La Maison 4: Blue (Complete: BDSM manxboy)

Chapter 8: Pretty Woman

A/N: okay, this is longer, so sorry, because I know it's demanding of your time, especially as it doesn't even get to the thing it was meant to get to - that drama comes next chapter now.

But who doesn't need a 'getting heaps of money spent on me' montage?

Tim had been reluctant to leave Xander's apartment. He'd felt incredible, and not just because of the way he'd felt when Xander had controlled him that way. If anything, he didn't know whether to be freaked out by how good it had been. He'd never considered that he'd like – more than like – being called a slut. He was used to names. Simon called him that sometimes, and plenty of the guys on the cam chat, and it did nothing but make him grit his teeth. But when Xander had said it, there'd been a feeling underlying the sound of it. Almost as though the word was simply a synonym for 'good boy', or 'Angel', and held the same kind of meaning and value.

Anyway, it wasn't just the mind-blowing sex. Afterwards, Xander – and he was getting more comfortable calling him that inside his own head, almost as if they were friends, or something – had held him close, wrapped long arms around his body and tickled his neck with kisses and nuzzles while a random show was playing, unwatched, in the background. Tim hadn't cared, had been fully focused on the novel sensation of having someone touch him in a way that wasn't demanding, or expectant.

Xander had made him chicken salad at lunchtime and even a fruit platter later. And had never even suggested he was going to take more in any kind of tit-for-tat – even if Tim would happily have let it happen in that case. And when Tim had finally had to admit he needed to leave, it felt as though Xander had been equally as unwilling to let him go, pulling him back in with more nuzzles, and stroking his hair like he was a cat. When, really, it was Xander who was more like a big cat – albeit a Tiger – curling and pressing and purring.

He'd finally called the car for Tim, and managed to partly hide the sulk, although not completely, and Tim liked how it made him just the smallest bit less intimidating. More real. Maybe Tim wasn't the only one with flaws.

"Where've you been?"

Simon was pissed. No surprise. But even more pissed than the morning, when he'd sworn at Tim for going out and told him he'd have to work tonight and tomorrow to make up for missing so many sessions.

"Out."

Tim tried to keep his voice confident, but it wavered despite his best efforts. It always did. It was why Simon thought he was a 'pussy'. It's why...it was why other people thought he was weak, and needed to be controlled. It was why people thought he was dumb. Slow, even.

It wasn't the time to think about the past, though.

"It doesn't matter, Simon. I'm here. Rent will be sorted."

"You'll be lucky. You probably lost all your regulars. I told you it would happen. You'll have to do more sessions to catch up and get new ones."

"I'm not doing that."

"You are if I tell you to."

There was no point getting into an argument at that moment. Tim went to shower instead, embracing the delicious soreness in his muscles from Xander taking him. He wasn't sure yet about thinking of Xander as his Dominant, although he could see enough to know that would be where it would have to go – that was where Xander was foreseeing, or maybe even just seeing already. Tim chuckled to himself as he thought of how whole-heartedly Xander had apparently jumped into this thing between them, but the merriment turned into seriousness when he realized he was, too. Without a doubt, Tim was already seeing a future that had Xander in it, and he was sure he should be terrified by the speed and the depth of those feelings, but he couldn't bring himself to be. There was a safety about Xander that Tim had never experienced before – a trust that had blanketed down like fresh fallen snow and the short times he'd spent with Xander felt cocooned and protected under it.