Page 18 of Daddy’s Little Chaos Gremlin (The Lactin Brotherhood)

I never fretted this badly over the placement of the blankets and pillows on the ledge, but this was the first time my kitten would be up there on display, and I wanted him to be as comfortable as possible.

When I glanced over to where Daddy sat in his chair with Zephyr curled in his lap, contently suckling away on a nipple, he held out his hand and tugged me close when I took it.

“Everything is perfect, I even added an extra layer of padding,” Daddy murmured as I leaned in and pressed our foreheads together. “Everything is ready and in a moment, I’ll turn Zephyr over to you and return to our guests while you get him ready. Now breathe and relax, you’ve got this.”

Even Zephyr gave me a thumbs up, punctuated with a little grunt and a happy growl in between slurps. His legs dangled over Daddy’s thighs, and I giggled when I spotted him gleefully tapping out a tune with them while he fed. I knew what I’d see when he finally let go and opened his eyes, and sure enough, he looked milk drunk and sated when he sat up and held out his hand to me.

I took it gently and guided him out of Daddy’s lap, then waited for Daddy to lift him and place him on the ledge. We hadn’t brought in the stairs that we usually used, since Daddy hadn’t wanted Zephyr to have to climb them. He scooped Zephyr up and pressed a kiss to his forehead before laying him on blue velvet cloth the color of the ocean.

“Let’s just get these out of the way, shall we?” Daddy said, removing the black boy shorts Zephyr had worn to the room.

Beneath it was the plum purple thong he’d chosen after Daddy and I had explained that while he was going to be a living display piece, we had no interest at all in having him display what was strictly ours. Other models and performance artists who played the part of my muse on nights like tonight had always been given the choice of if they went naked or if they covered up, and how much covering they wanted to do. Zephyr had been perfectly fine with being naked, hell, he ran around the place naked or nearly so most of the time now. Zipping in and out of the pool whenever he wasn’t with one of us had become as much a part of his routine as mealtimes and I loved how he was always just so content, even when there were fourteen people on the other side of the door waiting to admire him. We’d given them the customary glimpse and introduction when we’d brought him down, then we’d whisked him in here to finish getting him ready.

“Now, what are you to do when you need something?” Daddy asked him as he stepped back, holding Zephyr’s shorts.

“Ask you,” Zephyr replied softly, already snuggling against the velvet. It had been the perfect choice for him, and I was glad we’d made the last-minute decision to run to the fabric store yesterday.

“That’s right.”

“Daddy has the emergency scissors, and I have a spare pair,” I explained. “Now what are our hand signals?”

“I give you an okay sign when everything feels nice, I open my hand and rock it back and forth when things are just so-so, and I stick my tongue out at you if something feels yucky.”

“Perfect,” I told him as I ran my fingers along his arms and legs, just petting to keep him relaxed and remind him of what my touch felt like. “Daddy will be able to hear you but not see you unless he looks over at you, but I will be able to see you at all times, and I’ll look often, so you don’t have to worry about a signal being missed.”

“I’m not worried. I trust you both. We’re gonna do fine. Are you ready for me to get into the first position now?”

“Yes, please,” I told him as I lined our ropes up on the edge of the ledge. Each bundle of blue, green, teal and white had been carefully checked and labeled, to make each transition easier for us.

As gracefully as when he sprawled across our bed, he laid his upper body flat, then twisted, so his knees were to the side, with one leg kicked back, where I’d eventually connect it with the bindings on his arm. I didn’t do anything as simple or basic as a hog tie. Using the ropes, I crafted a pair of fishnet stockings for him, forming several waves at the spots where the ropes met. It was intricate work, but my fingers never had to think about it, especially when my subject was as still and malleable as Zephyr was.

I’d told the smart speaker to play The Counting Crows for me. Something about their music, especially songs like Round Here , Omaha , and Rain King , just did good things to my brain. Each time I looked at Zephyr’s face, he looked like a fallen angel smiling up at me.

“Thank you for this,” I murmured as I tied him up. “And for coming into our lives the way you did.”

“I love it here,” Zephyr whispered before sipping from the straw I held for him. “I love being with you and Daddy.”

“And we love you,” I told him, not caring that it had only been two weeks since we’d met him. I knew what I felt, and I knew Daddy; he looked at Zephyr the same way he looked at me. With pride and a burning desire to protect and nurture. Screw those people who tried to say you couldn’t love someone until you’d known them for years. We weren’t even promised minutes. We weren’t promised anything in this world so when I felt something for somebody, I told them. No holding back. I didn’t want to miss an opportunity I might never get back.

He beamed up at me, those azure eyes as bright as the sky had been the day we’d met. Trusting, open, and utterly beguiling, even when I had him at my mercy like this. It just sucked that there wasn’t time to play once I finished trussing him up.

Two raps on the door meant five-minute warning.

I ran my fingers along his check, cupped it and kissed him. “I’ve got to take my seat now, would you like a few sips more from your smoothie first?”

“Yes, please.”

I held it for him again and stroked his hair while he took a few sips, the softness of it like the velvet beneath him. He truly looked decadent and debauched, like the sea nymphs I’d portrayed him as in my sculptures. We’d already picked out mermaid tails from a catalogue and I couldn’t wait to see him in one, splashing in the shallow end of the pool, where we’d already planned to hold a photoshoot.

One knock.

Two-minute warning.

I kissed him again, then went to sit at the far end of the table, in front of the stand on which my covered sculptures sat waiting to be unveiled.

Our eyes met over the table, and he winked and blew me a kiss, which made the last little knot in my gut loosen, allowing me to finally relax and get comfortable in my chair.

“Ohhh, Rowan, you have all outdone yourselves this time,” Brenner said as he led the way into the room. “And oh my goddess, Zephyr, honey, you look positively outstanding.”

We’d asked if Zephyr would feel uncomfortable in any way about having them attend, only to discover that he was thrilled at the prospect. Learning that they’d been instrumental in helping him feel comfortable about accepting the audition just made me cherish their friendship even more. It proved that you didn’t need the whole world to know who you were, you just needed a few special people to be in your corner, and you’d still be able to live your dreams.

Zephyr had closed his eyes at the sound of the door opening, but his lips were curved upward in a tiny smile, and I could tell that he was listening and heard every word of praise that was issued his way.

“Tristan!”

Hamish’s squeal drowned out everything else, and I barely had time to turn before he barreled into me. He’d have sent us both tumbling into the chair and likely overturned it, too, if his husband Brecker hadn’t grabbed our sleeves to steady us.”

“What have I told you about behaving like an out-of-control ping-pong ball?” Brecker grumble-whispered.

“Not to unless it’s in a designated space,” Hamish contritely whispered back.

“Then kindly hug your friend properly.”

“Yes, sir,” Hamish replied and hugged me properly this time.

“It’s good to see you again,” Brecker said, ruffling my hair while Hamish squeezed the stuffing out of me.

“It looks like you’ve captured a merman,” Stavros remarked, his booming voice likely the only reason Hamish let go.

I took a moment to straighten my clothes, and suck in some much-needed air as Stavros continued speaking.

“The question now is what you intend to do with him.”

Like Daddy, he was a patron of the arts and an avid collector of all things kink. He had a collection of implements that never failed to inspire Daddy to design a new, more sinisterly wicked toy, which I always appreciated.

“Keep him,” Daddy declared, and danced possessive fingers over Zephyr’s arm, careful to touch only skin.

Stavros chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. “Good plan.”

I’d been to events where things turned lewd and the people in attendance said all sorts of filthy things about the models and subs on display, speaking openly about what they would do to them if they were theirs and generally being letches. Daddy never allowed those kinds of people into our homes or at one of our events.

Zephyr and the ropes that formed fishnet and waves all over his body were meant to be appreciated as the artwork that they were, and I knew that everyone here tonight would treat them that way.

“So, tell me, what inspired tonight?” Bruce encouraged as he took one of the seats nearest to me. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen the curtains fully opened for one of your reveals and one of the first where everything wasn’t bathed in candlelight.”

“We went to the beach in Blackpool,” I explained as more people began to take their seats.

I knew from experience that some would take longer than others, studying the knots, trying to work out how I’d formed the wave pattern up his thigh, formulating questions to ask during the demonstration later, where I’d show them while I was changing Zephyr’s position. From the admiration I already saw on several faces as they studied him, I knew that the next Shibari workshop I held would be full and might even have a waitlist. That would just make it easier to plan a follow-up one, which I was always open to doing. I loved teaching people how to work with ropes almost as much as I love trussing someone up with them.

“Blackpool, huh? I bet that was an adventure,” Bruce said.

“It really was. We spent all day at the amusement park, then we decided to walk from south pier to north pier so we could see all the sites and the ocean along the way,” I explained. “Zephyr loves the water, and we were already in board shorts, so he started playing in the surf and before I joined him, I took a bunch of pictures of him flipping and walking on his hands in the surf. The idea of a captured sea nymph started taking shape once I had time to look at the pictures, though we’re already planning to do a shoot using mermaid tails, because we’re curious to see what might take shape.”

“Good for you both,” he declared. “You have me curious now as well.”

“I went from not having any ideas I liked, to having a bunch to sort through,” I explained. “We’ve even found a way to incorporate the moon into poses and even action shots. I just ordered a bunch of Styrofoam blocks to start carving tombstones out of, too. I can’t wait to get started on those. I’ll have to put together a slide show of all the pictures I took for inspiration when it’s finally time for an unveiling.”

“Ohh, that would be nice, it’s been awhile since you shared that part of the process with us,” Bruce chided gently.

He had me there.

“I know, right? I keep forgetting to take pictures of the actual process of creating each sculpture, too,” I explained.

“Well now, that’s to be expected,” Bruce said. “Once you’re in the zone, I imagine it would be difficult to pull out of, and would probably mess things up for you, too.”

“Yeah, I tend to get lost in the pieces and then the whole day slips past. When I go to look for my phone because some alarm is going off, I’m not even sure what it’s for because I don’t know what time it is. It’s always jarring and I’m not always ready to step away when it happens.”

“Oh, I know what that feels like. Whenever I decide to rearrange one of the spaces at the bed and breakfast, it’s never the fast flip around that I try to convince Brenner it will be. He’s a good man, that one and never gives me an ounce of crap when it takes all day. He’s always as sweet as pie about it, even when we wind up with heating pads on our backs and our feet in Epsom salts after we’ve spent all day moving every piece a half dozen times before I’m satisfied.”

“And I never will,” Brenner said as he took the seat across the table from Bruce.

While some couples preferred sitting side by side, we’d learned at the very first dinner party that they’d attended that they preferred to sit across from one another and flirt all night long like they were two strangers meeting for the very first time. They weren’t the only couple that roleplayed when in attendance. Our events where a haven for those who enjoyed a night out where they didn’t have to hide who they were or the things they liked.

“Even exhausted, that time with you at the end of the day, while we’re sipping our tea and bemoaning the state of our aching backs, is one I always cherish,” Brenner said as he gave his husband a wink. “Along with the killer massages you always deliver.”

“Oh, you.”

Bruce blushed and it was the sweetest thing, just listening to them and seeing the way they still were with one another even after all the years they’d been together. It gave me hope that Daddy, Zephyr and I would be like that someday. Growing up, I’d never believed that couples could be so loving or devoted to one another. While I’d lived in a two-parent household, my folks had never been very affectionate, not with me or each other. It was more like a roommate situation. They greeted one another in passing, inquired about one another’s day if they weren’t busy or preoccupied with something, and generally tolerated sharing community spaces with each other by being on their phones when they were in the same room, even with the TV playing. What I saw on Bruce’s face when he looked across the table at Brenner was pure love, and I saw the same thing on Brenner’s face as he gazed back at his husband.

Hashtag relationship goals.

In a room full of conversation and a bunch of other people, they only had eyes for one another. Then I looked up to see two sets of eyes peering down the table at me. Zephyr had cracked his open, just enough to meet mine for a moment as he flashed me the okay sign. Daddy’s were bright with affection and shimmering with pride as he played host. In an instant, it dawned on me that I didn’t have to hope to have that kind of love in my life someday. I had it, and holy crap, it was the best feeling in the whole wide world.