Page 37 of Mr. Naughty List
While choosing the perfect bowtie for the day, he decided he’d wear the elf outfit for RJ that night. See where that took them. RJ seemed the type to be game for anything. And the outfit wasn’t due back at the costumers for a week. Plenty of time to have it cleaned.
Aaron made his lunch, grabbed his school satchel, and plucked his keys from the counter before heading out. Yes, if he was going to risk double-dipping with RJ, he planned to milk it for all the kinky pleasure he could. Wearing the elf costume, putting that fantasy out there… It was a risk, but it felt like he already had nothing to lose. He might as well go for it. It was the right thing to do.
Or wrong thing, rather.
Former student, risky choice, potential damage to his professional reputation and all that.
But, hell. He was going to do it anyway. Might as well earn that lump of coal in his stocking.
RJ messed withhis favorite, showy pedal, making his guitar ring out in the cavernous space of Joel and Casey’s unfinished log cabin where they’d set up to practice. The downstairs was mostly complete, though they’d had to pull in wires from the temporary electrical panel set up for the construction company to plug in their amps, a few space heaters, and lamps.
Even with the space heaters, the room was chilly, but they all wore sweaters and were protected from the wind off the lake by the walls, even if the glass windows weren’t in yet. Darkness closed around them in the winter gloom. RJ assumed the sound of their music must bounce off the lake and the cliffs around the property, especially without any leafy foliage to absorb it. He hoped the rich folks across the lake, including Casey’s parents, enjoyed it. Bruno, for his part, didn’t like the loud drums and always scampered off into the dark, bare woods to chase wild turkeys and squirrels.
Becca and Madison had already left, the rehearsal cut short by their need to attend Becca’s holiday party at the hair salon where she worked. Becca had dismantled her drums and used her packing mojo to make it all fit in the back of her bizarrely roomy hatchback, but Madison was storing her keyboard at Joel and Casey’s for now. She used the Scruffy City Hall’s piano during the actual shows.
Luckily, they’d sounded pretty tight during practice, so RJ didn’t mind that they hadn’t gone the full two hours. The girls leaving early also gave him time alone with Casey and Joel for some guy talk.
“Wait, I don’t get it,” Joel said, frowning and scratching at his ear. “Mr. Danvers, the man you’ve wanted since high school, invited you on a date tonight?”
RJ nodded and strummed his guitar again before bowing his head and closing his eyes to noodle a little, enjoying the ring of the pedal. It was just so spangly. It matched his jittery excitement over the evening ahead.
“And you said no?” Casey asked, propped up on a pile of blankets in the corner with his iPad, making posts on Facebook and Twitter on behalf of his marketing clients. Always Old Skool Millennials’ biggest fan, Casey hadn’t wanted to miss their practice, so he’d worked through it like the good multitasker he was.
“Band practice is sacred,” RJ said with a shrug. “That’s always been my rule.”
“Sure, back when we were dumb kids trying to be a real band. But now we’re just fucking around playing some Christmas gigs for the hell of it,” Joel said, furrowing his brow.
“It was a rule when we were kids, yeah,” RJ agreed. “But it’s a rule with every band I tour with. I can’t just not show up.”
“Well, of course,” Joel conceded. “But you know this is different.”
“It’s really not.”
Joel checked his phone and clucked his tongue at RJ. “You’ve still got some time. Text Mr. Danvers and say you can make it after all. Show up at the dance looking like a million bucks.” He nodded toward Casey. “That’s what I did. Showed up at his folks’ holiday party in my best jacket. And look at us.”
Casey gazed at Joel like a lovesick cow, and RJ rolled his eyes. “You guys are gross.” He refrained from mentioning that Joel’s surprise appearance at Casey’s family’s Christmas party had initially backfired on both of them. They were so in love and happy now, it was pointless to bring up the messy past. They were even on good terms with Casey’s parents at this point. Everything had come up Christmas miracles for them. That’s not how RJ’s life worked.
“Really, you should crash the dance like Joel said,” Casey offered. “He’d be impressed by that.”
RJ scoffed. “Would he? A random dude shows up at a middle school dance. That wouldn’t be, I don’t know, fucking weird?”
“You’d be his date! It’d be romantic.”
RJ didn’t think it would be actually. “I don’t have any clothes appropriate for a dance. I’m a touring guitarist. I don’t own a suit or sports coat. I can’t show up in ripped jeans, a T-shirt, and a studded leather jacket.”
“Well, youcould,” Joel said. “It’d make things interesting.”
“Nah.” RJ didn’t think Aaron would want that kind of attention.
Besides, he was pretty sure that saying no to the dance invite had hooked Aaron in even more. Aaron wouldn’t have agreed to whatever was going to happen at his apartment tonight if RJ had accepted the invite to the dance. In fact, RJ was willing to bet that Aaron would have withdrawn the invitation entirely if RJ had actually said he wanted to go.
Some part of Mr. Danvers wanted to feel in control—wanted to be the one to invite, and offer, and sext. But what Aaron reallyneeded, deep down, was to feel like someone else was in control. And that the other person trulywantedto be in control, and knew to be, and when.
By refusing the invitation, RJ had taken back the reins, and Aaron had given them over easily. It seemed clear: Yes, Aaron wanted to be wanted, but more than that, Aaronneededsomeone who could hold appropriate boundaries while Aaron lost his. That, more than being in control, made Aaron feel safe enough to do this again.
RJ had sensed that truth in Aaron all the way back in high school. He’d always dreamed of being the one Mr. Danvers surrendered to, and when they’d had sex the other night? Mr. Danvershadsurrendered fully. Like a sweet bitch in heat—needful and desperate. And everything about it had been just as good as RJ had known it could be.
But none of this understanding was anything he could share with his friends. That would be a violation of the trust Aaron didn’t even know he’d given RJ. But he knew he’d made the right choice in declining the invitation to the dance. The choice that would lead to Aaron willingly spreading his ass tonight to take RJ deep and hard.