’ll join you.” He could at least walk Adam to the beach and sit to watch the waves while he waited.

“Are you sure?” Dan met Adam’s eyes. “You know, you could...”

“Shh. Running.” Adam winked, fingers on the big man’s lips. “Stop worrying, Big Daddy. I’ve been weighing, I’m in my range.”

Matt felt himself bristle, more than a little. “He’s good, Dan. I’m making sure he eats.”

“Excellent.” Dan offered him a wide, pleased smile. “He’s been my cousin for his whole life. I worry.”

Matt backed down, smiled. “Cool. I’m gonna take good care of him.”

A cousin. Wow. The man couldn’t look more different from his lean, blond, fine-boned lovely.

“Is this the only course you offer, Dan?”

“You mean Hatha yoga? No. I teach a ton of classes. Restorative, Ashtanga, flow -- would you like a schedule?”

“I would. Maybe there’s something that would be less early that we could do.”

“Sure.”

Adam was waiting for him, talking to one of the girls from the class. He thanked Dan for the schedule and joined Adam by the door.

“Are you sure you want to come running?”

“No, I’m pretty sure I don’t. I do, however, want to see what your mornings are usually like.” Used to be like, anyway. Matt didn’t see why Adam had to do all this every day, especially without eating.

“I. Okay?” Adam looked at him, a little panicked. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you want me to do.”

“I want to take you running.” He stroked Adam’s arm, not entirely sure why Adam was panicked.

“I just. You don’t want to, but I have to.”

“What do you mean, you have to?” He took Adam’s arm and headed toward the beach.

“I just do. I run every morning. Keep myself in shape.”

“You do yoga for two hours every morning, too.”

“I do.” Adam put his running shoes on.

“I think you need to rethink this.”

“Rethink what?”

“We’ll talk after the run.” He couldn’t run and talk at the same time. Not as wiped as he already was from the yoga.

“’Kay.” Adam started running, feet hitting the ground hard.

Groaning, Matt took off after him, doing his best to keep up. Adam ran like a man possessed, head down, feet slamming. No music. No expression. Just this drive. At some point, Matt had to give up on keeping up, and he slowed to a light jog.

Adam turned, jogging in place. “You okay?”

He nodded, managed a, “Hungry.”

Adam stopped, came to him. “Okay. Okay, come on, lover. Come on. There’s a Carl’s Jr. right there. Breakfast sandwich for you.”

“You have to eat, too.”

“I-- Come on. Sit.” Adam eased him down and headed inside.

Matt snorted, trying to figure out how Adam managed all this on no food, on as little food as the man seemed to eat altogether.

Soon Adam came out with two coffees and a bag. “Here we go. Something for you.”

“Something for both of us.” He took the bag, looked inside. There was one sandwich, a bag of hash browns.

“I have a coffee.”

“You can have some of my sandwich. You can’t do all that running without anything to fuel you.”

“I do it every morning.” Adam sat across from him, nodded. “Now eat.”

He took half the sandwich and handed it over to Adam. “You, too.”

“I don’t eat before I work out.”

“And you’re not shaky and tired afterward?”

Adam shook his head. “Only if I’ve been fasting more than a day or two.”

He shook his head, eating his sandwich. “You’re pushing yourself too hard, lovely.”

Adam murmured noncommittally, sipping his coffee, sweat drying as the sun shone on them.

“Have a hash brown.”

Adam’s nose wrinkled. “No, thank you.”

Matt laughed. “You shouldn’t feed me stuff you won’t eat yourself, lovely.”

“This was an emergency situation.”

“I’d have been fine.” He reached for Adam’s hand, though, squeezed. “Thank you.”

“I care for you. I’ll take care of you.”

“Yes, that works both ways, too.” He kissed Adam’s hand and stood, stretched. “God, sorry I put a wrench in your run.”

“Don’t be sorry. I go every morning.”

“I think you should alternate. Or run in the afternoon or something.” He grinned, winked. “All this exercise can’t be healthy.”

“I could run in the afternoon.”

“You could.” He couldn’t help but think it made more sense for Adam not to run for an hour right after doing two hours of yoga, and he thought it was a huge step to have Adam consider moving the time that he ran at Matt’s suggestion.

“We’ll see how it goes. Maybe.”

“Your ability at yoga is very impressive. It’s sexy, you know, all that bendiness.”

“It’s good for focus. For releasing tension.”

“It’s also damn good exercise.” He’d been ready to quit long before the second hour.

“Yes. I try to get no more than twenty hours a week.”

He stared at Adam, sure he’d heard wrong.

“Eat your sandwich.”

“It’s almost done.” He had the last few bites and finished off his coffee.

“Feel better?”

“Yeah, I do. I just needed some calories in me.”

Adam cleared the trash away, then came to help him up. “Come on. Let’s take you home and get you a massage.”

“Oh, that sounds amazing.” He chuckled, putting his arm around Adam as they walked. “I’m not making a very masterly impression.”

“You’re fine. I’ll care for you.”

It was, he thought, a role Adam was very used to. “Thank you.”

“Anytime, Master.”

***

Adam made Matt lunch, fed the man, then went outside to water and mess around in his garden, get some sun while Matt napped. There were eighteen messages on his phone, and a bunch of texts that he had to answer, too. So after his gardening was done, he plopped down with his calendar and tried to schedule scenes after his mini-vacation.

Matt came outside while he was doing it, stretching and yawning, and looking adorable all sleep-tousled and somewhat blinky.

“Feel better?” He texted back Marcus with approval for a show on Dom’s night, scribbled out that space on the calendar.

“I do.” Matt came and sat next to him, frowning. “I thought we were going to talk about your schedule after a few days of relaxing?”

“I know. I just needed to get back with some people.” He’d relaxed yesterday.

“Well, how about letting me help you? I wanted to go over it with you.” Matt pointed to the dates marked off. “You’ve already filled a bunch of days -- do you mark in what kind of scene each one is?”

He nodded. “C is caning. A is assplay. HC is hard-core. S is service. CBT is cock and ball torture. If they want something specific, I’ll make a note.”

“I’d really like to see you take a day in between everything but service to recover.”

“I don’t do service often. I don’t have sex in a scene.” A whole day?

“You may not have sex, but caning, assplay, hard-core, and cock and ball torture all need recovery time. I want you healthy and whole, lovely.”

Adam reached out, took Matt’s hand, held on. It felt odd to have Matt worry over him. None of the Doms abused him, none of them. In fact, they were quite generous to him.

Matt squeezed his hand. “You were not in a great state when you came home from that caning, lovely. And I need to have your schedule, so I know what to expect when you get home.”

“No. The canings are hard. I... this is very new, Matt. Very new.”

“I know. For me, too. But my work is well-suited to afternoons and evenings, which means I have the time to care for you after scenes. You no longer have to come home to an empty house.”

“They’re not mean to me, you know that, right?” He didn’t want to be disloyal.

“Of course they aren’t. But at the end of the scene, you part ways. That’s not how most subs experience the afterglow of a scene.”

He nodded. He’d never had a scene with Matt, not really.

“So I’ll be here when you’re done, and you’ll get the care you’re supposed to get.”

He met Matt’s eyes. “Do you want to?” How long would Matt be satisfied, caring for a man wearing another man’s stripes?

“I do. I want to care for you, Adam. I’m your Master, it’s my place.”

He nodded, smiled, but a part of him knew that Matt could change his mind.

Matt took his pen and marked off a number of days. “Time off is important, lovely.”

“I...Those are a lot of days.”

“Your body and your psyche need time to recover from the scenes, lovely.”

“I don’t know what to say, Master.”

“’Yes, Master’ would sound good.”

He made a soft sound. Worried. This worried him a bit. Maybe a lot. “Yes, Master.”

Matt stroked his cheek. “Talk to me, lovely.”

“I’m worried. I have a system. I have a real system, and I have to think about how to make changes.”

Matt regarded him for a long moment, then took the pencil and erased the dates that he’d marked as time off. “Okay. But you need to take care of yourself, to not push to the point you did over the last week. And you have to remember that I’m here for you, and that sometimes I’m going to want more than one night and morning to take care of you.”

Oh, God. He hadn’t meant to fuck up. “I’m sorry.”

“For what exactly?”

“I just.” He stopped, took a couple of cleansing breaths, centering himself. “Not being more adaptable.”

“You’ve been on your own for a long while. I imagine it’ll take time to get used to having someone else in your life.

“I have. I haven’t had someone who I considered signing a contract with before.”

“I’m glad. I want to be the only one.”

“We’ll have to discuss it, together. But I am willing to commit.” His own words made his heart beat a little faster.

A smile bloomed on Matt’s face. “Me, too.”

“Yeah? Even though I serve other men?”

“Even though you serve other men. You don’t have sex with them. You don’t spend the night with them. It’s a business transaction.” Was Matt telling Adam or himself?

“I don’t have sex with them. Sometimes I do get aroused, however.” He had to be honest.

“You’ll have to tell me when you do, so I know what you like.”

That request felt good to him, relaxed him a little bit. “Yes, Master.”

“I like the way that sounds.” Matt moved closer.

“I like saying it.” He took Matt’s hand. “Are you the kind of Master who likes to make rules?”

“I usually do. Not about everything, but I am used to setting the tone.”

He nodded. “I like to know the rules. In fact, it’s important to me.”

Matt smiled. “Excellent.”

He reached out, touched Matt’s lips, and smiled.

“Rule number one. No more than one scene a day. No more than four scenes a week.” Matt’s lips moved against his fingers as he spoke.

Adam nodded. “That’s fair.” His eyes were on Matt’s lips.

Matt’s tongue came out, licking across his fingertips. Adam moaned, traced the soft lips again. Matt’s lips slid over his fingertips, closed, and gentle suction began. Adam let his eyes fall shut, focused on the rhythmic suction, his body swaying with it. A low moan from Matt vibrated against his fingers.

“Master...” So good. So hot.

Holding his gaze, Matt bit at his fingertips. His cock filled, swelled, his balls aching from that tiny bite.

“You’re so sensual, lovely. A man could spend years exploring you in tiny increments.” Matt bit again, and then resumed sucking.