Tyed

chapter forty one

Tyler hasn't seen every room in Colby's house before. He hadn't seen the study until that night, where Colby's sitting at his desk- a lot smaller than his desk at work, but taller with more space beneath it, enough for Tyler to sit underneath it comfortably. There's bookshelves, and interestingly enough as Tyler's examining them, they're filled with books Tyler didn't expect. The ones at his office were mostly business related, "respectable" books to have. These are... fantasy, a few romance, quite a bit of new adult. Fiction, books read for fun.

Tyler's reading skill was years behind what it should be until twelve, and still closing the gap until he was seventeen. He's never read many books, but he's curious. There's a series he's examining on the bookshelf now that looks pretty cool, if Tyler will ever get a chance to read them.

He and Colby had a short discussion maybe ten minutes ago about what tonight would be, and the general idea was that it would be casual. It was pretty easily still a sex thing, sure, and it'd get there eventually, but there was a point to Tyler sitting at Colby's feet, naked and collared, waiting to be told what to do while Colby didn't completely ignore him but also didn't really pay attention to him. It was getting him into the headspace of being a submissive; getting him used to it, before they did anything.

And Tyler could start pawing at Colby's leg, like he was tempted to do before, start trying to undo his pants; but also, there's no rush. None at all. He can take his time to get there. Part of him even enjoys the idea of being a bit of a brat, of making Colby wait. Not too much. He liked pushing it a little, only because it made Colby mad, and mad Colby pushed him just that little bit further.

So he goes over to the bookshelf. Crawls over; it feels natural, and as he risks a glance back at Colby, it feels like the right thing to do. Colby doesn't appear to be looking at him, but he probably noticed.

Tyler takes the first book in the series from the bookshelf. It's a bright yellow book, the cover a picture of two people. It looks thick, perhaps something too long to begin, but Tyler can always put it back if he's not interested.

He crawls back and sits at Colby's feet again, cracking the book open. He starts to squint in the shadows before the light seems to adjust itself; when he looks up again, Colby pretends not to be paying attention, but the lamp's been moved to shine on his book. Tyler grins.

And Tyler reads, for a while. It's surprisingly interesting, even though it's a bit slow to get started. It's about a teenage boy with powers; all Tyler can think about is how those powers would've been useful for him in Darkfilly Copse, to get through everything. This kid's got the power to swap bodies with other people. Tyler could've swapped bodies with his dad and then killed himself to kill his dad and now he wouldn't be in the situation he's in.

He resets the bitter bite of his jaw and keeps reading, eventually losing himself in the story. He kind of forgets where he is. He's not a great reader, but this is actually a young adult story, and although the sentences can drag on for a while or punctuate strangely, the twists of metaphor aren't so hard to follow.

At one point, Tyler feels a hand in his hair and just leans up into it. He realises at one point that his mouth is super dry and he kind of needs to pee, and that's when he realises he's a good chunk into this thick-ass novel and he has no idea how long he's been reading for.

"What time is it?" Tyler asks, looking up at Colby and blinking. It's the first thing either of them have said since they got here.

Colby glances at the clock in the corner of his screen. Tyler looks at what he's up to; he was, when they began, doing work, but now he's got random social media pages up and is reading some article. "Just passed eleven," Colby says with a yawn.

Tyler blinks. "How long was I reading for?"

"Nearly three hours," Colby tells him, with absolutely no judgement in his voice. "That's the first in a trilogy, if you care."

Tyler finds himself smiling. "Oh, cool. Yeah, uh, it's a good book. Can I, um, do you have a bookmark?"

Colby pulls out a drawer in his desk and hands Tyler a sticky note that has some scribbling on it; when Tyler looks at it it actually seems like passwords, but Colby doesn't seem to think twice about it. "I've got this, I guess," he says. "That'll have to do."

Tyler nods, taking the sticky note and slotting it in where he was up to. He takes a deep breath. "Cool, cool, cool," he mutters, unsure of what exactly is going on. He kind of expected sex to come from this at some point, but Colby seemed unbothered by Tyler reading for hours instead. "Um..."

Colby looks at him, his expression calm, free of any judgement about Tyler's choices. "Yes, doll?"

Tyler still fucking loves that word coming from Colby's lips. "Um," Tyler mutters, "...did you want to...?"

Colby reaches out and runs a hand through Tyler's hair. "I wasn't going to stop you from enjoying yourself," he says. "If you want to sit at my feet and read for another two hours, I won't stop you, doll. I gave you the choice of what you want to do tonight."

Tyler sits up, leaning across Colby's knees and looking up at him demurely. "I mean, I enjoy that," he says, "but... I kind of want you to decide, if that makes sense."

Colby raises an eyebrow. "You want to do what I want to do?"

Tyler nods. "Yeah." He licks his lips, expecting Colby to suggest something lewd, but Colby simply shrugs.

"If I felt strongly about something," Colby says, "I would've made a suggestion. But be clear, here. Are you asking to do whatever I feel like doing, or are you asking to fuck however I want to fuck?"

Tyler finds himself grinning. "Um, maybe the second one? If you want, of course, yeah."

Colby bites back a laugh. Tyler tries to ignore the swell in his heart; it's just a reminder that he's a fucking goner. "Alright," Colby says so softly. He holds his hand out, gesturing towards the book, and puts it on his desk, before turning away from Tyler.

"If you want my attention," Colby says, "you're going to have to earn it."

Tyler whines, but unfortunately, whining does nothing. Colby goes back to his article, leaving Tyler alone to come up with some way of doing this.

He leans back, exposing his body, but Colby isn't looking. He crawls around the desk, sitting back underneath it properly, where he's now right between Colby's legs. He gently nudges them aside, and Colby doesn't really react. He just keeps doing whatever he's doing and gives Tyler no satisfaction at all.

Tyler knows what he could do to get Colby's attention, if he really tried. He could tell multiple truths. He could say guess what my secret is? My family is more fucked than you think and you'll never want to date me once you know how. He could say, guess what, Colby? We've been dating for not even two weeks at this point and I already think I'm in love with you, even though you're almost twice my age, older than my mother and your ex-wife wants you back. Surprise! I love you anyway. He could say both at once and guarantee that Colby will be not only shocked, but running for his life, dropping Tyler like he's on fire.

But no. That's not what getting Colby's attention means in this situation. Because this is a game that they play. Tyler can't tell Colby the truth, because no matter how he feels, he's still just the new, young, hot boyfriend who Colby doesn't really love and will never really love. This is sex and Tyler's a fool.

It's overthinking it. 100%, he's overthinking. He tries to turn his brain off, does the best he can do, before doing what he knows turns his brain off.

----
a/n: incredibly short one but over to nsfw so it's not The End. NSFW is long this time I guess
like... sorry everyone I'm working on trying to get back into the swing of things I pinky promise