148. Chapter 148

Only two people other than Maggie have the keys to her apartment, and one of them is currently cuffed with her hands above her head, ankles tied down, hot wax dripping onto her bare stomach as she writhes, screams, pants, begs under Maggie’s careful gaze.

The other is on the other side of the door, not hearing Alex’s screams because DEO tech is very good at sound-proofing, as he digs in his saddle bag for Maggie’s key, as he scrapes it into the lock, and steps inside.

Neither of them hear the door over their own ragged breathing, but Maggie, kneeling over Alex as she traces softly burning patterns onto her stomach with the wax, sees the movement, and she curses loudly.

“Fuck, Adrian!” She catches the last of the wax she was dripping in her palm so Alex, startled and unable to move because of her restraints, doesn’t accidentally get hurt. She grabs a blanket from the couch and tosses it onto Alex's body, uncuffing her quickly so she can sit up and untie her own ankle restraints.

Maggie stands, pulling her jeans up, zipping them, buttoning her undone flannel, looking down at Alex to make sure she’s okay, to make sure she’s feeling safe, to make sure she’s not going to run.

“I am so sorry,” Adrian is spluttering, his hands up and his eyes wide. Maggie wipes the still-warm wax off on her jeans and pinches the bridge of her nose, tossing Alex, now completely untied, her tank, her thong, her shorts.

“No, you’re fine, kid, what… what’re you doing here, are you okay?”

“I… um… I…”

Maggie sighs deeply and sits back on her haunches next to Alex, putting a soft hand on her shoulder and checking her wrists, her ankles, for any redness. “You okay, babe?”

Alex is blushing more furiously than Maggie’s ever seen her, but she nods because at least she’s dressed, now, and because hell, at least it wasn’t Kara.

Maggie looks back up at Adrian, elbows dangling off her knees.

“You can sit, kiddo, you’re okay. Everything’s okay, alright?”

Adrian glances skeptically at the couch, and Maggie finally smirks.

“We were on the floor the whole time, don’t worry about it.”

Alex chuckles as Maggie tugs her to her feet with a kiss to her nose, and Adrian sits gratefully, face still guarded with shock.

“I mean, I’m not saying we’ve never fucked on that couch…”

Adrian grimaces and Alex shoves Maggie gently in the shoulder. “Oh, leave the kid alone. Hi Adrian.” She tilts her head at him and smiles bemusedly, because he has yet to look at her, yet to make eye contact, yet to do anything but stammer and stumble and look positively mortified and extremely uncomfortably turned on.

Alex plops down next to him and puts a soft hand on his knee.

“Hey. It’s okay. No one’s mad at you.”

“No, I shouldn’t have come in without knocking, I should have called, I – “

Maggie kneels in front of him and puts one hand on his other knee, the other over Alex’s hand.

“Ade, I gave you that key for a reason – “

“But it’s not too big a deal, I just, my car broke down and the buses aren’t running and it’s raining and I don’t have cab fare and I didn’t want to walk all the way to my parents’ place, so I – “

“Hey, hey, that’s okay, I’m glad you were close by, I’m glad you were okay – I was worried it was something worse. This is your home, too, alright? I’m sorry you uh… had to walk in on… that…”

Adrian raises his eyebrows and shakes his head, and he still won’t look at Alex, and will only fleetingly look at Maggie.

“Talk to me, Adrian,” Maggie offers as she exchanges a silent glance, a silent agreement, with Alex, to answer any questions he has, together.

He shrugs and he breathes in deeply.

“It was hot,” he says in a small voice, and Alex blushes and Maggie chuckles.

“You got that right,” she mutters, and Alex blushes deeper.

Adrian grins finally, and finds it in him to look up at his big sister, queer mother figure.

He glances at Alex shyly, and Alex smiles bravely, shoving down her own embarrassment so he won’t grow up with the same shame she did.

“That was wax?” he asks, and Alex nods, fingering the spots where her tank is sticking to her abs from the wax that lingers, yet to be rubbed in, on her skin. “It was melted. Hot.” Alex nods again, and glances at Maggie, who nods steadyingly at her.

“So, hot wax. On your bare skin. It… that doesn’t hurt?”

Alex arches an eyebrow and gives Maggie the briefest of secret, small smiles.

“It does. And it doesn’t. It… it turns me on, the rush, the shock. I trust Maggie, she… she only does it when I want, where I want, how I want, and that trust combined with the illusion of risk makes it…”

“Hot,” Adrian finishes for her, nodding. “I’ve never really thought about subbing for anyone. Don’t have anyone I trust like you trust Maggie, I guess,” he grins, and Maggie looks down with a smile, and Alex beams and squeezes her hand.

“And your wrists and ankles – it doesn’t scare you?”

Alex shifts and sighs and Maggie watches her, watches Adrian, carefully.

“It would. It has. I… I’ve been tied up like that in different contexts, I’ve been… beaten…” She chooses her words carefully and Maggie swallows grief, swallows rage, as she strokes Alex’s knuckles with her thumb. “But with Maggie, when Maggie locks me up like that, ties me up like that, it… I don’t know how to describe it. I get to let everything go, I let to give up control, and I’m always in control, of everything, the weight of the world, so to be able to give that to her…”

“Must hurt your throat,” Adrian teases about her screaming, and Alex blushes.

“You always top?” he asks Maggie, and she grins, and she exchanges another one of those secret, private glances with Alex, and she shakes her head.

“Nope. Not always.”

Adrian nods. “So I don’t have to choose?”

Maggie shakes her head emphatically. “No, Ade. Your only job is to find someone whose priority is to make you happy, to give you pleasure, whatever way that looks.”

“If I wanted to… if I wanted to try that stuff…”

“I will answer any questions you have, kid.”

Adrian grins, and Maggie leans up to kiss his cheek. “Ooooh, so much scruff, look at my little man, you’re gonna cut me there.”

Alex laughs and Adrian preens.

“Listen Ade. I’ll make you up the couch, you stay here tonight, and in the morning I’ll take a look at your car for you, okay?”

“And you’d love to continue talking about catching up, but right now you have some unfinished business with your woman,” Adrian supplies with a wicked grin.

“That’s my boy,” Maggie winks, and Adrian shakes his head and laughs, because he’s never seen Maggie this open, this silly, this giddy, this sexual, this safe, and it brings tears to his eyes, because that’s exactly what she deserves.