his juices since Yev had taken him in, and this single ill-timed moment of weakness shouldn’t be held against him like this. But he was left without a way to argue his case, so he just kept yowling his frustration.
Yev exhaled, his heavy boots coming closer to the sofa and prompting Radek to retreat deeper into its shadow. “I take it you don’t want to finish anymore?” he asked, kneeling and pressing his cheek to the floor so he could take a peek.
Radek let out a series of angry barks. No. He did not want to finish. A) he’d never be aroused again after this, B) he did not want Yev to think of him as a fox that had humped a pillow, even though that was exactly what he’d done.
He’d settled into not being able to talk surprisingly well, considering he was a chatterbox by nature, but right now, he really would have liked to voice one of many lies he could have come up with to cover this blunder.
Yev rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll take it to the wash this time,” he said and stood, presumably about to touch the cushion Radek had been pleasuring himself against.
No! Radek crawled out on the other side of the sofa and grabbed the soft fabric with his teeth before Yev could have gotten to it. He dragged it to the floor and darted outside, where he threw it into the snow. He’d bury it as deep as he could, and no one would remember its existence.
Yev followed him out, laughing as if he were about to choke on his own tongue. “Come on, it’s not that embarrassing! It’s okay, I literally milked bulls for artificial insemination while at university.”
Radek cocked his head and stared back at Yev, so shocked he was surprised by his own cackle.
Yev smiled. “Let’s just wash this and go shopping, okay? I’m starving for some pasta.”
He knew how to entice Radek, because going to the store was always so much fun. Pranking unsuspecting people, being doted on by strangers under Yev's watchful eye, and treats, lots of treats.
“Thought so,” Yev said and snatched the cushion before Radek could have stopped him. Come on, pick which collar you wanna wear,” he said, tearing the case off and tossing the naked cushion onto the sofa as soon as he stepped inside the house.
Radek shook off the snow, rubbed his feet on the doormat like a good boy, and rushed to his neatly organized collars and harnesses. He wore them when they went out so that other people could feel safe, and while they didn’t leave the woods all that often, Yev still indulged him by getting three sets. Radek grabbed his new favorite, a black leather number with studs, and carried it to Yev.
A wide smile still stretched Yev’s mouth as he kneeled and put the collar around Radek’s throat. His fingers gently massaged Radek’s neck, his thumbs swiped along his muzzle, and the gentleness of the touch made forgetting the earlier embarrassment much easier. “That your style in real life? Are you a secret leather man?”
Radek groaned. There was so much he’d have liked to tell Yev. That he wasn’t a leather man but a metalhead, that he had a studded belt just like this, that he used to wear a collar with big spikes to concerts, and that he would wear this very collar as a human if Yev put it on him. But he couldn’t communicate any of that so he rubbed his muzzle against Yev’s hand.
Yev changed into a fresh set of clothes, placed Radek in the passenger seat of his truck, and drove to the nearest supermarket, half an hour away. He’d just returned from Sanok, the largest local town, so the need for shopping had to be a way to distract Radek from being discovered in such a compromising position, but it didn’t matter, because they always had fun together. Throughout the drive, Yev changed radio stations until he found one Radek approved of, and they ended up doing some impromptu karaoke, with Yev doing the actual singing and Radek supplying him with melodic howls.
They shared a high-five at the end of Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’, and parked in front of the store. Radek already knew the drill and let Yev attach a leash to his collar before jumping into the backpack, which Yev then placed in the children’s seat of the shopping cart and entered the supermarket, pretending he didn’t notice people