It was the following afternoon when Jay got back to Eagle's Nest, feeling glad that he had a couple of days ahead of him without any shows to work. He had taken an Uber from the airport. As the driver parked up in front of the house, Jay saw Erin's Ford GT parked nearby. She was home early from the office, which was odd.
"Honey! Everything okay?" he called out a couple of minutes later when he entered the house, pulling his travel case over the threshold. He caught the smell of fresh coffee brewing.
"Hey! I'm in the kitchen!"
Jay left his case near the front door and headed for the kitchen. The mere fact that Erin was home, rather than him arriving to find the place empty or at best to find Kayla, their housekeeper, there had put him in a great mood in a heartbeat. When he walked into the kitchen, he found Erin doing some food prep, obviously intending to cook dinner for them. He couldn't help noticing that she was wearing black nitrile gloves. Any excuse, he thought with some amusement.
"Hey, you. I sent Kayla home for the day," Erin reported cheerfully, smiling at him for a second before continuing her work.
"I have many questions. Why are you home? What are you making? Looks like chilli." He walked over to her, put his arms around her waist from behind and kissed the side of her neck.
"It is chilli. And I'm home because I wanted to be here when you got back, and I wanted to make dinner for you. The thing is, since you talked to me about us not spending enough time together I have thought about it a lot. I felt awful about it, and before you say it I know that's not why you brought it up. That thing I said to you about taking one day a month off to spend with you? That was lame ass bullshit. I'm going to make sure I take a lot more time than that, starting this afternoon."
"That's great to hear, honey," Jay said, kissing her neck again. "Truly, I can't tell you how happy that makes me. Leave the food for a minute and look at me, please. I have some news."
Erin did as he asked, turning to face him while he kept his arms loosely around her waist. "What's up?" she asked softly.
"I asked Raquel to be my best man. Or woman. That's exactly how I put it to her. You know how things come out wrong for me sometimes."
Erin chuckled, aware that Raquel wouldn't have minded the slip up. "What did she say?"
"That she'd struggle to be best man, but best woman she'll be happy to do."
"Alright," Erin said happily. "That's one arrangement made. I've been thinking I could ask Z to be my maid of honour. Dad needs to be there to walk me down the aisle, and that means Mandy needs to be there. Do you want to invite your brother?"
"Not really," Jay shrugged. "Can't remember the last time I talked to him. If he's not interested, neither am I."
"I guess that completes the guest list then," Erin said, turning back around to resume the food prep. "Sorry, I can't stop doing this or the meal won't turn out right."
"Wait, what?" Jay asked as his brain tried to process what she had said. "You only want to invite your dad and Mandy? Why?"
"Jay, I know you don't like large groups of people. Why would I want you uncomfortable on our wedding day? Besides, I don't care about having a bunch of people there. Marrying you is what matters to me. That and my dad walking me down the aisle. I figured we could have the ceremony at dad's place, on the garden. Then we could have some food and drinks in the orangery to celebrate."
Jay found himself wondering how rich someone had to be in order to own a house that had an 'orangery', although that was hardly the important issue at hand. "But Raquel told me the wedding day is the most important day of a woman's life."
"She's right," Erin said cheerfully.
"And this is how you want it? Honestly?"
"I never lie to you, Jay. That's something I take a lot of pride in. This is how I'd like our wedding day: intimate, at the house where I grew up, with my dad there to give me away, and with man enjoying the day just as much as I am. So can we agree to it?"
Jay spun Erin around, a rare use of forcefulness with her, and planted a kiss on her lips. Day after day, he continued to love her more and more. Somehow, it was still possible for the depth of his feelings for her to increase.
"Oh, Jay," Erin breathed after the kiss. "I wish you would treat me like that a little more often."
"I just... The words aren't coming. You make me so happy."
"I know," Erin said sweetly. "You do realise the wedding dress is going to cost you? One thing I do want is an expensive wedding dress."
"Whatever dress you want, you'll have," he promised, before taking her gloved hands in his own, even though they had chilli on them. "And we'll make sure you have gloves to go with it."
Erin bit her bottom lip in excitement. "Now you're talking. Leather ones? That's what I've been picturing."
"Leather ones," he promised. Then he laughed. "I figure you could pull off leather gloves at a wedding. These rubber ones, maybe not."
"These aren't rubber, they're nitrile. Have I taught you nothing about gloves since I've known you?" she asked, teasing.
"Clearly I need to take the whole glove thing more seriously." He was joking, and it made Erin laugh. But he did feel annoyed, as ever, by his inability to relate to people without devoting a lot of effort to it. There was more he could do to embrace Erin's kink, like she did with his by taking selfies with her mouth taped and sometimes encouraging him to use tape on her when they had sex.
Erin went back to work on the food once more. Feeling thirsty, Jay went and fixed himself a glass of water. As he drank it, a thought came to him. He knew where Erin had gotten the gloves she was wearing. Their housekeeper, Kayla, had a box of them in the drawer right next to where he was standing. He could surprise Erin if he was careful about it.
"You know what surprises me?" Erin was saying.
"What's that?" Jay asked, slowly opening the drawer. Sure enough, there was the box of gloves.
"Dad and Mandy haven't got their wedding date set yet. I thought they would move faster than us. Thought Mandy would want it done as fast as possible."
"Erin," Jay scolded her lightly as he did his best to silently put on a pair of the gloves. They were a bit too small for his hands, which didn't help. Erin hadn't heard anything though. "There was cynicism in your voice. We've moved past you being suspicious and hostile towards Mandy, remember?"
Erin sighed. "You're right. It just happens sometimes. If it helps, it would be the same with anyone else my dad was with."
Jay figured it was best not to respond to that, since it only said negative things about Erin's attitude to her dad's relationships. Instead, now with the gloves on, he stepped up behind her again and slipped his hands up inside her top.
"Jay!" Erin cried in surprise.
"Shush. Just enjoy. But don't let me make you ruin the dinner either."
"You've got these gloves on," she said excitedly as he started massaging her breasts. Her bra was a inconvenience but he could do nothing about that.
"I have. Thought you'd enjoy me wearing them. Embracing your kink is something I'm trying to work on."
"You're working on it just fine right now. That feels... I'm really turned on," Erin breathed. "The food is almost done, unfortunately."
"So what? We can continue to wear the gloves while we eat it. Although you might want to put on some clean ones."
"Oh my. You must think I'm weird that you saying that really turns me on?"
"Not at all," he said, kissing the side of her neck.
"And you wouldn't think I'm weird if I wear gloves in the house for no reason?"
He continued massaging her breasts. "Well, it's not for no reason is it? There's a big reason: You get turned on by it. That's all the reason you need. I mean, you've never judged me for liking you with your mouth taped. You just went with it."
"I did. But you don't do it often enough."
Now Jay felt his excitement level rising quickly. "What do you mean?"
"I mean you like me to have my mouth taped but you hardly ever do it to me. Do it more, Jay. Express yourself. Be more forceful with me. I love your tenderness. Believe me, it's wonderful. A woman doesn't want tenderness all the time though. Sometimes I'd like you to be rough with me and tie me to the bed. Tape me up and fuck me hard."
On one level, that turned Jay on. On another, it disturbed him. "It's my past that makes me not want to be... rough with you. It just..."
"You don't have to explain, Jay. Keep in mind that what happens between us is nothing like your past. You're not going to get hurt and neither am I. There's only love between us."
"Only love," Jay repeated, meaning it more than anything he had ever said in his life.
A/N: Erin made a proper commitment to spend more time with Jay and stop being sucked into her work all the time. They also made plans for their small wedding ceremony. Do you think it turn out perfectly for them?