Page 19 of All Tied Up

The boys wandered over to one of the couches, though not one Sebastian could see through the office door. Sebastian was suddenly incentivized to enter in all of the kitchen spending for the month much faster.

When he was done with that… well, he just couldn’t make himself keep going. It had been a long week. He should probably go back over the totals and match them against bank and credit card records. But honestly, his brain was done and he was itching to see Jamie and the new boy. Sebastian had finished payroll and entered expenses. Now he got to take the weekend off—at least as much as he could while still managing the lodge—and play.

He padded outside of the office, then froze at the check-in desk, trying to reconcile everything. Neil wasn’t who he’d expected at all.

It wasn’t just that he was counting on seeing the provocatively dressed twenty-something whose attire just screamed difficult boy. But he’d figured that even if someone else had come downstairs or snuck past him, it would have been someone who was more their usual type.

Neil was not their usual type.

That left Sebastian with an uncomfortable realization about himself. Was he being ageist? One of the things he loved about the kink community was how open everyone was. Any person with any body type could play any role they wished. In fact, long before Jamie, Sebastian had mostly hooked up with older subs. He’d been young and they had the experience he lacked.

Sebastian looked again at the two heads nestled together, Jamie with his lustrous tresses and Neil completely bald, as they chattered on the couch.

No, that wasn’t his issue with the man. It was the way he’d walked around the atrium with a stiff-necked posture that made Sebastian think that their artistic/rustic design wasn’t good enough for him. It was the way that he didn’t seem comfortable even now.

Neil certainly looked very corporate. Expensive suit. Expensive suitcase. Hell, the cost of his wardrobe could probably cover a huge chunk of the lodge’s financial problems.

Sebastian had… a bit of an aversion to boys with money to splash around.

His first thought was to subtly signal Jamie that he wasn’t interested.

If the Meadowlark, Sebastian’s pride and joy, wasn’t good enough for this sub, then the sub wasn’t good enough for Sebastian or Jamie.

That was, if he was even a sub at all. His overly correct posture, and honestly his age, made him look more like a Daddy than a boy.

It wouldn’t be the first time they’d played with a second Dom, but that was almost always with someone that he and Jamie already knew pretty well. In fact, usually they only played with a second Dom as part of another couple, where the focus was on the subs.

But that didn’t fit with the snatches of conversation Sebastian had heard earlier. While he couldn’t hear most of Neil’s quiet words, he’d been able to hear Jamie loud and clear. The two of them were definitely searching for Daddies together.

That led Sebastian to a whole other set of knee-jerk assumptions, all while he hovered at the desk. He tried to never judge people on their kinks or identities, but there was a certain type that he ran into sometimes. High-strung executives who needed to debase themselves on the weekends by being told what greedy pigs they were, only to go back to work on Monday and rake in those fat checks at the expense of their underlings. Often if they were gay, they weren’t out. It wasn’t always true—there were nice guys who made a lot of money and did a lot of good with it, and many of them were proud, supportive members of the kink community.

But Neil didn’t initially look like he fit with their mountain-climbing, fresh-air, low-key vibe. That made Jamie’s choice more confusing. More than Neil’s clothes, it was his attitude. His arm was around Jamie, but his posture was still erect and uncomfortable, like he was too good to sit on the chairs or suspected there were roaches crawling around the kitchen.

The one thing that pulled him back in was Neil’s bushy mustache and beard, with patches of white starting to mingle with the coppery brown. It was just on the long side of professional, like he was being quietly rebellious without making waves. Maybe there was a lot more to him.

Sebastian just wished he’d been able to hear more of his words. Generally, Jamie had fantastic taste in playmates, and rarely suggested someone that didn’t stoke Sebastian’s interest. He had to assume that Jamie had seen something in the buttoned-up older man to seek him out instead of the glittery goth boy who looked like a lot more fun.

Jamie was entreating the other boy passionately about something, and Sebastian had to smile a bit, just seeing it. When his boy went for something, he put everything he had into it. So, maybe Sebastian could make it work. He figured that it was only for a weekend. Maybe it could be fun to rumple up all of those fancy clothes.

He strained to hear what they were saying, but Neil’s voice was too soft and even Jamie was hard to hear over the bubbling fountain. The soft voice was unexpected, at least. Usually men like that enjoyed the sounds of their own voices. Unless the sub was whispering out of fear that, gasp, he would have to admit that he was gay and kinky.

That thought shifted Sebastian’s mood back. He wasn’t particularly looking forward to a closeted sub. That took emotional energy he wasn’t willing to spend on a fling. And subs like that could definitely be pushy, expecting a very specific experience and getting frustrated when they didn’t get it.

Sebastian's thoughts were interrupted when he saw another guest drive into the parking lot. The new guy, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt but lugging a garment bag, had grabbed his suitcase, locked his car, and walked into the building all without looking away from his phone. When he got inside, he’d hardly looked around before zeroing in on Jamie. The man eyed him with lust, then took himself over to another corner to tap into his phone.

That was when Sebastian realized what was really bothering him about Neil, because the new guy had done the same thing—walked into the most gorgeous space in the world, all of Jamie’s carefully arranged couches and Sebastian’s beloved plants, the soaring windows and sunshine that still made Sebastian smile every morning—and acted like they didn’t exist.

That was the heart of it. Sebastian didn’t want to sleep with anyone who thought the lodge was beneath him. Even if the boy, Neil, could buy and sell their barely-profitable lodge, it still represented all of Sebastian and Jamie’s dreams and passion.

While Sebastian was going through all of this, Jamie was still attempting to snuggle up with Neil. Sebastian could see the moment when Neil finally relaxed, holding Jamie against his chest and looking at the phone together.

Now that was interesting. Maybe he wasn’t so uptight all the time? Sebastian drifted closer, not planning to eavesdrop but sucked into the conversation and afraid to interrupt. He leaned against one of the tables in the next little cluster of chairs.

There was just something so earnest in Neil’s voice. A complete honesty when he explained why he wasn’t worth dating and a sad calmness when he described the ex who’d drifted away like their relationship was a business transaction.

It was no wonder Jamie had been drawn to him. They were both suckers for broken-winged birds.

Sebastian kept listening, not trying to hide but not quite making himself visible. Jamie mentioned boys who topped their Daddies which was… quite an interesting proposal. Not something Sebastian had figured Jamie was interested in. Or perhaps that was just Jamie’s sneaky way of ascertaining whether Neil was interested in him?