Dirty Laundry: A Tucker Springs Novel #3

you, boy?”
    Adam nodded, trying to say “yes” through his gag, but it just came out a kind of garbled moan.
    The smell of leather made Adam drool against the silicone as Denver stepped closer, rubbing the ridge of his cock against the gag. “Hmm. I might. But first we need to address what happened in the truck.”
    Oh no. Adam tried to turn away, but he was tied up so tightly there wasn’t anywhere to go. He wanted to avert his gaze, and if he hadn’t been tied up, he would have. Experience, however, told him whatever happened would be a lot worse if he wouldn’t face Denver. He kept his gaze fully on his lover.
    Denver set his phone aside and gave Adam his full attention, looking pleased. “Good. I’m glad to see you’re not letting yourself panic any longer. Tell me something, though, Adam, and I want you to be honest: if I took the gag out, if I untied you and tried to talk to you about this, would the panic come back?”
    Adam hesitated, then nodded slowly, feeling ashamed.
    “That’s what I thought.” Denver grimaced.
    Adam tipped his head down, shame too heavy to leave it upright, but Denver caught his chin and made him look up. Adam didn’t want to, because he knew what was coming. He lifted his gaze to Denver’s chest as a compromise, which was comforting. Big and sweaty and sexy and comforting.
    “Adam, look at me.”
    Adam shut his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and raised his head, then his eyes.
    Denver’s expression was stern but gentle. He kept his hand on Adam’s hair, stroking. “We got a few problems here. You know that, right?”
    Adam nodded. Yes. The problem was that Adam was a huge fuckup and should never have asked. He leaned into Denver’s hand, not letting his gaze fall. Denver cradled his cheek.
    “You told me you didn’t want me to punish you for things that weren’t between us, so I haven’t. We can have that conversation about changing limits. I want us to have conversations, Adam, especially about that. I would have been happy to start that conversation when you got in the truck—you were upset, so I’d have wanted you to be able to calm down first before we set anything in stone, but then you freaked out, and now we’re not having that conversation, not just yet. We have something a lot bigger to discuss first.”
    Adam tried to hang his head again, but Denver held it firmly in place.
    “We’ll talk about the rules and how we change them, and when. We’ll to do that when we’re not playing, because that’s the first rule about making rules. Before we do that, though, something has happened, and I know you know what it is, because you can barely look at me.”
    Adam couldn’t, no, and yes, he knew what had happened. He’d been a bad boyfriend. Again.
    “That’s right. Now you get a punishment, because this is territory we’ve already covered. Telling me you want to change the rules and then freaking out before I even get a chance to say one word—yes, Adam. That’s being a bad boyfriend, and no, I don’t like that at all.” Adam whimpered, and Denver stroked his cheek with a heavy sigh. “Sometimes I wonder if you aren’t doing this on purpose. Testing me, to see if I really mean it that all it takes for you to be forgiven is for you to take your punishment.”
    That was an angle Adam hadn’t thought of, and he wished he had his mouth so he could argue no, that wasn’t it. He wasn’t testing Denver. He wouldn’t ever do that. But all he could do was make weird, breathy, slurpy noises against his gag.
    Denver lifted his eyebrows, looking, Adam thought, a little smug. “Can’t talk, huh? Yeah, it’s hard to say what you mean with shit in the way. That was why I thought this gag was good punishment. You liked the look of it, liked the idea of it when we eyed it in the catalog. Just like it seemed like a good idea to beat yourself up in the truck when you thought you’d said the wrong thing instead of hearing whether or not I was actually upset. I know how you think. You worry you’re going to go too far, that you’ll screw up so badly I won’t even want to punish you for it. I’ll just walk away. You figured I’ll only like being with you so long.”
    Yes. Yes, that was exactly what Adam feared, all the time. He sat still in terror that he had finally met that horrible moment.
    Denver raised his eyebrows. “You figured you’d be my daddy this time, tell me what I do and don’t want?”
    Wait. What ?
    Denver looked downright