Austin turned back to Margaret. “Does he look like someone I need to be protected from?”
She shrugged and gave him a flirty grin. “Well, I’d say maybe if you were in a dark alley, but we’ve all seen those pictures, so probably not.”
Austin and Silas both laughed, but it was Austin who spoke. “Oh, he’s so…well, probably can’t say that on TV, but you know what I’m thinking.”
Oh yeah.
“But he’s sweet and so good to me.” Austin let some of the teasing slide away and gave everyone a peek at how much he actually loved Silas. “Everyone needs someone like my Silas in their life.”
They were so stinking cute.
“Okay, the hashtagI need a Silasis starting to trend. This is ridiculous.” Dakota seemed to find the whole thing fascinating. “How in the hell do they get spanking memes up that fast?”
I didn’t want to know.
“It’s just sad the government is stepping in and telling me how I can live my life. I’m not hurting anyone else. I’m not even hurting myself.” He gave Silas a heated look that the cameras captured perfectly. “Now, asking Silas to hurt me would be a different story.”
“Shit. It’s down again.” Dakota’s quiet interruptions about the state of the internet were becoming almost background noise. “Okay, back up. Shit, nowspank me Silasis trending.”
We all had to laugh at that one. They didn’t know how right they were.
Austin looked over at Margaret again. “If we’re supposed to be equal, why are there whole stores I’m not allowed to go in without needing an alpha’s permission? Can you think of any other businesses where it would be legal to deny me entry because of my primary or secondary gender?”
Only Austin could make fighting for the rights of sex store shopping seem utterly rational.
“Real omega rights aren’t about protecting me from everything.” His expression was serious and the passion for it was showing clearly. “They’re about giving me the right to make my own decisions. Good or bad. No matter whether you approve or not, I should have the right to make decisions about my life and my sexuality.”
Then he turned to Silas, giving him a tender smile. “How I show my love for this man isn’t anyone else’s business.”
Margaret must have decided that was the best segment closing ever because she quickly wrapped it up, giving her tag line and leaving an open-ended question about omega rights hanging. It was very well done.
Wade muted the TV as the commercials started to play. “That was fabulous.”
“He’s definitely going to get people talking.” Bradley sat back and studied the TV like the commercials were the answers to all his questions. “I just hope people focus on the right part of it.”
Dakota was still playing with his phone, but he started to speak while strolling and typing out something. “The top comments and trending tags are a bit salacious but still on point. The teasing and hints about what they’re up to really caught everyone’s attention, but there are also a lot of comments about how crazy it is and questions about why people can’t find sex stores at all.”
He chuckled. “Evidently we’re not the only ones who didn’t realize there were stores like that where we lived. Another trending hashtag is nowhere’s my storeand they’re tagging every sex toy store they can find.”
“That’s crazy.” I stretched out and reached for the bottle of water I’d grabbed when I’d come in. “Do you think it will make people look at him harder or just focus on the issue?”
We didn’t need attention on the club.
Dakota finally looked up from his phone. “I think a bit of both for a little while, but as long as he keeps talking about omega rights and frames it that way instead of talking about BDSM or something like that, they aren’t going to look beyond Silas’s store.”
“Good. Construction is supposed to start next week and I don’t want anything throwing that off.” I’d spent too much time lately looking at construction plans for that to all go to waste.
“That seems fast.” Bradley looked at Tanner. “You helped get everything through, I presume?”
Tanner shook his head. “Austin knows everyone. I’m just a boring businessman.”
“I’ll take it. We don’t need weird questions about some of those themed rooms.” I fought the urge to blush. “I can’t wait to see what people think.”
I also couldn’t wait to see what kinds of couples wanted to explore those rooms.
Wade laughed. “I can’t wait to see how they turn out.”
Tanner was still smiling as he glanced over at me. “Graham have lots of good ideas?”
