Page 46 of Light Up
“Yes.”
Corey let go of his hand and stood up. “Can we do this again? Be in the hot tub, I mean, and talk?”
Tal nodded.
“Thank you for listening.”
And because Tal was an idiot, he let Corey leave.
Eleven
Corey woke to find Tal leaning over him.
“You wanted me to wake you.” Tal took a step back. “It’s time for biscuit decorating. Words I never thought would come out of my mouth.” His lips quirked in an approximation of a smile, then he went to sit by the fire.
They weren’t the words Corey had wanted to come out of Tal’s mouth. Prior to alcohol putting paid to conversation, things had been getting interesting. Plus, he’d changed his mind about the biscuits. He’d rather do more talking, but maybe they needed time to think about what had been said. Tal might have been doing that for the past hour and a half, but Corey had conked out like a light the moment he’d lain down in the bed. It was probably the most alcohol he’d ever drunk.Note to self—be careful.
“Do you feel okay?” Tal asked. “No hangover?”
“I’m fine.” He flung back the covers, grabbed his clothes and dressed.
Am I fine?For a brief moment, Corey wondered if they’d actually had the conversation he thought they’d had, or had he imagined it? Had they agreed Tal would teach Corey how to be a dom by letting him sub? He didn’t think so. In any case, Corey hadn’t known then that Tal was a sub. It didn’t mean Tal couldn’t show him but he found his heart thumping hard at the thought of going through with it when really what he wanted was to be in charge of Tal, to make him see how good it could be with him.
But… His most used word apart fromsorry,it seemed.
But… Corey had started down this path because he’d thought it was what he wanted, except what if he was wrong? A recurring worry that kept sticking an elbow in his ribs. What if he wasn’t meant to be a dom at all? What if he was just intoa certain type of mildly kinky sex with a certain type of guy? Everyone had types they liked. Hair colour, build, vers, top, bottom, young, old… He’d seen the BDSM world as the best place to find a partner but…Bloody but…
“I’m ready.” Corey slipped on his shoes. “I wonder if I’ll be any good at decorating Christmas biscuits.” He could guess the answer.
“How hard can it be?”
Corey wasnotconfident. Was it normal to be a different person in the bedroom to the one you were in the rest of your life? When—if—he finally got what he wanted, maybe he’d be all apologetic and weak…Sorry. Is it all right if I tie you up? Do you mind if I make you wait twenty-four hours before you come? It’s okay if you don’t want to kneel down because it hurts your knees.He mentally groaned as he followed Tal downstairs, ogling his lovely backside.
There were only ten people in the kitchen, plus Gemma, an American pastry chef, who was going to show them how hard it was to decoratecookiesas she called them. Corey and Tal were the only guys. The biscuits had already been made by Gemma, so that saved Corey from messing up that part.
There were plates of Christmas trees, snowmen, reindeer, baubles, elves and bells. Corey remembered making biscuits once with his mum when they’d all spread on the baking tray so they came out as one huge cookie. They’d laughed and told his dad they’d made the biggest biscuit in the world.
Gemma showed them how to make the consistencies of icing they’d need for different elements of the decorating: flood, medium and stiff. Tal had rolled his eyes when Corey giggled. They were shown how to fill the piping bags and the way to pipe. The stiff icing was to be used as an outline or a dam to hold the infill in place. Another chuckle from him, a bit of one from Tal. They each had several bowls in front of them to mix the icing—counting how long it took the icing to fall off the spoon was the key to consistency, apparently—and there were plenty of colours to choose from.
“Start with a bauble, it’s easiest,” Gemma told them. “Remember, a tiny drop of food colouring is all you’ll need. Use the tip of a toothpick to add the colour.”
She turned the bauble biscuit she was working on into a work of art with blue sky, snow-covered mountains, lake and the hint of a boat. Corey already knew he wasn’t going to do well at this. He managed to cover his work area with icing sugar as he decanted it into the bowls. Then he messed up the amount of water he was supposed to add, so the icing was too runny and dripped off the edge of the biscuit. And that was despite Tal repeatedly reminding him to count. Then he added too much red colouring. The icing went from far too pale to far too red in one squirt. Result—a bauble that looked as though it was covered in dripping blood. Tal’s, of course, was identical to Gemma’s.
“Mine is for a vampire,” Corey said.
Tal chuckled. “This is fun.”
Corey gaped at him. “Are you serious?”
“Well, I can think of things I’d rather be doing but there’s pleasure to be had in creating something pretty and edible.”
“What sort of other things? Crocheting? A jigsaw? Caving?”
Tal stared at Corey, his eyes darkening, then reached to rub icing off his cheek.
Corey’s heart thumped. “You could have licked it off.”
Tal opened, then closed his mouth.
