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Stede grumbled to himself as he struggled with the laces at the back of his corseted waistcoat, preparing for the first shindig he and Ed were meant to attend since returning from their honeymoon. It was a charity gala, to make rich folks feel good about giving up their hoarded wealth and be seen doing it, and the only redeeming quality was the chance for him and Edward to put their generous wardrobes to good use.
From the first glance at the waistcoat, Stede just had to have it. He was enamored with the hints of boning at the seams, the ribbon lacing that went up the entire back, the embroidered lace texture over the lavender-colored silk, all of it crying out for him.
Stede ran his fingers down the taut silk laces and imagined how such a garment might feel on his body, how it might shape him, mold to him, how it might feel, and flagged an assistant down before he could chicken out.
His thoughts lingered on the fringes of what Stede considered dangerous, afraid to examine why he felt such a pull toward silhouettes and styles he’d successfully avoided for years, deeming them ‘too this’ or ‘too that’ for himself. But Edward’s appreciation for Stede’s love of fine things extended well beyond his wardrobe, and the support of his new husband made him feel bold enough to take the risk.
“Are you almost done in there?” Ed called from the bedroom.
Stede gave up with a huff, glaring at his reflection in the full-length mirror of their dressing room. “Edward, darling, could you help me?”
He could hear Ed laughing at his tone in the other room. “Cufflinks giving you a hard time?” Ed asked, breezing through the doorway.
Edward was, of course, effortlessly put together. His hair was up but artfully tousled, and the dark red velvet of his suit fit him like a glove. His smiling eyes were smudged with liner and widened at the sight of Stede’s new waistcoat.
“Where’d you get this fancy thing?” he asked, drawn to Stede as if by some magnetic pull.
The whisper of lavender ribbons was all the warning Stede had before his waistcoat tightened around him deliciously, cutting off any reply he’d meant to offer. The pressure of the corseted waistcoat around his torso was exquisite, and his very obvious gasp of surprised arousal was entirely involuntary.
They both froze in the aftermath of his vocal delight. Stede felt his face flush, clenching his eyes shut in mortification. Regardless of his reluctance to examine his desire for pretty things, Stede never imagined he might feel such a sudden breathless rush of pleasure at the delectable clutch of a tightly laced garment.
It certainly hadn’t happened when the store’s attendant helped him try it on.
“Um,” Stede said weakly. He pressed his hands flat to his chest and stomach as he tried to gather his bearings and offer an explanation.
“Look at me,” Ed rumbled, as smooth as the velvet of his suit.
The words fell from Ed’s lips like a command, but Stede heard the plea underneath. He let his eyes flutter open and felt emboldened by what he saw. The simmering, liquid heat of Ed’s dark eyes chased away some of the shame Stede felt at his unguarded reaction.
Ed methodically loosened each row of laces, eyes burning as Stede tried and failed to keep his breathing steady. He slowly twirled the ribbons around his fingers and very deliberately paused until Stede’s eyes found his in their reflection.
This time, Ed pulled the strings of his waistcoat tight with torturous slowness. Stede felt the way the boning and structured panels of the waistcoat held their shape as Ed tightened the laces, firmly pulling the panels of the waistcoat together as they conformed to the contours of his body.
Stede’s next inhale was a prolonged, tremulous thing. Air raced into his lungs laced with a tingling, bright buzz of sensation that expanded out from his core and settled in his fingertips like static. He swayed in lightheaded pleasure as Ed groaned at what he saw in the mirror.
Ed’s smartwatch beeped just as he made to loosen the laces again. “Wait!” Stede gasped. “We’ll be late!”
Ed silenced his watch with a curse before slowly returning his hands to Stede’s waist. “What if we didn’t go?”
Stede balked at Ed’s reflection. “What do you mean? You were so excited about the gala just this afternoon!”
“I was excited about getting all dolled up with my husband for the first time since we got married; I don’t give a damn about the gala,” Ed said, winking when Stede opened his mouth to complain. “We can make another donation.”
Stede let his fingers slowly trail down the length of his waistcoat, fiddling with the hints of lace at the bottom. “Do you think anyone will notice?”
Ed was already pulling out his phone to cancel the car they’d hired. “I don’t care. I didn’t bother sending the RSVP back anyway.”
“Edward! You didn’t tell me that.”
“Didn’t know I was going to walk in on you wearing this,” Ed shot back, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he sent the driver a tip to compensate.
The tense, frenetic energy that accompanied his nebulous thoughts of gender expression dulled Stede’s pleasant haze. “How do you feel about that?” he asked cautiously.
Ed all but threw his phone onto the nearest flat surface before turning back to Stede, brows furrowed in confusion. “Feel about what?” he asked. “How hot you look?”
“Feel about me wearing things like this,” Stede said, clarifying nothing.
Edward’s face softened. He pulled Stede into the circle of his arms and rested his whiskered chin on Stede’s shoulder. “I feel like I love you, and that whatever makes you happy? It makes me happy,” he said firmly. “And the look on your face when I tightened those laces told me everything I needed to know about what makes you happy.”
“It’s not a sex thing,” Stede declared urgently, words rushing out of him.
Ed held up a hand to halt Stede’s panicked explanation in its tracks. “Let me show you something.”
He snagged Stede’s hand and tugged him out of their dressing room and into their newly renovated suite, pressing him into the cushy armchair they’d gotten for their reading nook. “I got this for you as a present for our wedding, but I chickened out of giving it to you,” he explained. “Then I meant to bring it on our honeymoon, but I kinda thought it might be presumptuous and set the wrong tone for the trip.”
“What in the world are you talking about?” Stede asked.
“Let me go get it,” Ed said, winking. “You just sit tight.”
Stede watched Ed disappear through the door to the dressing room filled with their casual clothes. He spent significantly less time dressing in that room and more time happily watching Edward rearrange it, listening to his happy chatter as he reorganized whatever had struck his fancy that week.
Ed emerged with a large box in his hands, and Stede recognized it as a high-end brand of lingerie—something both of them indulged in for reasons that were definitely a sex thing. Ed set it on the ottoman in front of him, and Stede’s heart fluttered in nervous anticipation.
The box was bigger than typical of their purchases of lacy, satiny scraps of fabric that were bought to be torn off, and Stede found himself hesitant to open it. He felt as though he was about to open Pandora’s box, quite literally, and there would be no going back to his life of comfortable denial.
“Think you may have an idea of what that is,” Ed began, slipping the red velvet jacket from his shoulders and tossing it behind him without a care. “You don’t have to open it if you’re not ready. Don’t let a present rush you into anything.”
Stede shook his head to signal he felt no such thing. He exhaled shakily, unable to find the words to express his gratitude for Edward’s unwavering support. After a lifetime of being told that even the toned-down version of himself was too much, it was difficult to remember that Ed adored him for his quirks.
He untied the silk ribbon holding the box closed and looked at Edward in admiration. “I have a few ideas of what this could be.”
“Open it and see for yourself,” Ed encouraged him, grinning.
“I’m a little scared,” Stede admitted.
Ed knelt on the opposite side of the ottoman and laid his hands over Stede’s. “Scared of what?”
Stede took as deep a breath as his waistcoat allowed before letting it slowly shudder out of him. “I hated so many parts of myself before I met you. Sometimes I still do,” he explained quietly. “This is one of those parts.”
“Do you hate those parts? Or did other people hate those parts and make you ashamed?” Ed asked. “You helped me see I was letting people pressure me into staying the same because they were afraid to change. And even though changing scared the shit out of me, I was ready to do it—if you’re not ready to do it, don’t let me push you—”
“You’re not pushing me,” Stede assured him. He laughed weakly, twinning their fingers together on the lid of the box. “And even if you were, I think I need it right now.”
Ed leaned forward to kiss him over the ottoman, light and brief, before pulling back with an almost childlike excitement. “Then open it! I’ve been sitting on this forever!”
His enthusiasm was contagious, and Stede unwound their fingers to lift the lid. The gift was covered in tissue paper, as all intimate purchases tended to be, and Stede’s hesitation turned to impatience. The sticker holding the tissue paper in place snapped easily and revealed a silk corset in blush pink.
A real corset, not just a modified waistcoat. Stede felt his throat tighten at the sight of the lace embellishments and glittering rhinestones along the attached garters. He lifted it from the box with shaking hands as he drank in the S-bend curve of the waist and immaculate stitching.
“Oh,” he breathed, rubbing his thumbs across the pale silk. The color was a perfect match for the Sugar Tip roses in their back garden—the same ones they had worn during their wedding. “It’s stunning.”
“I love this color on you,” Edward said in response. His inked fingers appeared in Stede’s vision, stroking along a curving seam until their fingers brushed. “You eyed up every pretty, lacy thing meant to go under a wedding dress when we went to all those tux fittings. At first, I thought you were just having sexy wedding night thoughts—”
Stede interrupted him with a smile. “I was having sexy wedding night thoughts.”
“Okay, yeah, me too,” he admitted, rolling his eyes fondly and dodging Stede’s attempt to inject some levity in a conversation where he felt so exposed. “But it was more than that. Even though I didn’t get to see you in your suit during the fittings, I saw the way you looked at all those pretty things. I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what you saw when I looked at the softness you allowed in your life.”
“Ed,” Stede breathed tearfully. His attention was divided between his husband and the corset, stuck in an endless loop of rapturous disbelief until Ed took the initiative and gently pulled him to his feet.
“I’d love to help you try it on, but I understand if you need space,” Edward said, the warmth in his voice setting him at ease.
Stede shook his head. “I don’t want space,” he choked out. He reached for Ed’s hand like a lifeline. “I want you here.”
Ed pulled him into his arms, brushing their noses together as he carefully loosened the laces of his waistcoat, each layer of Stede’s formal attire falling away until he was in nothing but his skin. Stede clung to Ed’s clothed shoulders for support as his breath came faster, goosebumps dancing across his skin in the wake of Ed’s hands.
Stede whimpered in protest as Ed pulled away. “These first,” he said, pulling a set of cheeky lace underwear from the box. He knelt to help Stede slip into the pale pink lace, kissing up the skin of his thighs as he went until the rows of frilled lace sat across his hips. He reached back into the box and emerged with a set of nearly sheer blush stockings. “Now these.”
The fabric glided up Stede's legs and clung to him like a second skin, once again followed by Ed’s lips. He stared down at Edward, at the way the elastic of the stocking gripped his thigh, and felt weak with the force of his emotions.
His mind scrambled to come up with the right words to express himself but Ed rose before he could speak, smearing hot, biting kisses up Stede’s body as he went. He was dizzy with Ed’s undivided attention, intoxicated by things he deemed impossible happening in front of his very eyes.
“Still good?” Ed asked.
Stede managed a wobbly smile. “Incredible.”
Ed carefully gathered the corset up and made to pull him toward the dressing room but Stede dug his heels into the plush carpet, arching a curious brow at Stede in response.
“I feel like I’ll need support,” he explained sheepishly, pointing to their dresser.
Exhaling roughly, Ed’s eyes greedily swept over Stede’s form before he redirected their course toward the dresser. He laid the petal-pink corset across its surface, and Stede reached for it without conscious thought, running shaky fingers down the line of the gold-plated busk.
Edward’s hands settled on his hips as he dusted whiskered, featherlight kisses across his shoulders. Stede worked the busk open with slow, reverent precision, leaning back against Ed’s sturdy chest and soaking up the warmth emanating from him like the sun. He could feel the hard line of Ed’s cock pressed against his lower back, but Stede heard not one word of complaint as he took his time savoring the moment.
Stede finally tore his attention from the corset to look in the mirror, taking in their flushed cheeks and glazed eyes as the final clasp of the busk separated. He smoothed the corset open across the surface of their dresser, admiring each line of boning, each millimeter of ribbon threaded through golden eyelets.
Ed’s hands tightened on his hips in warning before he stepped away, giving Stede space to wrap the corset around himself from behind. He plastered himself to Stede’s back as soon as the first clasp of the busk was secure, assisting Stede in aligning the rest of the closures.
The corset hit Stede from mid-bust to hip and left a tantalizing glimpse of the lace frills of his panties on display. The attached garters swayed about his upper thighs like the skirt of a flapper, light catching on each rhinestoned clasp and throwing sparkles on his skin.
Ed’s dark brown eyes reflected heat and affection at him in the mirror. “Can you hold it in place for me?”
“Yes,” he replied, his voice barely a whisper as he pressed a hand to his chest and belly, holding the corset in place.
His breath hitched at the first gentle tug of the laces, and Stede had to fight the urge to let his eyes flutter shut. He needed to watch every shift and shimmer of silk, every sparkle that glistened as his weight shifted. Stede devoured the sight of Ed’s bowed head as he took his time adjusting the laces of the corset, alternating between the top and bottom to get the right fit.
“Have you done this before?” Stede asked breathily.
Ed paused to look up from his task. “I have. Laced people up for theater, drag, dancing; all kinds of stuff,” he said. He held Stede’s gaze and leaned forward to press a kiss between the wings of his shoulder blades and mouth words against his skin. “Nothing compares to this.”
Stede’s breath left him in a rush and he felt the sting of tears in his eyes. In the past, Stede contented himself with the ‘grin and bear it’ approach many took with his curiosities—someone valuing those idiosyncrasies was something he hadn’t prepared himself for.
“Thank you,” he whispered, voice thick with emotion.
“You don’t need to thank me,” Ed replied. Stede watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed with every hitch of Stede’s breath as he tugged at the corset’s laces. “Still okay?”
Stede nodded. “Very okay.”
He hardly recognized himself, and it had nothing to do with the gorgeous silhouette-altering garment Ed was lacing him into. His curls were mussed from shedding his clothes, his eyes round and glassy, his posture more relaxed than Stede typically allowed himself. He looked soft, and for once, he didn’t hear that word in his father’s derisive voice when he applied the term to himself.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Ed implored.
Stede took a fortifying breath, relishing the way the corset gripped his torso in a perpetual embrace. “I was thinking I look soft. And for the first time, I didn’t hate the thought of that. That I wouldn’t mind being called 'soft’ if it was like this.”
“Softness is fucking brilliant, babe,” Ed grinned. “You got me hooked on it.”
Stede admired the way the S-bend corset conformed to his skin, rounding out his narrow hips and emphasizing the furrow between his pecs. He liked this version of himself, liked the contrast between this and the defined lines and angles of his everyday appearance.
“Me getting hooked on this kind of softness might be devastating for our closet space,” Stede teased.
Ed shrugged dismissively. “We’ll expand one of the dressing rooms,” he said. “Add another. S’fucking worth it.”
Stede watched him twirl the laces around his fingers in their reflection and preemptively grabbed for the dresser in support. Ed held Stede’s eyes before giving a firm pull, and Stede’s eyes rolled shut as the corset tightened. The corset’s design pulled tighter than his waistcoat had allowed, squeezing but not restricting.
His entire being hummed with energy. The ringing in his ears sounded like cut crystal glasses vibrating against one another, and Stede felt just as deliciously close to shattering.
“Yes,” he gasped out.
“Look at yourself,” Ed demanded.
And Stede did.
Whereas Stede was normally broad and angular, the tightened corset cinched him in at the waist, making it appear more narrow by the exaggerated curve of the garment's hips. An excited flush spread down his neck and chest in contrast with the pale silk, his chest hair gleaming in the dim light.
“Too tight?” Ed asked, nervously interpreting his silence.
“No,” Stede rushed to assure him. “Not at all. A-actually—”
Ed’s smile was wicked. “Tighter?”
Stede shivered at the gleam in Edward’s eye. “Not too much. It’s… I like the way it holds me. Both in terms of how it fits and how the pressure makes me feel a little like I want to swoon—not because I can’t breathe, but because I feel vulnerable and I know you’ll catch me,” he explained breathlessly. “But yes; tighter.”
“I’ll always catch you,” Edward told him, expression melting. “Literally or metaphorically, babe.”
Rolling his eyes, Stede leaned against the dresser until he felt tension in the tendons of his wrists. “Happy to hear it. Now tighten,” he drawled, bending his leg to curl his foot around the back of Ed’s knee and haul him closer.
He bit his lip at the feeling of Ed’s cock nudging against his ass, giving into the temptation to grind against him until Edward shuffled backward with a tetchy scoff.
“Making it hard to concentrate, love.”
Stede chuckled, punch-drunk and giddy. “Oops.”
“Mhm,” Ed grumbled.
Stede’s laughter cut off as Ed started to adjust his laces again, the pressure increasing with each tiny, titillating tug. His fingers scratched uselessly against the polished surface of their dresser as his laughter came back with a vengeance.
“I’m not going to be able to look at something with laces without getting lightheaded for a while,” he giggled.
“Just laces? We can do better than that,” Ed declared. “Tell me what else I can buy you, hmm? What other soft things have you thought about wearing?”
“Silk,” Stede gasped out. “A silk dress. Long, with a hem that trails on the floor.”
Ed’s own breathing was becoming labored. “Same color as this,” he said. “Fuck, that would look amazing.”
“Maybe two,” Stede amended. “One with a slit for the leg.”
“Absolutely.”
Stede cried out as the panels of the corset hugged him tighter without warning, the ecstatic sound high and airy as it bounced off their vaulted ceilings. His mind whirled with satisfaction from the corset’s tightness, with how utterly and decadently soft he felt.
How right.
His eyes flew open with a gasp as Ed muscled his way in front of him only to fall on his knees. He waved off Stede’s protests about his knee with a heated stare, burying his nose in the pink frills of his panties as he reached around to grab at Stede’s half-exposed ass.
“What else?” Ed asked, directing Stede back to his question.
Stede moaned as Ed pulled his straining cock free, nosing and licking around the base with an arched brow. “A-a robe,” Stede said. “The one with feathers. It’s ridiculous, but I’ve a-always wanted one.”
He stuttered as Ed sunk his mouth over the head of his cock and hummed in agreement, one of his hands flying from the dresser to tangle in Edward’s hair. Stede groaned as he felt Ed straighten his stockings and take hold of his garters to fasten them, all while slowly sliding his mouth downward.
“H-heels,” Stede continued. He whimpered and was rewarded with another devastating hum, Ed’s tongue dancing along the underside of his cock. Stede stared down the length of his corset, pulse racing at the sight of Edward sucking him while he wore something so pretty.
Edward’s mouth retreated as another garter fastened and Stede mewled at the loss. “Your legs would look fuckin’ fantastic in heels,” Ed rasped.
We heat enveloped his cock again, inching downward as Ed finished securing his stockings in place. He ran his hands over the outside of Stede’s thighs, kneading the window of bare skin between his panties and stockings.
“Earrings,” Stede gasped, not sure if he was meant to continue but unable to stop. “Ones that dangle.”
Ed moaned as he swallowed around his dick, and Stede knew he was moments away from the fastest orgasm of his life. The combined warmth of Ed’s mouth and the dizzying pleasure from the corset’s unrelenting hold around his middle had Stede teetering on the edge of oblivion when all he wanted to do was savor finally feeling unashamed.
Callused fingers snuck inside the lace of his panties to rub against his hole, and Stede was done for. He sobbed out a moan, his cry of pleasure going sharp as Ed moaned at the tight grip Stede had on his hair before he grabbed at the edge of the dresser to stay on his feet. Ed bobbed his head as Stede came on his tongue, only pulling off when he started to whimper with oversensitivity.
Stede blinked away tears he hadn’t anticipated, unexpectedly bereft in the aftermath of his discovery. “I didn’t want to finish yet,” he lamented softly. “I wasn’t ready for it to be over.”
Ed wiped the back of his hand across his mouth as he stood. His velvet trousers and silk dress shirt were hopelessly wrinkled as he crowded into Stede’s space and pulled him into his arms. “Oh, we aren’t anywhere close to ‘finished’,” he promised.
“No?” Stede asked plaintively, clutching at Ed’s shoulders to anchor himself.
Ed held him close, nuzzling into the curls at his temple. “That list of soft, pretty things for me to buy you wasn’t nearly long enough,” he said, lips pulling into a smile. “And I haven’t had my fill of you like this yet.”
“Like what?”
“It’s—” Edward began, faltering for the first time that evening. “You just... glow like this.”
Stede bit his lip against the tears threatening to escape. “I think that’s exactly how I feel. Soft, but bright. Happy.”
“Glowing,” Ed insisted.
Stede leaned into Ed’s arms, overwhelmed by the sincerity in his voice. He looked at his reflection over Ed’s shoulder and had to agree. Even with only his face visible, Stede radiated happiness. He was a mess, but he was glowing.