Page 33 of Consorting with Romance

Given how dedicated he was to his backyard garden, I believed that he was truly as interested in everything as he seemed. He asked insightful questions and lingered in order to inspect small details I’d long ago come to find boring and monotonous.

We rarely went a moment without touching the other. Our shoulders pressed together as we walked, fingertips linked between us. When we sat at the table, our legs spread, thighs brushing together. When we lounged on the couch after supper, he slipped his arm around my shoulder, and I settled in with my head on his chest.

Each glance my family offered was filled with joy and love. Though I was loath to return to the grind of courses and homework the next morning, I let my eyes close once we settled in on the train, my head resting on my fiancé’s shoulder.

We fell back into our routine quickly. We’d only been away a couple of days after all, and when I walked into the office on our first day back, nothing had changed. Except, everything had changed.

There were no clients around, there never were when I arrived. Ash and I had made it a point to match our schedules so that we would both arrive and have a few moments together before his first client each day. They weren’t intimate. They weren’t even overly personal, but they felt important. They allowed us to let go of everything else and reset together, making sure we were professional and on the same page before he stepped away from our relationship to work.

He grinned broadly at me from where he sat, reading in one of the waiting room chairs, and then quickly set his book on the table and made his way toward me. Our lips brushed briefly before we crossed the room together and I settled my bag beside my desk. His eyes weren’t where I’d expected to find them when I turned back around. They weren’t close to mine. Instead, as my gaze fell, I found him on one knee, holding out the ring I’d given him.

“This is the most precious item anyone has ever given me. Would you wear it while I work? Keep it safe for me?”

The muscles in my jaw hurt, I was smiling so wide as I offered him my hand. How had I gotten this lucky?

I slipped it back onto his hand before we made our way home that evening. It felt no less important than it had the first time. The next day I found him waiting on one knee when I opened the office door, and the day after. Each day he’d ask me to hold his ring and his heart while he worked, and each day I would return them when he came back to me.

Chapter 10

Jesse

Should changing the dirty sheets after my fiancé fucked other people bother me? Probably. But the truth is, it didn’t. I knew what Ash did for a living before I even walked through his door. I knew long before I’d struggled to ignore the scent of peppermint in his hair. Before I couldn’t look away from the way his robe draped over his shoulders. Before he sat with me as I studied on lazy weeknights, his fingertips tenderly tracing my thigh. Before his soft gaze and easy smile somehow melted my anxiety when I began stumbling over my words as we spoke. I knew long before I fell in love with him.

I knew for a fact that I’d given Ash my heart, and that he’d given me his in return. I also knew that when he gave his body to others, it wasn’t the same as it was when he offered it to me. Had I been in the room to watch how he responded to his clients’ touch? Nope. Had I seen the way they arched and whimpered under his fingertips? Definitely not.

It didn’t matter. It was simply a fact that it wasn’t possible for his professional services to feel like it did between us. I knew he didn’t lay on his back and offer his body and soul in the way he did with me. I knew they weren’t able to make him tremble into pieces until he was a sweaty mess, incapable of stringing two words together the way I was. I knew that he wasn’t able to bring them to the edge of reason simply by lying in their arms and whispering sweet nothings, rocking his body so gently that it was no more than waves lapping at the shore. I knew that to be the truth. If his services were anything like that, he’d have been able to retire a decade ago.

I had no doubt that what he offered them was far above average. I knew he was strong and flexible and capable. I knew they’d leave satisfied and anxious to return, but they’d never know him the way I did.

They’d never see his eyes light up simply because they walked into a room. He’d never let them know he was afraid he wasn’t enough. He’d never be theirs.

So no, changing his dirty sheets and taking payments from clients that arrived at my desk with stubble scratched necks after their sessions didn’t bother me.

Nothing about Ash’s job bothered me. I didn’t accept him despite his profession. His profession was a large part of his identity, and I loved every piece of him, even that.

Ash

Jesse grinned broadly at me as he dumped the sheets into the hamper. As he passed the shower on his way out, he leaned in and slapped my wet ass playfully. While we had done a good job of keeping things professional at the office since we’d returned from our time at his family’s farm, once in a while, little intimacies would slip out.I loved it.

His family had taken the news of our engagement joyously; fully accepting me into their family, and excitedly offering suggestions for the big day. When we returned to ourlives in the city, everything was the same as it had been previously, yet somehow, everything had changed.

Jesse would be graduating in a few months, and we found ourselves savoring the fact we got to spend so much time together before he moved on to an internship and I had to find a new assistant. We both knew we’d have to start the search soon, but for the most part, we avoided the topic, delaying his departure as long as possible.

He leaned against the glass wall, making a show of looking me over, clearly enjoying himself.

“Your new guy is the biggest dude I’ve ever seen.” he said humorously.

I chuckled and flipped wet hair in his direction, splashing him. “You’ve seen you right?”

He rolled his eyes. “How am I supposed to know what his dick looks like while he’s in a waiting room? I mean the rest of him. He has to be 6’7’ and 300 lbs. How do you even work with someone like that? He’s going to crush you.”

I laughed. “He’s not going to crush me. I’m sure he can handle himself just fine.”

Jesse jokingly shrugged. “If you say so. But, if you get crushed, can’t say I didn’t warn ya.”

“Duly noted.” I laughed again as he turned and made his way to get the room ready for my appointment with a man who was apparently a giant.

When I entered the waiting room a few moments later, I was shocked to find he hadn’t been joking. The man was truly huge.

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