I gave, he got.

He gave, I got.

And he continued doing it.

“I’m not into kink but I am into being creative. That will range from the fact we will not only fuck in a bed, but anywhere we feel like it to light bondage and me willing to talk through shit you might want to explore. And I have a life philosophy. That being, you shouldn’t just be aiming to do it right, or not at all, you should aim to excel at it. And that includes sex.”

Oh my.

“You not into kink?” he asked boldly.

“I, uh … really …never gave it much thought from a practical standpoint.”

“Either of these guys or any guy you’ve been with try to introduce it and you shot him down?”

I shook my head, going on to say, “Which is probably why I didn’t give it much thought. It wasn’t introduced and I’ve never been with a guy long enough to uh …as you say, explore.”

A short nod, no commentary, more questions.

“Any guy tell you he wanted to take you to a sex club? Watch BDSM porn with you?”

I shook my head again, but shared hesitantly, “Though, I watch porn.”

His ear dipped to his shoulder and his voice changed. “Yeah?”

I nodded my head.

“You watch with a guy?” he asked quietly.

I went back to shaking my head.

“You want to?”

“I’m into gay porn,” I told him.

“Well, shit.”

He grinned.

But I sat up straight.

And Axl didn’t miss it.

“What?” he asked.

“Well, I watch BDSM gay porn. Some of it is pretty hard-core.”

“And it’s a watch thing only?”

“If you mean on my laptop, yeah.”

“I mean you don’t go to clubs?”

Back to shaking my head.

“Conventions? Shows?”

More shaking of my head.

“So you haven’t met anyone in that world,” he stated.

“No,” I confirmed.

“You watch it with your curtains open, say someone can see in?”

God.

This was humiliating.

“No, in bed.”

“Right,” he whispered, lips twitching.

He knew I did it, and I touched myself while I did it.

Ugh.

Someone kill me.

He kept at it.

“So online pay-per-view?”

Yes, I needed someone to kill me.

“I have a subscription.”

No more twitching, he smiled.

“Atta girl,” he murmured.

“This is mortifying,” I murmured back, turning my attention to my forgotten bagel.

“Baby, look at me.”

I didn’t want to, but I looked at him.

“It’s natural. It’s healthy. And just so you know where I’m at with it, I find it attractive. You know what you like, you got the courage to seek it out and get it.”

“It’s probably not what you like.”

“No, but women dig man-on-man like men dig women-on-women. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Do you dig women-on-women?”

“Absolutely.”

A giggle erupted from me.

He smiled at me while it did.

After it was done, he said, “When we get to that point, and we’re in a mutual mood, we’ll go to our corners to get our thing and meet in the middle.”

He’d said “when.”

And also, I mean, having a porn deal with the guy you haven’t quite started seeing yet was pretty awesome.

“Okay,” I agreed.

He bent in, and this time I didn’t get a neck kiss. I got a lip touch.

But that was nice too.

He moved back, took a bite of his bagel, I took one of mine.

But when he swallowed, he asked, “It’s an outside shot, but your subscription, you have to give a cell number for that?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Sorry, Hattie, I gotta know the site just so we can rule that out as an avenue to you.”

Fantastic.

I told him the site.

He just nodded and did nothing else.

“Well, one can say this quick ride home has been a, not so quick and b, eventful,” I mumbled to my bagel, before taking a bite.

“Hattie?”

I looked to him, chewing. “I’ve wanted this for months, being with you, and it’s safe to say I wouldn’t have started with your porn preferences, but I’ll take anything I can get from you.”

Okay.

Serious.

How lucky could I be with this guy?

I swallowed my bagel bite and smiled.

Axl smiled back.

Then he shouted, “Sly! We’re done.”

Sly came in, grousing at me, “Jesus, did you share your dating history since middle school?”

“Yes, and porn preferences,” I shot back.

Sly’s eyes got huge.

“But it’s all about bagels now,” I told him.

“How many of those girls of yours are taken?” he asked.

“All of them,” Axl and I answered together.

I started laughing.

Axl just grinned and bit into his bagel.

CHAPTER TEN

Us. Here. Finally.

AXL

Axl walked into the offices, looked right, and saw the men in the conference room.

Hawk, Mo, Boone, Mag.

He lifted his chin that way but did a sweep of the room and found who he needed.

So he headed straight to Jorge.

Jorge Canseco had been with Hawk the longest, second runner-up in that was Mo. Guys had come and gone in the meantime, not many. This was because Hawk paid well, bennies were great, and job satisfaction was high.

Axl was tight with the rest of the team—Jorge, Zane, Marques and Billy. But not as tight as he was with Mo, Mag, Boone and Auggie.

This was because Jorge was older, had seniority, was Hawk’s lieutenant when that was needed, was married with two kids, and he wasn’t ex-military. Jorge’s experience came from the street and a longtime mentorship with Hawk.

Marques and Zane were ex-military, but they were younger and newer to the team.

Billy was the newest member of their crew and his history was murky. Hawk didn’t share, neither did Jorge. Definitely not Billy. Even Elvira, who was a big fan of all kinds of sharing, hadn’t let anything slip.