I held on to Ben’s shoulders with complete trust as his powerful arms held me up against the cool tile of his personal shower, thrusting his cock up into me over and over again while golden sunlight filtered through the frosted window and through the sparkling water pouring onto us.

We were at Ben’s penthouse—which was my usual, ever since I moved in with him last month. It was a big step that I had been almost reluctant to take, but I had been the one to bring it up, and once I had, Ben had been overjoyed. This was the very shower that we’d fucked in on that first night, and I could see why it was one of Ben’s favorite parts of his stunning home overlooking the city.

Before meeting Ben, I never entertained the idea that I’d set foot in a place like this, much less live in it. Then again, before Ben, I didn’t think I’d wake up every morning with a stiff cock and a powerful hunger to get fucked by this gorgeous, incredible man.

The sunlight made Ben look like more of a statuesque god than he already was. It shone between the two empty mimosa glasses on the windowsill left over from the brunch I cooked for us, and the taste of champagne was still fresh on our lips. His short, wet hair was shining, and his rippling body proudly showed every perfectly cut muscle that he devoted so much time to perfecting. The sight of it was too much to bear. His gaze was down, watching my hand on my own cock while his slid in and out of my ass, and when he glanced up, he gave me that charming smile that I fell in love with, and I couldn’t contain myself anymore.

I let myself go, sending shots of white against myself just before Ben emptied himself into the condom, releasing all the tension that had been building up in him since he stepped into the shower with me.

The next thing I knew, he was setting me back down on my feet and getting lost in a kiss with me while the warm shower water embraced us both.

“So,” he said a few minutes later as he turned the shower water off, and I stepped out to towel off. “What’s on the agenda today? Besides Sunday brunch and shower sex, since we can tick that off the list.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind round two, but all I have going on is a couple of emails to take care of for work,” I replied, flashing a smile back at him.

“Your professor isn’t giving you a hard time, is he?” Ben asked, smiling.

“Of course not,” I chuckled as I headed into the bedroom and checked my laptop before sitting down to answer a few emails. “He knows I’m the best TA he has, so he isn’t nearly as prickly with me as he can be with the undergraduates.”

At Ben’s insistence, I put in my application to the MA program at Columbia not long after the night of the art expo. As it turned out, a few academics had been present at the expo, including the professor whose papers I was going to be reading as part of my paid work for the university. Professors didn’t have anything to do with the selection process, but fortunately, that didn’t matter. I still had my old sample papers polished up from my grad school application package I never used back in the day, so it was a simple matter of submitting that and playing the waiting game.

When the acceptance email came in, I nearly jumped three feet into the air. The acceptance came with a job offer to be a TA, like most grad school positions, and between that and the funding package they offered me, I even had my own source of income for the next few years.

“I figured, I just want to make sure nobody tries to push you around,” Ben chuckled, walking up to me and sliding his arms around me as he looked over my shoulder at the screen. “Still think your professor might be a good candidate to recruit, by the way?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “I’m surprised nobody from the Fox has been in touch with him yet.”

“I’ll mention it to the other councilors, then,” Ben said. “Speaking of, I’m glad you don’t have much on your plate today—I wanted you to come down to the Fox with me after we get dressed.”

“Oh? What’s going on?” I asked, leaning my head back to look up at him.

Leaving my job at the Gilded Fox had been hard, but everyone sent me off with the best wishes. It put me in an odd position, since I wasn’t formally a member, so I wasn’t technically supposed to be around after taking my leave. As far as anyone knew, I was the first person to be in my position. Of course, nobody had complained when Ben brought me around, but it still made me feel odd sometimes.

“A new member is getting inducted,” Ben explained. “He only came out in the past year, so having someone like you around might be kind of reassuring.”

“If you say so.” I chuckled. “Any excuse to tag along with you.”

Ben winked, grinning down at me.

“Good. Let’s get going.”

An hour later, after getting dressed in the designer fall apparel Ben had custom made for me (using me as a model was quickly becoming one of his favorite pastimes), we were walking through the lounge of the Fox again. It never stopped feeling like home, no matter how long I was away from it. And now more than ever, there were new faces that seemed to keep multiplying by the day.

“We’re doing things in the courtyard this time,” Ben said, leading me by the arm as he waved to a few members that greeted him on the way in with warm smiles and kind words. “Figured it’s a nice day, so we might as well do things a little unconventionally.”

“You’re building a reputation for that, I imagine,” I laughed.

“Yeah, well, special occasions,” he said vaguely.

I quirked an eyebrow, looking over at him as we neared the courtyard, where I could see a lot of people were already gathered. He had that look in his eye that told me he was plotting something he didn’t want to tell me.

“What kind of special occasion?” I asked cautiously, tilting my head to the side.

“You’ll see,” Ben said cryptically.

We made our way out to the courtyard, where I found that everyone who was gathered outside was as well dressed and in good spirits as they always were for induction ceremonies. Ben’s uncle Charles and now-husband Anthony were in attendance, to my surprise, and the two of them waved to us from the back of the courtyard, where they were sitting adorably on a bench under one of the statues. As they got up to join the others, I noticed Jack, who turned to see the two of us enter. I realized he was standing very close to a gentleman I didn’t recognize, and I smiled as I put two and two together, nodding to him.

“Who’s presiding today?” I whispered to Ben as we made our way toward the center of the courtyard. He squeezed my hand affectionately and grinned down at me.

“I am, of course.”

As if on cue, someone entered behind us—Andy, one of the other council members, carrying the ceremonial gilded fox itself.

“Glad you two could make it,” he said to Ben with a wink as he approached, handing the statuette to him.

“It would be hard to pull it off without us, wouldn’t it?” Ben chuckled, looking at me.

I was feeling confused. Something had to be up.

“I haven’t forgotten something, have I?” I asked in a nervous tone, rifling through the different possible things in my mind. “Is it someone’s birthday?”

Ben and Andy both laughed, and Ben squeezed my shoulder lovingly.

“Oh no,” he said. “You’re right where you need to be.”

Andy turned and clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention, and soon, the crowd had settled down. I suddenly became aware that we weren’t just standing near the center of the courtyard. We were the center of the courtyard, as well as the center of everyone’s attention.

“I want to thank you all for coming out here to a somewhat unusual induction,” Ben said, and as he turned to me, the realization hit me like a truck. “But I think it’s appropriate, considering these are somewhat unusual circumstances.”

This wasn’t an induction for just some new member.

This was an induction for me.

“Half a year ago, I was the one being shown around by this wonderful, sweet, caring guy who laughed at my dumb jokes when I hung around his bar,” Ben said as I felt my heart racing and a huge, stupid smile crossing my face. “Back then, he didn’t know what kind of heights he was capable of reaching any more than he knew I would be surprising him with this ceremony today.”

Laughter rippled through the crowd, and I wiped a tear from my eye as I choked out a laugh. This was too much, but the surprise was overwhelming in all the right ways. I had no idea Ben had been planning this, but what was far more surprising was how welcoming everyone gathered around me looked—as if I were an old friend they’d all come to love.

It was new, and it was wonderful.

“And so I cannot express how humbled and honored I am to offer him this gilded fox and everything it represents,” Ben finished in a more intimate tone, speaking directly to me. “Noah Rowe, do you—”

I lurched forward, wrapping my hand around the back of his head and kissing Ben on the lips as I grasped the statuette with the other. A mixture of laughter and applause met us as Ben kissed me back, squeezing me into him lovingly.

“Gladly,” I said as we broke the kiss, and he gave me the most loving, warm smile I never thought I’d be fortunate enough to look up at before he nodded and spoke.

“Welcome.”