Page 55 of Always Alchemy

‘I could ask Tobias Graf?’ Nat suggests. ‘He’s very big on the environment. It’s worth seeing if he’d do it for free.’

EvenI’veheard of Tobias Graf.

‘That would be incredible,’ I tell her. Our little Nat is so low-key that it’s easy to forget she’s a major player in the fashion industry these days.

‘I’m in,’ Max says, perking up at Graf’s name, ‘as long as we can choose our months and their themes. I assume we split them up six ways?’

‘You assume right.’ I open up my MacBook. ‘But you canpitchfor your months. I thought April for you three, to start with.’

Dex narrows his eyes at me. ‘And why is that?’

‘What do we think of when we think of April?’ I ask the room at large. ‘Showers, of course.’

‘That’s disgusting,’ he spits. ‘Are you implying we’re into golden showers?’

My jaw drops open just as Anton lets out a guffaw so loud it has poor Norm jumping to his feet again.

‘I don’t think Cal said anything aboutgoldenshowers, mate. That was all you.’

Dex instantly goes bright red.

‘Jesus Christ,’ Belle says, drawing away from her brother, even though they’re seated the whole way across the room from each other. ‘For the love of God, donottell me you guys are into that.’

‘Ohmygod, obviously not,’ Darcy says, looking even more morally outraged than Belle. ‘What do youtakeus for?’

‘Okay, okay,’ I say. ‘No one’s kink shaming anyone, got it? Dex, if you and Max like pissing all over Darcy, you do you.’ I grin at them. I swear Dex is ready to leap over the glass coffee table and take me, judging by the look on his face.

‘I think,’ Max says, leaning in towards his husband, his hand going to Dex’s thigh, ‘he was talking about the way we met. Our penchant for thenormalkind of showers. Got it?’

‘Oh, right,’ Dex says, still red. ‘That makes more sense.’

‘Thank you Max.’ I incline my head graciously. ‘Indeed I was. But I still think it’sveryinteresting that your mind went straight to golden showers, mate. Right. Moving on. I think Aida and I should take October. Halloween and all that—it’s begging for some balaclava action.’

Everyone laughs, even Dex.

‘You definitely own the balaclava look,’ Rafe concedes.

‘No argument here,’ Zach says. ‘It’s all yours.’

‘Nice work, sweetie,’ my wife says, sliding her hand over my thigh, and I pause my note-taking to give her my very sexiest smile.

Balaclava Man is coming back.

(Well, he’s back in the privacy of our bedroom about once a month, but the others don’t need to know that.)

I cast my eye over the suggestions I plugged into my laptop last week when I’d first had the idea and was pulsing with excitement over it.

In no particular order: ‘September’s got to be a back to school vibe, surely. A sexy student-teacher thing would be fun. Any takers? Let he—or she—who has the twitchiest palm make the first bid.’

My money’s on Zach, but all eyes swivel to Nat, who can’t avoid making a choked little squeak. I pounce like a hawk would on a field mouse.

‘Of course!’ I wield my stylus at Adam. ‘Mr Antique Spanking Bench! I’d quite forgotten.’

Adam’s request back at the opening of Alchemy New York for that particular piece of kit had tickled me pink at the time, but it had totally slipped my mind. That must have been almost two years ago now?

‘Oh my Christ,’ Nat mutters as Adam smirks, clearly enjoying her discomfort.

‘You’ll make an excellent teacher,’ I decide. ‘Spanky Spanky. Mr and Mrs September you are. Now, let me see. March. I’m thinking Lent. Penance.’ I drum my palms on my keyboard to create tension. ‘And there’s only one man for the job, really, isn’t there? Who we go to to confess our sins, people?’

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