Naughty Wishes Part I by Joey W. Hill

narrow alley flanked by stocked shelves, Geoff heard an eighties radio station playing, the sound filtering through a door at the opposite end of the storeroom. Madison drew him through that door, bringing him into Logan’s workshop.
    From the sawdust smell, he’d deduced Logan was doing woodwork, but his current project wasn’t a birdhouse or bookcase. Geoff had visited enough BDSM clubs on his travels and surfed enough websites to know what a spanking bench looked like. This was a custom-made one, with some intriguing additions that, if his mind wasn’t focused on another priority, would have captured his attention far more thoroughly.
    Instead, he focused on the man who’d built it. A rugged, powerful-looking forty-something, Logan had thick, long brown hair bound back in a thick tail that fell between his shoulder blades. While most men over forty couldn’t rock that look, Logan did. Geoff didn’t consider himself a romantic, but he could easily see the man in boots, breeches and an unlaced shirt on the bridge of a pirate ship, doing the Tyrone Powers thing. His mother had watched
The Black Swan
a hundred times.
    Geoff’s own love of black-and-white movies had come from watching those kinds of flicks at his mother’s side. Hell, he’d received his first guidance about lines between right and wrong in those romantic mediums. Which was painfully ironic, considering his current relationship with his nuclear family.
    This was so not the moment for that. Pushing away those thoughts, he planted himself firmly in the present.
    The cushions for the bench were propped off to the side while Logan painted a cherrywood finish on the frame. He glanced up, pleased surprise in his warm, brandy-colored eyes as Madison entered. Since he followed that up with a leisurely perusal of her from head to toe, Geoff wondered if the spark in Madison was glowing brighter because of her next-door neighbor. Given that her cheeks pinkened a little under his regard, Geoff expected the answer to that was a resounding yes.
    “Logan, I’m sorry to bother you, but do you remember Geoff? He was in your store not too long ago.”
    “His face is familiar.” Logan set the can and brush aside and extended a hand. “Geoff.”
    He had a strong grip, strong as Chris’s. During their earlier visit, Sam had come into the hardware store with Geoff andChris briefly before going next door to Madison’s shop. When Logan had asked her if she was looking for anything in particular, she’d gotten a little tongue-tied. Chris had teased her later about getting all flustered by a handsome older man, but based on the events of the past few days, and what Geoff read from the guy pretty clearly now, he thought there was another reason Logan’s steady regard had flustered her. The same reason Geoff could fluster her. The way Geoff could fluster her when he looked at her a certain way.
    If she was even now berating herself for reacting like that, he’d feel even more like shit. He’d tried to make sure she’d feel no shame about it, but she’d shot down his comment about her being beautiful and perfect as the lame bullshit it was. If she could only see and feel what happened inside him—heart, head, cock and soul—when she looked at him as her Dom, she wouldn’t feel any dismay. Hell, she’d probably have a valid reason to gloat, because he’d never reacted so strongly to a sub. But he hadn’t shown her that, had he?
    Some, but not enough. He had to figure this out. Either be all in or all out, but not this limbo state, which confused her and made him want to tear his heart out and hand it to her.
    “Geoff, I apologize if I’m being presumptuous,” Madison said, “but I think maybe you have some questions that Logan can answer better than I can. He mentors other Doms. I’m going to leave you two to talk. If that’s okay with you?”
    She looked toward Logan then, with an expression that said she hoped she hadn’t been presumptuous toward him,