5. SAM

I never stayed the night at a stranger's place, but Zander wasn't a stranger, in fact, this is what our friends had tried to get to happen, I was just sinking into the comfort of allowing myself, tipsy and tired to have a nice place of rest.

In the same bed we'd had sex, we hadn't moved, even after Zander mentioned getting ourselves cleaned off. I was still in my crop top, pushed all the way up and my crotchless fishnets. He cuddled beside me, his leg hooked over mine, his hand drawing pictures or connecting the moles on my back.

"You make content in this room then?" I asked, trying not to fall asleep just yet, I was still carrying his load in me. Once wrong move and I was making a mess.

"Yeah, I'm still surprised you haven't heard of me," he said, pressing his lips to my back and kissing me.

"So, you have people over?"

"No, I told you, I don't have anyone over, ever," he said. "You're the only person I've fucked in here. My actual bedroom on the other hand, also doesn't see much action."

"I don't—" I yawned. "I don't believe that in the slightest."

"It doesn't, I get most of my action at the club," he said, which made sense actually. "I'm not sure if you noticed when you came in, but it's hardly the type of place I want to invite people to."

"What is it exactly that you do then? Costume store, like, do you operate from you apartment?" I asked, still trying to wrap my head around costume store. "Surely, it's not that big of a market."

He gave my back another kiss. "I do sexual costumes, sometimes with latex, sometimes the furry stuff," he said. "My store is only open in the evening on week days. It's a couple blocks away, looks super rundown on the outside. You wouldn't notice it if you weren't looking for it."

"So, why do you have all this stuff in your place?"

"It's overflow, and some of it is to be sent out, or raw material," he said. "I make a lot of stuff myself."

I turned my head on the pillow to look at him. "Are you bullshitting me?"

"No, I've worked in costume design for years," he said. "Then I decided to make the kink stuff, and my real inhibitions came out when I put the bear head on once. I made one video on the internet, you know how people get—"

"You mean social media gays, they're feral."

"That's one word for it," he said, smiling at me. "Can I ask you a question, without it being taken the wrong way. Is it part of your act, to be combative when taking orders? Like, you do it so you get fucked harder."

He stumped me. It was a possibility. "Um."

"It's ok," he stroked my back again. "I'm not here to therapize you. I was just curious."

"Do you have a shower?" I asked, the only way out of the conversation. I didn't want to assess why I did things. I didn't know anyone who enjoyed it. I feared it would come out about having daddy issues, or stemming from a moment in my life where I wasn't in control.

"Sure. You shower, I'll go make the bed in my room," he said. "Unless you wanna sleep in here. I just never sleep on this bed. Which probably means it's more comfy."

I didn't want to decide, but I liked the way Zander felt on my body. "Obviously the bed that you sleep in."

"And there's that sass, it just makes me want to go and wrap my arms around you and squeeze all that cum back out of you," he said.

In a weak moan, I sighed and pouted. "That would be mean."

"Has anyone ever told you that you know how to get a rise from someone?"

"All the time."

"Is that a form of manipulation?"

"Only if you consider manipulating cocks in harder cocks manipulation, then absolutely." Perhaps he had a point, I did sass and give attitude because I liked the attention it gave me, and feeling a little aggressive attention pounding my ass was worth it. So-called Doms trying to teach me a lesson and tame me when that was exactly what I wanted.

Zander took me to the bathroom. It was all white tile and glittery grout, almost an optical illusion. There was a large tub with a shower curtain across one side of the room, a large mirror on the other wall and between them, the toilet and sink. He pointed to the hair products, body washes, and a clean towel over the metal towel wrack. "Take your time," he said.

I undressed and freed my body of his seed. I was always down to play host to a little cream filling, but it was always a relief to be rid of it. I was exhausted, I usually worked on the weekend, that was big tip money for a bartender, but I wouldn't have been nearly half as exhausted on my feet serving drinks all night. Zander put me through a work out, and all I did was lay on a bed.

I didn't know how long I took in the shower, it was incredible, the water pressure could've been better, but I was enjoying snooping at all his body washes and hair products. You could tell a lot about a person from the products they used, and there wasn't a 3-in-1 anything. It was surprising, but it was an assault on the senses from all the crazy scents, and not a single one of them a nice, citrus or floral.

Wrapped in a towel, I dried off as much as I could and wrapped it around my waist before making my emergence from the bathroom.

To my surprise, Zander was clearing up boxes. Dressed in a pair of slutty grey sweatpants just below his cum gutters with dick print on full display. I gawked at it, but he clearly didn't mind, going as far as to tug at his cock from the front making it more visible.

"How was the shower?"

"I've had better," I said.

"I have some shorts if you wanna put them on?"

"Are you cleaning?"

"I felt your judgment," he said. "And I'd like to give you one less thing to be sassy about."

I smiled at him. "Yeah, I'll take the shorts. Do you also have anything to snack on? I barely ate, I was a little nervous to meet you, hence why I jumped into bed with the first man tonight."

He tutted. "And you just couldn't get enough, because you came back for seconds."

Squinting, I continued to stare at him. "Actually, I slept with you a second time because you owed it to my ass," I said. "With the mask on, you didn't treat me right. But now you have, so I need a little snack, and then I'm ready for bed."

Zander cupped his cock.

"Calling it a little snack?" I asked.

"No, I—" He pressed his lips together, hiding his smile. "I'll get you a snack. You like nuts?"

"I love a good nut, but again, I don't have the energy for a third time tonight."

He threw a pair of basketball shorts at me. "Mixed nuts," he said. "I've got a bag in the cupboard. I might also get that ball gag I was talking about earlier."

Zander was a good playmate, he gave it back to me as well as I gave it to him. "Don't threaten me with a good time," I called to him as he walked off into the kitchen.

I put the two sizes too big shorts on and had a look through some of the boxes in his living room. It was strange to see someone being this messy, but also organized into boxes. There were paws with hand holes, assuming that was part of a costume. I stuck my hands in them. Very warm.

Rustling a bag of mixed nuts, Zander came back into the living room. "They've salted," he said, noticing me pawing the air with the bear hands on. "If you've not got any plans tomorrow, I can show you some more stuff. If you like the paws, you might like some of the other stuff."

"What like?" I asked. "Have you got like a teddy bear tail butt plug?" I plucked the idea from the air.

"Yeah," he said. "There should be one in a box, it'll be in a plastic seal."

"Oh. You're serious?"

"Very. I never joke about costume stuff," he said. "Here, take those off and help yourself to these. Also, I don't eat in the bedroom, so fill yourself up out here."

I was too hungry to even being a brat about his rules. As a bartender, I knew that mixed nuts were sometimes not the best, but they were great at getting people to order more drinks.

On the sofa, I sat, eating the mixed nuts while Zander continued to go through boxes, showing me different things. It was eye opening from what I'd originally believed he did, which was costumes for parties, but I'd got the wrong type of party in mind. Zander was in the business of catering to sex, and it showed.

"Later, I can show you some of the stuff I record," he said.

"And you don't record with anyone else?"

"Nah, I get collab requests, but I pride myself on being anonymous," he said.

"I know who you are."

Zander licked at his bottom lip and eyed me suspiciously. "Are you suggesting that you're gonna tell people?"

"No, I was just—"

"Then there's the drama, people could use that I'm anonymous to blackmail me."

"I was kinda hinting that I'd be down to record something with you," I finished my thought. "As long as I was also anonymous."

He shook his head. "I don't want you to think that's why I brought you back here."

"Why did you?"

"I wanted to fuck you, and you were vouched for by our mutual friends."

I scooped up another handful of mixed nuts and shoved them in my mouth. I couldn't figure him out earlier, and I was having even more trouble trying to figure him out now.

"I don't mind playing with you in costume, but recording stuff is a grey area," he said. "It involves model release forms, and then you said yourself you're more of a voyeur than an exhibitionist."

"Are you trying to talk me out of it?" Because it wasn't working.

"And then there's the hole thing about you not getting too attached to me, I don't want you to catch feelings for my dick," he said, once more drawing attention to the print in his sweatpants.

"Trust me, I don't get attached. And your dick isn't that special." It was great, but so were dicks in general. I loved all of them.

Zander laughed. "You're funny," he said. "So, just a quick warning about my room, it's for sleeping in. Ok. No funny business."

"Back at ya," I said. "What kinda funny business? I only ask because you said I was funny, and I might try some of my stand-up routine on you."

He cocked his head and looked at me. "You do stand-up comedy?"

"No, but that was a joke."

"Oh." He patted a hand on a box and turned his head. I saw the corners of his mouth lift in a smile.

It was strange, we were connecting on levels I hadn't found myself on before. Usually, after a little combative brattiness, guys were drained after orgasm and decided to send me on my way. Zander wanted me to stick around. I suppose we were both curious about each other.

My helping of mixed nuts wasn't that great, but I followed it by pounding back a large glass of water, and before I knew it, I was yawning up a storm and ready for bed.

Zander hadn't cleaned, he'd just reorganized the mess into different piles of mess. He'd tried talking through some of the things, but it went over my tired head. Only taking note of a loud clap and him declaring that we should hit the hay.

The bedroom walls were decorated in floral print paper, there were paintings of animals and the duvet set was deep green with light gold flecks of thread outlining shapes. I finally felt like I understood a part of him, or he just had really good design cohesion because the theme in the bedroom was jungle, or specifically, jungle cat.

"What's your favorite animal?" I asked, sitting on the side of the bed, running my fingers across the thread of the top sheet.

"Like, of all time, or like in a part of the world?"

"Of all time."

"Tiger," he said. "It's pretty obvious, right?"

I wondered now if that tattoo on his ribs was tiger stripes instead of some faux tribal tattoo. "Oh."

He turned the light off. "Ok, get in bed, you tired me out tonight."

I didn't want to verbally credit him for my exhaustion. But he was the reason I almost passed out before climbing into bed.