Page 49 of His Holy Chaos

"Three meals. Snacks when I can get them into him. He fights me on breakfast, but I'm persistent. And he has a rule that he has to exercise every day."

Callum nods, a huge smile appearing. "Good. That's good." He squeezes Jude's arm once, firm, and Jude beams at him.

We talk for another twenty minutes. About the club, about Callum's work restoring furniture, about absolutely nothing, and it's the most relaxed I've felt in a social setting in years. Callum has a way of holding space. He makes you feel calm, at ease.

Then Jude spots something across the room and his whole body lights up.

"There they are," he breathes, already pulling me by the wrist. "See you later, C!"

We weave through the crowd toward a booth tucked against the far wall, bathed in the deep violet glow of overhead lights. Glynn is perched on the edge of the seat, legs crossed. They're drinking something clear and fizzy, their ginger hair slicked back in a bun. Beside them, Pierce is sprawled like a cat. His blue hair is wilder than the last time I saw him, going in all directions, and he's added a new piercing to his left nostril, complementing the septum ring he already has.

"Well, well, well," Pierce drawls. "Daddy came to the playground."

"Pierce," I say, offering my hand for a handshake.

"Ford," he mimics my tone perfectly, then breaks into a laugh.

"Ignore him. He's been tolerable for approximately eleven minutes," Glynn says without looking up from their drink. "A personal record."

Jude slides into the booth next to Pierce, and they immediately knock shoulders like magnets. I take the seat across from them, beside Glynn, who smiles at me.

"Daddy, you have to hear this," Jude says. "Tell him,” he urges Pierce, practically buzzing. "Tell him about the guy with the rope."

Pierce leans forward, elbows on the table. "Okay, so this Dom, right? He comes in here last Thursday with what he claims is Japanese jute, handmade, blessed by monks or whatever the fuck. And he's going to do a suspension scene with his sub. Big production. He's set up the whole frame, got the carabiners, the whole nine."

"And?" Jude asks, eager for the punchline.

"And," Pierce continues, eyes gleaming, "it's clothesline. From Home Depot. The orange kind. You could see the little price sticker still on it."

Jude erupts laughing. I laugh too, more because I'm so happy to see him this relaxed.

"What happened to the sub?" I ask, somewhat worried.

"Oh, Glynn shut it down in about four seconds flat," Pierce says, jerking his thumb toward them. "You should have seen it. Full dungeon monitor mode. They didn't even raise their voice. Just walked over, looked at the rope, looked at the Dom, and said, 'Sir, if you'd like to hang your laundry, there's a balcony on the third floor.'"

We all laugh. Jude stares at me with those honey eyes gone wide and soft, his lips parted.

The music shifts: something deeper, slower, with a bass line I can feel in my sternum.

Jude's attention drifts toward the floor. He wants to dance. He won't ask me. He knows I don't. He'll sit here and pretend he's content because he's trying so goddamn hard to be good for me, and that effort alone undoes me.

"Go," I tell him.

He looks at me. "What?"

"Go dance. Take Pierce. I know you want to."

"I don't… I'm fine here, Daddy." But his knee is bouncing, and Pierce is already half out of the booth like a dog who heard the word walk.

"That wasn't a suggestion. Go burn off some of that energy before I have to find other ways to do it."

He bites his lower lip, and for a second I think he's going to climb into my lap right here, audience be damned. But he restrains himself, barely, and presses a quick kiss to my jaw before scrambling out of the booth.

Pierce pauses just long enough to glance back at me. "Hey. Thanks for showing up for him, man. Seriously." He says it low, almost flat, and then he's gone before I can answer, dragged toward the dance floor by Jude's grip on his wrist.

I watch them go. Glynn and I sit in silence for a moment, the bass pulsing through the leather of the booth.

On the dance floor, I spot Jude's blond head bobbing through the crowd. Pierce has both hands in the air, moving as if he doesn't have any bones. Jude is laughing again. He catches me watching and does something obscene with his hips, deliberately, just to see my reaction from across the room.