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

LXXV

Tony put the coffee cup down on Aspen's desk. "Dr. Arkwright—"
"Aspen," Aspen corrected, rather sharply, and he noticed the shiver driving through Tony's body. "What is it?"
Tony inhaled sharply and started wringing his thumbs. "Uhm, I— We— Josh—" he stammered, and then reached out to run a hand through his hair. "Fuck it,"  he mumbled under his breath and pulled out one of the chairs by Aspen's desk to sit.
"First of all, why are we on first name basis?" he asked.
Aspen leaned forward in his chair. "Because I'm not used to having a personal assistant. I don't want you to hate me and start spreading gossip around me through my office." A pause. "And because I'm teaching your husband how to have sex with you," he added, watching as Tony's cheeks took on the color of a nicely ripe tomato.
"Right," the man opposite him choked out. "About that—"
Tony inhaled again. "Josh knows I work for you, now."
"Ah," Aspen said drily. "And?"
"That's it," Tony finished lamely.
"Is it?" Aspen asked. He noticed the door to his office was still open a smidge and he got up, switched the slider on the door to Do not Disturb and closed the door energetically. "Are you trying to tell me that you two didn't discuss this?"
"Well," Tony hawed. "I knew he was getting... professional help... because I was the one who initiated all of this. And I also knew who you were this entire time because you had started the hiring process for this position way before the Aphrodite thing happened. So it's not like I have anything to be upset with him about."
"And is he not upset with you about not telling him that we know each other on a ... different professonal level?"
"No. He thinks it—" Tony trailed off again, and this time it only took Aspen a moment to catch on.
"Is this about your identity as a submissive?"
"Yep," Tony mumbled. "He wants me to—"
Aspen sat back down. "Be included? In the contract?"
"Kind of," Tony confirmed, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. "He wants me to try to be more respectful at work because I have .... bratty tendencies."
Aspen chuckled. "He diagnosed you with those, huh? Fine. If your husband wants you to refer to me as Dr. Arkrwight, I'll allow it."
"Are you sure? I can tell Josh to fuck off—"
Aspen laughed. "I mean, you can certainly try that," he said, reaching for his coffee and taking a sip. "If you wanna see where that gets you."
Tony flushed. "Anyway," he said pointedly, after clearing his throat. "Is this violating the workplace code of conduct?"
Aspen smacked his lips together. "A little. I think. Not that I'm interested in hearing more about your bedroom life than I already do because of Josh. If you have questions about my ... other ... profession, it may be safer for us to discuss them via my ... other ... business email. Josh has my card."
Aspen watched Tony get up, fix his sports jacket and nod. "Alright," he said. "Uh," he added, unsure, "I'll be— Yup."
"Breathe, Tony," Aspen called after him as he watched his assistant flee from his office.

*

Later that evening, Aspen returned to Aphrodite, borrowed Leo's office — which had returned ton sitting unoccupied because Leo had gone back to his routine of conducting business out of state — and edited the initial contract that he had set up with Joh to include implicit and explicit domming of Tony during their working hours.
In the meantime, Aspen had also taken on other clients. What had surprised him about the whole situation was that he had a healthy mix of male and female clients from all slices of life — and most of them didn't know who he was.
It wasn't as if Aspen was a very public persona, but every so often his name — the name of his firm — popped up in the yellow press.
He had also assumed that because Thea and Leo charged quite a bit of money for their services, it would be the same for his.
But Noah had told him that his services were cheap, cringing at their use of the word as it passed their lips.
"How's it going?" they asked.
"Oh, I don't know," Aspen mumbled. "I'm kinda pissed at Josh, but it's not like it would be the most professional thing for me to spank him for telling his boyfriend to use a honorific for me at work."
"But people use honorifics for you here," said Noah. "How is that different?" They paused. "I mean— This is my work, too, you know, I use formal language with all clients and staff."
Aspen leaned back in his — Leo's — chair, ran a hand through his hair and sighed.
"I feelm like," he said slowly, "What pisses me off about this is that Josh has these expectations for his boyfriend, which is one thing, but he also has expectations for my personal assistant, which crosses a line—"
Noah gave him a certain type of look.
"Shit," Aspen muttered. "They've been warning me about this—" He gathered the papers he had just printed, gathered them up and ripped them. "Noah, how does one terminate a contract in this here establishment?"
Noah, who was always carrying their clip board around, smiled while they flipped through a few papers attached to it. "I thought you'd never ask."

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A/N

🏳️‍🌈Happy pride month!🏳️‍🌈
This is your yearly reminder that I'm queer and so are all my characters!

I hope everyone who is out (and loud about it) enjoys their pride and celebrates safely, and if you are reading this in the closet, here's your reminder that you are allowed to show up as you are whenever you are comfortable with it! Take your time, there's no rush!

x villainfuckery