Page 86 of Baiting Kong

“Think you can bring me back some steak tips and wings?” Mahoney asked as he pressed a finger beneath Scout’s chin and tilted his head up until his gaze met Mahoney’s.

“Yes, sir,” Scout said. “Would you like another whiskey?”

“No, but I would appreciate a couple sparkling blackberry lemonades with straws.”

“Yes, sir.”

He caressed Scout’s cheek and let Scout nuzzle his hand before Mahoney stopped touching him, which was Scout’s cue to get up. Next to him, he could hear the buzz of Carl having a similar conversation about food and drinks with Axel, who hada bit of trouble finding his footing until Scout wrapped an arm around him and steadied him until he nodded and kissed Scout’s cheek. Together they left the room, silent, eyes forward, not that anyone was holding cards, but they weren’t there to observe; they were there to spend time with their Doms and see to it that their night wasn’t interrupted.

Scout’s fingers had barely wrapped around the doorknob when Mark’s voice stopped him cold.

“Hey, Scout, bring me a beer.”

“Yes, sir!” Scout replied without hesitation.

“Axel, you wanna grab me some loaded nachos?”

Beside him, Axel stilled, blinking as he made eye contact with Scout, but Scout wasn’t sure how he was supposed to respond. In fact, he started questioning his own response and turned lock gazes with Carl and Mahoney, relaxing when he noticed a small smile on their faces.

“Both of your responses were right,” Carl said. “Scout, you’re in a unique position. You work for the club, but you wear both myproperty-oftag on your rear and a Rollin’ Jokers affiliates patch which muddies things up a bit. You belong to me, but you also belong to the club, which puts you under the Joker’s command structure. Your club president asked you for something, and you responded right away. Had you paused and looked at us instead of answering him, you’d have been in trouble. Axel, you belong to me, but you are not employed by the club, nor do you wear an affiliation patch like Scout, which means you answer only to me. Eventually, if things work out the way we’ve discussed, you’ll get a second patch from Kong, marking you as belonging to both of us. That still means you are only free to take orders from us. You have my permission to get the Prez his loaded nachos, but anytime you receive a request from someone other than me, you are to look to me for permission first, exactly as you just did.”

By the time he finished speaking, Scout was smiling, but didn’t dare turn to look to see if Axel was too.

“Good job, boys,” Mark said.

Out of the corner of his eye, Scout could see others nodding, their own subs, pets, and even one little by their side.

“You guys can go fulfill your tasks now,” Carl said, making a small shooing motion with his hand. Scout took Axel’s hand, and they slipped out as quietly as they’d first planned.

“Was that a test?” Axel whispered once the door had closed behind them and they were alone as they headed up the hall leading to the bar.

“Yeah, I think so,” Scout whispered back. “I’m just glad we both passed. I’d gotten so used to taking orders from Mark when I worked in the clubhouse that I didn’t stop to think if that was supposed to change now that I wasn’t directly employed by him. I’m glad Carl explained the difference. Now we’d better get moving.”

Axel nodded, heading into the bar at Scout’s side. Bellamy entered their orders through the phone app Night had downloaded to allow food requests to be sent straight through to the kitchen, saving those working behind the bar a ton of time. Each order was assigned to a member's name, adding to tabs that would either be closed out at the end of the night or the end of the week. It was also set to flag anyone with an outstanding balance. Those were for Kat to deal with, so Scout had been instructed to send them straight to her when he was working back there. Bellamy set two platters on the counter and moved to get others their drinks while Scout and Axel waited for their food to be ready.

Since they weren’t to return to the game until they had everything they’d been sent for, Bellamy wouldn’t pour drinks until the food was already on the platters, so they didn’t get warm and watered down during the wait.

“I like getting to be in there with you and Carl and Mahoney,” Axel admitted. “Being out here in the bar can be a little overwhelming sometimes.”

“I’m the same way,” Scout explained. “Being behind the bar a good chunk of the time created a barrier between me and the chaos, but it could sometimes be a bit jarring to have to go out there, especially when people made passes at me. At least that won’t happen to either of us now that we’re tagged.”

“Thank goodness.”

“This might seem kinda weird, but in a good way,” Axel said. “It’s just that when we’re kneeling on the cushions, waiting to be asked for something, my thoughts get all hazy and floaty and kind of fly right out of my head until there is nothing but soft, fuzzy cotton. It’s not that I’m daydreaming; there are no thoughts whatsoever. Just this calm stillness that I can relax into and enjoy.”

“That’s subspace,” Scout explained.

“Oh, sothat’swhat you and Mahoney were talking about the other night?”

“Yeah, because of how easily I reached it when I was with him,” Scout replied. “And because of some of the things Carl noticed when I was working in the office. It’s part of why they suggested us coming into the poker room with them tonight.”

“It’s a good feeling,” Axel said. “I like being able to let go of everything and just be still for a while.”

“Same,” Scout admitted. “Sometimes I overthink things or start playing out how a conversation might go, only in my head, where the narrative keeps changing until I’ve talked myself out of having the conversation with the person I’d wanted to speak to. When I can lose myself in something, that doesn’t happen, just like in there. When we’re kneeling and being touched and stroked by them, it makes all the questions I can’t figure out go silent so I can stop worrying about them for a while.”

“You know you can talk to me about anything,” Axel declared, squeezing Scout’s hand.

“Even if one of the things I haven’t been able to ask is if I could spend the night in your bed with you,” Scout blurted. “Every morning I wake up wanting to touch you, but you’re all the way across the room, and I don’t have your permission to wake you the way I want.”

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