Bad Behavior (Bad in Baltimore) by K.A. Mitchell Page B

boring the waiting bits were.
    Jez lifted her head and huffed when Tai came into the bedroom. She was growing used to the harbor fireworks; the city found dozens of reasons to set them off between May and September. As a rapid-fire splatter of shots echoed off the humid air, she twitched her ears and settled back down, eyes still watchful.
    “It’s okay, Jez.”
    She gave him a look out of what his mom had called “high eyes”. Tai had no trouble reading Jez’s opinion of things. Sez you.
    It was okay. Everything his gut had told him about David Beauchamp’s hunger to surrender control had been true. The guy wasn’t polished like a playmate Tai might find at Nic’s, but Tai liked the rough edges, he liked the idea of shaping them to please him. Of knowing he had been the one to make David discover that need, that it was Tai David knelt for.
    Tai opened his bottom dresser drawer and pulled out a set of cuffs and a link, then had to stop and press on his swelling dick with a firm palm. His head was suffering from serious lack of blood, and that was no way to start a scene. The idea of learning how to push David up to his limits until the power took them both to heaven made Tai feel like he was carrying a Taser charge in his blood. Like he was the novice, hyped up on adrenaline. He needed to get control of himself.
    The gauntlets were a gift from Nic, butter-smooth dark brown leather, laced through brass gussets for an exact fit, with a zipper to make them quick to get on or off. Once Tai had found that place where the Dom came from, he’d never needed any help accessing it, but Nic had explained they weren’t for that. Tai didn’t need a leather vest or chaps to make things clear. The compression on his wrists was there as a reminder to keep something leashed. To remind him that it was an exchange—as the sub gave up the power, Tai’s job was to control it inside their secure boundaries.
    He could hear his mentor’s advice. The sub always runs the show, but the fun and the skill lies in making both of you forget that. He needed all the help he could get, remembering that with David. His combination of submission and stubbornness pulled on Tai’s need to protect and control like the moon on the tide.
    In the living room, David hadn’t moved at all from where he knelt near the couch.
    “Good boy.” Tai put a hand under David’s chin to lift his head.
    David’s gaze lingered on the gauntlets before zeroing in on the cuffs Tai held.
    “Um.” David’s tongue darted out to flick over his lips. “I heard something about a safe word.”
    “Do you have one in mind?”
    “S.O.S.?” David offered with a nervous laugh.
    “Do you think that will spring easily to mind if you panic? Be easy to say?”
    David shook his head.
    “Let’s start with something simple. Red , like a stoplight. You do stop at stoplights?”
    That model-perfect smile lit up David’s face. “Only if there’s a good reason.”
    Tai’s fingers locked on his jaw. “Well, I will stop. No matter what the reason. You understand that?”
    David nodded as much as the grip allowed.
    “And if your mouth is otherwise occupied—” Tai grinned, “—you tap or poke me three times.”
    “Dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot?” All the fear had vanished from David’s eyes, leaving nothing but a bratty gleam. This was going to be fun.
    Tai squatted down. “Boy, you better practice your Morse code, because I think your mouth is going to be occupied a lot. Give me your hands.”
    David lifted them from his thighs. Tai buckled on the cuffs and checked the fit.
    “You law-enforcement types do like your restraints.”
    Tai wrapped some of David’s hair in his fingers and dragged him into a hard kiss, ignoring David’s efforts to kiss back or even to open his mouth to let Tai kiss him. He kept it rough, moving his head to leave the skin around David’s mouth sensitive and swollen from pressure.
    When Tai released him, David licked his lips