Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 106065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“Take this one instead. It’s not full of dog hair.” He offered me the other blanket.
I didn’t mind dog hair, but that blanket looked much softer, so I accepted. “Thank you, Sir.”
“No problem. I was told you like Coke and Mountain Dew.” He sat down across from me and reached for the grapes.
“I do.” I smiled timidly and grabbed the bottle of Mountain Dew. Greer must’ve remembered it. “Are Greer and Archie coming out too?” I didn’t wanna steal the Dew if I wasn’t the only fan.
“They decided to hit the shower first,” he replied pensively. “I thought we could chat for a bit, but if you’re uncomfortable being alone with me, I can go prepare a guest room for—”
“No!” Fucking fuck! I couldn’t believe myself! I couldn’t let him think that.
“It’s completely fine, Corey,” he reassured me.
I shook my head. I was having none of that—and now my stomach hurt. “I’m not uncomfortable being alone with you because of anything you have done, Sir. It’s…it’s complicated. It’s because of m-my relationship with my partner. You’ve been nothing but kind and helpful.”
I was so fucking stupid. Somehow, I’d sent out signals I was supposed to keep to myself. They were my goddamn issues, and the thought of causing Sloan discomfort in his own home, because he thought I might not like him or whatever…? I’d rather walk all the way back to DC.
He leaned back in his seat and threaded his fingers across his middle, and he smiled faintly. “As much as I would like to discuss your complicated relationship with Marcus Newman at—” he paused and checked his watch “—at almost one in the morning, I’m thinking there are more appropriate topics for two men who’ve just met.”
That earned him half a giggle, and I agreed with him. Although, the way he’d said Marcus’s name…
“Greer has tattled, hasn’t he?”
His mouth twitched with amusement. “A bit.”
Great. “He doesn’t like Marcus.”
Sloan had no argument to that. “Not even a little. He’s protective of you.”
It was wrong of me to take comfort in that. I knew it was totally wrong. I didn’t need to be saved from Marcus, who was…the best Daddy in the whole world or whatever.
Gah. I was getting frustrated.
More appropriate topics for two men who had just met… Yes. That. Except, I couldn’t help myself. “I think I’m reaching a conclusion in my head. I have to put my foot down at some point, and today, my membership at Mclean was threatened, and I didn’t like it at all.”
“How was it threatened?” Sloan asked curiously.
“Marcus emailed Reese to cancel our memberships.” I huffed, getting angry just thinking about it. “Can he do that?” I was genuinely asking. “It’s in my name. I pay for my part. I was a member before he was.”
“No, I don’t think he can.” He hummed. “And I know for a fact that Reese won’t cancel it without your say-so.”
Thank goodness. That was such a relief. “Reese is a good egg.” I nodded and tapped my fingers against my lips.
Sloan grinned a little. “You know, I’m so new in this community that I’m still trying to learn everyone’s name. And then they throw twins in my face as if I wasn’t already struggling.”
I snickered and opened my soda. “Reese has a tattoo on his neck—that’s how I tell him and River apart. And Reese talks a lot more than his brother too.”
“That’s good to know.” He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table. “But your membership seems like a reasonable boundary for what you’re in charge of. No one should be able to take that away from you.”
I bobbed my head, still a bit unsure about everything, but… Ugh. My brain wasn’t being very helpful either. And too much had happened tonight. It was already going to be difficult to fall asleep anytime soon without processing and letting my mind power down.
“Have you been a Dom for a long time?” I asked.
He tipped his head from side to side, weighing his answer. “On and off for about sixteen, seventeen years.”
Yeah, that was a long time.
“So, um…” I cleared my throat and took a quick sip of my Dew. Fucking amazing. “Do you know if it’s common for the Dom to decide everything in a relationship? Like, all the stuff outside the kink dynamic too?”
Sloan turned pensive again. “Well, TPE is an established kink. That’s what Greer and Archer are working toward. Archer is a consensual slave. But it’s a very long journey, with constant stops to negotiate and renegotiate.”
Hmm. Cam was in one of those relationships with Master Lucian. I’d actually read plenty of Cam’s journal entries online, where he reflected on the rules they established together. Because they were four men in their dynamic—along with Noa and KC—and it was kind of new. So they had to decide which parts of their relationship were fluid, which had strict boundaries, what was reserved for just Cam and Lucian, or just KC and Noa, and so on. But what I liked most about Cam’s online diary was how he’d become so much more at peace since he and Noa had moved in with Lucian and KC. And then Lucian’s thoughtful responses to each journal entry.