1
“You can’t say no. You don’t have a choice; I need you to do this.”
“Huh?” Shooting up in bed, Mason didn’t even realize he had his phone in his hand until Maddy screeched again.
“MASON!”
“Maddy?”
“Are you listening to me?” The volume of her screech told Mason she’d been trying to get his attention for a while. When had he answered the phone? Mason had been up all night finishing a coding project that had a tight deadline. Looking over at the clock on his nightstand, he stretched and noticed that it was almost five o’clock in the evening.
“No, sorry. I was asleep. What’s up?”
“I need you to come down to Midnight. We had a cancellation at the last minute and I need someone else so we have an even number.”
Midnight? He knew that should ring a bell but his brain was too fuzzy. “Midnight?”
“Lord, Mason. Are you paying attention?”
If he said no, she was going to totally lose her shit. It would almost be worth it, because when Maddy was losing her marbles it was fabulous to watch. Unfortunately, he wasn’t up for one of her DEFCON 5 explosions right now. “I was up all night working. Remind me.”
Maddy had been his best friend since college when they’d been in the same dorm. While they didn’t have much in common on the surface, they complimented each other really well. He didn’t mind that she was crazy and she didn’t mind that he was…well, unique.
“Midnight. The restaurant where we’re having the Dating in the Dark event. Ringing any bells?”
“Oh, yeah the mixer thing with the dark restaurant. What did you need me for again?”
Maddy worked for a dating service that connected people by arranging group dates and mixers in unconventional locations. This time, they were having a dinner at a new restaurant downtown where you had to eat in complete darkness. It was supposed to be intimate and completely different from anything else out there, at least, according to the morning talk shows and Maddy’s endless rants.
“I had a last minute drop out. The guy evidently eloped to Vegas last night.”
“Still not seeing why you need me.” The pounding in his head felt like he’d partied all night long. No more all-nighters, he was getting too old for it. It sucked that at twenty-four he was feeling so ancient.
“I need an even number for the party. This is our first gay event and I have thirty-nine bachelors where I should have forty. Are you catching on now?”
“Hell, no, Maddy. You’re not making me hang out for hours with stuffy upper-crust business types.” Mason worked hard and was successful but he would never be the perfect guy for someone like that. Mason was a freelance computer programmer and he did really well for himself but those types of guys wanted preppy and perfect. Not unique and slightly nerdy.
“Oh, yes, I am. I need a live body and you happen to be gay, single, successful, and handy. You’re it; now get your ass out of bed and down here.”
Stumbling out of bed, he looked down at his clothes: boxer briefs, and a T-shirt. “Damn it, Maddy. What do I have to wear? How fancy is this? Hell, where is this restaurant again?”
“Nice, but not crazy extravagant. It’s going to be in the dark unless you stick around for the cocktails after. And it’s downtown in one hour.”
“Maddy, it would take me almost an hour to get there on a good day.” He was well outside the city and normally that wouldn’t be a problem. He wasn’t a big partier anyway. Even if it were only Wednesday, the traffic would be crazy.
“I can stall if you’re a couple of minutes late but I need you to hurry. I can’t have someone eating by himself and there is no way to cancel on any of these men.”
“Prissy types who’ll pitch a fit, huh?”
“No, try top businessmen who don’t want to be told no.”
“Even worse.”
“Definitely.”
“Okay, text me the address. You’re going to owe me.”
“Not a chance. Hurry up. I can’t have you crazy late.” With that, she disconnected the call.
Walking into the bathroom, Mason turned on the shower and jumped in. The blast of cold water woke him up better than anything else would have. He hated being roped into stupid.
Hopefully, whoever he got stuck with wouldn’t be too obnoxious. It was only for an hour or so; he could deal with it even if the guy was boring, or worse—crazy judgmental and a loudmouth. He grinned; he’d do it just so Maddy would owe him. Because no matter what she said, she was going to owe him big time.
Most gay guys he knew would have jumped at this kind of chance. A room full of eligible, successful bachelors who were looking for serious relationships. Heaven to most guys. Mason wasn’t under any illusions that he would find Mr. Right there tonight. No, the chances of his perfect guy at an event like that were astronomical.
Mr. Sexy-for-a-quickie maybe, but that wasn’t what Mason wanted and Maddy would kill him if he made one of her clients angry. Mason liked to get laid as much as the next guy but the kind of man he really needed wasn’t going to be at a vanilla singles mixer. Mason was looking for someone a little more unique.
Mason’s fantasy guy was take charge in and out of the bedroom. Strong, sexy, and dominant…that’s what Mason desired in a man. If that were it, though, it wouldn’t be too hard to find.
When you added in everything else Mason craved, that’s when the eligible bachelor list shrunk considerably. Mason’s sexy, perfect man wouldn’t just take charge. No, he would be kinky too. Because Mason wanted a daddy, not just a boyfriend.
The fantasy started in his early teens. God bless the internet and parents who didn’t understand child-protection software. Realizing he was gay was easy, but figuring out why most guys didn’t appeal to him had been more difficult.
It had been terribly confusing to know that while girls didn’t turn him on at all, most men didn’t really turn him on either. In fact, guys his own age just hadn’t done it for him. They were attractive, yes, but he hadn’t had any desire to date them or do anything past a little bit of flirting.
One day, however, he’d been looking through porn sites and browsing through free online dirty books when he’d stumbled across a blog written by a gay couple detailing their adventures in the age-play lifestyle. Mason had been hooked.
Reading the stories about what they’d done and seeing the pictures where the daddy was holding his boy had been eye-opening, to say the least. Discovering how they lived and what they found erotic had been incredible.
It was something Mason would never have thought of on his own, but he quickly realized it was what he craved. To be someone’s little boy and have a daddy of his own.
It wasn’t conventional. But, when Mason saw the closeness the lifestyle brought and the tenderness that caring for someone inspired, it was what he wanted. To be that loved and cared for.
Maybe it was something left over from childhood. The “if you love me you’ll do everything for me” mentality—the fantasy of someone taking care of him like that was incredibly erotic.
Mason had tried traditional dating over the years, even dated a man who was into BDSM a couple of times but it had never worked. With vanilla guys, he kept wishing they would take charge. And that would have made most of them really uncomfortable.
The guy in college who had been into BDSM wanted completely different things than Mason. Mason didn’t want to kneel at someone’s feet and call him Master. He wanted someone who would take care of him.
Over the years, Mason had refined the fantasy and experimented with different things. Always alone, though. Maddy might have accepted his fantasy as a perfectly reasonable kink, but Mason was realistic enough to know that most people wouldn’t be that open-minded.
Tell a guy you wanted to be spanked and he was all gung ho to try it. But tell a guy you wanted to wear a diaper occasionally and that you had a bottle in the cabinet for when you needed to unwind and they went all wiggy on you. He’d tried mentioning the idea in teasing ways over the years to different boyfriends but the reaction had always been the same. Horrified.
Taking the quickest shower in history, Mason dried off in record time. Looking in the mirror, he shrugged and decided not to bother with shaving. He had a baby face and even after more than twenty-four hours without shaving still didn’t have much of a five o’clock shadow.
He knew he’d appreciate his baby face as he got older but now it was just inconvenient. Most men assumed he was younger than he really was and older guys were generally hesitant to approach him. With short, dark hair and even features, he knew he was attractive, but he would have loved to look a little bit older.
If he could walk around without his shirt more often, maybe people would think he was older. Mason knew he had a great body; even if he was a bit slender and on the shorter side, he still had a great six-pack and well-defined muscles.
Within minutes, Mason was running out the door, praying that the traffic wasn’t terrible. He was barely going to make it as it was. It really was too bad Maddy wasn’t doing a kink mixer instead. That would have been so much more fun.