Brian couldn’t explain his mood, because he’d never had much experience with explaining his feelings and even less experience with feeling happy and content with his life. Cynthia and Ted didn’t know what was going on with their boss, but they hoped it continued for a long time. He’d actually laughed during their staff meeting. It was the strangest thing, because there didn’t seem to be an obvious explanation for the change in their boss’ attitude. He was more approachable, easier to talk to, joked with the staff, but at the same time, he was still tough on anyone not doing their job, loudly intimidating when circumstances called for the hard sell, and never faltered in his work ethics.

"What are all these papers you want me to sign, Theodore?" Brian flipped through a couple before looking up at Ted.

"Well, you can forget about the top two, and the rest are forms dealing with the insurance at Babylon." Ted shifted from one foot to the other a bit nervously.

"Now, now, Mr. Schmidt, why are you telling me not to sign the authorizations to give the staff a raise?" Brian tilted his head to the side, blinked his eyes a couple of times, and pushed his tongue into his cheek.

"Look, Bri, we put in for that raise a while ago, and well, after some discussion, we decided that everything’s fine." Ted tried to pull the papers from Brian’s hand.

Brian stood up and held the papers up above his head chuckling, "Oh no you don’t. Now, explain to me why my staff is all of a sudden not interested in a raise."

"Bri, you were fucking driving us all insane. Over half the staff was threatening to quit and Cynthia and I decided to give them a raise, so we got all the paperwork together for your signature." Ted sighed.

"Theodore, I’m not concerned about the raise. I think it’s a great idea and well deserved, but I am concerned that my top two people thought they could slip something like this by me." Brian raised his eyebrows and the laughter left his voice completely.

"No, Bri, it wasn’t like that! Hell, we know you read everything before you sign it. We just figured if you had the papers and didn’t wanna sign them, you could just toss them in the trash without yelling at one of us." Ted’s head dropped.

Brian leaned his head back and laughed out loud. When he finally took a breath, he said, "Awww Theodore, you are way too easy. I’ll sign for the raise. Do you need me to pay for the cleaning bill on your suit? I mean, I thought you were going to piss in your pants for a second." Brian sat back down chuckling.

Ted laughed a little nervously still not sure how to take this side of Brian. "Well feel free to give us a bigger raise."

Brian stopped laughing and looked at Ted with a very serious expression. "Don’t push your luck, Theodore."

"Right, how stupid of me." Ted said quickly.

Brian shook his head and grinned. "I really like your new found confidence, Theodore."

"I like the new you too, Brian."

Brian leaned back and looked into Ted’s eyes for a second before smiling brightly. "So do I, Theodore. Now, get back to work before I am forced to fire your ass."

"Right away, Bri. I mean, Boss." Ted took the papers and rushed out of the office.

Cynthia’s voice came over the phone’s intercom system, "You have a Mr. Taylor on line one, and I’m not your secretary any more."

Brian pushed the button and growled. "You were never my secretary, but your job is to do whatever needs to be done, and that includes acting as my secretary."

Brian heard Cynthia’s rich laughter echo through the phone. "Sure thing, Brian. I love taking your calls and finding out all the juicy gossip."

"You’re fired, Cynthia." Brian chuckled as he pressed the button to turn off the intercom and connected to line one. "Hey, Master, what’s up?"

Justin was both pleased and a bit shocked at the happy man on the phone with him. This did not sound anything like the Brian he’d met just a short time ago. "You sound proud of yourself."

"I am." Brian smiled as he gave his chair a little spin.

"Well, I’m happy to hear it. I have a surprise for you."

Brian stopped the chair and asked, "What is it?"

Justin laughed at the eagerness in his boy’s voice. "I should be home in an hour, and I’d like you to come over for a little dinner party tonight."

Brian took a breath to hide his disappointment. He’d wanted to spend some time alone with Master. "What time?"

"Just drop by around seven. We’ll eat and chat for a bit, and then I want to spend the rest of the night with you."

The smile returned to Brian’s face as he whispered, "I’ll be there Master."

Brian hung up the phone, leaned back in his chair, and laughed out loud. Yes, life was good.

Later, Brian was riding the elevator up to Master’s place. He’d taken a bit longer getting dressed than usual, but he wanted to make a good impression for Master. As soon as the elevator doors opened, he forgot all his little speeches to himself. He saw Master standing there smiling and walked right over and engulfed the blonde in a hug and whispered, "I missed you, Master."

Justin was a bit taken aback by the sudden hug, but wrapped his arms around his boy and squeezed. "I missed you too, cookie."

Jake watched with a slightly disapproving expression on his face. Sunshine really needed to get a handle on his boy. He should know better than to take such liberties with his Dom.

Justin stepped back releasing Brian, and smiled. "Come on cookie, I have some people for you to meet."

"I think you remember my friend, Jake, and this is his sub, Miguel."

Jake cut his eyes over at Justin, cleared his throat disapprovingly, and shook his head.

Justin immediately realized that he should have introduced them using their scene names. "I’m sorry, this is Master Stark, and his sub, mouse."

Brian held his hand out to Master Stark with the intention of shaking the man’s hand. He watched as the man’s expression went from slightly bored to almost pissed off. He finally dropped his hand and looked into the man’s eyes defiantly. Who the hell did he think he was anyway?

"Never look me in the eye without my permission, boy."

Brian flinched at the angry under tones to the man’s voice and his eyes dropped almost reflexively as he took a step backward.

"Jake!" Justin stepped between Brian and his old friend. "He’s still training, and I won’t stand for anyone talking to him that way especially not in my own home."

Brian was amazed at the anger he heard in his Master’s voice. He’d done a lot of research and knew the proper way to meet a Dom, but he hadn’t realized that this was a training sessions. He thought it was just dinner, and he was a bit confused at the proper way to address a Dom under casual circumstances. He felt bad that he’d messed up.

"Sunshine, you have to get a better handle on the boy or he’s never going to learn proper respect."

"How about I remind you of something you told me a couple of days ago. You worry about your sub, and let me worry about mine."

Jake threw his hands up in the air and turned around walking over to stand next to Miguel. "On your knees, mouse."

Miguel flinched because his Master’s voice was indeed angry, and he’d never spoken to him quite so harshly before. He immediately sank to his knees.

Jake turned around and faced Justin. "That is how a sub should behave."

Justin sighed. "Jake, you and I are never going to agree, so why must we rehash this every single time? I am not you, and I don’t want to be. I love the lifestyle just as much as you do, but I don’t feel the need to be so stringent in my daily life."

"Aw hell, Sunshine, I’m sorry. Old habits die hard. Hey, mouse, go introduce yourself to Master Web’s boy."

Brian watched as the extremely attractive blonde stood and walked toward him. It was the first time he’d had a chance to look at the other man and he realized how much this guy resembled his Master in looks. They were almost the same height and build, they had almost the same hair color with the only dramatic difference being mouse’s was curly, and as soon as he met the man’s gaze, he realized another shocking similarity between the two men, they both had amazingly beautiful blue eyes.

Miguel took in the tall man’s looks. It was no wonder Sunshine was so smitten with this guy. He was sex on legs. Miguel smiled and held out his hand, "Miguel Barton, better known as mouse, it’s nice to meet you."

Brian took the man’s hand and nodded, "Brian Kinney, or as Master likes to call me, cookie."

"So, cookie, you are new to the scene, is that right?" Miguel sat down on the couch and gave the cushion next to him a little pat.

Brian sat down next to the blonde and nodded. "I guess you could say that. I’m not sure I’m even on the scene to be honest."

"Well if you ever have any questions or just want to get together and gab, give me a call." Miguel handed Brian one of his business cards.

Brian took the card and grinned. "I see that you are just as creative as Master when it comes to designing cards." The card looked like a framed piece of artwork with all the information on a card at the bottom. It resembled the information cards that galleries placed on paintings.

Miguel smiled, "Well you know us artist types. We have to be flashy and showy, it’s just part of our nature."

Brian spent most of the evening talking to Miguel about nothing in particular. He listened with half an ear to the stories about the man’s life. He really wanted to talk to Master.

After dinner, Jake and Miguel said their goodbyes and left. "I liked your friends Master, but is it wrong to say, I’m glad they’re gone?"

"No, it’s not wrong at all. I guess since you are still calling me Master that you have decided to give this thing a try."

Brian looked at the blonde and smiled. "I have something to show you. I know that I should have asked first, but I wanted to show you that I was serious." He slowly unbuttoned his shirt and let it slip down his arms revealing the band of thorns on his left bicep.

Justin swallowed hard trying to keep the emotions he was feeling under control. He had never been into branding or marking a sub in a permanent fashion. It wasn’t that he thought it was bad or anything, he’d just never considered making another human undergo anything that painful and long lasting just to wear a label. At the moment, he’d never been prouder in his life. He wanted people to know that Brian belonged to him. He wanted the right to claim his boy openly. This was probably the greatest gift he’d ever received. He reached out and gently ran his fingers around the tattoo. "Anyone that sees this will definitely know you belong to me."

"That was the point, Master."

Justin pulled Brian’s head down and kissed his boy hungrily. How could he ever explain the depths of his emotions? Brian was his. All they had to do was draw up the contract and get the particulars out of the way. "This calls for a celebration, cookie. I’d like to introduce you to a little hobby of mine."

"I’m all yours, Master."

Justin ran his hands over Brian’s bare chest massaging the firm muscles. "Have you ever heard of electric play?"

Brian’s entire body went rigid as the trickle of fear ran down his spine. "I’m not sure I’m up for anything like that, Master." He was thinking of all the torturous things he’d seen online.

"Do you trust me, cookie?"

Brian swallowed hard and nodded his head.

"I promise you won’t feel any pain, and I also promise you won’t know how to process all the pleasure, so we will start slowly."

Brian thought back to the first night he’d met the blonde and the promise he’d made to him on that night. He had kept that promise and more, so if Master wanted to try something new, he’d give it a try. "Let’s do it."

Justin smiled brightly. "Are you going to stick with the same safe word?"

"How about you just come up with something."

"What if we stick to the same theme and use muffin?" Justin grinned at Brian.

"MUFFIN!!?? What the fuck do I look like to you?" Brian waved his arm around a bit frantically.

"You look like a sexy little morsel I’d love to sink my teeth into unless of course we have to stand around here all night debating the fact that you don’t want to use muffin as your safe word." Justin put his hands on his hips.

Brian thought about it for a second and said, "Fuck it, I like muffins."

"Okay, now that we have that settled, cookie, I want you to go to the playroom, strip, and climb up on the med table and wait for me."

Brian walked into the playroom, quickly shed his clothes, and climbed up onto the table that resembled those in doctors’ offices. He shivered slightly as he took deep breaths waiting on the blonde to join him. He knew he could trust Master, but he was still a bit apprehensive about this. His eyes drifted closed and he remembered all the things the man could do to his body. His cock was instantly hard and he realized his body was shivering in anticipation. This was going to be something he’d never forget.