COMPLETED | Take Me Down The Rabbit Hole (BDSM | 18+)

LVIII

The door to Thea's office at Aphrodite creaked in its hinges as it opened, but Aspen stayed in his cross-legged position on the floor, busy picking knots out of a pile of Jute rope.
Thea was at their desk, doing whatever the hell they did between their appointments with clients.
They ignored whoever had come into their office.
Footsteps approached, and then a hand pushed the pile of rope out of the way and crouched down in front of Aspen.
Polished black dress shoes—
"Hello, Aspen."
Leopold. Of course.
Aspen briefly lifted his eyes from the length of rope in his hands and blinked. "Master Leopold."
Leopold snorted. "Now, that is the most unenthusiastic greeting you've ever bestowed me with to date, pet. You doing okay?"
"Long day at work, Sir."
"So now you're on the floor with jute rope?" Leo's eyes wandered from Aspen to the pile and back to Aspen.
Aspen reached up and rubbed a hand over his face. "Yeah," he said curtly. "I was hoping this would shut my brain off."
Leo nodded. "I'm assuming it didn't quite work?"
Aspen shook his head.
Leo straightened. "Thea," he said, causing his sibling to finally look up from their PC monitor. "What?"
"I'm gonna borrow Aspen for a bit."
"Sure."

Aspen followed Leo into Leo's office, ignoring the line of people sitting by Noah's desk in the foyer. Some of the men turned their heads as he walked past, but Aspen paid them no mind.
"Okay," Leo said, kicking the door to his office shut. "I know you can't talk to me about work stuff, but I refuse to believe that work stuff is everything that's nagging at you."
Unbidden, Aspen settled into one of the plush green armchairs and leaned his head against the backrest. "Doesn't it bore you to talk about Alan all the time?"
"No. Did something happen between you and Alan?"
"He told me... a little bit about ... the fraternity thing. He said he wasn't willing to share details about his time as a submissive with me and I'm beginning to feel like there's a bit of an invisible wall between him and I."
Leo nodded and turned to a bar cart in the corner. A few seconds later, the electrical whir of a coffee maker filled the room, and Leo only sat after having handed Aspen a tiny cup of espresso.
"I understand," he said, nodding.
"You're his submissive, and you're supposed to trust him, but you can't because you feel like he has an ulterior motive for teaching you the way he does."
"Recently, I've been feeling like he has... leftover anger at you in his system that he doesn't want to let out on me."
"Does he let it out on Spencer?"
Aspen shrugged. "If he does, I'm not there to witness it, but not as far as I can tell."
Aspen had wanted to add something but then decided not to say it after all.
But he didn't need to.
Leo let out a long-suffering sigh. "That doesn't mean anything."
Aspen nipped at his coffee. "This isn't as good as your horchata."
Leo smiled at him. "The horchata must have been extra good after you fell asleep in a bathtub, hm?"
Aspen pulled a face. "I'd love to say I haven't been making a habit out of sleeping in places that aren't beds, but that'd be a lie. I did fall asleep sitting on Thea's floor an hour or so before you showed up and they didn't even notice."
Precariously, Aspen balanced his cup on his knee and ran his free hand through his hair. "Alan knows we met."
Leopold didn't say anything. He merely turned the cup of coffee in his hand and scrunched his nose.
"Alan knows it was you who spanked me the day of the munch. He even asked me if I signed an NDA."
"And what did you say to that?"
"That telling him if I signed an NDA could violate the NDA I might have signed. Of course, that just makes it more obvious that I did sign one and that we did meet."
Leo's eyes twinkled. "And we keep meeting. Perhaps that's what is bugging Alan. He can't get to me, but you can."
Again, Leopold wrinkled his nose at the next sip of coffee. "Is tonight a Thea night or an Alan night?"
"Thea," Aspen responded.
Leo nodded. "Good. Then I'll teach you how to make cafe de olla tomorrow morning. Chances are you'll love that just as much as my horchata."
"You don't like espresso?"
Leo shrugged. "It's nice for long days where I have to stay awake, and it's sophisticated, but ... I like my coffee sweet." He winked at Aspen. "You see, part of my persona is giving the newbies a good fright before I let them see how I actually am. I'm not scary." He lifted the half-empty cup of espresso to his lips and emptied it with the next gulp. "And before you ask, no, it's not exhausting for me to keep this up. It pays well, and we live in a society where many of us are being forced to choose between what pays and what makes us happy. I decided I wanted to have both, and I'm glad that Thea has found their way of balancing all this."
Aspen briefly recalled the conversation with Thea where they had told him about their parents' reaction to Leo's line of work, and he nodded.

They sat in silence for a while until Aspen had finished his coffee as well, and then Leo clapped his hands, stood up, and smoothed out his jacket. "Alright. I have people to be mean to," he joked. "Are you going to go back to Thea's office or do you want to stay here?"
"I'm going back to my pile of jute rope," Aspen decided.
"You are such a good boy doing Thea's dirty work. Maybe next time I'll leave a list for you to do my dirty work, too."
"Are you planning on adopting me like Thea did?"
Leo laughed. "I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to dedicate as much time to you as I want to, so no. But I'd be amiss to not take opportunities where they present themselves, wouldn't you agree?"
He opened the door to his office and gestured for Aspen to leave first. "I'll see you tonight for dinner."