What Happens in Vegas?

Chapter 6

It took all of Ed's self-control not to pepper Stede with little touches throughout the last few hours of workshops and sessions. He'd found the donut incident hilarious, but he could tell it had shaken Stede a little.

It made sense, really. They weren't open about their burgeoning relationship yet. And there was an unspoken agreement between them that the reveal would wait until they were home.

Sneaking around was one part exciting and one part excruciating. So Ed was quite grateful when they were once again in the sanctuary of their suite.

"I know it seems redundant because we just had a shower this morning, but I think I'm going to at least give myself a rinse so I can do something with my hair," said Stede as he entered the room ahead of Ed. He dropped his laptop bag down on the counter, then moved towards his suitcase.

"Not a bad idea," replied Ed. "Wash some of the conference staleness off of us. What time do we need to be down?"

"The reception part starts at 6:30. I think they let us in for dinner 45 minutes or so after that. Then I think they give us appetizers before the ceremony kicks off, and mains during the intermission. At least that's the way it was last year." Stede pulled out a garment bag and dug around his perfectly organized and completely stuffed suitcase.

"And then...we've only got tomorrow morning and a lunch..." Ed came up behind Stede and slid his hands around him from behind, "...then we're free."

Stede felt tense, but he melted the moment Ed pressed a kiss just below his ear and squeezed him.

"Ah, Ed..."

"Mhmm?"

"We only have about an hour to get ready. Maybe we should..."

"Mhmmm," Ed pulled back and bunted his head against Stede's shoulderblades. "You're probably right. But I reserve the right to be a bit dramatic about it."

Stede grinned over his shoulder. "Permission granted."

"Yes, sir." And then Ed spotted something sitting on top of Stede's suitcase. He released him and reached out to snag some sort of contraption with a strap and three sets of hooks coming off it. "What's this?" he asked in as much of a casual tone as he could muster.

"Ah, it's a shirt garter. I wear it under my slacks to hold down my shirt. Sock garters to keep my socks up, shirt garter to keep my shirt tucked in. Keeps a nice line under my dress pants."

Ed stared at the garter and tried to pretend like his brain wasn't short-circuiting. "Clever," he murmured.

"I'm going to jump in the shower and have a rinse. Then I should give everything a quick press before I put it on. If you need to do that as well, maybe you can do that first, and then we can switch?"

Ed forced himself to return the garter to his suitcase. When he did, he caught sight of a tight pair of black boxer briefs sitting just below the pile of straps.

It was a good thing that Ed was actually allowed to rip Stede's clothes off at some point, otherwise the knowledge of what he had under his suit would have driven him absolutely insane.

"All right, let's get a move on! We don't want to be late." Stede pecked a kiss to Ed's cheek, then disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door.

Ed stared at Stede's open suitcase for a moment and swallowed. "Yeah, you're really fuckin' gay, Edward Teach," he mumbled to himself.

The next forty-five minutes or so was a ballet of easy domesticity. They'd never spent this much time together before, but they fell into a rhythm very easily now that the sexual tension between them had broken. Well, not broken, but at least now had an outlet.