Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 27008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
I’d had to look up what several odd words meant, and I had an impressive vocabulary.
But it was just another layer to explore once he was ready.
Something ran through his mind as he stared at me for several moments. His eyes lit up, and for a split second, I could see the little boy who was begging to come out and play. In a flash, though, his smile pulled back and I could almost see his internal lecture about not getting too excited.
I wasn’t the only one who was careful about showing off emotions in public.
“And I think this is my cue to go see what my troublemaker is up to.” As Ben started off through the club, I stood up and waved Joseph over. He nodded and crossed the room. I could see the confidence in his walk—whatever he did for a living, he was not an underling who just ran and fetched—but there was something unguarded that kept peeking out, showing his nerves.
Ben extended his hand as he passed Joseph. “Glad to see you’re back in town.”
Joseph smiled at Ben, but his gaze darted over to me before flickering back to Ben’s. “It’s been busy, but I actually have the whole weekend off.” Then he turned to me and his smile widened to a little bit of a cheeky grin. “So I thought I’d relax and have some fun.”
Well, shockingly enough, we seemed to have the same plans.
Raising my eyebrow and giving him a dry stare had him fighting back a teasing grin. The cheeky boy was clearly not quite as worried as I’d been afraid he would be or he was fighting his nerves with humor. Either way, I was glad he’d shown up and wasn’t running in the opposite direction.
Giving a casual wave to the couch I’d settled on, I shrugged. “I’d love to hear what your idea of fun is. Why don’t you have a seat?”
Ben rolled his eyes and held up his hands in an I just can’t gesture. “You two are going to make me insane.”
Joseph’s eyes sparkled as Ben walked away shaking his head. Just as Ben was out of hearing range, he aimed his beautiful eyes at me. “He’s very dramatic.”
Nodding, I sighed and gave him a half shrug. “But he’s polite and has good intentions, so we must suffer through it.”
That had him flashing me a teasing grin before he pulled it back, mimicking my shrug. “Very true.”
He was utterly ridiculous and even cuter than his pictures had shown…even if he wasn’t wearing the glasses that gave him such a sexy, nerdy vibe…and the combination was tempting. But there was something sweet that was barely showing through, and I had to remind myself that wrapping him up in my arms was not appropriate at this point.
The only problem was that while my head understood why we weren’t going to take things faster than he was comfortable with, my emotions weren’t quite on the same page…and neither was my desire.
It was either going to be a very long night or a fabulous one…I just didn’t know which.
Chapter 2
Joseph
“Should we sit down and talk just to keep him from being all pouty?” Arthur’s dry response had me wanting to laugh. There were too many worries pressing down on my chest for that, though, but I managed a smile that seemed to please him.
“That sounds reasonable.” I shrugged, relieved he was the same person in public that he’d been on the phone. “We wouldn’t want to deal with the fallout if his plans went awry.”
Arthur chuckled and sat back down on the couch at an angle, making it clear he was expecting me to sit next to him. Another flash of relief surged through me at the unobtrusive clue about what he wanted me to do.
To say I was awkward around new Doms would’ve been an understatement, but it was helping to remember that he wasn’t new.
This was Arthur…Daddy when I was exhausted or little.
I’d just never called him that when I was completely awake and grown-up, so it was hard to know what to do now. I was big at the moment, but we’d planned on going to one of the private playrooms and having Daddy-little time. So maybe calling him Daddy now would be okay?
I hated not knowing the rules for social situations.
There should be manuals for casual engagements. Rules and agreed-upon expectations made everything related to BDSM easier…and Arthur would’ve given me more of both if I’d been better about opening up.
God, this was going to explode just because I was an idiot who couldn’t communicate.
The fact that I spoke several languages made that ironic.
Why couldn’t this be as simple as work?
We’d talked about so much it should’ve been easy at this point, but my brain kept jumping around to questions I couldn’t answer. This was definitely why I worked so much…it was easier…but working so much was why I was awkward.