“This feels like old times,” I said, picking up my glass and holding it high in the air. “To reunions.”

Ted held his glass up. “I’ll drink to that.”

“So,” I continued after we’d both drained our glasses. “How have you been? It feels like forever.”

“Same old, same old,” he replied. “Apart from her parents have decided to live in Fiji instead of three doors down from us.”

“Was it three doors?”

“Thereabouts but now they’ll be in a tropical paradise and I can try and get my marriage back on track. But what about you? I haven’t heard from you in forever.”

“I’ve been a busy man enjoying life.”

“I don’t doubt it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy.”

“Do I look happy?”

“You’re grinning more than a morning TV presenter and they’ve got cocaine to help them get going. What do you have?”

“I don’t know. Happiness?”

“You are happy then.”

“More than I’ve ever been.”

“That’s good to hear. Did I tell you I decided to invest in Snow Day?”

“You and everyone else. I tell you, Ted, that book has been the making of us.”

He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “I saw the charts when it came out. You must be raking it in.”

“The author’s very happy with her royalties, let’s put it that way.”

“Any news on a sequel? Everyone’s asking for one.”

“I can’t say anything at the moment but we’ll see.”

“What about Marty? Did you hear anything else from him?”

“Last I heard, he’d self-published and it had bombed. I read an interview with him and he managed to blame me, as if it was my fault he couldn’t get a decent cover on the thing.”

“And Sandra?”

“Dumped him about a week after we got his advance back.”

“So she was only after his money then?”

“Looks like it.”

“You might want to keep an eye out on her. I get the feeling she might come back to haunt you.”

“Funny, that’s what Malcolm said to me.”

“Great minds.”

I shrugged. “If she does, she does. I’ll deal with it when it happens. Oh, look, here’s our food.”

The meal arrived and I dug in as soon as the waiter was gone. I was starving. It had been such a hectic few months since Anna’s book had come out, I’d barely stopped during the daytime. This was the first chance I’d had to catch up with Ted and I only had the time because Lucy was filling in for me at the office. She’d just taken on the full time role as head of adult fiction, leaving me to work on expanding the company, making the most of the influx of extra cash the investors were giving us.

“We should do this more often,” Ted said, sticking his fork into a piece of carrot.

“What, eat vegetables?”

“Meet up. Me and mine, you and yours.”

“Are you saying you want a two couple dinner party. Are we that age already?”

“We’re a bit old for sneaking into clubs and trying to get served.”

“But a dinner party? I never thought I’d hear you saying you wanted one.”

“Take the piss anymore and I won’t invite you.”

“All right, I’ll ask Lucy, see what she says. I’m going to have to dash off pretty quick though.”

“No rest for the perverted.”

“You should know.”

We laughed and it felt good. It had been too long. I wasn’t shocked by him asking me and Lucy to a dinner party as much as by my reaction to it. For the first time, something like that sounded like a good idea. So often, they were boring as hell and I couldn’t wait to get my sub back home for more fun and games. But this was different.

Ever since I’d met Lucy, things had been different. I wanted a life with her, I wanted to introduce her to people. Telling the office we were in a relationship was next on the list. We’d kept it secret for long enough. The book was out, it was still on the top of the bestseller list. The ebook strategy was coming along nicely. All that was left was to tell the office about Lucy and me and to tell Lucy about something else, something I had planned that would hopefully come as a real surprise to her.

I wanted to make her happy in the one way that would prove how much she meant to me. She’d already been able to expand the food club thanks to Anna’s royalty cheques and her bonus. It was spreading across the south west and if the sequel turned out to be as big a hit as the first book, she might have enough to expand across the whole country, helping anyone who needed a decent meal. It just made me feel even more strongly about her to know she had such a compassionate streak inside her. She only ever thought about other people. My surprise would show her what one particular other person thought about her.

When I got in that evening I found out she had a surprise for me before I got a chance to tell her mine. “What’s that?” I asked, seeing her with a pile of parcels laid out on the dining room table.

“Anna wanted to ask me some questions about the sequel,” she said, tearing into the wrapping paper of the first parcel. “And I realised I couldn’t really answer her without doing some research first.”

“So?”

“So I might have done the noble thing and decided to order a few things to help me understand the BDSM mindset better.”

“I think you understand it pretty well already,” I said, squeezing her ass while kissing her cheek at the same time.

“Then you won’t want to use this on me, I’m guessing,” she said, pulling a brand new riding crop out of the parcel. “Shall I send it back?”

“I didn’t say that,” I replied, taking the crop from her and making a few experimental strikes through the air, the swishing sound music to my ears. “I’m always up for helping the professional development of my staff.”

“That’s good to hear.” She picked up the remaining parcels. “Come on, upstairs.”

“Why not here?”

“I can’t think of a single good reason.” She put the parcels back down. “Do you want to see what’s in the rest of these?”

“They can wait. Strip.”

She was out of her work clothes so fast, I couldn’t help but smile.

“As you commanded,” she said, extending a little curtsey in my direction,” Sir.”

“You look good naked,” I replied, leaning down and kissing her nipples one after the other. “Now bend over and brace yourself, this may sting.”

“I hope so.”

I swished the crop through the air again. “Ready?”

She looked over her shoulder at me, her hands gripping the dining table tightly. “Ready.”

I brought the crop down on her ass a second later. It left a deep red mark where it struck, a scream escaping her a second later. “Good?” I asked.

“Harder.”

I lifted the crop, bringing it down a second time. This time she gasped instead of screaming, her legs starting to shake as she shuffled her knees apart, her ass pointing back at me, begging for more.

I brought the crop down again and again, each time her gasps growing louder. Pausing to rub her ass with my hand, I was rewarded by the feel of heat coming from her, a sign the crop was doing its job. “I can’t wait,” I said, fumbling with my trousers, kicking them down, freeing my cock which pointed straight towards her. “Don’t move.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Her voice was weak but I knew she was telling the truth. She had never lied to me.

I stroked the tip of my cock against her pussy, loving the wetness, enjoying the teasing sensation for as long as I could before thrusting slowly in a long movement deep into her. I pulled her hips back onto me at the same time, not stopping until I was buried all the way inside her.

Rocking back and forth, I smiled to myself. I still couldn’t believe how happy she made me, how different things were with her compared to anyone else in my life before. She really was perfect, obeying my every command but with that hint of feisty defiance that made things spicy, stopped things getting boring.

We might not have used the crop before but we’d used lots of other things and there were still the parcels in front of me.

Reaching down, I slipped a finger into her ass, moving it in the way I knew she loved most, bringing her orgasm closer.

When I could tell she was on the edge, I paused, waiting for the question I knew was coming. “Please can I come?” she asked.

“Come for me,” I replied. “Come around my cock. I want to feel you coming for me.”

I thrust deep into her and she did exactly as I asked, screaming her way through an intense climax. Her insides contracted around my cock and with another thrust, I was lost, spurting deep into her, groaning as I did so, loving it as if it was the first time. Every time was like the first, so new, so exciting, so perfect.

I thrust one last time before sliding back out of her pussy. At once she sank to her knees, sucking me into her mouth, squeezing the last drops from me, licking the tip until I pulled her upright.

Holding her tight against me, I whispered, “I got a parcel too today. Do you want to see it?”

She nodded. “What is it?”

I was still wearing my jacket. The box was in the inside pocket. I pulled it out and placed it in her palm. “Have a look.”

“What is it?” she asked, looking down at it in disbelief.

“If only there was some way of you finding out.”

“All right, Sarcasm Boy.” But she was smiling as she said it, opening the lid to reveal the sparkling jewels topping the ring inside. “Is this…for me?”

“If you’re up for marrying a man with his trousers off.”

“As long as you put them back on in time for the wedding.”

“Don’t try to change me, baby.”

Then we were kissing and it was glorious. I put the ring on her finger a minute later. It looked right there. “I have another parcel,” she said as she looked down at it. “But it didn’t come in the post.”

“What? You mean…?”

She took my hand and moved it to her stomach, pressing it flat against her flesh. “A very special parcel.”

Then we were kissing again. I thought we were perfect as a couple but I hadn’t even realised things could get even better. “You’re happy?” she asked. “About…?”

“About becoming a family? I couldn’t be happier. How far along are you?”

“Far enough to be sure. Hopefully not far enough to need the wedding dress taking out.”

“Then we better get planning hadn’t we?”

I wrapped her in my arms, feeling the warmth of her skin against me.

"I love you," I said, kissing the top of her head.

"I love you too," she replied, looking up adoringly at me.

We stayed like that for a very long time.