Page 19 of Hiding From Laughter

Ashton

“What did you write down on your application, Ashton?”

Micha’s words came out in a quiet, rough whisper. He was trying to be discreet but it was obvious he was reaching his limit.

Nonsense.

I’d written nonsense.

It was his fault, though.

He’d been the one to say I couldn’t have my quiet toy or play with my fucking zoo until I’d answered the online questions from the club. So I’d answered the questions. He’d never said anything about doing a good job at it, just that I’d needed to be honest.

So I’d written honest nonsense.

“I was honest and I wrote complete sentences.”

So technically I’d done what he’d asked. “If they had a problem with my form, I’m sure they’d have responded back to clarify things. This is probably routine.”

Hopefully making us wait to talk to one of the owners was routine.

I’d told myself someone would email me with a what the fuck kind of response if they’d been confused, but maybe not? They had to get forms filled out by slightly frustrated pain-in-the-ass subs on a regular basis, right?

Crossing my toes that I hadn’t fucked things up beyond all repair, I did my best to look innocent and bored, but judging by the way the guy at the front desk was trying not to smile, I needed to work on it. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Toes and everything else crossed too.

Well, besides my fingers…if I did that Micha would know I’d done something.

That was a mistake I would only make once.

“That’s not believable at all.”

Sighing, Micha got his scheming face on. “If you explain the problem to me before someone comes to scream at us, I might be able to get ahead of the issue.”

“This isn’t the furniture store. I’m sure they’ll be nice.”

Some people were just dramatic as fuck. “I think next time it might be a good idea for you to sit down with me or not withhold things to get what you want.”

The front desk guy was going to pop something if he kept his giggles in much longer.

Micha groaned. “For fuck’s sake, Ashton, I made you wait five minutes for the fucking…things.”

I admired his restraint for not saying the actual stuff, but it was just making our audience more curious and more delighted.

“Not my fault. It was your bad decision that got us to this point.”

Whatever it was going to look like. “Stop looking guilty. At least aim to look bored. You’re the one who’s going to get us in trouble.”

“I’m looking guilty because I accidentally unleashed you on an unsuspecting victim.”

Micha sounded so frustrated about that I thought he might’ve had a point.

Well, I thought about it for five seconds before a side door popped open and the front desk guy popped and started laughing.

Oops.

The slender-built guy who was dressed in a tux ignored the giggly front desk guy and gave Micha and me firm glares. “I have questions.”

Was he supposed to be James Bond?

Micha squeezed my hand in a clear behave or else kind of gesture, so I kept my mouth closed and let him do the talking. “I’m sure we’ll have answers, but I have to admit, I don’t know what he did.”

Me and tux guy rolled our eyes.

“Throw me under the bus why don’t you.”

Micha wasn’t impressed by my response, but tux guy almost smiled.

“The instructions said for us to answer the questions independently.”

Micha’s blood pressure was starting to go up because the one vein in his neck that was his telltale response started to throb.

Not good.

“I’m sorry.”

Now I was, at least. “Don’t get mad. If they’d been pissed at me, we wouldn’t have gotten this far. There’s a reason I need supervision.”

Lots of supervision.

Now tux guy was snickering too.

Hoping that meant he wasn’t as frustrated as Micha was worried he’d be, I aimed an innocent look at tux guy that was more believable than the first. “I’m sorry. I should’ve answered the questions in a more…”

Fuck it.

“Grown-up headspace.”

I could do it.

Micha needed this and I could do it.

“In my defense, he was withholding my zoo animals until I stopped dawdling.”

I shrugged when tux man nodded and seemed to take that problem seriously instead of making me feel stupid. “It wasn’t the right way to handle it…from either of us.”

Micha was going to take some of the credit for our current situation whether he wanted to or not.

His sigh said he wasn’t on the same page as me about that, but tux guy nodded again. “I agree. Toys shouldn’t be held hostage, but I think we can clear this up.”

Ignoring the tiny part of me that kind of hoped we’d put off the club visit another couple of weeks, I smiled and nodded. “Great.”

Tux guy pressed his lips together but didn’t call me out. “Let’s go in my office for a moment. We’ll have more privacy that way.”

Our audience just shrugged, not feeling bad in the slightest.

I liked him.

“I’m Conner, one of the owners of Bound and Controlled.”

Holding the door open, he gestured for us to head into what turned out to be a very generic-looking office that no one did any work in. “I was the one who looked over your initial applications.”

Micha was feeling much more normal as he nodded and moved us over to chairs across from the desk. “I think we spoke on the phone last year when I first had some questions about the club.”

Since it seemed to be going in a less stressful direction, I thought I’d sit in the chair next to him and do my best to look work professional. Micha had other plans and picked me up, sitting me down on his lap.

I’d been lapped.

With an audience.

Shit.

Was it a test?

Did he think I couldn’t behave?

No. He knew I couldn’t behave, so it had to be a test.

“We’re still working out some new aspects to our relationship. I know you wanted the questions to be answered independently, but I think I should’ve been more flexible on that.”

Micha said it with such a straight face I sighed.

It was definitely a test.

He was being too vague.

“I’m…I’m exploring stuff…I shouldn’t have been rude when I filled out the form, though.”

Had I failed the test already? “I’m not ready to talk about stuff yet. Sorry. I’m not. But I can do it and I like it and I trust Micha. He’s…he’s my Micha.”

He was always trustworthy.

Tux guy, Conner, nodded as he leaned back against the desk. “I can understand that.”

I knew we were fine when he smiled and winked. “And he can carry you around.”

“Yeah.”

I sighed. “He laps me when he’s frustrated with my behavior.”

Micha huffed and rolled his eyes but he didn’t contradict me. It made Conner’s smile flash wicked. “My partner does something similar.”

He was the sub?

Was that what he was saying?

I wasn’t going to ask…really…but Micha interrupted my random thoughts. “We’ve discussed his limits thoroughly and we both know what we’re looking to explore tonight.”

Conner gave a half-shrug as Micha reached in our bag and pulled out another bottle of water for me. “After meeting you, I agree, but part of my hesitation was that no one has ever started with the wet room.”

My face was probably the color of a tomato as I tried to look completely nonchalant sipping the stupid water, so I didn’t even try to be the one to answer. I had to poke Micha to get him to stop coughing, though. It was so bad he couldn’t even get an apology for me out. “Sorry— He’s— Sorry.”

I got to be the one to roll my eyes that time, but after a few moments, he got himself under control and tried again. “We’ve started exploring losing control in different ways, but we don’t have the right space for it at home. This is going to be a new form of experimenting. But it’s not the only form we’ve done.”

Conner nodded slowly, glancing between us before looking back at me. “Fingers in your ears. La la la. You know the drill.”

Thank God.

Obeying quickly, I handed Micha my water and plugged my ears, closing my eyes and humming The Star-Spangled Banner for some reason. It was the only thing that came to mind other than a church hymn I remembered from when I was little, so it could’ve been worse.

Clearly I wasn’t good at humming under pressure.

After a couple of rounds of what I could remember, Micha kissed my cheek and moved my hands. “All done.”

Good because we hadn’t even started what was supposed to be the stressful part and I already needed my quiet toy and a fucking nap.

“That’s good to know.”

I thought I managed to sound fairly casual, but Conner’s lips twitched as Micha gave me back my water.

The bag was magic and just kept producing more and I was right at the point of doing potty dance wiggles if he didn’t stop handing me the stupid shit.

I kept drinking it every time I was nervous…and having a full bladder was only making my nervousness worse.

It was a vicious cycle.

“Yes. All good here and I want you guys to have fun exploring the club. Usually I’d give you a tour but I think that would just make you more nervous in his case.”

Conner knew he was right about that and just smiled when I shrugged.

“But you’re going to have a blast.”

Looking honestly excited for us as he straightened and clapped his hands together, Conner glanced toward the door. “Quick recap. Remember the rules we sent you. The privacy screen is in place. There are two parts to the room, keep your clothes and anything that needs to stay dry behind the wall.”

The look on his face said he had people forget that part on a regular basis, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what they did in those situations. Thankfully, he kept going and didn’t scare me with the details. “There will already be towels there. Have fun. Explore. Don’t judge. Have great orgasms. When you’re done, clean yourselves up and then come get something to drink. The bartenders can make a lot of fun drinks or they can fill up a bottle. Either way, hydrate and relax.”

He was really bossy for a sub…it was distracting enough that I forgot to be nervous.

“Thank you for going over the information again, and yes, we’ve read the rules.”

Micha ran a hand over my head, teasing the hair at the base of my neck before giving my back a pat and putting my water away again. “We’re sorry there was any issue with our application.”

My application.

He was sorry I’d been naughty.

Well, still not my fault.

“It’s no problem.”

Rocking back and forth on his toes, Conner grinned. “I had fun with the answers.”

Micha groaned and glared at me. “I don’t want to know what you wrote.”

I’d been honest.

“Yes, Sir.”

Giving his cheek a kiss that time, I hopped up before he could change his mind. “Ready?”

Micha managed not to roll his eyes but it looked painful holding it back. “Yes.”

Drama queen.

Conner snickered, looking like he was ready to bounce and play too. “Wonderful. You’re going to have so much fun. It’s been ages since I got to pee on anyone.”

Before my brain could catch up to what he’d said, he was gone and I was left blinking in the strange lawyer-looking office with Micha. “He’s kind of weird but I like him.”

That set off Front Desk guy again, but Micha sighed. “That scares me.”

“If you’re too grumpy, I’m going to refuse to pee on you.”

Taking his hand, I tugged him until he stood up. “Be a good boy.”

The front desk guy was never going to be able to catch his breath.

Micha on the other hand glared at me. “Really? That’s what you’re going with?”

“Still not being a good boy.”

Shaking my head, I sighed as I led him out of the tiny fake office. “It’s not going to get you what you want.”

Since that was nearly word for word what he’d said to me last week when he was lecturing me about pitching a fit to get to play with my zoo faster, I knew it was spot-on. Micha was doing his best to give me his you’ve got to be kidding look but he wanted to laugh. “You are a handful. You know that, right?”

“I know you love me and I love you.”

That was all I was going to admit. It was the pleading the Fifth of the relationship world.