I Più Maliziosi Carry-on in Costa Rica

Seven toys stuffed under a stack of paperbacks. A red-eye flight. Two rounds of customs and she didn't even blink. He was waiting at the terminal and they hadn't touched in months. What happened after he opened that bag... that's a whole different story.

I packed that carry-on like I was getting away with something. Between my sundresses and a Costa Rica guidebook and a bunch of paperbacks I was never going to read were the real travel essentials: Lush 4, Lush Anal, Fizz, Domi 2, Gemini, Hyphy, and Spinel. Seven toys in a duffel bag through airport security. I've lived a pretty vanilla life so this was a big deal for me ok 😂 TSA didn't even look twice. Customs waved me through. Nobody knew about Costa Rica. Nobody knew about Sherlock. Sherlock had been skeptical about the trip because he's British and British people don't trust anything that requires sunscreen. He came through the terminal in linen with his sleeves rolled up looking way too put together for someone who just got off a flight. His carry-on had actual normal stuff in it. Mine did not. I'd been thinking about this moment the whole flight and I still wasn't ready. The humidity destroyed my hair immediately and I was sweating everywhere. But he saw me and did that grin, the slow one, and just walked right past his luggage toward the Jeep. I barely got the thing into park before I jumped out. People were honking at us. He kissed my temple then my jaw then the corner of my mouth and we just stood there blocking traffic and didn't care. We got takeout from Casa Paraíso and ate on the beach with our feet in the sand passing a bottle of sparkling cider back and forth. Talked the way you do after months apart where you're trying to say everything at once and then you just go quiet and stare at each other. The sun was going down and I remember thinking ok yeah I missed this person a stupid amount. Back at the casita he grabbed my bag from the Jeep without asking. Put it down and looked at it. "This is heavier than it has any right to be." "Books. I need something to occupy my time." He looked at me. I looked at him. "You're a terrible liar." That smirk. The one from all those video calls. He unzipped it and moved the books out of the way real slow because he's that kind of person. When he saw what was under there he just stopped. Looked up at me. "You carried these through American customs. Through a connecting flight. Through Costa Rican customs." "Yep." I was trying to lean on the doorframe all casual but I'm pretty sure I looked ridiculous. He came over doing that slow walk thing he does when he already knows what's happening next. Stood right in front of me. "I'm genuinely impressed." "I aim to please." "You succeed." Hand on my hip, fingers under my shirt. Other hand on my jaw, thumb across my bottom lip, and that was basically it for my ability to function. "Both the Lushes. Now." "What, not the Gemini?" "Not a chance I'm letting a toy do what my mouth's been waiting months to do." He kissed me and it started slow like it always does with him and then his teeth caught my lip and slow was done. Back against the doorframe. Yoga pants gone in about thirty seconds. The books stayed on the floor untouched the rest of the night. Everything else got plenty of attention. Outside, the palms bent gently in the offshore wind. Starlight glittered on the ocean. Inside, the books stayed exactly where he’d set them, untouched, unread, gloriously irrelevant, while everything else got the attention it had been waiting for. Months apart. A red-eye. A layover. Seven toys through two countries for this man. The toys all got their turn eventually but honestly he was the main event. He always is. He just also happens to be really good at using the accessories