Bondage and Marriage - 75

Chapter 75

“……Ugh…”

It felt like one side of his body was heavy and stuffy, as if a pair of scissors had clamped down on it, so Noah twisted around and let out small groans. But even when he tried to move his arms and legs, his body wouldn’t budge at all; it only twitched a little. What is this… Is there such a thing as a half-body crush from scissors… As the free arm on his other side groped around the sheets, something suddenly grabbed his wrist.

“Huh…?”

Noah was still half-asleep, in a drowsy haze, even as his arm was pulled away, but the sensation of something warm and wet slowly licking the tips of his fingers jolted him wide awake. What’s licking my fingers first thing in the morning… When Noah lifted his heavy eyelids, he saw Ian licking his fingers while staring intently at Noah, who was sprawled half-crushed in Ian’s tight embrace, just barely stirring from sleep. Noah asked in a hoarse voice, flustered.

“What… what are you doing?”

“Tasting it…?”

Ian replied casually as he nibbled on Noah’s fingertip with his lips, and memories of last night’s flashes flooded back to Noah. He yanked his hand away and shoved it under the blanket. Then, a tongue flicked at his ear, making Noah shiver hard. On top of that, he’d been wondering why it felt so stuffy earlier—it was because Ian was hugging him too tightly from behind. Noah slowly pulled the blanket over himself and burrowed deeper inside.

“Haha. That’s fun… and cute.”

Ian spoke in a tone like he was reading from a textbook and dragged Noah back out. Noah’s arm had gone numb, so he squirmed uncomfortably in Ian’s arms, and Ian simply scooped him up blanket and all. Noah couldn’t understand why Ian was clinging to him like this. When he glanced up, Ian’s face looked a bit sulky.

“You don’t mind if I skip work…?”

“Why, would you prefer if I left?”

Yes, when you’re pinning me down like this and making it hard to breathe, I’d prefer if you hurried off to work… But Noah knew enough not to say something he shouldn’t, so he mumbled as if yawning. Ian frowned at that and finally released Noah, sitting up in bed.

“Ahhh…”

As soon as Ian’s weight lifted, Noah tried to sit up too, but his pulled and sore muscles made him groan, and he flopped back down, wriggling on the bed. His throat hurt from all the crying and yelling yesterday, and the muscles that had been tense for so long still trembled and shook whenever he tried to use them… Noah wasn’t even sure if he could get it up, let alone hold out, for a while after how brutally Ian had wrung him dry.

How long had it been since he’d been handled like this? Last night felt like the worst plays from Heather and Alex combined. Heather had liked tormenting just his d1ck relentlessly, and Alex had been into fingering. Each on their own was tolerable enough, but putting the two together… Ugh… Noah shrugged his shoulders.

As he thought about last night, his throat suddenly felt dry, and Noah looked around. He spotted a water bottle on the bedside table. He groaned and tilted his body sideways a bit, reaching out with his arm, but Ian pressed the servant call button and handed him the bottle with a quick “Here.” The memory hit Noah of how Ian had made him drink water even during the second round of torment last night, and he flinched, blinking. Am I imagining things? Ian seemed to flinch a little too…

Right now, aside from the ache in his muscles, Noah’s body felt incredibly refreshed—almost crisp and dry. No sweat smell, he was dressed in pajamas, and even his back felt clean… Did Ian handle all the cleanup? Really? When Noah looked up with slightly surprised eyes, Ian raised an eyebrow as if to ask what was wrong. Just then, a polite knock sounded: knock knock.

“Excuse me.”

The servant came in pushing a cart, set down the tray with breakfast, bowed politely, and left the bedroom. Noah hadn’t wanted to move anyway, and he was starving, so the food was very welcome. He swallowed hard, eyeing the steaming hot dishes, but he froze when he recognized a familiar one. That’s… the lamb dish from yesterday…

“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you taking it?”

“I’m not hungry yet…”

Noah said softly, averting his eyes from the utensils Ian held out. He’d been tricked once, even twice, but if he fell for it a third time, wouldn’t that mean his intelligence was seriously in question? But as soon as he said he wasn’t hungry, his stomach let out a loud gurgle. It was embarrassing, but he gripped the sheets tight, ready to bolt if needed, and Ian let out a small sigh as he placed the utensils in Noah’s hand.

“I have no plans for that, so eat.”

“…For real?”

“Yeah.”

“Bet on your d1ck…?”

He’d asked in all seriousness, but under Ian’s steady gaze, Noah quickly grabbed the fork. Half of it had been a joke anyway since he was hungry, so he popped some salad into his mouth and shivered with happiness for a moment. If this were his last meal in life, he’d choose this chef’s cooking…

Ian was hungry too, so the only sounds were the clinks of their utensils in the silence as they ate. The quiet finally broke when they were almost done. Ian, who had dressed Noah in pajamas but was shirtless himself, crossed his arms.

“Let’s sort out the story a bit.”

Noah still had half his pudding left, but when Ian took on a sharp, businesslike attitude, Noah regretfully set down his spoon. When Noah kept glancing at the pudding, unable to focus, Ian sighed again and tapped his fingers, signaling it was okay to eat. Noah’s face brightened at that. As he took a bite of the sweet, fluffy fruit flesh, Noah thought even he could see how simple he was…

“Um… It starts on the day we first met, at that restaurant, when I overheard Ian saying he was going to torment me and kick me out.”

Noah said as he swallowed the pudding. How excited he’d been the first time he heard Ian’s phone call that day… So, partly because of that, and since they were getting divorced anyway, he thought maybe he could enjoy it a little… Ian looked at him with eyes that seemed utterly baffled for a moment. His feelings were quite complicated right now. Half relief that Noah hadn’t been truly hurt by his actions so far, half frustration that Noah saw him only as something to enjoy… Plus betrayal, a bit of anger, sadness, joy, and so on… Ian had never felt his emotions so tangled in his life.

“So you figured you’d enjoy it fully and then suggest divorce when you got bored?”

“No… It’s not that I wanted to divorce because I got bored…”

Ian seemed like he might suffer a loss if Noah really liked him, and also… it felt better to divorce when Ian liked him a little less, but saying that now made the words stick in Noah’s throat, so he mumbled vaguely. Thinking about it now, it seemed a bit ridiculous… Back then, he’d suggested divorce out of worry for Ian and guilt over deceiving someone who liked him in his own way, but Noah had no idea how to put it into words.

When Ian’s face darkened a little, Noah pushed aside his empty pudding bowl and glanced at him cautiously. If yesterday’s Ian had been an active volcano with temperature and pressure maxed out, spewing lava everywhere, today’s Ian seemed like a dormant one with just ashes left. Of course, poke it and it might erupt again. Noah said carefully, “Hey,”

“Ian, for real… you like me…?”

“And you?”

Ian rolled his eyes and looked at Noah once, asking calmly without denying it. You didn’t like me, right? Despite the calm tone, Noah felt a sharp pang of conscience at the hurt pride and wounded heart in Ian’s voice. Ian had said he loved him last time, probably…

But as if the dark expression had never been there, Ian soon lifted his chin a bit and took on his usual arrogant attitude. As if the rage that had made him lose control, and the confession of liking Noah, had never happened—he looked no different from normal.

“Since it’s come to this, I won’t beat around the bush. If we keep the marriage, I’ll provide the kind of sexual relationship you want.”

“Huh?”

Noah’s eyes went wide. The kind I want… That would be those happy, sweet plays from early in the marriage, when Ian did this and that for him. Of course, Noah had no reason to refuse. He’d been on the fence about divorce anyway, and… no one satisfied him like Ian did. Plus, when the very person who’d made him feel guilty was offering it directly, how could his ears not perk up?

“Divorce would complicate things for both of us anyway, and I can’t leave the spouse spot empty, so I don’t want to remarry. In that case, maintaining the marriage is the best choice for us both.”

Ian said it with a thoroughly businesslike air. Shirtless, showing off his moderately toned, muscular bare skin, he still carried himself like he was in a suit, sitting in a boardroom. Noah, who was all for it, gave a positive reply in his completely hooked state, and Ian opened the nightstand drawer. What came out was a document.

Noah took it, dazed, and it was filled with all sorts of nitpicky details, but summing it up roughly, it went like this.

[…Noah Frost (hereinafter “N”) and Ian Miller (hereinafter “I”) enter into the following contract under the condition of maintaining their mutual marriage contract…

…[1] Confidentiality Clause

1. If the fact of this contract is disclosed to a third party or its secrecy is leaked, the disclosing party shall offer one day of ‘dedication’ to the other party per the clauses below. In this contract, the definition of ‘dedication’ follows the contents below.]

Noah looked up at Ian from the first line. The word ‘dedication’ gave off a whiff of ominousness… Ian nodded for him to continue, so Noah lowered his gaze and kept reading. When the hell did he prepare this contract?

[….a. In this contract, ‘dedication’ means acting according to the other’s sexual demands, to the extent that it does not cause permanent physical damage or ‘serious injury’… b. ‘Serious injury’ is determined by the presence of bloodshed.]

There were various detailed contents after that, but in short, if Noah told anyone about this contract, it meant a night just like yesterday awaited him. Or, in Ian’s case, Noah could demand a day tailored exactly to his tastes from Ian… Noah flipped through the other pages and realized what kind of contract this was. It had no legal power, but it was very similar to the contracts Doms and Subs made before play.

Noah had seen contracts exchanged at the club but had never written one himself, so he scanned it with an intrigued face. Checklists for possible acts, safe word designation, and so on… Since there was nothing he was picky about, he checked a few and moved on, then blinked at the safe word section.

“I don’t need a safe word.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve set one before, but I’ve never used it… Um…”

Seeing Ian’s expression, which wasn’t exactly pleased, Noah quickly added, “Uh… Actually, it’s better to have one!” and wrote ‘pudding’ as the safe word. It was obviously named after the dessert he’d just eaten. Regardless of Ian’s dissatisfied look, Noah, quite satisfied with the document’s contents overall, stamped his fingerprint at the end, and Ian took the papers.

With the issue he’d been agonizing over resolved, and thinking he could go back to a satisfying life like before, Noah felt at ease and lay back on the bed with his still languid, tired body. Belly full, back a bit warm… He should have told Ian sooner. Yeah, what he’d wanted from the start was a marriage like this… where they both got something good… Of course, this ‘both good’ felt quite different from early marriage days, but anyway… As he thought that, watching Ian organize the documents, Noah’s eyelids fluttered and closed.

Because of that, Noah missed the bitter smile lingering at Ian’s lips as he tucked the papers away. It was a self-mocking smile tinged with resignation. So he didn’t realize how much it had hurt Ian’s pride, no matter how much he’d suppressed it… or what feelings had led Ian to offer this contract.