Dungeon Daddy by Golden Angel

Chapter 19

Esther

It was a beautiful day to go to the zoo, hot but overcast, so there was plenty of shade, and for once, not much humidity.

Holding hands, she and Jax walked down the cement paths. Esther actually bounced up and down when she realized one of the orangutans was on the move, crossing above the path on the cables strung between their enclosures.

“I never get to see this!” She’d heard about it and seen videos, but she’d never seen it in person and hadn’t really expected to.

Jax laughed, wrapping his arms around her as they stopped, his head resting on top of hers as they watched the orangutan. It stopped for a moment, peering down at them, before moving on. Esther sighed.

“You okay?” Jax asked.

“Yeah, just… I know things are dangerous for them out in the wild, and their natural habitats are disappearing, but I hate that they’re cooped up in the zoo, and these are the only things they can climb. At least they have these, I guess.”

“It’s a dilemma.” Jax hugged her, which made her feel a little better. He knew she loved the zoo, loved seeing all the different animals, but she also got melancholy over them being in enclosures instead of out in the wild. Sadly, there didn’t seem to be any easy answers, especially for animals like orangutans, whose forests were being destroyed, forcing them out for humans. “He can climb here and cross the park. The zoo didn’t use to have these, so there’s that.”

“True.” They watched the orangutan for another long minute, and she let Jax’s words make her feel a little better. People were trying. The reason she knew about the plight of wild orangutans was because of a documentary she watched about the people trying to save them. So, there was still some good in the world.

Sighing as the orangutan moved out of sight, Esther leaned back against Jax.

“Onward to the seals?”

“Onward to the seals.” He let her go, slipping around to stand at her side again and take her hand. “They definitely won’t make you sad as they swim around and around in circles.”

“Shut up.” Laughing, she playfully bumped his shoulder but knew he was right.

* * *

Jax

While Esther cooed at the seals, Jax sat on the concrete stairs that overlooked the tank, groaning only a little. Walking around had both helped and hurt his back. The muscles had loosened up the muscles, but the constant standing and walking were putting a strain on them.

Pulling out his phone, he scrolled through some of his apps. He glanced up every couple of minutes to make sure Esther was still preoccupied, but he knew from experience, they would be here for a while, and she wouldn’t require his attention. The seals were her favorite.

After sending texts to Jennifer and Daniel, just to check in, he ran the cleaner program that he’d installed to keep his phone running optimally, which brought up a program he’d never seen before.

A tracking program.

Jax stared at it for a long moment.

Then looked up to where Esther still had her nose to the glass and was waiting for the seal to loop back around.

Opened the program.

Yup. It was tracking his phone.

Anger threatened for a moment before deflating when he realized this was part of why she’d thought he was cheating. In all likelihood, she hadn’t put this on his phone until she’d become suspicious.

It hurt. He felt betrayed and invaded, but there was a little voice asking what he would have done in her place. He liked to think he would have talked to her, confronted her rather than putting a tracker on her phone, but he couldn’t be sure.

He knew that wasn’t Esther’s personality. She would have worried about upsetting him if she was wrong. She wouldn’t have wanted to believe it, so she would have gone looking for more proof. So… phone tracker.

It made sense.

Dammit.

Now, he didn’t know if he should punish her for it or not. He understood, even though he didn’t like it, and knew he was culpable for it happening. Which made disciplining her more difficult.

Setting the phone down without deleting the app, he watched Esther as she ran back and forth with the seal. He grinned, seeing how happy and carefree she was right now—something she hadn’t been over the past year—which made it easy to forgive her.

She’d been scared. He got it because he was scared now, scared of losing her. He was damn lucky she hadn’t thrown her hands up in the air and given up on him when she thought he was cheating. That… that hit deep, knowing he’d hurt her that badly, and her response had been to win him back instead of leaving his ass.

So, when she turned around, beaming, he smiled back at her. He hadn’t decided what to do about the app yet, but he’d figure it out. For now, he wanted to focus on making this a good trip to the zoo. Later, when they were back at the hotel, he could decide whether his naughty little girl would get a spanking.

“Sorry,” she said, coming back to him. It took a moment to realize she was talking about her preoccupation with the seals since, of course, she didn’t know he’d found the tracking app.

“It’s okay. I knew what would happen as soon as we got here,” he teased. Standing, he put his phone in his pocket, then reached out his hand. “Want to go to the rainforest now?”

“Yes! But I’m not going to look at the tarantula.”

“I didn’t expect you to.”

* * *

Esther

It had been such a good day, but Esther felt a little guilty because she was pretty sure Jax’s back had been hurting more than he’d been willing to let on. After the seals, he’d been a lot quieter, and she was pretty sure he’d sat down because of his back—not that he’d ever admit it.

So, when he asked where she wanted to go next, even though part of her would have really liked to go to the Natural History Museum to see the gemstone room, she insisted they get afternoon massages. Thankfully, all they had to do was call Marquis to get recommendations, and the person at the front desk, a chipper young man, named Freddy, set them up at a nearby spa.

It worked wonders on her as well. She felt like a whole new person by the time they left, and Jax was much more relaxed.

“The massages were a good idea,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Thank you.”

“Thank you.” She beamed back at him, happy he was looking better. “This weekend is a lot of fun so far.”

“Dinner upstairs in Marquis tonight?” Jax asked, glancing at his watch. “I made the reservation, so we’ll need to get back to the hotel and get changed if we want to go.”

“Yes, we’d better, or Gavin might make us pay for our room,” she teased.

The look Jax gave her heated her blood. He knew she wanted to watch the show tonight for herself, not because Gavin had asked them to. Although even if she hadn’t, she would have given him the same answer.

She wasn’t sure Jax would care. He’d be more than willing to pay for the room if she wanted to do something else, which she appreciated.

There was no way she was going to miss out, though. This was their last night here, and she wanted to watch, something she’d missed about no longer going to the Outlands. She hadn’t even known until she’d realized how excited she was about watching tonight.

Last night she hadn’t been ready. She’d still been settling in and getting past all the issues she and Jax had. Going to watch the show would have made it feel as if this weekend was all about sex and not reconnecting.

Which, of course, had ended up with her making the evening a little about sex.

Tonight, she wanted the full experience. The dinner. The show. And everything that came afterward.

She also really liked how Marquis was set up, so they could play in the privacy of their booth without being seen by the rest of the patrons. That was one of the few things that didn’t work for her at the Outlands—the inability to watch and play without also being watched.

Maybe it wasn’t fair she wanted to watch others but not be watched in return. Marquis solved that problem. She knew there was a sister club, Stronghold, which was set up more like the Outlands. Maybe they’d visit that some other time, but she had a feeling she’d prefer the privacy Marquis offered.

“The schedule said they’re doing a pet play show tonight.” Jax led her down the street, heading back toward Marquis. It was close enough they could walk, which was nice. Esther was enjoying the nice, slow pace of walking everywhere, which made time feel as if it was going a little slower, extending their weekend away.

“Ooh, that sounds fun.” Esther always enjoyed watching the pets at the Outlands. She and Jax had done some pet play of their own in the past, and she’d found it fun to be a kitten occasionally. Other than the tail plug. Not that she didn’t like plugs, she did, but there was something in her brain that said she shouldn’t like them. Wearing one constantly was distracting and always made her feel like she was being naughty. Of course, there were other kinds of tails, but Jax had preferred the plugs. Most Dominants did.

Jax squeezed her hand.

“Yeah, it should be.”

He was still quieter than she’d expected, but that might be because he was blissed out from the massage. He was definitely moving easier.

Esther walked beside him in silence, content to look around, watching the people and peeking into the windows of the buildings they passed. Sometimes, Jax became quiet and introspective while she was the chatty one, so she’d gotten used to doing her own thing when it happened.

Oh.

Maybe he was planning out tonight’s scene.

Duh.

Excitement fizzed through her. She’d enjoyed starting off this morning by waking him up with a blowjob. She had known what he was doing by not returning the favor, so she’d tried to ignore her arousal all day by not thinking about any of it. Now, they were on their way back to Marquis, and it was as if that part of her body turned on again, anticipation welling fast and hard, as though it had been building, just waiting for her to notice it again.

Thinking about watching a scene had kicked off that space in her brain, but realizing Jax was probably thinking about what he wanted to do with her really got her pulse racing.

She couldn’t wait.