Page 6 of All Tied Up

“I got this. Where are you going?”

For a moment, Neil froze, as if admitting the name of the lodge would instantly identify him as a depraved kinky sex fiend.

Obviously, that didn’t make sense. “Headed out to the mountains. I’ll be back on Tuesday.”

Jackson snorted. “I know. I’m the one who’s taking your meeting on Monday. What do you do?”

Everywhere else in the world, that question indicated your career, but in Portland it indicated your recreational hobbies.

“Hiking,” Neil replied. It was close enough. He certainly wasn’t into mountain biking or anything else dangerous.

“If you want any recommendations for mountain climbing, let me know. I’ve got a few good spots.”

“Maybe next time,” Neil said easily, “I’ve already got a full schedule.” There was some crossover between the rabid Portland appetite for outdoor adventures and the macho legal culture that meant he couldn’t admit to not wanting to dangle a hundred feet off the ground, supported only by his fingertips and a rope of questionable strength.

“Well, enjoy.” Jackson waved his hand in a half-hearted goodbye and headed back out the door.

Now Neil really had no excuse not to leave.

He took the elevator down and walked the block to the parking garage. The route out of the city was easy and the lodge was supposedly right on the highway, so he wouldn’t even bother pulling up the map on his phone unless he needed it.

He put on some music in the car, though, hoping it would help him to relax.

What would it be like when he got there? Would people just hang out in the lounge and chat? Would they be pairing off and disappearing into rooms? Was the dungeon open all the time? Or was it more of an outdoorsy vacation with folks who just happened to be kinky?

Neil had the full schedule of events, but that kind of made it more confusing.

There was a meet-and-greet tonight with some giveaways from Cuffd, and everyone was supposed to attend. Tomorrow morning, they’d all be having breakfast together as part of the B&B offerings, which sounded kind of cozy and relaxed. Then you could choose hiking or mountain climbing with a group. Tomorrow evening, though, there would be a bondage demonstration.

Neil felt a shiver race down his back at the thought of it. He wondered if they took volunteers. He had only just started to discover the joys of a light spanking when his ex broke up with him. They hadn’t been together long, but his ex wasn’t willing to stick around when he worked so much.

Neil found that he hadn’t missed him much. Mostly, he missed the idea of having someone.

Which brought Neil back to this weekend. If he didn’t know what to do, he definitely didn’t know what to wear.

He barely owned any nice jeans, but the two pairs he had were folded in his suitcase. The thing he was really trying to figure out was the shirts.

Levi was adamant that he needed to wear the t-shirts that he gave him. One was black with sparkling rhinestones that spelled out BOY across the chest. Another was a soft pink and said sweet boy in a curling script. The third one said Daddy’s boy on white fabric. They were all a size too small, of course, and hugged his soft belly in a way that felt far too revealing.

Neil hadn’t told Levi that he’d actually bought a shirt on his own, too. It was one of the first suggestions that Levi had made to him, right when they met. So he’d gone online and found a t-shirt that he’d promptly hidden at the back of his drawer. It said Daddy’s always right.

All four of them were folded up in his suitcase now.

He just wasn’t sure if he could wear them. Well, he probably wasn’t going to wear the last two anyway. Those would imply that he actually had a Daddy.

But Levi was right. It would probably help if he wore something that let people know that he identified as a boy.

He just needed to wear them at the right time. Like, when everyone else was. He wasn’t someone like Levi who could just wear a slogan like Spank me harder, Daddy to work.

If everyone else at the lodge was dressed business casual or vacation-y and he had on one of the boy t-shirts, he’d be mortified.

Neil was so preoccupied with the t-shirts that he actually missed the turn-off when he came to it. He pulled into the parking lot of a little restaurant, one of only five or six businesses in the little town, and then turned back around.

OK, he was really doing this.

The Meadowlark Lodge, when he finally made it down the smoothly paved path through the forest, was even more gorgeous than in the pictures.

It had the perfect mixture of soaring modern windows, rustic pine beams in glowing yellow, and cute green turrets and pointed roofs. There were supposedly three small cabins beyond the main lodge, but he could only see the corner of one from the small parking lot.