Chapter 5
Troy
It was going better than he thought it would, but he wasn’t ready to relax yet. Bryce was a little too hesitant for Troy to understand what he wanted. One minute he would look confused and skeptical, the next he would watch them like he didn’t want to let them go.
Oliver had been over the moon with the way the meeting had gone, and Troy had to agree with him. Once Bryce had found his footing, he’d moved past the awkward phase quickly. They’d gotten a lot of good information, and Oliver’s little stunt had proven Bryce wasn’t just seeing them as potential customers.
They’d had a long talk about flirting and how far things could go without them needing to discuss it more. Troy had wanted Bryce to understand that he didn’t just want his submission, they wanted him to be a true Dom with Oliver as well. It would be a balancing act, but he wanted to make sure Bryce understood that.
He didn’t want Bryce to feel pigeonholed into one role and expected to stay there.
It could work. Bryce just needed to see it.
As they relaxed with their drinks, waiting for the food and eating the breadsticks Oliver loved, Bryce brought the conversation back around to more personal topics. “So how long have you two been together?”
Oliver gave Troy a sweet smile. “Two years as a couple, and before that we dated off and on.”
“Dating as in vanilla dating?” Bryce took a drink of his soda and relaxed back in his seat.
“Sort of.” Oliver shrugged. “We met at a bar and hit it off. It was mostly vanilla for the first couple of months until we both started opening up.”
“It was easy to see that Oliver wasn’t the dominant kind of guy and I liked that, but I wasn’t sure if he’d realized what it could mean.” Troy mentally shook his head at the time they’d wasted not talking about what they really wanted.
“I’d met a few people online that were into BDSM and played around a little, but never anything serious. Troy looked like a total Dom, which was one of the things that had me flirting with him to begin with, but when he didn’t mention the scene, I just pushed it to the back of my mind.” Oliver frowned and started playing with the wrapper to his straw. “We were both trying for a traditional relationship, but wanting something else.”
Troy broke in because he knew Oliver didn’t like this part of their story. “We actually broke up several times over the course of a year, but would always get back together. I was still trying to force myself to ease up on the dominance I really wanted, and Oliver was trying to fight his needs as well.”
He reached under the booth and took Oliver’s hand. “It was never big fights or cheating. We just weren’t happy but weren’t talking.”
A smile broke over Oliver’s face, this time reaching his eyes. “Until that night.”
“What night?” Bryce was leaning forward, elbows on the table, looking curious.
“We hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks at that point. Not long for most people, but at the time it felt like an eternity. I’d met a guy, another sub, who told me about the club. We went one Friday night when they were allowing new people who were curious to come check things out. Well, I’m hanging out with my friend and we’re flirting with some of the Doms. Nothing serious, but it was nice not to fight what I wanted.”
Oliver looked over at Troy and grinned. “My friend started talking about a sexy Dom he saw across the room. I looked over and there was Troy.” Oliver gave Troy a mock frown. “Surrounded by little twinks who were going crazy.”
Troy shrugged. “I didn’t do anything with the twinks. They all looked like I could break them with one thrust.”
Bryce choked on his drink and shook his head. “Then what?”
Oliver laughed. “I very sweetly went over there and told him how surprised I was to see him.”
Troy snorted, almost sending water out his nose. It had to be the biggest reaction Bryce had seen from him. “Sweet? How about we tell him the truth?” He looked over at Bryce. “Thissweetsub here made a hell of a scene. Marched right over and demanded to know what the hell I was doing there. He then proceeded to tell me off, saying that if I needed to practice on little twinks to figure out how to be a Dom then fine, but I could come begging him back when I knew what I was doing.”
Bryce laughed so hard he couldn’t breathe. Finally he managed to speak. “Why haven’t I heard this before?”
“There were mostly just new people there. Many of the regular club members don’t go on those nights for privacy reasons. I think Ben and Conner were the only regulars there in the bar area to see it.” Troy let his hand come up to rest on Oliver’s shoulder.
Oliver leaned into his touch and picked up the story again. “I started to storm off dramatically. Pissed doesn’t even begin to describe how angry I was. He’d never mentioned anything about wanting BDSM, but there he was with a dominant band around his arm. It was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.”
“Pot, meet kettle.” Bryce gave Oliver a teasing look.
“Sure, that part is obvious now, but at the time, I didn’t see it that way.”
“I did.” Troy broke in. “I knew right away why he was there, and I was ticked he’d thought to ask strangers to do things to him and not me. So I grabbed his arm and told him that it sounded like he needed a Dom to teach him some manners.”
“What was Ben doing with all this going on?”
