Another way by Anna Martin

Cooper.”
    “As always,” he said again with a sad sort of smile.
    It dawned on me then, suddenly. “He was your sub,” I said, my eyes glassing over as it all made sense.
    “Yes,” Will said without emotion. “For a long time.”
    I nodded, my brows furrowed, then turned to go. I just didn’t understand my own emotions. I couldn’t figure out what was going on in my head or my heart. The need for some space was overwhelming.
    “Jesse, wait,” Will called, his hand grabbing my arm.
    “Not right now,” I said softly.
    “Jesse, on your knees, now,” my Master barked, and I shook my head.
    “Red, Master.”
    “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he groaned, his hands in his hair.
    “I’m sorry.” I tried to hold back the tears, an outward expression of my inner turmoil.
    “Baby, come here,” Will said gently, and the third time he asked me to stay seemed to be the charm because I fell into his arms.
    “I don’t know,” I sobbed into his shoulder. “I don’t know.”
    “Don’t know what?” he murmured.
    “What I’m feeling. I don’t understand why I’m acting like this.”
    Will took my hand and led me back down to his living room, to the chair where I’d knelt at Laura’s feet earlier. He sat down and tugged me into the seat next to him. I was surprised; normally when we snuggled together I would sit on his lap as he held me, helping me come down from the high of a session. But as soon as I was settled, he swung his legs over mine and curled into my side.
    He inhaled deeply with his face in my neck, smelling me before kissing me there so softly I might have imagined it.
    “I won’t apologize for Cooper,” he said quietly.
    “I didn’t ask you to,” I responded hotly.
    “We were together for a long time, Jesse. He was my first full-time sub, and for a while he was a lover and a partner too.”
    “Why did you break up?”
    Will sighed. “We lived almost 24/7 for a few months. And it almost killed me,” he chuckled darkly. “I didn’t like having to hide who I was and what I did for kicks. I could never invite my colleagues or friends over to watch a game after work, because there would be a naked man wearing a leather collar waiting for me at the door. Or my parents, Jesus, could you imagine what would happen if they stopped by without calling first? I couldn’t ask Cooper to be anything less than what he is, but I couldn’t keep giving him everything that he needed.
    “I have my own life,” he continued softly, and I realized that my arms had wound around him protectively. He fit as well in mine as I did in his. “I like my friends, and my social life, and my non-kinky life, which is very important to me. It’s more important than being a Master. Being a Dom doesn’t dominate who I am, if you’ll excuse the pun.”
    I laughed and shifted so he’d be more comfortable. “I never knew all of this.”
    “That’s because I never told you,” he said solemnly.
    “Did you have any close calls? When he was here 24/7?”
    “More than I care to remember,” Will smiled. “My mother, once, asked me why I had a wooden chopping board on the TV unit. It was a paddle.”
    “The big square one?”
    “Yup.”
    “Oh, shit,” I laughed.
    “It is a chopping board,” he said, looking up at me. “I got it at Sears.”
    “You’re shitting me.”
    “Nope. And one of my friends came here after work one night when I wasn’t expecting him. Cooper was naked and waiting just inside the door; thankfully I’d locked it and intercepted Brandon at the gate because Cooper just wouldn’t have thought to take himself somewhere else while I had company.”
    “So does he have a full-time Dom now?”
    “He has two,” Will laughed. “A couple that loves having a little slave boy. Our breakup was hard, because like I said, we were lovers too. I didn’t keep him chained at the foot of my bed every night. He was special to me.”
    “I’m sorry for freaking out.”
    “That’s okay.”
    I glanced at